The continent of Ignas, five years after the destruction of Deus. The scars of the world had just
begun to heal, though many parts of the world were still uninhabitable. Some things, however, had not
changed for the worse. The village of Lahan had been rebuilt, and Fei, Citan and Elly all lived there.
Fei and Elly had also been happily married for the last four years, and were expecting their first child.
The capital of the desert nation of Aveh, Bledavik, had been almost completely emptied during
the events leading up to what was commonly called the Exodus, but many people who had stood up to
the ravages of the reaper swarms had re-colonized the old city. Popular acclaim had elected Bart Fatima
to the position of Prime Minister of the new republic, though he had reportedly turned down the post,
instead bestowing it on his family's long-time steward, Old Maison. Bart and his cousin Margie had
taken the Sky Cruiser Yggdrasil III as the only payment for his actions, and had disappeared, both
claiming to want to explore the world completely.
To the north, the republic of Kislev appointed the title of Kaiser to the nation's battling
champion. Ricardo Banderas, having used his strength as a source of income for most of his life, soon
found himself using the same strength to cut through the arguments of the entrenched bureaucrats that
opposed his plans for the battered nation. Rumour had it that on more than one occasion the members
of the entrenched council feared for their lives when speaking to the hot-tempered Rico, especially on
the topic of racial integration between Humans and Demi-Humans.
In the Aquavy Island Chain, Billy Lee Black, his sister Primera, and his father Jesiah returned
to the Aquavy orphanage, living mostly in peace as they took care of the children who had lost their
parents. On the open seas near the islands, the floating hulk of the city-sized salvage vessel 'Thames'
was found, and slowly rebuilt by the captain of the once-mighty vessel. Much of the old crew also found
themselves returning to the massive vessel, and within a few years they had once again begun digging
up relics from ages long past.
The floating city of Shevat never took to the skies again. The damage caused by its catastrophic
landing into the sub-arctic snowfields made sure that the ancient city would never sustain an anti-gravity
field strong enough to lift it from the ground. Subjected to weather that would have killed the best-
insulated beings in only a few days, the city's surviving inhabitants died off, several actually trying to
make a trek to the oceans to try and gather assistance.
The only survivors of Shevat's culture were Maria Balthazar, who went to live with her
grandfather in Bledavik, Chu-Chu, the only survivor of its race, which decided to live with Maria, and
Yui, wife of Citan, and permanent resident of Lahan.
Only one member of the group truly disappeared, as there have been reports of Bart and Margie
exploring the eastern peninsula near where Solaris fell. The quietest member of the original party, the
mysterious being known only as 'Emeralda' had disappeared as suddenly as she had first entered the
world, raising some concern, as she was the only survivor of a civilization that had been dead for the
last four thousand years. However, not everything stays the same, and not everyone or everything wants
to be found.
Zeobim Ruins, Summer
Silence had encompassed the ruins for many long years, the only disturbance being from the
natural causes of erosion wearing away at the ruined buildings. However, during the interminable
stretch between the formation of frost on the edges of the buildings and the annual melt, something
disturbed the silence. A faint hum, barely audible at first, but slowly increasing, began to echo through
the immense cavern. After almost four hours, the source of the ever-increasing hum finally revealed
itself as a section of cavern wall sloughed away from the slowly revolving cutters of a mining drill.
Reaching open air, the cutters slowly spun to a stop, then pulled back into the tunnel they had
been creating for the last few weeks. Close behind the cutter's retreat, human voices were heard in the
dead city, the first voices in a long time. "Hey! Look at this! We just struck the motherlode! We're
rich!"
"Ha! Wouldja lookit that? I think there's an old gear over between those two buildings!"
The first speaker laughed, then looked out to where the second speaker gestured. Surely enough,
there was one of the humanoid combat machines, but it was most definitely not in any condition to be
used for combat. The machine, which looked like one of the old Musha Mk. 100s that had been used
so commonly during the Aveh-Kislev war, had literally been blown apart.
One arm, still holding the heavy machine gun that was the gear's primary weapon, had been
stripped down to the skeleton, all the armour plating having been torn off like a set of teeth had grabbed
the arm and pulled. The other arm was missing completely, though there were three fingers scattered
down the street in various stages of destruction. The main torso, legs and head were even worse off.
They had been systematically smashed inwards, turning the broad machine into a broad and mostly flat
machine, with a dull stain right in the centre of the gear's torso, right where the cockpit was situated.
