ONE: Epilogue of Hermesh

27. The Lost Souls

Contrary to popular belief, Andorh was not the planet from which the Manwatus evolved. In many respects, it was quite the opposite. Eons ago, before the Amarthians or the Helmeshi were even born, the Manwatus fought in the First Great War of Hermesh. It was a conflict where two mighty races ravaged the galaxy and it pushed the Manwatus, the oldest sentient species of the galaxy to the very brink of annihilation. When at the end, the Manwatus had lost almost all the battles and with it, the war, the only weapon they were left with was time; for time was never on the side of their enemy.

And it was here, on Andhorh, a planet situated almost at the centre of Hermesh and hidden behind many a star clusters, asteroid belts, and nebulae, that the Manwatus had prepared to make their last stand against their enemy in a desperate bid to fight off extinction.

In order to defend themselves, the Manwatus had constructed a fortress that spread across Andhorh, its two adjacent planets and their moons, creating the most formidable fortification that they could engineer. Every bit of the planet and its moon's surface was armour plated. Mighty defence towers that emerged out of those metal surfaces reached up to pierce the atmosphere. Orbiting these planets and moons were countless manual and remote controlled weapons commanding devastating power and accuracy; all ready to be deployed in an instance. Finally, they had a sensor grid that could spot any potentially hostile element approaching the system, up to 20 Centrons from any direction.

Luckily for the Manwatus, their enemy did indeed run out of time before they found Aandorh and their species was saved. Then, millions of years later, when the Xacreth War was reaching its culmination and defeat was, once more, all but certain, the Manwatus had prepared for that final battle at Aandorh again. Only this time, time was not on their side.

But then, they received the surprising news that in spite of being on the verge of total victory, the Xacreths had surrendered to the Amarthian Commodore Reemon Erra at Valree. The war was over. And one more time, the Manwatus had managed to survive, to live to fight another day.

*****

Eruera, who was commander of Anahiro, the outermost battlestation of the system, sounded the alarm, just as the small luminous object entered the star system and made its way towards Andhorh.

Even though it was visible to all who looked, the object somehow managed to move like a ghost, evading all the Manwatu sensors. As far as security threats go, this was unprecedented. Travelling at a deceptively fast speed, the object in question was no bigger than a small meteor. And before Eruera's alarm could manually activate the planetary and lunar defences, it had reached Andhorh.

Within moments, however, weapons fired from various parts of the planet, as well as its moon, targeted and hit the alien object from every direction. However, even though every weapon fired, confirmed that their strike was accurate, to the surprise and fear of all who witnessed the incident, the object remained rooted to the very same place where it had landed. Seemingly unscathed.

A long moment of complete silence followed, which was finally broken by the muffled sigh of a small fissure opening on the planet's surface. Out of it, three metallic orbs came flying out. As the Manwatus came closer, they could only describe what they saw as a strange photon emitting apparition. Slowly, to the utter surprise of the Manwatus, who were now closer, that light instantly changed into a bipedal alien being.

The moment this new information was relayed back, the tower closest to the alien lit up as a ring of light at its base started gliding upwards. Within seconds, it shot straight up to the very top before discharging a beam of light down at the alien. The three Manwatus watched, as the weapon discharge went right through the alien and made a part of the planet's surface armour explode.