My first book's prologue

This is the opening chapter top my first book due to be published this December, 2025.

PROLOGUE

NOTE: This story contains the unique spelling of the word "Imperial" as Emperial starting with an E. This word choice helps to distinguish between any Earth bound empire and the massive Intergalactic Space Empire and its Emperial assets.

In high orbit over the planet Terra, the seventh space region within the Terran Prime Galaxy, three large Emperial starships on a routine patrol suddenly witnessed the brilliant flashing of light as a magic portal opened just off the forward bow of the central ship. The startled starship crew then saw a brilliantly flashing ball of blue light and energy pass through the magical doorway, falling quickly to the planet’s atmosphere in a long streak of light and disappearing just as swiftly from view in the atmosphere as the portal did moments later. Afterwards, all was still and quiet as before.

The stunned Emperial Officers on board the ship’s bridge quickly got to work. The previously chill crew became a hive of activity as they analyzed the object that had just flown through their airspace; communicating their findings with the planet below. Only minutes later they requested confirmation of the mystery object’s impact location.

Down on the planet’s surface, in the Aviary Base’s underground Control Room, all is its usual calm and quiet. The lights are dim and the soft hum of computers is all that can be heard. The next moment a station warning light and siren sounded sending the four officers present into well trained action; something was penetrating the upper atmosphere in their sector. Then a second sound announced the com sounding off; the orbital patrol ships were sending down data.
With only a few moments glance at his terminal screens, the young man at the com turned and yelled, “Cpt. Armor – you’ll want to see this!” The blonde haired and stern faced Captain Amy Armor dashed over from her post to the com station and peered over his shoulder, studying the wild images showing on screen. Hard as it was to believe, there in a zoomed in view, was an obvious humanoid figure falling to Earth wrapped in a brilliant blanket of blue colored light and energy. THIS was indeed most strange! Nothing like this had ever happened on Terra or Earth before; not in recent history anyways. This world tended to be rather magic free and pedestrian compared to many of its interstellar neighbors.

The com officer hit a key on the computer panel and zoomed in on the face of the falling figure as he observed, “It’s hard to be sure – but this looks like a human kid – probably a male. You think…?”
The ponytail wearing Captain pointed to the starship data on the adjacent screen and nodded, “Looks like the crew of the Roncor up in orbit agree with you.”
He then mumbled mostly to himself as he scrutinized the visuals, “But how could a normal human do that!?”
And as he looked up at Amy she straightened with sudden realization and announced firmly as she gripped the Lieutenant’s shoulder, “I think I know what or who this might be – definitely not a normal human. The Commander will wish to be informed immediately.”
The Com officer then nodded and said, “I’ll prepare an info package and have it sent over to him right away.” He began to furiously type away at the keyboard and hit buttons on the touch screen.
She patted the young man on the shoulder as she turned to leave, “You do that, and I’ll go make sure he sees it promptly and see to this mystery kid’s acquisition.” Amy then moved out of the room with haste. Others whom she met in the halls barely had enough time to wish her a good morning as they dove out of her way. The serious faced woman was obviously on a mission.
Minutes later, Cpt. Amy Amor reached her destination, halting her fast movements to allow the guards to open the large dark color wooden doors to the Commander’s posh, red-themed office. As she quietly stepped in, she immediately saw that the large, well dressed animal humanoid was seated and speaking with three similar attired human civilians who stood cross from him at his large dark-colored executive desk which was partially covered in paperwork.
The anxious Captain moved over to a vacant couch along the side of the high ceilinged room to sit and wait semi-patiently, hoping that Asper’s civil duties would not keep him busy for too much longer. Her Commander seemed to always be occupied with something lately, for he pulled double duty as both a Secret Service military base Commander and held the position of a local civil servant; a sort of city mayor of sorts.
Amy had never once seen him relaxing since she had been stationed here a few years back as a fresh Lieutenant. And yet he appeared consistently happy and always willing to help anyone who asked of him any plea. He was highly intelligent, very compassionate, and a solid gentleman. The smiles and positive body language of his current customers indicated (yet again) that they were most pleased with how Count Asper was addressing their concerns. So while Amy knew him as an excellent Commander, he appeared to be a top notch civic leader too. But as Amy contemplated her commander, she sat and bounced her leg, eager for the civilians to leave so she could pass on her vital information.