The two men looked at each other, grinned, and yelled up the tunnel, gathering a fairly large
crowd of 'salvagers'. The crew of about thirty men and women looked at the ruined city, and shouting
gleefully at the prospect of untold treasures, they scattered into the ruins and started examining objects
for their own gain.
One man, having wandered into the ruin's subway system through a manhole, found nothing
of interest until he climbed a set of stairs and found a form, huddled upon the bare stone ground. Moving
quickly, the man ran over to the still form, gently touching the body with his bare hand for a few seconds
before turning the person onto her back. Looking down at the young woman lying unconscious or dead
on the ground before him, the young man slowly examined her body, noting that her clothes seemed to
have been designed for a child of ten to twelve years of age instead of the obviously older vision he was
staring at.
However, before he could do anything, the young woman's eyes snapped open, and seeing the
young man, she instantly thrust her right hand forwards. Almost before the man could squeak, he found
himself looking down at the metallic spine sticking through his chest. Following the source of the spine,
the man's eyes widened as he realized that the spine was the woman's three middle fingers on her right
hand, only merged together, edged to a razor-sharp point, and elongated to a length of three feet.
The woman stood up, shifting the spike around in her victim as she looked at the trickle of blood
that began to run down her arm. She then pulled her hand back, pulling the spike free, and also releasing
the pressure that was keeping the severed ventricle from spilling blood everywhere. The young man
didn't have time to even speak as his heart failed him, making him collapse, face-down onto the ground,
and quite dead.
The woman calmly reformed her hand into its normal form, and then walked into the subway
tunnels. Behind her, on the belt of the young man, a small radio squawked to life, static-filled and
broken up. Ten minutes later, another member of the group heard a faint noise from an abandoned store.
Deciding to investigate, he walked into the store, and met a tiny form huddled in the corner. Closer
examination revealed that it was a young girl, maybe seventeen years old, and apparently quite scared.
The man, an older person, reached out and gently touched the girl's long hair, marvelling at its
deep green shade. "Hello? Can I help you?"
The girl looked up at the man, an expectant smile flashing over her face. Just as quickly, the
smile disappeared and she turned away. "Leave."
The man shook his head, gently reaching out and grabbing the girl by the arm. "I'm sorry, but
I don't think you should be down here. These ruins are dangerous."
The girl stood up, looking at the man's hand, and frowned. Nobody had touched her in five
years, and she wasn't used to the contact. Her response was instant, swift, and painful. Her arm suddenly
sprouted a dozen razor-edged spikes, which perforated the man's hand like he had just fallen onto a bed
of nails. Right before he could scream, the girl's hair wrapped around his mouth, silencing him. "Leave.
Get out. Never come back."
The spikes disappeared, and the girl let the man go, looking at him cooly as she reached across
the twenty-foot distance of the room and opened the door, her arm having stretched like taffy. "Go.
Now. Or I kill you."
The man, scared for his life, took off running, screaming loudly through his radio that he had
just been attacked. Ten minutes later, the group of salvagers had gathered together in the flat expanse
of an ancient parking lot, and most of them were examining the poor man's ruined hand, until he spoke
up. "Look, I don't think that this is a good place to take a look through. From what we've seen, the
place's already been picked over, and there's something very dangerous living down here. Just look at
my hand! That's what happened because I tried to touch it."
The official leader of the group examined the many wounds covering his friend's hand, then
frowned. "Hey, you remember that story a few years ago about the eight that fought god? Rumour held
that one of them could change her body's shape at will, and from what you said, I'm betting that we just
stumbled into the city that she lives in. I think we should get the hell out of here."
Before anyone could agree or disagree, something big moved. In a blast of debris, a gear roared
by, moving at a speed that was almost incomprehensible. "What the hell? I thought almost all the gears
had shut down a long time ago!"
The response was drowned out by the gear's jets screaming their defiance as the gear, now
visible as an elegant, armless design, with a pair of wings, swooped down and thoroughly squashed three
members of the salvage team. The salvage team's response was to tear out of the ruined city as fast as
they could run, though another seven people died under the massive feet of the gear, which had neatly
stomped on everyone who couldn't outrun it.
Finally, after all signs of life had been eradicated, the gear shut down, and the young woman
climbed out of the machine's cockpit. Standing silently for a few moments, she seemed to come to a
conclusion and followed the salvage team. However, she paused for a few moments, seemingly
concentrating. After a few moments, she was clad in the ragged pieces of a dark red and black Solarian
combat uniform, and had a long scarf triple-wrapped around her neck and lower jaw.
