GENESIS - THE BEGINNING. Book 1

CHAPTER 13 ... On A War Footing

"Remember. The world has changed and is changing continuously." The Sensei told the group of one hundred female warriors. "The enemy is fast approaching and seeks to utterly destroy our way of life and it is you, only you that have the knowledge and strength of arms to sway his intent. We were created for one reason only; to protect the Emperor. Though I tell you that an Emperor is nothing if her Empire burns to the ground about her. You will protect not only the Emperor but her Empire. Every man, woman and child falls under your protection. Honor must always dictate your thoughts and actions for without honour you are as nothing. It is because of our way of life that we have been given this high accord. It is because of who and what we are that we have been honoured above all to be the first and the last recourse the Emperor will turn to for help, for her safety."

One hundred female warriors stood at attention on an open meadow where the grass had been churned up for the last year into a fine irritating dust. Over thirty thousand women had volunteered and more were doing so every day from every clan imaginable. They came in singles or pairs and groups of ten or more. They came from every corner of the planet Hades. Some were as young as twelve or thirteen while others were deep in their thirties. They came for the prize of clan pride or standing, for the respect and accolades they would earn amongst their kindred. They came for the honour of protecting for the first time ever, a female Emperor. A young woman who had outfought and outthought many a better opponent to grab the prize, the ultimate prize of becoming the first female Emperor in the existence of the Galactic Empire.

Out of the many thousands that came that first year and the years after, a total of five thousand succeeded in the rigorous training. Training that had many would-be warriors dejectedly leave for home to try again the following year. Clan Centurion, the first War clan to be initiated in over a thousand years of Hades history of turmoil and strife, had succeeded well above expectation to such a degree that two more War clans, the clan Delta, who had almost reached its five thousand quota and clan Williams, a clan that had reached its first one hundred Warrior status, came into being.

This was the first time in planet Hades' history that clans trained for war against human opponents, for in the beginning, Hades was at war with itself. As a young planet, still in its terra-forming stages, it had taken hundreds of years to reach a stage where humans could tentatively get a foothold on it and a thousand years and more would pass before they did not have to war continuously with an ever-changing and violent nature gone mad. The years had passed and the clans fought nature and its fauna and flora in equal amounts. From storms ranging from sleet to snow to gusting winds of hundreds of kilometers per hour to hot, broiling days that had the humidity raise to such a degree that the air became liquid and uncomfortable to breathe.

To make matters worse, insects, plant life and animals transformed and adapted and re-transformed from generation to generation as their DNA altered. Species died out as their young clawed their way out of wombs or were sterile. Teeth developed where once there had been roots. Roots where once there had been lichen. Nature in upheaval. The smallest pond held horrors unimaginable.

This was a planet not yet ripe for human population.

But come they did.

For reasons unknown and only to themselves, the first of thousands upon thousands of settlers volunteered and set foot into hell's kitchen and never looked back, for Hades had become for whatever reason, their last refuge from the Empire's own stifling laws and decay.

To survive they banded together to form clans with strict laws of effect, for survival depended on learning about their environment and its temperament. A temperament that changed its character from one moment to the next for what could be eaten today with relative enjoyment would take great pleasure in eating them six or seven months down the line.