A long, long time ago the moon Titan housed two races.

Nobody knew when or why the first war began, but after centuries of warfare and uneasy truces, the last remaining people of the Enemy, the original name of this species lost in history, fled into the Holy Cryovolcano, Sotra Patera.

Inside this mountain was a system of caves where the priests offered to and lived in service of their Gods.

Alas this sanctuary couldn't protect them for long and when the army of the People of Ares invaded the caverns, the last of the Enemy were murdered.

The History of Titan around 1514 – Tea Huisman

After an important person of the Enemy dies, he or she is given a figurine to protect them after death from grave robbers or other enemies of the dead.

Those figurines are made from black basalt with an armor made from pieces of skin given by one of their bodyguards. When the deceased is buried, the guard who donated pieces of his skin, will kill himself while hanging above the statue so that his blood will spill on it.

The burial rituals of the Enemy

The Holy Caverns of Sotra Patera

The head priest walked towards the statue of the King of gods, within his arms a bundle of flowers. It was a worthy sacrifice as flowers where rare occurrences made possible by the grace of their gods.
The priest lays the bundle at the feet of the statue, when the Sotra Patera shudders and a loud bang echo's trough the caves. The group of people gathered for the first sacrifice of the day give a loud gasp when they see a crack make its way down the big statue of their god King.
The statue crumbles and big pieces of debris come crashing down upon the priests who are standing closed to the altar.
Cries of pain and fear fill the cave as people begin to shout.
When the dust settles, they see through the opening, the Peoples Army of Ares.

Illuminated by the light of their torches, the shaking group of people see how the faces of the soldiers are drawn in a grimaces and their eyes filled with hate and blood lust.
The two sides look each other in the eyes when the shocked silence is broken by the shouts of their commanders.
"Attack!"

With weapons drawn they pour trough, murdering their enemy left and right while they laugh.
Some of the Enemy fight back, unwilling to die on their knees while they beg for their lives.
Those who try to break out only make it to the back entrance of Sotra Patera, where they run into the soldiers who came up the small mountain path to mow down anyone who tries to run for the hills.

The rest of the Enemy who were too weak to attend the morning ceremony, are murdered in their beds.
Even the children aren't spared and mothers and fathers clutching the bodies of their children beg for an end to their misery.
They are not killed right away as the soldiers deal them many non-fatal wounds to make them enable to move.
After everyone is dead and only the cries and moans of the parents can be heard, the People of Ares withdraw.
They brick the opening closed as well as the front and back entrance as they mean to bury the last of the Enemy alive.

A thick fog of silence makes its way through the maze of caverns as after days of agony, the haples creatures draw their last breath. One by one the pitiful cries die down and peace is restored in Sotra Patera.

2214

When two figures break into the Cave of Gods, the silence inside Sotra Patera, is once again disturbed by the people of Ares.
Daan and his partner can't believe their eyes as they walk along the main corridor.
It has many side passages, which divide up in smaller pathways. They lead to smallers caves, where the residences of priests were located, which later served as homes for entire families during the war.
At the end of the main corridor, they enter a spacious cave called the Cave of Gods, where along its walls many crumbled statues of gods and goddesses are carved out without their heads and/or arms.
Only the gemstone guards at their divine feet, are still intact.
"They give me the shivers those guards.
My cousin says they are cursed and made of body parts."
Daan punches him in the shoulder. "Give me a fucking break.
Go back into the hallway and see if you can find a hidden entrance."
His partner rubs his sore shoulder and marches towards the entrance of the main cave. Meanwhile Daan examines every god and goddess in search of a hidden passage that could lead to the grave of the monarch.

After a day of searching every corner of every cave and corridor that ends in a wall, they find the statue of a nemesis which hides a narrow opening.
They crawl down the dripping corridor and come out in a high-arched cavern whose walls, unlike the cave of gods and the other smaller caves, are decorated with beautiful frescoes whose colours are not yet decayed with time.
Daan can't believe his luck when they discern two stone coffins as they walk towards the far side of the burrow.
He has finally found the final resting place of the Last King and Queen who ruled over the Enemy during the great war.
A loud bang next to him breaks his contemplation.

While Daan had stared at the image of the Queen that graced the top of her tomb, Grilt had taken out his crowbar and had started to break open the coffin.
He hadn't proceeded with much care and at the first bang Daan had looked at him angrily.
"Can't you be more careful?"
Grilt ignores him and continues with his work.
Shaking his head, Daan rolls up his sleeves and with joined forces they manage to lift the heavy top of the coffin. The top side removed they bent over the side of the tomb and look straight into the face of the Last King.
The black and white colour of his skin and the sharp features indicates his origin as Enemy, but the fiery red eyes Grilt expects to see at any moment, remain closed.
His enormous claws lay next to his out stretched body, and at his feet they find the statue of a Deathguard. It looks like its carved from black obsidian and its ruby eyes sparkle in the light of their torches.

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Daan is sleeping in his bed when he wakes up from a cold gust of wind. He slowly sits up and gets out of bed to close his window, when he hears downstairs the sound of something falling.
He quickly grabs the weapon lying next to his bed and sneaks down the stairs without making a sound.
First he goes towards the door and finds the locks in place and intact. Just like the windows on both sides of the room and the door to the garden.
He releases his grip on the weapon and shudders.
The deserted living room is ice-cold.
Maybe it was my imagination.
The face of Grilt appears before his mind's eye and silently laughs at his own silliness.
Figurines made of body parts; the thought of it... He looks at the mantelpiece where he had put the statue which he had taken out of the Cave and lets out a curse.
The figurine is gone.
It had been probably the source of that sound from before, when it fell and rolled into the shadows or under a table.
I should go back to my bed where it's warm.
I will look for it tomorrow.
He turns to assent the stairs, when he sees two fire-red eyes staring at him from the shadows above.

