4000 BC, CE, Sol system. High above the solar system a distortion in space time marked the arrival of the ship. It warped into normal space high above the solar system. Five kilometers long, glistening white it looked like a sleek predator of the deeps. Based on astronomical data stolen from Commonwealth survey probes, the ship fled to this system following the final battle of the revolt against the Commonwealth of Civilized Planets. Once part of the grand fleet of the Boron Unity, it was now the last surviving ship of the fleet.
The above is just a story that I pulled together as part of a theme. The following is a fragment of the story line from much later in time....
Further Fragment of the Story
Great story Ed! Don't be surprised if you weren't there, and many more of us, who in the dim reaches of the mists of dreams, remember.
Thanks Ivan,
4000 BC, CE Caucasus Mountains
Diving into the system under full in-system propulsion the ship began its flight to the blue oxygen nitrogen planet noted on the data stolen from the Commonwealth’s deep space survey probes. The data indicated the planet had abundant mineral resources and was in habited by a primitive race of bipeds not far different in shape than those of the guiding intelligences of the Boron Unity.
Unknown to the command group of the ship, its flight had been tracked by a Commonwealth deep space tracking array and a task force of first line Commonwealth warships had been dispatched to intercept it. Detecting the emergence a large number of Commonwealth battle cruisers, the ship’s command group ordered the deployment of its’ in system fighters, anti-ship missile defense pods and anti-ship mines. Each pod consisted of a self guided platform capable of detecting incoming anti-ship missiles and deploying defensive measures. The in system fighter squadrons carried a variety of long range high energy weapons and worked in conjunction with the anti-ship missile defense pods which were slaved to fighter group control. Anti-ship quantum singularity mines were also deployed as part of the defensive grid and lurked clocked in stealth mode waiting the approach of a capital ship.
As the fighters, defense pods and mines deployed from the ship they took up position to act as a shield between the ship and its pursuers. With the fighters deployed the command group ordered the uploading of its’ fleet of combat drop shuttle with its’ full complement of ground assault troops. Survey data from the Federation indicated the presence of a metal using culture on the planet’s major continent. This area was also rich in elements necessary to the support of the Boron Unities primary guiding intelligence. Alternative drop locations for secondary landings were also selected. The main landing site for the fleet was selected for the region of, what is now known as the Caspian, Aral, and Black Sea region. A note in Commonwealth’s database indicated that the sentient race on this planet had recently undergone an unexplained mutation that accelerated its biological development. The survey probe Artificial Intelligence (AI) recommended additional research be scheduled to explore this development, and that no further data was available.
As it raced towards the blue planet, the first long range missile strikes began to impact on the ships’ fighter shield. Explosions flared across the visible spectrum as thousands of megatons of energy were released. Ahead of the pursuing fleets battle cruisers, the Commonwealth’s own squadrons of strike fighters raced ahead to engage and destroy the ships’ network of pods, mines and fighters in order to open a lane for the pursuing battle cruisers.
The Boron ship launched its complete compliment of combat drop shuttles as it transited between the blue planet and its’ moon, hoping to use the moon as a shield to mask the deployment of its ground assault force. The force itself consisted of 150,000 combat hardened troops equipped with the finest technology available to the Boron Unity. After launching its’ combat drop shuttles the ship accelerated and raced to sling shot itself out of the system by maneuvering around the sun. Cutting across its’ orbit the pursuing fleet intercepted ship as it approached the orbit of the planet Venus. Slashed by bomb-pumped lasers, particle and high intensity microwave beams, and pounded by anti-ship missiles, the ship began to vent atmosphere. With the main drive destroyed the ship’s command group ordered the ship’s AI destroyed along with all of the data in its memory crystals. As the ship died the Command Group, linked by an embedded wireless communication system, raged against the forces of the Commonwealth as they waited for the final blows to come.
