Final Harbor
an excerpt

Artemis and Dulpa leaned to look out the dropship’s window. Both men gasped.
The giant star was slowly turning from the yellow to blue. Dulpa stumbled back, falling over his own feet. He roared in terror and anger. Artemis watched as the blue seeped across the heart of the sun and spilled over into its corona.
“I knew it!” Dulpa said, lying on his back holding his head. Blood dripped from between his fingers. “The prophecy is coming to pass! Everything pointed to your arrival, and now it’s right before me and I still can’t believe it.”
As the ship banked, the blue light of Argus Major fell through the window and glided toward the two men.
“The Zirellan Articles of Faith foretold of your arrival,” he said, slowing pulling his gun from his holster. His hand shook from the blow he took to his head when he fell back. His left eye was bloodshot. His balance was poor.
“The prophecy spoke of the Shift Guardian who would return one day and herald the return of the Alkaron. I can’t let that happen. I won’t.” Dulpa raised his gun and fired. The bullet twanged off the glass and fell to the floor. “The Articles tell of another person, a hero, who would destroy the Guardian and save the universe. That hero is me.” He strained to steady his hand and fired again. The bullet tore into Artemis’ shoulder, and he fell back.
The bullet shattered the window, and the drop ship lurched with the depressurization. The blue light from the sun touched Artemis, and all at once his entire body ached with an invisible fire.
He fell to the floor and screamed. He looked at his hands, and saw the the tiny bones glow through his skin. His blood coursed through his veins. He watched as the blue light sped up his arm and through his chest until it lit every part of his skeleton. He screams in agony and fell on his back.
Dulpa stood up and leveled his weapon. He pulled the trigger.
Before the hammer fell, a burst of energy erupted from Artemis. It tore through the cabin and ripped the hull apart, severing the ship vertically and completely.
Dulpa bellowed as he gripped a rail. The beams snapped and the hull finally split into halves, and Artemis was swept away with the back of the ship, with the engines and hull bursting into flames.
The sergeant tumbled through the sky, cursing his prisoner’s name as the remainder of the drop ship tumbled through the clouds, its means of propulsion catapulting in the other direction.