The fusion glow of the solar white star that burned in the sky
above Koresel was positioned in the unblemished sky just right to allow its
light to spill into the cave. A tall shrouded figure rushing into the entrance
found where the faint light and the absolute darkness bordered on the cold
rocky ground. Its long wire frame now obscured by shadow it shed its long
flowing garb
It used its fingertips to prod its
colorless waxy flesh. The soft skin yielded like ripening fruit then tore open.
It held out its hand up. The light gleamed in the viscous dark purple fluid
dripping from its finger.
It rotated its jaw and heard
something rattled inside its mouth. A tooth fell from between its lips and
shattered on the floor. Blood seeped from the corners of its mouth, and it spat
out a long stream of red and black liquid
Its wings sprang open into their
full six-foot expanse. Withered and discolored the few remaining feathers fell
from the leathery flesh and slowly drifted away.
The lissome form stepped out of
the sheltering darkness. The light pierced its emaciated frame and projected
the shadow of its bones against the wall. The gaping fissures in its body
seemed to be opening ever wider, and its receding flesh revealed decaying
organs wrapped in a metallic skeleton.
The winged humanoid couldn't see
the dark, angular man who appeared to be standing in front of him, examining
the state of decomposition.
“Shit.” Muttered Ottunno.
The cave became transparent
revealing a dark empty room. The scene became static as it if had been crudely
superimposed over reality and it slowly dimmed until it vanished.
Ottunno pulled the wires connected
to his temples. He looked around the empty chamber and sighed.
“Central.” He called.
“Yes, commander Ottunno.” The
invisible AI interface answered.
“Tell the bioengineering unit the
background radiation on Koresel is much stronger than we thought.” Ottunno
ordered.
“Yes, Commander.” Central replied
obediently.
At first glance, Koresel seems too
hostile an environment for all but the simplest forms of life. The planet is
crisscrossed by ranges of jagged peaks and barren plateaus that wall in dusty
land corridors and grow over bottomless chasms made by the impact of meteors
from when the planet was still in its infancy
The enormous white star that
filled Koresel’s sky was enough to catalyze the chemical reactions that precede
life and the waterways that cut through the mountains was adequate to allow it
to flourish.
Koresel was a lost outpost far beyond the frontiers of Singularity’s
space empire. It was founded at a time when humanity was in a new era of
interstellar expansion, but as the human presence among the stars receded
colonist found themselves forsaken by their masters on Olduvai. The black
expanse of space between the two was constantly expanding pulling them further
and further out reach into eternity.
Just like their ancestors who one
day found themselves under the blue sky of Earth the inhabitants of Koresel
only retained a murky account of how they had come to be on Koresel. The celestial
bodies in the alien solar system moved at a rhythm as mechanical as a clock’s
rotation were spun by a flow of time that moved quite differently than anything
experienced by Homo sapiens. Koresel fostered an evolution in successive
generations and over time the primate evolutionary tree grew yet another
branch.
The physical remains of the original
colonists had long collapsed and were slowly disintegrating into the planet’s
dust. Rusted metal fragments dug up in the ground served only as a vague
reminder of a shared point of origin incomprehensible to most and ultimately of
little consequence in the context of day to day survival.
The winged man decomposing in the cave was a biomechanical shell
called an Erebus, operated by Grigori Ottunno, who orbited Koresel in his
observation vessel floating on the edge of space watching like an ambivalent
god. To the people on the surface of Koresel his ship was just another star in
the sky, but electronic sensors deployed all over the planet made Ottunno an
omnipotent presence. Just like the divine creators of the myth he used
his power to influence life in a world oblivious to his presence.
This power was not absolute. He could set events into motion, he
could anticipate what would usually follow with a great degree of certainty,
but no matter how much information he gathered about Koresel there were always
unexpected variables.
Even planetary overlords were
subject to the whims and machinations of fate. Ottunno had learned long ago
that human will means nothing to the universe, and that the prevailing chaos
always punished hubris with destruction. It was a lesson he never forgot.
Ottunno had spent the last four
years on The Kerillian Circle. A jagged land formation that spiked out of the
ocean formed by the melding of lava and water. This "sanctuary" was
about 671 thousand miles from Olduvai.
It was chosen as the intake site
for the interplanetary refugees that poured in from every corner of
Singularities domain. Most of them were the survivors of their planet’s own Armageddon.
The idea that life can go on after
the Apocalypse was something the earthbound ancestors of the planetary
colonists could never have understood, but the inhabitants of Kerillian’s
refugee compounds were the proof.
