So, my newest, latest.... And greatest... And ONLY thing I've posted here.
The Araphan Marauders. An ancient race blessed by Deios with the Sympathy, and cursed with hate. From the dawn of time, there was no reason for anyone to hate them, the peaceful nomads, unoffending. But the sorrow of an Arapha was the greatest joy a man could have in this world, and any hate felt good, right, and true to men. All this brought grief to the peaceful Araphan. They put up with all these violations of their dignity, and still sent gifts to them, helped them develope... Until one day, they left Terascion. One of their engineers had teamed up with a Shaman of the People, and had created a spacecraft large enough for the entire race could fit in. They left the wretched planet, and the solar system. Indeed, they left the galaxy, through a wormhole. This is where this tale of sadness and sorrow begins. A small star cluster outside galaxy Chinoptarae.
"Now that you are ready for your second lesson," the proffessor of Paladian Arts said, "let us review the most important thing you learned from your first lesson." The professor was a tall, fair-skinned and brawny Arapha, but had the essence of elegance about him. There was a burning in his eyes, that gave him the constant appearance of being at the verge of tears. "If we cannot push forward the Light, we can hold back the Dark," he continued, "you must recognize a Burning in your soul, where a piece has been taken." The apprentices complied, and shuddered at the seering pain in their minds. But they held fast, and it soon smoked away. "Once you have done this last activity, you may leave, if that is your wish." The young Araphan quickly melded soul to heart, and sighed in unison. The professor nodded, paced over the door, and blessed each apprentice as they class left. Once this was finished, he turned to the classroom, and saw one of the lower-ranking apprentices waiting expectantly. The professor smiled to himself, and took on an unapproving look "Caede, staying after class again, are we?" The professor growled. "Yes, professor." Caede responded, not looking shaken by the professor's appearence. "Please, call me Jaeun, Caede, we are friends," He laughed, "I presume you want to test your blade skills again, as usual." "That, and something else." Caede responded, slowly drawing his long, curved blade. "OH? Is it about Araphae?" Jaeun chortled, also drawing his blade. "Why do you tease me so?" Caede asked, obviously annoyed, stepping to back to the wall, and putting his blade in front of him, at an angle. Jaeun slowly advanced, and replied "Because I know that's what you want to ask." Caede crouched low to the ground, in a defencive stance, silent. "What do you want to know?" "It's..... It's embarrassing" Obviously amused, Jaeun reponded "Then why are you asking?" "Because I'm not sure WHO to ask!", Caede snarled. "Well, whatever the outlanders have told you, it only applies to them." "What do you mean?" "Our physiology, it's different than theirs." Looking slightly confused, Caede turned his head slightly to the left. "I don't understand, I thought all races were equal--" He was cut off by a sentry bursting into the room. "Commander Jaeune!", he yelled, "Outworlders!" The enjoyment left the match as quickly as it had started. They both rushed out of the room, down the hall, up the stairs, and into the courtyard. The sentry hadn't been yelling for anything; it was a living hell.
I'm gonna be writing this in sections, because my computer crashes, and I don't want hours of work lost.
