After a long rigorous exercise, Sebastian and others
finally strong enough to stood
under the watcher's gravity. The elderly people however were
struggling to keep
up with the exercise and eventually
exempted. Sebastian check his body, he's now much leaner than before.
With the exercise ended, they began their first lesson about the Watcher history taught by Firthe who's actually one the Umistric princess and despite her appearance, much older than all of them. Sebastian sat on the front rows along with Enid. (because the elderly people also attended the lesson, they had to study under lower gravity)
Firthe told human that a long time ago, 3 ancient space faring civilizations called Anrakyan (they resemble human but with elongated faces), Lorica (humanoid crustacean-like beings), and Lithise (humanoid stone like being). Their origins or how they met were mostly unrecorded. They formed an alliance to prevented a war between them, altough Lorica and Lithise would be annihilated if the war did happen, because Anrakyan technologies were league better than them.
Thousands years later, 3 more space faring civilizations joined them. Durgari (short humanoid with thick square beard) ; Obliniad (fierce-looking green humanoid); and Voidron (hairless white-skinned slender humanoid being with big eyes) The origins of the 3 species, as well as how they met were also unrecorded.
Firthe sighed "it is a big blunder, we lost all those knowledge."
The 6 established rules which later became the foundation of the Watcher, and standardizing calendar system known as Cycles. Firthe took a small circular device that had several lights forming a ring. The light were called plink, it required 10 plinks to formed a ring, and when 20 rings were formed it's called a cycle which signaling a new year. They also constructed a large mobile base on an asteroid, which remained as the Watcher's home to this day and that's where they were heading now.
For millions of cycles, the 6 civilizations explored the galaxies, but then a deadly affliction from one of planet they visited unknowingly brought back to the base and infected everyone. The affliction proggress slowly which by the time it was found, it was too late. Everyone perished aside from Voidron, who survived long enough until they met another species called Durasyll and Lunluna.
"Did the disease still exist?" asked a boy
Firthe replied "It still exist and deadly as ever." She waved her finger "don't worry, we quarantine the whole planetary system."
Sebastian raised his hand "is there more of these dangerous planets?"
"There are a list, you could check it on the "forbidden zone" archives"
She then clapped her hand and showed them pictures of Durasyll and Lunluna. Durasyll were the immortal tree-like being (a giant mushroom on their head made
them looked like wearing a round hat), Lunluna was lacking
a tail, their hands and legs were more like human than cat.
Durasyll ancestor were the first deep space exploration team who returned from a long journey only to found their home already devoid of life. They left their barren
home, searching for a new place
to live.
Lunluna's home planet was destroyed by their own technology which the event had long forgotten. Their situation at that time were quite similar with human, their ship began to broke apart due to lack of spare parts. Durasyll were the one who found and saved them. Despite their inability to communicate, both decided to traveled the galaxy together.
The 2 wandered for thousands of cycles before stumbling upon the asteroid base, which seemingly abandoned at that time. They landed on the base, hoping to find some useful supplies, but instead they discovered Voidron survivors, all of whom were sleeping inside the medical pod, cared by their drones.
The Lunlunas, curious by nature, began messing with the
computer, accidentally awakened some of the Voidrons. They had
an awkward moment staring at each other until one of the Voidron wore their universal communicator device
to converse with them. He introduced himself as Saal Sa'lud the high elder.
He told them about the affliction and
urged them to leave the base as soon as possible, fearing they would get infected too, but after seeing the data, Lunluna
deduced that they could made a
cure for them, which derived from Durasyll DNA.
With it, they were successful getting rid the affliction, however it was too late for Voidrons because it rendered them to be sterile. Lunluna tried their best but they unable to find a solution. Voidrons however didn't mind with their condition, because they were granted another chance to traveled and observed this galaxy once more.
Later they discovered the cure had lots of side effect, like altering the recipient's DNA and gene. They tested it on themselves before repurposed it as an implant for the future members, which human will received once they reached the base.
