Flu to the Cold

Well, I overpowered the flu, but then moved on to the cold. My suffering is longlasting. I haven't been so sick in a long time. By so sick, I mean frequency. I held apologetics last night, it was fun, but I had a heck of a time when reading cause my nose is so stuffed. It's not fair.

On the other hand, I always love being sick when Maggie is there to take care of me. She's the best.

Anyway, a short post, but I'm building up to a larger one. More on that later.

The Flu

Well, I'm lying in bed eating a piece of toast sick with the flu. I stayed up all night visiting the toilet often. Now, I have a little bit of a sore throat, a headache, I'm sore, and tired, but I am feeling much better. The flu sucks.

Jesus Christ: The Undeniable

I found this article in the Google ad on my site. I have to say that it is incrediblely well done. My faith was strengthened after reading it. I encourage you to read it as well.

Felt Foto

My friend Scott has created a site that I think should be shared with everyone who has eyes. His photography is impressively brilliant. My favorites are the scenic photos. Visit it here.

Pick Up Your Cross

Things are going alright lately. It's been busy, but I'm staying upright. God is strengthening me through trials at work and within the church lately.

My boss is kind of a jerk at times, so I struggle with my attitude while working. It's always a challenge to keep optimistic when your position is unmoving in the company after two years and your boss has little respect for you, but I look to my co-workers who build me up in Christ and in confidence. They not only encourage, but hold me in check when I begin saying things that I will eventually regret saying. Every once in awhile I lose sight of the fact that God is my boss, not that guy that sits in the nice office writing my evaluations. Prayer is always good.

The church youth group seems to be steadily dying. I struggled for weeks about what to do. It's been mentioned that the building is so run down that people don't want to invite their friends to it, but nobody seems to care to fix it up. That bothered me, but not a big deal.
Church also seems to take up a lot of my time, which takes away from my time with Maggie, family, friends, and myself. On that note, I put a lot of work into my lessons hoping to reach the kids and impact their lives, but it seems that the response has been to crack jokes, or try to draw attention from the message and to some stupid act of immaturity. I get annoyed at them talking over me and ignoring me when I try to speak, but last Thursday, I tried something new. I explained that coming to church for friends and games isn't the point. I let them know that I wasn't going to continue casting pearls to swine. To speak to a group of people and receive no response in an environment that should produce one is unsettling and discouraging. Doing the work cannot be about the results, because often times ministry won't be rewarding, but I know that the people I spoke to could do better and weren't trying. Youth became a fun get together time with a small serious note that could simply be ignored to top off the social gathering they expected.

While the message seemed to be received well, my only regret was that there were only three high schoolers there to hear it. The junior highers, while of great importance, I don't think truly understood what it was I was trying to say, so I didn't expect a huge response from them. The point in all of this is to build the ministry of God, not to feel sorry for myself or anybody, but that my time working is not spent in vain. God needs to move on these youth, but it takes a willingness on their part that I just don't see.

I'm really just yammering on and on right now, but it feels good to do so.

I'm selling my bike here on ebay. Once it's sold, I'll be able to pay off the new bike. I must say that the new one rides impressively. The rubber mounted engine makes all the difference. Go there and check it out. If you want it, bid something like $20,000. Thanks.

I gave Sandie a bath tonight. She hates baths. I actually have to get into the shower with her to bathe her. She whimpers and yips from the torture of the shower head. If I'm not careful, I'll end up with claw marks across my entire body, soap in my eye from her shaking off to dry, or I become a doggie jungle gym. Once she's out however, she becomes excessively hyper and runs all around the house trying to dry off. It's really funny. As anybody would, I expected her to hate me for bathing her, but she instead loves me to no end. She's the funniest dog I know.

Anyway, enough typing for tonight.

Sandie

This is Sandie, the newest addition to our family. I found her one day last month wandering the streets. She didn't have a collar, there was nobody around that could've been looking for her, and she had major dreadlocks goin on, so I took her in. I called the animal shelter and put in her description, but no one ever called, so we named her Sandie. At first Maggie wasn't going to allow her to be on the couch and DEFINITELY not in the bed, but now she sits with us on the couches and sleeps in our bed at night. She's made her way deep into Maggie's heart and mine too. She's the cutest little girl I've ever seen. Don't you think?

MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD!

I'm tired of Christian American silence. It's time to start a movement. I don't want a quick surge of emotion, I want a consistent surge of Christians responding to their calling in this country and world.

I've listed some sites below that I encourage you to visit. Read when you have time and if you don't have time, MAKE IT. You guys who visit my blog don't just have a responsibility to vote, but a responsibility to get other Christians FIRED UP.

Visit these places:

American Family Association
American Center for Law and Justice
Focus on the Family ACTION
Constitution Party

The Meaning of Life

This advertisement was on my comments.
Meaning of Life
It's interesting. I haven't come up with anything for it yet. If you do, post it here.

The Guy With the Cool Pictures

Hey all. I was cruising people's blogs on Friday and happened upon one that struck me as particularly impressive. The site is: http://jeffchevrier.blogspot.com/. That's site I was trying to show you mom.

A Question of Life

It has come up in conversation with people often lately, and now has arrived in my comments for the last post, so I'm going to address it here and now. The question is as follows: If two candidates run in 2008 that are both pro-choice, what will we, as Christians, do?

All of you feel free to comment on this, even non-Christians, because you have just as much right to say what you think. I am intentionally not sharing the conclusions I've drawn because I want all of you to give me yours instead of just agreeing or dissagreeing with mine. Have at it guys and girls.

The Win

The election has been won. Four more years of Bush is a good thing. The war will continue as it has and we'll get to see just how good Bush is going to handle it. In my opinion, this is a great thing, but now we have to look onward to the next election...Hillary Clinton vs Rudy Giuliani. My hope is that Hillary doesn't make it, but I'm intimidated. Comments?

Heh...

Finally Watched The Debate

Well, I must say that it just wasn't a very good debate. The name debate implies that there was debating, but I think that the whole thing consisted of Bush wiping the floor with Kerry.

Kerry For Prez

What a guy!

Christopher Reeve died. The Kerry camp is taking full advantage of it now concerning embryonic stem cell research leading me to understand Kerry's stance as follows:
Elect Kerry and there will never be a paralyzed American again.

The Dubya Has WON!

Mike said to me earlier today that it was his prediction that Bush would win with a landslide 280 electoral votes. I couldn’t make that call so far from the election, but I can tell you that tonight was a distinguishing moment for him.

Bush was passionate, clear, and finally said what needed to be said. He called Kerry out on his record and the debate drew the line between the two. Kerry was put on the spot and remained defensive, a reversal of the first debate.

Bush did what we wanted. He spoke the same old truth, but he did it with renewed vigor and brought it home. He showed himself tonight, a feat Kerry has yet to accomplish.

Nearly every question of Kerry and his “plan” was dodged, because Kerry doesn’t have a real plan. He’d turn the debate toward Bush and the things he thinks the administration did wrong. Unfortunately, the things that Kerry thinks are wrong were either false accusations, or what we believe in.

It’s a tough question to ask Kerry what he believes, because he demonstrated tonight that he has no moral conviction when he votes. If you have no principles guiding you, what legs do you have to stand on? He claimed that he is a catholic and holds to the belief, er…respects that belief, but won’t impose his beliefs on those who don’t share them. In simpler terms, “What do you want me to believe?”

Kerry may continue to be falsely pumped up by the media, but if Bush can bring that much excitement, optimism, and passion to the next debate, I believe he WILL take the election with a landslide.

Veep Debate

Well, I just got done watching the vice presidential debates and I have an opinion. Vice President Cheney did exceedingly well. He did what I think Bush should've done during the debates and threw Edward's and Kerry's voting records into the mix. Their absence from over %70 of the votes and the fact that Cheney hadn't met him during Senatorial meetings or at all till tonight made an impact in my opinion. That concern, the lack of attendance, is, in my opinion, very relevant to the race and should be known by the people. It's not mud slinging unless it's false accusations or character assassination.

Unfortunately, I don't think this debate will have much of an effect on the polls. Vice Presidential debates don't draw many viewers and thus doesn't make a huge difference in the polls. I think that Bush knows now however that he needs to pull some larger punches than he did in the last debate. That'll be good for him.

Earth's Forgotten Encounter

I started this story back when I was thirteen or fourteen. If you find it interesting, follow the link to the whole thing that I have written. Hint at characters, Mike is me, Daniel is my friend Josh Beel, and Gerad is my friend Mike Keith. So, these characters were based off of friends. Let me know if you think I should continue it. I thought of it because Cyndi and I were talking about our stories that we've written after watching the movie "The Forgotten." Good movie, kind of reminded me a little bit of this story.

Chapter 1






I was sitting at the top of a hill which was high enough that my small home town below could be seen in its entirety. It was a clear night; the moon was full and brightly lit. I sat and watched my town. The lights all over the city could be seen. It was fairly quiet that night. I gazed downward. This was the place I came to do my thinking. I had come here often, every night in fact for the past about year I'd lived in the town, I'd sit here and think up stories to write, as this was my profession. I had been a writer for four years, I was just out of college and thought writing would be a nice career since I'd been fairly good at it. One book I had written had been published; it brought me some good profits. I usually wrote fictional stories, but this I had to put on paper.
I'd come up to that hill often, but nothing could've prepared me for what I was about to see. I sat, motionless, it was very peaceful. It was a warm night, in early spring. The air was calm. Perhaps I had taken all this for granted, because just then a feeling overwhelmed me, it was undeniable, something was different, something was terribly wrong. I stood up trying to figure out what it was and just as I did, an almost blinding flash of light came over the sky. I still to this day cannot remember what happened after that, the only thing I recalled next was waking up, still at the top of the hill. A cold breeze filled the air. The moon was no longer out and it was eerily dark. I stood up, and to my disgust, I cracked and popped. It was apparent that I had been lying there for a long while in the cold. I didn't recall the flash of light or anything, so I simply began toward my home, utterly confused.
The next morning I woke up, only to the sound of a scream. It sounded like it was coming from next door. I hurriedly put my clothes on and as I did I remembered what had happened the night before, but I dismissed it as a mere dream and nothing more. Once I was clothed I rushed outside. The scream worried me, I had to find out what was wrong. As I ran next door I noticed a girl, perhaps my own age, on the porch. She was on her knees, her face in her hands. She was quite obviously crying. I slowed from a run to a walk and approached her. She took her face from her hands and looked at me. She was beautiful, despite her reddened eyes and tearful face. Through the tears I could make out the color of her eyes, they were blue, like the dark color after a heavy rain in the sky. Her hair was a light brown shoulder length, she was beautiful.
Suddenly she began to speak. "He's gone!" She cried.
I looked at her, "Who's gone?" I asked.
"My father..." She dropped her face back into her hands again.
"Where did he go?" I asked softly. I had no idea what to expect or assume. She tried to raise herself. I could see she had trouble so I helped her up, she was weak, no doubt from this emotional state.
"Please...come in..." She said, "I'll show you."
"Hang on a sec, rest for a little while, and then you can show me." I looked around for something she could wipe her eyes with, I spotted a handkerchief in my coat pocket, I pulled it out and gave it to her. She sat down in a chair and wiped her eyes.
"My father..." Her voice showed the effect of the tears. "He was gone when I came into his room this morning."
"Couldn't he have gone out this morning?" I asked.
"Well, no, the reason that isn't possible is because he can't walk. His wheelchair is still in his room." She paused, wiped her eyes again and continued. "I walked into the room this morning and he was gone. The wheelchair was where I left it last night. I screamed when I knew he was gone. I ran outside, looked around, and started to cry. Then you came." She fell silent then.
"May I take a look at his room?" I asked. I did not know what I would be looking for, but I would try my best to make this girl happy again. It never crossed my mind that I would meet my neighbors in such an odd way. She stood up, she was stronger now.
"This way." She took me to his room.
"Thank you." I said. I looked around the room, everything seemed normal. There was no sign of struggle. I walked to the door and opened it made a very loud creak. I realized it had also done so when we had entered the room, but I hadn't taken notice.
"He couldn't have gone through the door," she said, "It would have awakened me."
I looked around the room and took a notice to the window. Could he have been taken through the window by someone? I had just suggested a kidnapping to myself. But wouldn't he have made any noise? I examined the window. It was locked from the inside. Suddenly my eye was caught. All around the window were slight burn marks. "Where did these come from?" I asked.
"I don't know." She looked at it closely.
"Come with me, I'll take you to the police office and you can file a report." I said. She began toward the door.
I took one last look at the window before we left. There was a black charcoal substance all around the seal of the window.
I stood up and took a few steps backward. "Okay, we'll take my car." We walked outside and over to my car. I let her in and then proceeded to the driver's side of the car. I sat down and put the key in the ignition. I turned it. it cranked, but did not start. "Hm, its never done that before.." I said. I turned it again, it cranked again and almost didn't catch, but it did. Although momentarily confused, I didn't think much about it, it had started. I pulled out and drove to the police station.
Surprisingly, there were a lot of people in the station. We waited our turn. When our time came we approached the officer. I began to speak. "We're here to..."
"Let me guess..." the officer cut me off. "you've come to file a missing person's report?" His face looked almost sarcastic.
"Yes, how did you...?"
"How did I know, well, let's see, you're about the twentieth person in here today claiming the same thing. Looks like every person sixty years and over disappeared last night." His expression changed to a confused one.

