The Saga of Caine

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The Saga of Caine by Martin SteenePrelude ChroniclesThe human race was spread across distant galaxies. It was the outcome of mankind’s devastation of planet Earth. Dramatic climate changes caused by the greenhouse effect and atomic waste disposals had intoxicated the oceans and made the planet uninhabitable—drained of all resources needed for human survival. The Moon, which had been a refuge for humans, had also suffered heavy damage throughout the centuries and had been totally abandoned. Millions of light years away, humans had colonized a planet called Lasarus. Life on Lasarus, however, had not been peaceful. After decades of war against aggressive mind-controlling machines, most of the population, about 20,000,000 people, had been enslaved by the dark emperor Doctor Vaylon Luciferion. Luciferion was a former psychologist and had been a highly respected scientist who had achieved astonishing results at the A.M.C.P. (Alien Mind Control Project) some thirty earth years ago. Doctor Luciferion had been suspended from duty, however, due to his lack of human ethics and for conducting what was referred to as unsavoury experiments. Some years later, the A.M.C.P. was completely shut down for political reasons, and because the project had been classified, Dr. Luciferion's suspension papers and journals had been destroyed at his departure from the A.M.C.P. Almost all civilisation on Lasarus was now centred at Cybertron, the only standing city left after the robot wars. Cybertron was controlled by robots, all commanded by Luciferion, who by the power of mind control occupied the throne of Cybertron. Men, women and children were forced to work day and night on robot construction, in order for Luciferion to extend his empire of machines. After millions of casualties and years of suffering from waging war against the robots on the battlefields outside Cybertron, all hope for human victory had seemed lost and, so, for many, surrendering had seemed the only option for any future survival.Caine and GarmanA few thousand patriots had refused to surrender. They had formed a base outside Cybertron in the wastelands, a place consisting mostly of dessert with small underground habitations. The wastelands were also home to pirates, outlaws, cannibals, escaped prisoners, and other creatures of the night that lived by the law of the predator. The human rebel army, called the Iron Legions, consisted mainly of troopers who had lost their families in the robot wars and they were now driven only by hatred against the machines and Luciferion’s empire, Cybertron. The leader of the rebel army was a savage warrior named Caine. It was said that, years back, on his wedding night, Caine had witnessed his beloved wife be killed savagely, her belly cut open and their unborn child abducted by Luciferion’s strike-squad robot unit. Caine and his old friend Garman had been fighting side by side for many years, but Garman had always stood in the shadow of Caine and had never achieved the attention and respect from the Iron Legions that he felt he deserved. Now this started to show in his way of commanding, in that he always tried to defy Caine's war strategies. Caine and Garman had both graduated from the Starfighter Academy back in the days when planet Mars was still used for military training and as centre for the Alien Defence Alliance. But Caine's and Garman's friendship had suffered seriously since the murder of Caine’s wife. Caine had sworn that he would bring down Luciferion and claim back his child, at any cost. A couple of unsuccessful attacks against Cybertron’s defence forces resulted in massive loses to the Iron Legions. This had convinced Garman that Caine had to be stopped before he commanded another bloody suicide crusade towards the GATES OF CYBERTRON. Garman had tried to convince Caine that the only way to survive was to surrender to Luciferion and his machines and hope that he would grant them high-ranked positions at Cybertron. Caine had been furious and yelled, "Either you fight by my side, or you are my enemy!” "Well then, your enemy I am,” Garman had answered. Garman’s political position, to submit to Luciferion’s empire, and Caine's deadly desire to avenge his wife’s death, ended a long friendship between two of the most influential persons in the history of the Iron Legions.The Final DefeatCaine ignored the Garman’s warnings and launched yet another attack at Cybertron, one which was meant to be the final crusade against Cybertron. As always, Caine fought in the frontline side by side with his men. As thousands of robot warriors took formation in front of the gates of Cybertron, Caine noticed a black rider amongst the battling machines, all covered in dark armour. This new man or creature, he didn’t recognise. However, something felt different this time, Caine thought, just before he gave the signal to charge. He had been feeling strange, almost ill for a couple of days, and the night before the battle, he got ill with a serious fever. Horrible nightmares of darkness consuming everything