This unexpected news
terrified everyone, including Sebastian. Firthe assured them that it would be beneficial for human. She explained that the implant grew new internal organs that reinforced existing organs, preventing mutations, helped regulate body, and extended life; there were also additional rare effects such as
Voidron who also became immortal like Durasyll.
"Our ancestor's lifespan before were only about 360 cycles,
now we can live up to 1800 cycles."
Despite this, they were still hesitant until Widodo and the other elderly peoples volunteered to be the first to received the implant.
"With that sorted out, let's continue." She clasped her hand
Voidron, Lunluna, and Durasyll rebuild the alliance and renamed it Samvraa Najn or Watcher of the Stars in human language. At that time their technology were rather limited and they didn't had any spaceship that matched Anrakyan's ship traveling speed, which hampered their progress.
The previous alliance relied on Anrakyan's technology. The data still exist, but they unable to deciphered it to fixed some of the Anrakyans ship still remained on the base hangar. Their technologies were too complicated even for their allies at that time, only Obliniad grasped Anrakyan technologies but they didn't bother to left any notes. Despite the shortcoming, they were able to recreated some of the alliance's older technology such as the universal communication device and the gravity generator system.
Firthe took out some kind of necklace from her clothes, "This is the universal communication device, each of you will receive this when we arrives at the base." she removed the necklace and now speaking with her native language. She wore the necklace "This device instantly translate spoken words, although... it requires to learn from the target civilization, thus useless if there are none alive to sample."
Haron was next to join. They were in critical condition when the Watcher found their ship, exposed by the radiation of their planet explosion. Lunluna managed to prevented the radiation from ravaging Haron's body further with the implant, but the damage were already too severe, it even permanently affecting their offspring. Since then, Harons had to lived inside a medical pod until they matured enough to undergone a brain transplant into a mechanical body. Haron original body looked like a hairy ball with tiny limbs, they had big round eyes.
"We were next to join" Firthe tapped her chest "Our home... we never know what happened to it actually. Our ancestor aimlessly wandered this galaxy before the watcher found us. This ship.. is the same ship our ancestor used to escaped our planet."
Next were Zetron (Sannekth's companion who wore a metal spacesuit was one of them). They were a living electrical energy, and the metal spacesuit were their robotic vessel they controlled. Zetronian were originated from the outskirts of the Eskabaa Ra'atu nebula, where they floated inside the cosmic cloud.
A watcher team came acrossed them one day, they never seen such species like them before. However after observing them for quite some time, they concluded that Zetron lacked sophisticated intelligence. Unbeknownst to them, several Zetrons snuck inside their ship as they left the nebula.
The team returned to the base, carrying the stowaway. This caused a chaos when the curious Zetron taken control of the base computers. However, they didn't just controlled it, they learnt from it and in just a few plinks, they had created their own basic language and were able to communicated with the watcher there. Saal Sa'lud decided to inducted them instead because they were already too advanced to be returned to their home.
Firthe skipped to 2 millions of cycles later, when a species known as Rachnite (they looked like a giant beetle with large mandibles, they also had pair of scythe-like forearms) appeared on this galaxy outskirts. Despite the Watcher's efforts, Rachnite invaded and consumed every world on their path.
"They look scary.." a girl whimpered
"Don't you have any weapon?" asked the guy behind Sebastian
"At that time we only had non lethal and we lacked experience in warfare." Firthe explained "Our intention were to communicate with them, which didn't end well.. they also outnumbered us, and.. Rachnite's ship were much more advanced than ours."
Gypherian ancestor were one
of the Rachnite's victim, but they managed to resist the invasion for a while before being overwhelmed and forced
to abandoned
their planet with the Watcher's
help. Despite the initial plan were
to relocating
them to a new planet, Ghyperian beseeched to let them to join the war.
"Watcher rule 5, we are only suppose to recruit space faring capable civilizations. Gypherians were a special case, they
lacked advanced technology, but high elder Sa'lud admired their conviction and allowed them to join."
For the next hundred cycles. Watcher attempted to subdue Rachnite, but their efforts were always ended in failure. They finally got their chance when they arrived at a region called Sulkaar Va'as. The Watcher seen an unknown fleet of spaceships outmaneuvered and defeated the larger Rachnite fleet.
