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 pacify the general public by largely suppressing fracture related incidents with many millions of civilian casualties being wiped from records.
However for a select few planets near the galaxies edge that suffered excessive fracturing, they were able to discover something humanity has asked itself since the dawn of time.
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 in their new environment
The creatures that emerged seemed incredibly strange, some outright defying the laws of physics, because of these creatures' unexplainable appearance and abilities many people that witnessed such beings began 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 concealed this and sent multiple Mobile War Planets to hunt down these creatures for research and experimentation as well as eliminate any planet that had come into contact with these beings and for a time everything had been seemingly dealt with.
Then came the day known as the The Second Fracture, to this day there is still no clear answer for what truely happened on that day or why it happened, the Federation was effective to the extreme in concealing it to the point where many considered it to be more of a myth than an actual event.
* * *
Magnus woke in a panicked thrashing motion, all he could see was darkness pressing down on his eyes.
He was blindfolded... and seemingly tied to some chair or wall.
Once he realized his situation Magnus immediately stopped wasting energy furiously wriggling around and started trying to recall how he had gotten into this situation attempting to find a way out.
He had been scouting around the old northern city ruins on an old civilian planet for a new place to set up camp and there had been many other scavengers settling into the ruins with him.
It had been quite far from any city land or sky based so it couldn't possibly the automations or guards...
Before he could continue his thoughts a sharp metallic screech echoed into his ears and the sound of heavy boots on thick steel accompanied it.
Two pairs of strong, rather brutish arms grabbed at his arms and dragged him, still blindfolded, forwards into whatever entrance they had come from.
Choosing to not speak before comprehending the situation Magnus stayed silent as he was dragged further into wherever this was.
After a few supremely uncomfortable minutes Magnus was placed, still tied to the chair onto a surface of some kind.
And after a few impossibly long seconds his blindfold was wrenched off his face with a careless grab.
Rapidly blinking Magnus slowly got accustomed to the sharp sterile light above him, looking around with half closed eyelids he saw that all around him were others like him, tied to a vary uncomfortable chair, with some still blindfolded and others peering around in wary confusion.
They were on a large metal platform with wires and cables running down from the distant ceiling, across the walls were countless electromagnets imbedded into the walls.
So not a platform... an extremely exaggerated elevator.
All around the platform were heavily armored guards with glowing assault rifles and mechanical visors over their heads.
As they were unblinded by the guards some people began to scream, cry and shout in shrill earsplitting screeches about how human trafficking had been outlawed, some pleaded for their release and offered their fortunes, others furiously struggled against their restraints
They were ignored.
Once most of the people realized they were simply wasting energy they stopped struggling and simply sat awaiting a development of any kind to figure out their next move.
After a few moments everyone had been both un-blindfolded and untied.
A few people after being untied gathered the courage to try ask their captors why they had been brought here, they received no answer.
Suddenly a few people near the back of the group started rioting.
"Y-You can keep us here! Whatever this is the Federation will hunt you down after they know you're kidnapping other humans!"
The crowd continued to grow more and more restless as the crowd built itself dome courage with each protesting shout, seeing this Magnus gave a grim smile and slowly retreated towards the corner of the platform away from the main group.
Eventually a few people encouraged by the loud shouts charged at the guards with hesitant steps.
What they were trying to achieve, Magnus thought, was anyones guess.
A quiet buzzing hum and a flash of light was all the crowd could sense for a few bone chilling seconds, after those seconds passed the suicidal chargers lay on the ground their heads now a melted fleshy puddle of bone, blood and brain matter.
Lowering their steaming rifles the visored guards showed no surprise or anger, just the cold efficiency of a machine going about their intended purpose.
Seeing this gruesome sight the originally restless crowd silenced to the point where even a breath heavier than the absolute quietest would have sounded like a gunshot.
Seeing the people were now calm one of guards pressed a button on the side of his visor and the platform began to slowly rise at first before gradually speeding up, the powerful yet controlled electromagnetic forces carefully raised them into wherever this place was.
Clunk
With a heavy sounding clunk the platform stopped at a wide gateway made of a strange silvery material Magnus couldn't recognise.
As the platform docked the guards gestured for them to enter the looming gate.
Following the hesitant and fearful crowd Magnus walked into the darkness, the guards trailing close behind sealing even the thought of escape.