Re: CIVIE SECTION
In reply to An'teela (msg # 980):
Garrat snorts, "You asked for it," He says in a warning voice. "I have seven hundred years of stories but the action is in the first two centuries or so. I'll try to compres it but my files are extensive." He taps the computer interface on the back of his head. Garrat takes a sip of his coffee and his eyes trace back and forth like he is reading pages in front of him.
Unfortunately I can only go back as far as Ymir, not a giant as depicted in Midgard legends but a giant of an empire that stretched across thousands of star systems. In time the society came to run it's self through a central computer, indeed those within it were enslaved by the mechanism of the empire in a dystopian society.
<Aqua> AI's that made up parts of the system achieved higher functioning and helped bring the down fall of human slavery to the machine. These became known here as the Gods of Asgard. That's a long story in itself but in the end our enemies used a cultural strike to cripple our knowledge and culture. He's obviously paraphrasing a huge number of intricate detals as his eyes race back and forth.
They we're successful. It would be over a century before we approached the technology we had before the attack."</Aqua>
"As time wore on, our ancesters information databases to preserve our technological heritage As we reactivated ancient machines and learned about them and developed runic technology, especially in concert with the ancient circuitry patterns created by the common ancesters to you angels and our white elves."
"Finding a means to hide and keep these resources locked until needed was difficult. Individuals were to short lived, corruptable, and couldn't be counted on to fill the position from century to century. The affects created major set backs when the Frost giants would hide and wait then strike when they knew they had uncovered enough of our secrets."
"That's when asgard decided to start using the acursed to keep their secrets. The acursed gene surfaces about once a generation, unless two acursed mate. Then there is a 100% chance of getting an acursed off spring. Almost all of the time they were repelled by eachother, with only one viable couple being documented at the time. The military government offered them a ceartain amount of property to produce acursed offspring to bear the secrets of what we called the Knowledge Oases'
"It was because of this my parents had me. Born two generations apart they had trouble with a difference in life experience but dispite the fact they were doing it for enough land to qualify as an english dukedom they did care about eachother and they loved me. For this reason they chose to have me altered to be an einherjar. This allowed them to give me traits that would off set the down side of the cuurse of eternal longevity. Mother even agreed to carry me through the second trimester so I would partially be born of womb rather than grown in a vat like other Einherjar. I'm smaller than my bretheren but have traits they lack. When I entered the acadamy, I had distinguished myself enough to be tested as a companion to a Wolfrim."
arrat takes a sip of his coffee. "Now a wolfrim is a nordic mythological beast, albiet one no one remembers but that's partially because we worked to erase them from human mythos just as we worked to erase our presence on earth by tying their knowledge of our legends to the Roman goods rather than the shades of our deities."
"Quick history. As you know, earth was kinda on the road to everywhere. The angels looked after it but there were so many species "Accidently" crashing or touching down in remote locations to get supplies that can only be found there, it's a wonder they didn't open up a space station with duty free shops. Through history the Angels wanted their wine, the porcine needed their truffles, Occui are chocolate lovers, Skith are total nuts for calamari straight from the source [they taught the Japanese the art of sushi], and if you think demons are a$$holes now, you should see them without their morning coffee.
"We used to harvest the eurochs though we eventually established our own herds before they went extinct on Earth. Our scout ships were disguised as Occuis traders, well thechnically they were as they were occui ships with largely asgard crews. Not many of us dropped by but like the norse we love a good celebration. The art of making mead was a gift to them and in time their gift to us as they took it and improved on it. The characters of Norse mythology were interpretations of stories told around the campfire and more than a little [ahem] genetics were exchanged on these rare meetings."
"Having established our own herds of Eurochs we left your world to the watchful eye's of the angels but found Half midgard children were superior soldiers in our wars with the nightmares the frost giants were throwing at us. We returned to Midgard and used the Valkyrie to lift the mortally wounded in the confusion of battle and brought them home to live with us and act as a new genetic bases for super soldiers. Thus the Einherjar were born."
"The Einherjar were a comglomeration of dozens of genetic diseases granting size flexibility, strength, and many more minute abilities, as well as using the Dwarven neural jack system to pluge straight into machines and have them work as one together and allow them mental interface with complex computer systems. They were guarenteed a place in the military and treated as born veterans. This was the gift my parrents gave to me, and to Asgard in general as I could hold more information on the oasis and upload updates at anytime while burrying it in a way that no enemy could torture it out of me or direct access it themselves. This made me very valuable."
I was useful like a tool was useful. Not for who I was. That was whyI wanted to be a companion for a Wolfrim. As I said Wolfrims are a mythological beast in Midgard but in Asgard they were quite real. They were a massive Creatures with the basic form of a wolf with the wings of a raven. Their tails were a hybrid between the two and other raven like traits such as feathers instead of fur on some parts of their bodies, light weight bones, a black horny plating on the topside of their snouts and hybrid claws with aposible didgets. There were other less obvious differences but those are the major ones. Now wolfrim were highly adaptive pack creatures but they couldn't achieve sentience without being bonded into a pack of sentient beings such as humans. Like birds, they had a deep conection to the first being they saw, but when paired with a human they usually only live as long as that human because it takes much time for them to develope the identity they needed to be independant of their bondmate. Thus despite my efforts I was more valueable for my blood than my achievements." Garrat looked down at his coffee.
"And so I worked hard. Really hard. My companion, Keeva, recognized my drive and made it his own, becoming stronger and more independant early in his life. I learned about mechanics, driving, and piloting so I could be whatever my unit needed...and I was recognized for it. Keeva was strong in places I wasn't but helped me overcome my weaknesses as I worked with him on his. He was a true companion and even as we looked after eachother at the acadamy, so did we watch over eachother as we moved into the battle feild.