had haunted his sleep, but Caine refused to let his fellow warriors go into battle without him. Now he stood face to face with the strongest robot defence battalion anybody had ever seen. A bad feeling sneaked up on him; perhaps the visions in his nightmares were connected with this battle. A lot of thoughts burned in his head, as he rode towards the machines. He couldn’t get his mind off this mysterious black rider, who, now, was coming closer every second.The Death of a HeroA mighty clash sounded across the battlefield as the Iron Legions smashed into the first lines of machines. Everybody knew that this day would be exceptional—this day would change history. When Caine’s sword met with that of the black rider, he knew that this would be a fight that only one of them would survive. He cursed his illness; it made it hard for him to focus on his enemy, the black rider. “He fights like a demon from beyond,” Caine thought, as he felt his power slowly being hammered out of his sick and weakened body. He realised that he wouldn’t win this fight. Not in his condition. He looked around for a possible escape, but found himself completely surrounded by machines. They had formed a circle around him and his opponent, so that no one could witness the slaughter that was about to take place. The black rider swung his blade against Caine’s shield, again and again, with immense power. Caine had never met such an adversary. Finally Caine’s shield shattered and the black rider’s sword penetrated Caine’s armour. The sword cut deep into Caine’s chest. The strike was powerful, deadly, and Caine fell to the ground. As he lay with his face in the dirt, he knew that it was only a matter of seconds before the black rider would place his sword deep in Caine’s body, and it all would be over. Caine collected his last strength, and pushed himself over so that he could face his enemy before the last fatal attack. An incredible pain struck him as the black rider hammered his sword through the stomach of the leader of the Iron Legions. The black rider removed his helmet and a familiar face looked at Caine. Everything turned black and the bravest warrior that had ever walked the planet lay slain, defeated and betrayed.The MindmachineAfter years of bloody war, the Iron Legions, now without their leader Caine, were unable to uphold the Savage Prophecy. Only a few months after Caine’s fall, the rebel infantry surrendered to Dr. Luciferion and was forced to submit to the rules of Cybertron. The time that followed was later to be known as the Dark Years. Now, Doctor Vaylon Luciferion was the ultimate master and ruler of the planet Lasarus. Without any enemies strong enough to challenge his power, he used all his energy on expanding his knowledge and technology. Luciferion re-engaged in his experiments from the A.M.C.P. days. He wanted to carry out his master plan to create a great Mindmachine. The machine was created, which, from a technological point of view, was be far more advanced than the one he had used to control the machines for decades. Luciferion now possessed the power to command all living creatures completely. The machines were soon to be replaced by a new design of fighting power.New alien life formIn the outskirts of the galaxy, the planet Arion was discovered. The climate on Arion was so cold that no man without the proper equipment would survive more than a few seconds on the surface. By coincidence, an entirely new species of aliens was discovered by a team of scientists under Luciferion’s command. None of the scientists survived the encounter, however; the entire team was slaughtered by the new aggressive race of predators. Mankind had known about the existence of aliens for centuries, but this new species was very agile and extremely deadly in combat against humans. It took several ships of fully armed robot destroyers to finally bring one live alien back to Lasarus to be studied at Luciferion’s laboratories.The EscapeGarman had been working by Dr. Luciferion’s side on the master plan for years and the Mindmachine. All former high-ranked Iron Legion officers had been executed immediately after the fall of rebel infantry. The Mindmachine was soon complete and the population of Cybertron, which had been enslaved and forced to work on robot construction for ages, was now ordered to close down all robot factories. All existing war machines were disarmed, dismantled and shipped out into the wastelands as junk. Luciferion had employed a team of robot engineers at his laboratory, who were all experts in the robot sciences and mechanical warfare. Now, however, the new “Alien Armageddon Force” had replaced the robots, and the team of engineers was no longer of any use to Luciferion. Because of their knowledge about the Mindmachine, he decided that they knew too much and ordered them to be executed. The engineers were taken to the dungeon—a prison facility located under Cybertron. Here they would wait for their execution. On the day before their sentence was to be carried out, however, they managed to escape through some old tunnels which had been out of use