"Push it, we have to keep up."

On the bridge of the Ophanim, a hunter class attack frigate, the crew was frantically trying to keep the FTL engines beyond their maximum power. Captain Doscertes was anxious to keep up the speed even though they had long since left their known sector of the galaxy. The white, droplet-shaped craft barreled along while pushing every bit of available energy into the accelerator relays that were making the long curved fins on the back glow red hot from the overproduction of waste heat. And far ahead of it was something else, moving as fast.

"It's shedding even more weight. It won't be able to keep this up for long", the officer to his left stated while reading his instrumentation.

The view screens towards the front showed what they were following - a black mass of a spaceship, greater than them in size, unclear in shape. It seemed to be biological in its constant reshaping of the outer hull. A cloud of black particles was surrounding it, clearly visibly against the blue backdrop of the hyperspace transit tunnel.

"We better be ready. When it leaves hyperspace, I want us to drop right on top of it. We need to nail it down once and for all."

Doscertes balled his fists. This war - if it could even be called that - seemed to finally be reaching an end. But only when the last piece of their enemy was eradicated, could they find peace. And it was up to the Ophanim to do this. They left behind the rest of the fleet hours ago, none of them able to match the speed of the enemy. Only thanks to the ingenuity of his engineers and the design of this craft had they been able to keep up themselves. So there would be no backup when it came to the inevitable battle, no one was in their communication range. He absolutely hated these odds.

"Sir", the navigation officer pulled him from his thoughts, "we will reach the point of no return in four minutes. If we are very lucky, we might be able to limp back home if we turn around before that."

He replied, adressing all: "I am sorry crew, we cannot let it get away. We will follow even as we become unable to return home. Think of your loved ones as we continue, because we will be sparing them the pain of having to step up to fight the darkness. You all remember what happened last time it got the chance to reform. We have to end this. Protect life."

"Protect life!", was the collective call from all around him.

There was only another breath before it happened. The dark mass dropped from hyperspace and blinked out of existence on this plane. Immediately the Ophanim shut down the accelerator relays, the blue tunnel collapsing around them in an instant. Getting their bearings quickly, they noticed they were within a star system. One, that had to be so many lightyears away from their home that they were probably the very first ones to lay eyes on the bright white sun in its center.

"There!"

On the view screens the feed zoomed in on the dark mass. Right behind it was a planet, showing the distinct signs of life with a cloudy atmosphere and lush vegetation on the irregular land masses. They were too far to engage the enemy.

"What is it doing?"

"It's going for the planet", the officer from his left replied.

"Bring us in weapons range, full power on the sublight engines", he ordered.

The black ship accelerated far slower, but it was so much closer to the planet, it would not matter. The enemy would land and there was nothing they could do. The planet looked like it offered vast amounts of biomass - exactly what it was looking for. The captain shuddered from the thought of what they had to do to destroy it then.

"What do we know about the planet?", he asked the sensor crew to his left.

"Massive amounts of plant life. Age is appropriate for complex lifeforms, maybe-", the officer paused while looking at his screen and took a deep breath, "I see settlements."

Captain Doscertes heart dropped. Intelligent life. They had found intelligent life. Out here in a system they didn't even know existed, there was a planet harboring a possible sentient species. The first they had come across that had been untouched - with horror he watched the enemy slowly descend on that beautiful world.

"Captain", the bridge speakers took his attention, "My soldiers are ready. We will drop down and destroy it on the surface."

It was the voice of Raph, the commanding officer of the power armor squadron the Ophanim was carrying to defend against the enemy boarding their ship. The Angel Squad - battle hardened in ground combat, powerful and recklessly loyal. He trusted them with his life.

"We will not be able to retrieve you. Even if we somehow make it back and send-"

"I know, sir. All of us know. Just let us handle this now. You can still exterminate that planet in case we fail. Protect life."

It was quiet on the bridge. Re-entry flames swallowed the black ship that had reshaped into a nearly perfect sphere, probably to protect itself from the heat. The Captain could not allow it to grow strong again.

"We will get in orbit above it and then slow down as much as we can for the drop. When you touch down, we will monitor from above for a full revolution. If you have not accomplished it by then..." he trailed off, afraid to say what he had to do to this planet so rich in life, if the soldiers failed.

"That's all I wanted to hear. Thanks captain."

"Protect life."