They were the Garbitians, a once warlike civilization, which was the reason of their planet destruction, due to their own civil wars. These 8 clans were the more peaceful element of their species that managed to escaped their doomed world. Garbitians agreed to lent their expertise in exchanged for a new planet to settles.
With Garbitian's help, they boarded the Rachnite main spaceship where they met the Rachnite Queen (she's huge and much more menacing than regular Rachnite). The queen refused their attempt at conversation and attacked them instead. High elder Sa'lud was among the casualties, the survivors had no other choice but to slain the queen.
With their queen demise, Rachnite suddenly stopped with their aggression. It turned out that Rachnite were actually a docile being. It was the queen who enslaved and controlled them, using them as tools to conquered the universe. Their queen's ravenous appetite had consumed their galaxy long time ago.
Saal Su'ud, who at that time taken the mantle as the new high elder, took pity of them and offered Rachnite to joined the Watcher despite the protest from Gypherian who were furious at them.
"Don't worry, Gypherian had long forgiven Rachnite. And 3 of
the Garbitians clans decided to joined us."
"Only 3?" asked Rob
"The other clans, while skilled in the art of war, were more of merchant and farmer. Meanwhile these 3 were adventurer and hunter clans" she explained "Hesus, Sasus and Orsus. Each clan have their own unique characteristics. Sannekth, Gersoth and Ammaurith are member of the Hesus clan. You might had seen members of the Sasus clan, there are 4 on Pigen's team, the Gypherian who transported your kin."
"What happened to the other clans?" Travis inquired
"The other clans, to this day are still living on their new home at Amun Sa'ah star system."
Firthe clapped her hand "And.. that concluded our history lesson." She told them to took some rest until the next plink.
At the next plink, She taught them about their duties as the Watcher. Their most important task were to travel the galaxy and recorded every species they encountered. Interfering with the growth or demise of primitive civilizations were prohibited.
"Unless they were invaded by a civilization from a different planet," said Firthe "then we are allowed to intervene."
Another Watcher duty were to be mediators for a space faring species that were not affiliated with the Watcher. "Currently there are 4 space faring species which not part of the watcher, you might encounter them in the
future." She explained
"Are they friendly?" Sebastian asked
"Only the Garbitian's Empire, while the other rather unpleasant, but 1 of them in particular is haughty. I hate dealing with them, urgh.. remembering that time, If only i could punched that Sarsadasian's king." Firthe swinging her fist violently, she stopped after seeing everyone surprised. "Uhumm.. let's continue."
"I remembered, they called you mini-" Firthe's companion chimed in
Firthe told him to get out which made the whole room chuckled. She glared at them until they stopped laughing and continued with her lesson.
Their other duty were to recruited new potential members. For those who lost or left their home planet, they will be observed for a few cycles before they were judged worthy to be member of the Watcher, while the one deemed unworthy would be led to a habitable planet in secret while also destroying their technologies. After Rachnite incident, the high elder Su'ud added a new rule which if unworthy candidates were deemed too dangerous for this galaxy, they had no choice but to terminated them. So far, no one had been terminated.
Their next lesson were about the Watcher's technology, such as the Joturghur generator, which was an improvement over Anrakyan's Jeturgh generator. The generator was a miniature star generating near limitless energy.
It was Rachnite who reversed engineering Anrakyan technology. Before being enslaved by the queen, Rachnite were a civilization of tinkerer and inventor. They also developed much more powerful propulsion system which surpassed even anrakyan's ship, as well as the new shielding technology known as Au'ruru, the curtain-like light Sebastian seen enveloping this ship.
They was baffled by the different image of the Rachnite. Sebastian asked Firthe how they were able to hold tools with their scythe. Ferdel showed them the closed up of Rachnite body which revealed a set of hidden forearms that had fingers on it.
"That's the end of my lesson, there are about 2 rings left before we reach our base." Firthe waving her finger "You are free to do whatever you want."
They thanked Firthe for the lesson. For the next 2 rings, Sebastian used his free time to further learnt about the Watcher along with Enid.
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