On the command decks of the pursuing fleet, the Common Wealth Task Force Command groups, linked by advanced embedded Quantum crystalline technology, watched through their ships sensor systems as the hulk of the Boron Unity’s last warship cooled, venting atmosphere. Boarding crews reported the ship dead, AI and records destroyed and its’ fleet of combat drop shuttles missing. Ordering the ship tagged with an EM beacon the Commonwealth fleet commander ordered the fleet on a course to rendezvous with the blue planet. Ground combat forces from the members of the Commonwealth, scared veterans of the Boron war, prepared for the final assault of the war. The command group reviewed the survey data from Commonwealth’s AI survey probe and ordered a full decontamination and cleansing of the planet be conducted to eradicate the Boron landing force and preserve the indigenous race from contamination stemming from unauthorized contact.
In the combat drop shuttle bays of the Commonwealth fleet, battle weary troops began to receive mission details, surveillance data updates and targeting information. Recon probes reported the location of the Boron Unity landing sites, and according to standard procedures atmospheric fighter strikes and kinetic energy bombardment would precede the drop of the combat troops.
In the Caucuses Mountains, the valley of the two rivers and along the fertile banks of the great Nile, the people had witnessed the flight of the Boron combat drop shuttles and fled in terror to their places of worship. The shamans, priests and priestesses prayed and called out to the gods for guidance as runners brought news of sighting of strange beings. As they huddled in their homes and shrines they heard the roar of the Commonwealth’s atmospheric fighters as they screamed through the atmosphere. Day turned into night as tactical nuclear weapons and energy beams smashed the drop zones of the Boron landing force. The people quickly learned to look away from the scene of the battle as blindness took those that looked into the flashes of the tactical nuclear weapons strikes.
In the lead Commonwealth drop shuttle the old scared commander of the drop force, a being that looked like a cross between a horse and a man, sighed as he watched the devastation being inflicted upon the Boron landing forces. Clutching an ancient amulet to the god of his people, the maker of the universe, he spoke a prayer for the dead and the beings he was about to lead into battle. The survivor of a hundred other landings of a war that lasted for over 1500 hundred years, he was an old being who came to know death well. In his hundreds of years of life, he and his people had never faced a foe like the Borons before. Based on boron, not carbon, they were an alien life form only recently taken into the commonwealth some 3000 years ago.
Many still debated whether or not the Borons were fully alive or even had souls. All he knew was that unless they were stopped no other life form in the galaxy would be safe. The Boron’s recognized no other life form except their own as being worth saving and destroyed or enslaved all other life forms. The Commonwealth drop commander had seen first hand the work of the Borons, and recalled the legends of his people of the great war in heaven. He vowed that this time, would be the last time an innocent race faced the threat of Boron domination.
In the mountains of what is today Macedonia hill people clutched weapons while women wailed and shamans cried out that the end of the world had come and the gods had come to take them. The men of the mountains had no words to explain what they were seeing, but like the wolf totem of their people their first instinct was to guard the pack. One old scared warrior of the people of the mountains looked out over the valley as strange shapes flashed overhead towards the place of great waters beyond the mountains. Occasionally a traveler in the past had come from there bringing strange items for trade with the hill people. Now, he watched the sky burn and strange things flash towards the east and land of great waters. He did no know if these things were good or ill, but he vowed that from this day forward that any being that came from the east would be tested even unto death before being accepting into his lodge. For on this day he sensed that the judgment of the gods had come to the peoples of the east, what it meant for his people he could not say.
As they descended out of polar orbit the drop shuttles of the Commonwealth passed over the villages of the people of the Mountains of Macedonia. Looking at the RECON data for the flight path of the assault force, the old drop commander noted one image with a picture of a bipedal warrior armed with weapons his people abandoned millennium ago. In his mind the commander saluted the warrior, in his long years of combat the drop commander met few beings that would stand and defy the Commonwealth and its technology, to which they would seem as gods. He signaled the fleet to establish a no fire zone around the villages and turned his mind to the upcoming battle.
