The Shadows Cycle

SHADOWS

The Narlan Wars

 

By Alex Martin

 

 

Prologue

Before the Wars

 

 

There once lived a species that none could relate to.  Born from the gases of a nebula galaxy, they eventually took shape in the form of evil itself.  Their bodies were tall, round, and slender, red as if scorched to their insides.  Tentacle-like arms sprouted from their bodies, and claws that could cut through the hardest of all matter grew from where fingers and elbows should have been, except for the bottom two tentacles, which had three straight shells that acted like fingers.  They were used to construct and use the different objects that they made.

They called themselves the Vril.  Translated from their ancient language, it meant: Avengers of Death.  Death was their cause of creation, and knowing what they must do, they soon began to learn the space travel that would take them out of their galaxy, Galto, which had the form of a slanted eye, and to the galaxies of other species.  They became pre-eminent among the other species in the galaxy, and they developed deadlier weapons than just themselves. These events began their conquest of other species.  They eventually multiplied, quickly spreading within their system over a number of years.

The Vril grew stronger, and all of the species within the galaxy began to hear stories about their strength and overwhelming power.  Terrified, many of the races fled, traveling to the galaxies near them.  Those who stayed were eventually destroyed, unable to flee once they realized the trap that they had gotten themselves into.  After less than a century, the Vril had spread an empire throughout the galaxy, but it was not enough.

They eventually followed those who had fled, wanting none to escape their reign.  After creating an army of a massive size, they then spread to the galaxies nearest them.  Having just settled in the new colonies of the galaxies, the races trying to escape the clutches of the Vril were not expecting an attack from the ones that they most feared.

Without warning, the Vril stormed in against the fleeing species with armies of great size.  The forces could not be stopped, and a single battle broke out within each galaxy, lasting less than a single day, at the most.  Defeated, the races were forced back into the focal galaxy where everything had begun. 

Centuries of tyranny followed, and the Vril grew more merciless.  As the years passed, several battles broke out, but none of the attempts to try and overcome this growing tyranny ever succeeded.  The races eventually lost all hope and gave their lives to the Vril.

The Vril began to eliminate the races under their control, for they no longer showed any resistance, and they were viewed as weak and pathetic in the eyes of the Empire.  During this era, several species that entered the galaxy on peaceful expeditions unknowingly threw themselves into the grasp of the Empire.  These were the only races that ever persisted in trying to break the borders of the Empire, but they were eventually stopped when the Vril chose to destroy them because of their efforts.

In the year of 784 O.W., a new awakening arose in the minds of the races under control, seeing that the slaughtering of the species could wipe out life itself, and several battles to overcome the reign of the Empire followed.  These surprisingly lasted much longer than the others had, which startled the Vril.

An onslaught followed, and the Vril were once again victorious, but the sudden attacks brought them to their violent acts that they had stopped for a short time.  They continued to increase their army, which ended in vast numbers that no race had ever witnessed before.

Once the Vril did this, none dared to engage them in combat ever again.  Power settled in the minds of the Vril, and they began to sweep across the galaxy, torturing all that they encountered.

After they had done this, the Vril set forth on a series of conquests to several other galaxies beyond the ones that they had already enslaved.  They brought their wrath upon hundreds of other races, continuing to destroy those that attempted to resist.

Approximately 386 years went by, and the Vril continued to set forth on journeys to the distant galaxies of the universe, a feat which was matched by no others.  But then they encountered something new, a race unlike any that they had met before:  Humans, of the galaxy called Nefarius, which took a total of thirteen-years to travel to and return from.  These humans did not struggle to free themselves, but allowed themselves to be captured, for they knew that they were too weak to fight off the forces of the Vril.

Once they were suppressed, the humans were immediately brought back to the galaxy of the Vril.  Here they met thousands of races who warned them of the torture and cruelty that they would inevitably be subjected to, and although the humans took heed of this, they secretly began to advance their technology by hiding their laboratories on the outskirts of Galto.

Shortly after the humans’ arrival, an insect-like species called the Narlan were brought back from the Vril’s expeditions.  The two races became close allies, as were all the other races under the Vril’s black shadow of power.

360 years passed, but still no one tried to attack the Vril Empire, but the humans continued to advance their technology, now beginning to share it with the other races.  The Vril finally noticed their accomplishments, and soon they began to torture the humans more than ever by executing mass-attacks to annihilate the human race from existence.

This did not stop the humans though, and before long they knew that the time of war was close.  They began searching the galaxy for the other races, asking if they would finally unite as one against the Vril.

A war started, one that would become known as the Old War, the final resistance against the Vril.  It was the largest uprising that the Empire had ever seen, for it included all but the few races that were still frightened by them.  Led by the humans, the war raged on, and the Vril began to see what the humans truly had been doing over the past centuries. 

Over the next years, the war went into the center of the Vril Empire.  The slaughter continued on, and the Vril began weakening, but the end of the war was still interminable.  After twenty years of war, they fled from their central headquarters to other parts of the galaxy, but they were followed and surrounded, then were driven back into the chaos.

Just when it looked like the Vril were going to lose, the Empire threw all of their forces onto the armies of their foes, knowing that their downfall could be close.  The allied forces thought that this might be their defeat, but the Narlan took command.  They used a mysterious weapon, one that they never told the other allies of.  This weapon destroyed the Vril, and the war ended.  After thirty-seven years of bloody war, the Vril had finally fallen in defeat, and the allies knew that the weapon drove them to extinction.

Years later, the humans and the Narlan exchanged an oath, promising that if anything occurred that neither could handle alone, then they would be at each other’s side through it all.  Now traveling together, both races left the galaxy, but not before exchanging vows with their other allies.

Together they accomplished more than they had ever performed together, until the year 1175 A.V. when a special weapon was in the process of being built.

It was called the Intimidator, a glowing green orb that could destroy vast armies.  The core of the Intimidator was the weapon that the Narlan had used to destroy the Vril, but still they would not reveal what it was.

Forty years after construction of the Intimidator began, there was an attack on the entire station by an outside third force.  The Intimidator malfunctioned, and many of the Narlan that were working on the project died.  The Narlan turned against the humans, saying that it had been planned, for none of the humans were killed.

            The Narlan began to attack the humans at random times, but were easily held back.  Now, twenty-five-years later, a mysterious force attacked the human’s station shortly after the Narlan had attacked.  A crew member was captured, along with the most valuable tool that the humans had.  Thinking that it was the work of the Narlan, the humans, led by Commander Simon Heffer, began a war against the Narlan to retrieve their possessions:  The Narlan Wars…

How did you like the Prologue of "Shadows:  The Narlan Wars".