Everyone living on the Kerillian
circle was escaping one form of apocalypse or another. Their respective
civilizations met their end in a variety of ways. Sometimes the catastrophes
were man made, and could only be seen as the consequences of suicidal
arrogance. There were catastrophic shifts in the climate brought on by heavy
industrial activity, resource depletion that precipitated wars that consumed
the entire planet. Other times the planet itself destroyed the human
presence on its surface through time tested methods of eradication such as
seismic activity and plague.
Those who escaped and then managed to survive their perilous
exodus through the deep black of space were processed at Kerillian. The
facility was built so Olduvai could preserve its best and brightest no matter what
disaster may befall them, however, as the network of space colonies grew so too
did the number of refugees.
The forlorn engineers,
administrators, and industrial designers housed inside Kerillian lived with the
hope Olduvai would find need for them elsewhere but this was often not the
case. The facility burst at the seams with people who had become superfluous.
Ottunno found himself exiled to Kerillian
when an experimental nuclear reactor on his home world melted down, and the
radioactive contents spilled into the interconnected waterways that cut across
the planet’s surface transforming the life supporting essence into poison.
The disgraced chief engineer was
in charge of the project that ended in Armageddon. It earned him the nickname
“the omega” among his fellow exiles.
Kerillian became a warehouse for
people like Ottunno. Forsaken Technocrats. The facility was a decaying titanium
dungeon. The neglected structures fell into disrepair while the physical forces
of the planet's surface ate away at the alloy skeletons of the sprawling
compound. The life support systems had never been upgraded; the failing systems
were only periodically repaired, sometimes only narrowly averting disaster.
Ottunno and his family had lived
the sheltered lives as a kind of new technocratic nobility, but on Kerillian,
they were relegated to the status of refugees. The bare essentials were tightly
rationed and delivered unreliable hunger, and pestilence stalked the
inhabitants claiming victims with impunity. Children were the most vulnerable
to these specters.
Ottunno was one of the fortunate
few to escape. He was offered the chance to lead a team to re-engineer Koresel.
Officially they were called a geoengineering unit, but their more popular
monocle was the apocalypse squad. It was the first mission of its kind.
Ottunno and his team was charged with assessing the planetary damage and to
begin repairing the damaged ecosystem accordingly. This included eradication of
the people on Koresel.
Ottunno did not have an army to
work with, and weapons of mass destruction ran the risk of destroying the
planet’s untapped valuable resources, Ottunno’s genocide had to be creative and
cost efficient.
Like the lost gods of primitive
man Ottunno had his own creatures he engineered to be his messengers as well as
agents of destruction. One such being they christened Seraph. Seraph was based
on the conceptual designs done by renowned anthropologist Vedic. It was a semi mechanical
organism, at least, one tribe on Koresel was fooled into thinking was divinity.
Seraph or Ottunno depending on how
one looks at it was busy applying a quickly mixed chemical compound that could
act as a sort of plaster to cover up the growing fissures in its flesh. The
makeshift mold was roughly the same shade of color as its skin and blended in
well enough.
It was only a temporary fix,
though. Seraph could hear footsteps approaching the cave. He smoothed over his
plastered on flesh, folded in his haggard wings, and covered it all with his
long shroud.
“Erebus it’s Tuisar Erde.”
“Enter.” replied Seraph with cold
detachment.
Erde and his son Himmel made up
the patriarch that commanded the Toskas. Erde’s father Tuisar was the first to
bind the loose collective of clans living in the Toska basin into a tribal
nation. Now Erde had his own test of leadership to face. Finding the Toska a
new home.
Erebus walked through the dusty
encampment alongside Erde with Himmel following behind.
The tribesmen busy uprooting the
camp stopped what they were doing to bow to their heads to Erde and Erebus.
“Destroy our enemies Erebus!” They
shouted with crazed blood lust. Erebus raised his hand in acknowledgment.
“Today is the day of my people
today is the day of the Toska!” Erebus proclaimed.
“We’ve prepared a ceremony before
the battle today. An offering to you Erebus.” explained Erde.
“Yes,” interjected Himmel. “We are
grateful you are leading us away from the encroaching darkness, but we want you
to know the Toska will one day return to its home on Koresel.”
“It lightens my heart to know the
Toska love the home I created for them so much.” Said Erebus.
“Maybe more than a God can ever
know.” Erde said with a smile.
They stopped just outside the
camp. The darkness encroaching across what was now the far side of the planet
was cut by a very clear border only miles away a dividing line between the
light of day and the cold shroud of a night that was going to last for
generations.
