Trojian Horse

He slid the last bit of the shiny black armour into place There was a click as the vambrace slid into position around his right hand. He stepped back to admire himself in the mirror. It was a perfect fit. Somehow Maloch had found the time to have it made. It was surprisingly light, almost as if he was wearing nothing at all. It was made of palilicium, a metal so rare that it was believed that only two such suits thought to be in existence. It was a very special gift and Reeger couldn’t help but feel affected at the gesture.

The armour seemed to fit together like a jigsaw covering almost every part of his body while allowing for maximal movement with a separate helmet. The breastplate fit snugly around his chest leaving just enough room to avoid feeling suffocated, much like the rest of the pieces for the rest of his body parts. Despite his muscular physique, the armour did not interfere with the natural orientation of his scales. When he first saw the armour in the box he wondered how it would fit him but somehow it had almost as if it had adjusted to his body as he put it on. That idea sounded absurd considering this was the rumoured to be the hardest metal in existence, and one of the lightest. It was said to be virtually indestructible because no means of destroying it had ever been found. He wondered how Maloch had gained possession of such a weapon. Rumours had it that one such suit had been dipped in volcanic lava, fired at with multiple high-energy lasers, exposed it to intensified solar energy, hit with every known metal without a single scratch appearing on the surface of the armour. It also managed to dissipate well because it had been dipped into lava and almost immediately after it was picked up but still felt cool to the touch. It was truly magnificent and just suited for such an occasion as this.

He thought about how far he had come. From the arid plains of Terios to master of the known galaxy, quite a remarkable achievement. Thoughts of Terios flooded his mind. Though he never liked to think of his humble beginnings but he would indulge himself this once. The light never faded on this planet which was vastly different from Terios especially towards the end of the planet’s life. Terios, an insignificant orange dot surrounded by magnificent nebulae on every side, with a population that seemed to swell with each passing Terian year. At one point he was one of the many young Dracien looking to the leaders of his tribe for guidance, seeking direction from his government, holding onto the hope of a better life and willing to do whatever was asked of him to make his existence on Terios significant. It was at this tender young age that it all started to go uncontrollably wrong.

The dracien women mysteriously began dying off. In the space of five Terios years the female population had completely died off. Incredible panic set but nothing they did made a difference and soon they accepted their fate. Extinction.

Somehow, their conclusion was premature. Instead of the population dwindling it grew. The male population developed the means to reproduce asexually and the population boom was even more fantastic than any before then. Apart from the growing population, there was a reduction in the resources on the planet and millennia of nonchalant abuse of Terios had begun to rapidly erode the planet’s atmosphere. What was once a life sustaining atmosphere quickly began to turn toxic. Hundreds of thousands of Dracien, young and old, died within the first few decades and many more were ill from the effects of the atmosphere and yet the leaders were happy to remain blind to what they were all experiencing so long as they were safe, gaining access to all the materials that they required to sustain their own existence. Instead of focusing their attention on fixing it all for everyone they were happy to do more to protect themselves. Once a paradise of greenery, plenty of waterfalls and millions of species of flora and fauna was quickly turning into a lifeless desert before their very eyes. The resources on the planet depleted to such an extent that by the time he was old enough to join the ranks of the armies in his tribe at the age of ninety Terios years, Terios had become a war zone.

Many tribes were erased from existence in that early period leaving only three tribes to rule over Terios; Terriam, Trezia, Zothar. The tribes were constantly at war fighting for territory, food, and water. A few years from then he had fought his way into several promotions until he was second commander of the armies of Terriam, his own tribe, and the closer he got to the top position he realised how desperately the Dracien needed a true leader. Greeo, their leader at the time, was greedy and his interests seldom coincided with the needs of the tribe. Their leadership problems were not limited to their tribe he found but it seemed every tribal leader was only after their own survival. No-one was going to bring about the necessary changes, mostly because none of the leaders saw the need for a deviation from the norm, and so one day he decided he would usher in those changes himself.

In the middle of the night he severed Greeo’s head from his torso. Some of the dracien chieftains were not happy with his actions so he killed them too until only those who shared his enthusiasm for change were left alive. Within three nights he had become the unchallenged leader of the tribe. He found he had a taste for war, but he realised that endless, pointless war was more detrimental to their existence as a species so he crept into the other tribes’ encampments and killed their leaders. Without leaders, they were easier to subdue and he assimilated the remaining tribes into his own. Despite his best efforts there was little he could do to reverse the planetary degradation.