Go to the full story

Chili Verde

Tonight Maggs and I dropped by my parent's for dinner. We had chili verde, which is probably my second most favorite dinner of my mom's cooking after German beer roast and spetzla. I always enjoy it and it has been far too long since I had it last. It was interesting tonight though, because it turned out red instead of green, which kind of defeats the name, but it still held true to its taste. I won't disclose to you just how much I ate, but I will say that I enjoyed every last bit of it.

Tomorrow I'm going to try to go shooting, but I was planning on going with somebody and Matt isn't online and Mike isn't anywhere to be found. I just picked up my new SKS and cleaned it today, so I'm all fired up and ready to shoot it. I can go alone, but I'd much rather go with Matt or Mike. Oh well, I'll just try to get a hold of them tomorrow I suppose.

It's getting late and I'm beat after today. I dug a trench for five hours and the resulting soreness is starting to set in right now. I really need to hit the sack and sleep till eleven tomorrow. So, with that, I'm off to bed. G'night.

John Kerry

Well, I watched the debate last night and I wasn't as impressed as I thought I'd be. I think that Bush met his expectations and established himself once again as the truth teller. His sincerity was as it always is and his words were well thought out.
Kerry, however, performed above the expectations of the people and forged some respectability and effectively presented himself as a potential Commander in Chief. He may be insincere, but he hid it a little too well for my comfort. I think that Kerry made the most progress in the debate because he gained, while Bush simply reestablished himself, remaining consistent, but not meeting Kerry with the supreme authority we all thought he'd have.
The major draw back for Bush was that Kerry was expected to come out and be his normal self (putting his foot into his mouth), but he instead presented an extremely reserved Kerry, who was polite and well mannered. He wasn't himself.
Anyway, I think we’re going to see a much closer race now than I thought, which is not encouraging.

Happy Birthday Leah!

I went shooting again yesterday, but this time Maggie went. It was her first time shooting a gun. She did pretty well. I think she'd do better if we had a .22 though, so I'm going to look into one for her. Right now I'm looking at possibly getting what's called a 9x18 Makarov, which is much like a 9mm, but takes a different ammo. The ammo's cheaper than 9mm ammo, so I wouldn't mind getting it.

We spent the whole day with Matt and Lorra, which was an excellent time. We enjoyed an early dinner at Claim Jumper and then went back to our house and talked until 8:30. I have to say that I thoroughly enjoy the company of those two.

It's My sister's birthday today! So, I just wanted to say to you Leah, Happy Birthday!

The Blogmaster has returned

Well, I planned my lesson tonight and have been chatting at Crosswalk, which is a great place for Christian fellowship. I go there and answer questions or even ask them. It's a lot of fun there and I'd recommend that anyone reading about this take the time to sign up with it and check it out.

I'm just about ready to go to bed, but I'm staying up just long enough to post, because it's important to me.

Before Apologetics

Well, it's 6:15 and nobody's arrived just yet. I had a great day today. I worked hard and got to talk with the new guy all about the differences between Catholosism and Christianity. He disagrees a great deal with a lot of the things the Catholic church believes. I tried to give him clarification on the things he wasn't sure about and he seemed to see the Christian point of view.

I just bought him a Bible to study. He said he has a Bible, but he has no idea where it is and doesn't like the fact that it's in Spanish. He speaks Spanish and his family is Spanish, but he comprehends written English better. I told him I'd buy him a Bible, so I just ordered an NIV. That's an excellent version in my personal opinion. He's not going all scholarly yet ( in which case I'd go for NASB), so the NIV is a better translation. The reason I think that is because it translates in such a way that the sentence structure and wordage is more aligned with the way we speak it and read it today, whereas the NASB is word for word with the Greek, which sometimes leads to a little confusion when not made aware of its method of translation. An example is as follows:

Luke 21:25-28 (NIV)
25"There will be signs in the sun, moon and stars. On the earth, nations will be in anguish and perplexity at the roaring and tossing of the sea. 26Men will faint from terror, apprehensive of what is coming on the world, for the heavenly bodies will be shaken. 27At that time they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. 28When these things begin to take place, stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near."

Luke 21:25-28 (NASB)
25 "There will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and on the earth dismay among nations, in perplexity at the roaring of the sea and the waves, 26 men fainting from fear and the expectation of the things which are coming upon the world; for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. 27 "(22) Then they will see (23) THE SON OF MAN COMING IN A CLOUD with power and great glory. 28 "But when these things begin to take place, straighten up and lift up your heads, because (24) your redemption is drawing near."

Not a huge problem, but it could create a little confusion without the sentence breaks and so forth. I studied the Greek in this small exerpt and presented it to my Greek class. In my findings, the NIV translated it very well, whereas the NASB translated it very well, but the order of the words was left intact. This creates a little bit of a challenge. Anyway, I need to go pick up Mike now. Talk to you all later.

Haloscan commenting and trackback have been added to this blog.

Butterfly Effect & 13 Going On 30

Butterfly Effect


This movie was incredible for its premise, but terrible for its vulgarity and sexual crudeness. I'm glad to have seen it, but I wouldn't recommend it to anybody. Leah recommended seeing it, but she did so without memory of the reasons for the R rating. I don't blame her and I'm not upset by it because the movie was very impressive in many aspects.

The idea goes like this: The main character is plagued by inexplicable black outs during his life. They occur during the most traumatic moments in his life, so he's deprived of the emotional damage that his friends experience around him.
As the story begins he begins writing from day to day into his journal. When the story becomes interesting instead of confusing, you are shown his amazing curse. Upon reading his past journal entries, a thing he'd never done before, the world around him begins to shake and change. Suddenly he finds himself experiencing that moment in time over again, which happened to be during what he remembered as a black out, but now he had the complete ability to do as he pleased. I thought that it would certainly be some sort of dream at first, but when the memory ends, his life has changed significantly. This leads to an ever worsening alternate reality each time he tries to change his future.
It's a radical ride, but I was unimpressed by the overusage of harsh language and sexual references. It really subtracted from the movie in a way that finally reduced its ability to redeem itself. I've taken from it what I enjoyed and prefer to remember it that way, but, as I've already said, I could never recommend it in good conscience.


13 Going On 30


13 Going On 30 was actually a very enjoyable movie. There wasn't much about it other than some language and a few innuendos. I don't condone those things, but the movie redeemed itself overall. It was very funny in a great many ways and actually reached a real level of emotion instead of a completely cheesy movie. In other words, the movie had some good meaning to it. I'd recommend it, so I don't want to give too much away.

Shots Fired

Winchester 1300 Defender

Well, I've recently been out shooting lately. Until two weeks ago, I'd never shot a gun, but thanks be to Scott, he took me out. I've now decided that I need to buy a gun of my own, so after looking around a lot and learning about the different guns, I think I'll probably be buying the one you see here.

I've wanted to go shooting since I was young, but things never worked out. Time passed and I told different people I'd never shot a gun and finally Scott set up a time and a place. I was there. My first shot I hit my target, which was a clay pigeon (they look like mini frisbees and are thrown into the air as moving targets), but, after stunning everybody with my beginner's luck, I didn't hit my next five. It was one of the coolest experiences I've had in a while.

Now that I've gotten a taste for it, I'm very excited to purchase my first gun. I'm still considering a hand gun as a first, but the shotgun is the less expensive of the two and I found one I liked right away. We'll see what becomes of it.

In case you hadn't noticed, I haven't been updating a lot lately and others, which I badgered to post in the beginning, have. Out of guilt and a desire to come back to the blogger world, I've returned with a new and improved style and a kick butt return post. (It's kick butt because it has a picture)

Look forward to more frequent posting. L8z.

Update bud.

Encouragement

Philippians 4
¹³ I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.
2 Corinthians 12
⁹ And He has said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness." Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.

Lee Stroble

One of the biggest obstacles for the faith is suffering.

The question is as follows: Why would a loving God allow such suffering in this world?

I’ve been reading a book called The Case for Faith by Lee Stroble and so far it’s impressed me intellectually and spiritually. Lee Stroble, who started out being an atheist, was faced with a struggle when his wife became a Christian. She dragged him to church at one point after many failed attempts and he walked out with a few questions on his mind. Being a journalist for the Chicago Tribune gave him the inquisitive edge that led him to write The Case for Christ, a powerful book that addressed the burning objections that the skeptics throw in the face of Christians, the same objections that Lee himself shared. His book was originally intended to disprove Christ’s existence. He assumed that this crutch for the weak, this springboard for indoctrination would fall apart under the microscope, but his search for the truth left him utterly beaten—and a believer.

In his second book The Case for Faith, Lee comes back with his skeptical edge and attacks leading Christian Philosophers with his deep cutting questions. He demands full and complete responses rather than simple generic answers. All too often Christian teachers and even some pastors are intimidated by the tough issues and discourage young Christians and skeptics from asking. Unfortunately this leads some to think that there are no answers, but there are.

I love the direction that Lee took when he asked the aforementioned question. He went to the once right-hand-man of the famed Billy Graham, Charles Templeton. Charles explained to him that he couldn’t understand how a loving God could allow starvation, drought, death of innocent children, and even Alzheimer’s disease. Templeton himself was suffering from Alzheimer’s. These things finally ripped Templeton’s faith away from him. This quickly personalized the debate and hit Lee hard. He wasn’t just speaking to a skeptic, but a suffering individual. This entire section is very touching and I sympathize with his struggle. I also have struggled with these concepts.

Lee finally sits down with Dr. Peter John Kreeft, a Catholic writer and philosophy professor. Here Kreeft argues his points magnificently and tactfully. His answers are not simple ones that leave the inquirer feeling short changed and unfulfilled, but instead were deeply insightful and colorful. His language was articulate and ultimately yielded a web of philosophical, logical, and understanding thoughts that tied up in the end to present a rock solid argument from the Christian perspective. I was stunned to read his responses and find his conclusions. They seemed familiar, but refreshingly new. His speech finally wound up pointing to suffering as having at least the potential for good. It would seem that suffering can lead to both atheism and strengthened faith. Those looking in from the outside often question why God would allow such suffering which leads them to close up and take up atheism, while those experiencing it are forced to place their trust in God and then realize that Jesus is there every step of the way with them. Of course my summation here leaves much to be explained, but I think the book does a fine job of that, and I’m not here to give you the whole story, but to share about something that is impacting in my life.

At any rate, I’ve come to the conclusion that God’s master plan is unknown to us, and why he allows such terrible things may not be fully understood, but the fact remains that God has a plan for this fallen world, and that will be done.

James 1:2-4 ² Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, ³ because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. ⁴ Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

Well, I'm going to create a new web site. It's called Blessed X. I'm going to post Christian stuff on there. You can check it out now, but I JUST put it up and it's pretty bare.

