– by Falconwraith

Chapter 1: The Past

It almost seemed like a distant story of times gone past. My grandfather telling me stories passed down to him from the first to enter into New Eden. His stories were a bit embellished sounding to say the least. It always made me laugh as a kid when he told them to me. Growing up in a little backwater planet in the solar system of Piak, the fourth furthest from the sun. His stories of the grandeur of the massive fleets that brought us to this place; how wonderful everything was, how happy the first immigrants to New Eden were.

But his eyes, they told a different story, one of not happiness and the grandeur he spoke so well of…but of the strife and suffering for the first immigrants. The back breaking work on the ships, and on the planets to simply survive in this new world away from the one they once knew. Then came the rise of the immortal ones, the pilots of the great ships serving the four great empires. The great wars and the sinister corporations who’s only true motives…that of their own conquest. All the while we lay down here, generation upon generation going by, with the skies at times literally on fire with the havoc being played out above.

As a boy though it always seemed so distant, like a glimpse into the heavens. As the great Caldari empire grew, powered by greed and the motivation of technological and monetary advancement. The people living beneath the heavens mere play things to these immortals on these ships, they could not die and as such had no remorse for losing entire families serving aboard their great war vessels.

Then times got even worse as new corporations grew, new empires began to be forged in the vast lawless out cropping of space. These immortals even worse then those of the four great empires, their motives even more sinister and self serving then their predecessors. People serving aboard their mining ships doing back breaking labor, or war ships lost at their mere whim of enjoyment.

So my parents and my grandfather made a choice as I reached manhood to leave this place to seek refuge from this in the interior of New Eden. In areas touched by the great empires, but out of the grasp of those who would force me to serve aboard their ships. At the time I was riddled with anger to leave my friends behind, thinking they did it for only their own interests. I knew not of the sacrifice they were making on my behalf to avoid the fate so many others had suffered at the hands of these immortals. A lesson I would soon learn first hand, and a lesson I would surely not forget.

Chapter 2: The voyage

I remember it well my first encounter with one of these immortals. When the ship first landed I remember I was in awe as I caught a first up close glimpse of one of these great vessels. I had only seen them on news casts before, but now I was faced with one up close. A Caldari cruiser of the Moa hull class, I noticed it immediately having toys of these ships as a boy. It landed on our planet, taking in supplies and goods, as well as passengers looking to go along to its final destination…a small planet in the citadel border region of space known as Kassigainen five. This however I would find would not ultimately be our destination.

Only a few hours into the journey we got word from this immortal that our course had been diverted. Instead of heading to this planet we hoped to seek refuge in, we were headed into an area of Sinq Laison to join his comrades in battle. Apparently some corporation this immortals corporation was at war with had pinned down one of their large freighter class transports ships in a system called Allipes. Immediately some of the immortals crew members showed up putting us to work, telling us that we could either help them or parish with the ship should it come under fire. I was only just entering manhood at the time but I remember well the instructions, being told to put out any fires, to move this here and that there. In truthfulness all I could notice was the fear in my mother’s eyes as I was forced away from her, and the feeling that came over me. I knew it would be the last time I would ever see my family…again.

Chapter 3: Stranded

We arrived in the system of Allipes and were greeted upon entering the system by a great battle taking place. A massive freighter lay listing some several thousand kilometers off the nearest planet, her hull already ablaze. Several cruiser and battle cruiser size ships sat around her, and one massive battleship class ship. Almost in a seemingly selfless act trying to defend her even though the bitter end drew near. The attacking fleet using a myriad of technologically superior but smaller heavy assault ships, bobbing and weaving their way around the larger ships at incredible pace . I felt myself just starring at the dance happening outside of the ships window. It was shortly there after though, I saw a level of devastation I’d soon not forget.

It appeared the force our ship was with was winning the day, but then there was a great flash of light. Once my eyes regained focus as I starred out the window into the vast space and I saw a sight I had hoped I would never see again. From the light almost as if by an act of God, I caught my first glimpse of a Titan and her accompanying battleships, carriers, and the like. Only shortly after seeing them enter the field the attacking fleet put distance on the now smaller fleet we were with, and then it happened. In a great flash of fire and brimstone it was all over. As the edge of the blast approached the ship I was on I remember a tear running down the side of my cheek. I felt this would be my last moment, and then it all went black.

It was not over however, minutes later I came back to, the sound of alarms blaring in my ears. The ship had only been grazed by the edge of the blast but had been still torn in half. I remember the voices of the crew yelling for us to brace for impact as the wreckage was pulled down onto the nearby planet. I once again prepared for the worst, wondering all the while how such devastation could be welded by any one man, let alone at the whim of an immortal one. Wondering where my family was, and if I would be greeting them again soon on the other side I sat motionless. Out the window I could see the seas of this planet approaching us, and then it all went dark again.

Chapter 4: A Brave New World

As I came to yet again, I found myself still alive. The alarms had gone and the ship was dark. Out the window I could see nothing but the vast depths of the sea. Then a voice as if an angel calling to me from the distance. A young woman of my senior maybe just a few years yelled to follow. Disoriented and fearful by sheer instinct I followed her, weaving through corridors of the ship. Fire and wreckage strung about the ship the likes of which I had never experienced. We eventually came to a door with a hatch, it opened and we entered into what was left of the bridge of the ship. A pod lay inside and the immortal I had once heard lay their dormant, the life not just gone from his eyes, but almost as if it was never there, just empty.

With water from the seas slowly coming in we headed for an opening in the hull of the bridge, we clawed our way against the currents of the water flooding in to escape the ship. Shortly after the ship was swallowed by the sea, and only those of us who escaped remained upon the seas surface. It was odd though how after the ship sank things seemed so tranquil and at peace, with all that had gone on above, down here seemed to of never have been touched by the havoc above. The sea still, the sun bright in the sky, birds over head it seemed almost surreal.

As we all sat there bobbing on the oceans surface, nobody spoke, the events that had just transpired left us silent. I looked around but saw no sign of my loved ones among the survivors. Then from off in the near distance a boat appeared on the horizon. A group of people out on the sea for the day had seen our ship crash and had come to help us. They brought us all aboard and took us to the city they lived in on one of the many islands of this planet. They welcomed us with open arms that day, they had but seen the carnage above, but much like as when I was very young looking up to the fires in the heavens, it seemed distant to them.

Chapter 5: The Nightmare Returns

It’s been some time since that fateful voyage. To me now it seems like nothing but a dream, a nightmare that came and went. The citizens of the city who rescued us took us in, let us live in their homes, treated us like family. I ended up marrying that girl who saved me that day, and we treated the couples who took us in like we did our parents. We have our own child now, a boy who is around the same age as I was when my family entered the nightmare in the heavens. He calls the people that took me in grandma and grandpa; he knows nothing of that nightmare. I’ve done my best to put it in the past, to not think of the immortal who took us on that journey. To not think of the past life I was torn away from that still haunts me in my dreams every night.

My time is nearly up though and soon it will be my boys turn to live his life. I fear though for him, news comes that the very same immortal that ripped me from my family is returning. Only this time the immortal tyrant seeks not dominion over the heavens, but rule over those below. What nightmares await him I fear and I do not know; it seems that in the end we are indeed…just mere play things for the immortals in the heavens above.