Once I had taken care of my bodily needs, I really settled in and began to ask Cai all the little questions that had been bugging me.

"You said the Wardens of Life had been made to fight the Scourge, right?" I began.

"Correct," Cai answered.

"Then, why have they been losing this whole time? If they're capable of space travel that's good enough to go between galaxies then they should have some really sweet weapons."

"When the group of explorers that would found the Wardens of Life first encountered the Scourge, they were in a simple scientific exploration vessel and possessed no means of defense beyond the deflector shields that are neccessary to keep the cosmic radiations from destroying any vessel," he replied. "Because of this they were forced to capture young Scourge lifeforms, unaware that they were as intelligent as any other true sentient race and far more vicious and cunning. The Scourge on the vessel escaped and accessed the vessel's database and learned everything it could from the vessel. Included in that database was the vessel's head biologist's designs and theoretical genetic codings for what they described as the greatest predators in the universe. The Scourge left the vessel with this knowledge and spread it among its race. All Scourge come from a Queen, much like an insect hive, and these Queens can alter the genetic makeup of their young on a slight level. Before anyone could destroy the Queens and the Scourge at large, they birthed their seeds."

I didn't expect a founding history of the Wardens but that was somewhere on the list of questions too, so it's all worked out. Though, not for the first time, I wish Cai could speak in anything but a monotone.

"These seeds were sent into deep space and tasked within their genetics to grow and spread. Upon arrival to a planet, each seed will grow into a form that will allow it to hunt and feed with equal ease before it enters into a chrysallis state and emerges as a young Queen. After this it will begin to spread its influence across a planet until that planet is consumed. Once the planet is firmly within Scourge hands, a new seed is birthed and sent out to find another planet."

"Hold on," I said. "Does that mean that the Wardens are just trying to clean their own mess? And they dragged us into this too? And how does this explain why they've been losing?"

"Please Rickshaw, patience," Cai chided me. "To answer these two new questions; yes they are and yes they did. I am sorry for that. However, I must ask patience as I continue to answer your first question."

When I didn't speak for a moment Cai accepted it as the indication to continue.

"Many seeds were sent from the first planet where the Scourge were first encountered, and the scientific vessel followed only one. They followed that seed across several lightyears of space and they studied it as it consumed the planet they encountered. It was only as the Queen began to birth a new seed that they realized what had begun to spread across the galaxy and the universe, a predator that would consume everything. The vessel contacted the closest planet with the neccessary weapons to destroy the Scourge and recieved troubling news. The Scourge had landed a seed on this planet and they had managed to consume everything biological. There was no longer anyone with the knowledge to produce weapons of sufficient ability to destroy the Scourge. Realizing what they had helped to create the members of the vessel's crew swore that day they would eliminate the Scourge to protect the Universe. To aid them in their endeavours, each of them pleaded with their respective planetary governments and raised a small force to liberate the planet Rii-Ochmiin, where there were still some few weapons capable of destroying the Scourge."

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"They failed. The force was destroyed and the Scourge continued their spread as all other planets within that galaxy began to evacuate. Few were able to properly store their knowledge once the Scourge had landed upon their planet and reached a critical mass that resulted in their victory. That lost knowledge spanned culture, history, scientific discovery, and even weapons testing and development. As the masses of displaced races fled, more of their knowledge was lost until they came upon your world and stopped running, Earth I believe your people call it. Now efforts are being made to compile knowledge into Library so that no more of it is lost in our war with the Scourge."

"The Scourge spread much faster than anyone expected them to and because of that the Wardens lost so much of their knowledge and weapons. What we have now is the few pieces we have determined serve our needs best."

As Cai finished speaking, I thought over everything he had said. The Scourge spread like a plague across everything they touched and they did it so fast that these races of highly advanced races had been forced to lose most of their knowledge. It was almost like when Europe was going through the Dark Ages; an event or disaster occurred and in the aftermath of it we were forced to forget anything that didn't affect our survival at that time.

"So the Wardens have been losing because they aren't fast enough to build up a defensive line that the Scourge can't break?" I asked to confirm.

"Correct."

"Sounds like the Scourge took the blitz attack idea and made it their whole strategy."

"Correct."

"Why did they choose to send us to this planet?" I asked

"The planet known as BS-HP-003 was chosen because the Queen that has nested upon this planet is young and there is a chance that it can be destroyed before it claims total dominion over this planet."

"Please tell me she's nowhere close to me," I begged. Wishes, fishes, happy holidays, yadda yadda.

"The Scourge Queen on BS-HP-003 is approximately twenty-five kilometers southwest of your position," Cai said, shattering my hopes for an easy time. "Upon completion of your first objective, reinforcements would have been sent to your camp and your next objective would have begun. Kill the Scourge Queen."

"Cai, I'm just spitballing here," I began, "but what if the other coffins weren't destroyed by some freak accident? What if the Scourge have some way to shoot down things they think are a problem? Things like pods full of the Wardens' last hope?"

"There is precedent to your thought," Cai answered. "However, Scourge with flight capabilities or the ability to destroy an AEP are not usually found unless the world has been totally conquered except for the skies or the waters. Though the odds of what you ask are more likely than you realize, so with this in mind you must update your plan. Destroy the Scourge Queen and any Scourge with the ability to destroy Warden flight craft. If you do not then we will be marooned here indefinitely."