The world was on edge. An idiotic leader in charge of a powerful country had stirred up too much controversy. In his rage, he had tried to pre-emptively fire some tactical missiles, of an unknown payload. The embarrassing thing was that he wasn't even stopped by his own government and associates. No, he had been stopped by the counter-intelligence agents of several countries, who had seen a dilemma and had worked together ad hoc to stop the outbreak of a nuclear war. The situation had been de-escalated after that moment, but it was a close call.

Now the world waited with bated breath, as we waited for the leaders of each country to jointly deliberate their next course of action. No one could judge the situation properly, as too many details were missing. But every source of media was abuzz. Much of the world had begun to panic, and still there was no word.

It was in this moment, of despair and panic, that they came. On every television channel, every website, in every way imaginable, we heard their first words.

"Humans of Earth! The Universal Republic has determined you have reached the point of no return, and will be unable to prevent your own self-destruction. As such, we the Challor have been given licence to intervene! Your governments and collectives will submit to our rule. To convince you, we will show you a glimpse of our military force!"

Anyone in a coastal region saw it. The lights. They were satellites, launched from beneath the sea to cover every part of the sky. Minutes later, red lasers bombarded the planet. Panic struck everywhere, but no one had been hurt.

And so the Challor spoke again.

"Be calm! We have not harmed anyone. Our weaponry has tactically and precisely disabled any military threat the humans have. We have also destroyed any airplane strip as well. It is our intention that everyone will remain where they are, until they receive further instruction from us. Do not move. If we see large migrations, we will act aggressively.

We have left human infrastructure for communication, and expect that to continue to be maintained. You will gain further information in the coming days."

I was told later that they had been true to their word, without exaggeration. Every military installation, missile site, naval ship, everything had been pierced by those terrifying lasers. Either their technology was incredibly advanced, or they had been able to collect every relevant piece of information on human civilization. It was probably both.

There were obviously idiots that had to test the boundaries. It was why we saw regular satellite lasers firing in the distance for the next couple of days, until it finally died out, and the whole world had learned its lesson. It was dumb to even resist then anyway, when they had hundreds of flying ships just coming out of the sea every hour. The Challor were very organized. And practiced...

Honestly, thinking back on it all, the Challor had been very civil. They had told everyone they were going to take the useful people away to be slaves, but in a technological paradise like theirs, the life of a Challor slave would be preferable. There was propaganda and humanita- no, that's not right - Challorian aid for all situations. Everyone else was going to be corralled into a specific part of the planet, given aid and resources until we sorted our own government again. Not a true, sovereign government. Just a puppet government that would organize humans for the Challorians.

I remember getting on a Challorian ship for the first time. I was a Canadian, leaving the continent to go with everyone else to China, where we would be tested. And perhaps would remain for the rest of our lives. Apparently the Challorians thought it was already environmentally plundered, had enough space and would be able to support whatever population Earth had left. I was scared, young and stupid.

I passed their test. It wasn't actually much. They just needed you to prove that you could be more useful than their advanced robot AI. You just had to be able to adapt to a variety of situations, and solve a few problems satisfactorily. Not even perfectly. It was quick, and simple, and when we were done, another ship had just arrived with perfect timing, with a new group of humans.

There was no gap, no imperfection from the Challorians. They weren't kind, but they weren't cruel. They were only focused on their task, and nothing extraneous to that was done. They didn't gloat, or brag either.

I think that was what angered me. That everything was going so smoothly, and nicely. That everyone was cooperating, even as our planet was being taken from us. We all felt inferior, to their culture, technology, organization, everything! There was nothing in which we could be better than them, and they were living proof what a proper civilization could be. We were nothing but pigs in our own eyes.

It was in that moment I had done something incredibly stupid, as my ego was crushed. I tried to escape, and I did. Honestly, I could not tell you if I was sneaky, or they let it happen. I snuck into the crowds that had failed, and began looking for those who had resistance on their minds.

