Space always seemed so quiet.

So peaceful, so silent, so... Uneventful.

Gwyndion stared out through the wide floor to ceiling window that lined the corridor in which he had paused. Through it with his emerald green eyes he could see the whole expanse of the western space. He could see galaxies swirling and little stars blinking, and somewhere amidst the view he knew was the homeworld from which every known creature originated— Anfeiddreidd.

He turned away from the window and continued along the corridor, jagged, partially webbed talons clicking along the blue-metal ground. Neon blue light from the rods in the ceiling of the curved corridor shined on his dark lapis-and-black scales. He kept his oversized ragged indigo spines carefully flat against his head and back as he approached the elliptical black-glass door. He tilted his head down slightly as if he could hide the obsidian black fangs that protruded from his lip, then raised a talon and depressed the sleek black button on the side of the door.

Before all of his six hearts could beat, the door had opened, revealing a circular room crowded with panels of buttons as well as the currently stationed dragons. The painted words "Outpost 42" glared down at him from their circular arrangement on the ceiling around a glass porthole.

"Gwyndion, here for the night shift?" Captain Einion greeted, rising from his chair and making his way towards him on gray talons. The old captain's Stone Territe heritage was evident in his almost rocklike appearance— Heavy armor plates like stone shields covered his body, and his face almost looked cut from stone with its very angular form. His crown of horns branched from his head the same gray granite color as the rest of his scales. His chestplates looked carved from diorite. Age had worn into his scarlet eyes, so that he almost always looked tired.

Gwyndion grinned, despite his fangs. "Day, night. We're too far from any star for time to really be classified." He pointed out as he paused before the captain. "There's just too many time systems for my liking."

The captain tilted his head in consideration. "Yes, you've been to quite a few different outposts, haven't you?" He recalled. "It is rather confusing, isn't it?" He admitted in good humor. "Cepheus Prime is technically closer to us, and they go by thirty-two hour days. Yet we go by Anfeidreidd time, with forty-eight hour days. And then there's Nova Anfeiddreidd orbiting a dwarf star, so they go with sixteen hour days." The captain chuckled. "Well, whatever time you want to call it, you've got watch for the next two dozen hours." He passed by Gwyndion, giving him a friendly tap on the shoulder with his wing. The captain waited by the door as most of the crew filed through. "Try not to blow up the station," he said before quitting the bridge himself.

The silence of space once again shrouded him, gilded by the gentle hums and beeps of the various scanners and buttons and radars that lined the control panels. The other sound was that of talons tapping on holographic screens as his companion for the night checked over some system or another. "Stuck on Night shift again too, Ephrestia?" He commented as he went over to a wall and collected a small black package from a niche in the wall. He tapped it with his thumb-talon and suddenly the package dissolved into a million little black particles, which promptly began to climb up his arm and solidify into a solid yet comfortable cloth. The particles worked their way around his chest and down all his legs and partially down his tail and halfway up his neck until all the particles had solidified and he was fully uniformed in a suit of black.

"At least I'm not late for my shift," the Forest Naturae replied sassily, not turning to look at him as she manipulated the holographic screen. "We might never get anything interesting to do here but there's still stuff to be done. Have you set up the holocam for the stray Starfall comet we're supposed to be recording tonight?" Asked she.

Gwyndion quickly snatched the small black sphere with a lens that was the holocam from its shelf besides the uniform packages, hoping that she didn't notice in her attention to the screen. "Errr... Yes. Absolutely," he lied. He then quickly tapped a button on the shoulder of his suit, and the material proceeded to expand until all but his head was enclosed. He then snatched up a little white package in his free talon and held it to his forehead until it dissolved and formulated itself into a white, airtight mask with a glasslike, hard, clear front for seeing through. He didn't bother to hook up an air tank— he could easily hold his breath for days, let alone a few minutes. One of the perks of his hybrid genetics.

He then dashed over to a control panel and entered the code to activate the airlock force field over the door that led out to the vacuum of space. "I'll be right back. Just need to... Check on the sensors," he said, spouting the first excuse that came to mind. Holocam in talon, he made for the door before Ephrestia could say anything further.

He launched himself through the invisible force field airlock and into the void of space, and was then quick in latching onto a set of handlebars, one of many that lined the outside of the station. He maneuvered himself around the circular head of the bridge of the outpost till he had reached the front— the trip little more than muscle memory; in his short time on the outpost, he had already traversed roughly jellyfish-shaped construction many times.

Quickly he set to work installing the holocam and rigging it to record when the comet was due to arrive— which is in a little less than half an hour, he recalled. Feeling no rush, he steadily worked on putting it together perfectly, enjoying the absolute silence of being out in space. It had been silent in the corridor and quiet on the bridge, but nothing could compare to space's absolute silence. He also enjoyed the weightlessness; the outpost's many components all rotated in such a fashion as to create its own gravity, so only when out in the vacuum of space could the sensation be felt.

But still the silence was the best part. He wasn't quite sure exactly why he enjoyed it so much— he had a suspicion that it may have something to do with the fact that, several thousand years ago on Anfeiddreidd, he would have been spending his time around the winter season holed up in some cave or another in a partial hibernation of sorts. Or... Searching for warm waters... He considered.

In truth, he could never know. Several thousand years ago... I wouldn't have existed. Couldn't have existed. On the off chance that I had been created... I likely wouldn't have lived beyond my first few months.

He got so absorbed in his work and thoughts that he didn't notice Ephrestia banging on the glass above him until he saw the bright flash reflecting off the dark blue metal of the outpost. He whirled around just in time to see the great white streak rushing past him; a streamlined, burning fireball.

