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Daniel, despite the circumstances, was actually quite excited, in some far-away, more childish part of his brain. This was his first time in a helicopter, and man was it unique. Very loud though, made him thankful for the headset he'd been provided with. R'kan was seated next to him, looking quite curious at the alien technology, and the infamous military duo, First Lieutenant Dover and Second Lieutenant Judo, sat across from them. The Wulvan ship was descending in the middle of the Sahara desert, and thousands of airborne vessels were converging on its position, desperate to protect the planet from them.

The small convey their helicopter was in, however, only consisted of nine helicopters; two small troop-carriers and seven Chinooks carrying their precious cargo. The choppers touched down, deploying military personnel and six bulky pieces of machinery and other equipment. The Wulvan ship had landed a mere minute ago, allowing the Chinooks to deposit their cargo directly into position without the need to be ferried around by vehicles. Four pylons were driven into the ground to form a square around the massive ship, and two massive generators, stored inside two of the Chinooks, were parked beside two of them. The final Chinook remained airborne, a passenger throwing out wiring and connecting all six devices together with the combined efforts of the ground teams.

Soon, the enormous ship's trap was set, and a small shaded command post was set up, consisting of a small shelter, a table, and some equipment powered by a miniature generator. This is where Daniel, R'kan, Dover and Judo waited. Then Dover, as soon as she got the all-clear over the radio, flipped the switch on her control bank. The pylon closest to them sparked, then the lights dimmed down.

“Crap, I don't know how to fix that ma'am!" the respective ground team cried.

“I could give it a look," R'kan suggested hurriedly. “We're close enough." Dover nodded.

“Do it."

“I'm coming with," Daniel stated, defiant eyes daring R'kan to argue. R'kan grunted, scooped Daniel up, and began sprinting faster than any human ever could, limp or no limp. They arrived at the pylon about fifteen seconds later, and hurriedly set to work. R'kan examined a panel on the outside of the pylon and clucked his tongue.

“The reverse-feed micro-transmitters are out of alignment," he analysed. “That means it can't solidify the electrons in the air into a solid barr–"

“Just tell me how to fix it," Daniel cut in, giving a rude reminder that they were short on time.

“Okay, you see that panel there? Open it. Yeah, like that. Good. Now, when I say, we both have to twist these knobs at the same time, got it?" Daniel nodded, staring at the small dial on his side of the device. R'kan fiddled with the controls, then took a deep breath. “Hang on, let me just contact Dover." He fished out his radio. “Lieutenant, make sure the switch is off. Okay?"

“You got it. This thing is well and truly on the 'off' setting," Dover replied anxiously.

“Okay, Daniel. Three… two… one… turn it!" Daniel jerked the dial to the right, and the pylon shrieked to life, blasting both men in opposite directions as a giant flare of energy burst out of the device. Daniel thumped onto the ground painfully and rolled, groaning in agony. “I thought you fucking said it was off!" R'kan screamed into his radio. Daniel's aching head slowly raised up to see a giant blue wall grow before his very eyes, forming a dome huge enough to encompass the entire Wulvan ship and a bit of the surrounding area above and around him. Oh crap…

Daniel grunted as he picked himself up off the ground and stared through the semi-transparent, flickering and fizzling barrier at R'kan's mortified face. “Turn it off! Turn it off right fucking now!" R'kan ordered, yelling hysterically.

“It is off! It doesn't matter what I do, the damned thing stays on!" Dover protested. A third voice joined the call.

“Your control over the device has been relinquished Lieutenant. We can take it from here."

“Daniel's trapped in there you asshole!" R'kan shouted. “Turn it off! We need to get him out now!"

“I'm sorry; we can't put the entire planet at risk for the sake of one man. If we turn those pylons off, the wiring will fuse and render them useless." The sky began turning black as uncountable amounts of dropships arrived, before descending and dropping off everything Earth had to offer. Vehicles, infantrymen, artillery, attack jets, small helicopters, drones. R'kan threw his walking talkie at the ground and placed his hands on the blue wall.

“Please… no…" he whispered, choking on his own misery. Here he was again; the Wulvan were about to take the thing that mattered most to him away without a second thought, and there was nothing he could do but stand by and watch. Daniel said something, but R'kan couldn't hear it through the barrier. The air had practically been frozen into a physical barrier, so sound, being vibrations, couldn't travel through. But R'kan could read his lips to an extent.

“Don't give up," Daniel mouthed. Then he turned towards the Wulvan ship.

