Appendix #2 (Completely Optional Reading) - Transcript of; "Prologue - In The Beginning" From the Book "A Long Story" And as was Originally Included on Pages 42 - 47 of the "UnderCurrent Experience"
The chances of life are small, infinitesimally tiny in fact - And yet seemingly life always makes its way to the surface. Millions or maybe billions of years before any life can spring however a miracle must first occur, a coincidence of incalculable magnitude that no mortal could even fathom to put a number to.
One such marvel, in a small galaxy with a young star gleaming blindingly over two great masses of rock that spun so endlessly around their small sun, would be the site for one such occurrence.
Their orbits so close to each other that they stayed synced to one another, too close in fact to Co-exist.
One of these we will, for now atleast, call 'A' - the smaller of the two lumps of space detritus and therefore destined to merge one day with rock 'B' the larger of the two. With each rotation of their sun that day grew ever nearer, that the two should smash into one another and form into one single mighty planet - But if the story ended there it would be of little note, two orbits becoming one, observed only by an un-waking sun and stars.
And so it was that by further chance a third rock came into their unsuspecting solitude, a whole shower in fact of meteoroids from a distant place - Created by some unknowable coincidence of their own they carried with them a great many boons:
Hydrogen created of the mightiest of all contrivance at the universe's very inception. The breaths of dieing stars so much older than that of this tale's - Water, life itself.
Those soaring stones did, as is their wont to do, collide with our friend A and in doing so infinitely changed the course of that whole young star system. The sheer mass of that heavenly hail-shower was enough to turn the tables, to make A the dominate mass and before long it begin to form, to round, to surge.
For plates to weave and move and collided until finally magma from its core boiled to the surface and splashed and lashed out at that virgin place, what of it there was, and soon it rounded and coiled and bubbled.
And then there were oceans and an atmosphere and what remains of that asteroid storm that had not stuck out against their new home, became moons which in turn spun their own course around the newly deemed planet A - To move its tides and light its night skies.
So of course now the conclusion was set, the choices all decided and the pathways formed true.
Soon life was rife as the oceans and the magma fought one another for control of the land and the sea.
As that great battle of newfound nature raged, the life began to crawl and scrape and cry.
Those creatures would slide from their watery homes and down from their tree top perches and without much ado out of their caves, then into villages on river-beds and towns on bay-sides.
And, with enough time granted, they found their way to cities and civilisations. It was in this way they were born, the workers, the builders, the leaders and bureaucrats - And most of all the pencil pushing, 9 to 5 working, officer workers of civility.
But life begets with it more than just paperwork as soon, far too soon life spreads and the meteor, that had so benevolently given birth to all, brought with it more gifts than just sentient existence.
Rare foreign elements and strange substances, rocks which now embedded in the soil's crust would be built atop and those people who lived there would grow to be different.
Some boasted long ears and better sight, greater height and longer lives. Others grew thick skin and hard heads, burrowing deep into the mountains to be nearer the strange revered glow of that asteroid-shower's remaining fragments.
More still developed powers of a sort, sometimes as minor as bending cutlery or sensing an oncoming storm - But every so often a great strength was born forth, dubbed by many as witches and wizards. Seen as Gods by some and more often than not, hunted as evil. Magi.
But when people differ in such great ways they tend not to stare to their reflections in wonderment and in appreciation of all they've been blessed with but rather their thoughts tend to go further astray.
The humans with their great order, forced ingenuity and numbers, begin to grow jealous of the Elfen kinds with their natural presents;
'"Why shouldn't I own a little more of the forest to the East, for firewood in the harsh colder months? Or more pasture to the West for a larger crop to feed my family of many and tend my flock of hundreds? There are many more of us yet they hold such good land!"'
And those with the boons themselves grow complacent and conceited and begin to wonder if they were not given such accompaniments for a reason;
"'Why should we who live a 100 spans longer and who're all the wiser for it, not guide those smaller people with their trivialities and fears. Those who must group together for warmth and to keep watch for the beasts of the night, while we can hear them many leagues away and see them long before they near us? Why shouldn't we guide those small human creatures?"'
And so then there is war, as is always the case.
And while they fought their terrible and tragic wars, as the lines were created and banners imagined, one thing held firm, the planet next door. For not all of that fateful meteor had landed on 'A'.
By the benevolence of some kind deity or the cruelty of an impactful devil, debris and shards from that great day had made their way to 'B' as well, and in doing so knocked it - Not far but just enough that as the years turned to millennia, the two great masses did not form into one, instead B began to change and form, just as A had before it.
