Little story to honor one of my favorite story missions, the Scourge of Winter. [i]- Initiating coded transmission. - Expected maximun range of 39876.73 szyks. Target: all Ketches within range. - Estimated time to reach nearest Ketch: 569 cycles. - Recording beginning.[/i] 569 cycles… There´s not enough time. But still… This must be done. This is Draksys, Kell and Supreme Leader of the House of Winter. My current location is the area known as the Ishtar cliffs in Planet 865-B of the Solar System Gsaya, the planet that the local vermin called Venus. We docked the Ketch to repair some pieces of the sub-space drive… and one of those damned Xha-Huyll*, the self-proclaimed Guardians of Terra, ambushed us. It is inside the ship now, and it has torn through our defenses with ease. Seeing how my personal Guard has fallen, I fear that I may not live to see the end of this day. I fear that Death has come to my doorstep. Do not mistake the intent of this transmission. This does not intend to be a distress call. It is too late for that. The nearest ship would arrive only to find corpses… whether it´s the one of the invader, or my own. But perhaps with this message, with these, perhaps my last words… I can send a warning, a lesson to the other Kell. Fellow and rival, alike. Oh, I remember the early days of our arrival to this sector… These weaklings were so overconfident, so drunk on their newfound path to the stars, that they were building new settlements before they fortified the previous ones. They thought to be alone, and they were not expecting wolves at their gates. The fruits were ripe for the picking… they could hardly offer any resistance, and their cities and planetary stations fell, one by one. And that´s when we made our gravest mistake, because at that moment, we were the ones clouded by our victory. We underestimated them. We thought that they would never be able to push us back. And we gave them time to grew stronger. I was there at the last assault that we launched on Terra, on the location known as the Twilight Gap. After the first counter attacks, the Houses had finally come to their senses and agreed to join forces for one last incursion. But by the time we had set our differences aside, it was too late. That damned, gigantic sphere… it had done something to them. Weaklings that could hardly return our fire, could now take several rounds and continue on slashing though our soldiers. Their armored soldiers crushed our mechanized units, pounding the grounds like living storms. Bolts of purple energy fell on us, decimating our units. Our most powerful cannonshot could not penetrate their barriers made of light. With our armies in shambles and our honor wounded, we had to retreat. At that moment, our Alliance fell apart, and the Houses returned to their state and competition and rivalry. And this division must be bridged once again. Back then, we did not expect them to possess such power. But now we know. Unless we unite again, they will banish us from this sector. Every stronghold we took, every planet we claimed, will be theirs once again… I hear explosions and firefight beneath me. The Xha-Huyll is close. To all Kells, take my final stand as an example of what can happen, should we continue to fight for our own Houses alone. To those intelligent enough, I urge you to leave your petty differences aside and band together. And if your pride will not allow you to do so, hear this: do NOT continue to underestimate their power. If you keep seeing these… hoo-mans like mere insects to crush under your feet, you may find out that they have grown fangs and your legs have been severed. [i]- My Kell, the navigation chamber has been wiped out. It will be here soon![/i] I must end this transmission. Beware these “Guardians”. Come to your senses before they find you too. Stand aside, Guards! It it is coming for me, I will welcome it! I will allow it to taste my wrath, and it will discover why I earned the title of Scourge of Winter! [i]- Equipment damaged. Malfunction – - Transmission ended – - Transmission ended – - Transmission ended – [/i] [quote]Xha-Huyll is something I took from the spoken lines of Aksor. He says something that sounds similar, and I like to imagine that it´s the name that the Fallen have given to the Guardians.[/quote]