((OOC: If you want to join in, sign up on the OOC thread first. Also, you might mention if any of your characters are... relatively unexpendable, so nobody tries to put them in too tight of a corner. In my case, that's just Xhertahk himself. His lieutenants can be rebuilt using their last memory dump, if necessary, although that would take a while.
Anyway, there's a dawn of steel and fire coming. Let the darkness begin!))
A ship drifted through space under minimal power. Within its armor-plated 100 meter frame there was silence, unbroken even by the sound of life support systems, and gloom, illuminated only by traces of ultraviolet at the controls and two pairs of dimly glowing red points. Then the owner of the larger, more triangular pair spoke. Xhertahk’s voice has a strange, whirring quality that, in human listeners, always suggests images of countless gears spinning in unimaginably complex patterns.
“Any unexpected developments while I’ve been away?”
The second pair of crimson visual receptors was set in the helmet-shaped head of a drone controlled by Dark of Night, Xhertahk’s most advanced creation and foremost lieutenant. Although not exactly a conventional AI, this entity was much closer than his master, and better suited to quickly processing several decades of recordings from the sensor arrays that Xhertahk had concealed on Chanveer’s three small moons some two centuries ago.
“Nothing major. I’ve compiled the highlights for you. Transmitting to the Harvester now.”
Xhertahk interfaced with his ship’s computer directly to observe these excerpts, then gave a faint hiss of satisfaction.
“Good. No need to adjust my plans. I’m taking Harvester in. Find someplace to park yourself where you won’t be obvious – and deploy sensor drones, so that if anyone else turns up, you’ll know about it.”
With Dark of Night’s drone in standby mode, Xhertahk activated Harvester’s maneuvering drives and gradually twisted the ship toward Chanveer. As the navigational computer finalized the range, Xhertahk configured a shield for stealth and powered up the space-splitter drive. Its spatial distortion brought the Harvester to around 500,000 km from Chanveer, and a second, more precise, jump took the ship to the edge of the planet’s atmosphere. Protected from visual observation, Xhertahk brought his vessel drifting quietly down to land in a remote, uninhabited stretch of mountains.
By this time, Dark of Night had finished scattering his drones, hidden the battleship that was his body, and returned much of his focus to the hyperlinked drone about the Harvester. He followed his master as Xhertahk stalked through the cargo hold, ignoring the three powered-down drones belonging to the rest of Xhertahk’s tiny fleet and various crated battle robots and activating the half dozen construction models. Xhertahk unstrapped a hover cart from near the ship’s ramp, led his minions outside, and started giving orders.
“Constructors, assemble and initialize a heavy support crawler, schematic S0107. Once it is active, begun work on the schematic designated TEMP0104 ‘Initial Base of Operations’. You will answer to Dark of Night while I am away. Dark, keep them working smoothly. If any natives discover the site, kill them. Any sign of outside technology, call me at once. I’m going to do some scouting. I want to see these people directly.”
~~~(Several years later)~~~
The town of Shantus was far enough from any border that it rarely saw military recruiting parties, much less combat. Although a few large predators stalked the deep woods, none of them were ever seen near the town. Nobody thought that there was any danger near the fringes of the settlement, or worried about youngsters going about on their own nearby. Certainly Lusebal Carpenter never thought she might get into trouble while gathering fruit just outside the town, and she didn’t have time to realize she was wrong when the stun bolt struck her from behind.
While Xhertahk held Lusebal, unconscious, in the small medical facility he’d set up in the Harvester’s passenger compartment, her family and friends searched in vain for any sign to explain her disappearance. They had all but given up when she stumbled out of the forest five days later – bruised, scratched, and hungry, with no memory of her recent experiences. But she recovered without any sign of lasting harm, and over the years, most of her neighbors forgot the incident completely. Lusebal grew up to be one of the loveliest women in town. She had a long, healthy, and largely happy life, outliving two husbands along the way. Her daughters were all at least as pretty as she was, and if anyone ever thought it odd that none of them had sons… well, it never crossed their minds that it might be anything more than just odd.
And Xhertahk watched Lusebal’s children, and other families in other towns across Chanveer, and marked phase 1 of his field test as a complete success.
~~~(Over a century later)~~~
All around Thavach, the ghouls stood waiting. It was unheard of – ghouls never waited when there was prey to be had! Every waking moment, they were either hunting or working on their latest catch. And yet for almost an hour now, ghouls had been gathering to stand motionless at the edges of the village. There were far too many for one village to fight off, and most of Thavach’s people had crowded into the village square, clutching weapons and wondering what to make of this unprecedented situation. Then the monsters cleared an opening on one side, and a strange figure covered in dark purple metal stalked into the village. It had a large, blocky head with triangular red eyes near the top and a protruding jaw lined with gleaming, steel teeth. It had long, spindly limbs with spiked elbows, taloned fingers, and feet composed of three knife-like blades. And when it spoke, all the villagers thought of intricate patterns of spinning gears.
“People of Thavach, I am Xhertahk. And by my will alone, the ghouls spare your lives! Obey me, and I shall protect you from them – and any other outside danger. I will lead you to power and a life your ancestors could barely dream of! But if you defy me, the ghouls shall have every last one of you this very day.”
Gray-haired Danal Cooper was the first to reply. Like many of the villagers, he had lost friends and family to the marauding ghouls, and he scowled and hefted his rifle as he shouted.