He watched as it hurtled past, a mere few thousand yards from him. Clutching the handlebar tightly with one talon and tentatively reaching for the holocam with the other, he watched...

Watching...

Watching...

As the comet exploded.

Space became a whirling force around him as he was wrenched from his hold and blasted away, rapidly whirling and spinning. He desperately flailed his arms out, grasping for a hold on the outpost. He dared not cry out or breath, and he instantly regretted deciding against the air tank.

I need to get one, he thought. Somehow.

By some miracle he was able to grab hold of a handlebar jutting out of the side of the head of the outpost. Desperately he clung onto it, and he surveyed his quickest route back inside. The force field door he had entered space from lay mere yards ahead of him.

Gwyndion reached out a talon towards the next handlebar, the yards stretching into miles before him under the blasting force of the explosion. His muscles burned with exertion by the time he had finally closed his claws around the metal pole.

I really need to exercise more, he thought as he struggled.

Making a resolution to pick up a sport if he ever survived that day, he resumed his climb towards the door. He tried not to look towards the growing explosion that neared closer and closer by the second.

With a final surge of strength, he threw himself through the force field door.

The moment he passed through the barrier, the world exploded with sound.

Every alarm imaginable was blaring into his ears, a merwyss' voice droning proximity alert on endless repeat on top of it all. It took him a moment to register the feeling of a talon on his shoulder and a face before his eyes.

"You must go!" Ephrestia urged over the scream of the alarms. "Get up! I'll do what I can, now go!"

Gwyndion shakily yet urgently stood back up from where he had landed on the metal ground of the bridge. He shook his head. "No, you go. Go make sure the others are off the station." He glanced towards the great window looking out into what had previously been peaceful space. Now a great surging explosion grew, ravenously expanding like a dying star. He turned back to see Ephrestia hadn't moved. "The outpost isn't going to make it— I'll send out a distress signal and data transfer to the next station. I can do it fast. Go!"

After a moment's hesitation, Ephrestia nodded, then turned and raced down into the corridor towards the crew quarters and escapes.

Alone on the bridge, Gwyndion whirled around and practically jumped onto the control desks, entering codes and smashing buttons so quickly that he was nearly acting out of pure muscle memory.

Finally his fist landed on a final button, and without taking another glance towards the window he sped towards the oxygen tanks on the walls. He practically ripped the sleek black cylinder from the wall before finally a tremble of the outpost drew his attention to the window.

The explosion was coming fast. Too fast.

But that wasn't the only thing.

That was when he saw them.

Massive, sleek figures— incredibly Dragonlike, soaring through space and emerging through the flames of the explosion.

He didn't try to get a second look. He turned.

And he ran.

The sound of glass shattering screeching behind him, and shards exploded into the air. The only reason he wasn't instantly sucked back out into space was the force field in place around the entire outpost in case of a hull breach. He didn't want to think about what must have been strong enough to crash through magick-enforced glass.

The roar that pierced his ears told him enough.

He slammed his fist on the button to open the elliptical door, and rushed through it, smashing the matching button on the other side as fast as he could. As the black door closed again with painstaking slowness, he got a glimpse of the creature that had broken through the outpost.

The encroaching blue fire gleamed off it's golden scales, and it flared its two pairs of turquoise wings at him in anger as it pierced him with its three sets of purple eyes.

And it was nearly three times his size.

The creature opened its massive maw go roar once more just as the doors slid shut.

All six of his hearts beat madly as he turned to streak down the corridor, trying not to think about how easily that door would crumple under the beast's force—

—Crash!

Glass exploded— but not from behind him — to his side, where the corridor looked out into space, and he skidded to a halt. Purple and cyan scales flashed before his eyes within the same cycle of heartbeats, and towering twice his height before him came crashing in another one of the creatures. Two rows of black teeth were bound for his throat before he could even register what was happening— and in a flash of instinct he ducked just out of reach of the teeth and slid beneath the wing of the monster.

He hurtled down the rest of the short corridor, adrenaline racing through him so hard that his spines flushed violet involuntarily.

But here he was at a crossroads. He could go straight, towards the escapes, or left, to another force field door.

It only took him a second to calculate that he didn't have enough time to clamber down to the escapes before the explosion consumed the outpost of one of the creatures found him. They were practically on the other side of the station, close to the crew quarters.

He looked to the force field door.

And raced for it.

He launched himself through the force field.

And almost snapped in half by the force that blasted him away.

Flashes of stars whirled past his vision. Constantly he turned and flipped and spun, completely out of control of his movement. As he rotated he caught flashes of the exploding comet— and something else. Some strange, purplish blue thing that looked vaguely like a massive solar flare. At least, that's what it looked like from the brief glances of it as he spun further and further away...

The surging, soundless explosion continued to grow like a hungry monster, consuming the darkness of space...

It did not take long for it to reach the outpost.

The hungry flames devoured the jellyfish-like outpost in a matter of seconds. Shards of metal and shrapnel burst from the station, flying hazardously out into space. Between one rotation and the next, the station had already been absorbed into the explosion's great mass, which seemed to have no plan of stopping there.

He couldn't see if any of the escapes had made it.

Gwyndion continued to spin farther and farther away, and his last meal was beginning to work its way back through his stomachs.

Then out of the corner of his vision, something shined

Glinting in the light of the explosion, a large slab of cobalt metal hurtled straight towards him.

Great cababits, he mentally cursed, fumbling with his air tank to try and alter his trajectory. Too fast. Too fast. Too fast. No no no no no no no no no—

The metal smashed into the side of his head.

And he was entombed in silence. 

~~~

Well here we go! The adventure's beginning! Please remember to vote if you liked, and I'd love to hear what you all think of Gwyndion and this first chapter!