It was that long night that forced
the Toska to transform themselves into nomads. It was what they believed Erebus
had come to save them from.
Erebus equipped them with weapons
that seemed like magic to the primitive people on Koresel. Hand held weapons
capable of unparalleled destruction. The Toska used these instruments of death
to great effect. They left the surface of Koresel littered with the tattered
remains of lead punctured bodies. Their enemies had nothing comparable.
Even amid the piling bodies the Toska refused to see they were agents of their
own extermination.
There was a line of prisoners
waiting on their knees in front of a long trench hastily dug into the dirt.
Some were whimpering while they clenched each other others were silent.
“We no longer have need for these
prisoners, so we are giving them to the soil.” Explained Erde.
The prisoners were being circled by men with guns, guns that were gifts
brought by Erebus from Ottunno’s ship.
“Begin the ceremony.” Erde said to
Himmel
“Yes father.” Himmel replied
eagerly.
Himmel marched over to the
cowering prisoners, and the warriors turned executioners gathered around him.
“Brothers today begins our final
trial. Once we win the day a new chapter in the history of the Toska. The stars
have proclaimed us the favored people of Koresel, and they have intervened to
assure that we will not be swallowed by the darkness. But we know our creators
have long watched over us. My grandfather the first Tuisar was chosen by Erebus
and the god’s of Koresel to make sure the Toska came together under the right
leaders to survive the turbulent changes our world is going through. Erebus
brought us these divine weapons because the creators have ordained the Tuisar
of the Toska to be the master not just of the Zamma basin but of all the world.
Not us but our children will one day return to this side of the planet, and it
will be where they raise their children. We will leave them fertile ground with
which to sew new life.” Declared Himmel.
Ottunno was watching the spectacle
through seraphs eyes with what as first clinical detachment. He had no ordered
this blood sacrifice. The tribal leaders had taken it upon themselves to
conduct this ceremony.
Ottunno flinched, but fortunately Erebus
did not when they opened fire. The rounds exploded through the bodies of the
prisoners and their shredded remains fell into the trench. The ones that were
still alive writhed like worms in the blood soaked dirt.
A warrior brandishing a flame
weapon stepped forward the fire burning on the trip of his barrel. He pulled
the trigger, and the weapon spat its terrible fire
Ottunno body jolted like he just
woke from a nightmare. He was back in the barren chamber, wired to the neural
control system.
“Commander Ottunno your presence
is requested in the bioengineering facility.” Central said seemingly
indifferent to Ottunno’s terrified state.
“Got it central.” he replied in a
shaken voice.
The Erebus was a carefully crafted
biological construct designed mostly for manual labor on planets inhospitable
to humans. Under the right conditions, they were self-replicating machines. It
was something almost human, but not completely. The model Ottunno was using as
his puppet to interact with Koresel was not all too different from more basic
models besides the addition of wings and neural interfacing.
The androgynous being had human
flesh, it had crystal blue eyes, it walked upright supported by a row of
vertebrate, but its smooth face lacked any distinctions etched by age or
experience. Seraph had never lived because it had never been born. It was
simply built. The Erebus only possessed a rudimentary almost reptilian brain
stem.
It gazed out from behind its glass
encasement with sightless eyes. It had no consciousness because it hadn't yet
been given any senses.
Doctor Negev was the chief
biological engineer aboard the ship. He was tasked with tailoring the Seraph
units for use on Koresel.
“We’ve been working on making the
units more resistant to the radioactivity on the planet’s surface, and we think
we found the solution.” explained Negrev.
“What have you got?” Asked Ottunno.
“We changed the cellular alloy
that goes into assembling the skeletal structure. It’s just as flexible but
many times more durable. Also, we accelerated the division of certain cells so
skin its skin will grow and shed quicker. Negrev explained.
“Nice work when can they be
deployed?” Ottunno asked.
“As soon as the neural processors
are merged with the central nervous system.” Answered Negev
“Good, good” Ottunno nodded.
Negev was silent for a moment.
“Are you ok sir?” he asked.
“I’m fine Negev,” Ottunno said
dismissively, wiping away the cold sweat from his brow.
“How are things going on your
end?” Negev asked.
“Everything’s running smoothly
with the Toskas they should be attacking the basin within a few hours.” Ottunno
informed him.
“Ah good. I wonder what that other
tribe ended up doing with the Seraph that landed on their territory.”
