Auberon Night Night
Lore submission - All 5 parts for April contained in one post.
Aeon and the Guardians
Part 1 - The chase
As the tiny ship broke free of the gravity of Mirsk and entered space itself, Aeon took a moment to orient himself and activate the warp drive before even leaving the system. It was dangerous to do so, but he had little option. Gravitational forces from planets so close could alter his course just enough to see him fly into a planet or even a star.
Anger, frustration, anxiety and fear flooded his mind as the ship accelerated to light speed, barely missing a few asteroids before reaching full speed following the trail of the guardian mother ship.
Though it was only a small two-seater ship meant for interplanetary travel, it was fitted with a small but powerful warp drive and well armed, making it well capable of damaging or even destroying a mother ship.
“I was too late. Dammit! I have to catch up before they jump!”, Aeon thought, berating himself even though he was fighting forces far more powerful than he was.
For what seemed like a hundred lifetimes he has been chasing the guardians and their creator, Kaijun.
The guardians who invade and enslave planets. Then using the local life forms to make new guardians and so expand their forces. Using the brain and spinal cord of a biological life form combined with a crystalline robotic exoskeleton controlled through a link to the central mind resulted in very versatile and powerful workers and soldiers. This they would do until finally no animals or humans of any kind is left alive, only plants.
With hundreds of planets already conquered; stopping them seemed impossible, but Aeon succeeded thus far in destroying dozens of mother ships and nearly half of their colonization force, severely limiting their rate of progress.
But now it seems they found a way to leave this dimension through a rupture in time and space created by sentient beings from another world.
As the mother ship became visible to him, he realized they had already reached the rupture. A bright blue light shone for a few moments followed by an electromagnetic shock wave as the mother ship entered the rupture. Aeon screamed in frustration and anger as he fired at them and followed blindly into the rupture in the hopes of destroying them and closing the rupture.
Entering the rupture, his red Equus jet was battered by the forces within such an unstable portal and thrown about like paper in the wind and so was the mother ship. Spinning end-over-end and having parts ripped of its fuselage, the mother ship did not look like it would make it. Aeon smiled.
“This is a good day to die” he thought, as he engaged his thrusters and rammed his ship into theirs while firing his weapons. His final view was a bright red and orange explosion before it all turned black.
Part 2 - Landing
The giant mountains of his home reached so high up into the sky; they were always covered in snow. The cold air would cut into the unprepared persons skin like a scalpel and could lead to your death easily and quickly. But Aeon was used to the cold, having been born here, hunted here and fought here for many years. It sometimes even felt warm, just as it did now.
The warmth on his face felt like it was sticking to the side of his face and forehead. The usual dead silence of the snowy mountains was pierced by a sharp but distant sound like a ringing that sounded almost rhythmic, repeating over and over. Slowly the sound grew louder and pierced through his consciousness until he realized it is the ships alarms sounding.
Regaining consciousness with blood all sticky wet and warm over his face from the cut on his head and his ship spinning as it was plummeting towards a planet he did not recognize. Drawing on all his willpower and sheer stubbornness, he focused on the console; closing the one eye covered in blood, and took control of the damaged ship and adjusted his entry into the planet’s atmosphere.
“Too fast. TOO FAST!” he thought as he tried to slow the rate of descent with only limited success.
Had anyone been there to see the jet scream through the air at an impossible angle and crazy speed, they would have heard the double boom of the sound barrier being broken and the screeching of air over damaged wings.
With a final desperate reversing of the engines and all flaps opened, the forward speed of the ship was finally controlled and slowed but that resulted in the ship stalling and going into a flat spin. The ship fell almost vertically from the sky and instead of hitting the ocean as he was aiming to do, the ship slammed into the peak of a steep mountain near the ocean.
This should have been the end of it. This should have been where Aeon died. And in fact - he did.
Already injured from going through a dimensional rift and crashing into a mother ship, this crash left him virtually dead and he could feel his life slipping away. As his last breath left him, the essence of his being drifted away to return to the origin, where all life comes from, when a soft hand touched him.
Even in his current form he could feel the touch. A bright greenish-white light surrounded him and a voice whispered softly:
“We need you to be strong a while longer Aeon.”
“The guardians survived and we cannot fight them. We are peaceful. We need you.”
“Who are you?” Aeon asked.
“I am Kirke, goddess of the Haruspex.”
“I am sorry for having to do this. You have fought so long and deserve the rest, but we need you. Please forgive us and help us.”
Her voice was soft and warm and sounded almost melancholic.
And with that the light surrounded him, his ship and his broken body and returned his essence to the body it had just left. Within the light itself he could feel life return and a renewed strength and purpose with it.
Part 3 - A new home
Waking up brought back the sensation of pain but much reduced from his last memories. It was morning and the sun rising over the world brought a cascade of colors from red to orange and violet - with so many shades in-between. To Aeon who had known only white and gray from his icy cold home for so long, this was like a riot of color in a dreary gray world.
For a few moments all he did was sit there in his now destroyed ship looking out over the ocean, enjoying the view. As the sun rose, the heat came and he had to get out and start life on a new planet with no ship, no weapons, no knowledge of the planet and aware that the guardians were out there.
A few fleeting thoughts of someone touching him and speaking to him floated in his mind, but it seemed unlikely and as a practical man, a soldier; he dismissed the images and set to work.