“No! NO!" R'kan screamed. “You can't… you… can't…" Daniel flashed him one more reassuring smile, then began limping purposefully towards the landed ship. R'kan started sobbing uncontrollably, falling to his knees and weeping.

~~~~~~~~~~()~~~~~~~~~~

Daniel approached the giant of a ship. The loading ramp had been opened, apparently ready to spew out an army of Wulvan, but nobody came. Probably because they could see the barrier from within the ship. So Daniel strode aboard the eerily quiet space vessel, glancing around him curiously. It was very lacklustre; all the movies had ships with white-washed halls and flashing lights, but all he could see was dull metal and the occasional pipe running the length of a wall or ceiling. He entered through some kind of hangar bay, sparsely decorated by a few esoteric vehicles, but otherwise devoid of anything.

Deeper inside was a main corridor lined with hundreds – thousands even – of doorways. Daniel was startled by the lack of security, or even signs of life, as he approached a giant staircase that led to a huge bulkhead door. It rumbled open noisily as Daniel approached, exposing a room full with computers, screens, machinery and a window that spanned the entire front of the room, as well as half of the sides. The cockpit, or bridge rather. A single figure stood, with their back to Daniel, staring out the window at the massive blue barrier and all the humans and Lahzids scurrying about outside.

“Why aren't you in the armoury, preparing like everybody else?" a deep, grumbling and authoritative voice demanded. Quickly glancing around himself, Daniel realised that the person speaking was the figure at the front of the room, and he was the one being addressed. Obviously, the bulkhead door was just as noisy as Daniel had thought it'd been. Daniel approached, his footsteps piquing the figure's curiosity, prompting him to turn.

Daniel gasped and stopped for a second as he came close enough to make the person out. He was a wolf-man. Covered in a fine grey coat, strong muscled limbs sported short black claws and soft padded paws. A bushy tail hung between his legs, and his head was very fluffy, with a long muzzle, pointed ears and menacing orange eyes. A pink scar ran from his left brow, over his eyelid, and down onto his cheek. He looked like a more dignified version of the classic werewolf in a way.

The Wulvan blinked. “Oh. I see," was all he uttered.

“I'm Daniel of the humans, I want to talk," Daniel announced. He raised his arms, before letting them thunk back down. “I'm unarmed and physically inferior." The Wulvan nodded.

“So I see. Fine, I am Tu'run of the Wulvan. What is it you wish to speak of, weakling?"

“You," Daniel answered. “Why are you here, what do you want, and why have you been hunting the Lahzids for the last few millennia?" Tu'run looked away, almost… in shame.

“That is a long story, human," Tu'run grumbled. Daniel shrugged and pulled a chair away from a nearby console, before plonking himself down on it.

“That barrier's not coming down anytime soon." Tu'run raised an eyebrow, then sighed.

“About a thousand years ago, the Wulvan developed their first space shuttle. A few centuries after that, we had colonies on every planet in our solar system. We developed better technology, and more of it, while our population steadily grew. We needed more space, more resources. We explored further, and further. We met a few other space-faring species, who attacked us on sight. We became military-obsessed. We crushed them, studied their corpses and technology, advanced further. They breathed different chemicals than us, so we couldn't take their planet, and we weren't finding anything habitable anywhere. Until we found ON-2, the Lahzid home world. A colony was planted there. We began hunting for food to sustain our new planet, using our technology to farm the locals. We didn't realise their sentience, and as soon as we found out, we fled back to our home world, packed up the colony and left."

Tu'run looked down guiltily. “We… we got desperate. Sickness, poverty, starvation… people were dying by the thousands, and our resources were running thin. There… there was only one hope for our species… ON-2. We could start again, use our knowledge to try again with a more sustainable way of life. Problem is, we had been gone for hundreds of years, and the Lahzids had advanced. They recognised us, and attacked us. We didn't fight back at first… we tried desperately to talk, to make peace, but we were too late. The Lahzids reverse-engineered our technology, began mowing down our people and… and then… then…"

“They destroyed the planet," Daniel whispered. Tu'run nodded, head down miserably.

“We… we were horrified. Our entire species, decimated, our only hope, gone. Then another species found us, told us about a part of the galaxy which was civilised and fair, a single government ruling over all advanced species. They had places for us. Our species was saved. But the more we became integrated into their society, the more horrifically obvious it was that we had done wrong. The Galactic Authorities have strict laws against contacting pre-space-faring species, and even stricter laws against trying to steal planets off them. We had done both, and worse. We knew they would throw us out if they found out, so we went back to hunting down our past, destroying every last Lahzid until there was no evidence of our sins. With the planet destroyed, all that remained to be disposed of was the witnesses. One by one, we…"

Tu'run turned his back on Daniel. “Surely they have told you about this already… there's… there's no need for me to r-repeat it."

“Keep going," Daniel pressed. “I think we were getting to the important bit."

“We destroyed them all. Wiped every single ship we could find out of existence. We slaughtered them all… except this one. But we have to. You must understand, there's no choice. It's them or us."

“There's always a choice," Daniel growled, even as R'kan's voice echoed within his mind. The Lahzid had said those exact words to him very early on in their friendship, and the heavy bulge of Dover's revolver in his pocket reminded him of the truth behind them. “Saying that there's no choice is an excuse to be weak. You did atrocious things, and you just dug yourself deeper by trying to cover it up with murdering an entire species." Tu'run tried to growl angrily at the insolent human, but hung his head instead. It was all true. Every word. There was no justifying anything they'd done. At any point, they could have owned up to it, tried to make amends. But they didn't. Maybe the Wulvan deserved to die out. “But, it's not too late," Daniel continued.

Tu'run looked up at him, confusion sparkling in his teary eyes. “You still have a choice right now Tu'run. Look outside." Tu'run did as he was told. Scared humans stood shakily in groups alongside Lahzids, the two supporting each other as they readied weapons, operated vehicles and held their guns. Together they would defend the planet, or together they would fall.

“I… I don't understand…"

“Humanity. Lahzids. Together, we can undo everything. With our support, the Lahzids can flourish again. With their help, we can be sure we'll never make your mistakes. You still have a choice, so long as those Lahzids live. Leave now, go to this Galactic super-council or whatever, confess. Ask for help to undo your wrongs. You have been weak and pitiful ever since you went back to the Lahzid's home world, but now you can be strong. Trust somebody. Trust my advice. Trust the Galactic whats-its to forgive you. If you stay your course, there will be no going back."

Then Daniel's world went black as he was struck a blow to the back of his head. A Wulvan soldier stood proudly with a baton in hand, then saluted his commander.

“Don't worry sir, I got the bugger," he snickered. Tu'run stared outside. The blue barrier was flickering, the generators about to fail.

