"Blackheart: The Last Sentinel"

Chapter I : Once, I had a family. A life. A future.

Dear Readers,

The winds howled through the skeletal trees, rattling dead branches like the bones of a long-forgotten world. I tightened the filthy blanket around my shoulders, crouched under a makeshift tent of torn tarps and discarded metal scraps.

Once, I had a family. A life. A future.

Now I lived on the edges of existence, the cold mud and dirt my only companions. My children were ripped from my arms by a corrupt system, my name blackened, my soul emptied.

I had been left to die.

No one cared.

The fire I built sputtered weakly as I roasted the only thing I had caught that day: a venomous scorpion. Hunger gnawed at my gut like a feral beast. I knew it was dangerous, but what choice did I have? I bit into it, ignoring the bitter taste and the faint burn spreading down my throat.

As the sun bled into the mountains, my vision blurred. My limbs grew heavy. The poison was taking hold.

I collapsed into the dirt, the world spinning wildly, death whispering in my ear.

That’s when the sky broke open.

A deafening roar split the heavens. Blinding light crashed into the forest. Trees exploded into splinters. A massive shadow hurtled down, ploughing into the earth mere meters from my dying body.

Through the haze of venom, I saw them, not human, not like anything I had ever imagined. Tall, elegant beings with silver skin and glowing eyes. Their armour shimmered with colours I couldn’t name. They moved with impossible grace, surrounding me as I slipped deeper into darkness.

A strange language filled the air, clicking and melodic. Then a hand, cool, firm, touched my forehead.

Everything went black.

When I awoke, I was floating.

Strange symbols danced across transparent walls. Soft blue light bathed me.

Above me stood one of the beings, its face neither cruel nor kind, simply ancient, wise beyond comprehension.

"You are safe," it said in perfect English, though its lips did not move.

"We have healed you. You are... different now."

I struggled to speak, but a smooth metallic voice within my mind answered everything I could not ask.

"We are the Veydrin. We have watched your world from afar, hidden in the folds of space your kind cannot yet see. You were chosen, Jacob. Not for what you have lost... but for what you can become."

They showed me.

Visions poured into my mind: starships the size of cities, battles among the stars, a desperate need for a leader who understood pain, survival, and war.

They needed someone ruthless but just.

Unbreakable.

They rebuilt me.

Not just healed, enhanced.

My body was reforged with living alloys and engineered muscle, capable of withstanding void radiation and the crushing forces of space battles.

My mind was linked to an ancient relic: the Crown of Command, worn only by the greatest Veydrin warlords.

My old face was hidden beneath a black, armoured helm, its single crimson visor glaring like a demon of vengeance.

They called me Blackheart, the man without mercy, the heart that beat not with blood, but with fire and iron.

And I embraced it.

Years passed.

On a hidden world orbiting a dying star, we built the Valiant Dawn, a super-dreadnought, the first of the Star Sentinels, a fleet meant to protect, to destroy, to decide the fate of civilisations.

I led legions of warriors, not clones, but proud freeborn Veydrin who chose to fight under my banner.

Yet deep within me, Earth's betrayal festered like an open wound.

Then came the news.

World War V.

Humanity had fallen into madness.

Nations shattered. Nuclear fires swallowed continents.

The cries of billions echoed into space, desperate and broken.

The Veydrin debated. Some argued to let humanity die.

But I, Admiral Jacob Blackheart, knew better.

"They must be judged," I told them. "And if they will not choose peace... we shall force it upon them."

The operation began.

We masked our approach, hidden in the dying light of a collapsing quasar.

When we entered Earth's orbit, every satellite, every comm relay, every piece of digital infrastructure bent under our power.

At exactly 12:00 UTC, every television, phone, and broadcast station on the shattered Earth flickered, static bursting across the globe.

Then, my voice.

Deep. Unyielding. Machine-wreathed.

"This is Blackheart, Sentinel of the Stars.

You have warred, you have burned, you have murdered your own children.

Your leaders have failed you. Your empires are ashes.

Surrender.

Or we will bring an end to your wars... by ending your ability to wage them."

The world shuddered.

Military installations vanished in blinding blue beams of energy.

Submarines surfaced, powerless.

Nuclear arsenals turned into molten slag.

Cities crumbled, not destroyed, but DE weaponised, their armies left with nothing but sticks and stones.

Panic reigned. Some nations surrendered immediately, their flags raised in shameful white.

Others resisted.

They were erased.

Now, I sit aboard the Valiant Dawn, gazing at Earth through a vast window.

A planet reborn.

A planet conquered, saved by force.

I have become the very thing Earth never deserved.

Not its hero.

It’s reckoning.

Some whisper that I am a demon, a tyrant.

Let them whisper.

I am Admiral Jacob Blackheart,

The Last Sentinel.

The galaxy is vast.

The wars are endless.

And my war has only begun.

Have fun…

JacobM