Micronauts: The Worlds I Have Lived, part 1
Toby Kernan

	Prince Acroyear of Spartak looked out upon the battlefield in both horror and disgust.  Once, this area had been the Ellysium Fields, one of Spartak's most beautiful natural treasures.  Purple lyllak flowers had spread as far as the eye could see, and jumpy nakks could be see hopping in wild packs.
	That is all gone now, destroyed by the ravages of war.   Baron Karza had come, and brought with him the Repto race from neighboring Sauria.   At first, he claimed he wanted peace, in exchange for some territory upon Spartak.  When the Acroyear royalty had refused, he convinced the Acroyear's enemies, the Reptos, to attack, and a bloody war began.  When the Reptos had been defeated, then Karza and his own forces stepped in and annihilated the remaining Acroyearian forces.  Now, those survivors, including Prince Acroyear, were faced with only two choices.  They could stay and either be killed or made a slave to Baron Karza, and probably thrown into the Body Banks.  Or, as their other choice, they could run and return to fight another day.  With more heartache and regret, Prince Acroyear and the survivors of the royal house chose the latter.  Now, as they watched their beautiful world crumble to ruin, they prepared their ships in hopes of making a desperate escape.  
	Acroyear looked out upon the fires raging across his once beautiful home, shed his final tear, then placed his helmet upon his head and ran towards the shuttle craft waiting for in the courtyard below.  Most all of the court had already left on previous ships, including Cilicia, Prince Acroyear's betrothed, and Prince Shaitan, his brother.  Acroyear had not gone with them because they were going to Aegis, a refugee planet so far out of the reach of Karza's evil clutches.  He was instead traveling in an almost opposite direction, to the world Tropica, where he has heard whispers of a rebellion force aimed at striking Karza at his very heart, the Body Banks on Homeworld.  
	Acroyear strapped himself into the seat of his photon sled, hit the ignition, and guided his craft into the skies.  Aware that Karza's troops would be looking for escaping vessels, the prince quickly activated the stealth shielding, which would effectively mask his ship from his enemies long enough for him to escape to the stars.  Acroyear took a last look at the beautiful red autumn sky of his proud planet.  He made a promise to himself as the craft reached the outer edge of the atmosphere and headed out amongst the many planets of the Microverse.  Soon Prince Acroyear would destroy Karza's body banks.  Then he would destroy Baron Karza himself.  Then he would return, with his people, and rebuild the planet to the greatness it so rightfully deserved.  He would settle with his love, Cilicia, and they would bear many young princes.  

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	Prince Acroyear awoke from his sleep suddenly, as the alarm blared and a red light went off in front of him.  The trip to Tropica was a several day journey and the battle-weary warrior could no longer sustain himself, so he had put the sled into auto-pilot, and taken a nap.  Now, the alarms signaled that another ship was in the vicinity.  Much to Acroyear's dismay, there was not just one ship, but three.  All three were Thorium Orbitors, small spaceships used by Karza's forces to battle their enemies.  Acroyear quickly attempted evasive maneuvers as the three ships came almost within firing range.  Acroyear suddenly wished that the stealth mode didn't require so much of the small ship's energy, because it hadn't had enough time to fully charge, and the prince would be forced to fight his way through the battle.  Suddenly the closest ship was in firing range and began to fire energy blasts at the sled.  Acroyear's shield held enough for him to do a full turn and blast the ship.  As the first enemy craft exploded into a fiery mass, Acroyear realized his warrior attitude had gotten him into a very difficult situation.  The other two Orbitors quickly bombarded his ship with a barrage of blasts.  These blasts were enough to destroy all his shield strength and cause damage to the ships hull.  Acroyear knew he was outgunned in this battle.  Quickly he searched the star-charts for the nearest habitable planet and released all remaining energy into the hyperdrive unit.  
	Acroyear's ship reached the outer atmosphere of the planet Polaria, but the two enemy Orbitors were in close proximity behind him.  As he made a nose-dive into the atmosphere he felt his ship rock with a final barrage of laser blasts, then heard an explosion in the back of his ship.  Life support systems were failing.  Most other systems are severely damaged.  Acroyear felt the air around him growing thinner as he made a rapid descent to the planet below.  He felt his consciousness slipping away, so he placed his sled on auto-pilot once more, and prayed to his gods that they would guide the craft safely to the planet below, and that he would survive to fight another day.  Then his whole world went black, and he began a beautiful dream, of he and Cilicia and the beautiful warrior children they would bear.