Ottunno shrugged. “I guess we’ll
find out. I’ll be glad when this is all over Negev. There are some aspects of
genocide I just can’t help but get a little shaken up by.”
“I see. Did something happen in
the encampment?” Asked Negev.
“They tested the flame throwers we
sent them.” Ottunno replied.
“Oh” Negev mumbled
“Yeah,” Ottunno nodded.
The two specialist stood silently
for a moment.
“Well I better get back to it.”
declared Ottunno.
“Yes of course.” Negev agreed.
Ottunno started for the door.
“Oh, also no tongue formed.” Negev
blurted out “but don’t worry a voice modulation system will be ready.”
Zamma was a fertile river basin, a
lush green oasis hidden away in the rocky badlands of Koresel. The Toskas had
never known about it before Seraph promised the recently exiled people fate had
ordained it to be their new home.
What their heavenly protector
hadn’t told them was another visitor from the stars had armed them with
powerful weapons as well. The unsuspecting Toskas charged headlong into the churning
maw, and the basin became fire scorched blood-soaked killing fields.
Erde and Himmel both wounded were
stumbling along one side of the corpse-choked river trying to escape the
slaughter. Fields of crops burning at their backs sent up plumes of gray and
black smoke that covered the sky. The crackling of the fires, the
sporadic gunfire, and screams of the wounded all melded into a horrific
ambiance.
They looked for cover amid the
tall grass and trees. No one seemed to be pursuing them for the time. Both
sides were shattered in the fight and chaos enveloped the battlefield. Erde’s
leg had taken a hit. The blood was draining from the wound too quickly to save
him. Before long the warm blood running down his leg began to run cold, and he
knew his time was almost up.
“Himmel,” he groaned. “Himmel let
me rest here.”
“We have to keep moving.” Insisted
Himmel.
“It’s over Himmel. Just set me
down.”
Himmel saw a clearing among the
trees just a few yards away. He carried his ailing father to the tallest tree
and set him down beneath it before falling beside him.
Seraph was nowhere to be found,
and the rest of the tribe was either dead or had fled the battlefield.
Everything was gone. There was nothing left for father and son to do but find
what comfort they could in accepting the end together.
Only right before death does the
human mind lose its ability to escape into the future. The past and present are
all that’s left to contemplate. Often thought takes on a new clarity and
finally, the continuum of moments that lead a life to conclude where it does
starts to make sense.
“What do you think Erebus really
was.” asked Erde in a weak voice.
Himmel shook his head. “I don’t
know,” he mumbled.
“I’m sorry for all this.” Said Erde.
“It wasn’t your fault.” Himmel
tried to assure him. ‘Seraph brought the weapons to Koresel. He led us to
Zamma.”
“It was up to us the whole time
whether or not to follow.” said Erde.
Himmel didn’t answer.
A wind flowing over the basin
rattled the trees. There was the sound of something of something rattling in
the branches above them.
They looked up and saw the
bleached white bones of a winged skeleton hanging above them.
With the battle at the Zamma
basin, Ottunno had finally shattered the last remaining bonds of civilized life
on Koresel. The once great tribes were now scattered fragments that would
either kill each other or be destroyed by the elements. Ottunno had won Koresel
for Singularity.
The crew celebrated their
successfully orchestrated genocide with champagne. They speculated about the
promotions and accolades they would receive. They looked down on their prize,
floating silently in the eternal sea. Besides in the official reports Ottunno
never mentioned the massacres he witnessed while piloting their false prophet.
After Ottunno landed on Koresel humanity had become and endangered
species on the planet. Sightings of the feral, starving animals were rare. The
only thing left to do was to assess how much of the mining infrastructure
constructed by the colonist was still intact.
They sent their humanoid serifs.
Creations to map the mines and salvage scrap from abandoned machinery while
their human masters waited for reinforcements to arrive from Olduvai. It all
seemed routine, but the mysterious Koresel still had a few surprises left.
A cyclone engulfed half the
planet. The thick clouds swallowed the sky. The whirling winds filled the air
with rocks and dust reducing visibility to zero. Lightning bolts miles long
illuminated the maelstrom with their burning white light. It was a storm in
scope and ferocity no one in the crew had been prepared for. The atmospheric
interference made the already difficult task of communicating with Olduvai
virtually impossible.
In a last ditch effort, Ottunno
sent out an Erebus to erect a communications beacon on the highest summit
possible. As he watched the creature disappear into the thickening dust fearing
weather the storm or the radiation. It was then clear to Ottunno who the new
masters of Koresel were going to be.