Sorry my posts haven't been "real" (Leah), but things have been a little frantic lately, but here's a post for you all. Eat it up and give lots of comments.

I got an exercise bike on Tuesday. It took four hours to put that thing together, then I rode it for about ten minutes and didn't touch it again until tonight (Friday). We've been extremely busy. It was a good work out. I really am trying to lose weight and reduce my cholesterol. Pray for me and my discipline. This whole diet and exercise thing was spurred by my doctor telling me that I had high cholesterol. I really don't want to be unhealthy and I'm beginning to become self-conscious and less confident with each pound I gain. Great news however, I've come down from 241 lbs all the way to 230.5. I just completely cut out fast food, except for some occasions, like youth group night, and then I only get what seems to be the healthiest thing on the menu. Dieting is taking its toll on me. I felt very discouraged at the thought of having to give up so many of my favorite foods, but giving them up or facing the risk of heart attack made an easy choice for me. So, I've been doing well these last few weeks.

As I've said, things have been busy lately. With Pastor Al stepping down, a huge amount of responsibility has been spread over the members of church council, Mike Fell in particular. Our meetings are pretty much every week right now in order to stay on top of all our duties. Right now, most of the planning is involving Al's last day. I'm having the youth set up for a potluck and then clean up. What a crazy change this is, saying goodbye to our pastor. He did say that he's not leaving the church however. He made it clear that he felt this church was his home and planned on attending every Sunday.

Today we went to my parent's house and had Tacos. They really hit the spot. I kept my limit down to three. I can usually go for five and sometimes six, but I'm practicing discipline. While I was there I sat down with my mom, figured out their computer's problem (not enough hard drive space--6GB is too too small) and then I ordered them a new 100GB hard drive for $58 plus another $12 for a cooling fan. It's a 7200 RPM, so it was an excellent deal. I found it through www.pricewatch.com which is where I always go. If you ever need bargain prices on computer stuff, that's the place to go. So Mom, you system will finally have some guts.

The wizard's eyes opened wide preparing to confide. "I had a great and flowing cloak," the wizard spoke. "My trust was broken, thrown away as a worthless token. That Old Hatter, I despise the matter. He took it from me, very unjustly, by stealing, he's quite unfeeling. You take it back I'll cut you some slack. I'll take you there on your word to handle my affair."

They stood to their feet white as a sheet. There roared a giant lizard, ridden by a dark wizard. Each fumbled and grabbed, their swords and jabbed, but the scales were tough unbreakable stuff.
Lizard fire spouted and the wizard shouted, "What business have you in Genekyoo?" The wizard's eyes were more than wise, but filled with power making each man cower.
Then Lord Red of the Valley of Dead pulled an arrow from behind his head, his shot was quick the arrow would stick, but the wizard's hand outstreched and fanned, the arrow turned a target unearned.
"If it's war you want, do not taunt. I fight real fighters not back biters," said the wizard upon his lizard.
Then Lord Hector of the Hero's Sector held out a hand a peace demand. He then bowed low, a humble show. "We mean you no harm, we'll put down our arms."
The dark wizard was amused, his anger difused. "I am blessed and so impressed, the presence of gentlemen, a number of ten. Such length you walk, now we will talk, come near and speak, what is it you seek?"
The ten came near, hiding their fear, and Lord Hector spoke, loosening his cloak. "We walk and search for the dwelling and perch of the Old Mr. Hatter. It's a serious matter that we find our way and that's what I've got to say."
The wizard thought, 'what a curious lot.' "What do you want of him? The path is grim."
"We want to go because we desire to know, what is this place in all it's odd grace." Said Lord Grin from the Halls of Tin.
The wizard pondered for an answer not squandered. The answer awoke and finally he spoke, "I do not know, I can help though."

And so they went the direction sent. Toward the crest of Mountain Blessed. It seemed like fall, the grass was tall. The leaves were dropping and growth was stopping. Their walk was good and not without, people stood and walked about. They walked for hours and passed by plowers, children running, old men sunning, girls were playing, smiles displaying, women working and young men smirking. The path was olden and the sky was golden. Soon it was dark and they found their mark. They'd stay the night untill it was light. They gathered some wood and started a fire, and there they stood and talked till tire. They all found a place to rest from their pace. They slept through the night, but woke up with fright. It was the next morning, and there was a roaring.

The massive man nodded and then further prodded, "Why are you here?" His attention drew near.
The ten spoke again, "We were sent by Thod, to venture the odd, he learned from a dream of this great seam, so he gathered we ten, the greatest of men. He promised great fame because we came. He sent us in stealth, and gave us our wealth, eager to learn at our return." So we ask that you tell," said Lord Mel. "the purpose behind this immense find."
The massive man spoke, "I do not know, nor do most folk, there is one though."
"Tell us who and tell us where, we'll thank you and then go there," the ten requested with interest invested.
"Some say he's all mad, and others just a tad, his name is Mr. Hatter, so says the chatter. From what I hear, he has no fear. His mind is vast, and his wit is fast. He lives beyond the crest of Mountain Blessed, down the damaged path, and within the cave of wrath. Three days travel will soon unravel the answer you desire."

The massive man questioned, "What must be mentioned is each of your names. No time for games, let's hear let's hear."
They lowered and bowed and called aloud, "We call ourselves the ten, lords over many men. Heros of renown and known in every town. Each has a name and his own fame." Each gave his name in order of fame: Lord Greg of the Great Land of Deg, Lord Red of the Valley of Dead, Lord Dar from the Plains of Ramar, Lord Beck of Tenendeck, Lord Smitt from Beldormitt, Lord Rahl of the Caverns of Paul, Lord Kink of the Shadow Gulf Brink, Lord Mel of Taverdel, Lord Grin from the Halls of Tin, and finally Lord Hector of the Hero's Sector. Put the order to the test, I know they're numbered least to best.

I learned in a dream that there was a seam along the beltway of time. I heard there were men a number of ten. Each a great lord with his own sword. Here in the seam they journeyed the beam and found there way down to the massive man's crown. He chuckled and turned and that's when he learned that it wasn't a feather but boots made of leather belonging to ten great men under whom no one had been.

Tuesday Night Apologetics Annonymous

Well, tonight was apologetics and it went really well. There were nine of us all together tonight (Me, Maggs, Scott, Leah, Cyndi, Jessica, a new guy named Mike,--a friend of Leah and Jessica's--Steve and Candie. I thought there would be more, but the smaller number of people didn't let me down. The topics varied, but I'd say we benefitted and gained more understanding about God. One of the first topics brought up was whether or not the serpent in Genesis 3 was actually Satan or not. The truth is, we don't know if that was the case since it never really says, however, in Revelation 12:9-"The great dragon was hurled down–that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.", and Revelation 20:2-"He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil, or Satan, and bound him for a thousand years.", it seems to point to Satan as being the serpent. So, it seems to say that the serpent in the garden was Satan, but nothing rock solid can really be found as far as I know.

The conversation went in all kinds of directions: Cults, Islam, and the completeness of the Bible to name a few. We finally wrapped it all up with a trip to the local Denny's, where you wait forever for everything and the service sucks. It was a good night though and I'm tired. You all have a wonderful night or day (depending on when you read this.)

The Lesson

This is my lesson that I worked all week on. I now have a fairly extensive understanding of the life of Herod, but I only cover extreemly small bits and pieces here of his life: just enough to get an idea of what kind of an idiot he was. Anyway, for those of you who want to know what I've been doing lately, here it is!


Matthew 2


The Visit of the Magi

¹After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, a. Magi from the east came to Jerusalem ²and asked, "Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him." a.
b. ³When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. b. c. ⁴When he had called together all the people's chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Christ was to be born. c. d. ⁵"In Bethlehem in Judea," they replied, "for this is what the prophet has written:
⁶" 'But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;
for out of you will come a ruler
who will be the shepherd of my people Israel.' " d.
e.⁷Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. ⁸He sent them to Bethlehem and said, "Go and make a careful search for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him." e.
⁹After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. ¹⁰When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. f. ¹¹On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, f. and they bowed down and worshiped him. g. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh. g. h. ¹²And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route. h.
The Escape to Egypt

i. ¹³When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. "Get up," he said, "take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him." i. j. ¹⁴So he got up, took the child and his mother j. during the night and left for Egypt, ¹⁵where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: k. "Out of Egypt I called my son." k.
l.¹⁶When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi. l. m. ¹⁷Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled:
¹⁸"A voice is heard in Ramah,
weeping and great mourning,
Rachel weeping for her children
and refusing to be comforted,
because they are no more." m.

The Return to Nazareth

¹⁹After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt ²⁰and said, n. "Get up, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who were trying to take the child's life are dead." n.
²¹So he got up, took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel. ²²But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning in Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. Having been warned in a dream, he withdrew to the district of Galilee, ²³and he went and lived in a town called Nazareth. o. So was fulfilled what was said through the prophets: "He will be called a Nazarene." o.

--

a. Magi were astrologers probably from Arabia, Persia, or Mesopotamia (This seems to indicate the passage: Numbers 24:17—17
"I see him, but not now;
I behold him, but not near.
A star will come out of Jacob;
a scepter will rise out of Israel.
He will crush the foreheads of Moab,
the skulls of all the sons of Sheth.)

"Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him." This is significant because the Magi were Gentile in origin, yet they recognized that he was the King of the Jews.
The Roman historians, SUETONIUS and TACITUS, bear witness to an expectation, prevalent in the East, that out of Judea should arise a sovereign of the world.

People most often attribute the star that was seen to a meteor. Astrologers were prominent in that time and it seemed that when there came a new ruler an astrological sign would occur. In this case, the astrologers almost definitely had access to some scriptural prediction of this event.

These Magi were probably quite shocked to see that nobody knew about him.

The humble setting for our Lord tells us a great deal about him. He’s not interested in what most kings are interested in.

b. Another being heralded as the King of the Jews (Herod considered himself to hold this title) was a direct threat to his rule. Herod was as paranoid as Saddam Hussein, which explains why all of Jerusalem was “disturbed” with him. They feared him to lash out in some way.

Herod was born to Antipater (or Antipas) and his wife Cypros

Antipater was a devout follower of the Jewish religion and supposedly a decendant of Esau. Cypros was just an Arabic woman.

When Caesar defeated Pompey, General Antipater aided Caesar in Alexandria, and was made chief minister of Judea. Antipater made his son, Herod governor of Galilee. Because Antipater was pro-Roman it led to an increasing unpopularity among the Jews, and he was ultimately poisoned and died. Herod had the tax collector supposedly responsible for his father’s death killed.
At the time of 40 BC Palestine was invaded and Herod fled from Jerusalem to Rome, where he was titled king of Judea.
(In 40 BC Antigonos and the Parthians invade Palestine, and Herod flees Jerusalem, for the first time to Rome. There he is titled king of Judaea by Mark Antony. )
Jerusalem was won back in 37 BC after two year war

In 36 BC Herod mades his 17 year old brother-in-law Aristobulus III of Judea High priest out of pressure from his wife Mariamme.

Herod feared the Jews would appoint Aristobulus as the new “king of jews” and a year later he drowned mysteriously at a party. It was speculated that Herod was probably behind it, but no evidence could be gathered to prove it.

Herod became quite the paranoid and began to kill many people. Though there were multiple assassination attempts on him he had a great number of people that he only assumed wanted him dead killed.

Herod rebuilt the Jewish temple between 20 BC to 10 BC (attempting to win the love of the Jewish people)

Herod had his wife, Mariamne executed because he thought she was commiting adultery on him.
Writings state that Mariamne was calm and serene at her execution at the age of 25 years having birthed 5 children to her husband in 7 years. The accusations were never fully verifiable, but false witnesses, fearing for their own lives came forward, including her sister and mother. They thought this action could gain the favor of Herod.
Right after the death of Mariamne, her mother Alexandra, made bid for power, declared herself Queen stating that Herod was mentally unfit. Josephus (a historian of the time) wrote that this was Alexandra's strategic mistake and Herod executed her without trial.
In 7 BC Herod had Alexandros and Aristobulos, his two sons executed for treason because he feared they wanted to kill him.