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	Acroyear awoke with a start for the second time in a row, suddenly aware that he had survived his ordeal, though he was not sure if this was his blessing or his curse.  He noticed first that he was still strapped into the seat of his sled.  Then he noticed the freezing cold.  Shivering he unbuckled himself and stood, noticing that the apparent harsh landing had managed to cause a sharp pain in his left side.  He had probably broken, or at least hurt, several of his ribs.  As he slowly moved about the cabin he noticed that no automated functions of the sled were working.  A quick view of the control panel revealed a total loss, the poor sled had used every ounce of its energy landing, Unfortunately, for Acroyear, he is warrior, and not a mechanic or technician, and as such, the repairs of the ship are far beyond his control.  Acroyear made his way through the small vessels, quickly gathering what small amounts of supplies he could salvage, and made his way to the escape hatch.  Burnt and broken, the Prince was forced to unsheathed his energy blade to open the hatch.
	The view outside was hardly the kind to produce optimism within the warrior, and it seemed that his luck had gone from bad to worse.  The Prince had landed on an area in the harsh throes of winter.  All he could see for miles ahead was snow.  Gingerly, he walked out into the several feet of snow and looked around in all directions.  Nothing but a sky the shade of gray, and piles of pristine white snow.  Acroyear frowned in dismay as he checked his supplies.  Maybe a few days worth of rations if he was lucky plus a glider-pac that was in dubious shape, and a set of armor with a heating unit that had rarely been used, and never to keep out cold of this severity.  Acroyear bit his lip and suddenly was ashamed of his thoughts.  He was a warrior.  Not just a warrior, but a prince of the Acroyears, some of the fiercest warriors in the Microverse.  This was the kind of challenge that weeded the boys from the men.  He was a survivor, as the events of late had proven, and he was not going to let this cold and snow beat him.  He had a mission, and he refused today until the head of Baron Karza lay in a spike in front of his royal castle.  Determined now, and pumped full of courage and bravado, Acroyear turned on his glider-pac and began flying south, in hopes of finding someone or something that could get him off this planet and back on his course to Tropica.

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	Prince Acroyear sighed heavily as he trudged along the snow-covered landscape.  Being that there was no sun to be seen in the gray sky and he had no timepieces current available.  He hadn't the foggiest idea how long he had been walking.  It was probably just hours, but it seemed like it was days.  The miles trudged on endlessly without a single distinguishing point along his eyesight.  Just endless miles of white snow.  Acroyear momentarily worried that this was all that the planet offered, and soon either he would be  consumed by utter madness or dead by hypothermia.  Acroyear bit his lip hard to remove such defeatist thought from his head.  He was a warrior, and a survivor, and there had to be something here, few planets within the known Microverse were uninhabited, and he had seen environments harsher than this occupied.  
	Acroyear's thoughts were suddenly disrupted as he met his first inhabitant of Polaria.  Suddenly the ground rumbled in front of him and the snow flew in every direction as a large form thrust into the air in front of him.  The creature resembled the non-legged serpents, which occupied his world's swamps, except it appeared to be at least twenty feet in length, and covered in a thick, white fur.  It stood there momentarily, as if seizing up Acroyear with its harsh, deep purple hued eyes, then opened its mouth in a nasty hiss, and revealed long rows of sharp, nasty fangs.  Acroyear felt the blood return to his near frozen veins as he recognized the look the creature gave him.  The creature viewed Acroyear as prey, and the Prince was prey to no beast.  He had not escaped the Baron only to become the dinner of some overgrown snow serpent.  Acroyear flipped the switch of his vibro-blade and prepared for the creature's strike.
	The creature lunged straight for Acroyear at blinding speed.  Had it not been for his warrior training, the creature surely would have been wrapped around the poor man in a second.  But Acroyear was a very experienced warrior, and managed to dodge to the side as the creature splashed into the snow to the side of him.  Acroyear quickly twisted to the side to deliver a blow, then nearly fell as the pain from his injured ribs almost overcame him.  He managed to strike a blow to the creature, but the poorly executed shot didn't even penetrate the creature's thick hide.  Acroyear managed to turn and set himself, just as the angered creature twirled itself back around, ready to launch another attack upon him.  Suddenly the creature instead burrowed itself back into the snow and frozen ground.  Acroyear stood still, unsure what to do, when the creature emerged from the ground directly under him.  Before he had proper time to react, the creature, with its uncanny speed, wrapped itself around his waist and began to squeeze.  As blinding pain overwhelmed the already injured Prince, he managed to strike a wild blow into the creature's side.  The blow cut deep through the hide, and spewed a thick green blood all over Acroyear and the surrounding snow.  Acroyear hoped that it would be enough to stop the creature, but seemed only to enrage it as it let out a horrible scream and began to squeeze him even tighter.  The pain was tremendous, and Acroyear felt the weapon fall from his hand and into the ground below him.  
	As Acroyear felt his consciousness begin to slip away, he was at least relieved to know that if it was his time to die, at least he was going out fighting like a warrior.  Then the regret struck him.  Regret that he would never see his beautiful world again.  Regret that he never wrapped his hands around the neck of Baron Karza and squeezed the life from him.  Regret that he would never give Cilicia the beautiful babies she always wanted.  Acroyear realized that he was leaving this world with too many regrets, and his emotions turned to anger.
	Then suddenly his mind returned to his present conflict, and he noticed oddly that the constriction appeared to be lessening rather than tightening.  As the pain and anger unclouded from his eyes, he looked at the head of the creature, and noticed a large crystal spike sticking viciously from the creature's head, covered in brains and blood.  As he fell to the ground, his last few moments of sight were filled with the picture of a female, dressed in heavy winter clothing approaching him.  As she grew near, she briefly removed her goggles and headgear to reveal a smiling face and a full set of curly red hair.  As consciousness slipped away, he heard her speak, and thought it was the voice of an angel.

"Welcome to Polaria.  My name is Kole…"

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The End (for now)