Ythir were speeding overhead, raining down death on the city, but being held off by the Helios defence. A column of Vhathne, backed by dah'rte artillary were pounded the streets, and a small group of Space Marines were trying to hold them off long enough for reinforcements to arrive. Another conflict, in the courtyard; a group of Scyk were being slaughtered by a PlasmaBlade Juggernaut. Blissfully unafraid of pain, or death, he was taking a toll on the Outworlders. He was being covered by a Space Marine, and two shield carriers. Still, there were many Scyk, and more were arriving by the minute. Jaeune and Caede rushed into the fray, cutting Scyk down left and right. There were soldiers in every building, defending the civilians. The Araphan troops seemed to be winning, mainly, until three Carbetts landed outside the city, and another bombarded from above. More Outworlders poured into the city, flooding the streets, crushing the resistance. Caelde was broken of from Jaeune, and fought his way to the Juggernaut. Side by side, they were twins of terror, using their superior strength and skill to make up for the Scyk numbers, but still they came. The marine and the shield carries were down, and there was no trace of Jaeune, but still they fought on, back-to-back. The Scyk came, and were killed. Then came the armour. The shielded units. The artillary. It was too much. Araphax squadrons poured out of the sky, destroying many tanks, bu their numbers held, and then increased. The battle seemed hopeless, until, without warning, the Carbetts left. THEN, the strike fighters came, destroying armoured units, Arbitor cannons destroyed the shielded units. Space Marines poured through the city, and the Outworlder invasion force was obliterated. As medical droids went through the city, healing the wounded, and on occasion putting the mortally wounded to rest, they finally found the courtyard battlefield. it was a grim place to see. There was blue blood on the walls, trees, ground, everything. Here and there, there was an Arapha corpse, but mainly Scyk, and the occasional Bhuldos. Finally, they found a Juggernaut, standing guard over the body of a Paladian Apprentice. The droids checked him, and healed him, for the most part. They also found another form, a professor of the Paladian Arts. Badly wounded, but easily healed. A weeks after the battle, Jaeune hobbled through the medical facilities dorm, going through them ArathaBenathically, until he found Caede. He went into the curtained room, just as a medical droid was removing the last bandages from his head. Caelde sat for a moment, and put his hand to his eyes. "I... I can't... see".
Third installment of my story about the Araphan culture. Which I made up, BTW. I see an imperfection. It's supposed to be Caede, not Caelde. Mah bad, readers. And Also, it's a week, not a weeks.
A year had passed since he had been release from the medical facility. He had enjoyed the freedom, even though he was blind. In a way, he could see more clearly, only feeling the aura of Araphan all around him. He felt sorrow, compassion, and pity. He felt the ground beneath him sob, poisened by war. His heart churned, with a deep ache. He decided to leave the city, and go abroad, with a small group of mercenaries, and his friend, Jaeune. Jaeune had left the university to help Caede on his journey, covering the cost of the trip, and hiring the mercenaries Caede selected. Strangely, he had hired only Genesis Red mercenaries. Also on the journey, a Juggernaut, retired from service to help his friend. They took a transport to a wormhole, and transferred to several shielded fighters the Maenarche had given to them, and jumped through the wormhole. Now in another galaxy, were shot in between two black holes, at transphasic speeds. This had affects on them. Firstly, their fighters were smashed together, and melded into a strange tunnels, and heavily shielded ship. Secondly, they were change, dramatically. The Mercenaries were hit by console explosions, pierce by energy and metal, and turned into cyborg-looking beings. They were turned into huge, hard, and powerful monsters. Only their minds remained unchanged, if not bettered. The three Araphan were changed dramatically. To understand the change, you must understand what a normal Arapha looks like. they resemble fauns, but lack hooves and the body hair. Instead, they have human feet, but rear facing joints. Their horns are long, and general more like scales then horns. They lightly curve back, and usually have on larger rhino-looking horn, a little bit above their forehead. This also curves back, but not as much. They have tentacle-like groths on the back of their usually hairless heads. These are called Taynae, and are usually put on the shoulders, and as rank insignia. The longer th Taynae, the higher the rank. The thicker the Taynae, the older the higher the respect. Their skin is white, tinged blue, shiny, and leathery. Their eyes glow, one solid colour. Usualy a light blue, and sometimes gold. If the subject is blind, they are a dull black colour. If they are dead, it's a dull colour of what it used to be. They are larger than humans, averaging around 7-8 feet, and juggernauts exceeding 9 feet. They are solid creatures, and do not digest fat, as they use a special type of acid to sustain themselves if they are lacking food. In this way, they do not become overweight. They usually weigh close to 875 pounds, if they are average size. Juggernauts usually way 1/2-1 tonne. They are different from humans in several important ways. 1st, their shoulders and chests are placed differently. Their shoulders have a pronounced shed from the rest of the body. Their shoulders are usually 2 1/2-3 feet wide. Their rib cages are in a v shape, to hibit upper body strength. Imagine a human, but with the upper rib cage wider, and the lower rib cage smaller. When you have this mental picture, you understand generally what that is. The bone placement is different, the heart is larger, with another pumping muscle above it, there are 4 lungs, and the back bone is not directly on the back. It is farther forward, allowing for more support of the wieght. The shoulders are ike sockets, connected to another bone, that's straight, that connects to the back bone. In this way, their shoulders are more powerful. This race was created for strength, and speed, not agility.
