Post by acclue lockheart on Mar 2, 2008 2:20:14 GMT -5
I like feedback!
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Chapter I: A World of Strife
In the beginning, things weren't so bad. Humanity grew faster than any other being could have conceived. They were beings of feeling and empathy. Regardless of how much they denied it, they were a peaceful people, destined for a peaceful future among the rest of the universe.
Once, a long time ago, people said that humanity's end would come from their own destructive tendencies. We were terribly wrong.
Nobody remembered what year it was anymore, but they thought it was growing close to a century since they came. The Pheder as they called themselves. They were almost like insects, but were gigantic... and some sentient.
There were soldiers, the hive-minded beings that enforced control over humans. They resembled giant ants. Their mid-section bent upwards so that they could walk upright, with their two front legs in front of them having hand-like appendages. These soldiers followed the minds, the intelligent beings of the race.
The queens were a variation resembling giant beetles, about the size of a three-story house. Rather than a tough carapace, they exhibited a nearly amorphous central body that allowed it to fit into tight spaces despite it's immense size. They used needle-like claws at the end of a double-jointed stick appendage to attack and poison their prey. The poison immediately paralyzed a body and quickly destroyed the creatures sight, a strange and unintended side effect of the paralyzing poison that the minds had made
The minds these beings practically created their race. When they arrived in the Earth's system, they were the only section of their race that existed. They created all of the other sub-sections of their race from Earth's insect kingdom, because of their resemblance to each other. The minds completely resemble the soldiers, and in fact modeled the soldiers' DNA after theirs. They are the only truly intelligent beings and are responsible for the... changes... to humanity.
There are many other races among the Pheder, but they were used only for very special tasks and few humans saw them before the following events.
They came suddenly one day back when humans were still keeping track of time. They destroyed their power sources, they blocked out the sun's light, they destroyed all military forces in one fell swoop. Within an hour, every world leader was dead. In a day, what was believed to be an invincible world was just another piece of a warring race's property.
God knows what they wanted humans for. They used them as lab rats. They used them as food. It was understood that they would soon be extinct. But once again, no one knew why they kept the humans alive. They bred the humans.
What little was left of the human race either had no will to live, had been altered so far from humanity that even other humans considered them animals, or simply didn't have the proper ability to fight against them. The second of the three was most common, creating a new standard of what was, in fact, human.
What must have been several decades ago, something changed the balance between the two forces. A single altered human had undergone a series of tests that left him with a very unique ability. He used his ability to sneak his way into a weapons cache and stole enough Phedrian weaponry to mount a small resistance. For a very long time, he grew his force to what would eventually rival the occupying forces. He was killed by the Triste blade. A complex mechanical sword of his own invention that would greatly outshine the power and general usefulness of any ranged energy weapon.
His group was quickly destroyed without a leader, showing humans that the end of their race had truly come.
His name was Jack Savior.
-----
Deep underground in the center of Ragnarok, a central district comprised of most of what was once the continent of Europe, a Harvest was taking place. Humans that had been thoroughly altered to a point where their humanity was questionable were no longer useful to the Phedran, as the experiments on an altered human would yield different results from an ordinary one. Or as far as ordinary was, the way alteration had traveled down the human gene pool. A Harvest was the act of the Phedran feeding these humans to their nest's queen. Dozens of severely altered humans waited on the ramp up to a raised metal container, big enough to fit all of the people.
They weren't used to such open places, normally kept in uncomfortable metal containers barely large enough to kneel down in, with nothing but a blue wall of pure energy to look at. Regardless, most didn't care to realize their environment. They awaited their trip up with the anticipation of a slow demise. The queen of their nest was known to play with her food. Most awaited their death with a certain degree of glee. To finally let the torture end was a Godsend to these people. But to go painfully was still a terrible subject to these humans, they didn't care for the end to be as slow as some had heard it was.
One of the condemned looked about with a different apprehension. His name was Tommy. Tommy was altered all over, his face deeply scarred across the left cheek, his eyes blackened everywhere but the pupils, and the pupils themselves vertical slits. His hair was long and thick, going down to the middle of his back. His body's alterations were mostly hidden under his clothes, but a few telltale signs, a long furry tail and sharp claws on his hands specifically, stuck out. Altered humans to his degree were no longer considered true humans, and he was born in this state as such not earning a full name. Tommy was only a child still, a boy of an age that could barely be considered pre-adolescent. And he was about to die.
Unlike the majority of the people there, he didn't embrace the prospect of his rest. Almost a year ago, by old human time, his mother was killed by a Phedran soldier. They had been returning to their prisons from a testing session when the soldier shot her down in a hail of energy gunfire. What very little was left of the body flew backwards onto the ground. Tommy was drenched in blood. He was still holding her twitching hand as it disconnected and immediately cauterized from the energy cutting it. The guard was completely unprovoked. Tommy was brought back to his cell by the very same guard, and was in such shock that he couldn't even bring himself to cry. The very next day, he returned to the experimentation without a tear shed.
Ever since that day, Tommy pledged that he wouldn't die so pointlessly as his mother, even though he had absolutely no control over that choice. And it looked like the time had come.
The doors to the container finally opened. A scream was heard from the other ramp. A woman at the bottom of the ramp began to run to the side. One of the soldiers turned and rapidly released a deadly stream of light energy from the end of its gun's barrel, tearing apart the woman in mere instants. Tommy cringed, but did little more against the death. What could he do? His alterations were nearly useless. Anything that could be used against the Phedran was quickly countered by continued testing. In reality, they had the technology to return humans to normal, but doing so wouldn't have been very beneficial at all to them, so they didn't bother.
“Move!” one of the soldiers shouted, clicking its mandibles together as the translator in its helmet gave it a frighteningly male human voice. With that, the whole line began to move. And whether or not they were ready for death, they continued up to the container.
