Chosen: Chapter 1
When he came to, the whole house was on fire. Todd Brewster shoved at the smashed wreckage that had fallen on him, and pushed himself up to his hands and knees.
Thick, acrid black smoke filled the living room. Prefab colonial houses were supposed to be fire resistant, but it was burning just the same. Splintered wood and shards of glass were all that remained of his china cabinet, and he cut his hand as he clawed his way past it. It'd been in his family for six hundred years, and he'd made a point of bringing it with him from Earth. From the old world to the new, just as his ancestors had done.
Todd ignored the pain in his knee as he crawled through the smoke, each breath catching in his throat and making him cough. Up ahead, there was a rectangle of daylight where the front door used to be. Burning furniture blocked his way, and his eyes stung as he tried to find a path through it.
The ground jolted under his feet, and he stumbled and fell to the floor. Wall panels leaned inward, roof trusses drooped, and swirls of dust mixed with the smoke hanging in the air. Ahead of him, part of the kitchen wall cracked and fell to one side, allowing him a narrow route toward the light. He sucked in a breath of bitter air and pushed himself forward, ignoring the sharp edges that pulled and tore at his shoulders and arms.
He tumbled forward through a gap in the wall, and rolled onto the debris-covered front lawn. Mud and sprouts of freshly-seeded grass stuck to his jumpsuit. He tried to gulp down a lungful of clean air but coughed instead, blackened spit coming from his throat.
The ground lurched again, throwing Todd onto his side. With a loud creak, the end wall of his house collapsed into the inferno, spewing thick black smoke into the clear blue sky.
Dirt and grit rained down on him, and he covered his face with his hands. From somewhere beyond the wreckage of the house, he heard a scream: a loud wail that was cut short. It sounded like Kate Carver. She'd gone to get the seeders running this morning, to plant twenty hectares of corn. Todd pulled his soot-covered hands from his face, trying to focus his eyes. Mary.
His wife had gone with Kate to the seeders. Todd struggled to his feet. He staggered sideways, lifting his head to look around.
Beyond his house were other columns of smoke. Other colonists' houses were on fire. The Fletcher's, the Turner's, the Chilton's, and more. All the silos, the machinery shed, the communications centre; all smashed and burning. Every building, as far as he could see, all in flaming ruins.
A man's voice called out. "Todd!"
The man was waving, running across the field toward him. It took a moment to recognise the dirt-covered, bloodied shape of his neighbour Edward, stumbling through the freshly-sprouting wheat. Ed's left arm hung at an awkward angle, and with his right he was waving frantically.
Todd tried to yell, but could only cough. He spat out more choking soot, and tried again. "Ed!" he croaked, waving his bleeding arm.
Edward Fuller was halfway across the field. "Todd! Have you seen my Samuel?"
Todd shook his head. "No," he yelled, his voice still hoarse. "I haven't… where's Mary?"
"Todd, we need to get to the hangar. Get everyone to the shuttle, get away from—"
In a blazing column of yellow light, the field erupted at Ed's feet. A fountain of dirt burst upward as the ground jerked, knocking Todd to his knees. Clumps of dirt thumped down all around, mixed with bits of plants and grains of fertiliser. With a dull thud, the charred body of Edward Fuller landed nearby, making one limp bounce before landing again, limbs twisted, lying still.
Todd knelt on the ground, staring at Ed's lifeless body. They'd known each other for years; their families had decided to move to this new colony together. A new life, away from the crowded grey city; a new world with green grass and wide open skies.
He tried again to struggle to his feet, scanning the horizon for the air defence turrets. Why hadn't they fired? Either they were offline, or nothing had entered the colony's atmosphere. They'd built the defences first, back when they'd arrived in the colony ship. Bandits and slavers were the greatest threat, but easily kept at bay by a few turrets. They'd only been here a month; how would bandits even know to find them? And why were no ships landing?
Wiping his nose with his dirty sleeve, Todd staggered into the field, his stinging eyes scanning the wreckage of the colony, searching for his wife. For anyone. Everything had fallen silent; all he heard was the cracking of his burning house and the slow hiss of escaping gasses. He needed to find Mary. Find a ship. Get away. Get back to Earth. Somehow.
It wasn't supposed to be like this. A new life, they'd said. A new life on the offworld colonies. A new life for humanity, deep in the thousands of empty planets in the Burnt Worlds region. Most of the worlds were dead, but a precious few were green, growing, and alive. Garden worlds, worlds like this, lush and rich and ready. Enough space for millions of humans, the future of the human race, away from the choking, crowded homeworlds. The planet had been settled once before, by aliens. A few battered and buried relics were all that remained of those previous colonists, who'd abandoned the planet centuries ago.
Todd stopped in the middle of the wheat field, amid the thick columns of smoke rising from the colony buildings. He looked again for his wife, for any signs of the other colonists. Fumbling at his belt for his handheld radio, he held it to his ear and pressed the button to talk. "Anyone?" he said, tears welling in his eyes. "Anyone still alive?" Nothing but static.
From the corner of his eye, he glimpsed reflected sunlight through the rising smoke. Looking up, he saw the ships. Three warships in perfect formation, like colossal scythes floating above the clouds. He knew the shape.
Palani.
They'd found Palani artifacts here. The ploughs kept digging them up. Bits of building materials, pieces of statues, some corroded equipment or personal effects. A few bones, even a skeleton or two. They'd cleaned it all and set it aside in a storage container at the edge of the settlement.
The Palani had left this world, seven hundred years ago, during their great war. While humanity had been exploring the Americas, the Palani had been fighting a war of survival. They'd been annihilated on hundreds of worlds, and had abandoned hundreds more like this one. But they'd never returned.
Todd saw a flash of blue from the front of the middle ship. A tiny flickering light rapidly approached, cutting through the sky, down toward him. His hand went slack, letting the static-filled radio fall to the ground. He shook his head again and again, as the glittering light drew closer. "They aren't supposed to be here."