It grew to boast a weak atmosphere of its own, thin but liveable air and even a small moon to call its companion, but the meteor had been smaller there and so it seemed, that the water and minerals and the life they brought had not arrived - Instead this planet lay bare and barren, layers of sand and dust matched only by the cold of its surfaces.
To the people of A however that mattered not, for to them that neighbouring planet hung in the sky, large enough that one could imagine reaching out and grabbing it. It went by many names to many cultures in those early times, some deeming those duo of moons demi-Gods to Planet B's grand deity, others dubbed it the guardian that watched down on them from on high, unstirring from its perch above.
But that majesty did not seize the fighting and the bloodshed, for soon truces were held and alliances formed, borders drawn up onto maps of new parchment. Nations were born.
This was an age before ages, when records were scant and memories verbal. Where great mages would guide bands of warriors on their epic quests to slay mighty mythical beasts - When noble kingdoms with their tall castle walls held party to the first of democracy and equally the beginnings of true tyranny.
It was an age of discovery where whole countries that had risen across deep oceans were found and in due course allied with for trade, or subjected for profit - As suited the whims of the first Kings and Empress'.
It was an age of revolution and renascent.
But time passes and that land of fantasy, of Elves, Dwarfs and Trolls, or magic and brave warriors who could change the course of a whole battlefield with just their loyal sword and shield - In time it grew up.
The nations learned better of the value of words and commerce, of the weight of those who can write and speak buttered words. With time the Elfen kinds would merge and be homogenised into the populous, with only some desperately holding up in the underground cities or towns hidden away in the deepest of the jungles.
With time even those imbued with that magic began to fade, as the rocks of such unimaginable properties lost their lustre, as even radiation will fade if left unheeded long enough.
And so would begin the second great age of that land, some 1000's of years after it's first. Soon technology would race to out-advance what had been known before but all was not well.
With peace wrought new troubles, old diseases and plagues rose back up, once countered by the now lost old ways of the merfolk and the Magi - These swept across the land debilitating both folk and farms alike to devastating effect.
But the people banded together to fight these unspoken incursions.
Famine and disease would rise and fall as science gave birth to cure after cure and before long those great many years of adversity came to a close and something new occurred.
So much of that small planet had been devastated, so many species of animal, plant and even sentient forms of life had come to an end.
The Magi had all but faded and the last remnants of the Elves and their like remained silent in their hiding places, through some unlikely cause the world had been forced to join as one to drive off the many challenges sent fourth and as such there were no longer wars, for a time atleast.
But with disease triumphed and war, atleast temporarily, abated, peace once more brought problems.
The people began to expand as their numbers grew greater than ever before, forests burned, mountains carved out for precious minerals and the roads, houses and machines of progress began to pollute the land.
Overpopulation became the normal, famine no longer of crop disease but instead of simple demand became frequent and the smaller nations began to squabble once more amongst themselves for the right to an extra portion of bread.
But one thing had stayed the same throughout these billions of years of change, the second planet still hung silently in the sky.
****
Names had been wrought for planet A and B, the only names all people of any of the various creeds could agree on as appropriate; 'Bhaile' for A, which in the old tounge loosely meant "Home" - And 'Abhaile' for B, a "Home from home".
This name would indeed prove aptly important for now the people once more began to look up at B or 'Abhaile'. Some thought of its potential value, while others simply longed to set foot on its unsoiled surfaces.
With all-out war seemingly on the cusp of bursting once more in every land and upon every continent - The nations of Bhaile created a new goal for all to rally around, a goal to reach their nearest neighbour.
But for all she hung so close, the trip would prove an arduous one indeed.
A great many more years would past until finally the second age drew to a close when those first bravest of travels found their way to that most distant of shores. At first all effort seemed bleak and wasted, surely the land was uninhabitable, nothing grew across it and the time to fly to and from it back to home, in their primitive and rushed technology - It could take years of preparation and the risk of not even making it home ever present.
A desert is no place for one to live and only those of a hardy disposition could even survive those harsh lands - Moreover no one can last without water.
But not all was lost!
For with time they made their way South, to the pole of the barren land, here where star-light struck most, here buried deep underground they would find their next miracle.
Massive ocean-sized frozen lakes miles under the surface, the last remnants of that faithful meteor-shower from so long ago.
They even found a primitive form of life, buried in cave societies were the 'small ones', beings with little sight but remarkable hearing, that seemed to subside off a purely plant based diet of mushrooms and root-like foliage.
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All centred in small tribes in places where the frozen water had thawed just enough to spread life.