In 4 BC Herod killed his son Antipater for the same reason

Herod died a short while later from some sort of illness

Herod desired the approval of the Jews, but never achieved it because he subscribed to many religions and though he rebuilt the Jewish temple, he aslo built many other temples to other gods. This was a despised short coming that Herod had (Jewish approval) and that is why he so feared the birth of Christ.

Isn’t it interesting that the Jews seemed to give Christ the same dissatisfaction and rejection that they gave to a tyranical leader such as Herod.

c. These men were the high priest and those before him and scribes

d. Micah 5:2—2But you, Bethlehem Ephratah, you are little to be among the clans of Judah; [yet] out of you shall One come forth for Me Who is to be Ruler in Israel, Whose goings forth have been from of old, from ancient days (eternity). {AMPLIFIED}

e. Herod desired to know the exact time the star appeared probably because he pre-meditated the slaughter of the children. It is obvious that Herod was a great politician and deceiver because the Magi obviously seemed to have believed him when he said he wanted to worship him also. Herod also seemed to think his ploy effective since he did not send an escort. The character of Herod shows through here clearly.

f. It is apparent that some time has passed because now they were in a house

g. Frankincense is a glittering, odorous gum obtained by making incisions in the bark of several trees. Myrrh comes from a tree found in Arabia and a few other places; it was a much-valued spice and perfume used in embalming. It is noteworthy that the myrrh was brought, it almost seems to foreshadow the eventual death of Jesus Christ.

h. Herod hardly counted on divine intervention to halt his plans. The Magi, though Gentiles, were spoken to by God. This demonstrates the plan God has for both Jew and Gentile since both were involved with his birth.

i. God was taking divine action to preserve the Messiah. His birth wasn’t the only supernatural event, but his preservation was only possible because of God’s supernatural involvement.

j. It’s important to point out that the order “the child and his mother” is not the usual order, thus demonstrating that the child was of the greatest importance.

k. Hosea 11:1—1 "When Israel was a child, I loved him,
and out of Egypt I called my son.” Jesus is commonly symbolically likened to Israel, an example would be his forty days of fasting and temptation compared to 40 years of wandering in the wilderness.

l. Herod becoming furious was a bad thing. As was said, he resembles a Saddam Hussein and would do irrational things to preserve his power. This was probably one of the worst atrocities committed by the man, and the least remembered. The only place it is ever spoken of is here in Matthew. This is probably because it would have only been about ten to fifteen children and possibly carried out in secret.

m. This is Jeremiah 31:15. Why does Matthew refer to this OT passage? First Jeremiah 31:15 occurs in a setting of hope. Despite the tears, God says, the exiles will return; and now Matthew likewise suggests that, despite the tears of the Bethlehem mothers, there is hope because Messiah has escaped Herod and will ultimately save the world.

n. This is the fifth dream in Matthew. The completely evident direction of God is amazing and comforting. He went to great lengths to bring his son to the cross.

o. This is a general prophecy not found anywhere specifically in the OT. But it can be understood to mean that Jesus would be in a place of humble resentment, which is a true OT theme. (e.g. Psalm 22:6-8, 13; 69:8, 20-21; Isaiah 11:1; 49:7’ 53:2-3, 8; Daniel 9:26)

Conclusion An amazing account of the entrance of our Lord and Savior. It was God directed and indicative of his character. It was demonstrative of the Gentile acceptance, and presented the humble beginnings of Jesus. We should count our blessings that God loved us enough to go through such living conditions. We also need to realize that God easily thwarts the contradicting plans of men.

Tacos

I love my Mom's tacos.

A Dream

I had a dream last night that I was being attacked by Satan, but Satan was a twelve year old girl at my front door in the midst of all the kids from the youth group. It all started when there was a knock at my front door. I got up from being sick on the couch in Maggie's care and answered it. It was all the kids from the youth group. I asked what they wanted, but I couldn't understand anything they said. In the midst of the group there was one girl that I didn't recognize. Her eyes were really dark and that's what struck me at first, because they scared me. Her hair was brown and tied straight back into a pony tail. She stood about five foot I'd say. I asked her who she was and she straight out told me, "I'm Satan." She started handing me what looked like newspaper clippings encased in plastic with out-of-context verses written on them and was trying to get me to admit the "falsity" of my doctrines. She started to get in my face about it because I was being sarcastic toward her and I actually felt scared, so I yelled in my dream "get thee behind me Satan!" and "in Jesus name I order you to leave." She actually grabbed me and tried to push passed me and into my house where Maggie was, but I wrestled her (an amazingly strong little girl) back out, while still yelling "get out in the name of Jesus," and she finally disappeared. At that point I started to understand the kids from the youth group. They were asking if I was okay and if there was anything they could do. I thought about it for a second and then told them that yes, they could come over for a Bible study. So a few came in and a few, like Leah and Cyndi, went back to Leah's car to grab their Bibles. We started a study and then my alarm clock went off.

Genealogy

I'm starting a lesson on Matthew tomorrow and plan to bring a little personal history to the table since we're doing the genealogy of Christ. I thought you'd find this interesting Mom, so I posted it just for you.

McLAIN

The McLains have been traced back to Scotland to Clan Maclaine (if you look back at old Scottish clans, the various spellings of the name, including McLean, are derived from the same family.) Clan Maclaine was from the Isle of Mull, where their ancestral home, Moy Castle, is located. According to history, the two sons of Iain Dubh (or Black John) were each granted independent charters to lands on the Isle of Mull from John, 1st Lord of the Isles (MacDonald), thus forming the two dominant lines of the family; Maclaine of Lochbuie and McLean of Duart. Eachann Reaganach, or Hector the Stern, was granted lands at Lochbuie and married MacDonald's eldest daughter Margaret in 1356. There were fueds among the two branches of the family, but they banded together to fight outside forces. Lands were lost to England in the 1920s and much of the family was coerced into moving to Ireland, which became a gateway for those coming to America.

You can also check out an Isle of Mull Webcam from Tobermory (although the date listed in it is May.) This site is an Isle of Mull photo website. Make sure to check out where we started.

The American branch of the family has been traced back to Alexander McLain (born about 1758 in North Carolina.) We are still researching to find the "immigrant," the one person who brought the family from Scotland to America. Alexander's son, Reverend Thomas McLain (1771-1855) is the one who moved the family to Tennessee, where many of them still live today. Thomas' great-great grandson was Jacob Claude "PawPaw" McLain (1905-1988), who was the one who brought the family to North Carolina (among other places, Claude was a wanderer!) The majority of our branch still calls North Carolina or South Carolina home.

According to rumours, Jacob Claude "PawPaw" McLain's grandmother was part or full-blooded American indian. His great-grandmother's name was Appy Cela, which could have some Native American history to it, although there has been no proof and this rumour could have started as conjecture.

Info provided by: http://www.krysteria.com/geneology/history1.html

There, I posted.