I found a few people, and together we formed a squad. We were mildly successful, but mostly inconsequential in our actions. A couple months later, after the invasion, we had found our way to the gigantic warpgate in the human containment area. This was how they had transported all the human slaves, and how new Challorians were coming to settle our planet. My squad attempted to attack it, and obviously, we failed. Apparently whichever Challorian was in charge took a fancy to our tactics and gumption, and sent me here to die instead of executing me himself. And that's how I came to the Cosmic Arena.

-----------------------

Jack was introducing himself to his new cellmate, a reptilian humanoid. Well, Jack could only see the scaled skin, so he couldn't really say how reptilian this fellow was.

"Great story. I'm Dersk. I won a contest on my planet to get here. Pretty much the same as everyone else, except for you."

Hearing the short introduction made Jack feel like a idiot. He supposed he had been a little morose and melodramatic at the start of it, but Derska's attitude had snapped him right out of it.

"So umm... why do you want to be here?" Jack asked. Dersk seemed to have a very different outlook on the Cosmic Arena. Jack had just been thrown into the cell after a short speech about the intergalactic competition and a mocking smile.

Dersk began to realize how little Jack knew. Steeling himself to explain things carefully, though he himself preferred to speak little, he readjusted his posture to face Jack.

"My race is in a similar situation to yours, in that we no longer own our planet. We've lived like this for many, many generations now. It is our fervent hope to regain our planet, and the Cosmic Arena is one of the few ways to do this. Because here at the Cosmic Arena, we can do one thing better than anywhere else, and that is make money. There was a great hero, Jaxxar the Mighty, that was champion of the arena for many years. The great deeds he did for his kind are legendary to people in our situation. He bought back his home planet. I want to do that too."

Jack's eyes went wide. He suddenly understood why Dersk was so stoic and calm in these humiliating circumstance. It didn't matter if the guards mocked him, or if he'd be thrown out to fight against unknown odds for the amusement of mysterious watchers. It didn't matter that everything was strange and that he had recently failed. Here was an opportunity!

Dersk smiled at Jack's reaction. Oh, how naive this human was. It was adorable in a way. He hoped the Arena didn't hurt him too badly. He himself knew that chances were, he was going to be just another sacrifice.

Jack had a flood of questions, but he didn't know where to begin! He did know the first thing he needed to do was get a hold of himself though. He looked around the cell to disguise his attempts to calm himself, but while this happened, a loud buzzing sound alerted him to something happening.

He turned to the door, and the lights in the cell became blindingly bright from it's previous mellow darkness. In came a couple of humanoids from another alien race he didn't recognize, accompanied by two robotic guards. They stood there, speaking to him in a language he didn't recognize, perplexing him further. Dersk seemed to understand and spoke back for him.

"This is the rebel human, given a chance in the Cosmic Arena?" Queried the alien guard.

Dersk nodded in the affirmative in response.

The alien guard looked at Dersk, then introduced himself. "I am Noot. I'll be the section guard for you two. Why have you been transferred here?", Noot looked directly at Dersk, expecting an answer.

Dersk seemed to have lost a bit of his calm demeanor, answering back quickly and rigidly. "I have been transferred here since I know a few different Earth languages, and was likely going to be able to converse with the new contestant! He hasn't had the opportunity to learn the Common language yet."

"Hmm.... Fine then. Please confirm these details. Our scans show that he is 19 earth years old, male and in good health, though he hasn't quite physically matured. Ket, how long is 19 earth years?"

Ket responded after a moment, "The earth orbits at near the ideal distance from the sun for habitation, so it's about the same as the standard galactic year. Maybe a little shorter."

Noot turned back to the prisoners, and waited for Dersk. After getting confirmation, he pushed on the air in front of him, and made some swiping motions. Jack got the impression there was an invisible tablet in front of Noot. Internally, he realized that he would have to learn quickly about all the technology everyone else was acquainted with if he was to adapt and succeed in this environment.

This process repeated itself a few times, as the guards confirmed his physical health and his lucidity. The final question asked in the interview surprised Jack, seeing that he didn't think he had a choice in the matter.

"Will you fight?" Dersk asked.

"I will."