---

Unalu was wandering along the narrow river for hours now. The strap of his bag - loaded down with art supplies - had dug deep into his shoulder, even after changing sides so many times. He was on the verge of giving up. Just a few miles east along the river, they had said. There is a beautiful lake, they had said. The largest and most magnificent featherleaf tree, they had promised.

And like a fool he had believed them and taken off. The river took a bend around a hillside it had dug into, exposing a low cliff. He climbed the small hill to get a good view of his surroundings. There were only wetlands beyond, where the river disappeared into the ground and soaked the earth. He would not find any trees there, that much was certain.

He scolded himself. It was not the first time he had taken a long hike on some vague promise for a scenery that made a good picture. Be that as it may, he was exhausted and hungry and this would be a nice place to rest. He loosened the strap on the canvas bag, unfolding it flat onto the ground. Besides the rolls of parchment and canvas, the collapsible wooden frame and his paints and brushes, there was a leather pouch with drink and another with dried meat. He even had some fruit he was fortunate to find on a tree overlooking the riverbank some ways back.

Silently looking over the thin, high grass, he ate the meat, slicing off thin pieces with his sharper claw as it had toughened nearly to the point of feeling like leather. The sun was setting slowly behind him, drawing long shadows across the landscape. It actually was very beautiful here. Yes, he thought, I will draw these lands in the light of sunset.

Quickly he pulled out a piece of parchment that already had specks of color all over. He took the paints that could reproduce the sky color and dabbed them onto the sheet where there was still empty space. With a claw that was already rounded to the point of being useless, he mixed the paints. Then he tried a few different combinations, holding up the parchment against the twilight sky each time to see if he could hit the colours he was seeing just right.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Something caught his eye then. A light up there. It was not a star, no, it was too large and too bright. Curiously he watched on as he lowered the paper. And it grew. Very quickly. Alarmingly quickly. He stood up, unable to comprehend what he was seeing. It looked like something was falling from the very sky! A large mass, bigger than the very hill he was standing on, came down from the heavens and dropped into the grasslands between him and the horizon. The impact shook the ground and a sudden powerful gust of wind threw him flat on his back.

His first thought was to grab his parchements. Quickly he got up to run down the hill where they had been blown to and picked up the rolls, then he ran back up as fast as his legs could carry him. Out of his vest pockets he took coal pencils and hastily began sketching what he was seeing.

From the black thing grew smaller shapes along the ground that looked like perversions of animal life, misshapen creatures that moved erratically. And even its own shape seemed to slowly change as some kind of outer shell began to open up as if it was melting away, revealing an irregular shaped lump with thin, moving tentacles sprawling off of it.

This had to be a sign of the gods. But - why had they dropped this from the sky? It looked like evil itself. Hastily he drew on, lying down as if he was hiding from view. But he was, wasn't he? He didn't want to be spotted by whatever was over there. Meanwhile the otherworldly creatures had begun to eat the grass - no - that could not be called eating.

They greedily sucked it up into their mouthless heads, even growing as they did it. He watched them leave behind barren ground as they went. Was this thing annihilation manifested? Did the gods push death itself from their realm to drop it here? He had to warn his village.

But something else happened. More lights appeared in the sky. He first thought it would mean more of death would show up, but these lights were different. They remained small. And as they came closer, he recognized what looked like individual figures with large wings of fire. Death seemed to react to them too.

He continued to sketch the unfolding scenes in a frenzy.

---

The air noisily rushed past. From the re-entry heat she had felt nothing, the armored suit fully protecting her. Aerobraking with force fields had been the right call, she saw all of the two hundred safely dropping towards the ground. And there it was, the enemy, the beast, the planet devourer.

How fragile it looked after losing so much mass. As if its very center was exposed. Wait, was that what it was? Was this its very last piece, the core of all of it? All the more reason to destroy it. Though it had undoubtedly sensed them coming and would defend itself with its gnarly creations.

"Angel Squad, all wings", she spoke loudly into her suit's microphone, "I want a defensive line along the river. We will advance with the forest behind us. Not one of these things must get past."

Using the jump jets she dropped the speed to safe levels before heavily smashing into the ground. What a wonderful place. It reminded her of home. Green vegetation, clear water, rich earth and tall trees behind her. No way she would give all that to the enemy without a fight. Alongside her the soldiers formed a line as they landed similarly forceful.

A formation of bulking humanoid tanks, bright white and each custom decorated with golden bits and pieces. Yes, the Angels were here now. They would fight the last battle. They would defeat the beast and put themselves down as the greatest warriors in history. Slowly she took the broad sword from the mount on her back and held it up high. With a thought the blade ignited in orange flames. It was a ritual - their ritual.