These peoples of barely a few feet in height were different to even the most ancient of the sentient life on Bhaile. They possessed intelligence above that of a cat or dog but were deemed far less advanced then humanity's greatness, with seemingly no language amongst these creatures - Though communication proved not impossible for those crueller members of the expedition team.
So finally it arrived, the glorious third age, or so the politicians of the TSU who had made it all possible decreed. Entire country's worth of people were 'benevolently given' (whether they willed for it or not) a ticket to the new world - A mass exodus to the land in the sky, a solution to over population and famine.
Sent in craft made cheaply and hurriedly, many would not even survive the flight unscathed and when they arrived they were confronted with a new life they had not asked for.
And so they died.
Well not all, but surely more than not, it took a speical breed of person to adapt and survive for long in that cold and seemingly unfarmable land - With no trees for firewood and little air to breed into their lungs.
The old never stood a chance and the young were forced to know no better - And yet through one last cosmically unfathomable, infinitesimally, incalculably twist of faith, some survived.
They took the sparse supplies they were so kindly sent off with and the share of goods from the many who had fallen and they made it last.
Heading to the edges of the sub-terrain ice fields they built cities on the surface like those before them had on the shores of oceans, they persevered to create life, made great viaducts and channels to move the water above ground.
Hard forged were their farms and building would raise only a few stories, for to go to high was to reach even thinner air - Instead even the meanest of house would hold a basement or 4.
Soon undercities lowered and the people learned how to make the most of what could be grown. And as time passed, though smaller than those of their ancestral home Bhaile - Office blocks rose and so too of course came the newly indigenous, 9 to 5 pencil-pushing office worker.
And of the small people? Soon dubbed cruelly 'The Imps' .
Many were brought up from their peaceful burrows, into the sunlight and forced to help, to help the people build their new homes and to teach them how to farm the land, or where the ice could be thawed easiest and safest. The Imp's suffered yet they, unlike the humans did not bring war, that would once more come from 'Home'.
As the centuries passed once more the ambitions of man grew ever further, soon they created artificial moons of their own, great satellites for farming or living.
New ships were created capable of moving at will, though travel between Bhaile and Abhaile still remained rare. Bhaile's governments grew ever closer, while those small nations of Abhaile kept quietly and unsupported to themselves - Like the planet they called home had always been, they stayed ever present yet unnoticed and abandoned in the sky far above the people of Bhaile.
Soon even the first moon became home to colonisation and the governments of Bhaile grew ever more greedy. More projects were drawn up, bigger satellites and maybe even ships that could travel far further out into the stars - But for that they would need new materials, new resources and they would find them once more by looking up above.
But the people who had settled Abhaile, who's grandfathers and grandfather's great-grandparents had arrived all those years ago would not bow so easily when those of Bhaile suddenly arrived with their drills and cranes and machines - Ready to disturb the fragile ecosystem that had been so hard won.
In the Third Age, in the year 412 a series of solar system altering events occurred:
The people of Bhaile and the new people of the moon and the great satellite-nations banded together to form a supposedly peaceful combined military force, for the purpose of further space development and exploration - This new force simply falling under the banner of the existing 'The States Union' - TSU, in truth the greatest empire since that of St.Aardig's in the First age all those millennia ago - TSU had existed as a unified goverment since the late 2nd age, the masterminds behind the original forced mass-exodus to Abhaile, but now they had grown larger than once thought imaginable, and their combined military was immense.
Later in that same year when the Abhaile Self-Defence-Forces continued to refuse their neighbours the so-called 'rights' to steal the 'claim' to their planet's treasured resources and refused to become a member state of the so called 'Union', The War broke out.
Of course there had been other wars in the 400 years of the third Age but those had been covered up or ignored, but that could last no longer - 'The First War' of the third age began, the first interplanetary war to ever occur in their small corner of existence.
The war was brutal and long, The TSU forces had been sure in their perceived dominance, and yet Abhaile fought back tooth and nail. They had been readying themselves with much more fervour and desperation then there suppressors.
The first space warships collided and sunk but Abhaile had other plans. Outnumbered in both their quantity of vessels and the amount of people to man them, they conceived of a new idea.
A machine named the Vijaiks was born, its intention was to be an extension of a single soldier's will, to allow the battlefield to return to the days when one great hero with sword and shield, could turn the tides of an unwinnable struggle - And so indeed it was.
The machines they created almost resembled gigantic metal humans but with little in the way of necks, domed smooth bald heads and a single monocular eye for vision.
Boasting two arms and two legs these machines changed the face of battle and soon the TSU fleets found themselves pushed further and further back - As warships sunk again and again to single enemy combatants who moved faster in space than fighter jets, and hit with power comparable to that of a dozen standard tank units.
