The following is an accumulation of the thoughts of Man, a surgically enhanced human that has used his superior knowledge of technology to convince a relatively primitive world that he is a God sent to guide them. This series of tales will begin with his four hundredth birthday in the Hall of Assimilation "In the beginning, there was Man." I sighed deeply, the ceremony had begun, as it does every year around this time. The holy man was facing one of the demons, an accusatory finger jabbing at its face, while his other hand clenched a goblet of wine. The demon kept his head held high, not out of any sense of pride mind you, more out of necessity. After all, the heretics fork placed upon its fur covered neck kept it from any sense of comfort. I smiled underneath my layered bandages as I tuned out the droning of the holy man. I was impatient, the ceremony never altered each year, a demon was brought into this, the house of Man, and judgement was cast upon it for its sinful existence. Although, I never personally believed any of the holy texts, I still participated in the ceremony, it wasn't as though I could substitute myself with a hologram, I had a part to play in this after all, and I am loathe to disappoint those expecting a performance. "...and lo! Man came unto the heavens, and did come across the demons!" This was my favorite line, every year, without fail, the holy men who recited this line would elicit gasps of horror and quieted murmuring. Many made the sign of Man to ward off bad tidings, not dissimilar to religions of old, two fingers were used to trace a circle upon the heart of each individual, one finger to trace a circle upon their forehead. A strange little custom, one that I can't say I approve of, but it seems to entertain, so as not to stand out I also made the appropriate sign for my status, a single finger to the lips in a shushing motion. The holy man continued. "These demons, the beasts that would call themselves Apex, tempted Man with herecy! But Man was no fool, and Man struck out against them!" I stifled a yawn, my bandages stretched as the muscles in my jaw flexed. The holy man, for all his splendor, was leaving me wanting, I began to grow hungry, my stomach churning in mock digestion, as though to remind me of my part in this ceremony. The holy man turned to face me, two men that I had not noticed before came forth and wrenched the demon to its feet, they half dragged, half ushered the beast toward me. I stood and strode toward the holy man. He made the sign of the Man and gestured to my bandages, I nodded, a silent agreement to allow him to place his hands upon the bandages covering my mouth. This holy man was new to this, though he carried himself with pomp and pride, nothing could hide his silent revulsion as the entirety of my face was revealed. I smiled, well, I tried to, my mouth stretches from ear to ear, literally, and I have no real lips, just teeth, regular human teeth, set into my face, rather than gums. Its difficult to describe exactly, but it seems to set me apart from the rest of humanity, among other things. "Gaze upon the face of the devourer! The one who shall save us from the demons!" Devourer? Not exactly a nice title for the birthday boy. I gave the holy man a blank stare, he gulped, improvisation, though interesting, wasn't always a smart move for the holy men. Sometimes it incurred pride from me, such as the time I was called the 'Heart of Light' and other times, such as now, it brought forth regret, an emotion I'm not fond of. But, I'm in a good mood, I wont tear this man to shreds, not right now anyway. I have an image to uphold. Which means I'm going to have to take the first bite, as usual. The holy man turned back toward the demon, removing its heretics fork. He made a hurried gesture toward the two man muscling the creature along. It wasn't going to try to escape, it was smarter than that. It believed that it had a better chance of reasoning with me, and it did, but not on this day. The ceremony was predetermined, I had designed it that way, on any other day, I might have let the disgusting beast go. I chuckled involuntarily, and the Apex relaxed somewhat, poor creature, it thinks I mean to show it mercy. "Gaze upon him! Learn of his ways! That we might destroy the demons!" I approached the creature, back straight, eyes forward, need to look determined, otherwise no one will take me seriously. "Gaze upon him! Gaze upon Man! In all his glory!" I did hate that they had taken to referring to me as Man, as though I was the entire species. I wasn't even the ruler of all of us, just this one planet. But I suppose that's one of the downsides of ruling a primitive world, they can't conceive of a world greater than their own. Anyway, time to dine. I opened my mouth as wide as I could, droplets of spittle hung precariously over the terrified face of the beast. As it turn to ran, I struck, I'd compare myself to a viper, but that would attach a level of finesse to the action that just wasn't there. I tore into the demon without remorse. During my frenzy, I became aware of the sound of cheers and applause, I looked up, blood and gore around my mouth, the holy man approached, he held a goblet of wine out toward me, I released my grip on the Apex and took the wine. "The