The Star Canoe, caught in a gravity field that wasn't there moments before tipped and turned, losing control and losing altitude. The command deck, a place of utterly reserved calmness and deliberateness was sent into chaos. Skinks ran from station to station, sometimes colliding with each other. Star Priest Tel'aqua Barked commands to get the ship righted as it tumbled through the atmosphere. The two temple guard who kept watch on the two doors to the command deck tumbled and slid across the floor as the entire craft went sideways.
"Brace for impact!" was the final command yelled across the ships radio system before it crashed into the planet with bone shattering force. The roar of sound temporarily deafened everyone aboard, the crunching of trees, the shattering of rock, the screech of metal and the cries of pain and death.
Then silence.
Water from a burst pipe sprayed over blue-green scales, washing away the blood. Something moved and debris fell away as Ka'rah struggled to her clawed feet. She checked herself over, finding a deep gash on her leg. She grabbed some fabric from the floor and tied it around, tightly. She looked around the ruins of the Saurus barracks. Furniture, chests, weapons and all sorts of debris lay scattered around, or piled up against one wall. The floor was at a steeply slanted angle which made walking difficult. Others were coming to. Most in a better condition she was, some were a lot worse. A few were clearly never getting up again. On instinct alone she and a number of others started digging at the piles of debris to unearth their comrades. She barely noticed Ruq-Gar beside her until they both hefted a heavy piece of furniture out the way.
Xi-Boc had gathered a few Saurus and Skinks to force the doors of the ship open. It wasn't until two Kroxigors could be summoned that any headway could be made. Their huge muscular forms were able to force one of the doors open. An in-rush of hot humid air met them. For Xi-Boc and two of the Saurus with him, there was something very familiar about it. Something they had not experienced in decades. The green speckled light, filtered through the jungle canopy above mixed with the dank smell of decaying vegetation and the alarm squawks of tropical birds in the distance. A sense of emotion threatened to overwhelm him. He ordered a force assembled immediately, to secure the perimeter. He didn't know how but he was back on the Old World. Back in Lustria.
###
As the sun slowly slid behind the green horizon, Old-Blood Xi-Boc surveyed the situation. A perimeter had been established, trees had been cut away from ships hull to make it easier to see and repair the damage. The wood had been heaped up where it would form a funeral pyre for those that died in the impact. The majority of the casualties had been moved to a make-shift hospital and the dead had been set out in temporary morgue. Amongst the infirm was Star Priest Tel'aqua. He had hit his head hard and was currently in critical condition in the infirmary. This left Xi-Boc the ranking officer. He didn't really know anything about Star Canoes, he was a military general, so when the remains of the engineering team asked him for orders, he simply told them to get on with whatever they thought would be best.
Patrols were making circuits of the crash site and told to report back anything unusual. He had ensured that each patrol was made up of Old-World and new world saurians, two to one. The Lustrian jungles could be deadly to anyone who had not grown up in it.
A few of the older Skinks had set up a telescope and other equipment to make observations of the skies. The news of them having landed on Lustria had gotten around but the sceptical still wanted confirmation. The observations should hopefully reveal exactly where they were on the continent too. Tomorrow Xi-Boc would assemble a team to try making contact with the lizardmen here. How they would react to their technology and mannerisms was anyone's guess. Perhaps he'd just bring the Old Brood to avoid any confusion...
###
The expedition assembled. They had a long way to go. The nearest city, Xahutec was nought but ruins but it would provide a useful way point and allow them to pick up the causeway system that would make for more rapid progress. Their ultimate destination would be Tlaxtlan, The City of the Moon. According to the astronomical observations, they were confirmed to be back in Lustria at around the year 1300 IC. Well before anyone on the Star Canoe had been spawned, even Xi-Boc.
For the expedition Xi-Boc brought with him a personal retinue of temple guard and senior warriors. He also brought a regiment of mixed Saurus and regiment of mixed Skinks, both with Old and New Brood members. The idea was to give the impression that he represented a sizeable contingent and not just some lost group of nomadic lizardmen. Finally, he included a couple of star canoe engineers who could articulate their esoteric needs for their repair work.
Old Blood Xi-Boc called for his regiments and auxiliaries to line up for inspection. The early morning mists swirled around them.
"What is this? Where are your service weapons?" He bellowed at a contingent of Old Brood Saurus lined up in front of him. They carried spears or macuahuile and shields and nothing more.
"Lord Xi-Boc, we have returned home, surely this is a time to regain our traditions and old ways?" One of them spoke up. It was Ataxor, a Scar Veteran with a gnarled head crest where an old wound had healed oddly. He was extremely experienced and well on his way to becoming a respected Old Blood.
Xi-Boc growled. This one, while a fine and fierce warrior, had struggled to accept the new ways, even after his three decades out of the stasis chamber.
"We are not home!" He barked, "This is more than a millennia before you were even spawned. This is an alien world to you! Where is your loyalty to your temple-city? You dishonourable worm!"
The Scar Veteran stood, steadfast and defiant.
"Go and get your service weapons and equipment, now." He ordered, locking eyes with Ataxor. The stare lasted for long and uncomfortable moment before it relented and slunk off back to the ship, with the other Old Broods following.
"Everyone check your equipment, and make sure you too have not forgotten anything." He added. A few of the Skinks, carrying javelins broke off to head back to the ship too.