--------------------------
Chapter I: A World of Strife
In the beginning, things weren't so bad. Humanity grew faster than any other being could have conceived. They were beings of feeling and empathy. Regardless of how much they denied it, they were a peaceful people, destined for a peaceful future among the rest of the universe.
Once, a long time ago, people said that humanity's end would come from their own destructive tendencies. We were terribly wrong.
Nobody remembered what year it was anymore, but they thought it was growing close to a century since they came. The Pheder as they called themselves. They were almost like insects, but were gigantic... and some sentient.
There were soldiers, the hive-minded beings that enforced control over humans. They resembled giant ants. Their mid-section bent upwards so that they could walk upright, with their two front legs in front of them having hand-like appendages. These soldiers followed the minds, the intelligent beings of the race.
The queens were a variation resembling giant beetles, about the size of a three-story house. Rather than a tough carapace, they exhibited a nearly amorphous central body that allowed it to fit into tight spaces despite it's immense size. They used needle-like claws at the end of a double-jointed stick appendage to attack and poison their prey. The poison immediately paralyzed a body and quickly destroyed the creatures sight, a strange and unintended side effect of the paralyzing poison that the minds had made
The minds these beings practically created their race. When they arrived in the Earth's system, they were the only section of their race that existed. They created all of the other sub-sections of their race from Earth's insect kingdom, because of their resemblance to each other. The minds completely resemble the soldiers, and in fact modeled the soldiers' DNA after theirs. They are the only truly intelligent beings and are responsible for the... changes... to humanity.
There are many other races among the Pheder, but they were used only for very special tasks and few humans saw them before the following events.
They came suddenly one day back when humans were still keeping track of time. They destroyed their power sources, they blocked out the sun's light, they destroyed all military forces in one fell swoop. Within an hour, every world leader was dead. In a day, what was believed to be an invincible world was just another piece of a warring race's property.
God knows what they wanted humans for. They used them as lab rats. They used them as food. It was understood that they would soon be extinct. But once again, no one knew why they kept the humans alive. They bred the humans.
What little was left of the human race either had no will to live, had been altered so far from humanity that even other humans considered them animals, or simply didn't have the proper ability to fight against them. The second of the three was most common, creating a new standard of what was, in fact, human.
What must have been several decades ago, something changed the balance between the two forces. A single altered human had undergone a series of tests that left him with a very unique ability. He used his ability to sneak his way into a weapons cache and stole enough Phedrian weaponry to mount a small resistance. For a very long time, he grew his force to what would eventually rival the occupying forces. He was killed by the Triste blade. A complex mechanical sword of his own invention that would greatly outshine the power and general usefulness of any ranged energy weapon.
His group was quickly destroyed without a leader, showing humans that the end of their race had truly come.
His name was Jack Savior.
-----
Deep underground in the center of Ragnarok, a central district comprised of most of what was once the continent of Europe, a Harvest was taking place. Humans that had been thoroughly altered to a point where their humanity was questionable were no longer useful to the Phedran, as the experiments on an altered human would yield different results from an ordinary one. Or as far as ordinary was, the way alteration had traveled down the human gene pool. A Harvest was the act of the Phedran feeding these humans to their nest's queen. Dozens of severely altered humans waited on the ramp up to a raised metal container, big enough to fit all of the people.
They weren't used to such open places, normally kept in uncomfortable metal containers barely large enough to kneel down in, with nothing but a blue wall of pure energy to look at. Regardless, most didn't care to realize their environment. They awaited their trip up with the anticipation of a slow demise. The queen of their nest was known to play with her food. Most awaited their death with a certain degree of glee. To finally let the torture end was a Godsend to these people. But to go painfully was still a terrible subject to these humans, they didn't care for the end to be as slow as some had heard it was.
One of the condemned looked about with a different apprehension. His name was Tommy. Tommy was altered all over, his face deeply scarred across the left cheek, his eyes blackened everywhere but the pupils, and the pupils themselves vertical slits. His hair was long and thick, going down to the middle of his back. His body's alterations were mostly hidden under his clothes, but a few telltale signs, a long furry tail and sharp claws on his hands specifically, stuck out. Altered humans to his degree were no longer considered true humans, and he was born in this state as such not earning a full name. Tommy was only a child still, a boy of an age that could barely be considered pre-adolescent. And he was about to die.
Unlike the majority of the people there, he didn't embrace the prospect of his rest. Almost a year ago, by old human time, his mother was killed by a Phedran soldier. They had been returning to their prisons from a testing session when the soldier shot her down in a hail of energy gunfire. What very little was left of the body flew backwards onto the ground. Tommy was drenched in blood. He was still holding her twitching hand as it disconnected and immediately cauterized from the energy cutting it. The guard was completely unprovoked. Tommy was brought back to his cell by the very same guard, and was in such shock that he couldn't even bring himself to cry. The very next day, he returned to the experimentation without a tear shed.
Ever since that day, Tommy pledged that he wouldn't die so pointlessly as his mother, even though he had absolutely no control over that choice. And it looked like the time had come.
The doors to the container finally opened. A scream was heard from the other ramp. A woman at the bottom of the ramp began to run to the side. One of the soldiers turned and rapidly released a deadly stream of light energy from the end of its gun's barrel, tearing apart the woman in mere instants. Tommy cringed, but did little more against the death. What could he do? His alterations were nearly useless. Anything that could be used against the Phedran was quickly countered by continued testing. In reality, they had the technology to return humans to normal, but doing so wouldn't have been very beneficial at all to them, so they didn't bother.
“Move!” one of the soldiers shouted, clicking its mandibles together as the translator in its helmet gave it a frighteningly male human voice. With that, the whole line began to move. And whether or not they were ready for death, they continued up to the container.