They began to feel the affects of this morphing process. Their eyes started to burn with a raging fire, the glow visible in the darkness. Their hands and feet started growing claws, their armour started shattering. It was ray shielded, and was still shattering. The pieces flew all over the cocpit, all over the ship, all over the galaxy. Pieces of burning ray-shielded metal were flying out of warp, unsynced with time, raining death on different dimensions, times. Their Taynae starts to diappear, their small, straight, sharp teeth became large and pointed fangs. They too were turning into monsters. The juggernaut became one with his armour, his skin melded into a hard shell, his fangs now become huge daggers, his cheeks were replaced by an empty space, showing his maw, more like a meat grinder than a mouth now. By the time they came out of speed, he was a jagged unstoppable monster, with the mind of a battle-hardened warrior. Caede steered the ship to the nearest planet, and blasted through the atmosphere. they made a crash-landing through solid rock, and hit the sand on the other side. The ship rolled a few hundred yards, where it stopped. The battered crew opened the exit hatch, and crawled out onto the sand. They thanked Deios for their lives, and rested for a few minutes. Once they were rested, they went to look for supplies in the ship. There were a few laser rifles, and two crates of Cynaptis gel packs. Of the four medical droids they had taken, only one remained functional. They found a few packs of Phychion acid, enough for a few years. ONce the ship was completely stripped of supplies, they set out to the hole the had blasted in the lone mountain. After travelling for a few hours, they stopped for a rest. After almost a day of total silence, Caede decided to try his voice out. "Who's going to take first watch?" He asked. His voice sounded deeper than he had expectecd. "I might as well" one of the mercenaries intoned, metallicaly. "Alright. You mercs set up how you wanna have the watches, and I hope everyone understands why I'm not able to take the watch. I can pilot a ship, but it has neuro-controls."
He sensed his way over to where Jaeune and the Juggernaut were standing. They were arguing about something. He started to listen to what they were saying... "I think the contol indicators said there was some life signs on the other side of that mountain." "You can't be sure, they might have been malfunctioning" "I doubt it." "I'm thinking that we shouldn't go towards the mountain, but I'm not going to disagree with Caede." "I'm going to scout ahead in the morning." "Alright. But be careful." He had heard enough. He went back to the camp, and started collecting his belongings.
He waited until the watch was changing, and snuck out of camp. He ense only sand for miles, and started running like only an Arapha can run. He sped over the sand, strangly duneless. After running for an hour, he reached the edge of the mountain. He sense energy, not life. Clambering up the mountain was none too easy, because of his size, but after two-and-a-half hours of toiling, he reached the edge of the hole. When he reached the rim, he was filled with strange energy. He started running through the tunnel, sensing his way through the maze. After a few minutes, he felt something pushing against him, but he kept on. Soon, he started feeling the pressure. He couldn't sense anything touching him, only energy. He kept running, and suddenly, all the energy in his body left, and he felt like his eyes would pop out of their sockets. The crushing pressure, and a sensation of being wet filling him up to the brim. He fell to the floor, and slept. When he awoke, he sensed something like a cage around him. He heard someone saying something garbled. "Sharapha.... Alamna..... Arha Arapha.... Shinoesae..." When he heard "Arapha", he sat up, and something hit his head. He struck out at it, and felt something pierce his arm. He suddenly felt tired.... He slumped back down, and slipped into a deep sleep. When he woke up, he could see. He was in a hut of some sort. There was a huge rip in the top, right above where he lay. He looked around, but the hut was empty. He sat up, and felt for his weapons. He esnsed that they were a few yards away. He crawled over to the flap that served for a door, and tried to get out. It was too small. He pushed his way through, taking out the front half of the hut as he went. He stood up to his full height, and looked around. There were small humans all around him, in the middle of daily tasks, staring up at him, not moving. He went over to the tent his weapons were in. There was a guard at the tent, who tried to stop him with a spear. Caede looking at him for a moment, and gently pushed him aside. He could feel life inside of the tent. He looked inside, only to see several women, cooking. They didn't scream. They didn't move. They just stared. He saw his weapons and supplies on one side, and took them. When he took his head out of the tent, and turned around, he was surrounded by men with spears. Behind them, two different figures. One, a man the size of an Arapha, and the other, a tall fair-skinned girl, armed with a small sword. Caede laughed. He laughed as he had never laughed before. He lifted his face to the sky, and roared with laughter. The warriors, obviously caught off-guard, looked at the large man for orders. The man too was dumbfounded. Only the girl kept her calm. She draw a knife, and rushed at Caede. He looked at her as she charged fearlessly. She hit him at full force. Both her weapons broke on his battle plate, and she hit the ground with a "THUD". He hlped her up, and started questioning them. "Where did you find me?" The girl, still calm, responded "In the pool of death." "Where is the nearest technological settlement?" She frowned and led him to the edge of a cliffside. Below there was a huge city, built around the wreck of something the size of the old flagship Nemesis. In fact, it was....