On the plain he could see the wreckage of the Boron assault force. Energy and Kinetic weapons fire struck the advanced ceramic armor of his shuttle as it came to the rest. Rising to his full height of two meters he turned to his staff ands said “Once more do we go onto the fields of the final death, this is the last time, let us finish it”. Garbed in powered armor and energy protective fields he and his staff exited the shuttle to join the battle.
Over the course of two weeks the battle on the plain surged back and forth as the Boron assault force fought for its survival, the last remnants of a once proud force that came close to smashing a Civilization that spanned a good part of the galaxy. Powered armor clad soldiers with slaved ground combat assault guns faced the semi-machine race of Boron assault troops and their slaved kinetic energy guns and particle beams. With no-where else to go the Boron forces strove to inflict as much damage as possible on the forces of the Commonwealth.
On the morning of the 14th local day, the old drop commander stood over the last of the Boron corpses on the smoking plain. Reports from the other Commonwealth drop sites reported complete success in containing and eradicating the Boron forces. Looking around the commander began to count the toll this battle had taken on his forces. 100,000 Boron Combat troops faced a force of Commonwealth assault forces 5 times its size and nearly defeated it in combat. All told the Commonwealth had taken 30 percent casualties. In desperation the Commonwealth fleet commander approved the use of tactical nuclear weapons. This proved to be the key factor in deciding the battle. Looking at the bipedal, skeleton-like semi-machine creature of aluminum and boron fiber construction the drop commander was struck by how close these creatures came to destroying a civilization that stood for almost 90,000 local years.
With casualties evacuated to the fleet hospital ship the commander and his staff turned their attention to the disposal of battle debris and mopping up operations. Surveillance reports indicated large concentrations of indigenous populations in the local area and the possibility of Boron Command group personnel having survived the battle had to be considered. With reclamation teams cleaning the battle field of debris and most of his troops redeployed to the fleet the commander
By Edward Chesky on Thursday, June 30, 2005 - 08:47 pm:
Thus says the Lord GOD:
See! I am coming against you, Tyre;
I will churn up against you many nations,
Even as the sea churns up its waves;
They shall destroy the walls of Tyre and raze her towers.
I will scrape the ground from her
And leave her a bare rock
She shall be a drying place for the nets
In the midst of the sea
Ezekiel 26
The birthing was long and hard and the sun had long since set. The palace was bathed in a simmering silver light from the full moon as a gentle cool wind rustled the leaves in the garden. In the distance the forlorn cry of a wolf could be heard echoing in the mountains.
A night of omens the Great King thought as he sat sipping his wine waiting for the birth of his heir in his vacant throne room. Word had come earlier via runners of the burning the Great Temple of Artemis at Ephesus and the court was rife with rumors regarding the birth of his child. He had long ago dismissed the courtiers and priests, preferring to be alone with his thoughts. The dreams he and his wife had shared regarding this child with the mage Arixstandros Telmisy came back to haunt him. That and the vile serpent he had found in their bed beside his sleeping wife which almost killed him as lay down for rest raised in him a unsettledness that he had yet to put to rest. In the back of this mind he wondered if the child was truly his. The timing was right, coming after his return from the campaign against the unruly hill tribes of the north, but the comely Jewish slave he long harbored suspicions about was missing, said by his seneschal to have been sold off to the galleys for being caught pilfering food from the palace stores. I never trusted that slave the Great King thought, he and that odd religion of his, and those conversations between him and my wife I spied out of the corner of my eye in days long past. That, and my wife’s current mystical preoccupation, aroused in me an unease I still harbor. I married her to cement an alliance and because she was fair and said to be descended from the great Achilles of long ago. A wife strong enough to bear me many fine sons was my only interest in her. “So why is it that I am thinking these thoughts?” the Great King mussed on this night. “I am surrounded by plots, assassins and only survive by seeing through them and it has long become a habit to question everything and trust nothing he thought”.
