“How long will it take for the human’s broken leg to heal?” the ship captain asked.
“Umm,” the first mate looked awkward, and put off answering for a long moment. “So it turns out, when humans say broken limbs, they are specifically refering to ones that have snapped bones inside. Apparently ones that aren’t attached anymore don’t count. They say it won’t just grow back, either.”
Ya know, we have a very unstable act going on here. How many times have you read a story about a hero, only to read in the book or watch in the movie as the hero has no skill or ability? How often is there a background story of the hero leading an army, only to find that it was more like a small group that the hero had no part of.
Stories don’t know how to describe someone gathering people, taking control, and leading. If at best the hero is a figure head.
So I’m going to explain how this works as best I can. We are a group of well trained entities, creatures, people, monsters, gifted, cursed, aliens, ancients, people. Our mission is to protect the majority of this planet’s human population from extinction and enslavement. We use any means necessary. If we need to kill 49 percent of the human population in order to save 51 percent of the world, then we will obviously deplete the world’s nuclear reserve before making that choice. We fight everything and anything. When we run, it’s to come back with something stronger.
We are not funded by any government or official group. There are individuals that are paid to gather various items that are either magical or not that create valuable resources that we use to trade for money in any country we see fit. We have humans immune to psychic powers that meet with various psychics to complete transactions. These basically come down to changing the opinions of politicians and law enforcement, or to even creating mass illusions that hide things that should remain hidden. We also manipulate memories, much of what you know of the world has only become recent. Mountains are only a few decades old, countries only recently formed, monsters were integrated into normal human society as animals only recently. Ask yourself … has the moon always looked like that? When did so many sodas come out? Why can’t I stop eating this food?
We give you thoughts and feelings in order to help divert your fears. Memories of a nuclear holocaust that nearly wiped out Canada. A brother or sister whom died when your home town was invaded by vampires. A scar or bruise that you now have but can’t remember the zombie that almost killed you last night. The monster in your window at night, staring at you, but the local telepath is sending out waves of soothing feelings in order to make you forget. Why do you think you just suddenly get scared? What did you see, but want to forget. There’s a reason why that episode of Doctor Who is so popular.
What doesn’t require the reaction of a heavily armed and well trained group can be taken care of by associate groups affiliated with us. We can’t be every where, but we can send resources where they need to go. These contacts took years to develope, and it took the near destruction of the planet for the people before me to cut all the red tape.
I have inherited the keys to a lot of jobs and missions from many organizations and groups. Most had no choice, but all of them were desperate for someone unaffected by the recent attack by Kain. I never really described what he did … but it was incredible destruction, that was thankfully kept inside of the wilds of Russia, so no casualties outside of the groups that stood against him. So now you know what it is that we do.
Hopefully you can forgive us for what we do. But it needs to be done.
Discovering signs of extraterrestrial life in the universe has been a highly sought-after field of inquiry throughout much of scientific history. Finding other life forms, whether they’re microscopic or similar to us, would undoubtedly revolutionize many areas of science and how we understand our place in the cosmos. While no real evidence has been found supporting the existence of extraterrestrial life, there are quite a few institutions dedicated to the search—and that search is continuing to get bigger.
The SETI Institute, one of the pillar institutions for the search, is ramping up its efforts by funding a variety of new initiatives…Continue Reading
Our guide rests in the shade of the Vherr-osh, the great sunspires. These glittering towers are composed of thousands of tiny chambers like the units of a compound eye, the inside of each lined with a photosynthetic “retina” protected from the extremes of the subarctic winters and summers.
The units are capped by a convex silica lens that refracts light into the chamber to maximize surface area for photosynthesis, while protecting the delicate living cells inside. The reflective lining beneath the lens thickens at the height of summer to prevent overexposure, and is also responsible creates a striking violet iridescence. The lenses are likely derived from silica spicules in the ancestral species; extant relatives still bear these spicules for anti-predation and structure.
These strange trees grow slowly, taking centuries to reach even 5 feet in height. Accounts from the nomads of the region suggest they can live for thousands of years beyond that. A Tuin clan legend attests that they first grew from the shed scales of a primordial bird as it circled the newly formed world. Mature forests such as this were already vanishingly rare by the time I was lucky enough to lay eyes on one. The inhospitable region where they grow is seldom visited by birgs, though just a few centuries before, these lenses were scraped away by the hundreds of thousands to make all manner of decorative windows, sun catchers, even primitive spectacles and telescopes. To this day, some Twowi nobility covet the iridescent crystals as an exotic and expensive jewelry.
In which we are reminded that Derek is an adult, and is also not all-knowing, no matter how smart he is.
Although he is leaps and bounds smarter than Sophia most of the time. :D
Thanks, as always, to @baelpenrose for being an awesome beta reader and keeping me on track! Reader shoutout this week goes to (i’m not making this one up) @gayassholeposts who literally just lost their minds on a reblog as I type this up.
Though they may resemble mankind in form, the Necrons are anything but human. This Xenos race once ruled the galaxy, braking and enslaving their former gods, but feel victim to their ambitions. Slowly they encased themselves in skeletal robotic bodies, sleeping the aeons away till their lords and masters reawaken to reclaim a tremulant and decaying galaxy.