2314 - The Heineman family's Gardens

It's late summer and the days are humid and the nights warm.
The estate of the descendants of the Honourable Great Marshal Heineman, former general of the Peoples Army of Ares during the first few years of the Great War, is situated on one of Titan's few fertile places.
But there is only enough for one apple tree and a few small flowers, who frame the garden path towards the tree which stands at the center of the garden.
Under the tree Adelheid, heir to the family, and her husband are arguing.
"Please tell me you don't actually believe any of this bullshit?
Maybe she ran away from home after an argument. It wouldn't have been the first time it happened.
Besides, everyone knows the Enemy died out centuries ago."
Adelheid rolled her eyes. "She didn't run away."
Why the hell would she have done that.
Things were going better between them since their therapy sessions.'
"Fine, she didn't walk away.
But to suggest that the bogey man abducted her…"
He made the universal sign of someone being bad shit crazy and laughed, "Did you know she walked around in her nightgown the other night, waking everybody up with her screaming?"
"So, she is one brick short of a full load." Adelheid growled
"But wouldn't you be, if you had to worry about the safety of your child for months, only to find her ripped open in your own backyard?" She snapped and extended her razor sharp nails.
"I would appreciate it, dear HUSBAND, if you showed my family the respect they deserve."
The leaves of the apple tree rustled, and both shivered when they felt an icy wind blow through the garden.
This was the place where he had asked for her hand, he remembered.
Family had always been important to her. It was a quality which had attracted him, all those years ago.
"I think it's time we moved to the roof terrace." The garden had become dark while they were talking.
"Your father is probably wondering where we are."

"Adelheid?"
She had turned to the tree and had laid her hand against its rough bark.
"My sister and I always had little contest to see who was the highest climber.
She always won, and when mom saw us sitting in the tree, she would sent us to bed without supper."
He smiled faintly "I remember, afterwards you always climbed out the window to steal food from the kitchen."
She looked at him with a faint smile.
"Go on ahead and tell father I will be there in a few minutes."

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"Adelheid, are you still there? The meteor shower is about to start."
An empty garden greets him.
He turns around and goes back inside.
Maybe she's in their room to put on something warmer.
In the shadows under the apple tree blink two crimson eyes.

2324 – Sotra Patera

He looked at the couple before him. Their hands entwined while in conversation as they climbed with some difficulty the crumbling mountain road towards the cave .
There were many rumors going around about this cave. It had been the scene of an all decisive battle that had occurred during the Great War with the Enemy. It had also been the bloodiest.
In later years, people agreed that the place could best be avoided. When during recent years the majority of the disappearances were occurring in places which had seen heavy fighting during the war, they reinforced that decision.
"Pieter, do you remember the name of that little girl they found dead in 2314?
You know, the one who was, according to her mother kidnapped by the Enemy."
It was a ghost that abducted my little girl….
Sven had turned around and walked backwards while Erik led him by the hand so he doesn't stumble on the irregularities of the road.
Little Charlie who from one day to the other disappeared.
"Charleen, her name was Charleen."
The answer comes with difficulty through his lips.

Ten years.
Ten years had passed and still he has nightmares about that night.
Dreams in which he sees the terrifying face of his aunt, feels the biting cold of a knifes edge pressed against his throat, underlined by the screams of his mother and the hissing voice of his aunt.
He was six when they took her.
She had been yelling and kicking when they dragged her trough the house and into the van that was waiting in the yard outside.
His mother had pulled him close as she spoke to him soothingly.
It had been the third time in as many days that the country house was in an uproar.
The first time was when he and his parents had come to the house for the meteor shower.
Adelheid, his other aunt, had suddenly disappeared during the night and they had the entire house and estate searched for her.
The second time was when her husband found her body the next day.
He stumbled upon it when he walked to the tree that afternoon, as it had been a symbol for happier times.
Her sister soon started talking about ghost of deceased Enemy's afterwards.
Spirits who wreaked vengeance upon descendants of the generals of old, by abducting and murdering them.
It was the ghost of an Enemy who abducted my little girl and hanged the body of my poor sister in a tree.
His aunt had frightened him to death when she woke him up that night.
She had an eerie look in her eyes when she spoke about the crimson eyes she had seen under the apple tree the night her sister disappeared. The same eyes he had seen when he had crept outside to see the meteor shower.
He screamed for his mother when she told him the spirits would come for him too if he didn't go with her to the military base of the Peace Corps.
We will be safe there.
They were already out of the room and had made it towards the stairs, when is parents arrived.
It took three men and his father to pull his aunt off him and two more men to lock her up in her room.
They probably came running after hearing the cries of his mother, when she began to scream for help as his aunt threatened to cut his throat the minute his parents took one step closer.
The men in the white coats took her the next day and he never saw her again.

He shivered. His dreams had slightly changed the last two months.
The voice and face of his aunt were now interspersed with fiery red eyes that sparkled in the shadows and claws that shoot forth to hurt him.
"we're finally here."
Erik's voice cuts through the darkness that threatens to take over his thoughts and he looks up.
The road has come to an end and before him looms the gaping mouth of the cave.