A voice raises the King from his mussing, “Sire, the midwives call for you to come”, says one of his guards. The Great King rises, sets his cup down and strides through the marble clad corridors of his palace towards the royal chambers. As he passes through the silvery beams of moon light streaming into the corridor his face is illuminated with a soft silver glow, the crags and scars on it starkly contrasted with smooth flesh
The guards who follow along at a distance glance at themselves nervously as they move through the corridors, the hair on the back of their necks raising as the approach the royal cambers. One looks at the other, both scared old campaigners from the hill wars, and mutters, “The gods walk this night”. The other nods and mutters, “Tis the light of Hades we walk through”. I never liked that bitch queen and her incantations and spells.” “Mark my words the child born tonight is marked by the gods”. “For good or ill I know not”.
As he approaches the door to the royal chambers the guards stationed outside the chambers pull open the heavy wooden bronze bound doors. The light from the brazier set near them casts a reddish glow on the doors as they swing silently open.
Moving into the chamber the Great King’s first sight is of his wife lying in their bed clad in white, an infant in her arms below the owl head carving, signal of the goddess Athena, dominating the wall behind their bed. The tab low is illuminated by the flickering red light cast from the bronze braziers set on either side of the bed. The priest and head midwife standing at the foot of the bed bow to the King. The head midwife, a stout woman in her middle years says, “Sire the birthing was long but your queen and son are healthy”. The priest of Apollo, old and white haired, clad in white resting upon his staff says, “Sire the Gods themselves battled for the soul of this child tonight”. “You have been granted a son that will face the Gods themselves in battle one day, and he must be schooled in the sciences and mysteries if he is survive the ordeals he will face”. “We of the priesthoods have much to consider”.
Dismissing them with a gesture the Great King moves to the bed beside his wife. Her face and fair hair looking like red gold in the flickering light cast by the braziers. The young infant in her arms covered in fine gold hair like his mother sleeps peacefully at her breast. “My lord”, the Great Queen says, “the father of the gods has granted you a mighty son this night”. The Great King’s face softens as he looks down at his son and he says, “I know I have seen the omens, he will be wolf among men”. Picking the infant gently up in his strong arms the Great King, lifts him high and says, “The gods themselves will one day tremble before you”. “I name you Alexander Prince and Heir of Macedonia”. Turning to his trembling guards, he says “Bow before your prince, one day you will follow him into battle against the Gods themselves and none will stand before him”.
By Anonymous on Sunday, July 3, 2005 - 08:28 pm:
Ed Chesky
4000 BC, CE
The Old Common wealth Starship Drop Commander stood quietly on the mountainside within the tree line studying the people of the Wolf Lodge as they went about their daily business. Evolved on an oxygen nitrogen planet with much harsher conditions he shrugged off the rain and wind that whistled through the mountains at this time of year. As he gazed at the village he noted the carving of the predator in the center of the village, near the home of the scared warrior he saw months ago on the RECON data provided to his assault force as they dropped in to contain and eliminate the Boron incursion on this planet.
Like on many other worlds, these people honored and respected the fierce predator that they shared this world with. Having been surprised by a pack of these predators three days ago, as he sojourned through the mountains, the drop commander well understood the respect these people accorded these creatures. Despite his bio-enhancement he had been hard pressed to defend himself from the pack that attacked him. He was further impressed by them when dissection of the creatures he killed revealed that they were highly intelligent and possessed a rudimentary form of collective consciousness based upon pheromone and body language that rivaled the best bio-technology of the Common Wealth of Civilized Planets had, at least at close range. The exobiology team was quite impressed with the creatures and samples were taken for further study, evaluation and possible integration into the Common Wealth’s biological arsenal.
As he stood there observing the village, the Drop Commander reviewed the data being relayed to him by his implanted data processing system by the decontamination and first contact teams. Following the destruction of the Boron landing force, the Common Wealth Fleet had withdrawn except for one capital ship. Per Common Wealth policy long term surveillance of this planet would be maintained, until it could be verified to be free of Boron contamination. Until that time, Common wealth first contact teams would be forced to operate covertly, in preparing this planet for eventual integration into the Common Wealth of Civilized Planets.