###
The sun was above the horizon and the palpable humidity of the Lustrian jungle was beginning to thicken the air. The expedition was finally on its way. A combination of obsinite and industrial steel blades were cutting swathes through the greenery where it blocked their march. It was slow, but steady progress. The leading row of Saurus were rotated out on a regular cycle to maintain fresh muscle to cut a path.
They took a mid-day break to rest and rehydrate. Come the evening time, they made camp. A hunting party was assembled while others built cooking fires.
They slept either in trees, on blankets or directly on the ground, depending on preferences, and a watch was set up.
This same cycle continued for three days. Each evening a radio report would be given and any developments on the Star Canoe would be received.
Midway through the morning of the fourth day, they broke through into an overgrown plaza. They spread out, taking up defensive positions. The New Brood couldn't help looking up to the crumbling pyramids and ziggurats. The only ones they had ever seen were gleaming in white limestone with bands of bright paint around them. There was something disturbing about seeing such grand structures in this state. And so many of them. This city had once been home to over a hundred thousand lizardmen at least.
"This place, Xahutec, is know as The City of Echos." Xi-Boc noted, in answer to unspoken questions. He had his weapon lowered and was looking around, for something in particular. "A dark rift exists at its heart whence the blight of Chaos pours through its daemons time and time again. In approximately twelve-hundred solar cycles, I myself will be called upon to face the foul things as they poured out with every rise of the accursed Chaos moon."
Silence once again reigned over the plaza.
"What are your orders, my lord?" asked one of the Scar veterans, keenly aware that they were standing out in the open.
"We wait. They'll be here soon enough…"
The lizardmen stood in the eerie silence amongst the ancient ruins listening to the distant alarm calls of tropical birds. Then something came. All guns were turned to face east. Shortly after, a small squad of blue-green Saurus emerged, shields and macuahuile held, ready to charge. They faced off, locking eyes with each other.
Xi-Boc walked forward, pressing down on the gun of the lead Scar Veteran.
"I bid you well." he said, approaching the new Saurus. "I am Lord Xi-Boc of the temple city of Sotzalzan. We are simply passing through on our way to the great temple city of Tlaxtlan. It has been all quiet here I trust? We have not heard of major incursions for a number of years."
"Hail, Lord Xi-Boc" the largest of them said, his gold and bronze pauldrons as well as his size indicated that he was his regiments Champion. "You are correct, by the blessing of the gods, we have not seen an incursion in this city for a number of years now. And long may it be so."
The two Saurus gently butted heads in greetings.
"Lord Xi-Boc, do you require an escort?" the Champion asked.
"Only as far as the causeway to Tlaxtlan. We should be well suited to make the march to the city in a few days."
"Very well. If you will follow me, we will take you to the city's Western gate by the most rapid route."
They walked in solemn silence. The champion walked up front at the head of the procession, two other Saurus followed behind and one each walked either side. It was unclear if they were guarding Xi-Boc's delegation from Xahutec, or the other way around. These warriors paid very little attention to the delegation however. Ka'rah looked down as her claws kicked aside old bones scattered on the path as it passed under some huge, unknowable construction. Finding old bones in ruins was nothing unusual for anyone, but these bones were horribly misshapen. She thought she saw a skull too, one side stretching up into a single horn or spike, broken off at the tip. But it was out of sight soon enough. The walk through the city ruins took almost an hour. The passed through underground tunnels, abandoned barracks and workshops, past hastily constructed cemeteries and crossed over a wide, murky canal on a partly reconstructed bridge. The wooden poles tied to the crumbling stone piers creaked ominously. The sun had reached its zenith by the time they reached the cities edge. They passed by another patrol, watching the West gate. Several sets of eyes watched them closely, especially the New Brood. Ruq-Gar gave a cheery salute but got nothing but stone-faced stares in return. Their escort peeled away as the passed through the gate.
"This road will take you to Tlaxtlan. There are stations in which to rest along the route." the champion said by way of parting words.
"May Tzcatli guide your strike." Xi-Boc answered.
The causeway ahead was uneven and overgrown. Tree roots pushed between the enormous paving stones and it was hard to discern the edges. Still, a narrow path had been kept relatively free of vegetation and its stones were mostly still flat. They picked their way through it.
"So, what are the chances that us coming here would affect the flow of events?" Ka'rah asked Te'al'k, the Skink Priest who was marching in front of her.
"Well, its certainly possible. But by no means guaranteed." she replied. "Although, if we are in the same timeline from which we departed, anything we do now would have already happened in the past and so we are already living in the future we created from whatever actions we did or did not take here." the Skink Priest added.
Ka'rah moved her lips as she parsed this. Saurus minds were better equipped to react quickly on the battlefield, not ponder the metaphysical.
"So… anything we do now, we already did?" she asked, eventually.
"Something like that. Although, if we are dealing with more of a multi-world hypothesis then the past we are in now is not our past, but just another past of yet another future that is yet to exists." Te'al'k replied. "Though there are some ideas that postulate that for each and every action, a new future exists wherein every possibility of that action has its own separate reality which is manifest into existence at the very point at which a bifurcation in the possibility matrix may occur."
"I, err, I. Wait, what?"
"Never mind."
"Alright then."