Soldier on the Eastern Fringe (Rise of Empires 1)

1000 years. We've been spreading across the stars for 1000 years.

It's hard to believe we started so long ago.

We just fought the last brushfire war, or at least that's what the ancient Americans and British called it. The country I'm descended from didn't care. I descend from the country of Brazil, before it became the region of the United Southern American Nations, the second most populous region of Earth.

Now, I myself am not from Earth, nor have I ever seen that supposedly beautiful orb. I am from the world of Carian, along the eastern fringe of the United Planets of Humanity... Oh, I haven't told you what those are yet have I?

The United Planets is the political unit that represents all of Mankind. When we began our push into the stars, we started off like the ancient colonial Empires, running the worlds as colonies from Earth. This went on until Mars, our first colony, revolted, successfully winning it's independence from it's British masters. After Mars rebelled, so did all our other colonies, each declaring independence from Earth, but the wars that broke out between the newly independent worlds threatened to destroy our attempts at a galactic empire. A new solution was devised

Written up by an Martian Statesman, the Constitution of the United Planets set the guidelines for a government that represented every planet equally. Every planet was given one senator in a superparliament on Earth's moon, Luna. Every planet colonized was done so with the knowledge that it would become an independent world and given a senator in the Parliament.

With that, we once again spread, finding new species. Some, like the peaceful, deer-like Stagnorans in their refugee ships, we welcomed with open arms, while others, like the fanatical, insectoid Zel'gan Noctoru... Well... We're still at war with them today, almost two hundred years after first contact. We encountered the pacifistic, avian Avarius Psittaca, the eternal enemies of the Zel'gan, and the expansionist, reptilian Brakkians.

Now, back to me, being on the Eastern Fringe, we are constantly fighting against the Brakkians, our settlers clamoring for more worlds, which the lizards already have occupied. As such, most of us are drafted into the United Planets Military, put into planetary battalions to fight the aliens. Now, that was to make what I'm about to say a little more clear. I am a member of the Carian Gravediggers, the battalion native to my homeworld. Currently, we are engaged on the planet Jurviorn, fighting in trenches thousands of standard miles wide. Going over old holovids, we can't help but laugh at the ancient Empires fighting their 'Great War', because that would of been a breeze for us. A hundred miles of trenches? I wish. Human enemies? Never again. No tanks until the last year of fighting? How about never getting them at all?

My shoulder still hurts from the kick of my rifle

We have one thing going for us right now. While we have no armor, we are fighting along one of the nine Praetor Guard battalions from Earth. Four of them are deployed along the Western Reaches against the Zel'gan, where all our tanks are, and the other four are spread across human space, dealing with domestic threats that pop up every now and again. We're lucky to have them here, even if they are all pretentious snobs from Man's homeworld. They have our first laser rifles, setting the bar that the rest of us WILL reach.

Well, my time for this is almost up, the Lizards are coming in again. I will write again afterwards


Colonel Friaz Kadrian, 128th Carian Gravedigger Battalion






[After Action Report]
The Brakkians were driven offworld and out of the entire system after a desperate nine month siege. The author of this entry, Colonel Kadrian of the 128th Carian, perished in the last battle on Jurviorn, posthumously awarded the Terran Medal of Conspicuous Bravery, having taken on almost twenty Brakkians single handedly in an attempt to distract them long enough to evacuate the critically wounded from a field hospital, from which almost two hundred were saved before the position was overrun. Survivors chose suicide rather than being captured, all being members of the 5th Praetor Guard

Casualty Figures (Humanity)
200,451 Killed
148 Missing
0 (presumably) Captured

Dimensional Vault: Rise of an Empire

To see it is to see the greatness of Humanity

The clean, blue and green surface of our home. Snow-capped peaks and deep blue oceans. Scenic deserts and expansive plains. Then, beside the natural wonders, were the achievements of Man.

Mighty skyscrapers and monumental monoliths. From the cities of the modern age to the ruins of the ancients.

Of course, none of us can see it anymore. We couldn't control ourselves. Our precious sphere burned under clouds of radioactive dust. Fireballs reduced the plains to wastelands, turned the deserts to glass, and poisoned the oceans. We ourselves were brought to the brink of extinction when we at last realized our mistake

We brought this upon ourselves. Every last horrible blast.

We poisoned our oceans, burned our plains, and glassed our deserts. We brought ourselves to extinction.

So we clawed our way back. Back to the top

We left our destroyed world, spreading across the stars. We found new worlds to call home, making them into imperfect copies of that once beautiful orb. Where we found life, we welcomed them, and they us.

We never used violence unless it was absolutely necessary. We had finally learned from our mistakes

And those mistakes led us to unity



... Maybe they weren't mistakes after all

Siren's Guild: POV Exercise I

The electricity is out, but I've still got time; the generator is keeping the equipment running, because, hey, that's what you do, right? Save your tech, your files, but not your researchers. But, you know what they say: why replace a fifty-million dollar system when you could just keep shipping oblivious doctors down into an underwater wonderland? It's cheaper that way–one less person on the payroll each time one of these projects goes awry. They always seem to.

Oh, this camera isn't even focused, is it? Let me just take care of that...

It's not much better, but it'll do. It's not like I could tamper with the tech even if I wanted to. The company can equip the system with waterproof electrical, but can't afford to stock the lab with a few pieces of diving equipment.

What's that thing that the kids used to say? FAIL!

Ugh, anyways, I've got about three minutes before this entire facility floods. Those "shatterproof" windows? Yeah, crushed by the pressure. Here, lemme pan the camera over to the left...see that? Look at all that money chipping off one shard at a time. No expenses spared. Sure...

Wow. Look at me going on all these tangents.

One minute.

Let's see, I could save the human race in these last few minutes or think about the last steak that I didn't get to eat. Dave, if you're watching this, you owe me. One steak delivered right to my tombstone; medium rare with all the fixings. I can't believe that–hold on, there's a piece of glass prodding at my ankle. Stupid glass...anyways, what was I–oh, right. The whole humanity shebang. Yeah, they lied to us–

This stupid computer–Geez, things must be really wrong if even–

...the tech is cutting out.

If I could just–this really is Dave's thing. Screw you, Dave, for not being here the one time I actually needed you.

Twenty seconds.

The water's up to my neck now, but you can see that, obviously.

Anyways, lies, lies, lies, yeah, yeah. It's not something new. It's the same old crap. Get rid of the trees! Done! Get rid of the fish! Done! And look where we are now: a drowning researcher and a monst–

-----END OF TAPE-----

  

Introduction

If you've stumbled upon this quaint little site of ours, chances are that you either express some interest in the written word, or you've just wandered into our cavern blindly. Regardless, we hope you stay for the host of work soon to inhabit the wonderful world of 'Pandemonium', and hopefully enjoy the literary (and artistic) spawn of our lovely minds.

As of now, our site is run by The Timejumper and BackwaterMermaid (myself), who will serve as the administrators and authors until further notice. We'll separate and tag our material accordingly to provide the best experience for our readers/viewers. Posts should start rolling out within a few days as we adjust to this new website, but for the mean time, you can preview some of our work at the following places...

BackwaterMermaid:

Wattpad: http://www.wattpad.com/user/BackwaterMermaid

Tumblr: http://backwatermermaid.tumblr.com/tagged/my-stories

The Timejumper:

DeviantArt: http://thetimejumper.deviantart.com

YouTube (Main Channel): https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9XiR44e-R0IHEVmiGOH2Ag

YouTube (ItRemindsMeOfHome): https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVEx_wpJEki0G4TI4U0jLXg