Their planet was dying. There was no denying that. Water had grown more scarce, the weather was becoming more unpredictable, cold in places it had always been hot, hotter in places which had been generally cold. Despite their high rate of asexual reproduction, the Dracien were dying at a faster rate with each passing year, in addition to a myriad of other species of plants and creatures. The entire planet grew into a desert, exposing the orange soil that covered much of the planet. As supreme leader of Terios he had to find a means to save his people. Their technology had not progressed enough for them to know that there was a larger universe than their own planet. Some suggested relocation to one of their eight moons though they had no idea how to get a single member of the Dracien population there. No one had ever left the surface of the planet to reach the moons. He knew they could not stay on Terios but necessity would not yield the right results fast enough. Soon there was a resignation among the Dracien that they would all perish from thirst, disease or suffocation. They cried for a saviour and in the vastness of the cosmos someone heard their pleas.

The strangers came by night, which was difficult to tell from day now as the thick clouds of dust and haze blocked out the sunlight for days at a time. Their ships landed in the midst of the last remaining city on Terios and would speak only to Reeger. They told him, in his own language, that they would make him more powerful than he had ever imagined, more than he could comprehend and they would save his people. All power would be his in addition to the continued existence of his people if he did one thing for them. He had to eliminate the Vulpeculae. He had no idea who the Vulpeculae nor what they had done to deserve annihilation but he was desperate and he readily agreed. He was furnished with enough ships to relocate the Dracien. Then just as suddenly as they appeared they disappeared into the darkness. He never heard from them again.

Their initial search was for a new planet to call home. They tried many potential candidates, some planets being too hot, others too cold, others had no water, others were too volcanic, while yet others had the wrong atmosphere. Some were just right but inhabited by hostile lifeforms which they failed to reason with and were forced to kill in defence of themselves. And they took whatever resources they could find and moved on before enemies overran them. It was during this period that he discovered just how varied life in the cosmos was. As they travelled the galaxy he heard about the Vulpeculae and learned all he could about them. It seemed the Vulpeculae were rather nomadic as well jumping from planet to planet, system to system much like his own Dracien. He began pursuing them and each time he would encounter some race or the other that was sympathetic to the Vulpeculae he was forced to use very forceful and often fatal means to gather information. News of his methods soon spread around the galaxy.

The Dracien grew more accustomed to interstellar travel. They grew more hardy able to adjust to virtually any climate or atmosphere where life existed apart from extreme cold. There was soon no need to find a new planet when they could have them all, as many as they could find and colonise. Many of the Dracien that had left Terios died away and many new Dracien were born that believed absolutely in Reeger’s methods. The strangers had given Reeger one last parting gift, the ability to cheat death by splicing his own genetic code and combining it with that of other races with attributes that he wanted. He soon realised he had lived beyond the three hundred Terios years that most of his species lived for. He found he lived longer, grew smarter, stronger, could see farther, and become more agile with each alteration to his genetic code. His body changed because of the alterations until he was neither Dracien nor anything else in existence. Each time he became something new, something more dangerous. He was wildly different from the Dracien that were under his rule now, physically, and mentally, and they worshipped him for it. In time the Vulpeculae came to him, effectively declaring war on him for what they considered his cruel methods.

The war was bloody and drawn out. There were multiple victories for either side but the war was never truly won. Then one day the Vulpeculae just disappeared. Erased from existence. He was mad with rage.

He scoured the galaxy for them creating many new enemies in the process. He found that the more ruthless he was the stronger he grew. Whole civilisations were wiped out for denying him information. The power was intoxicating, he lost himself in it and with his strength grew his ruthlessness. His ruthlessness was no longer reserved for his enemies; the same Dracien he had sought to save he now killed for sport, for insubordination and to instill fear in the remaining ranks of his people, if he could still call them that. He would tell himself that he had to do what needed to be done and he was the only capable and willing to do it. The Dracien were stronger with him around and leading them. Almost five hundred Terian years had passed since he left the dry plains of Terios on his mission and he was very near the end of his first mission. The Vulpeculae would soon be eliminated and then he would be free to pursue his own agendas although he no longer considered his mission a chore. It would be a joy to execute his initial directive at last.

Of course during his travels and the expansion of his empire he had happened on many discoveries. Being a connoisseur of power he heard of many great weapons many of which turned out to be fables but a few were truly astounding. He heard about the sword of intention, the Aldebaran and the Thalios, three of the most powerful weapons in existence. Not long after his discovery he had the misfortune of experiencing the power of the Thalios first-hand, barely escaping with his life but just when he thought he had gathered enough power to face the Thalios again, it disappeared. In time the sword came to him as well as whisperings of a prophecy which seemed to talk of him and an enemy that would fight him and destroy him. The sword enabled him to go back far enough in time with the intention of destroying his enemy but he had been unprepared for what happened there. His enemy had slipped through his fingers but the body that had been created for him to walk among the Ndebele had begun to degrade into his normal body. He still remembered the horror on Cebisa’s face when she saw the scales appear beneath his skin. Here on this new planet of the Vulpeculae he had finally managed to kill the Ser-ooit boy and would soon taste complete victory at last. All that remained was the extinction of the Vulpeculae.