~~~~~~~~~~()~~~~~~~~~~

The barrier fell, R'kan tightened his grip on his rifle and began charging forward, only to stop dead in his tracks when a single figure stepped out of the ship, carrying something big in its arms. R'kan slowed to a halt, realising it was a Wulvan carrying Daniel's body. The Wulvan stopped halfway between the ship and the waiting army, gently laid the human on the ground, then strode back to the ship. The ramps whined as they were drawn back up, then the thrusters roared to life and, within a minute, the ship was a tiny speck in the sky, receding until nothing could be seen but the blaring sun. R'kan sprinted and dropped to Daniel's side, almost crying in relief when he saw the human's chest was still rising and falling steadily. Then he did break down crying, clutching his human to his chest, he cried away all of his pent up grief and agony that had been building his entire life. He didn't need it anymore. He was finally going to be happy.

~~~~~~~~~~()~~~~~~~~~~

Daniel cracked open his eyes sleepily, peering at his surroundings. He was laying on something soft, yet firm, and he had a cushion placed gently beneath his head. He took a good look around. He was atop a pleasant, light grey couch inside a spacious little room with pale cream-coloured walls. Soft patches of sunlight rested upon the wall before him, suggesting a large window behind him. To his right he could see a modest flat screen TV mounted on the wall, and at the end of the couch closest to his feet was a small wooden coffee table, decorated with a vase full of pink flowers so beautiful Daniel wondered if they were real or not. The air was calm and quiet, completely tranquil. Beside the TV was a doorway leading into a little hallway which had three doorways leading off it, further into what Daniel assumed was a house. To the left of that hallway was an empty fireplace, made of sleek black metal.

Daniel smiled as he realised he'd probably never use that. Not with R'kan's scales to compete with. Speaking of that Lahzid…

Daniel groaned slightly as he hauled himself into a sitting position, glancing behind him to see that there were indeed glass windows as tall as he was lining the wall, along with a sliding door which led onto a balcony overlooking the sea. Beyond the couch there was a dining table complete with six chairs, along with more windows to light it up. Quite a nice place, one of the perks of being an ambassador he supposed.

Daniel stood, and began walking, his limp barely noticeable now. The first room on his left had him stop dead in his tracks. R'kan, morning sunlight illuminating his scales in blazing glory, stood casually holding a plate of pancakes.

“Hey there sleepy head," he greeted. Daniel all but melted into R'kan's arms, hugging his lover tightly.

“It's over," he whispered. “It's all finally over."

“That's right luv. It's just you, me, and a whole lot of sex."

“And junk food," Daniel added.

“And video games."

“And anime."

“Ani…? Ah forget it, I'll find out." R'kan gently separated their chests and held Daniel to his side via a scaly arm around his shoulder. “Now, why don't we sit down, enjoy some pancakes, and you can tell me all about how you managed to get rid of those Wulvan without firing a shot."