As he studied the progress reports, the Drop Commander noted that the decontamination teams had made good progress in reducing the residue of the battle using nano-technology and quantum weaponry. Soon there would only be anomalous mineral deposits to mark where one of the greatest fighting forces the universe had ever seen fought and died. Looking upon the people of the village the Drop Commander signaled to his team that tonight they would execute the fist stage of their first contact plan with this local group.
In the village Alskadir stood silently watching the sun set. Deep in thought regarding the strange events of the recent months he did not hear his wife call him to dinner, until she touched his arm. Startled he turned and saw her. Like him she was older by the reckoning of their people, both some 30 years of age. He choose her for his wife because she was a steady intelligent woman, strong willed and capable of keeping order in the village in his absence. That in her youth she had been one of the most attractive women in the mountains did not dissuade him as well. As he entered his lodge, he heard the distant cry of a wolf. The hair on the back of his neck rose as the lonely howl gradually trailed off. For too early for that he thought as he watched the sun sinking and the shadows grow longer. Shaking off the dread feeling he had, he entered his lodge for the evening.
As the sun set, the Drop Commander signaled to his team to move in to the village. Preceded by drone RECON vehicles the team approached the village under the cover of darkness. It was one of several that would be visited this night, within the local area. Stopping outside the villages the teams waited for the drones to deploy their cargo of anesthetic gas. As the gas drifted silently down, the villagers drifted into a deep sleep. Looking down upon the sleeping warrior and his wife and two children the Drop Commander thought back to the early days of his people, when their were ignorant of the universe and life was simple.
The Drop Commander considered what he was about to do and sighed as the medical technicians went to work on the sleeping villagers. In this war many lines had become blurred and he longed for the day when the Common Wealth could once again conduct first contact in the open daylight.
Through his implants he watched as the medical technicians, purged the warrior and his people of parasites and adjusted their metabolic balances for optimum performance, and via nano-technology inserted a crystal lattice data transmission system into their skeletal system. To everyone except those with the most advance medical technology the modifications would appear to be nothing more than healed bone and skull fractures.
Their work completed, the team withdrew back up to the mountains. The Drop Commander, always the last to depart, said a prayer for these beings upon whom he had bestowed great gifts and perhaps a curse as well.
As was his custom, Alskadir rose before the dawn. He was troubled by a strange dream he had last night, but felt better than he had in years. As he stood in the center of his village he noted some tracks he had never seen before. Bending down to study them felt a surge of fear as they were like nothing he had every seen before. Rising he called the village to alarm as he reached for his bow. Like the well trained warriors they were, his men boiled out of their lodges weapons at the ready. On their heels came the village shaman, an old man who knew many things yet lacked much common sense.
Looking at the tracks, which led to all of the lodges in the village, the people grew fearful. Seeking to clam his people, Alskadir called forward his best trackers and told them he wanted to know all about these things. The oldest tracker a grizzled scared old man lame in one leg approached Alskadir and said, “Lord, I know not what these things are but they move on two legs, yet have the feet of a horse. They are not horses for the hoof is different. From the tracks they stand as tall as our tallest warrior yet weigh as much as a horse. My trackers report they came and went to the great mountains to the north. The tracks end at the rock ledge before the edge of the forest on the slope of the mountain. Once out of the village these things moved like men of war, with two on each flank of the column. The tracks tell me that they came after sunset and left before dawn. They also move like wolves in the dark for we found few broken branches or signs of slips and fall despite the rough ground and lack of moonlight last night. They must have eyes like owls to have down what they did in the dark.” Bowing to Alskadir the old tracker said, “That my lord is all that I can say as of yet.”
Nodding to the tracker Alskadir turned to the shaman and said, “What do you know of this?” The shaman said, “Lord of these things I know not, yet last night I had a dream of many things. This dream included a new way of counting and of strange shapes of which I am still pondering. My sense is that these being came to bring us a message. What it is I know not.”
