Tales of the Travellers Part One

The end of the world began with the simple push of a button. Moscow, Beijing, Brussels; gone in the blink of an eye. More missiles flew in retaliation. From the Pacific to the Atlantic, West Coast to East Coast, mushroom clouds bloomed. The Pentagon vanished, the White House, and half a dozen other cities along with them. The President and the Joint Chiefs had not managed to evacuate in time. When the first missile flew, it was already too late. Though crippled, the U.S. still had strength to spare. Another salvo flew, and more cities destroyed. The cycle repeated itself, as the remnants of each nation's military carried out orders from leaders who were already dead and dying, until finally, in a moment of mutual annihilation, civilization was destroyed, and the world died.

Afterwards, no one was sure what started Armageddon. Was it the deaths of an entire American Division by Iranian chemical weapons? Or was it the invasion of the Pacific region by China that finally sparked the anger of the U.S.? At the end, it did not matter. Not to the billions who died, nor to the bare millions who survived. In small and hidden valleys, deep in the caves of the earth, and far to the north where the land is dark, humanity still lived. Thousands of years passed before the storm ravaged earth recovered from the energies unleashed in the Great War, and thousands more passed before civilization approached a semblance of its former self. In the end, however, history was doomed to repeat itself. In a final battle of a war that raged for 10 years between the forces of the Western Alliance and the Church of Rebirth, nuclear missiles once again flew through the heavens. This time, there would be no recovery. In that final battle, terrible weapons were unleashed, weapons that almost tore the fabric of time itself. The skies were smothered by hellfire, and the earth turned barren. The oceans and seas boiled away, and the Earth tore itself apart in her death throes. A new asteroid belt was created in the system once known by its inhabitants as the Sol System. For humanity, it was not the end.

Colonies had already been established on the planet known as Mars, as well as other moons that could support life. Before the end, the leaders of earth knew that it was a danger to keep humanity on one planet, and in the only moment of mutual cooperation between the dead Alliance and the Church, its Space Program was well ahead of its 22^nd Century Earth equivalent. With dead Terra in their memories, humanity quickly developed their technology to spread to the stars, and in time, humans lived on countless planets. Terraforming technology was developed and perfected, and the secrets of Anti gravity and anti matter was discovered and harnessed. Great starships were built, and vast fleets guarded the Rim, the edge of human planets. Unbeknownst to humanity, there were other forces at work, forces more powerful than the Fleets mightiest Super dreadnought, forces that control the fabric of the universe itself, and all other universes as well.

My name is Corin. I was a nobleman from the Dharellian Kingdom of Asinaiyia, and the last memory I have of my former life was when an arrow entered my throat and I fell in the fords of the River Enya. I remembered looking up to the surface of the river and seeing the suns light high above, as the blood flowed from my wound. I felt the cold hand of death upon me, and I struggled to breathe. I floated in the rivers depths, and I thought of my wife and children...who would care for them? My last thought, was regret.

When I came to, there was darkness everywhere. Not the darkness of the night, no. This darkness was the black of nothingness, where light could never hope to penetrate. I am dead, I told myself, and yet I was aware. Confusion filled my being. Is this the darkness of hell, I thought, where the Demon Saiyan ruled? Is this my punishment, to float through the darkness, aware for all eternity? Creator, I thought, it is too late to save a Sinner, but please, I begged, please give me the chance to spare my family this fate. But it was too late, too late for me to do anything. How long I floated through that darkness I knew not. It seemed a minute, and yet it felt an eternity.

Then a melodious voice called my name. Creator, I thought?

There is only One Creator, the voice smiled, and I am not that being. For you, Dearest Child, this is not the end. The voice became serious, its melodies ironed by steel. I summoned you High Lord of Asinayia because I have need of your services. Worry not for the welfare of your family, for their time has not come. For others, that time is now...

And so I came to know about the War between Chaos and Order, and of the Travelers and different realities or dimensions.
It was at that moment I became a Traveler and was given a mission.

To one dimension I was sent, one that resembled my home. And it was there I was to guard against the agents of Chaos. Time went by and many battles were fought, of which Earths First Great War was but a skirmish. I travelled amongst the mortals, and saw the years go by. Time had no meaning for me. My work was all. I saw humanity escape from the death throes of their planet, and their growth amongst the stars. Thousands of years have gone by, and time left its mark upon my soul. There were other Travelers, how many I did not know, but my first meeting with another fellow Traveler occurred in the early days, when the Earth was in its Middle Ages. Her name was Faye, and she looked so much like my own beloved that my heart ached when I saw her. However, I knew she was not, for my love had passed away long ago, and she had not been chosen as a Traveler. Where the souls went after death, I did not know, for I knew then that the darkness I spent drifting in was chaos, and that I was unknowingly following the call which led me there. Faye told me that the dimension I guarded was one in which she was born in, in a time long before the dinosaurs walked the planet. She spoke of the destruction of that civilization, and how the powers unleashed were so great that the then Traveler who guarded the dimension interfered before it was destroyed. He wiped the planet clean of all traces of past civilizations, and replanted the surviving humans upon the earth. Of the God like weapons that once existed, he destroyed them all. Faye spoke of her people, and of all their accomplishments and achievements. Of the day she died, when the God weapons were unleashed, she never spoke of it.

Over the ages Faye and other Travelers stopped by to render assistance, but the visits were few and far between, and our task was the most important of all. It was through these visits that I heard of great battles between Travelers and the Chaos agents, clashes that wiped out entire planets and destroyed races. It was a war that would never end; one that we knew deep in our souls must not end. I thought back to the end of that first Great War on Earth, when nuclear holocaust first ravaged the now dead planet. What did that General thought, when he gave the order that destroyed his country? I thought about the destruction of the U.S. and the world that existed then, and I thought of everything that happened to humanity since I first arrived. War, it will never end.

I stood on the bridge of the Solarian Federation Starship Valiant, looking out at the scene before me. The flagship Valiant was one of eight superdreadnoughts in the Task Force, with three destroyers and six cruisers to provide escort. I was standing next to the admiral of the Task Force, who looked for all the world like a man who did not like his orders, and had no choice but to follow them. Not one of the ratings or bridge officers could see me, unless I willed it. The planet orbiting below was a Rim World, one that had defied the rule of the bureaucrats in the Solar System. Now, their people would pay with the destruction of their planet. Should I interfere with this, I asked myself? It was true that I had intervened in countless genocides and deaths down through the ages, and had tried but failed to prevent the final destruction of the Earth. Now, I was not so sure anymore. Time would go on, and humanity would still live. What was one planet compared to the hundreds of others?

For this Rim World planet below, its end would begin with the push of a button.

I knew what I had to do.

Then something happened. The world spun, and Faye appeared at my side. "Quentons Dimension has fallen," she said.

Shocked and speechless, I noticed then that everyone in the bridge had frozen, as if time had stood still. For them it had.

"What happened?"

"It was not Chaos this time. It was the Dragon Riders of Erynn."***

To Be Continued...