In a hospital after a battle I met my first wife. We married and I was kept planet side and only shipped out when they needed a specialist team. Our missions weren't mundane or easy and I watched freinds and buddies die as I continued to work my way up through the ranks. Progress was slow. Promotion never came quickly for the Einherjer and least of all a freak like me. While I had all the time in the world my wife grew older. She was in her fifties when Keeva and I went back to the acadamy for officer training. It was an exciting time as Napolean was making a name for himself on earth. I graduated and worked my way up through the ranks till I became a captain, still focusing on making a name for myself. I had my own unit now but was still deployed on the high risk assignments that needed specialist experience. I trained my boys into the ground, from the air suport to the shuttle pilots, to the vehicle drivers, RAP riders and ground pounders. It became obvious that Standard issue eguipment wasn't enough for the type of jpbs we ran and uping the equipment quality was useless when every one had a way they fought. We were the first to run into the hunger. A new genetically ingineered enemy that swarmed you under with the effective equivelent of vorpal chihuahuas. We were devestated by banshees, several times before we made the connection between our men going berserk and attacking us and the winged women who led the enemy charge. I started to acrue Broken wing decoration where 80% of my team was wiped out, whether it was just us or we were part of a bigger offensive. On several ocasions I spearheaded a suicide run to others could escape, but my cursed channelled the energy of the devestation and Keeva and I woke up somewhere else with a few others. Apparently I can take a certain amount of gear and people with me.
In time I moved further up the ladder and was promoted off the battle feild. It was for the best. Sandra was growing older and I wanted to spend time with her.
It was interesting to see how the upp teir worked. Many got promoted and completely forgot about the people they faught next to in the feild. They didn't use their heads completely. They would come up with a decision based on limited information and move on so they could go out to dinner with someone of higher rank so they could earn their next star. They hated me. I slowed things down, asked questions, and when ever capable I took things home to Keeva to discuss. He had a strategic mind like a trap, and had beeen promoted along with me, but being a wolf the size of a draft horse, he had to tele comute so he stayed at the condo we shared and kept Sandra company. Because we cohabitated with a Wolfrim we had a nicer place than most complete with a rooftop garden. It was a good place for my wife to spend her last years and I made them as good as possible even as I did my best decision making and planning where ever they needed me. It was painful to watch Sandra pass but all I gave her was smiles and suport.
Life was empty after that but in order to be taken seriously I had to keep up appearances more so than most because my focus was unpopular. After a appropriate mourning period I took on another human wife who saught power through marraige. I had became known as "The grumpy old man" who got things done and no one wanted to be paired with me yet the higher ups made sure batch after batch of officers spent time with the wolfrim, so there was a sigh of relief when the old acursed one "settled down" with a new "young" wife.
Mara enjoyed her trophy position though she wasn't so happy about sharing space with "That oversized dog". Soon she learned to appreciate him. [he would let her ride him to headquarters to drop off my lunch and freak the hell out of those who weren't used to that sort of thing. It gave her more weight in the community.]
Several decades latter I had made it to the level of a human five star and my carrier seemed to stall. It seemed they didn't want me at the big boys table. That was okay with me. I knew my worth, and the faces of lost freinds still hauned my sleep. I couldn't make the difference I wanted if I went higher, and the brass asked my advise enough to almost give me more sway than if I held some of their positions myself. Yet sometimes I felt as if a trained monnkey could do my job.
The frost giants started an offensive that left us confused and wiped out. Whole suns were going super nova at an unatural rate. The resulting shift in gravity wells destabilized the network of wormholes we called the universal tree or Ythidrasil as the Midguardians refferred to it. We needed some decision makers close to the action before we lost the ability to comand them throught the tree.
I sent for my mother to stay with Mara then Keeva and I set out with some of our fastest Runic drives risking the gates on the way there. After raising two more boys, Dad had estrangeg himself in the past few decades then dissapppeared leaving his assets to Mom, so it was good for the two women to be there for eachother during this rough time. Mara and I had found a love for eachother and she was even able to bear some children before reaching the nonbearing age. Thankfully non had my curse and I was able to see them grown and on with good lives, though I did not want to leave them or their mother alone.
Garrat looked contemplatively at his coffee, his eyes weren't tracing text anymore but reliving something horrible. We found things were worse than any could suspect. Several out of the way colonial planets had been stripped of all life, atmosphere, and most of the soil. The water had been left behind as ice rings in orbit around the planet...whole sea ships frozen in the chunks, and the molten center of the planet sucked out of the core, then spit out in another ring absent of metals. It was like nothing we had seen before. Planets I had secured and defended turned to darkened rocks in the void. The stars that were going supernova were the yellow stars like Sol, far from the time they would do it natrally yet somthing upset the delicate balence between their mass and their energy output causing them to tear themselves apart. It was theorized that some of their planets had been devoured as well, but o one knew for sure and so we had no idea the full extent of what we were up against."
Garrat goes on to share the rest of his past before his com buzzes. He looks at it and frowns, then looks back at her, "I'm sorry Teela, I really have to go." He leans foreward and gives her a serious kiss. Smoothing her hair back he speaks, "Some freinds are working on something on the Forge ship and they need my advice. I need to get this taken care of before I hit the sack tonight. I'll continue this conversation with you later my dear."
This message was last edited by the player at 18:28, Thu 04 July 2019.
