Chapter Dusk on Earth
The End
The year 4005AD, pre cull , earth is a baron wasteland. Ravaged by war climate change and human greed , the population starve the planet dies. Foreseeing the irreversible fate befallen them , Humanities elite outlaw all use of earths natural gifts and ration the remaining people, all starve all suffer. To uphold this regime born was the first twelve, an engineered order of law keepers and planetary guardians , one heart to beat and keep a watch giving their home a last chance to revive... but the law did not last, the longer the days went on the more desperate the remaining population became, despotism turned in to ideas, idea’s turned into legions and the remaining doomed People unleashed furious war against the 12 in a bid to overthrow the phantom elite and take back what was left of their forsaken world... so began the great cull.
A millennia of brutal conflict followed, each battle fought on the great plains two forces opposing, a single path and an outcome the same for both so little left available but the scraps of the old world to the brutal ways of old if falls, hand to hand eye to eye conscious twisting a devastating combination of obsolete technology and ancient instincts resurface with great purpose...
The 12 and their tight legions fight heavy and hard these eternal guardians honed their prowess and skill ensuring the will of the Law be upheld, Lawless hordes poured In from far and wide under one united banner of the elites destruction. The affects of unnatural environmental conditions and radiation clear by the primeval appearance they now present, mutated and twisted by the final poisonous breathes of earth Man and beast, women even the young were lined into ranks and thrown at the 12 in remorseless assaults on the law that keeps them so low but, the endless years of war took its toll even on these mightiest of creations. Under the immense enemy numbers twelve soon became eight, eight became five and seeing no end to the killing The order birthed the knights, a Human Corp blessed with the pinnacle of human evolutionary conditioning, forged from the heart of the earth itself they were to take up the burden from here...
In the 1002th year of the cull , The knights headed by the original fearsome Hollow Soul led the remaining forces of the order on a long and terrible siege against the lawless and end the hordes massing against them but the mutated creatures that were once Human grow in mind as well as number unknown to the knights and taken by sheer surprise the enemy moved, Hollow and his legions were not prepared for the masterful onslaught of what would befall them that day, that day on the evaporated ocean beds the lawless under cover of lightning storm and hail swept from the once submerged hills and ripple set wreck littered sand beds trapping Hollow souls forces with no way out, waves of blades and war cry pour down the slopes blood starved they run with nothing in reserve truly fanatical, there the two mighty forces clash in the last battle to be fought to control the last of Earth.
The battle stretches as far as any man can see, again and again the legions counter attacks are blocked and broken losing too many with each attempt, after holding the lines for sixteen quarters Hollow Souls men waver then... then they shatter. Hollow soul in the thickest of the fighting and panic takes a Deep trauma to his chest bringing the Commander down in the middle of the of battle all his legions in a bid to get him out are broken up resulting in the end of the Cull and the war to fly the final colours on Earth End , the Order gone with the death of all but Two originals and the desecration of anything under the Knights protection...
Cull-Rune the head of the Knights takes the mortally wounded Lord on his shoulder and agonisingly carries him from the field while the remnants of his forces hold the valley entrance, One Legion ,Maidons wrath and Wayke hold position around them looking back from atop the old sea cliff seeing their Kin slaughtered helplessly as they flee all survival efforts in vain. With the mortally wounded Hollow Soul gasping his last breathes they lay him down, blood constantly oozing from the deep bone breaking open wound to his chest plate , he grabs Runes hand and pulls him down face to face breaking a chain around his neck and puts a key into Runes palm and closes his fingers around it tight....
’’Take the key t..to the centur...it will...take you to new beginning”... he takes his last breathe arms and head falling limp the age of men has ended, it kills them to leave their commander and figurehead but they have no choice the lawless are flooding across the plains cutting down any survivors still standing the settlements will never stand up to it...
The knights under constant pursuit and harassment make across the lands to the Centur temple they barricade the doors and take place at the alter , the two key holes glow from within a pyramidal podium drawing the keys like a living force they must be restrained, Rune and Legion the last original take their places either side and guide the eager keys true they turn them but they are stiff great strength is needed to open the locks, they turn hard with all their weight and with a huge clank the lid fires up releasing blinding green and blue beams around the chamber, the whole complex begins to shake debris rains down over them from high up , decorations and awnings tumble from their places down all soon to be under rubble and dust... the alter perimeter begins to rise forming into a prism concealing the four knights in an inescapable pod, an ark, powerful tremors rumble beneath and all falls into hazes outside swirling of grit hurricanes engulf the visible world turning everything to ashes pulled apart to their very elements all is erased and left in indescribable chaos their commander sent them here to start the cleanse, to wait out the storm, the storm to end all storms...
Earth Thane with his last surviving knights One Legion, Maidons wrath and Wayke look out at their vanishing world for the last time, centuries of dedication and conflict to preserve a treasure destroyed by its owner, looking out watching the world be wiped unknowing their future will contain a ghost of sapiens ancient past, the one hurdle that needs to be cleared by any dominant species...