Prologue: Onet’s Tale

My name is Onet, my kind are the Khaz. We are the oldest species across the cosmos and because of our greed and ambition, we are nearly all wiped out. Unlike you and all other sentient species, we do not live short lives or need to breed with one another, we are self replicating; a painful process that takes months for each of us to endure.

We were the stuff of legend here on Earth in the twentieth century. Back then your ancestors always depicted us as tiny benevolent invaders in your pictorial entertainments; the truth is most of my brothers are evil. This is the story of how evil grows and spreads its tentacles corrupting the most innocent among us. I know for it was I who unwittingly unleashed it aeons ago.

I have lived for more millennia than I care to remember. Since I came here to these caves after the great holocaust nearly eight hundred years ago, when this small blue planet was turned on its head, and all life across the cosmos changed forever, I have remained hidden from the violence of the world beyond these mountains waiting to go home. But until the being I seek finds me, I cannot return, so I content myself by writing this tale. While he will not be born for years to come, I already know who he is. When he finally arrives, the celestial event I also await will occur and we shall return together to my home in the stars.

Unlike the rest of my kind who are cruel and have turned to evil thoughts and deeds for their own ends, I do not now deliberately interfere with the lives of others. But in his case, it is necessary for me to protect the cosmos from the meddling of my cousins, when they will indirectly contribute to his creation. Above all, it is my duty to bring peace once more. There is a valuable lesson to be learned from this tale; no thought deed or action is ever random. One of your scientists summed it up best when he said, ‘for every action there is a reaction’. The truth of that statement is contained within these pages.

While I continue to wait, and for you to understand the tale you are about to read, you need to know something of the background leading up to the events I have witnessed over the many years of my exile here on Earth, which I will now lay before you. It is not a story you would wish to tell your children at night in the comfort of your home, but in a way, you are all my children, so dear reader we shall begin.

It is not necessary for you to know a great deal about the many characters who were involved in the tale about to unfold. The six men from different nations throughout the cosmos, who became a band of brothers, are a different matter. They are the ones I am really concerned with, as should you be. They are Akhen, Khan, Besal, Seti, Max, and Akkad, who you will meet as the story unfolds before, during, and after they were irreversibly transformed into berserker warriors. With the exception of Khan, Akkad, and Akhen who never actually met him, they all indirectly contributed to his creation by their deeds. My evil Khaz cousins, over the years, did the rest…