Demon has been cleansed, and with it, so have we. Come! Brothers and Sisters! You must taste of the demons to know them!" I drank my wine greedily, and retreated to my chambers. I had no desire to stick around and observe religious zealots dining upon my leftovers. No one so much as wished me a happy birthday, how rude. Perhaps I will write that into the ceremony for next year, I could have the holy men whisper it to me prior to removing my bandages. I think I would like that. "You have disappointed me Vanr." An understatement, I was enraged, but it would serve me no good to contort my face in an attempt to scowl. No, instead I opted for holding Vanr over a cliff face, as a show to the onlookers behind us, he seemed a bit out of sorts, writhing and gasping for air like that. How rude, I'm the one who should be disgruntled in this case. "I... I... ha- ha- have failed y- y- you." My eyes widened imperceptibly, I was surprised that he could speak, given that I had my hand firmly around his neck. Bravo Vanr, I think you've earned a swift death. Hm, I shouldn't say that, that would just make him start begging, I'll play it cool. "You have yet to redeem yourself, Vanr." I wonder if anyone will ever correct me, his name isn't Vanr, yet no one has ever called me out on it. One of the perks of reverence I suppose. "As you know, the crevasse reaches well into this planets core, I'm going to put you down on the edge here, if you try to run. I'll throw you off before you can beg forgiveness." Vanr nodded desperately, his hands still clutching at his neck, I took a moment to take in our surroundings. This planet, for lack of a better word, sucked. The ground was always dried and cracked, there were two suns, far enough away so as not to leave this planet a scorched wasteland but close enough to ensure that night didn't exist. Deep ravines spotted the landscape, each one reaching far toward the core of this planet. The Apex that had escaped due to Vanr's incompetence wouldn't survive on this world, but I wouldn't be a good God if I let demons roam the wastes of my planet. At least the human habitats were nice, air conditioned with domes that stretched high into the sky, allowing control over day and night. The plan was to have these domes spread across the entire planet, terraforming was not an option, while we could genetically engineer animals and plants to survive the constant sunlight, as we had done, it was inhospitable to humans. The risk of UV light induced cancers was far too high for my lesser evolved brethren. "My Lord, I know where the demon has run off to! She was heading east of here! No doubt fooled by the Eastern Sea." Ah yes, the Eastern Sea, possibly the most irritating mirage on this planet. It didn't truly exist, it was just one of many regions of the planet of extreme heat, leading to a mirage of epic proportions. The truth was that any water to be found on this planet was found to the North and South, eventually we'll have the technology to fix that problem, in about two or three hundred years. "The Eastern Sea hm? Pray tell me how you know of her goal?" Vanr fidgeted on the spot. I narrowed my eyes, the bandages around my body began to tighten and harden in preparation of what was to come next. Oh Vanr, I knew you were soft but to think you were a demon sympathizer, it would seem the educational system I employed isn't efficient enough in weeding your kind out. I sighed to myself, before swiftly stepping forward and issuing a punch that came close to breaking the sound barrier due to its speed. I hit Vanr dead in the chest, his ribcage shattered, and he flew several metres over the edge of the cliff and plunged to his doom. The knife that he had been reaching for was still clutched in his hand as he fell. He was already dead of course, no ordinary human without any protective armour could withstand that much force to the chest. I turned to face the men behind me, they all stood straight with stony expressions. Now these were men I could be proud of. I lifted my right hand, and pointed East. "The Demon has fled toward the Eastern Sea, unaware of its true nature. As it has been seven galactic hours since her escape, she will be swiftly approaching heat exhaustion." The men looked at me with puzzled expressions, I rectified my mistake. "The demons are a pathetic species, relying entirely upon their speech craft to win battles. Our mighty suns will destroy her feeble body within moments. We must find her, and I must devour her, so as to save our planet from her corruption." The men immediately turned to face the East, their bandages, slightly less technologically enhanced versions of my own, tightened against their bodies. Providing a reflective covering to provide protection against the heat of the suns. They set off on a full sprint, the subdermal attachments of the bandages modifying their physiology every few minutes to ensure that fatigue is staved off for a minimum of ten hours. The body has limits, no amount of technology, save power suits perhaps, could keep a man sprinting forever. As I watched them retreat toward the east I scratched at my teeth beneath my bandages. I wasn't looking forward to eating another Apex raw so soon after my birthday but it was unavoidable. There were three occasions on which