To the Stars We Travel



I am one of the four. I am one of the four who guides to the future, I am one of the four who wage war, I am one of the four who keep us to the shinning path. I am one of the four who have had their names struck from the Genesis Records. This record records all the men and women who have undertaken this journey to the stars, it names them, it gives them purpose, it gives them hope, and after they have passed it is the only way we can remember them. It is this record that I have had my name struck from, so that one day the pilgrims may present themselves free from sin, because I have taken it with me in my death. These are the stories of my sins and the sins that I have watched committed. These stories are filled with murder, infanticide, genocide and all manner of horrible acts born unto others and dealt to each other. Do not be afraid of these stories I am one of the four and this horror you call my innate sin I will carry within my soul away from the innocent. Now, stay awhile so that I may tell you of it.



Our people have always bathed in the joyous light of our home star. We have not ever known the depths of space and we did not envision that it would be so dark yet, dark it is, cold and empty, without feeling, without warmth. Surely, this was not the seas we expected to sail into and yet it is the path that our colony vessel sailed upon. This colony vessel was a gift to us. A gift from Plague. I clearly remember her, beauty beyond compare. Beauty beyond anything I have seen in all my days. To gaze upon her was like having your breath stolen from your body. It was this physical beauty she sacrificed. She sacrificed her body to the corrupt official so that we could gain the key codes to the colony vessel, Polaris. She was the first of the four to carry sin away from the fleet. I wanted to weep for her after she killed herself. You see she discovered she was pregnant with that officials child, unable to bear bringing a child born in sin to the fleet she choose to keep the sin within herself she expelled herself into the cold emptiness of space. Her tears freezing into gleaming diamonds as she clutched her belly full of child. There is more to her story, but it is forgotten now because her name was struck from the records. I have digressed far, please allow this old man a tangent every now and again.



It is our belief that the darkness of space is ruptured by the shinning path. It parts the darkness and can be a guiding light if one knows which direction the shinning path emanates from and where it leads to; which sounds easy. Many of the unlearned think the path is like a walkway aboard a ship. If you were to follow arrows pointing aft the walkway would take you aft, moving fore on this walkway takes you forward. The path is not so easy, and it would not give up its secrets easily, and so the remaining three of the four gathered what data we had and for turns of the moon we deliberated. We at first though that the path was the direction that the Endless took during their early colonial period. We believed that planets would be colonized, mined for their dust and when depleted the Endless would move on. Following that train of thought we arrived on Arraken.



We discovered there that, the colonial theory was not true. It is very clear that the Endless lived on that world even after the Dust was gone. Why would a race so dedicated to such a vital resource live on, on a world exhausted of dust? We could not answer that at the time so Polaris was parked in orbit as our research teams landed and we began to assess the world in hopes of finding some sort of clue that would point us in the right direction. The Endless' great cities we found were open air structures built straight up into the sky. Towering spires of gleaming metal, polished bright by cyclonic great storms of sand that would blanket millions of square myles. Yet strangely enough these cities were not isolated at all from the hostile environment, and hostile it was. The water which our race needs for our very survival was kept deep within the world in great cisterns, formed by living creatures. Great undersand oceans lie hundreds of miles within the outer rock layer of that world, all ensconced by these wonderful flat creatures. Were these creatures products of Endless eugenic programs as they terraformed the world? Were these creatures native to that world and had the Endless simply landed there and built great cities? Were the Endless themselves creatures that did not need water? We may never know the answers for Arraken was lost to us.



The Dogs of the Empire were fresh on our heels. Nipping at us, biting at us, yapping for our blood. So we took what we could few answers we could find, and left with even more questions regarding the Endless. The few freggates and cruzers that had come with us during our exodus from home formed a rear guard. Around the leyline exit we sat in wait. I had ordered our ships to drift with lights dimmed, emergency power only, weapons partially charged. Hiding within the darkness we sought to ambush our pursuers. The men and women aboard my rear guard fleet had earlier completed their final rights and were confident that their spirits would fly along the shinning path to the Endless.



Like wolves we lay waiting for prey. Like lambs to the slaughter the dogs of the Empire came to us with their necks barred. They emerged from the warp in groups of ones and twos instead of emerging from that choke point as a solid fleet. So we savagely lashed at their necks, firing gleaming beams of malice that sundered them and slaughtered them, their screams of mercy was sweet music to my ears. Their cries of pity for the children they would not see I bathed in. As their broken hulls drifted in space, I asked the void of darkness to which Plague had committed herself if she felt that she had been avenged. It was only silence that answered my question.