Arachmen Planet
Year 5047 Centrael DieGreich: Uncharted Space/Blue Planet


As we parted from the ship, my heart sped up. We drifted toward the atmosphere of the blue planet below us. I wondered what it had in store for us. I knew that I shouldn’t be on this mission, because the consequences were great, but I so desperately craved to see the beauty that I’d known on Keid that it didn’t matter. I glanced around at the men I was with. There was a Captain on board named Gretkoff, the only man outranking myself. I observed all the other men onboard. Every man being sent out was merely a private. One of the men stood out to me from the rest. He was cleaning his gun. He wiped it very thoroughly with a cloth and then, holding it up in front of him, inspected it from top to bottom. His facial expression grew into dissatisfaction at which time he began cleaning it again. His nametag read L. Clume.
The cockpit grew warm as we came into contact with the atmosphere. I felt the exhilaration build inside me. For the first time in months I felt my load of stress lighten. I was anticipating a welcome of cool, fresh air, flowing streams, and the tragically uncommon site of trees that would be all around us. I couldn’t wait to feel real ground beneath me again. I yearned to hear the chirping of the birds and the rustling leaves of the branches.
All the men around me sat with naïve expressions. I could only assume they’d never seen combat. I didn’t feel worried though. My only thoughts were that the planet would hold great and wonderful things. As we neared the ground, thrusters fired slowing our descent. We touched down softly.
“Set up boys!” Called out the Captain. “Establish a secure zone! Let’s go! Let’s go!”
The men rushed out of the ship and began setting up the perimeter weapons barriers. I stood next to Gretkoff and observed the hustling soldiers. Automatic machine gun turrets protected our perimeter in no time at all. Laser sensors would be triggered if anything tried to enter. Every inch within the perimeter was observed and secured. Afterward they built tall tents around a center point at which we made our fireplace. I had my own tent, which was the same size as the Captain’s tent. I looked about and saw the planet I’d dreamed of. The golden yellow was quickly becoming pink and orange in the sky. A beautiful haze created a wonderful distortion of the light and all its colors. The leaves on the trees seemed to glimmer as they moved and reflected the light. I was overcome with happiness. I felt at home.
As darkness fell upon the base site we started our fire. The Captain stayed in his tent and I sat around the fire with the other men. A private by the name Jerry Luoard made dinner as everyone laughed and spoke of their future aspirations. As we talked and eventually ate dinner the fire faded down and as it did so did we. I wished everyone a good night and went to my tent. I was excited to see the next morning.
As light filled the air around my tent I slowly opened my eyes and stretched out of a deep sleep. I heard the other soldiers walking around outside the tent. I could hear the sizzle of breakfast on the skillet and smelled the appetizing scent that it gave off. I got up and stepped outside. The light was brilliant and I squinted a bit before my eyes adjusted. The sight was more beautiful than I remembered it.
“Hey Nef, come have a bite to eat,” called Jerry. He was the one doing the cooking. While I sat and ate, the Captain began to speak.
“Gentlemen,” He began, “We will take a few samples around here for a few hours and then journey toward the mountains reading southward on your compasses. It is a long journey, but between here and there is where we gained a good response from our probes.” His eyebrows rose. “Any questions?” Everybody stayed silent. “Good then. We start in an hour.”
Two men were assigned to stay at base while we journeyed. I carried enough supplies to last for about three days, a small tent for myself, and my gun. We were each given radio transceivers to keep good communication. It seemed like we walked miles before the Captain gave the order to stop and take samples. As the two scientists in the group took their samples a young private sat beside me.
“What’s up?” He held out his hand to shake. ” Private Larizon Clume,” he said and then took a drink of his canteen.
“Lieutenant Kennith C. Nefroidak.”
“Nice to meet your acquaintance sir,” He said as we shook hands.
“Same here,” I said as I received the gesture.
“What brought you here?” He asked. “Never saw you in the first briefing.”
“Well, I needed a vacation,” I responded, smirking slightly. “Got to come along.”
“A vacation huh? This doesn’t seem like what I’d call a vacation, but alright.” He smiled. “Where’d you come from?”
“I’m a pilot with the Drayvan Fleet.” I said hesitantly.
“Ah, our escort?”
“Yes.”
He scratched his head as if in amazement. “Highly qualified aren’t you then?”
“I’ve gone through all the basic training for ground combat, but I’m probably no better than any other man here. Never seen action on the ground really.” I thought about Keid as the only fighting I’d ever seen, if you could call it that.
“How long have you been a pilot?”
“About six months,” I said.
“Centrael DieGreich is my first mission. I just came out of training about a month ago and underwent SCOUT training,” he said. “It seemed like an interesting line of work.”
I couldn’t help but feel the vast difference between our mentalities, even though only six months of experience separated us. He seemed very excited to be here. I felt tired and exhausted from dealing with the reality of war. “What planet you from?” I asked.
“I’m from Kierov in Yulagro. Boring place.”
Kierov was a planet consisting of valuable ore, gray dust, and biodomes sustaining human miners. No life could exist outside them. It was merely a colony of factory workers and their families. His desire to see something a little more than just gray dust everywhere was understandable.
“Alright, let’s get goin’ again!” Shouted the Captain.
We began walking again and this time we marched until darkness began to fall across the land. Soon the men in front of me were silhouettes. They were visibly tired, I thought, watching them hunch under the weight of their heavy packs.
“We’ll stop in about another half mile from here,” spoke the Captain.
As we walked it became darker and darker. Two or three men pulled out lights and held them as we walked. I couldn’t wait to sit down again and have a much-needed bite to eat.
“Hold up men!” The Captain said raising his hand into the air. It motioned for us to kneel. I readied my gun with shaking hands. My adrenaline began to pulse hard through my veins. Clume still stood next to me. He appeared to be eager. The same words kept going through my mind, ‘I hadn’t come here for this. I had planned on a vacation.’ Suddenly the cracking of sticks under advancing footsteps shot into my ear. It was frighteningly local to us. My finger lightly brushed the trigger of my gun waiting to clench. Rustling of leaves and what sounded like a distant heavy breathing caught my ear. I glanced toward Clume. His expression was hard to make out. The men in the group had turned their lights off which made it eerily dark. We all seemed to be anxiously waiting for whatever lurked around us. I jerked my gun in the direction of every sound. It got louder and louder accompanied by my nerves becoming tenser and tenser. I felt small beads of sweat begin to form on my forehead. ‘Why doesn’t it show itself?’ I kept wondering. My uneasiness began to grow out of control, but then, all at once, the noises stopped and silence filled the air. All we could hear was each other’s fear filled breath. Where had it gone? We stood a few minutes when I began to question whether everything I was hearing was just merely the wind picking up and in my mind. We sat for a few minutes until the Captain began quietly speak.
“Keep your guard up men, we have to keep moving,” he whispered. We obeyed and began to walk again, guns raised.
“Turn some light on,” said one of the men. As light switched on in the middle of our line almost instantaneously a thing concealed in shadow jumped from the darkness. Its roar broke whatever silence we endured. The light was only lit for a second, but it was just enough for us to vaguely see this creature. I only saw teeth. It must have landed on the light causing it to shatter. It had pounced on Lt. Charles Tray.
Charles’ screams echoed off the trees and rocks nearby as the attack came all at once.
“Find cover!” Came the yell of somebody in the group. The horrifying creatures were cloaked by the darkness. It seemed like hundreds of them were in our midst. Gunfire rang out and the flicker of light from the gun presented a strobing slide show of lunging creatures, still unidentifiable. “It’s too dark! I can’t see them!” Came another voice. The cries of these animals filled my mind and made my heart pound. I backed against a rock nearby to Clume. Whenever something approached me I fired on it.
“Down here!” Shouted Clume. I peered through the darkness toward the sound of his voice. “There’s a cave over here!” He called again. I lunged forward toward the sound of the voice and landed on the ground. The running footsteps of the animals around me broke out close to my ear when a hand grasped me and pulled me. It was Clume. We both crawled into the small opening in the rock. “They’re all dying out there,” he said as he spied outward from the hole. “They won’t survive it, there are too many of them.” I placed my hand on his shoulder and pulled him down away from the opening. The shouts and cries of the men outside faded into silence. The gunfire stopped and the sounds went away. I didn’t know what the creatures were, nor did I care, my only thought and motivation were to escape the planet.
“Tomorrow we’ll need to figure our way back,” I said, trying to change his mind’s focus. “We need to find the ship and get out of here.” All we had were our guns at that moment. Our compasses, our bags, our food, and our radio transceivers were dropped outside in the ruckus. I knew we’d need to find our way back in order to survive so I hoped we’d be able to find at the very least a compass. The plant life outside, I had noticed, was unfamiliar to me, which meant that we didn’t know what was poisonous and what we could eat. We needed to get back before dark as well, since it would seem the creatures attacked by night or because we invaded their territory, which was also incentive to leave. It grew completely quiet outside, which was not a comfortable feeling to me. The cave we occupied went on downward. I couldn’t make out how far, but it went farther than I could throw a pebble. It held its nerve taunting noises as well. As best I could tell, I heard ten or eleven times a howling from within its depths along with splashing of water occasionally and the sound of what I equated to footsteps through the sand of the cave. I merely held my gun tight and told myself that it was only in my mind. We sat for hours through the darkness until I couldn’t keep my eyes open any longer. I fell into dreams of home.
I couldn’t tell how long I’d been asleep when a nudging from the butt of Clume’s rifle awakened me. He motioned with the tipping of his head to look into the cave. As my eyes adjusted from sleep to awake I saw a figure in the black of the cave. It was motionless, seemingly staring at us. I had experienced enough excitement for the night and was not in the mood to have to fight, run, or die. We stared at it through the darkness for nearly an hour completely motionless. I was nearly convinced our eyes were playing tricks on us when it began to move in our direction. I raised my rifle slightly to fire if needed and it stopped in response. It’s form looked human from the waist upward, but below its waist I was surprised to see what I decided were six or eight legs. I was very uneasy about this new life form. It wasn’t hostile I concluded, but curious. I decided to say something finally.
“Hello,” I managed to get out. I felt Clumes shoulder next to mine tense up. He looked at me as if shocked, but then immediately looked to the creature for its response. The creature had stepped backward away from us. I gathered that I had startled it.
“Huthwyer miuh iteh,” It whispered. “Huthwyer frauht.” It pointed to the mouth of the cave.
“It sounds like Frix,” said Clume.
“Frix?” I inquired.
“It’s an ancient language. I learned it in school,” he said as he stood. The creature took another step away. “He said ‘Go away from here. Go home.’” I was utterly amazed at the situation. “It’s slightly different sounding, but incredibly similar to Frix.” He turned toward the creature and began to speak. “Ugat Hian Loaughoan ese foturehn.” He turned back to me. “I told him our party of explorers was attacked.” I nodded. “Ug tregul graunch.” He turned back to me again. “I asked for help,” he informed me.
“Huthwyer fraught! Truh!” The beast roared. Clume backed away. I assumed he was frightened.
“He said go home. Now!” He told me. As we looked back toward the creature we were stunned to see nothing. The beast had gone. “What do we do?” Asked Clume.
“We leave in the morning,” I said as I leaned back into the cave wall. “Rest easy comrade.”
The next time I opened my eyes I saw light entering the cave. Clume slept soundly beside me. The cave still faded off into darkness it went so deep. I stood and walked to the spot the spider creature had been. I studied the footprints, which were merely dimples in the cave floor. They trailed off deep into the tunnel.
“Wake up Clume,” I called. His eyes opened slowly and he began to stretch.
“Everything alright Nefroidak?” He asked.
“As good as can be expected,” I said. “Let’s go.”
We left the cave and looked around outside. No remnants of the previous night’s attack were visible. There were no weapons, blood, supplies strewn about, or footprints. It was as if it had never happened.
“Those monsters cleaned up pretty well,” said Clume.
“Yeah, they did,” I said.
We left the cave behind us and started back in the direction I thought we had traveled from the day before. My heart was sinking the farther we walked. We didn’t see anything familiar. All we could do was keep moving. As we wandered I surveyed the area. Caves opened their mouths everywhere I turned.
“Judging by the angle of the sun, I think we’re navigating in the right direction,” Clume said after we’d been walking for over an hour. We moved more swiftly because we had no packs to weigh us down which encouraged me.
“I couldn’t tell you where we started from this morning let alone figure the angle of the sun,” I said and smiled a little.
As we journeyed I could tell Clume was heavy with thought. His face was much more solemn than I had gotten used to.
“Talk to me Clume,” I said finally.
“Huh?” He was startled by my sudden intervention into his thoughts.
“Tell me what’s on your mind,” I told him.
“I was just thinking,” he started. “Those men were all alive yesterday. They were alive and joking around. They loved life and they had plans. Jerry was just married a couple weeks ago and Charles had a kid on the way.”
I placed my hand over his shoulder and gave him a reassuring pat. “My friend, it’s best not to think about the tragedy each loved one faces, or the way those men died, but better to remember the people they were. The happy times you shared with them. Jerry’s wife isn’t going to want to hear about the details of his death, but how fondly he spoke of her in his last days and how happy he seemed. Tell her good things and tell yourself good things. Don’t replay in your mind the way they left this world. Instead, bring to mind your uncontrollable laughter after Jerry got done re-enacting your drill sergeants funny walk,” I explained. We both chuckled a little and the conversation ended momentarily.
“Why did I live?” Clume finally asked after a few minutes had gone by. “Me, one of the only men to walk away. Why me?”
“That is the same question I often ask of myself.” I gave him a half-hearted smile and then promptly looked away avoiding his glance while holding back the harsh emotions brewing inside me.
“I just don’t understand. I wasn’t the first one attacked, or one of the others that got jumped immediately. I managed to get all the way over to that hole in the ground. And I stumbled onto it accidentally!” He said throwing his hands into the air in disbelief. “I was calling out for everyone still alive to come to the hole. You came. The two of us survived. I’m glad you survived Lieutenant Nefroidak. I don’t know what I’d have done if I were the only one,” he dropped his head as if fatigued with the emotional impact of the whole thing.
“Yeah, it’s you and I Clume. That’s all there is now and we need to survive. We need to live on to tell the families of these men what they will need so much to hear. Don’t worry though. We’ll find our way off this planet, I promise you,” I assured him.
As dusk came through the sky we finally caught site of our base camp. It wasn’t far off, so we began to run.
“There it is!” Shouted Clume. “There it is!” I ran after him as fast as I could until we finally reached our destination. Our jaws dropped and our eyes filled with tears as we beheld an empty perimeter. The two men, Privates Jason Combrell and Reggie Hurrick, had quite obviously aborted the mission. This signified to me that radio contact was made and the Captain gave the order for evacuation. After about thirty seconds of disbelief, movement at the other end of the perimeter startled us. A person approached us covered with blood. As he neared, I identified him as the Captain.
“Captain!” I rushed to his aid as he limped toward us.
“Lieuten…Lieutenant…” He uttered.
“Captain, you’re alive!” Cried Clume. He quickly ripped his sleeve off and wrapped it around a laceration on the Captain’s arm. “Sir, how long have you been here?” He asked.
“It was horrible…” He began until he was overcome by a coughing fit. As he coughed his legs became weak and he fell to his knees. “All of…” he attempted before coughing again. “All of them…dead…” he managed between coughs.
He began coughing again and this time he let himself collapse completely to the ground. “Told them…” his coughing increased. “I said evacuate…” He began throwing up blood at that moment and afterward continued to cough, but it began to weaken. His wheezing between coughs became quieter and quieter for about fifteen minutes until he stopped moving and then no sound came from him. Clume knelt beside him propping up his head. Tears streamed down his face. I stood up and looked around, wondering what to do. I couldn’t believe that this little vacation of mine had gone the way it had. I could only think to stay inside the turret perimeter. My mind raced with regrets and then with desperation. I had to think quickly about how to get us off the planet. There was a possibility of another, more heavily armed mission, but it wouldn’t come for days, maybe weeks. We would need to survive in this place until then.
Clume laid the Captain’s head to rest on the ground and stood up. “Now what?” He asked impatiently.
“Now we wait,” I said coldly.
“Wait! With those things out there?” He pointed. He was about to become hysterical. “Those things are going to kill us! There are thousands of them!” It crossed into hysteria at that moment. “What are we going to do? We’re dead men! We don’t know what plants are foods and what plants are poisonous! We’ll starve!”
“Calm down Clume. Get a hold of yourself. We can figure this out. The darkness is already falling now, so we sleep here the night and we figure out what to do for food in the morning. We’re going to need to stick it out here until they send another mission in. It will be done,” I scolded grabbing his shoulders and shaking him. “We’re going to get off this planet! I promise you.” I let go of him and stepped back. He stared at me in amazement.
“Yeah,” he said. “They’ll send another mission.” He half-heartedly reassured himself.
“Get some sleep,” I said, punching him in the shoulder.
I managed sleep that night. I couldn’t speak for Clume, but I didn’t wake up once that whole night. I only woke after the light filling the morning sky fell on my thin eyelids.
I exited the tent I was in and glanced around. Everything appeared to be the same as it was the night before. I peered into the tent Clume was in and saw him still asleep. I decided that I would attempt to find food for us, so I picked up my gun and began to walk away when I heard a sound very similar to thunder. I directed my sights to the sky where I observed an all too familiar site. My heart sank and I felt as though I had no hope at that moment. Battle was going on upstairs with an enemy.
“Clume!” I yelled.
“Yeah?” He answered stumbling out of his tent a moment later. He glanced upward after understanding my object of interest. “What is it?”
“There’s a war going on up there.” I sadly stated. “We’re being attacked by someone up there.”
The explosions in the air couldn’t captivate our attention for too long, because our hunger began to rule us. We set out and began gathering fruits and any leaves that smelled similar and looked similar to what I recognized as edible plant life on Keid. We would take a chance in order to nourish ourselves. As it turned out, we didn’t become sick.
As night fell on us we could see more of what was going on in the war. I recognized what I was certain were laser fire from Jovian origin canons.
“They’re Jovians.” I said grimly.
“What does that mean?” Asked Clume.
“It means that they now think that we held an interest in this planet. They’ll scout it out themselves now. We’ll be killed along with everything else they find. When they send missions down, it’s nearly a thousand of them.” I prophesied the coming events based off a knowledge of their past.
“What can we do now?” He questioned hopelessly.
“Pray that the Drayvan Fleet can take them.” I became less and less reassured as I saw node after node open up from the hostile side. Finally we witnessed a large node crack open, which I knew was the Luguathar exiting Centrael DieGreich. Gunter had made the call to abort mission. I lost all sense of confidence. I closed my eyes in denial. “We’re done Clume. We have only a few weeks or even days before an assault is launched on this place.”
“So we die?” He asked shaking his head.
I thought hard as to what to do. Finally I said, “We’ll warn the people of this planet.”
“The ‘people’ of this planet?” He exclaimed.
“We’ll journey into a cave until we find them. Maybe they can help us in some way,” I faithlessly stated.
“For all we know, that creature we saw could be one of many in the depths of this place. The others are more than likely hostile!” He looked up again into the now quiet and dark sky.
I turned and began walking outward from the perimeter.
“Where are you going?” He cried.
I stopped and glared into his eyes. “What choice do we have?” I yelled back. His expression grew cold, but he finally let his head drop as if defeated in the argument.
“We’ll go. At least we’re not sure if we’ll die going into the caves,” He regretfully conceded. “But let’s wait till morning,” he pleaded.
We left the perimeter the next morning as the first rays of light began to fill the sky. We walked until we found one of many openings. As we ventured in the darkness deprived our eyes from seeing anything. The tunnels we traveled descended deeper and deeper into the planet’s crust. After walking for nearly an hour feeling our way along the walls I spotted a subtle illumination in the tunnel. It was green tinted, but light.
“Do you see light?” I asked Clume.
“Yes, I do.”
We walked more swiftly and went around a corner in the tunnel. Around the other side the tunnel walls revealed glowing green veins all through them. The farther along we went the more veins there were. Soon, the green light lit our path brightly.
Our footsteps stopped abruptly as Clume and I both heard a sound approaching. We backed against the wall next to a tunnel that split off. It was down that tunnel that the sound came from. We held our guns ready for an attack of any sort to come around it. As the creature came into our view I recognized it as one of the creatures from the night before. I nudged Clume to speak up as it walked opposite our direction.
“Guhera!” He nervously yelled. The creature turned around startled by our presence. I assumed this meant ‘hello.’
“Yurado din fao?” Said the creature.
“Dago din Loaughoan yen skite. Dago wugah set creeaysha,” responded Clume. He looked at me. “The creature asked, ‘Who are you?’ I told him, ‘we are explorers from space and that we come peacefully.’”
Clume spoke with the creature until he understood what our situation was. Clume then tried to present to him the great problems that were to come to this planet. The creature became unsettled at what Clume said and began to lead us through the tunnels.
“Where is he taking us?” I asked.
“To their home,” he stated. “They have an underground city. It is one of many.”
We went through many twists and turns until finally we came across what appeared to be a large, bullet shaped vessel. It seemed as though this transport went along a sort of tube through the wall. There was an opening in the wall behind it, and an opening, which it was aimed at in front of it. The creature waved his hand and its door floated open inviting us to climb in. The sleek thing shot off leaving Clume and I quite stunned at its fast acceleration. As we traveled, the tunnel began to widen and as we turned a corner it opened up into a gigantic cavern of which I couldn’t see the end. It was lit all the way around with trillions of the glowing veins. Buildings like triangles protruded from the walls, pyramid like buildings were everywhere from the top to the bottom. Other vessels such as ours traveled across tracks all throughout. Pathways connected every building, one to another. In the center from the ground up stood huge buildings that reached thousands of feet upward. Green lights decorated the entire area. The spider like people trafficked everywhere through this massive underground city.
“Wow,” whispered Clume.
“Do glut diterus Barah,” Said the creature.
Clume nodded and then told me, “He said, ‘I will show you to Barah.’ That’s apparently their leader.”
We stepped out and into an elevator in the cave wall and went up level after level until we reached the top of the cavern. We stepped out and walked down a bridge to a hanging building. Its appearance was very attractive. It had pillars stretching downward all around it to a point under the building. It resembled an upside down pyramid. All around the building were huge windows. It sported three floors from the top of the cave to us. The two doors we faced were huge. They were decorated intricately with the green glowing material. We walked inside after the doors were opened by two of the spider people. I presumed they were guards of some sort. We stepped in on a glass floor. Below I could see all the way to the floor of the cave and above I could see the levels to the top. The walls were lined decoratively with the glowing material.
We stepped into the elevator and began to ascend to the top level. I was surprised that they never confiscated our weapons. That was unsettling to me. I began to think that these people didn’t know what weapons were, so they saw no threat. The doors to the elevator drew away revealing an elaborate office. Its very appearance took my breath away. The walls held large viewing windows; within them were appearing and disappearing green streaks, a decorative touch I presumed. The ceiling was decorated elaborately with dark colors and green glowing veins reaching all the way up to a point. The glass floor had occasional green streaks of light passing through it, not unlike the windows. The walls themselves were dark. As we walked through toward the far end I noticed one of the creatures was sitting in a seat that was suspended from the angled ceiling. The seat dropped down in pyramid shape. It was anchored on four sides by poles that traveled upward. The creature sat in front of a large desk or something like it, which jutted outward at its base allowing for the creatures eight tremendously large legs to fit underneath. His eyes were fixated on a holographic screen suspended in front of him. His hands reached at it pressing into the air. We stood in front of him for a moment, still holding our guns. He reached toward the hologram and extended one of his three fingers at it; it disappeared.
It looked at us as if to inquire. I glanced toward Clume and nudged him to begin speaking.
Clume spoke to him and then relayed what was going on in the conversation to me.
“We are explorers not of this world, abandoned after a catastrophe in space. Our expedition was attacked in space by a race called, Jovian Bounty Hunters,” said Clume.
“What do ask of us?” Questioned Barah.
“We know that these Jovians will come to your planet. They seek your planet’s riches and will force your race into slavery.”
“What is this slavery?” He questioned. His naïve nature was not encouraging. Clume explained.
“They cannot force us into this slavery!” Cried Barah.