However the Vijaiks were far from invincible, a single good strike to the torso section could pierce the armour and kill the pilot inside. A small number of brave fighter pilots in what were little more than jet-planes adapted hurriedly to space, fought desperate dogfights with the metal giants to protect their fleets but all seemed in vain.
The destruction was vivid, asteroids knocked deliberately into Bhaile's orbit, space stations, often of civilian origin were dropped from the sky and before long Abhaile's forces no longer just sought their own planet's defence but began an active campaign to invade and conquer Bhaile itself - Claiming it was as much their homeland as anyone else's.
Millions and later Billions died in the conflict until early in the year 414, when the Abhaile ground forces were mere days from the storming the headquarters of TSU, a new machine appeared - Created in one of the last satellite-colonies still left standing on the far side of Bhaile, the machine had been created from what little of the meteor's remains could still be found and mined on Bhaile - Without having to tear up whole settlements and cities that is.
This new 'Mech' was entitled a "Casnel" and was constructed of an ultra light but durable material, allowing it to move as fast as Abhaile's Vijaiks but proving far more deadly.
Further enhancements were made to make it superior to its competition, including weapons which were said to be as strong as the main cannon of an average warship.
This impressive machine was accompanied by a lone vessel, a brand new warship, the first TSU designed for the single purpose of acting autonomously while housing the maintenance and launching facilities for mechs like the Casnel.
In a sheer matter of weeks the "Cheval De Troy" travelled from the far side of the planet down to surface with time enough to near single headedly repeal the advance of the enemy force.
Suddenly the remarkably achievements of the Vijaiks seemed to pale in comparison to this one lone machine and its warship escort. Although Abhaile continued to hold much of the planet they had failed to account for such a counter occurrence, placing too much of the strength into the attack on the enemies headquarters - They now found themselves spread out, dispersed in small pockets all across multiple continents, and of course on land the Vijaiks no longer seemed so small a target for a well placed tank battalion or bomber squadron.
Soon the war turned, with captured Vijaiks and the battle data of their own Casnel - TSU began construction of a new mass-production mecha-force of their own and before long a desperate retreat back to space was in order.
On the first day of the year 415, Abhaile surrendered to TSU's main fleet at the site of their last fortress after the death of their king - And The First War drew to a close.
The world, in fact two worlds had been thrown into chaos for the space of 3 years. Entire nations lay decimated, the days of famine and new diseases returned as though it had never left and all peoples felt the true consequences of the pride and greed on either side that had lead to that terrible time.
And yet the worlds went on, the planets kept spinning and the sun kept glowing.
Victors or not, TSU had been crippled and their fleet, even the 'Cheval De Troy' and 'First Casnel' had fallen during the final battle upon Abhaile's moon. In response they decided to re-organise bringing the bulk of their forces home to help with the rebuilding effort of both the planet at large and their military strength -
Meanwhile however they daren't leave Abhaile to its own devices, especially considering the large quantities and reserves of the very metals that had helped them win the war - Still laying buried beneath the red planet's surface and expansive lakes - Further tensions being added when remnants of the revolution launched guerrilla wars and terrorists attacks year after year.
A occupation and surveillance force therefore was formed with ultimate authority to monitor and keep down the people of not just Abhaile but even the satellites and moons which had for the most part allied with TSU during the war.
Of course this could only lead to one thing and once again, exhaustingly, war began again as it always does. Both moon's in secret began training troops and building machines, under the pretence of helping with Bhaile's remilitarisation effort. Soon TSU began to abuse their unmatched military power until an incident in the year 422 pushed these rising tensions to their final breaking points.
Humanity had learnt nothing from the war that had taken so many billions of their total populous.
A force comprised of X-Abhailen Self Defence Force Members, Recruits from what amounted to private armies on Bhaile's disgruntled moon and even many a defector of the TSU forces who believed the navy had gone too far - formed up into IAFS - The Independent-Alliance-Of-Free-States.
On the very first of the Year 424, exactly 9 years to the day after the first war of the third age had ended - The second war has began, not even a mere decade passing in-between.
But what you may ask of the humble office worker in all this?
Of course admin is always needed, maybe more so during wartime and during the imminent collapse of society, however not all desk clerks wield a pen and paper.
It is, as it were, destiny that some take up the sword of violence. Not to be heroes, nor wizards or kings but bravely and courageously no less for what they, or atleast their countrymen believe.
What of them in all this, how did those who could hope for little more than to return home from the field of battle, to their families, those who had never even consider facing a mighty Casnel in battle, far less defeating one - What is their fate in that most definitive and 'grand' of conflicts?
That answer is still yet to be seen...