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Chapter 8 - Flashback

Location: Helfhiem (Gateway, Homeworld) - On the Edge of Terran Space, before the "Great Scar"

Approximately 300 Years Ago

It was raining on Helfhiem, but it always rained. The sun never shone on this land anymore as the dark thick clouds filtered light through to the ground.

Helfhiem was a turbulent storm world which existed on the outer fringe of explored space, the planet was in the last system before the "Great Scar", a region that cut the galaxy in half preventing the Terran Federation from exploring further into space. The region was filled with intense ion storms, black holes and not to mention radiation that would kill a crew trying to cross the region in an instant.

Helfhiem was a breathable oxygen world which had always been covered with the most powerful storms anyone on Terra had ever experienced. Only a few had travelled to this world and successfully landed on it, usually the electromagnetic discharges were enough to break a ship up in orbit.

However, there was somebody on the surface at the moment, wading through puddles of mud. She had been called here, left the mother-ship in orbit and come down in a small Terran drop-ship. The rains and wind lashed at her as she made her way across the muddy fields, the weather ten times worse then an English coastal storm.

However she had come here as a matter of necessity.

She was followed slowly by two other cloaked people who walked solemnly behind her, the weather was to ghastly for her to even make out their shape as she stopped in the middle of the muddy field, feeling the sudden change in pace give her a cold lashing from the rain.

She turned round to face the other two who were trailing behind her.

"How much longer!?" she shouted, trying to make her voice carry over the chaotic melody of the violent storm.

One of the figures dug deep into his pocket and pulled out what seemed to be a small, brick like object with a large groove down the centre so that he could open it. It appeared to be a mapping device of some kind.

"About forty yards that way!" he shouted back, answering her question and gesturing in a general forward direction. Thick goggles covered his face as if to hide his features, you could only tell it was a male from the deepness in his voice.

The woman nodded and turned, continuing on their journey. She knew that in her heart of hearts that she was going to get some answers. She had been summoned here by a mysterious god-like civilisation that seemed to overpower her ship in seconds. Instead of destroying her, they requested, by text message that she meet them on this planet.

"Out in the ass end of space."

The woman approached a building that had just come into view as the rain lashed at her face. She stared at the large building that seemed to be some sort of temple, damaged by the passage of time and the constant lashing of the storm. It still, however stood upon the cliff overlooking the turbulent waves before it.

The woman immediately recognised it, it was oddly familiar, a distant memory on a planet that was at least twenty thousand light-years away. It was startlingly reminiscent of the design of the temple on Serenity Island of her home, Terra.

All three figures stopped, overlooking that massive structure and its amazing similarities. "That's not right!?" shouted the third, shortest figure against the powerful noise of the storm. "That looks just like...!?"

"Come on!" beckoned the woman as she wandered towards the temple cautiously. Something about this whole area scared her, it seemed to be a distant memory.

They approached the great doors of the temple that seemed to be made of polished stone, it faintly reflected the party that approached it. The doors were also inscribed with strange symbols that appeared to make absolutely no sense to anyone however the woman gathered her courage and attempted to push the door open.

To her surprise, the door creaked open as it ground along the marble flooring of the inside of the temple. The woman entered with the two other men as she pulled down her hood, revealing a distinctive echidna with green hair. She was one of the most unusual species of Terra, so unusual in fact that she had never actually been seen before.

Her name was Commander Kestra Valentine, Captain of the Terran Capital Vessel "Valkyrie", However she was not alone either, the two others removed their hoods in a similar fashion. A hedgehog with distinctive fiery hair who had seen more then his fair share of conflict during this war.

The other however was a brown haired, seemingly "fur-less" being. He was peculiarly close to the Asgard that both Kestra and he shipmate had come to detest. However this one had become a close confidant of Kestra and was also part of her crew. He only used one word to describe his species.

"Human".

Kestra looked around the great hall that now stretched out before them, almost like the entrance halls to a stately manor back on Terra. The room was two tiered with a large staircase in front of them that stretched up to the second level balcony that extended round the circumference of the square room.

Kestra noted to herself how the temple was circular from the outside but square on the inside. She wondered about the purpose of that, this temple seemed to be a lot grander then the one back home. Gold lined a beautiful mural of planets and stars that was painted onto the ceiling and she was amazed at the beautify of marble pillars that held up the second floor balcony.

The pillars had an amazingly intricate design of unknown symbols and pictographs that would take years to analyse by Terra's best scientists.

"Looks like somebody was expecting us" churned Taylor, the "human" loudly. He felt uncomfortable by the silence of the room and lack of windows, making this place feel more like a tomb. "The lights are on..." he continued, pointing to various lit candles within crystal chandeliers that were suspended from the ceiling.

"Quite...!" snapped Kestra as she continued to survey the room. She was aware of Taylor's rather obvious statement but something else had caught her attention. Actually, it was not really "something" as just a feeling that she was having. She had always had an ability that most Terrans seemed to lack, she would get these sudden surges of emotions crowd her head most of the time when she was about to enter a dangerous situation. "We are being watched!"

Both Taylor and the hedgehog, who happened to be the chief engineer of the Valkyrie, Lieutenant Cronic Crystalis, drew their handguns and held them down to the floor, priming them ready.

All of a sudden, a bright flash filled the room. It was so blinding that all three ducked away from the light. When they looked back, the light had dimmed enough to make out the silhouette of a person, strangely humanoid standing only a few meters away from them.

"I began to think that you were not going to make it, Kestra" spoke the figure with an immensely powerful female voice. Kestra was a little beguiled, she had no idea how this person had appeared and just disabled her so quickly.

"How does she know me?" Kestra asked herself as she shielded the light with her arms. Kestra was relatively unimportant in the Terran fleet and the Valkyrie was not a very large capital starship. "W-Who are you?" she asked as put an arm behind her back to signal the other two to stand-by.

The figure was standing so completely in the light that nobody could make out any features apart from her obviously female outline. "We are the Asgard... Kestra... there is something that we should talk about..."

Before the figure could finish her sentence and upon her revealing her identity as Asgard Kestra had given the order to the two others who both pulled out their handguns and fired two bullets into the light.

They did not even get that far.

Before Kestra could do anything, a shield made of translucent light surrounded the figure and destroyed both the bullets on impact. She looked around as both Taylor and Cronic were instantly knocked unconscious by some unknown method. This creature was extremely powerful. Her people had been fighting a war with them for almost three months and they had already lost more then half their fleet.

Some revered them as gods... Kestra knew better.

"Are you ready to talk now?" asked the figure calmly.