~*~

Excerpt: The Colonies:

~*~

 

Ansidar

(what is called on the Earth: Iapetus)

          The light from the central sun sparkles from the residential towers, the serenity of the scene belying the frantic preparations for war occurring in specific locations on the surface below the towers and elsewhere around the entire globe.  Every Battle Hub is being equipped, every ship stands at the ready, Ansidar would not be caught unawares again!

          Melangi Modi on the Fourth planet and Sea of the Sun on the far side of Earth’s moon have brokered a pact, their goal is to have Ansidar once and for all.  Ah, yes, ‘once and for all’ yet again, once more around, dear Warriors, there shall be losers and winners, as there have been winners and losers.  All the same.

          The goal is foolish and futile in its repetition, played out to all possible outcomes for centuries back into darkened antiquity.  But there are no Commanders anywhere capable of seeing that, dutiful Warriors all, they have long been Designated, their Settings insuring unwavering focus and relentless dedication.  The words of the Brains are weakling pap.  Stay quiet!   Play your numbers and tend the newborn, the dying and the dead.  That is your Designation.  Peace!  Be still!  We, the strong, The Warriors, prepare for glory!

          Capturing Ansidar guarantees nothing more precious than can be found in either of the locations set to attack Ansidar.  It is a play for power, a jockeying for control and dominion.  An obsession that has consumed an entire people for so long all racial memory of any other condition has vanished.  Such truths are accessible now only in Data Hubs stored in forgotten reaches of ancient libraries waiting for generations, present and future, who no longer care to know the truth anymore than did their predecessors.

          ‘Brains’ know the codes and manipulate the algorithms, heal the injured and bury the dead, birth and nurture future great Warriors who will have their own glories one day, and they serve.  ‘Warriors’ train at projecting death through their orbs, planning great plans, strategizing glorious strategies, calculating casualties, master tacticians at their tactics.  All dream of the next battle, some fearing every aspect of it, some in eager anticipation of it.  Children sleep with battle in their hearts, seeds of future futile armies, set to kill for killing’s sake.  An eternal game of Capture the Flag, with real death as the only reward.

          Is there a Warrior intellect left in any of The Colonies balanced enough to parse the situation?  Most probably not.  They are all mad, you see.  With a cold madness that appears sane, all logical statements and reasoned arguments, that assiduously ignore what is critically important in the obsessive pursuit of what is laughably inconsequential.  Diving into Hell on glory-wrapped words, dying for the fun of it.  Selah.  Amen.

          They joke about the Primitives of Earth, with their sticks and stones, then swords and arrows, now guns and bombs.  There is something else there, however, that protects those Primitives from the war-lust of The Colonies, it is their shared love for the place all in The Colonies call Heaven, the Mother’s Cradle of all Mankind.  It is sacrosanct and none would ever harm it.  If any ever interfere there, it is to prevent harm, not cause it.  Only one sane thought between the whole of them: The Earth must survive.

~*~

Melangi Modi

(what is called on the Earth: Cydonia)

          Ansidar prepares, and she is most capable and best defended of us all.  It will require the concerted  and singularly dedicated efforts of both in our alliance to best her on her own ground.  Ah, but what a prize!

          The areas near the Tunnels to the north are a problem again, Geologists have discovered some shifting due to a small tremor and require a few ships to do a survey.  Warriors are assigned, the ships deployed, but time is short.  Searching the area near the northernmost exposed tunnels, a new fissure is discovered that appears to reveal a large cavern beneath it.  Archaeologists should be deployed, but there are no extra resources available at present, it must wait until after the war.

~*~

Darkling’s Walk

          Life is not always so easy out of the loop, but being whole, in mind as well as in body, is worth the price.  So is peace.

          Glass tubes chase away in random directions, carrying the sparse traffic of the dispossessed.  Isolated pariahs, self-exiled, they have made comfortable homes within the tubes, and a hidden colony has grown up.  A name was chosen: Darkling’s Walk, a proud acceptance of the epithet thrown at those who refuse the Setting Ritual and so remain free from Official Designation.  It is strange that those who voluntarily consign themselves to the narrow blinders of Designation call those who refuse to be blinded ‘Darklings’.