for decades. They wandered around for five days in the dark before they finally reached daylight. When the news of their escape reached Luciferion, he was furious, and even though he had ordered hundreds of aliens into the tunnels to hunt down the engineers, it was too late, the fugitives had already left Cybertron and vanished into the wastelands. The engineers now found themselves in a dangerous situation. In the wasteland, all who had worked for Luciferion were seen as traitors whose only fate should be in the grave. After a couple of months in hiding, the engineers found a stronghold, the last rebel fortress still standing from the old times. The fortress was not considered a thread by Luciferion because those living there were mainly women and children. What Luciferion didn’t know was that, below the stronghold, old IronHead rebels had been hiding for years, working on new war strategies against Cybertron. They knew, however, they were sadly outnumbered and had never been able to find a way to defeat the new Alien Armageddon Force. The engineers, because they were strangers, were interrogated for several days. Finally they admitted their past as employees at Luciferion’s laboratories, but they also claimed they knew a way to combat the aliens. The IronHeads soon realized that these men were too valuable to be executed; perhaps they were the key to the future. The plan was clear: to gather as many old robot destroyers as possible and, using the knowledge of the engineers, to re-programme them to fight along with the IronHead warriors. Man and machine would finally unite under rebel flag.Rebuilding the IronHeads In the following years, thousands of robot destroyers were brought back to life in secret underground factories. The number of new IronHead recruits increased immensely. All of them had an insatiable desire to bring down Dr. Vaylon Luciferion, so that Lasarus once again would be a peaceful place to live. Even though the Iron Legions were soon strong enough to make their first strike against Cybertron, they needed a leader to fulfil their plan. Many people wanted the position, but what was needed was someone with battle skills and the barbaric bloodlust which the old legend Caine had possessed back in the robot wars. But such man was nowhere to be found. The attack was postponed for four years and rumours that Dr. Vaylon was being tipped off about the new battle plan haunted the Iron Legion. Finally an old wizard suggested an ingenious but dangerous idea: resurrect Caine from the grave and have him lead the Iron legion to Metal Victory.Resurrection of CaineCaine's grave was located and the remains of his body were exhumed. As it turned out, magic wasn’t enough to bring the old war legend back to life. His body was seriously decomposed and it was impossible to get a large enough sample of tissue and DNA for a cloning. The engineers, therefore, took robot parts for the body parts missing, to complete a human structure. The day when the wizard and his engineers would stand their test had come: to bring back the most barbaric warrior of all time, to raise the hero from the past for one final battle side by side with the machines, it was resurrection day. The entire Iron Legion was gathered in the underground hall, built back in the days when Luciferion used nuclear weapons against the rebel army. Back then it was used as radiation shelter and for combat training of new warriors. It was called "The Hall of Heroes”, and what better location could be chosen for the resurrection of Caine. Thousands of IronHead warriors were present, standing in silence, to watch and listen to the echo of the wizard casting the first magic spell on the remains of Caine’s corpse. Caine’s body was now merged with robot parts, making him half man, half machine. At the end of the ceremony nothing seemed to have happened. There was no life in Caine’s body. The plan had failed. The wizard and the engineers all stood in silent despair. Slowly, in hopelessness and mistrust, people started to exit the hall. Suddenly, a beam of light raised the body of Caine into the air, as the sound of battle scenes filled the hall. The light became too bright for anybody to look at and the sound became louder and louder, flashes of lightning struck from everywhere and peals of thunder shook the old cave. Then, suddenly, it all ceased. The hall went dark, and silence filled the air as the final echo vanished. When the light came back and the smoke cleared, everyone stared at where Caine had lain. There he stood, the Metal Messiah, back from beyond, reborn into steel, dark and twisted from all the years of torment in the twilight world. The sound of the warriors hailing their new king hammered into the walls like thunder. Caine’s mind had grown dark, and his body become half machine. But the memories of Dr. Vaylon Luciferion and his former companion and friend Garman, who had betrayed and killed him, still burned and consumed his brain. He raised his sword with such power and might that the old blade burst into flames, as he shouted the war cry: " REVENGE!!" To be continued.......