Invasion – Chapter 1 – It Begins

You are not the first of our kind you know. There have been several iterations of us before, and there will be many more after, of that, I’m sure. Almost every time it has ended in disastrous results, each time humanity hurling self-inflicted doom upon itself in one dramatic fashion after another. That is, all but once.

There was a time in which humanity flourished as one unified entity. Differing civilizations were an item of a tragic past, one in which the species stood divided. As enlightenment reached many of the populus, walls that stood for eternity crumbled away to dust in mere decades. Historians cannot tell you where the enlightenment began or who was the first to spread its touch, in fact, they cannot tell you anything about it all. If there are any besides me who can, I’d be surprised, then again, not entirely unexpected. Who I am and how I’ve come to know this time of our history is irrelevant, but if your need to assign me a dictation is paramount, perhaps just call me The Teller.

Every so often one, or a few of you, unearth just enough on the clues from the past, some stopping once they discover what they’ve found, others pushing forward with almost reckless abandon. Some of you walk the fine line, the truest of truth seekers and it is those of you with which I wish to speak. Where shall I begin? Ah, yes, as I’ve said, at one time in our history humanity stood unified, you have discovered this by now. For eons, as the landmass shifted, knowledge and truths were shared amongst all peoples and technology advanced rapidly, technologies you have yet to behold combined with pasts carried over into your time.

Despite reaching Utopia, many flaws of our flesh remained, hidden, lurking in shadow. Those flaws would lead to a singular event in time, one so deeply despised, any memory of it was crushed from existence as if stepping on an ant. I have often pondered this event myself, solely referenced in following texts as “The Night”, and while I have my theories, rumor is not where this lesson shall go. The timespan in which “The Night” occurred is an enigma. Was it as the name suggested or perhaps a longer time period of symbolic darkness? While a gap exists in that place of history, humanity would again strive forward united from the shadow, only to be met by an overwhelming horror never to be seen again.

In the years leading up to “The Night”, historians of the time period believed that humanity had become softened by eons of peace and violence, had become a fatality to time itself. Following this fateful event, the tune of the writings and recordings eluded to a battle-hardened society, reforged in the fires of bloodshed. Perhaps the event had shown humanity what was to come, and perhaps what would be necessary to survive the coming tide. Many years would pass before the tales of Iridina, Mondahar, and Egypt; Hell, it took decades to burn all of those bodies rotting away into the sands of Egypt, but that is not where we shall begin.

I will commence at the first recorded event. While many battles claimed to be, common belief held the seemingly insignificant stretch of coastline as the true first fight between humanity and these unexpected….invaders. Soldiers and witnesses claimed the creatures appeared with the dawn as if the rising sun forcibly birthed them into existence. There were no ships and no sound through the evening, they simply stepped out of the shroud as if it were a doorway. Come dawn, they stood hundreds of thousands strong, fur boots planted in the sand, crude weapons at the ready, stench overwhelming every sense. No words were spoken, only weapons readied. There was a feeling, almost palpable upon the wind, there would be no negotiation. One species stood against another – a test of strength to spark a war. The victory condition: Annihilation.