Greetings everyone, I'll be your narrator for the duration of this story. My name is unimportant, but allow me to assure you that everything i say is purely the truth. I shall begin with a fair amount of background so please bear with me for just a short while. Ramiel was born on a small planet in the hook nebula. If you have ever been involved in the underground or the government you'll probably have heard of it. It's name is Verre, the planet of a single city. Out of ten thousand planets in the solar empire, it is the most valuable by far. You see, Verre is the only known planet to have a metal known as salosteel. Salosteel is unique as it manages to outdo every other material in weight, flexibility, and durability. Now hearing this one may wonder why the planet only has one city. If this metal is so valuable, why not mine it from the entire planet? There is a simple answer really. They tried. They tried so many times to build another city, but there isn't a single place on the planet that's as hospitable as the founding city's location. One city melted, one was torn apart by beasts, two were lost to the seas, one was swallowed by the earth, and one froze. Truly it is a miracle the founding city still stands, but don't celebrate too soon. You see, Verre was one of the first planets humanity found. The people of the founding city have lineage dating back millions of years, and they have long since adapted to the environment. What did they adapt to you ask? Well the founding city is in the middle of a tundra, and at night it gets below -300 Celsius. During the day the heat needed to forge the steel raises the city into the 400s, and the smoke in the air grows so thick you can't see more than a meter or two ahead. The wildlife raids the city periodically, snake like thinks the size of buildings, and many eyed wolves that can bite through ship siding run rampant in the streets. Everyone either learns to fight or die. Worst of all however is the gravity. It reaches nearly twenty times that of earth. Many scientists have theories about why the planet hasn't collapsed in on itself yet, but until the day that we can make something to scan it we'll never know. Final thing before I get on with it, people don't know Verre exists. We produce mabye a ship worth of metal a year, and the mob already takes a quarter of it. the government keeps it so under wraps that in the rare chance that a Verren leaves the planet they're often confused for aliens.
Anyway, with that chunk of background, we finally find ourselves caught up to the present. Currently, Ramiel is being detained aboard the prison ship Inevitable, after a small incident where he forgot that he was in far lower gravity than he was used to. He's sitting on a metal bench in a tiny room walled off by a series of bars made from plasma. Heavy shackles bind his wrists and hands, as well as those of his cell mate, and lock them both to the bench. Next to him sits a young man in his twenties named Samson. He's a pale young man with white hair, silver eyes, and a stout body. He shivers slightly every time Ramiel moves, and constantly looks outside into the rest of the cell block.
"What's wrong?" As Daniel speaks Samson jumps slightly and turns to him.
"I-I'm sorry. It's just a bit c-cold in here." his voice quivers as he speaks, and he shuffles away slightly.
"Forgive me if I'm wrong, but your from a ice planet are you not? You should be fine."
"I-its that obvious?"
"Your eyes are silver to reflect excess light, your hair is obviously some kind of camouflage adaptation, and your body is condensed to retain heat. if that isn't obvious then I don't know what is." Samson remained quiet, and after a few moment's Ramiel began again. "If your scared of me just say it."
"Well, I'm not... I mean..."
"Don't worry I get it. You've probably never seen someone with these kinds of eyes right?" Ramiel looked Samson in the eyes and his face paled. Ramiel's eyes were completely black, and had a slight shine to them.
"WHAT THE HELL!?" Samson instantly jumped back, and nearly hit the bars.
"Oh? It wasn't the eyes?" A puzzled frown crossed Ramiel's face, and his eyes narrowed.
"WHAT THE FUCK MAN, YOUR OVER TWO METERS TALL! WHO WOULDN'T BE SCARED?" Samson stumbled about as he screamed, trying not to fall on the bars.
"Oh yeah... Sorry, where I'm from I'm fairly short." Seeing the confusion on the man's face Samson took a few breaths and calmed himself.
"If your this tall how low is the gravity on your planet?"
"Well actually, our gravity is insanely high. We got bigger in order to have a fighting chance against the wildlife." A mix of fear and confusion washed over Samson as he collected his next sentence.
"What do you mean by wildlife." his voice came out slow and cold as he looked at Ramiel.
"Oh there's some weird shit. We got Wolrags, they're like earth wolves but bigger and with more eyes. Cromas, house sized serpent things covered in poisonous spines, and with a few tails. Then there's the Murags, masses of black flesh that crawls inside you and-"
"OK STOP. I don't want to hear that last one."
"What? All it does is dissolve your muscles and replace them so you become a still conscious puppet. You only let me get through some of the weak stuff."
"Why... Just why..." Samson's confusion was long gone, and replaced nearly entirely with anger and regret. "Where are you even from?"
"Oh I'm from Verre. It's a small steel planet in the hook nebula."
"I... I see. I've never heard of it, but I'll take your word for it."
"I've gotten that a few times. No one seems to know about us, but I guess that makes sense. We've only got one city."
"If you don't mind my asking, what are you in for?"
"I don't actually know. I was told to come in for questioning, and then I got injected with something and now I'm here. What about you?"
"Petty theft. I needed some money for dinner."
"And they sent you here?" Ramiel looked around the dark expanse of dimly glowing cells. This place clearly wasn't low security.
"Have you never been educated on the Solar Empire's justice system?"
"My planet has very little imperial presence. I had only ever seen eight soldiers before I left it."
"This is becoming more and more strange. Anyway, in the one hundred and eighty second millennium, the Solar Empire hit the peak of its expansion. They soon realized that with their size building prisons on every planet was inefficient, and instead built a series of them on what has been appropriately named the cage nebula. No matter your crime, every person goes there on the same set of prison ships. That's where we are now."
"Good to know. So what next?"
"Well normally-" Samson was cut off as the lights flicked on, blinding most of the prisoners. Ramiel and Samson were relatively unfazed, as were a few of the other prisoners around the room, if you could call it that. The space was so massive, and the cells packed so close to each other that it seemed more like A box of sand where the cells were the grains. After a few moments everyone's eyes had adjusted to the light, and they could clearly see a man standing on a small metal balcony above the cells. He wore a military uniform that was covered with metals, and to his left there was a thin man in a lab coat. He quickly cleared his throat, and began speaking.
"Ahem- Alright you scum. I don't know if your aware, but this entire ship is going to be getting a special opportunity to serve the Solar Empire!" Many of the prisoners grumbled as his statement echoed out over them. "Now then, There are around ten thousand prisoners aboard this ship, but regretfully we only have the means to perform work on a thousand. I will leave it up to you lot to thin that number." The man who was presumably the captain raised his hand to the air, and brought it down like a guillotine. As it collided with the rail of his platform, the shackles of every single prisoner disconnected from the benches. A few moments of confusion followed before the bars de-activated, and the floors began to retract taking the benches with them. One by one, everyone was dropped into a large, overcrowded chamber until every cell was empty. A final clatter was heard as everyone's shackles released their hands as well, and dropped to the floor. It took only a moment for the captain to pipe up again. "What are you waiting for you cowards? FIGHT!"