“Then they will kill you all.”
“We do not know of this kind of people; those that would be so evil as to subjugate my people who have done nothing to provoke them. We are innocent and unfamiliar with the like that would slay a people and enthrall us as petty animals!” Barah exclaimed.
“They are those that harbor no emotion, no compassion, and no affinity to anything other than bloodshed,” Clume responded.
“Are you able to help us?” Asked Barah as if very confused by Clume’s statements.
Clume looked at me, his eyes questioning. “Yes,” I finally said. “We can help them.”
Clume and Barah spoke for a while. Clume explained to Barah how we had come to the planet and what had happened to us. It was apparent that the creature we had seen in the cave the night of the attacks was a trusted member of Barah’s council. He was warning us that we would need to leave or be attacked by the creatures that killed the rest of our group. And once we had informed him of our present situation he began to speak of the ensuing attack described, at great trouble, by Clume.
“What of this onslaught? How is it that you can help us?” He asked.
“Do you know what this is?” I asked, holding out my gun.
“No, I do not.”
“It inflicts serious harm on whoever I point it at while pulling this trigger.” I pointed to the trigger and looked into his eyes searching for his understanding.
Barah’s expression grew burdened with thought. “Will you demonstrate?” He asked.
I raised my gun toward a small statue and looked to Barah for approval. He nodded. I adjusted the gun and pulled the trigger and the gun fired. Its IPP, or Intensified Plasma Pulse, melted and shattered the statue to pieces. Barah was visibly startled.
“You will need to make these,” I said. Barah nodded again. “Do you have fighters?” I asked. Clume translated and tried to explain to him, but had to attempt explaining what fighters were. He had a hard time.
“No, we have no such thing, nor do we have need for such a thing.” He drooped his head. “Until now. We are very unprepared for this thing you speak of.”
“Then you must manufacture these weapons. We must work quickly and efficiently in order to be an effective force. We will set up traps and lures. We will organize your soldiers and teach them about war.” This word ‘war’ was a very new word to Barah. An assistant took my gun from the room.
Barah set to work. He stood immediately and began spouting out words. As he did holograms floated into our sight around the room. He was calling together some sort of council meeting. He began to speak and cast orders. Throughout the ensuing hours he organized his people from that room to ready themselves for this previously unheard of thing called ‘war.’ “Your ‘gun’ will begin to be produced tonight I believe,” he confidently informed me.
After he had done all that he could do, he invited us to eat. We were very grateful for this. We were starving. We left his building and walked down pathways to another upside down pyramid suspended from overhead and as we did I noticed the green veins fade almost to darkness. Lights around the huge city flickered on and noises of cave doors closing rang out. ‘The veins must fade when the light topside fades away,’ I thought. We stepped into what was a sort of restaurant. Clume and I sat on seats suspended from the ceiling. The round table in front of us was almost immediately loaded with food after we’d sat down. What lay across the table was mostly unfamiliar, though I saw familiar looking fruits and vegetables. Meat was present on the table, but seemed much like chicken and normal food. Clume and I were happy to eat something.
Barah sat between his two advisors Taragon and Ruegled. Clume and I sat next to each other. “How are you feeling about all this?” Clume whispered leaning toward me.
“I’m doing my share of worrying right at the moment. I don’t know if this war can be done with the naïve groundwork we have to start from,” I reluctantly stated.
“Do you think it’s possible?” He asked.
“We must believe it is possible and will happen. Keep optimistic,” I urged him. He nodded and went to his food. “Clume, translate for me.”
“Alright,” he said.
“Barah, what is the origin of your people’s existence on this planet?” I asked. I had been wondering for a while now.
“The Gods brought the Aztlans here over seven thousand years ago from their homes,” he began, taking a deep breath. “We are the remnants of the Aztlan. The Aztlan were our ancestors, which appeared, according to our records, the way you look. In the settlement they began to change themselves and we were created. They altered their genes and gave birth to the Ugatlan, or keepers, which is we, and also gave birth to the ‘night men,’ or Carnulus, the species that attacked your group. A call to the skies came for the unchanged Aztlans from God and many left. After most had gone, there was a terrible mistake in security which lead to the escape of the far from perfected Carnulus. These barbaric ones overtook the remaining Aztlan during one night. The ones that took to the skies never returned.” I figured the planet was forgotten as the amnesia prone war pressed on. Settlements were often forgotten, which left the beginnings of many civilizations. Most kept alive a religion of worship to the ancient Atlanteans, figured to have been the Creators and Gods. The Arachmen, or ‘Ugatlan,’ along with the Carnulus were obviously creations from genetic engineering for purposes of war, but were never exploited. The Aztlans called to the skies by God were more than likely fighters that left to fight a battle that was lost.
“After a thousand years had passed, the age of ice set in. Seeking warmth, the Ugatlan ventured inward, into the cave-ridden crust of the planet in which they found the green glowing rock, Ustella, which lit their way into the future. From sticks and stones and sleeping on the cave floors, they came along to construct computers and massive cities. The cities were modeled after the settlement buildings of the Aztlan.
During the age of ice the Carnulus fled to the caverns of the hills where the green glowing rock was not present. They were driven from the glowing rock because of their sensitivity to light. They also sought their prey during the nights because of their lack of sun endurance.
After coming from primitive beginnings, the Ugatlan came forth to build into a great civilization. And so, here we stand,” he concluded.
“Interesting,” I began. “What became of the Aztlan ships and settlement?”
“The ‘chariots of the sky’ and the original settlement were lost in the age of ice and believed to be submerged underneath the crust and compacted. They are lost.”
“I assume that the Atlanteans had come in hopes of establishing a species development plantation, where they could create their new human weapons. They most likely left because a war broke out near the planet. I conclude that they lost and the settlement was long forgotten,” I told Clume.
“I agree. Ironic isn’t it, that their weapon turned into their destruction on this planet,” he sighed.
“Sounds all too familiar,” I said, thinking of the ancient Earth.
That night I slept restlessly. My stress became great as it finally sunk in. I was destined to either create the end of a great civilization, or to become a kind of savior to the people. My heart sank as I considered the less favorable option. I couldn’t go back on any of the decisions that put me where I was. The Drayvans retreated after being overwhelmed and my only regret was not being able to help them when they needed me most. I was however, the reason the Arachmen people now knew of the impending attack. Clume, I knew, looked to me to save him also. I could only continue to do what I thought would remedy our situation. In school I took an interest in learning militaristic history and strategy. I always admired military geniuses such as the famed Ericans, the infamous Quaislo Keid, and numerous Generals throughout history.
A favorite and most intelligent general was General Markus F. Tahlo of the Corbinchoughus Quadrant. His achievements were much admired amongst the people and other military in the Empire. His mark was made during the battle of Yetfa Rieux. The odds were not in favor of the young Captain Tahlo. His escort encountered an ambush of massive size. His men were outnumbered vastly, but because of his training programs, which were sometimes called ruthless and impossible, his pilots carried out orders and strategies flawlessly. He and his squadron pulled back into an asteroid field. He set three of his men to protect the escorted ship from the drifting asteroids. As the massive onslaught followed into the storm of asteroids, Tahlo’s squadron flew effortlessly around, hiding behind the rocks, pulling dangerous maneuvers, and allowing the asteroid field to do the work for them. The force that started out huge and impossible to take control over seemingly cried out helplessly, unable to withdraw their mistake of attacking. Their ambush turned into an obvious ill prepared engagement that fell into failure. They ultimately tried to turn back and run, but all died from the showering asteroids. Tahlo and all his men survived. After his triumph he and his men humbly accepted the gratitude of superiors. Tahlo was eventually promoted to General and birth was given to his Cor Elite. The Cor was a squadron in which pilots were trained the same way Tahlo trained his men. It was named Cor after his squadron, who received their name as a shortened reference to Corbinchoughus. I not only admired Tahlo, but also every pilot that ever went through the Cor Elite. Their legacies went down in history all the time.
I admired and studied the thoughts of every one of these leaders and came to my own conclusions. I felt comforted by my reassuring knowledge and was able enough to fall into sleep.
I slept for a mere three hours when I was awakened by the bright green light flowing in through my windows. Rising from bed I was met with holographic casting, which displayed words in front of me, with touchable buttons floating in front of my eyes. I couldn’t understand it, so I simply walked past it.
As I walked from my room onto my balcony I caught site of Clume, who was walking down the balcony toward me. He was drinking something.
“Hey, you want something to drink?” He asked.
“Sure. What is that?” I questioned him.
“My friend, I do not know, but it’s good and hot. Want some?” He smiled.
I nodded. “Petlu,” Clume said. A holocast drew itself on thin air. He pressed a button and it disappeared. He walked to a hole in the wall of the building where a cup, much like his, rose into view. “Here you go,” he smiled.
I sipped on the hot liquid, which tasted very much to my liking. Our morning had begun.
“Look at them all,” said Clume. I hadn’t caught site of it when I first walked out, but was now stunned to behold the thousands of Arachmen lining the cave floor below us. They gathered around a central point at which I made out Barah. He was speaking to them.
“He’s telling them that you and I were God-sent. He has explained that the Ugatlan people are to trust us, listen to us, and even die for us. We have been declared saviors of the world,” he sighed happily. “I’m amazed Lieutenant. Just yesterday I thought we’d be eaten alive by those Carnulus. Now we’re about to command thousands of soldiers in war.”
I was completely amazed myself. I couldn’t have imagined any of this the day we set foot on the soil. I was now heading up a war. My only concern would be training men that had no concept of war.
As the morning drew on, I found myself in front of a few hundred Arachmen about to try to explain to them what war was.
“Alright! War is,” I began. “War is a state at which one side fights another. We are one side and the Jovians are the other.” I said. Clume had a tough time translating.
“Nef, I can’t do it. You’ll have to figure out some way to get them to understand what fighting means,” Clume, frustrated, finally said.
“You,” I pointed to an Arachmen. He looked at me as if confused. “Come here.” Clume translated to him. As he stepped up to me I felt frightened for what I was going to do, but did it anyway. I threw a very hard punch into the stomach of the Arachman. He crunched up in agony of the sudden pain. “That is fighting!” I yelled. “Hit me now!” I yelled at him. I motioned for him to do what he could. “Defend yourself!” I hit him again in the stomach. He cowered and stepped away, but I followed. He backed into a corner. I knew what I was doing was traumatizing this poor creature, but I knew it had to be done. “Clume,” I said and held out my hand, “throw me a gun.” I knew that the Arachmen knew of the Carnulus, but their remedy for the animals was to lock down the caves and prevent their entrance during night. I had to find a way to activate this creature’s defensive instinct. The Atlanteans would not have created them unless they were useful in a fight.
Clume tossed a gun and I caught it. I set it to stun and fired on the creature. It was a painful jolt that made the creature scream in pain. I knew this seemed cruel, but I did it again. He was shielding himself as much as possible from even seeing me. After firing twelve times I almost gave up, but decided to fire one more shot at him. I set the gun to a higher setting than stun, one that would burn him. I pointed and fired at his arm. As the IPP hit his arm he suddenly lunged toward me. His massive weight was all it took to take me to the ground, but as I went, I used his momentum to throw him with my feet. He flipped onto his back, but was immediately to his feet charging at me again. He swung his massive arm, hand open, and claws extended. A swift movement on my part dodged him and caught his arm. In no time at all I was behind him, still holding his wrist, forcing him to the ground.
“Clume,” I said, “tell him that I will stop this now. He has learned his lesson.” Clume translated and the Arachman stopped struggling. I let him go. As he stood and turned he huffed his breath at me in an attempt to intimidate me. I was satisfied. The entire group of Arachmen had seen and understood.
At the end of the day Clume was working hard training our new soldiers. Our intent, now that we had finally brought them to an understanding of fighting and war, was to train the hundreds that stood in front of us so they could train their own hundreds and so on. Our training would be brief, but ruthless. We gave them all a taste of pain as we taught them fighting techniques. They picked up and understood quickly, which encouraged me. At the close of the day each Arachmen we’d trained began training his own students. We were surprised to see that the new teachers began refining our lessons and techniques. They developed what appeared to be styles of martial arts. Training went into the night.
Clume and I developed plans according to the geographical maps Barah gave us. The hills could be used as look out points. The caves could be utilized as trap doors and the thick jungle could provide excellent cover. Attack plans would be executed only when the Hunters touched down, so as to avoid attracting attention in the air. We wanted to avoid letting them know that we were on the ground waiting for them as long as possible.
Once we gained control of the landing site, the ship would be analyzed for flight development. If we could dissect the propulsions systems and get off the ground and into space, we’d own them. We could control everything that went on at that point. We could pick them off as they jumped to our coordinates. We would have position to our advantage.
After night became morning Clume and I decided to stop our work and eat.
“We’re doing incredibly well Nef,” Clume said as he ate.
“I know,” I said. “But I still can’t help wondering if the first drop is what we expect.” We had planned on the first drop only being about two or three ships of Jovians, but if it happened to be more, then we’d be in trouble.
“We haven’t gone topside, so perhaps their scans wont have picked up any movement that would cause alarm,” Clume said optimistically.
“Yes, that’s true, but the Carnulus run rampant during nightfall. I’m sure their scanners have seen them. I merely hope that they will be seen as wildlife and not a serious enough threat to send down multiple missions,” I said. Multiple missions meant that they’d be coming down in numbers and that those numbers would be reinforced with weapons and spread all over instead of in one concentrated location. “I just don’t know Clume. We can only hope for the best.”
I sat and drank my drink going over the scenarios in my head.
“Nef,” Clume said suddenly. “Are you happy with your life?”
“Am I happy?” I repeated then paused for a moment to think. “It comes and goes Clume.”
“What do you mean by that?” He asked.