~~~~~~~~~~()~~~~~~~~~~

“Sorry we took so long to reach a decision, but nothing like this has ever come up before. The Galactic Council had never even dared to imagine any species would ever even think about doing something so horrendous." Tu'run let his eyes drift upwards to the white-furred bipedal goat-man who was clad in some official-looking pure white robes, curly horns polished to a formal gleam. “We were all shocked, to say the least. But you did the right thing, Tu'run. We thank you for your honesty; we know how easy it would have been to follow through with your kind's plan and we'd have been none the wiser."

The goat-man turned to stare out an expansive window that gave a solemn view of a scattering of stars amongst the inky blackness of space. “That being said, no words can describe how disgusted we all are. Your leaders will be punished severely, likely sentenced to death. The rest of your kind will be forgiven however."

Tu'run bowed his head respectfully. “Do not feel guilty about this. You did the right thing, and quite possibly saved two entire species. And had you not confessed, and the Galactic Council found out, there wouldn't be a single trace of your species to be found in the entire universe."

“I understand that completely. If you don't mind me saying, I have a few suggestions about what we could do to help them along, seeing as there are now two sentient species on a planet that can barely support one." The goat-man motioned for them to start walking down the white-washed corridor, away from the gloomy scene the window held. “With the Council's technology, I thought that perhaps my kind could terraform a planet for the humans and Lahzids to find once they develop the technology to explore space – which won't be too long now, because the Lahzids have a degree of understanding towards how our technology operates; all they have to do is adapt to the resources on Earth."

“Hmph, I heard about that. It was quite careless of you to let technology like that fall into the hands of a less-advanced species."

“Respectfully, you haven't heard our species' entire legacy. Maybe you wouldn't be so quick to judge if you heard our side of the story. We're not bad people you know; we were all scared. Scared of you, and what you'd do if you found out about our past mistakes. We had to silence the Lahzids in one of two ways; by making friends with them – which we tried, and failed, to do – or wipe them out. It seemed like our only choice at the time." The goat-man sighed.

“I know your kind isn't evil," he admitted, “in fact, I'm actually very impressed by the courage you've shown. You would be my first choice of candidate for the Wulvan representative of the Council if your kind wasn't banned from it for the next five hundred years. As you said; there was no other choice, and yet you found one."

“Believe it or not, a Tier 9 convinced me. Five tiers down the civilisation ladder, and he was wiser than most Wulvan I've met. Kind of says something, doesn't it?" The goat-man shrugged.

“I suppose we'll soon see. Earth's always been an interesting planet though. Believe it or not, the first Galactic Council screwed with it a bit when they first got together. They wanted to help the humans advance faster, but ultimately decided that they should be left to run their own course. Earth is the reason for a lot of laws the Council enforces, actually." Tu'run grinned lopsidedly.

“I look forward to properly meeting them."

~~~~~~~~~~()~~~~~~~~~~

Ring ring… Ring ring… Ring ring…

“Hello, you've reached the Teil household, please leave a message after the beep!"

“Hey mum and dad… it's been a while. I just thought I'd call, see how you were doing, let you know I'm okay," Daniel started. His eyes wandered back to the living room, where R'kan was laughing and chatting with Laeina and Amy, their voices so distant and yet so close. “Though I suppose you've probably seen me on the news already."

He chuckled humourlessly, before continuing. “The war got pretty rough here – we got bombed… a lot of people died. It's been a crazy few months… years even. Um, yeah… so maybe you've also heard by now that I've met someone. His name is R'kan, and he's a Lahzid. We're getting married soon, and I thought it would be nice to go back to New Zealand for the wedding – you know, 'cause now that I'm an ambassador money's not really a problem. I hope everybody's okay back at home, I'm gonna try and get in touch with Jared and Meagan now, so I'll talk to you when I arrive? Yeah, once again, hope you're all okay, and I'll see you in a couple of weeks."

Daniel hung up, then began dialling his sister's number.

~~~~~~~~~~( The End…? )~~~~~~~~~~

_Hey guys, CrazyBirdMan59 here. I hope you all enjoyed this story – but I also hope you're hungry for more! I'm planning on creating a three part main series of which this will be book one. The series is going to be called 'Into Prophecy' and the order of books will be as follows:

1) This War of Ours

2) Precursor

3) The Superior Seven

I hope you guys are interested! See you next time,

~CrazyBirdMan59_