History of the Galaxy II

[Unknown_Enemy]

sorry for the mispelling, my english seems better than my latin....

2400.8

“Two red eyes are looking at me ... I am scared, I cannot flee ... Suddenly razor-sharp claws rip my chest...”.
A servant appears at the door : “Is everything all right your Holiness ? I heard you screaming, do you need help ?”. His Holiness Vixen VIII made a small gesture of negation and gave the man a blessing, allowing him to withdraw. He wanted to be left alone. Since the discovery made by one of their first colony ship, his nights were ridden by nightmares. Just one week ago was transmitted the incredible new : “full confirmation that we are not alone in the universe” ... but what explorers found was only plains of ashes ... ruins ... On this planet, perhaps homeworld of an antique civilisation, life disappeared. He kept the information secret until today, for this morning the first report of investigations made in the ruins were due to arrive. He dressed quickly and prepared to join his office, a few rooms farther ... After two unbearable hours of patience, a light on his desk started flashing, informing him of the arrival of a new message from their colony. Shivering, he pressed the “ok” button and started reading the report :

[[Inquisitor Irkaly, Team leader // colonisation mission code 3AF2400.1//SP/DL]]
–Extracts--
2400.7.80
Dome has been secured and we can now begin exploration of the ruins we localised while orbiting the planet. Our new city is far away from the site, so we must be careful, the climate is harsh and any mistake would prove fatal. As we wrote in our first report, the atmosphere is mostly composed of carbon dioxide, we have to bring a large amount of hardware which slows down our progression.
2400.7.82
We arrived in the ruin, it is scarring. Buildings of incredible height seem to have melted. Now, we understand the countryside we discovered during our travel was anything short of natural. This world seems to have been roasted, population, fauna and flora alike have disappeared in an incredible holocaust. Worst, Science team is adamant that the sun is stable, and not prone to flare. ... Moral is low ... everybody feel seek, disgusted ...
2400.7.84
There are no corps ... no skeletons ... No remains of the inhabitants of this megapolis. Radiation level is non existent, which (thanks God) prevent any possibility of nuclear strike. The Master Technician proposed an explanation for the absence of remains, I if knew what he was going to say, I would have ordered him to shut up ... but it was too late : “The air in which we move, this carbon dioxide, couldn't it be the remains of those inhabitants we are looking for ???”.
2400.7.86
We believe to have discovered what caused such destruction on the planet. The lands, under approximatively tree meters of ashes, are stripped by large bands of glassed earth, we found that while performing a geological drilling. Some incredible amount of energy ravaged the surface of this world without radioactive fallout, it was probably dropped from orbit.... So we searched up there, to find the remains of one, maybe two orbital stations... It seems they were wiped out by unknown energy weapons... Sadly, no auto-destruction theory can apply here. There was only one city on the whole planet. In fact it looks much more like an outpost. As ours. It could be that this world has been annihilated on purpose by some orbital weapons, eventually spacecraft mounted weapons. We estimated the date of the catastrophe : four centuries ago ... not so old ... May God preserve us from discovering the authors of this crime.
[[end of transmission]]

Vixen was astonished... Life, this unique gift, so fragile and miraculous ... destroyed ... An entire planet scorched ... For years, Vixen has been searching for the message of God. As he ascended the Churches' hierarchy, his faith in God was more than weakened, then replaced by faith in the Long Road. But this was a menace of unheard proportions. He did not fear the Small Death, as it was irrelevant to the Long Road, but this.... How could he lead the Tyrean to defend themselves should they meet such murderers ? What could be done with his people refusing the idea of an army ? His Holiness Vixen VIII steeled himself, then send convocations to trusted Cardinals. Lots of work had to be done.

Aftermath
In the middle of the ruined city, a small domed outpost was installed. There started to live 25 Tyrean monks, who has been praying for the souls of the dead ever since. On the main entrance door, is written an inscription using an old, dead language from their specie. What was written there became the name of the planet : Memento Mori

[ October 05, 2002, 09:03: Message edited by: Unknown_Enemy ]