Fenix Academia

" Nobody can hear a scream in the vacuum of space, or so they say. But there was one day in history that is believed to have proven this false.

Up until that point, Earth had gone through a technological revolution, especially in space travel. Humans realized we were truly killing our planet. Resources had become so scarce, that we were close to a worldwide economic collapse. But it's in moments of great desperation and needs that what we believe to be true human nature is shown. We united in a truly common cause. While there was panic and riots, the leaders of the world were able to take that fear that even they were feeling and mold it into true progress. The greatest minds of our time got together to find solutions and focus only on survival. What should have made our planet an immediate battlefield for the few measly resources left, became a place of healing, leaning on one another for progress. A temporary solution was found to extend our life on Earth while 5 teams were sent to newly invented space crafts in order to search for answers in the one place we hadn't looked. Our galaxy.

As we closed to utter hopelessness, one of the teams returned much earlier than originally calculated. They had brought with them a moon-sized living organism! This moon, later anointed as "the Miracle," emanated an unknown aura that somehow revitalized our barren home into the lush and full planet it once was! Hope was restored. And for millennia, Earth had become a quasi-utopian world. Studying the Miracle gave place to an influx of advancements in all fields of study, from cures to cancer and even diabetes, to virtual reality and entertainment. Pieces of the Miracle were taken to Earth to study. But there was so much we still didn't know about our Miracle. It traveled by its own volition to Jupiter and in little over a century, it terraformed Jupiter into a fully inhabitable planet. Interplanetary travel became real. Humans began immigrating to this new potential home. Things that were considered science fiction, became reality. With new information and technology, came new challenges, of course. Certain countries wanted more power and more access. But it just became a new reminder of how much we truly didn't know about the Living Moon. Once humans tried to start a war but, as soon as the military preparations were initialized, the radiant moon stopped shining its great energy and inspiration to the planet. Advancements seemed to stop as if our imagination had been unplugged. This terrifying even gave birth to a new law. Under the "Miracle Amendment Act" constituted by the former United Nations, then renamed as United Interplanetary Council (U.I.C.), the Miracle technology could not be used for military intentions and, while not perfect, there truly weren't any "Great Wars" anymore. It just wasn't profitable for anyone.

As interplanetary travel became more commonplace, we wanted more. Humans always do. And so interplanetary travel became galaxy exploration. Hundreds of teams of 5, inspired by the original number of explorers, were deployed. And, much to most of humankind's surprise, we truly weren't alone in the galaxy. Citizens from worlds near and far began to show up in the Milky Way galaxy, brought and guided by these exploration teams. Our reality had shifted once more. With the help of our often-called divine angel, Humans created translation devices to understand alien speech and learned how to integrate them into our new ecosystem. The Miracle began terraforming Mars as well, making our galaxy a literally universal haven to creatures of all corners of our known and unknown universe. But there were so many unknowns, we should have foreseen what happened.

Earth, or Terra as it later became to be called by the different races of the otherworldly visitors, was talked about by everyone everywhere, and jealousy and greed began to engulf foreign civilizations. One would think, reading human history, that we would have committed a mistake and broken this established peacekeeping law and gone to war. But it was this newfound comfort that became our undoing.

Over seven hundred years ago, yet another new visitor came to our paradise desiring our Miracle. These guests were called the Encased. They were massive hairless bipedal creatures of ashen skin, at least 3 times bigger than the average human. With bodies made of pure muscle, they were covered in mechanical clothing. But their most unnerving feature was their face. Their angular eyes were all different shades of grey and black, as if one was staring straight into an abyss. They had no nose and their mouths spread from end to end, as if opening their mouths split their heads from the rest of their body.

They sent a single emissary, an Encased of their highest military rank, to our Terran atmosphere to meet with the U.I.C. He wore armor of a metallic substance covering his whole body, almost as if they were a mobile tank. His armor had a large crimson stripe that went across his breastplate and an upside-down V with deep green color as if pointing up. On one hand, he carried a banner with what was probably their planets flag, but the colors seemed to change from red to green to gray with each movement. On his other hand, he carried a small device inside his gauntleted three-fingered hand. With a raspy and ghastly voice, unfitting of the guttural sound humans expected, he made one simple demand, pointing to the visible Miracle moon in the sky: "Give us the Sentry and we won't exterminate you, rodents." The U.I.C., dumbfounded by the mere fact they spoke Terran English, tried to formulate an elaborate reply in order to establish some kind of civilized conversation, but it wasn't enough. Without another word, the Encased ambassador drove the bottom end of its banner through the chest of the main representative of the U.I.C. without so much as a second glance. It took the device it had in it's other hand and pressed the single button on the device. Terra, Mars, and Jupiter's skies turned a scarlet color simultaneously. Without a second chance to negotiate, Encased troops began to rain down in all three locations as if the gates of hell opened from the skies. Having no weapons, no strategy and no idea something like this could happen, the armies of death massacred all living beings they found in all three homes of the human race. In a single day, they drove us into near extinction, with an entire species crying in agonizing fear, their screams said to be heard even in the vacuum of space.

And just as sudden as they appeared, they disappeared, with the Miracle trapped by one of their ships. Three worlds once in constant motion and progress were now void of sound, desolate and broken.

But Humans are stubborn creatures.

What has been considered a negligible amount of humans survived on Terra. One of these was a scientist who studied the Miracle in what was Neuquén, Argentina, in one of the facilities where a piece of it was stored. He sent a simple worldwide transmission to gather all the remaining survivors, of which he wasn't even sure there even were any. But a strong few were gathered. History doesn't tell us exactly how many there were, but a new hope was birthed from these survivors. They began to rebuild and, with the help of this fragment of the divine moon, advancements were made in strides. During these harsh centuries, intergalactic scavengers and pirates frequented earth, looting the resources possible and even kidnapped seemingly lost humans, children, and families that had been trained not to divulge any secrets to captors so as to help conceal this growing civilization. Now, in the year 764 since the fall of civilization (764 F.C.), Terrans have rebuilt inside the Andes mountains, as well as other hidden locations around Terra, in order to conceal ourselves from any possible threats. Space travel is available and new safeties and cloaking mechanisms have been established. But most important of all, a new military division was created in order to protect themselves. The fragment, as if it were fueled by their thoughts of survival and revenge, had given them knowledge for weapons and tools to help their endurance. This new military establishes an academy, the Fenix Academia, to train individuals into elite warriors to help protect and re-establish ourselves in the universe. But most of all, to recover the Miracle and deliver vengeance to the Encased. " -- Terra Historia, Volume 1

The young girl closed the newly released tome and laid it on the makeshift nightstand next to her. She rubbed her tired eyes. It had to be around 1 in the morning which was bad since she had her Academia entrance exam in about five hours. Aya had always been fascinated by their history mostly because she didn't have one. Being an orphaned girl, not even having any memories from before she was twelve, made her yearn for her own history. It was seven years since Erno Furga, one of the council members of the Academy, had found her lost and unconscious on the coast of Aires, east of the Andes. Furga raised Aya as his own, lying and claiming she was the only surviving daughter of his abducted sister's family. History glorified humans making them sound grand and justified, but pain and suffering had made them harsh. Orphans were viewed as lesser than the rest since they couldn't afford to share too many resources.

Aya had to show her worth. And Fenix Academia was her one chance to do so.