As he considered this information, Alskadir’s wife came forward and said, “My Lord, last night I had a dream. In it I was told by strange yet kind being that we were not to fear for they mean us no harm but come to bring us knowledge of things of this world and the next and of wonders to come.” Looking at his people he saw fear in their faces. Drawing himself up to his full height of almost two meters, he said to his people, “I know not what these things are but they could have caused us great harm yet they did not. No one was harmed; no one is missing from the village. I also know that our gods in the past have sent us messengers from the mists of the mountains. Until such times as well know what is the will of the gods are we will treat these beings as messengers. Turning to his chief lieutenant he said, “Send runners to all villages to see if any others were visited. Tell them what we have learned. “To the shaman he said, “You will consult with your kind on this matter and report back to me your findings. Also today we will feast the gods and give them thanks for our deliverance. I expect you to lead us in prayer, so that we may give appropriate thanks to our gods.”
Up upon the mountain the Old Drop Commander smiled as he monitored the exchange between Alskadir and his people via the embedded communications system they had inserted in them. He was most impressed with these people and the amount of data they were able to obtain regarding his team. These people would be a most formidable adversary he thought or a great ally for the Common Wealth.
Turing to his team the Drop Commander was about to issue further instructions when he detected the outline of a being in the mist further up the mountain. Alerting the team, they reacted like the trained soldiers they were and immediately moved to assume a defensive position. The being appeared bipedal but could not be seen clearly, as if it was wrapped in a dark field. Alerting the ship, he ordered a complete scan of the planet and full planetary alert. Sensor readings relayed to him by the ship’s AI indicated a localized disruption of space time was occurring and that there were readings that indicated localized dimensional instability could be occurring as well. such readings had never been seen before and the ship was baffled by them. The AI reported energy releases beyond anything the Common Wealth had observed before had to be involved to obtain the sensor reading the AI was recording and that the ship’s command group was issuing a complete Common Wealth Alert and was bringing all Common Wealth forces to full combat readiness.
As he watched the being it appeared to raise an ancient edged weapon as if in salute and then vanished into the fog and mist. As the being vanished the Ship’s AI reported the space time disruption had ceased and all was normal. As he looked at his team he noted that all confirmed sighting the being. Turing back to look upon the village, the Old Drop Commander replayed the recording of the discussion in the village. Instinctively he reached up and grasped the ambulate he wore around his neck dedicated the maker of the universe and thought back to the ancient legends of his people of the great war in heaven as he awaited further instructions from the Common Wealth on how to proceed.
By Ivan A. on Sunday, July 3, 2005 - 09:43 pm:
Ivan
By Edward Chesky on Monday, July 4, 2005 - 08:37 pm:
I have more of the story to post. Will post more of it later.
My Best
Ed
By Edward Chesky on Tuesday, July 5, 2005 - 01:43 pm:
The rain lashed the small group of men as they struggled through the mountain pass. Their faces reflected a strange mix of fear, exhaustion and relief as they traveled back the way they came. They had been sent some weeks earlier by order of their king to find out what was happing in the lands around the great inland seas since the sightings of the strange objects in the sky. Travelers from the mountains brought strange tales of a war between the gods and the temple priests were claming that the end of times had come. Given all of this the King was much concerned and ordered the captain of his palace guard and fifty of his best warriors to go to the scene of these events and bring back word of them so that the King might have a clear picture of what was going on. Now, some weeks later Sardon and ten of his men were returning, haunted by what they had seen.
His mind clouded by fatigue, Sardon barely heard the shout of his lead warrior, that he had spotted the cave. Crowding into the cave, the men flung themselves down on the floor, relived to be out of the rain. Sardon ordered his men to strike a fire using the dry wood stored by travelers within the cave for times such as this. As they huddled about the fire eating sun-dried fruit and beef, Sardon considered the events of the last weeks. All had gone well until they had reached the passes leading down out of the mountains towards the great inland seas, the thing that rose up and spit fire at them still evoked fear in him. Twenty of his men were consumed in fire in the blink of an eye and had it not been for the strange flying beast that destroyed the monster with a bolt of lighting none would have survived. As it was, the remnants of his men, save for the few with him now, had thrown down their weapons and fled in terror. Not even Sardon with all his threats and beatings could get his men to proceed further after that.
