The Dawn of Chaos: Part II
There are many things about this world that are simply a mystery, some not even alluded to in texts. Certain knowledge, seemingly forever beyond the bounds of common logic. The First Age is but the beginning of our understanding, for that is as far back as the texts we have today reach. The wisdom of the so-called Archaic Period has been long lost, but perhaps there are echoes of what happened then that still resonate today. Certain occurrances that simply cannot be explained... Certain events that seem almost scripted...
Alongside the recent Corrorian aggression, strange things have been happening on Earthia. The people of Dharonia and Aenoria have both noted mysterious flickering portals in the vicinity of their cities. These are unstable portals linking to unknown destinations, and so far no Scions or Auroranoks could manage to stabilize them. There have also been some unusual tremors around Maldenar, although the source is not known to be anything extraordinary.
However, the rising confusion on Earthia is not the largest thing to take place at this time...
The Corrorians, who have recently blockaded Regulus 1, have remained in orbit for many days. The Aphorites have made repeated failed attempts at negotiation, simply receiving no response from the Corrorians. It seems that the Aphorites are being ignored, and with them being at a major disadvantage, they have their fate resting in the hands of those directing the Corrorian forces.
The whole planet of Regulus 1 and its massive Aphorite empire seemingly came to a quiet standstill. That was at least until the Corrorians were given a grave order...
Without warning, the entire fleet of destroyers began bombarding the nearly planet-wide city from orbit. Fighters were scrambled as the only possible way to lessen the damage, but they were destroyed before they even left the atmosphere. The entire planet was burning... And by the end of the attack the city was reduced to rubble.
The attack came to an abrupt end, followed by hours of waiting for validation that the Aphorites were no more... With the order from Earthia, the fleet of destroyers re-entered hyperspace and left the system, now confirmed to be devoid of all significant life.
One Corrorian ship remained in that system, however... A modified AX-72 broadcasting no transponder sequence. A few minutes after the fleet left the system, the mysterious transport entered hyperspace and launched itself in an entirely different direction.
**********************************************
Meanwhile, back in the city of Corroria, an admiral was discussing the recent attack on Regulus 1 with an officer who was on his ship...
"By the way, was the source of the disruption located?" he asked the officer.
"What disruption?" the officer replied, followed by a long pause, "Oh, where our sensors skipped to another system. It's probably a bug in the navigation computer, ever since they updated the database we've been experiencing little glitches here and there. It was probably recalling something in its memory, a previous destination of your ship. What I don't know, however, was what caused that positron discharge from the planet before we attacked. Probably doesn't matter, though."
"I hate these intelligent computers, why can't they just do what you tell them anymore? They have a mind of their own... If we ever get stuck in a shortcut through a supernova remnant again I'm just going to break that thing."
"But how would we get back home?"
"I'll leave that up to you." |
|
