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PART III - GENERATIONS OF DOOM

ONE THOUSAND YEARS LATER

LANDEN, HOME OF THE ORAKIANS

How’s it going, stranger? I haven’t seen you around before. Well, no matter. Sit, have a drink, keep an old man company.

What’s all the commotion about, you ask? Well, today was to be a big day for Prince Rhys. Today he was getting married to Maia, a beautiful girl who had washed up on the beach a few weeks ago. She had no memory of her past life, aside from her name. Prince Rhys quickly fell in love with her, and she with him.

However, the wedding was not to be. As the ceremony was drawing to a close, a Layan demon swooped down out of the sky and grabbed Maia. Filthy Orakians! it had yelled. Maia will not be yours!

Prince Rhys was ready to declare war on the Layans all over again, but his father threw him in the dungeon to cool off. That’s where he is now, actually.

What’s all this talk about Orakians and Layans, you say? You don’t know the story of Orakio and Laya? Well, I’ll tell you what happened. About a thousand years ago the valiant warrior Orakio challenged the dark witch Laya to a battle that would finally end the war between them. It was a tremendous battle, lasting most of the day. No one survived. However, the bodies of Orakio and Laya were never found.

After the battle, our worlds were cut off from one another. As time went by, the legend of Orakio and Laya faded from memory. Most people have never even heard about this other world, and if they have, it is only thought of as a myth.

I, however, know better.

Some of the ancient legends talk about another world entirely, a world totally different from Landen or the home of the Layans. No one in this modern age believes that such a thing could even exist, but I have seen proof of this - proof that the legends are true.

The legends say that all of the people of Landen, and the other world, are descended from people who came from a world called Palm. Shortly before the time of Orakio and Laya, this world was destroyed in some kind of cataclysm. No now knows how, or why, this happened. The legends say that Landen is the center globe of an enormous seven-globe spacecraft, and that this ship was launched from Palm shortly before it was destroyed, along with two hundred others. Where these other ships are, I do not know.

The legends also talk about an ancient evil entity which may have been responsible for the destruction of Palm, and which may someday come for us. I hope that this part of the legend is not true...

Proof, you say? Well, when I was just a boy, I found a cave in the mountains to the north. Inside the cave was what looked like control panels and other electronic gizmos. However just as I started to look around, the ceiling, which was not very stable, started to collapse. I escaped the cave just as the entire ceiling collapsed. I took this as a sign that I should leave well enough alone, and I never returned to the cave, nor did I tell anyone about it. You are the first, and the last, person who has ever heard about this.

What’s this? Prince Rhys has escaped the dungeon! He must have had help. It was probably that local girl, the one constantly mooning over him.

Oh, well. I hope Prince Rhys rescues Maia. I wish him all the luck in the world. I also hope that someday someone proves me right about the legends. Let’s face it, the word of an old man isn’t much to go on these days, is it?

Huh. Have a drink on me, my friend.

Here’s to Palm. And Orakio and Laya.

* * *

ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY YEARS LATER

LANDEN, HOME OF THE ORAKIANS

My grandfather used to tell some stories in his day. He’d sit in the tavern and tell strangers all about the ancient legends that he had grown up hearing about. He’d talk about Orakio and Laya’s battle, the planet Palm, and everything else that he knew about the legends. Grandmother used to say that he’d be there for hours, just drinking and talking.

Of course, back then everyone thought that they were only stories.

If only Grandfather had lived long enough to find out that the legends were true. He would have been ecstatic - especially when he would have found out that the planet Palm really did exist, and that Landen really was the center of a giant spacecraft that had fled Palm.

However, he wouldn’t have been happy to learn that one part of the legend was very, very real, and bent on our destruction.

The ancient evil that he’d heard about, Dark Force, had been unleashed upon us. However, the descendants of Prince Rhys of Landen and their companions - among them the cyborgs Wren and Mieu - defeated this unholy force. Before he was defeated, however, Dark Force revealed to them that he had destroyed the other two hundred ships that had fled Palm. We are the last survivors of that doomed planet.

Well, Grandfather, everyone believes you now.

May you rest in peace.

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