As the men gave in to their exhaustion and drifted off to sleep, there was movement in the back of the cave. Had the men been awake they may have felt the pin pricks of the anesthetic darts that penetrated their bodies. The first thing an observer would have noticed about the beings emerging from the depths of the cave was the skeleton like appearance of them, Approximately two meters in height they look remarkably like silver skeletons covered with a flexible silver skin under which ropy tendons flexed as they moved. Their movements seems to be a cross being walking and the flow of quick-silver metal. A pair of unfeeling green eyes set deep inside their sockets stared down at the sleeping men as they approached.
The leader of the group watched with no sign of emotion as his subordinates took up position around the sleeping men. In unison they bent down and fixed a device to the back of the sleeping men’s skulls. Developed during the war, the device served many purposes. Its principal use, however, was for the interrogation of prisoners of war. Once attached the device, using appropriated Common Wealth Nano-Technology, extruded a network of fine filament wires into the neural tissue of the subject allowing direct access to the stored memories of the subject via a wireless electromagnetic transmission system.
As the leader of the group reviewed the information stored within the brains of Sardon and his men a plan began to take shape. Following the anihilation of the Boron landing force a small cadre managed to escape and make its way undetected into the mountains near the great inland seas to the east of the land of two rivers. They had been waiting since for an opportunity to make contact with the indigenous peoples of this people for some time now.
The first thing Sardon noticed upon waking was the pair of unblinking green eyes string down on him. The second thing he noticed was that he could neither move nor speak. As the terror filled him he heard a voice in his mind say, “You have been chosen for a great task.” As he continued to struggle to rise, the voice in his mind said “Resistance is futile, you will be allowed to rise when we decide not before.” Mustering all his courage Sardon thought, “Who are you?” In his mind Sardon heard’ “We are your Gods and we have come to lead your people to greatness. You will obey us or you will be punished.” With those words Sardon’s body was filled with a pain that was beyond imagination, through the pain he heard in his mind the words, “We know your thoughts and we will punish you each time you transgress.” With that statement the pain ceased.
“You will bow before us and in return you will be shown many things.” As the voice in his mind spoke Sardon’s mind’s eye was filled with images of great cites and weapons beyond any he had dreamed of before. In his mind he heard, “You and your people will build a temple for us and in time we come to guide you, but the time is not yet right. Our enemies are many and the other Gods would make war upon you if they knew we were here.”
Sardon thought, “My Lord tell me what to do and it shall be done.” In his mind he heard, “In time we shall. For now know this, as we have power over you, we shall grant you power over yours. Your men sleep now but when they awake you will be able to do unto them what we have done unto you.” With these words Sardon’s mind began to race with ideas of what he would be capable of doing. As he began to explore the possibilities he heard in his mind the words, “Thou are mortal and thy power over your men only extends as far as twice the distance of your longest bow shot.” Sardon thought,”My lord what is it I shall call you” In his mind Sardon heard, “We are Nergal and we are many. In time we shall say more to you but for now it is time to sleep.
As the morning light streamed into the cave Sardon woke with a headache. Rubbing the back of his neck he felt a stabling pain and his hand came away with a drop of blood. Looking at each of his men he saw a small crust of dried blood at the base of each man’s skull. “Strange”, he thought, “Perhaps it was not a dream.” Looking down at the nearest man he thought, “Wake up fool.” As the man jumped to his feet he smiled as in his mind he heard the thought, “Yes my Lord.” As the rest of the men awoke and stared at him he thought, “Fear not our Gods have come and bestowed on upon me a great task.” Serve me and you will be rewarded. Fail me and pain will be yours.” As he watched the men writhe in pain on the floor of the cave Sardon thought, “So this is what it is like to be a God.”