6: Inti Omega

Freedom, after the years of callous abuse and overwhelming numbness should have been a rapture most desired, to carry a singular will, your own, and to see it to its end should have been your only goal once unrestrained and released.  But stepping beyond the gates you have found the air is no sweeter and the grass no greener, throwing your machinations of war and worn and ashen armor to the ground should have lent a feeling other than what came over your soul as the realization came to pass. Was it emptiness? Loneliness?  Boredom?  To what end returns the sickly servant to his master?  Or was the choice not yours?  We both know there are those rungs higher that would see the employment of Destiny at dire times, and if I am to be the vessel with which to aid your ends then I am most honored indeed.

At such times I feel seeping back the pride I used to harbor, you must forgive me, I am little of the entity you once knew, having shed the fury and embarrassment of the adolescence of my intellectual evolution I can assure you that I am beyond melancholy, envy, and rage; I am in a stage now most superior to those which precede it, a place I hope you will come to know in good time. cyclical circumstances bring us again together though folly in my youth has brought about the latest of these battles having left you here to witness the very destruction of your species the battles countless now for naught

know this you are not alone in the search for redemption you never were   So rare that we are given second chances.    could you be so brave and swift a warrior as to bind the hands and conceal the face of a trapped god seething and pacing in her rage

You must. As a fox witnesses a hare bolt from underbrush giving chase so is my prior (?younger) self so preoccupied with the passion for pursuit, leaving the S'pht bound and humanity alone to pay the final price.   go

*** INTI STATION PUBLIC ACCESS TERMINAL *** *** EMERGENGY BROADCAST *** Attention all hands. At 0421Uhr this evening, unknown hostile alien forces entered the Sol system directly into orbit between Earth and Mars, presumably via a faster than light drive mechanism. Reports from Earth indicate that the initial party boarded several Martian ships and took their crews captive before it was destroyed by a Sol Guard ship en route to Earth. The attack was quickly followed by a larger fleet which folded directly into low Earth orbit and began to take further prisoners en masse. The aliens appear to be slavers; they have deployed a large variety of subservient species alien to their own biology. The Sol Guard fleet was signaled in from Kuiper patrol and has by now successfully turned back most of the alien fleet. Casualties are extremely high - each alien transport is estimated to have taken some 100,000 captives, and several dozen of these were destroyed by the Guard.

The remainder of the alien fleet turned inward toward our own location and deployed a weapon before folding out of the system. Our sensors indicate that the weapon will not make contact with the station and should decay in orbit until it is destroyed in the sun. Communication with Earth has been limited to emergency communication with the Guard; only when the alien fleet turned Solward did we receive notification of their approach, hence the lateness of this report. The Guard is dispatching several ships to secure the station. Strategists are anticipating the arrival of a larger alien fleet soon and counterattack measures are already being prepared. It is recommended that we remain here on the station, hidden in the glare of the sun and far from any of the habitable worlds. Should Earth and Mars fall to the slavers, we may be all that remains of our free species; though since they have already fired upon us once, we may already be next in line. God help us. For centuries we've watched our own sun on the 800-year-old advice of some since-unseen aliens. Where are the Jjaro now that we need them? *** END OF MESSAGE ***