“I mean, it comes and goes. You’re tired Clume, quit asking questions or get some sleep.” I responded, assuming that this would quell his inquisitive mood.

“I’m serious Nef,” he persisted.

“All right Clume, yes, I’m happy. Does that satisfy you?” I told him sarcastically.

“C’mon Nef,” he said, frustrated.

“What do you want? Why are you asking this?” I said, frustrated as well.

“I just want the truth. I want to know if your life is happy, or kind of a lost journey into the unknown, like mine,” he said quietly. “Never mind.”

There was a long pause. “It comes and goes, with every heartbeat it changes. Every breath seems to draw back a different memory and every other breath is drawing back a painful memory. That’s what I mean,” I told him. “Right now, I’m worrying more about what’s happening though to be very sad.”

“What happened to you that gave you so many bad memories?” He asked.

“You don’t want to hear my story,” I said confidently.

“Yes,” He said. “I do.”

I looked at him unenthused and burdened. “Well,” I began reluctantly. “I lived a pretty normal life on a planet named Keid. I had a simple, happy life. I had a beautiful girl friend, loving parents, and a cute little sister. My biggest dislike was writing essays in English. I made straight A’s, played football, and loved life. My Dad and I went fishing for fun, took care of the fields and animals, and got along great. My mom was an incredible woman.” I paused after spouting all this out as if memorized from a script. I felt a sudden shroud of sadness fall over me as I began to visualize my story. “She took care of my sister and I no matter how she felt, or what her pains and sorrows were. She and my father always had joy in their hearts for us and never showed us when they were going through troubles. My mom cooked so wonderfully. She always made me my lunch every day. It was always a different and new surprise to see what she packed me. I cherished every morsel because I knew of the care and thought she put into it. My little sister was only seven. She was the cutest thing you ever saw. I loved my little sister.”

“It all sounds very nice,” said Clume. “What do you mean ‘was?’

“It was,” I said and began to stand and walk from the table.

“Wait! Where are you going?” He asked.

“I can’t tell this story,” I said, holding back tears. I didn’t have it in me to say what I had to say. My lip quivered just thinking about it. I didn’t even want to think about my family in any other way than how I remembered them when they were alive.

“Okay my friend,” Clume said quietly as he stood and put his hand on my shoulder.

“The Jovians came,” I said anyway beginning to let loose of my emotions, but choking the tears back again. “I can’t do this,” I finally said and marched away.

•


Year 5047 A.H. Solar System/A.H. Orbiter



“So that is your final report on the subject then?” Came the solemn words of Colonel Rutwar.

“Yes sir,” Gunter said.

“A sad thing that all those pilots died,” Rutwar stated. “Don’t you think?”

“Sir, I tried everything I could. We were outmatched,” Gunter said.

“Captain, I’m aware that you allowed yourself to remain for too long. I’m also aware that you’re the only one fully responsible for that decision,” Rutwar said, coldly.

Defeated and unwilling to fight his case any longer Gunter spoke, “Sir, may go?”

“Yes, Captain,” Rutwar motioned for him to leave. “Your transport to the Hiritamn Fleet will be arriving shortly. There you will be officially stripped of your Captain’s rank. So long First Lieutenant.”

