The War Begins

I came here for the first time 55 years ago. They were extroardinary times. An Earth-like planet had beed discovered and my team and I were sent to explore it.

I couldn’t think of a better way to spend my days. Crossing the strange jungles, examining the new species, bathing in the rivers and the light of our new sun. It’s what I was born to do.

I hadn’t, until a few days ago, figured out why they had sent such a small team. It was me and my ten men crew exploring the vast valleys of the new world. I didn’t complain, it’s what Iiked, it’s why we signed up. Free to be the pioneers of humanity, free to climb the mountains and watch from their peaks the vast expanses of new lands before us.

It was hope, after all. Hope for the future of humanity, for a dying Earth, for the people whose eyes never layed eyes on something green, or blue. It was the start of a new era.

A week ago we descended into a large cavern, deeper than any cavern I knew on Earth. Miles deep, with an enormous waterfall coming from a river above. We descended with excitement. How many new species we would find. How many new habitats we would discover, but we didn’t expect to find what we did.

Intelligent life.

A society of pale cephalopod-like creatures, living in the underworld. Cities of unimaginable size that sprawled beneath the world we were exploring. Bio-luminiscent lights, transportation based on water, spherical buildings and scientific advances that were in some cases, much more advanced than our own.

They treated us like us friends. They showed us around their world and we showed them what we brought with us. So it was a surprise to me when the last message we received from our base on Earth was: “They launched it. I’m sorry, we tried.”

They didn’t have to tell me what it was. They didn’t have to tell me that my days alive could now be counted with the fingers of my right hand. The fear of the unkown is at its greatest. And as much as we’ve evolved, the fear of change has stayed the same.

Now I sit here from the deep caves of this new world, watching the dark sky of our new nights, watching the luminous weapon make its way towards us. To destroy the life that we have found, to destroy the intelligence from this new world.

Of course they were ready. The cephalopods from here. They’ve taken us prisoners, they’ve lifted an invisible shield upon their beautiful world. Now I wait for the consequences of my people. Now the war between the Humans and the Julians begins.