I was required to do so. One is on my birthday, another is when an Apex escapes and the third and final occasion is when an Apex attacks a human. Seeing as most Apex were imprisoned discreetly upon landing on my planet, they didn't usually have the opportunity to cause much trouble. I turned to walk back to the dome, about a kilometre away, I hope the creature was at least slightly cooked by the suns when they found her. Well, in all honesty, I hoped she hadn't reached the Eastern Sea, it may be a mirage, but Vanr hadn't told her to go there for no reason. I will have to go hunting in the region some time, check out some of the caves, kill the dissidents. The usual godly duties. For now though, I think I'm going to plan an event, maybe I'll give more "knowledge of the Gods" to the people. The population is starting to get fairly large, I suppose its probably time to reveal the 'secrets' of molecular recycling. I think I'll present it to them as "The Miracle of Replenishment". Well. This is a predicament. "Don't move! We have you surrounded! Hold your hands above your head!" I had underestimated the insurrectionists. In my mind they were few in number, confined to the wasteland that was the Eastern Sea. Never would I have guessed that there were hundreds of them, all organised, thriving beneath the earth. I looked around at my dead soldiers, I had taken a small contingent with me when the platoon I had sent to the east a week prior had not returned. We found a series of caves and I sent them in first, when I was left out in the sun for several hours with no sign of my men I decided to enter. They had been stripped of their bandages, no doubt the insurrectionists knew how valuable the technology of the bandages really was. There were at least fifty of them with guns raised toward my head. The disgusting bastards had allied themselves with demons that had escaped over the years, predominantly Apex and Avian, although there were a few Floran faces. I sneered, there was no way I was going to acknowledge these traitors. "Hold your hands above your head or we will open fire!" I turned to face the man screaming orders, he was young, most certainly not the leader. However he must be receiving orders from somewhere. I took a moment to scan the crowd, if my suspicion were correct, the leader was an Apex, most likely an old specimen. My eyes rested on a white, grizzled old monster toward the back of the crowd, I could make out a small communication device in his disgusting claw. I had found my target, oh how cute, the little female that had escaped was here too. I'll need to kill the both of them, time to play along. I raised my hands above my head. "Good! Do not move from that spot or we will shoot the shit out of you!" Shoot the shit out of me eh? That doesn't sound pleasant. I imagine shooting the fecal matter out of me would take a fair amount of bullets. I snickered to myself, they were still using conventional pistols and semi-automatic rifles. I had yet to release the knowledge of energy weapons, a good thing too, it would give me an advantage over these primitives when I decide to slaughter the lot of them. A few of the traitorous humans came forward, guns at the ready. This body was not going to make it of here, and I couldn't risk the insurrectionists learning anything from the corpse, I closed my eyes and triggered the bandages self destruct mechanism. The bandages began to tighten, in four minutes they would spontaneously combust and destroy the body wearing them. My eyes snapped open, I had four minutes to kill two demons. "Secure his hands behind his back, don't let hi-" I struck, leaping from my position toward the human shouting orders, I grabbed him by the throat and broke his neck. The rest of the insurrectionists reacted almost immediately, opening fire on me. I used the dead man as a shield as I sprinted toward the two Apex that were desperately running for safety, several bullets struck me in non-vital locations, I severed my pain receptors and kept running. Within a minute I had reached the retreating old Apex, I threw the dead man at the demon, pinning him to the ground under the weight. My bandages began to glow white with heat, I was running out of time. The female Apex continued to run from me, I growled. I suppose I'll have to settle for the leader for now. I reached down and picked up the old Apex as my bandages began to constrict and destroy my body, I wrapped him in a white hot death embrace. The bandages imploded, destroying my body and the old Apex that I held. An alarm sounded in the bowels of a several centuries old ship. A brain sat immersed in fluid in a glass container, its pink form perverted by the various tubes and electrodes. Across from the brain a large eight foot tall, three foot wide machine whirred into action. A single message displayed on a small screen in the center of the machine. VESSEL CLONING IN PROGRESS
Next story has been written, I hope its not too bad. I'm going to add them to the OP one after the other when I feel like it. I'll bump the thread each time.
No idea what you're talking about, it seems good to me. Keep up the good work.(One little nitpick: on the last sentence I wouldn't use machine again, maybe say it was on a screen or something, it just seems jarring.)