Gunter left the room and stormed down the corridor. His pride was no longer intact. He only had his rage. He went to the level transporter and descended to the bottom level of the ship. He stepped out and swiftly walked to his room. He grabbed his belongings and threw them into his bags. As he put his last belonging into the bag he caught site of the large transport docking with the A.H. Orbiter. Ancient Home Orbiter had been Gunter’s home for nearly two years. He wouldn’t miss it however.

As he glared at the dreaded transport he studied the beam weapons and rapid-fire lasers mounted on it. It was a formidable force. He noticed the fighter escort lingering next to it. They, along with the weapons system on the transport, insured the well being of the ship and guaranteed it’s safe arrival at its destination.

Gunter would be headed to Luguathar. Luguathar was an area, rich in resources and heavily populated, which required a large amount of military presence. It was home to many political figures in the Empire. The death rate required one hundred thousand new pilots a month to defend it.

Gunter knew his death was near as he boarded the ship. He could feel the cold feeling of darkness nipping at his heart. He felt overwhelmingly uneasy about his journey. As he and three other pilots made themselves comfortable for the lengthy flight to the nearest node area he observed that the transport was carrying boxes of cargo marked with the War Machine logo. The War Machine was the largest manufacturer and provider of weapons in existence. They produced nearly every ship in the Force. The W and M on the box stared Gunter in the face as though it were enticing him to break it open. At first, Gunter didn’t understand why he was so drawn to it, but after straightening his thoughts a bit, he realized that he wanted to hijack the transport and the weapons in that box would be his lucky break. He began to study the other individuals in his presence. They appeared just as uneasy as he.

He decided to introduce himself saying, “I’m Gunter.”

A rugged, unshaven, tired looking young man spoke up. “I’m Sik Zohma,” he said, smiling, as if amused by Gunter’s attempt at socialization.

Another man, looking at Sik as if his initiating conversation was his cue, began to speak to Gunter saying, “Aren’t you that guy? You know, the Captain guy of the Drayvans or whatever?”

“Yes I am, or was I should say,” he said, reflecting on his failures.

“You getting demoted too?” Asked the last of the men.

“Yes,” he reluctantly conceded.

“So are we,” said Sik. “We are now to be Second Lieutenants.”

“First Lieutenant,” Gunter informed them raising his hand and identifying himself. “What’d you guys do?”

“We’ve been blamed for the unfortunate death or our Captain,” he said, sarcastically. “Captain Timo. We just didn’t get his back one time like he always demanded. He was always jumping into the middle of the enemy. We finally had our share and decided to let him figure it out for himself. He always put us in danger when he would battle.”

“That’s very unfair,” said Gunter. “And do you know where you are all going right now?” He prodded.

“Some place called Luguathar,” said Sik innocently.

“Oh, my dear men, not just ‘some place,’ but a certain death,” Gunter said.

“What do you mean, ‘certain death,’” said another man.

“What’re your names?” He asked of the two yet unnamed men.

“I’m Brock Cybrin and this here is my brother, Ryne,” said Brock.

“Well, Brock, Ryne, and Sik, the place we’re going offers a few statistics,” Gunter began. “On Average, one hundred thousand men a month are sent to replace dead pilots.”

“No, not us,” said Ryne. “They said that we’re getting desk jobs.”

“Are you kidding?” Gunter questioned him harshly. “There are no desk jobs there! There are only pilots and soldiers. Consider this your termination. You’ll die, your families will be notified, and your body will be incinerated right there in Luguathar. They aren’t shipped out because the cost to transport so many dead would become ungodly.”

“I believe you sir,” said Sik. “But what do you plan to do?”

Gunter toiled for a moment over his decision but finally took his chance. “How good are you with a gun Sik?”

“I, was the best shot in basic training,” he hesitantly said. “Why?”

“These boxes in front of us have lots of guns in them. Take your pick, cause we’re going to hijack this transport,” and there it was, plain as day, Gunter had committed. He now awaited a response.

“Finally, a guy in this sorry excuse for a space force with some backbone!” Sik said enthusiastically.

After seeing the approval of their friend Sik, Brock and Ryne decided this was an appropriate maneuver. Their lives would surely end in Luguathar, but if they were successful with the hijack, they could live.

“How do you want to do this?” Sik asked, seeking his newfound leader’s instruction.

Gunter stood up and opened one of the crates. Inside were high power IPP guns. “Follow my lead men,” he said and walked toward the pilot’s cabin. The men followed. Before he opened the door, he looked at Sik very hard. “Are you sure you want to do this?” He quietly whispered. Sik nodded. “Take your gun and hold it to the back of the co-pilot’s head. That’s all you’ll need to do. Leave the rest to me.”

Gunter and Sik opened the cabin door quietly. As Sik let his gun press against the head of the co-pilot Gunter began to speak, with his gun firmly pressed against the Pilot’s head. “Alright, coms off, if you send a distress call of any sort, you will be killed. Slowly stand up with your hands where I can see them co-pilot! Then go into the back!” The co-pilot stood, very frightened, and marched through the cabin door where Brock and Ryne pointed their guns. “All right Jason,” Gunter said, eyeing his nametag. “You will radio for the two fighters to dock and for the pilots to come in for a code twenty-eight. Is that understood?” The pilot nodded. A code twenty-eight was for an evaluation of the electrical systems of the ship. The pilots were trained for maintenance of this sort. It wouldn’t warrant any suspicion.

“Escort one and two, do you copy transmission?” Said the pilot. There was a pause. “Roger that. Request that you dock for code twenty-eight. Repeat. Request dock for code twenty-eight.” Another pause. “Roger that.”

“Good, now into the back.” Gunter ordered. “I’ll open the doors only when both pilots are docked and ready, so we can time their demise without warning to one or the other.” He told Sik.
As the doors slid open and the fighter pilots stepped onboard they were greeted with plasma fire and killed without knowing what hit them.

“Brock and Ryne, the two of you will pilot the fighters.”

•

Year 5047 Centrael DieGreich: Uncharted Space/Blue Planet


It had been seven days and no Jovian ship had been sighted. Our defenses were in place, the men were well trained, and we had enough weapons to supply every man. Our plan would be to slaughter the first Jovians down and then to take apart the landing ships and transport all components to a research facility two cities away. The city was called Traharah. It was deeper than the city Budar, where Clume and I resided. I was informed that Traharah was well equipped with the necessary tools and facilities to do what we needed to do. Barah’s researchers in Budar were amazingly efficient and able when it came to the gun, which encouraged me since Barah made it clear that advances could be made much quicker in Traharah.

In the past days I had been drawing up rough designs of the ships I wanted to construct. They were sleek, maneuverable, and powerful. I tailored the cockpit to be most efficient with the Arachmen biological structure, however I also drew up plans for a ship suited to my liking. I planned to be the front-runner in the space fight.

“I feel like it could happen any hour,” I responded to Clume after he’d asked when I thought they might arrive.

“I’m excited, eager, and terrified all at once Nef,” Clume admitted.

“I feel about the same, Clume,” I was terrified because I kept replaying the horrible scenes of my last days on Keid. I was about to encounter my worst fear, and only possibly conquer it.

“Some vacation wouldn’t you say?” Clume asked sarcastically, catching me off guard.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“You said when we first met that you came here as a vacation. I just thought it was some kind of bad luck that this was your idea of a vacation at first,” he said innocently.

“Clume,” I hesitated. “I’m not supposed to be here.”

“What do you mean?” He asked.

“I mean, I wasn’t permitted to be in this group. Gunter, my Captain, knew Captain Gretkoff. Gretkoff pulled a few strings so I could come along. I just wanted to see a green planet again. It reminded me of home,” I confessed.

“Wow,” said Clume in amazement. “This really is a trip gone sour for you. Now, if you actually do make it out of this place, you’ll be in trouble back home.”

“Yeah I,” I was cut off by the warning alarms in the cave. Shouts and battle cries sounded as men flooded to their positions. Clume and I ran as well. We picked up weapons and empty packs. The empty packs would serve to hold components of whatever ship we found.

“Natga Lowe!” I shouted, which meant ‘Let’s fight!’ in Ugatlan language. I had picked up quite a bit during my seven days among the people. Clume was very surprised that I was so adept. Lowe is the word they assigned to fight. The actual meaning was ‘to take life.’ I ran next to Clume as we made our way through the sea of Arachmen. We soon rose to our designated cave opening, where I could see five ships barreling down on us. I imagined the unsuspecting Jovians sitting onboard. I thought again however, just how well trained they were regardless of how unexpected the attack would seem. The Jovians had a deep routed history of ruthless slaughter against overwhelming odds. I could only assume we’d be better though.

“I only see five,” said Clume. “That’s good right?”

“Yes,” I said confidently.

The ships dropped behind the tree line escaping our visibility. I knew they had made touchdown. “Fortuah!” I yelled. The Arachmen suddenly appeared. We all moved rapidly in the direction of the fallen ships. When in the immediate vicinity Clume and I, along with every other on our side became absorbed once again into the invisibility of the environment.

Sounds echoed around me as I listened. I knew the Jovians were approaching. I whistled like a native bird to signal the first stage of our attack. This meant that those that were closest would each aim at one target and fire. The coordination of effort meant that not one Jovian would be left standing after the second’s worth of firing. This also left no time for a distress signal to be sent. The firing commenced and everyone nearby stood and ran to begin disassembling the ship.

In Ugatlan tongue I spoke, “Status on all other operations?” “Good” and “Successful” came over the band numerous times. All parties had had positive results. The ship began coming apart quickly, but I knew the Jovians would soon realize that the radio silence was unnatural, which meant a larger mission would soon be on its way. “Let’s go! Let’s go!” I urged to Arachmen. Pieces began leaving the area. More and more of the Arachmen disappeared from the site, but the ship still stood, very much intact. “Status on number one?” I requested over the band.

“One is thirty percent complete sir,” came the response from the team leader in team one.

I continued to ask for updates on the other teams as I watched our own disassemble at an alarming rate. I became very nervous however when nearly an hour had passed. Many Arachmen were on their tenth and eleventh trips carrying the materials back and forth into the caves. Three men were given the specific duty of documenting the previous placement of every piece as it was taken off. We wanted to make sure that we knew what everything was and how everything fit together.

“I’m really nervous Nef,” said Clume.

“I am too,” I assured him.

“What are the other teams looking like?” He asked.

“They’re almost completed. We’re all moving at about the same rate,” I told him.

As the last few pieces were loaded into packs and we took our own pieces I looked to the air only to become severely frightened. There were fifty or a hundred ships coming down. I couldn’t count for sure how many, but it became very imperative that we get back into the caves.

“Let’s go Clume!” I yelled uneasily. “They’re striking back.”

“In under two hours! It’s amazing how quickly they can put together an assault!” exclaimed Clume.

This was the point at which all our training would come into play. All the placement of traps would be tested. The effectiveness of the different selected vantage points would show itself able or unable. And the newly battlefield oriented minds of the Arachmen would be tried. As we descended I could hear the beginnings of war from above. Booms and bangs echoed throughout the corridors of the cave.

“They’re here! They’re fighting!” Clume cried.

“Keep your fingers crossed,” I said. “It’s a race against time.”

I decided to call across the band. “What’s the status up there?”

“We’re gaining ground sir. The element of surprise is ours. The Daking technique is working well sir,” came my response. The Daking technique developed and named by me was to set up sensors on each gun to register if one was already aiming at a specific target or enemy in order to allow each man to fire and kill his own target, thereby getting the maximum killing effect in the shortest amount of time. Visibility would only be for a moment and most, if not all enemies, would be dead within that moment.

Once into the city we made our way to the large Zetrabules, which were the bullet shaped transports that shot through the cave tunnels. As we unloaded the last pieces into it and stepped inside with Barah, I heard a piercingly loud boom, which led me to turn around. I witnessed a huge ball of fire filling the entire city behind us. It filled, from top to bottom, the entire cavern that was the city. Exasperated my jaw dropped. My only thought, as we shot away from the chaos and toward Traharah, was that the Jovians had developed a devastatingly powerful weapon of mass destruction.