The sixth installment of the story. I just realised I've been puttin Jaeune, not Jaeun. Again, my bad. gah, lots of tyops. You'll have to forgive me. I don't have an editor.
Caede looked in shock at the broken remains of the once-invincable battlecruiser. Curiousity got the better of him, and he jumped down the cliff. He ended up in some kind of an undercity, all grey and dirty. He started walking through, and noticed the lack of life. In the buildings, tall as sentinal towers, and in the skies, there was alot of life, but down here, there was nothing. He looked up, and decided to climb. He jumped onto one of the buildings, and started clawing his way up, slowly, but surely. IN some of the windows, there were people, staring in amazement. Some aliens, some human, but not a single Araphan. He finally reached the top, and looked up again. There was some kind of floating building, large in size. He saw a passing open-top transport, and jumped onto the back. The driver turned around, and screamed in fear. Caede saw a wall up ahead, and jumped to another. The other trasnport crashed into the building, causing a huge explosion. The closed transport he was riding on swerve up, taking him about the building. He jumped down, landing on some kind of deck. No people there. The door was locked. He Clawed up the wall, and looked through the glass roof. Nothing. Empty. He scrambled over the roof, to a small door. He managed to get i open, and squeeze himself through. He fell a few meters, and hit the floor hard. He quickly got to his feet, and looked around. Everything was dark. He sensed a power console, next to a window. He walked over to it, and turned all the switches on. The room lighted up. There was a pool on the far side. There were several other rooms, all empty. This was going to be his home, and nobody could stop him. He went to what seemed to be a hangar, full of ships and some kind of infantry bikes. He got onto one of the bikes, and flew out the opening. He streaked at insane ground speeds downwards. Once he hit the street, he sped towards a what seemed to be a large building in the distance. Something glowing flew past him. When it hit a wall, it exploded. He looked back, and saw two humans, in shiny white armour. He Looked ahead, and grumbled. Another Glowing object hit a wall. He recognized what it was. Laser bolts. He took a small laser Pulser out of his belt, and cursed at himself for leaving his supply sack at the house. He looked back again, and started firing at the two armoured humans. One of the pulses hit the front runners Hoverbike, which exploded, and hit the second human's bike. He didn't wait to see what happened, he kept going towards the building in the distance....
Any constructive and not-so-constructive critisism is welcome. You can flame me, if ya like. Every man is entitled to his own opinion. (Not so sure about women though.) I'll be back to writing later today, or tomorrow.
After a few minutes, he could clearly see what it was -- A temple! When he arrived, there were people bustling everywhere. He could sense that they were warriors. They all wore swords. They all could sense him. He ran up the long stair way to the entrance, and stopped. He felt something, something tugging at his soul. Power. He walked through the archway, and entered the halls. He could feel it stronger now, tugging at him. His pace quickened, his curiousity grew. "What is this power?" He asked himself. Little did he know what he was getting into....