"Angels!", she yelled, her suits outside loudspeakers giving her a powerful and ringing voice.

Cheers erupted from the soldiers answering her call.

"Angels!", she cried louder.

Thundering cheers, every soldier lifted his weapons up high.

"Sound the horns!"

The ranged fighters from the second wing switched on their sonic disruptors. A multi-tone noise blared, echoing through the landscape. Immediately their enemy recoiled from it.

"With light and fire!"

In one voice her soldiers replied: "With light and fire!"

Simultaneously they all switched on their suits illumination, bathing the soon-to-be battlefield in brightness. Each armor was gleaming, blinding the foe they were about to engage. She could see the black creatures amassing at the foot of the dark mass already avoiding to look at them.

"Protect life!"

As one they began charging.

---

It truly is a strange thing. The core of the stories we tell our children and other species' tell theirs are of course similar: out there are evil things, watch out; and walk steady on the path of good - the path of light.

It is about growing up and doing the right thing and it is about learning to avoid danger.

But why are the stories itself also so similar? A darkness falling upon the world, spreading sickness and death. Only the light protects, and from it come the guardians, dropping from the very heavens above. They are the righteous ones that fight the darkness with noise and fire. They banish it with their brightness to cure the world and bring back life.

In the details we find the most important truth - the stories are telling of the same event. It is not a legend. It is something that really happened, nearly two thousand years ago.

We are not the only worlds with these legends, there are many more. And we have evidence now, unearthed with modern technology, about an ancient species fighting a great war against a near unstoppable enemy that could replicate endlessly by absorbing biomass.

We call them protectors and we are trying to find out where they are now. Will you join our search?

---

Stunned silence. The hall was eerily quiet as all the assembled diplomats from forty different species were still trying to process what they had been presented with. Unquestionably these were actual sketches of the protectors fighting the great battle - however crude they may be.

It was an eyewitness' testimony from two thousand years in the past. The Norunga had been members for a decade now, though they had not joined the search before. And now their representative had brought them this.

"Hello, fellow diplomats", the representative greeted them, grabbing the collective attention. He was standing on the podium beneath the projector screen that still showed an assortment of the rough pictures - protector warriors, the dark enemy, a fight with fire and heavy weapons.

He continued: "I am sorry to have waited this long to show you these depictions. They are our most sacred possessions, said to be drawn by the prophet Unalu himself."

The screen changed, showing a statue on a pedestal inside an arch that was intricately ornamented. The bright white statue itself was heavily decorated in jewelry and overly adorned with colorful strips of finely woven cloth. What stood out - it did not look like a depiction of a Norunga.

"As all of you know, the City of Light is not a place where we allow visitors. This is the most important of the many sculptures depicting the figures in the drawings. We call them and our ancestors believed they protected them from evil.

“It was said that they had touched Unalu with their light and gave him the visions that would ultimately turn him into the leader of the new era. And that their light would remain while they fell into an eternal slumber.

“This was of course believed to be metaphorical. But three months ago, we found ourselves to have lost power in that section of the temple. And-"

Another picture. The statue stood in the darkness, being illuminated by a faint light from a diffuse source.

"We found the latter claim to be true - it is emitting weak, but steady light. In the subsequent investigation we did something that had been forbidden - we took the statue down and inspected it with modern equipment."

He looked like he was in disbelief himself of what he was about to say. Behind him the next picture showed up. The statue had been moved to a clean room, probably a laboratory of sorts. Free of the decorations it was very obviously a protector armor.

A whole and completely intact armor! The tension in the room was palpable.

"It is an armor shell made from very advanced metallic and ceramic components, not a statue. As we were trying to determine its age - which is roughly two thousand years as all of you could have rightly guessed - we found it to reply to the scanning process by emitting a faint signal. From the signal we were able to decipher this."

Instead of another picture, the screen just turned black, but a voice could be heard. Subtitles in the common diplomatic language told everyone what it was saying.

""

A pause, then the Norunga continued: "We found us to be able to decipher the language after comparing it to notes you have given out about the search. It is, without a doubt, the voice of a protector. Though it stands out, that it had spoken of two things we could not find in these notes."

He looked down at the podium for a moment, and then addressed the room again.

"I will offer you full cooperation by our scientists and supervised access to the City of Light. And I hereby request the Norunga to join the search for and the ."