Love at War - Chapter 1

Chapter I

The Invasion

It was a calm morning in a tranquil Terra where serene people lived their lives peacefully. The weather was warm, the birds sang, the sun shined brightly, just a perfect day as always. From one of the houses in a small village came outside a girl.

She had dark skin, midnight blue hair, orange eyes, a slender body filling her blue, yellow and brown shirt and light blue pants, she wore brown boots, blue and brown gloves, a metallic armband on her left wrist, an orange hair band keeping her hair upwards, and a blue crystal necklace.

She held an empty basket in her hands, for she was about to go to the market to buy some groceries and vegetables. Before she barely took a step forward, another girl approached her.

She was Caucasian, with light brown hair and blue eyes. She wore an olive green and brown shirt, dark blue pants and brown boots.

"Morning, Piper!" - the girl greeted with a broad smile.

"Good morning, Dove." - Piper replied.

"So, are you going to the market?" - Dove asked while nodding at the basket in the blue-haired girl's hands.

"Yeah. Gotta buy some groceries, I'm almost out of a few spices."

"Oh my! Then we ought to go there right away, your sand cakes are never too spicy." - the blue-eyed girl said as she dragged Piper by the wrist.

The dark skinned girl giggled knowingly.

"You're right, though I'm sure this enthusiasm of yours isn't really about some spices, is it?" - she asked.

"Yeah, well… Alright. It's just that I'm so eager! Our Sky Knight has finally returned from his mission!" - Dove clasped her hands as she jumped up a little.

"Oh, right, your big crush since we were 13." - Piper teased - "You can't miss him!"

"Shh!" - the Caucasian girl shushed her - "Don't say that out loud!"

The two of them laughed a little as they walked. They headed towards the crowd that waited for the squadron to land, and on the way, Piper took the chance to buy all she needed. Her basket was full when she and her friend arrived at the landing strip.

"I'm so excited!" - Dove said and it was easy to tell her soul was screaming inside with joy.

"You really like that guy, huh?" - the orange-eyed girl commented.

"Of course! You should find someone for you as well, Piper." - the brown haired girl nudged her - "Look! There are quite a few really cute boys around here you can choose from." - she discreetly gestured towards a bunch of guys around their age that stood not too far from them.

"Ah… No, thanks. I have other ways of choosing someone to have a crush on." - Piper was a little disturbed by that but shrugged it off smoothly.

"Okay… But don't be too picky, or you'll scare all the boys away!" - she placed her hands on her hips - "You can't just stand there waiting for a prince charming, you know."

"Of course not! I'm not a naïve little girl. And I'm more down to earth than you, Dove." - she smirked.

"Hey!" - the girl shouted, pretending to be displeased.

The two laughed it off again when an old man in front of them pointed at the sky.

"They've arrived!" - he shouted.

Everyone followed his finger, then cheered as the squadron came closer. Their Sky Knight was back! People jumped and threw confetti in the air, some even prepared a few fireworks.

But suddenly, all the happiness and joy turned into fear: from the clouds behind the squadron, came a menacingly huge fleet of Cyclonians.

~~~

Everybody gasped. The Sky Knights stared behind them surprised, they were caught off guard. The people watched in horror as their squadron was mercilessly taken down from the skies since they were seriously outnumbered and outgunned by the Cyclonian army.

Dove had her hands glued to her mouth, her eyes tearing up as she stood frozen staring up at the sky. Piper looked around frantically, having gotten out of the state of shock. They had to protect themselves! She rushed to her friend and grabbed her by the shoulders.

"Dove, snap out of it!" - she shouted as she shook her briefly, staring intensely into her eyes - "I need you to take everyone to the underground shelter and prepare the evacuation ship!"

The girl nodded silently, not recovered from the trauma. When she was about to turn around, she noticed Piper didn't move.

"W-what about you?" - she asked still shaken.

"I'll stall them and buy you guys some extra time." - the girl said determined - "You get everyone out of here safely, regardless if I come back in time or not."

"But…" - she tried to convince her not to do something so reckless.

"No buts! I've made my choice. Now go! And don't wait for me!" - the blue haired teenager said as she ran off.

Dove blinked sadly but did as she was told. She sprinted after a group of people who stood there shocked, then managed to snap them out of their stasis and make them follow her.

Everyone soon moved their focus to their own survival, they could save the mourning for later. The girl rounded up all of the villagers, and they ran towards a secret passage behind a big tree nearby.

Some troops landed on the Terra and proceeded to raid the village. Piper pulled out some rainbow smokers from her pockets and held them firmly as she ran after them to draw their attention.

"Hey, over here!" - she shouted, making them turn at her.

Then she tossed the crystal at them, which caused a big explosion. The talons coughed a lot from the huge amount of smoke and moved their arms around frantically, blowing the smoke away before it'd intoxicate them.

"Capture that insolent brat!" - one of the talons yelled.

They angrily accelerated their rides and drove off quickly after the girl.

Piper ran by the market, grabbing any crystals she could find and throwing them at more talons. She managed to get the attention of a few more groups and was going for another one when one of the talons landed on her way and drove towards her really fast. She halted her steps cautiously, then decided to retaliate.

She jumped in the air, then spun around to gain momentum and kicked the Cyclonian off the heliblade, assuming his place as the new rider. She smirked as she looked at the dizzy talon sitting up with a hand on his head to ease the pain.

She used her new speed as an advantage now, to cause as much trouble for the fleet as possible. She drove all over the Terra, tossing some crystals at the troops, disabling their skyrides in the process and creating quite the havoc for them.

Thanks to that, they all completely forgot about the occupation of the Terra and the capture of the villagers just to go after her. She did become a very big issue they had to deal with first.

Well… She had managed to get their attention, now there was only one tiny problem: how would she lose them?! Once the whole fleet focused on her, she had to take off because the Terra was too small and allowed little to no space for her evasion maneuvers.

She flew around her Terra a few times, but she couldn't keep doing that for too long, or they'd soon end up capturing her. There was way too much fire at her, so she had no other choice: she glanced sadly at her home Terra, then shot out in the sky, dragging the fleet away from it with her. And to think she had once thought of leaving the Terra so she could pursue her dream of becoming a crystal mage… She just never guessed she'd be saying goodbye like that…

She looked behind her and saw the evac ship leaving the Terra and diving into the clouds for cover. As she flew away, her heart ached, but at least she knew the villagers had managed to escape safely, so that was enough to keep her going. She had to think positively, maybe she could somehow outfly the fleet chasing her and go back to the others. Who knows? She had to at least try.

She flew towards the horizon as fast as she could. Soon she and the whole fleet were mere dots in the distance. The villagers observed her through the windows of the evac ship as it sank into the clouds, using them as cover. They were sad for her sacrifice and proud of her bravery, if in the end, they'd never see her again, they would surely never forget her and what she did for them.