          There is only one portal here, but it is hidden from the grid, left unpowered, no one uses it because that might result in its location being detected.  No one wants to go elsewhere in any event.  They have their orbs and their Data Hubs, but none are used for battle, they left battles behind, that is why they are here.  There is no war, no killing.  Death when it comes is usually long in coming, a natural end to a long, peaceful life.  Children laugh and play together, both male and female as equals, each with their own abilities, strengths and weaknesses.  It is a strong community, because love and peace hold it strong.

          Situated within the deepest mazes of the tubes, where caverns open out into immense plazas with vaulted ceilings, are the food production facilities, as protected as an unprotected people can make them.  Around that heart are the other production areas, machines and shops that provide the varied needs of the community.  A monetary system of currency has never developed, since they have never known one, but there is individual ownership, according to talent, and citizens barter back and forth, taking pride in their abilities and artisanship.

          Who built the tubes and constructed the underground plazas no one knows, they are from before the time when Man first colonized Melangi Modi, which was itself such an abandoned construct.  That is the only memory left from those times, well that and the memory of Earth.  But there was someone who predated Man here and, though Man’s scientists were once brilliant enough to have discovered who with a little effort, they never did.  Then Marlari, the brilliant scientist, created the Setting Ritual, with its mentally crippling Official Designations, thus assuring no scientist would ever be so brilliant again.

          For most of the citizens of Darkling’s Walk, The Colonies are a thankfully forgotten memory that seldom enters conversation, even Melangi Modi.  However, today ships from Melangi Modi have been seen above the tubes, moving slowly in what seem to be search patterns.  The transparent tubes offer little camouflage other than the huge connecting bands, but the citizens of Darkling’s Walk seldom venture into any tube that has an extended length of it exposed above-ground.

          Are the ships searching?  If so, why?  This is a bad time for it, there has been a cave-in above the plaza joining a section of the residential tunnels.  With those ships patrolling, there will be no way to repair the damage, and that area, no longer air-tight, must remain sealed and unused, displacing many families.

~*~

Sea of the Sun

          We are pulled away from war and toward the Earth.  The Earth is in danger!

          Those from Sea of the Sun Designated as Academics, with the enhanced impartiality singular to their designation, have studied the current state of civilization on Earth and reported.  The cataclysmic collapse of the primary power structures there has left many dangerous individuals with too free a rein.  These individuals possess both nuclear armaments and the insanity necessary to use them.  That cannot be allowed, the potential is great that too many who live on Earth could be harmed, unless something is done immediately.  The Academics have consulted the corresponding Data Hubs in their libraries and correlated their findings with current reports.  It is dire.  The Earth is in danger.

          To that end, there is the highest Designation: Infiltrator, imbued with heightened tactics, cunning and stealth granted by their Infiltrator’s Orbs that protect and aid them in completing their missions.  They are the Holy Saboteurs.  Two were sent to rendezvous with two Academics and a Brain placed previously on Earth and coordinate plans of action.  The first target: Iran.

          But there has been a complication.  When they did not report, a one-man cloak was sent to the rendezvous point to investigate.  The Infiltrators and their compatriots had been murdered!  Though staged to appear as though it was a Warrior attack, the holes in the exteriors of the boat and plane were inconsistent with it, no Warrior did that.  Nor would any Warrior attack Infiltrators, who are the closest thing in The Colonies to Holy Representatives, having as their only purpose the continued safety of the Earth.  A Warrior prays Infiltrators succeed, he does not, would never murder them.

          But why would someone want to make it appear Warriors from The Colonies had attacked an Earth vessel?  Those of Earth are unaware of the existence of The Colonies, much less our battle techniques.  Who has the capabilities to so closely represent such an attack?  Nothing in the Data Hubs explains who might have such ability, but it is certain the current technologies of Earth are incapable of reproducing the signature wounds of an orb blast.

          The message has been sent to the other colonies: “Our Infiltrators have been murdered!  It was not done by the humans of Earth as a result of their mission, it was represented as being a Warrior attack.  Their mission was not completed.”  Shock ripples through the ranks of the Warriors within The Colonies as the Brains weep.  The preparations for war slow and still.  The one sane thought shared by all: “The Earth must survive!”

          In the library, a Data Hub marked as reserved for ‘Religions of the Earth’ explains why, but will anyone download it?

~*~