She then walked into the open shaft that had been created by the salvagers, walking towards the
surface world, which she hadn't seen in five years. Times may change, and she was curious about what
had happened during her rest.
begun to heal, though many parts of the world were still uninhabitable. Some things, however, had not
changed for the worse. The village of Lahan had been rebuilt, and Fei, Citan and Elly all lived there.
Fei and Elly had also been happily married for the last four years, and were expecting their first child.
The capital of the desert nation of Aveh, Bledavik, had been almost completely emptied during
the events leading up to what was commonly called the Exodus, but many people who had stood up to
the ravages of the reaper swarms had re-colonized the old city. Popular acclaim had elected Bart Fatima
to the position of Prime Minister of the new republic, though he had reportedly turned down the post,
instead bestowing it on his family's long-time steward, Old Maison. Bart and his cousin Margie had
taken the Sky Cruiser Yggdrasil III as the only payment for his actions, and had disappeared, both
claiming to want to explore the world completely.
To the north, the republic of Kislev appointed the title of Kaiser to the nation's battling
champion. Ricardo Banderas, having used his strength as a source of income for most of his life, soon
found himself using the same strength to cut through the arguments of the entrenched bureaucrats that
opposed his plans for the battered nation. Rumour had it that on more than one occasion the members
of the entrenched council feared for their lives when speaking to the hot-tempered Rico, especially on
the topic of racial integration between Humans and Demi-Humans.
In the Aquavy Island Chain, Billy Lee Black, his sister Primera, and his father Jesiah returned
to the Aquavy orphanage, living mostly in peace as they took care of the children who had lost their
parents. On the open seas near the islands, the floating hulk of the city-sized salvage vessel 'Thames'
was found, and slowly rebuilt by the captain of the once-mighty vessel. Much of the old crew also found
themselves returning to the massive vessel, and within a few years they had once again begun digging
up relics from ages long past.
The floating city of Shevat never took to the skies again. The damage caused by its catastrophic
landing into the sub-arctic snowfields made sure that the ancient city would never sustain an anti-gravity
field strong enough to lift it from the ground. Subjected to weather that would have killed the best-
insulated beings in only a few days, the city's surviving inhabitants died off, several actually trying to
make a trek to the oceans to try and gather assistance.
The only survivors of Shevat's culture were Maria Balthazar, who went to live with her
grandfather in Bledavik, Chu-Chu, the only survivor of its race, which decided to live with Maria, and
Yui, wife of Citan, and permanent resident of Lahan.
Only one member of the group truly disappeared, as there have been reports of Bart and Margie
exploring the eastern peninsula near where Solaris fell. The quietest member of the original party, the
mysterious being known only as 'Emeralda' had disappeared as suddenly as she had first entered the
world, raising some concern, as she was the only survivor of a civilization that had been dead for the
last four thousand years. However, not everything stays the same, and not everyone or everything wants
to be found.
Zeobim Ruins, Summer
Silence had encompassed the ruins for many long years, the only disturbance being from the
natural causes of erosion wearing away at the ruined buildings. However, during the interminable
stretch between the formation of frost on the edges of the buildings and the annual melt, something
disturbed the silence. A faint hum, barely audible at first, but slowly increasing, began to echo through
the immense cavern. After almost four hours, the source of the ever-increasing hum finally revealed
itself as a section of cavern wall sloughed away from the slowly revolving cutters of a mining drill.
Reaching open air, the cutters slowly spun to a stop, then pulled back into the tunnel they had
been creating for the last few weeks. Close behind the cutter's retreat, human voices were heard in the
dead city, the first voices in a long time. "Hey! Look at this! We just struck the motherlode! We're
rich!"
"Ha! Wouldja lookit that? I think there's an old gear over between those two buildings!"
The first speaker laughed, then looked out to where the second speaker gestured. Surely enough,
there was one of the humanoid combat machines, but it was most definitely not in any condition to be
used for combat. The machine, which looked like one of the old Musha Mk. 100s that had been used
so commonly during the Aveh-Kislev war, had literally been blown apart.
One arm, still holding the heavy machine gun that was the gear's primary weapon, had been
stripped down to the skeleton, all the armour plating having been torn off like a set of teeth had grabbed
the arm and pulled. The other arm was missing completely, though there were three fingers scattered
down the street in various stages of destruction. The main torso, legs and head were even worse off.
They had been systematically smashed inwards, turning the broad machine into a broad and mostly flat
machine, with a dull stain right in the centre of the gear's torso, right where the cockpit was situated.
The two men looked at each other, grinned, and yelled up the tunnel, gathering a fairly large
crowd of 'salvagers'. The crew of about thirty men and women looked at the ruined city, and shouting
gleefully at the prospect of untold treasures, they scattered into the ruins and started examining objects
for their own gain.
