Story Seed - After the Fall

Image Source: http://eytanzana.deviantart.com/art/Outpost-505118542

Nobody ever expected this. We thought the enemy was desperate for resources and tech, we thought that we had the upper hand.

We were wrong.

When it started it seemed like any other conflict. Land grabs, tactical strikes, and men killing men. We saw what they had, their numbers, their tech, the weapons they had, and we thought that we understood them. We were confident that our analyses were right and that they couldn't sustain a lasting conflict. We were right.

And we were so very wrong.

The enemy saw our strength. They saw that their weapons and numbers were insufficient for the long term conflict. They retreated, pulled back and fortified, and enacted the plan they had all along.

They fled to the stars.

And before they left the released a kill agent. Probably they hadn't found a way to make to tactically compliant so instead they altered their tactics. The weapon, whatever it was, tore apart like at the molecular level. It unraveled DNA like unzipping a jacket and then moved on. It killed the world.

And it would have killed us, but it stopped short. There were no human casualties. It decimated plants and animals. It tore through the biosphere like a rock through wet paper. In the end we turned on ourselves to survive. Humanity, consuming itself in the dust of a dead world.

Last Week Today - Week of November 9-15, 2015

Monday
Story Seed - Disappointment

Wednesday
Year of the Demon Lord - Death Comes to Blackstone Ford (Part 1)

Friday
Story Seed - Bound Souls

Story Seed - Bound Souls

Image Source: http://skaya3000.deviantart.com/art/Living-Wonder-452162407

"Dwagon!" the child cried out, pointing into the distance with a pudgy hand.

"Yes, dear, it's a dragon. That's the great white dragon Denrakhin, and he protects all of this land." The boy's mother bounced him on her hip as the dragon's cry rushed over the grasses and blew their hair about.

"Wanna see dwagon!" the boy said happily. No fear evident in his voice. His hand opened and closed, grasping for the far off creature.

"I know honey, but he's very far away, and ..." his mother's voice trailed off mid-sentence. Denrakhin had turned its great head and was looking in their direction. The creature was miles off, and there seemed no way he could have heard them.

"Come here dwagon!" the boy cried out, delighted. Denrakhin bowed its head and then took to the skies and began to close the distance between them. "Hi dwagon!" the boy happily piped as the gargantuan beast landed before them, dwarfing the pair utterly.

The woman looked up at the creature, truly learning its scale for the first time in her life. Denrakhin's head was easily dwarfed their home, and even managed to make some of the nearby farms look small. It was massive on a scale that made the woman understand how a mouse must feel compared to a person. Though she knew that Denrakhin was a protector of their land the woman felt the creeping of fear.

Denrakhin lowered his great head almost to the ground, canted at an angle, peering at the pair with a great eye as wide as the boy was tall. "Hi, dwagon!" the boy cried again happily and struggled to reach out and touch the creature.

"Be not afraid lady, no harm will come to your boy," the dragon said. "I have been waiting for one such as he to be born for many years."