Explosions rocked the mediterranean planet of Jalkaia. Debris littered the ground and space. Remnants of satellite weaponry came screaming down, flaming projectiles shattered into pieces and wreaking havoc on the planet's surface. Energy weapons fired in every direction, the path out of the city was littered with bodies. Broken down machinery blown apart and later salvaged for parts blocked the exit of the last few survivors. One hundred or so of the best and brightest, scientists, doctors, and scholars from all corners of Jalkaia made a desperate bid to escape the mass destruction. They were the last of their kind trying to make a desperate escape.

"How much farther?!"

"Five hundred or so feet to the next door, then we'll be on the roof, the escape ship is waiting!"

"We're not going to make it!"

"Yes we are! We have come too far to surrender now."

They were close now, so close, the hum of the ships engine a welcome sound to their ravaged ears.

"It's powering up!"

"It's going to leave without us!"

"No, it cannot, we are the reason it is here! They won't leave us behind!"

They rounded the corner and breathed a collective sigh of desperate relief. The first man wrenched open the door that would lead them to safety. They filed through in an orderly fashion despite the chaos, trained in evacuation procedures even though none of them had ever served in a profession that would warrant one.

On the roof a transport ship awaited them promising safe passage to another planet in the solar system, refuge, and a chance to start over. It was the best-kept secret of the Great War; unfortunately, by the time transport had been arranged many of their number had already been killed. They had waited too long, desperate to find a solution to an unsolvable problem. The people needed to restart their civilization had already been evac-ed by other means. Reduced to a mere handful they had no choice but to make a break for it and hope the resources already on the transport would be enough to get them to their destination. Only a pilot and co pilot awaited them.

The hope was that among their number would be the crew necessary to fly the ship away from the war-torn planet to safety. That was the theory, it wasn't a great one, but the alternative was death and they were confident in their abilities. Overconfident, one might say, that was what got them into this situation in the first place.

The survivors burst onto the ship, the last man closing the hatch and screaming for the pilot to take off. They rose above the city taking one last look at their planet, unrecognizable from the watery paradise it had once been.

"We cannot let this happen again."

"You are right, never again."