DESTINY: BECOME LEGEND

ACT ZERO: PROLOGUE|SCENE TWO: THE GOLDEN AGE

  The Silver Age had undergone the First Great Collapse, and in its wake appeared the Traveller. It's arrival brought technological wonder to the human race, these advancements allowing man to reach his Golden Age. But in his Golden Age, man grew prideful and arrogant.  They did not expect what came after they grew strong. After Mercury became a garden world. After Venus became a home to scholars. After the moon became a research station. After Mars became a tourist attraction. After Jupiter became an experiment. After Saturn became a home to many. After Neptune and Uranus became laboratories and a home to science. After all of this, man could not expect what followed their beautiful golden age. The Second Great Collapse.
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"Sir." Called out Evans, an ordinary janitor trying to earn his living called out to the captain of the station. Though he was no more than a janitor here, all personnel were required to have an at least rudimentary understanding of the machinery in case of an emergency. "What is it, Evans?" Replies Jasper, the captain of the station they worked in on Neptune. "The deep space radars, Sir. They're malfunctioning." Evans answers the captain with a calm, not even slightly disturbed tone. The machines had their problems here and there, this was early Golden Age technology after all. Nothing like the new Light machines on Venus and Mercury. "Again? Traveller damn it Evans this is the third time this month." The captain tells Evans in an incredibly exasperated fashion before going over to the radars, inspecting the parts that tended to malfunction. "Evans, I can't find anything wrong." The janitor walks over and points at the radar screen itself and the unimaginably huge black mass displayed on it. "This. There's no way this is an actual thing, the Towers would've told us something about it by now." What Evans was unaware of, though, was that the black mass cloaked itself in darkness, invisible to all forms of detection until up close. "So the screen itself is broken?" Jackson asks. "I've gone over the scanners themselves, so it must be the screen." Evans, though, was already looking away and not paying attention. Tech malfunctioned everyday. This was nothing knew, he thought as he looked to the pictures of his family he had hung around his neck on a lanyard. He'd dated her for many years, been friends with her even more, it had taken him quite a while to gather the courage to propose, but he was glad he did. Now they were happily married with one beautiful daughter. He couldn't wait to get home, his little girl's birthday was coming up after all. It was then that he felt the cold. The darkness. It turned out the machines were not malfunctioning at all. Not that he knew, for he could feel no more. He would not be returning home.
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The Darkness swept over Neptune and Uranus, all life on both planets lost to the dark in an instant. Far off on Earth, the Towers were unaware of the sudden destruction. The veil of blackness too strong for any of their light to break through. In the times of the Golden Age, the Towers were the central hubs of all forms of military, scientific, and political command. Every Tower was vital to the continued success of human life, but none more vital than that in Old Russia. Renamed after the creation of Russia on Jupiter, the politicians insistent of keeping the name Russia instead of New Russia, the original country had the prefix forced onto it in the name of 'progress'. Though this was not what makes Old Russia's Tower important, but the Great Machine floating above it. The Traveller. For it was The Traveller that gave mankind the new form of energy known as light. In its purest form, it was stronger than any energy created by nuclear fission. In its three less pure forms, it was still quite strong. Arc. Void. Solar. The three manifestations of Light. One day, this Light would become less a tool, and more a weapon against the Dark. But this was not that day, so when the Darkness came, they had no weapons. No one had any weapons to strike back except one. The Traveller. With its great Light, it could've fought back and saved millions, if not billions of lives. Yet it did not. At the sight of its age old enemy, the pristine white sphere they all looked up to as a God attempted to flee and leave it to die, much like it had with another race before. It attempted to flee, but was unable. It was crippled. This is the only reason mankind still stands. Forced to stay back, incapable of escape, the Traveller let out a burst of its light in a last ditch effort to save itself. This crippled it further, but banished the Darkness from Earth. Yet the damage was done. All life on other planets had been lost. Very little life remained on Earth itself. All Golden Age technology, including the Warminds, were lost. The Warminds were a network of sentient AI's dedicated to the defense and preservation of human life at all costs, no matter what had to be done. Which is why all the survivors wondered why they hadn't done anything. Why the survivors asked why the Warminds had done nothing to save them. In this anger, none of them noticed that the damage which crippled the Traveller had come from below on Earth and not above from the Darkness. The damage that forced the Traveller to stay and protect humanity instead of fleeing. The damage with destruction much too similar to that left behind by the Warminds to be a coincidence. Many would call it betrayal. If mankind was aware, they might've gone after the Warminds themselves were they still operational. But the Warminds knew who the real traitor was. The Warminds knew what they had done was necessary for survival.