He knew Humans, Glod, and Cainth were going to be blamed for the coming depression because of their close ties to the Stars Realm. The Duke was a childhood friend, and Stephen asked him for help. The Duke was angry, but allowed Delgoto to gather all the Humans and Cainth he could find and fly them to an island just offshore of the main continent. Stephen attempted to get the Glod stranded on the planet to join him, but they insisted on staying behind to protect the others. The Glod donned their swords and waited at the financial center each day for what they knew was coming. The chaos following the loss of the Province’s Searchers and the inability of the government to contact the Stars Realm kept attention away from the three hundred fifty six Humans and two hundred thirty three Cainth as they were moved to the island. The Duke was true to his word and did not reveal the existence of the community. The Duke intended to use them as hostages if things went downhill. He also planned to use them as scapegoats if the population tried to blame him for what happened.
Delgoto had the heavy floaters that moved them to the island begin gathering stores to provide for the community’s survival. He remained behind to distract the Government. He used all of the Realm’s remaining currency to purchase everything he could to insure the community’s well being. One of the last things sent to the island was a complete learning center containing everything the Realm had learned. It was shielded by an advanced camouflage screen, which made it invisible to electronic scans.
The final two items brought to the island were two large sailboats that were hidden in a lagoon on the island inside a stasis field covered with a camouflage screen. He placed James Logan and Lurg Dorg in command of the small gathering, and made them promise to live in the wilds and not use any technology for at least a year. He ordered them to only consume food stores or fish they caught. They reluctantly agreed, and it was a good thing they did.
Five months after the community was moved, an angry mob attacked the financial center and killed Delgoto and the Glod. Their bodies were dragged through the streets as the Humans and Cainth on the island watched in horror at the news on a receiver. They heard the joy of the crowd at killing those responsible for isolating their planet. Throughout the Capital, all former officials of the Realm were murdered. There was a blood lust that couldn’t be quenched. The Duke saw that he was not being held responsible so he kept silent about the colony on the island. He could always use them at a later time to distract the angry population.
Three months after the Realm’s departure, the three Searchers still at the planet decided their only real future was to become the planet’s rulers. While meeting to discuss how to divide the planet, one of them shot and killed the other two. The survivor’s ship fired on the other two Searchers’ ships and destroyed them. He then gave the Duke an ultimatum to turn the planet over to him or be destroyed. The Duke refused and, after three days of negotiations, had the planetary defenses around the capital fire on the Searcher. The Searcher blasted the capital city into a barren wasteland. He hurried to the other side of the planet and took a landing craft down to the surface to take his wife and family with him to his ship. He discovered the Duke had already taken his wife and children to the capital to hold as hostages. They were now victims of his attack. The Searcher went insane and blasted every remaining population center. He then destroyed every high tech and manufacturing facility on the planet. The remaining planetary defenses fired on the small white ship, but nothing got through the Searcher’s screens.
What finally ended the madness was when the Searcher discovered he had killed his brother. He was on the planet in a surprise visit to celebrate his youngest child’s birthday, who died in the city he had just razed. The Searcher took a blaster and shot himself. More than ninety six percent of the planet’s population had been killed. The planet’s surface was covered with huge areas of devastation that remained too radioactive for life to survive for centuries. El Prado was just one of the first planets to face Searchers that craved power.
During the first thousand years, El Prado was visited by many starships that were using null space star drives. Some saw the devastation and decided not to waste their time looking for loot. Others came to kill and plunder. The second thousand years saw many ships arrive that were desperate. They landed to search for anything agricultural or technological they could sell to struggling planets. The survivors learned that to attempt to develop the planet was an invitation to disaster, as the visit five years ago demonstrated when Scotty lost his mother along with nine hundred other civilians. The frequent visits of rogue starships killed thousands and held the planet’s population in check. Throw in attacks by Torg and Zord, and life expectancy was less than forty five years for the struggling Human and Cainth survivors.
Scotty looked up at the stars feeling his constant sorrow from the loss of his parents. The Cainth lived just a short distance away and both communities were devoted to each other. Early in the community’s history, the Cainth began making the four short swords of their ancestors. The Humans constructed compound bowguns that fired arrows tipped with sharpened alloy arrow heads. They each taught the other how to use the primitive weapons.
After five hundred years hiding on the island, the communities had grown too large for the island to support them. At that point, the sailboats were taken out of stasis and used to ferry them to the mainland, where they settled in the forest next to the former site of the capital city. They discovered a ship repair facility where they came on shore that had not been destroyed by the insane Searcher. That facility would become the communities’ salvation. It was constructed from high strength alloy and most of the tools were unharmed.
The Human engineers discovered small, lightweight air compressors that were used to cut high strength metals. The small compressors were powered by tiny red generators that continuously compressed air and fired it at high speed. More than a hundred thousand of these compressors were found in storage. The compressed air was strong enough to cut any metal and the engineers discovered another use for the small air guns. The guns were modified to fire a small, high strength alloy arrow. The magazine could hold ten arrows and, once the shaft left the barrel, a four pronged alloy head and fletching would expand out from the shaft. The guns could not be fired at a high setting due to recoil, but even at a low setting, the arrows were deadly. These new guns would become the main defense of the struggling communities.
Scotty sighed and said, “We should go back. We make a good target for a hungry Zord.”
“Yeah, you’re probably right.” Jingo stood and gave Scotty a hand getting up. The two walked up toward the fires just over the hill.
Scotty sighed, “I miss Mom.”
Jingo nodded, “We all do, Scotty.” They crested the hill and entered the forest as a giant Zord flew over the spot they had just left.
The Zord were a species of giant flying creatures. They looked like reptiles, but were warm blooded. They were the most dangerous animal on the planet and they grew to enormous size. Originally they were held as zoo animals in the El Prado Zoo and drew thousands of visitors. Their skin changed color constantly to match their surroundings. They were extremely difficult to see until one came close, as in close enough to touch them. They had four legs, with the front two having huge retractable claws. They could stand on their back legs, and fully grown Zord towered over twenty feet high. Their heads were shaped much like the head of an ancient earth lizard called a gecko. The eyes were in protuberances on top of the smooth head with a wide snout. That snout could be eight feet long by ten feet wide on full grown Zord, and housed the four rows of razor sharp teeth. The Zord in the zoo were released by the zookeeper when he saw the coming destruction of the city.
He also released a heard of Torg. If one removed an ancient rhinoceros’ horn and replaced it with a huge mouth full of four inch teeth, three foot tusks, and a voracious appetite, you’d have a Torg. They were fast, agile, and that double-hinged mouth could snap a Human in half. They reproduced in less than four months, and their population had grown to dangerous levels. Human and Cainth learned to never go into the forest without a bowgun. It was also never wise to go alone. Many disappeared and were never seen again. El Prado was not a safe place to live, and sudden death always lurked around the hedge row. Life was lived in the moment and happiness was sought wherever it could be found. Few looked beyond the moment because death was a constant companion. Zord, Torg, or Star Raiders were dangers that were difficult to avoid.
Chapter Two
Scotty Robbins celebrated his fifteenth birthday in the forest. He walked by the river and thought about going fishing, but decided to first go pick a few grellup pods to season anything he caught. He missed Jingo but couldn’t persuade him to come along. Jingo seemed to be distracted lately, and he was not going to just sit around waiting for someone else to go with him. He knew the danger of going alone, but few could match his prowess with a
