Chapter 1: Beyond Reach
(This story and others have been living rent-free in my head for a while. My own dark take on the "war, but with dragons" concept, this is the start of an anthology of stories. All will contain a variety of genres. This story has gore, swearing, deaths, and strong references to sex. This and the other stories in the anthology will not be for the faint of heart. I'm also new here, so please give me constructive criticism if like!)
The universe.
What is the "universe"?
This place, seemingly full of empty space, that is, uninhabitable space, is a place of wonder and mystery, being an endless ocean of the unknown that may never be seen by anything or anyone.
Endless amounts of stars lifelessly float in the dark void that is outer space, giving off an otherworldly, yet comforting ethereal glow, with a similar, limitless number of galaxies and solar systems, floating involuntarily and lifelessly, with the systems spinning around other celestial bodies like dancers in an eternal dance for eternity, pulled to each other by the invisible force that is gravity. Oddities and curiosities like comets and shooting stars dart across space faster than light itself.
However, the universe is also probably the most dangerous, unpredictable, and hostile place in all of existence.
Stars explode into supernovas, destroying the galaxies and solar systems that already exist in the vacuum of space, wiping them from creation.
Black holes, an object so improbably dense in matter, that it sucks everything in like a tornado with such strength, so much so, that not even light, one of the fastest common objects in the universe, cannot even escape it.
Hard, concrete matter in the form of meteorites and asteroids, slam themselves into planets that surround stars or other planets after giving in to the temptation of gravity, shattering them into other floating and lifeless pieces of rocky-hard stones, breaking the balance of gravity between the bodies that are stars and planets or planets to each other.
Even space itself is dangerous to even exist in. It is possibly one of the coldest places in existence, with a living body dying and freezing immediately upon unprotected contact with it, and shattering to touching anything into a thousand, indiscernible pieces, forgotten like leaves in the winds. It is impossible to breath in the vacuum for nearly all beings. Besides no solid space to walk on, there is no gravity when away from planets or stars, so anything or anyone caught up in it like a snare will float endlessly forever into the void, lost to the darkness.
Even then, the unknown is and could be forever, well, unknown.
Despite these seemingly dark laws that govern the unstoppable unknown expanse of outer space, there is purpose in it. Much like the concept of death and time, two forces the universe is not concerned with, it is a law to balance not life, but existence itself. These forms of galaxy-level destruction are but a great equalizer in the universe, as planets and stars get created through ways we do not expect, like how anything in the universe to begin to float in the cosmos. It is a constant battle and draw between creation and destruction in the field that is space.
These are meant to happen.
All is as it should be.
The universe is at peace.
However, what most of the universe lack is something seemingly simple. That concept is life.
Life is also important yet unpredictable despite being sparse like a tiny diamond in the rough, a four-leaf clover in a field of normal ones, or a perfectly healthy oasis in the driest and hottest of deserts. It needs specific requirements to occur, like needing air to breathe for some or habitable space to actually move, and even then, it may just act unintelligent, doing as the laws of nature bid it to do.
Be born. Survive. Duplicate. Die. Repeat
However, the intelligent kind is a different story.
They realize the world around them, communicate in grunts and squeaks or speak in a language to others in their own tongue, move, and create things which the universe never guessed they would.
Where does this occur, or, more importantly, thus far where do we know where it occurs?
That place is a planet known as Earth.
A seemingly insignificant planet in an insignificant solar system in an insignificant galaxy in countless others, intelligent beings call this place their home. They cultivated it, stood on it, and made it their slice of existence on here, not knowing what lies beyond the stars into the unknown.
However, even intelligence comes at a cost.
The world, no, not even the world, but the whole universe is about to change because a conflict, changing existence itself forever which the universe has never seen.
Much like the universe and its countless, undecipherable events, answers as to how and why this happened in this world specifically are beyond reach of anyone or anything, with the universe witnessing something which it has never seen the likes of before, but like spectators of some sick and twisted game, they watch involuntarily as history itself changes and unfolds...