Thankfully, whether by way of his own initiative or Asper’s subtle signaling, the commander’s assistant Harvey popped in through the back officer door, and a moment later, Asper was standing and gesturing toward the assistant as the three people followed Harvey out through said back door. The moment they were gone both Asper and Amy jumped up to meet one another, the big Tiger Humanoid in his long regal looking red, brown, and silver outfit was a strong contrast to Amy’s much simpler blue military uniform. Asper began first by saying as he rounded the corner of his desk, “Well your arriving here in such a manner can only mean something truly big is going down. You never come to visit me like this. Has Admiral Bird finally committed troops to his long planned offensive?”
But she answered by way of pointing to his desk computer, “No – I think our long-lost man has just arrived.”
Asper frowned in curiosity as he turned to move back and asked, “Which man?”
Amy replied as the Commander resumed his seat and activated his screen; she moved over to lean on the desk edge while saying: “The very one you had originally been sent here to locate… on the off chance that this was his final destination of course.” She paused to observe her boss’s expression as he began to take in the Roncor’s orbital report before saying further: “The long-lost and thought dead Emperial Grand Duke; that man.” Asper gave her a startled glance before playing the attached video clip. His humanoid Tiger eyes were intense as they took in the recorded scene from beginning to end. He then scrolled down to assess the starship’s summary of this “falling star”.
Moments later, in apparent shock, the Tiger looked up absently and said almost in stunned awe, “So he’s finally arrived…”
Amy then reminded him, “The local Emperial Police force has already confirmed that no one was hurt in the impact zone, even though it landed in an old neighborhood. Also - no one is supposed to know about this except us correct; who this guy really is?”
Asper nodded and pointed one of his large, clawed fingers at her as he began to activate his com, “Yes – us two and possibly one other. But I’ll get Sergeant Reilly on this right away.” The Commander then paused to look at Amy and sincerely, say “Thank you Amy; your promptness in getting this to my attention may have just saved the entire Empire’s future. If he’d been turned into the prison system without us knowing...”
Amy’s eyebrows rose, and she nodded agreement. Asper then got busy contacting Agent Reilly. Amy smiled and stood up straight as she thought to herself: Well, it’s kind of hard to not notice a falling star… or falling kid in the sky. Humph; all I did was bring his attention to a message – is that really all that important? I guess I shall soon find out. And so, feeling quite pleased with herself, she promptly left the office as Asper began greeting Special Agent Sergeant Reilly over the com.
##

After a moment’s thought as she walked the hall, Amy knew of a few other ways she could help her boss out further. So, she swiftly moved to go find her friend and fellow officer Cpt. Thad Cruthmore in another part of the underground base. Though he tended to be a bit grouchy at this time in the morning, Amy knew Thad’s skills could prove valuable in this new mission they were likely to be given. And even if he was not available, he was a fellow S. S. Officer and so should be informed of this vital new development.
Amy found him in the large vehicle pool hangar finishing up the placement of some tools and weapons in a vehicle’s trunk. As she walked across the huge room and approached, the stern faced and brown-haired Captain greeted her casually, “Hey girl; got a mission for us if you want to come along. Some lone vigilante up in the mountains had a run in with one of our ground patrols and a couple troops got hit by those old-style Earth bullets.”
But Amy cut to the chase: “The Grand Duke’s been found.”
Thad stopped what he was doing and gave her a slightly startled but very confused look, “Wait – what!?”
She repeated as she moved over to help him finish packing up the laser rifle he had been working on. “There’s only like three of us who know at present, but you’ll likely be read in on it all soon. The Emperial Grand Duke Daniel Vondor; we are pretty certain he just arrived here on Earth in rather epic style.” Thad was so stunned by this info that he forgot what he was doing and just stood back perplexed, allowing Amy to take over and finish up his work for him as he processed what he just heard.
Once she stacked the now packed up rifle case she turned to her fellow Captain and while leaning on the vehicle behind them asked, “Of course only a select few of us S.S. people will even know what this is all about. We have to move fast to secure him before he gets lost in the mix of war prisoners. He landed in our region here; just a few miles on the other side of the local mountain range.” She paused to evaluate her friend’s expression. “So, you wanna help me get our plan going or what?”
After a second of reorienting his mind Thad shook his head and went back to working on the next rifle laid out on a table nearby, “No! – no! I have to finish this mission I’ve already got lined up promptly.” He paused to pull out a small computer device and began to swipe and click. “This rouge guy in the mountains has some serious skills. He’s too elusive for the regular soldiers or Emperial police to catch.”
Amy then tapped the vehicle and began to walk off, “Fine then; I’ll handle this Vondor situation from in here. Asper is sending Reilly out to take point. I’ll go see Master Sergeant Rice and get the paperwork going. We’re gonna have to call in a lot of favors to get this kid where he needs to be without drawing too much attention to him.”
Amy took off as Thad called after here, “Hey –wait! Kid? – I thought you said this was the Grand Duke – that guy’s not some kid!”
But Amy just laughed from across the hangar and said, “Well if you’re not coming to help now you’ll have to wait and see like everyone else.” She then left out some double doors as Thad puzzled over the fragments of info he had just been given.
In his mind Thad fussed: This is bizarre! I thought for sure the Grand Duke was some centuries old Emperial Officer or something. But I do remember that the super powered ones can alter their bodies to appear in any form they wish really. The Captain shook his head as he began to assemble the rifle. Tisk - stupid space wizards; always getting themselves into all kinds of trouble and then expecting us minor Emperial minions to clean it all up for them. He then let out a long, frustrated sigh as he placed this second rifle in its case and put up the cleaning supplies in a container which he shut a little too forcefully causing another Emperial man walking nearby to glance his way. But Thad ignored the look as he crossed his arms and leaned back on an armored truck thinking out loud to himself: “I was sure we were all told that this Lord Vondor guy had died a few decades back – yeah, it was a whole big deal. Isn’t that what they told us?” He paused in deeper thought. “Or was that just a cover story?” Another pregnant pause followed. “This is odd.” He then rolled his eyes and threw up his hands, “Oh well; as always, time will tell with these things.” He then busied himself in loading up his truck for his mountain man mission. He was glad Cpt. Armor was on this Vondor case; she was as competent as they came among those enlisted in the Empire here on Earth.

Like it? You can write me to get the next chapter or wait and buy the book in the near future.