Salvaging what he could from his plane including a piece of wing he fashioned into a small knife.
Climbing down the mountain he found a beautiful white beach and the carcass of a giant sea creature reminiscent of the megalodon stories told on his home world from the days when the oceans were higher and the sea creatures much much bigger.
It must have died and washed ashore. The scary thought was, what could kill something this big though?
Using his rough knife, he cut a section of the jaw bone and fashioned a type of long sword similar to what his people used to call a claymore. By cutting into the carcass deeper and deeper he found some flesh still unspoiled - so he had some food at least.
A weapon, some food and a will to survive. He was ready for what may come, even though they may not be ready for him.
Walking along the shoreline he set out looking for a good base with fresh water nearby.
After a few hours of walking he reached a stream that ran into the ocean and followed that up to the hills where it came from, where he found two small natural lakes and two beautiful waterfalls. The sight itself was enough to fill him with hope and a sense of serenity in spite of the looming task of finding and defeating the guardians.
On the side of the lower lake there was a small hidden cave entrance that once inside opened up into an emerald green cavern of various levels, with a small pool of water right at the bottom. Water flowed into the cavern from a break in the rocks from the side of the lake, but seemed to drain away into the rock again.
This would be his home for a long time. This hole in the ground with walls of phosphorous green moss on a world of warmth and bright colors so far from his home, would be where he would live alone until his death.
But that is a story for another day.
Part 4 - The Guardians
After months on this world - having seen no human or guardian - only a creatures that look like big flightless birds or monkeys or pigs, Aeon had set up a good base with a small crafting station and storage space. Every day he would venture out and hunt, becoming more and more skilled with the sword he made until it felt like an extension of his arm. His skin was now a golden brown from the sun, a far cry from the pasty white color he was when he arrived. All indications of his extreme injuries and death was long gone and he was able to fight for hours on end and run nonstop and without slowing down around the entire edge of the island he was on.
He was ready to start exploring the rest of the planet in search of the guardians. Packing food and basic supplies and his trusty sword he set off to the west crossing the narrow channel surrounding this island onto another island and across another channel to another island. The channels were narrow but deep with only a few rare shallow crossings.
The walk itself felt good and even the animals feeling brave enough to attack him was not a challenge and served only to feed him.
Trees became large umbrella like shapes and the landscape had a few extremely high rocks piercing up into the sky, like a finger from some unknown god.
This land was untamed and beautiful. It was paradise.
After a long walk and searching, he crested a hill and found some strange looking animals that looked like a cross between a lizard and a man wearing pants. Keeping slightly north of them he finally found the guardians.
And that was when the scout found him. Only a small one could be a level 5, so Aeon decided that he would have to kill it before it was able to sound an alarm.
Jumping down, he ran at the small guardian and attacked. His sword singing through the air as he swung it, striking the robot before it can block against the attack. Again and again his sword would sing as Aeon lunged and attacked then rolled and attacked again. The robot was unable to defend at all and it was clear Aeon was by far the better fighter. But the sword did little damage to the crystal exoskeleton. After what seemed like hours, he finally destroyed the guardian robot. It was clear he would need a stronger weapon. And some armor as well if he was to face any of the bigger ones.
But he knew where they were; and they did not know he was here. All he needed now was a stronger weapon and armor and to scout the borders of the guardians’ territory.
This war was his to win.
Part 5 - Reflection
After a lengthy scout mission of the guardians’ territory, Aeon knew he had a massive task at hand.
Sitting at his camp that night, Aeon worked on a strategy while enjoying the beautiful sunset and the brilliant night sky after. The night sky on Mirsk is clear and picturesque, in part due to the cold clean air that does not refract the light in any way. The night sky here, while very different, had a similar quality. When looking upwards he felt almost as if he could reach out and touch the stars. While all alone here on this strange planet, it felt like home to him. This feeling of home strengthened his resolve to defend it against the invasion.
While sitting there his strategy began to take shape. The guardians has taken over a large area and are increasing that incrementally by absorbing the native animal species - creating more guardians.
His first task then, would be to deny them access to these by ensuring a large area free of animals surrounding the guardians by hunting them out. So he would apply a scorched earth strategy as done by the ancient armies of his world, when war was still commonplace.
An additional benefit would be that the resources from this he could collect and store for future use to maybe create better armor and weapons and at the very least will supply him with food.
It also occurred to him that he had been on this planet for years and seen no other sentient life - only the animals and the guardians. So his second task would be to try and find others and would mean he had to expand his exploration into the north of the planet and complete his map and understanding of the planet and its resources. Maybe some of the local wildlife could provide him with materials for a very strong armor. So this expedition would be for both gathering intelligence and finding allies.
One other thought stayed in his thoughts like a shadow. Who was Kirke and the Haruspex? And why has he not found her or them? For a long time he has been focused on survival and finding the guardians in order to destroy them, but now he needed more information. His questions has been piling up, his thoughts plagued by them.
Where was the mother ship of the guardians?
Did he really die or was that a dream?
Where was the people who opened the rupture that caused him and the guardians to be here?
With more questions than answers but at least having a working strategy he went to sleep looking up at the clear inky night sky, filled with stars and dreams.
More to follow next month