It's the year 2046 in Ape City. Caesar has ruled over the other apes for more than 55 years. He's now aged to 72 years on this planet, the ne he has revolutionized so much, morphed, altered, like clay in his hands. 28 years ago, after a battle with the mutants of the city and the murder of his son, Cornelius II, humans were run out of Ape City, and Caesar had another son, Armando II. Now, as something is flung through the sky, our story begins.
It's a cool autumn morning when the ship comes falling out of the sky. They can barely see it from the village. Only the gorillas have already woke up today, for target practice in the fields. A scar of white against the blue sky. When General Macellarius sees the fiery ball strike down, he and his score of soldiers ride on horseback inland.
About halfway through their ride, they see a land rover ride up behind them, pass the pack, and stop in front of Macellarius. Out pops Caesar, leader of the apes, and his son, Armando.
"Hello there General," says the aged chimpanzee. "Where are you and your soldiers headed off to at this hour?"
"Caesar," Macellarius salutes his leader. "Something fell out of the sky a few miles east. We are going to investigate."
"Ah," Caesar exclaims. "We shall accompany you. Also, next time, please inform me before you go."
"Yes sir," says Macellarius.
The army marches forward until they meet with a smoking crater in the ground. The hole is about one hundred yards in diameter, the carcass of a large spaceship taking up most of it. Several engines are attached to the sides of the ship, heat radiating from them.
Armando steps out of the rover.
"My goodness," he yells over the hum of the machine. "This is amazing."
Several of the gorillas gather at the edge of the crater.
"Is it a meteor?" one asks.
"No," says Caesar, using a cane to direct himself out of the vehicle. "That's a spaceship."
As Caesar's sentence ends, an explosion shoots fire from the machine's fuselage. A piece of debris shoots up into the sky, smoke jetting from its tail end. The chunk of metal falls to the ground several yards away.
"Soldiers," yells Macellarius. "Investigate!"
The soldiers charge over to the burning metallic object without horses. Rust and ash cover the object. It has a sulphurous smell to it, which burns at the apes' nostrils. Then they all notice something else coming from the machine: oil. A trail has made its way from the spaceship to this scrap.
Suddenly, fire shoots up across the grass from the main ship to the piece of debris. One of the gorillas is caught in the flames. As he runs around in pain, all of the other apes are panicking. Some of them spray their burning comrade with their canteen water, but it doesn't work. The smell of sulphur is changed to that of burning hair.
A streak of grey shoots across the field and at the burning ape. The flames disappear, replaced with the dull-colored foam, within which the gorilla is buried. A hand shoots up from the suds, hairless, then drops back down.
Gorillas and chimps alike look to the hunk of metal. Standing there at four feet tall is a stocky creature. It's smooth grey skin, blue freckles, and big black eyes bring the apes to fear. The creature's large head has two small slits for nostrils and another for a mouth. Its only clothing is a conforming black one-piece suit. It holds a silver sphere with a black hose coming off of it.
Recognizing the thing as a weapon, the gorillas hold their guns up to the thing. More than ten shots are fired into the things head and torso. It falls back against the piece of metal, which has changed, a door on it having opened. That was where the thing came from.
"Wait," yells Caesar, a bit too late. He hobbles over to the life-form's body. Blue blood pouring from the thing's wounds slowly oxidizes purple.
"Caesar," one of the soldiers calls. "Get away from that thing!"
You,
Caesar feels the voice in his mind. A slight headache comes with it.
And he knows its source immediately.
He looks down at the creature before him. It weezes painfully, obviously about to die.
You are Caesar?
"Yes," responds the ruler of the apes.
Listen, you must leave this place, and take your people with you! Go some place safe, far from technology.
As the words come, Caesar's head begins to hurt more and more. He clenches his temples, yelling in pain.
"That thing's doing it!"
BANG!
BANG!