Welcome to Talemeed!
... the unforgettable words of the Tannon, when I arrived on Talemeed about a month ago. Many things have changed since then. The neighbouring system Zeflin is at war with a race of carnivorous beasts called the Throw, and we're losing. As for talemeed it's an empty, quiet out post on the friges of the Berland Sea. When the Throw attacked Zeflln everyone either went to fight or cauagt the first shuttle off world. Now, it is a quiet outpost even though Zeflin is only 2 light years away. Talemeed once had a population of 334! Hardly worth invading, or so I thought. The Throw attack for reasons beside glory or conquest their need is more dire, much more important - they need food. All populated sectors in the near Zeflln have been evacuated, excluding this one, we were just warned. When word of what was happening got around, it was as good as if an evacuation order had been issued.
As for me, the pay is good. It's my job to gaurd the facility, I'm not alone though. The Corp gave me 26 armed Epsilonm droids as wel as six heavily armed CO3 combots. The combats arn't much for conversation but the episilons can be stimulating. Most functions are automatic, but the droids keep installation running and stop only for organic from going crazy.
Most of my day I spend in conununications listening to the broadcasts emanating from the Zeflin sector. I was there when we heard news of the first attack. The people of Zeflin didn't even know what had hit them. In the first incident a local farmer awoke one morning to the sound of his Transs cattle mooing. He went outside and became the first casualty of the war. In the beginning the attacks were random and spread out, the local protectorate had no idea what was going on. At first it was concluded that the incidents were animal attacks because of the condition of the bodies. At other incidents landing pad depressions where found but they where dismissed as the marks of an Arqo shuttle. The attacks left no survivors and no witnesses, but by chance in one of the early encounters one survivor did escape death. The survivor was one of only nine Aracnians on the entire moon of Zeflin. She was ivestigating an unusal odor when, detected by the Throw. The Aracnian allowed them approach. They were armed, but they did not fire. Their approach was too close for comfort. She leapt into the trees swiftly with the most nubile acrobsatics. She jumped down out of the tree behind her assailants. Once again the Throw approached and again she leapt into a tree. She did this several times much to the bewilderment and frustration of the Throw.
Although they appear not to be designed for speed, each standing 4 and a half meters tail and weighing a tonne, bulky, powerful aliens, covered in a tan coloured bony carapace, they are not slow. They tried in vain to capture the Aracnian and when everything failed, they opened fire. Their first volley missed and allowed her to escape. What little information can be deduced from the first encounter gives the impression that the Thorw have travelled the galaxy for untold years, in vessels es they did not construct. One theory is that they were created as a weapon. A weapon used in a battle so huge that humanoid kind could not even grasp the magnitude of the conflict. A conflict between two titian races where a weapon was left on the beach and was washed out to sea. Now the weapon has washed up on a unsupecting island in space called Zeflin. Since then, it has been all out war.
My time on Talemeed is almost over, I've been here 537 hours and my tour is only 672. It comes out to about a month, one long tiring month, but I might ask for re-assignment, so I can be part of history. No matter what I think this is as close to the war on Zeflin as I would like to get. In 5 days I'll be gone, I wonder what my replacement will be like. I do know how i will greet him to the small planetoid. With a smile and a cheerful ... Welcome to Talemeed!