Exactly 27 years ago Humanity invented a new form of transport, a technology akin to the discovery of fire, it was the capability to create artificial wormholes allowing traversal through space regardless of distance, it was a light in the darkness for humanity, a way to ignore the numerous problems that arose from space travel.
At least it was.
The constant splitting of space caused space itself to become fragile causing fractures that would exert massive amounts of gravitational energy on its surroundings, this was "an acceptable cost" according to The United Galactic Federation and so the relentless expansion continued, entire solar systems terraformed in less than a year.
The Federation continued to ignore the spacial fractures even with thousands of civilian ships being accidentally pulled into the cracked space, that was until the fateful day known as the first fracturing, humanity learned they were not alone.
Perhaps in this universe they had not yet discovered other life but that did not mean they were alone, after all the beings that emerged from the broken space were most certainly alive, not just alive but thriving.
The creatures that emerged seemed incredibly strange some outright defying the laws of physics, because of these creatures unexplainable abilities many people that witnessed such beings begun to worship, a practice that had been banned many thousands of years ago by the long dead rulers of humanity.
Seeing the creatures miraculous abilities The Federation sent multiple Mobile War Planets to hunt down these creatures for research and experimentation and for a time this continued with no major mishaps.
Then came the day known as the The Second Fracture, to this day there is still no clear answer for why 'They' emerged only speculation, perhaps they had taken too many of the strange creatures or perhaps it was simply inevitable, whatever the answer that day was the start of humanities greatest and still unending war.
* * *
Magnus looked around him, the massive metallic room was fulled with children like him seeming to range across all ages, from children to young adults, the only thing they all had in common was a grim sense of determination, around the edges of the room multiple guards stood, the cold sterile light gleaming on the tips of their plasma rifles.
The room had a single insignia on the wall, a giant hand with seven bleeding eyes inside the palm, it was the symbol of oppression and power, it was the symbol of the organisation everyone in this room had come to join, it was the symbol of opportunity.
After a few minutes of waiting a reddish light flickered on near the entrance door, seeing the light come on the guards all snapped to attention simultaneously with machine like movements.
A few seconds later the cold lights dimmed revealing a middle aged holographic figure in the front of the room, the hologram paused for a few seconds before addressing the people in the room.
"Well, to the exactly one thousand cadets in this room, I congratulate you for passing the physical examination and making it here, and your being here means you have decided to participate in the research of the 'other-worlds' the suspected realities hidden behind the spacial fractures, the origin of those hateful slaughterers, whatever reason you have for coming here we welcome you, for all is for the progression of humanity."
After the hologram gave its welcoming speech it ordered the cadets, none of whom were older than eighteen or younger than eight, to form into groups according to their ages, the ten groups of one hundred were each led away by a guard.
Magnus being part of the third group was taken along with the rest of the children his age to a long corridor lined with metal doors, turning around with a smooth whoosh the guard began to sort people into their rooms, gesturing to the left and right doors he explained they were their dorms that had been prepared beforehand, after giving a order for them to rest the guard walked towards the entrance of the corridor and locked it behind him.
With a befuddled expression the children slowly began to wander around the corridors searching for their names while attempting to initiate conversation with one another, as they talked the atmosphere grew warmer and the children seemed to become more enthusiastic.
Magnus however simply went to his room, there was no need to talk to them, both because they were simply speaking meaningless chatter and also because there was no certainty they would all survive, the loss of yet another friend was the last thing he currently needed.
Walking into the room the first impression he got was that of a prison, it was a cold and empty, windowless room, a grey coat of paint was slathered across the metal walls with rough haste judging by the bumpy texture, the only furniture in the cold, cell like room was a thin mattress on a rusty old bed frame and a small synthetic wood table that held a small lamp illuminating the room with a dim glow.
Flicking the lamp off Magnus slumped down onto the mattress, listening to the growing sounds of chatter Magnus slowly drifted into an uneasy slumber the darkness around him pressing down with excessive and ever increasing pressure.
He dreamed of a strange place.
It was a war-torn land the ground itself devoid of even the smallest weed, blackened earth choked by ash and fire was all he could see in every direction.
The world felt empty
No matter how far he went there was nothing but the charred dirt beneath him, no sign of life or death, civilisation or nature, this place was just endless plains of lifelessness yet no signs of death could be seen.
But this did not deter him, he continued walking, his march continuing with a machine like tenacity and momentum, he did not falter, he did not rest, he would not let himself rest.
Days passed, then months, then years and after that time stopped being a measurement and became static in the background, existing yet unnoticed.
There was no goal or end yet still he continued with singleminded determination.
He continued not because he wanted to but because there was no option to stop.