“And how is it that you can control the ghouls, then? They don’ talk, and none can get ‘em to listen, so why do they listen t’you?”
Xhertahk’s reply was cold, calm, and matter of fact.
“They obey my will because I made it their nature to do so when I created them.”
The old man’s snarled curse was drowned out by the crack of his gun as he fired, and several other villagers started to raise their weapons. But the bullet bounced off Xhertahk’s blocky head in a flash of colored light, without making even the slightest dent in its metal surface. His right hand shimmered, and in the blink of an eye his arm had become some strange gun. A dazzling, white flash lit up the town square, and Danal Cooper fell with half his chest reduced to an empty, steaming ribcage. As the villagers looked on in shock, Xhertahk spoke again – his voice now as deep as distant thunder, but still perfectly calm.
“You possess no weapon that can harm me, but I will not tolerate such defiance. Will any other among you stand against your master?”
For a moment, they remained too stunned to react. Then, one by one, the residents of Thavach knelt. Xhertahk gave a faint, satisfied hiss.
“Good. If any among you are sick or injured, come forth. I shall see to your treatment.”
They had all seen the stick. Now it was time for a carrot.
~~~(Three days later)~~~
In the face of the ghouls, even the bitterest of enmities could crumble. Along many of Chanveer’s disputed borders, the battling armies had joined together against the common enemy that rose from the grave. With plenty of weaponry, strong defensive positions, and the training to work together effectively, they could handle all but the largest groups of ghouls. But they had no chance at all when Dark of Night arrived with three of Xhertahk’s heavy support crawlers.
The massive vehicles were recognizable as tanks, but bigger and far more advanced than anyone on Chanveer had ever seen. The central turret, holding a 6 meter gun, clearly had no room for a crew. The sharply sloped hull, some 10 meters long and 5 across, bore no sign of view ports or exhaust pipes. Many of the details were obscured behind narrow bulldozer blades on the front, but smaller turrets could be seen on each corner. As the three crawlers ground forward with no detectable engine noise, Dark of Night’s two-meter tall armored drone was hardly noticeable. They fired mercilessly on any movement, blasting right through trenches and bunkers with tremendous explosions, and shrugged off all return fire like rain.
Despite their discipline and determination, the soldiers could not hold against this assault. It was mere minutes before they broke and fled; with the crawlers pursuing and firing upon the largest groups, they had no choice but to scatter. Those that made it away from the battlefield were easy prey for the ghouls.
~~~(Two days later)~~~
Atop the walls of Burast, guards waited with great spotlights and heavy machineguns. Around those walls were scattered the smoldering remains of bonfires and the scorched bones of the ghouls that fell in the last assault. After their latest failure, the ghouls had retreated out of sight of Burastian patrols, but the guards remained vigilant. They were protecting what might be their civilization’s only chance of survival. No ghoul could have snuck past their watchful eyes and sweeping lights. Xhertahk and his gunbots, concealed by cloak-configured shields, were a different matter.
Within those walls, in a chamber at the heart of Burast, Lord Saevin Burath was overseeing the final tests of an experimental transmitter. He looked over the readings as his assistants activated each of its components in turn, then nodded.
“Everything seems to be functioning as predicted. If this thing will work at all, it’s ready to use. Set it to omnidirectional and start the transmission.”
Burath strode into the middle of the room, and the device flung his words and image out to the stars.
="I… I hope this works. We never had a chance to test it before the war knocked us out of space. Never intended to use it at all until we were ready to reach for the stars. But I don’t know what else to try. We need help, urgently. I don’t think anyone on the planet can fix the mess we’re in now. The war was more than bad enough… centuries of progress, gone in days, and we will never know how many millions of people died when the missiles started flying. But at least we knew what happened, and Chanveer was gradually pulling through the damage. Now, all across the world, people are dying… and worse than dying. Vampires stalk the night, killing at random. Armies of ghouls gather in the wilderness, abducting travelers and raiding towns for fresh meat. They shrug off blades, and most bullets hardly faze them. I always thought that such creatures were merely myths, but I’ve seen them with my own eyes, rising from their graves! Only fire puts them down for good, or a stake through the heart, if you’re very lucky. And now there’s something else. I’ve had reports of groups of soldiers, slaughtered. Of bodies found with wounds like nothing anyone has seen before. The villagers speak of demons in the mountains. It sounds absurd, but I don’t know what to believe any more. All I know is that there are forces working on Chanveer that we cannot fight.
“I’ve transmitted our coordinates… I hope you can read them. I beg you, please send help! We’ll find some way to pay our debt, even if it means daring the ruins. Here in Burast, we have enough firepower to hold off the ghouls. But we can’t fight them in the open; our small arms aren’t reliable against them. And the villages haven’t-"=
He was interrupted by a loud explosion, and the entire building shook. But the transmission continued, punctuated by screams and gunfire, as Burath called his people to arms and took up a heavy carbine. The door to the inner chamber was beyond the transmitter’s field of view, but Burath remained visible while he directed the others into defensive positions and stood ready with his gun aimed. Then came a tremendous crash, and fragments of wood scattered across the floor as all the guns opened fire at once. A white flash filled the room; bolts of crimson energy hissed across the transmitter’s view. Burath was down, his flesh untouched beneath his light body armor, but his head reduced to an empty skull. Then, abruptly, the transmission was cut off.