One man, having wandered into the ruin's subway system through a manhole, found nothing
of interest until he climbed a set of stairs and found a form, huddled upon the bare stone ground. Moving
quickly, the man ran over to the still form, gently touching the body with his bare hand for a few seconds
before turning the person onto her back. Looking down at the young woman lying unconscious or dead
on the ground before him, the young man slowly examined her body, noting that her clothes seemed to
have been designed for a child of ten to twelve years of age instead of the obviously older vision he was
staring at.
However, before he could do anything, the young woman's eyes snapped open, and seeing the
young man, she instantly thrust her right hand forwards. Almost before the man could squeak, he found
himself looking down at the metallic spine sticking through his chest. Following the source of the spine,
the man's eyes widened as he realized that the spine was the woman's three middle fingers on her right
hand, only merged together, edged to a razor-sharp point, and elongated to a length of three feet.
The woman stood up, shifting the spike around in her victim as she looked at the trickle of blood
that began to run down her arm. She then pulled her hand back, pulling the spike free, and also releasing
the pressure that was keeping the severed ventricle from spilling blood everywhere. The young man
didn't have time to even speak as his heart failed him, making him collapse, face-down onto the ground,
and quite dead.
The woman calmly reformed her hand into its normal form, and then walked into the subway
tunnels. Behind her, on the belt of the young man, a small radio squawked to life, static-filled and
broken up. Ten minutes later, another member of the group heard a faint noise from an abandoned store.
Deciding to investigate, he walked into the store, and met a tiny form huddled in the corner. Closer
examination revealed that it was a young girl, maybe seventeen years old, and apparently quite scared.
The man, an older person, reached out and gently touched the girl's long hair, marvelling at its
deep green shade. "Hello? Can I help you?"
The girl looked up at the man, an expectant smile flashing over her face. Just as quickly, the
smile disappeared and she turned away. "Leave."
The man shook his head, gently reaching out and grabbing the girl by the arm. "I'm sorry, but
I don't think you should be down here. These ruins are dangerous."
The girl stood up, looking at the man's hand, and frowned. Nobody had touched her in five
years, and she wasn't used to the contact. Her response was instant, swift, and painful. Her arm suddenly
sprouted a dozen razor-edged spikes, which perforated the man's hand like he had just fallen onto a bed
of nails. Right before he could scream, the girl's hair wrapped around his mouth, silencing him. "Leave.
Get out. Never come back."
The spikes disappeared, and the girl let the man go, looking at him cooly as she reached across
the twenty-foot distance of the room and opened the door, her arm having stretched like taffy. "Go.
Now. Or I kill you."
The man, scared for his life, took off running, screaming loudly through his radio that he had
just been attacked. Ten minutes later, the group of salvagers had gathered together in the flat expanse
of an ancient parking lot, and most of them were examining the poor man's ruined hand, until he spoke
up. "Look, I don't think that this is a good place to take a look through. From what we've seen, the
place's already been picked over, and there's something very dangerous living down here. Just look at
my hand! That's what happened because I tried to touch it."
The official leader of the group examined the many wounds covering his friend's hand, then
frowned. "Hey, you remember that story a few years ago about the eight that fought god? Rumour held
that one of them could change her body's shape at will, and from what you said, I'm betting that we just
stumbled into the city that she lives in. I think we should get the hell out of here."
Before anyone could agree or disagree, something big moved. In a blast of debris, a gear roared
by, moving at a speed that was almost incomprehensible. "What the hell? I thought almost all the gears
had shut down a long time ago!"
The response was drowned out by the gear's jets screaming their defiance as the gear, now
visible as an elegant, armless design, with a pair of wings, swooped down and thoroughly squashed three
members of the salvage team. The salvage team's response was to tear out of the ruined city as fast as
they could run, though another seven people died under the massive feet of the gear, which had neatly
stomped on everyone who couldn't outrun it.
Finally, after all signs of life had been eradicated, the gear shut down, and the young woman
climbed out of the machine's cockpit. Standing silently for a few moments, she seemed to come to a
conclusion and followed the salvage team. However, she paused for a few moments, seemingly
concentrating. After a few moments, she was clad in the ragged pieces of a dark red and black Solarian
combat uniform, and had a long scarf triple-wrapped around her neck and lower jaw.
She then walked into the open shaft that had been created by the salvagers, walking towards the
surface world, which she hadn't seen in five years. Times may change, and she was curious about what
had happened during her rest.