The 8 Minute War

1. THE SPEECH

War begins when it is declared through a powerful speech. Great leaders deliver great speeches, and I have been lucky enough to experience many with my own ears and eyes - but none of them delivered theirs quite the way The Visitor gave his. Our mightiest leaders would shout with passion from static podiums far in the distance; small versions of themselves promising large futures. They issued warnings through metaphor and uttered salvation through simile but no matter how important they built themselves up to be, time and experience made us sceptical of their visions.

The animated speech The Visitor gave us all was spoken by a leader who literally danced through the crowds; never stopping with a dramatic pause or trying to be clever with powerful triple sentences like our politicians always seem to. Instead he smiled when he spoke of our bravery, an honest smile. The Visitor praised and described each of our worlds with such passion that every race on board his ship would appreciate each other's involvement. The severity of the situation brought forth concordant feelings towards the Enemy and as such that one, great speech was all that was needed to create one gestalt creature: Us. We each contributed an individual skill that was inherent within our genetic make-up that could bring down this evil. Instead of a chaotic blending of multiple species we seemed like one solid war machine. Today, many chosen from their worlds were going to fight and die on the words of a creature with no name but knew and believed in their hearts he had the means to end the biggest and most terrifying War the universe had ever known and he convinced us when he visited our worlds that we would not have to worry about our destruction as he would protect us with his race's powerful science. A perfect deal. A mighty few would fight for him whilst he saved the vulnerable millions.

He started his speech from a gantry in front of a library full of old books. His arms gesticulated like a Wind Grinder trying to help us visualise how he had 'borrowed' Time Lord technology to seal our families and our entire planet in a bubble of frozen time. This was his promise to us for volunteering to destroy the Enemy at a crucial time in this inter galactic feud. He had thanked us all earlier in the day by placing his hand into ours and moving the clasp frantically up and down. Some of the races on board neither had hands or the means to invoke the movement but he attempted none the less to move fronds, claws and tails in his alien way as way of saying thank you. He left not one creature out. There were over two thousand of us yet he came to us all with words of praise, comfort and most useful of all; final tactics and tips to destroy the enemy. His speech continued as he slid down a polished metal pole to the ground floor and leapt like a newly born Wren Deer between the myriad of races reminding us how proud we should all feel. We had all been chosen to represent our worlds and it was a huge honour to fight in this unique army. I and my legion were extremely proud to be chosen and we would not let The Visitor and his plan down.

The mission was simple. A weapon was being built to destroy our system by a race with no feelings, emotions or conscience. It was to be tested against our home worlds and if successful it would annihilate them. Once a weapon is built of that power there would be no turning back the Sun clocks. We had to stop it happening. Before our attack we were told we were to join forces with something that would tip the balance in our favour. There was a rumour that it was an army from the Visitor's own race. On a forgotten Moon with no name we were to land. He assured us his ship would not be detected by the enemy and it would be a day's walk to the where the weapon was being created over a mountain range.

The Visitors intel was located on the same planet as the enemy and he had been speaking through minds for many weeks with them. This was science beyond my understanding but I could see the golden metal levers and glass symbols he placed his hands on when he closed his eyes to make contact helped. It was an awesome interaction to watch: a huge powerful machine and a Creature working in complete harmony. His army will be something to behold.