65 Ancient's Compendium : The Saksa

With the superior technology created by the Mind, the surrounding planets were quickly conquered by the Ancients. Because it was the first time their population was truly growing thanks to the reduced mortality, the resources of only one world was not enough. Whether it was an asteroid, a satellite or a star, every bit of energy and matter was requisitioned for the greater good. As for the races that were developed and alive, they were either sent to research centers for experiments or turned into materials.

Thanks to that quick expansion, the next century happened without any incident, only letting the Ancients grow without any limit. Until one day, the sensors finally captured the signature of a foreign creature, that didn't possess any mass. Because it was potentially their second encounter with such a being, and it had been a long time since they waited for it, everything was armed and ready. The malicious god that tried to feed itself on our own people never understood what went wrong until it was too late.

That despicable liar tried to enslave us with petty and unreliable words, thinking that we were fools. The exact speech he gave us was recorded for future generations, to always remind us that their very existence is a threat to our civilization. Gods were neither friends or allies; they were only enemies that will be enslaved or siphoned of their energy. Like everything else in the Universe, all will bow to the Ancients if they dare to even attack us once.

To resume the encounter, the lying creature promised us everything if we served him. Technology beyond our reach, immortality even, all if we just fed him with the souls of our death and redirect some of the energy produced by our generator toward him. His sweet lies couldn't prevent us to figure out that he was just lusting after what we created by ourselves, by the sacrifices of our brave and fearless ancestors. Whether it was those that sacrificed their lives in our original worlds or after, all had only one purpose, to save everyone else.

And we should have let an alien, just reap all the benefits for what? Technology? No matter how long it would take, we will find it thanks to our great minds. Immortality? A previous promise was already made before we realized it was a trap. Maybe infinite power? Only to be the mere servants of something else, not able to take out own destiny in our hands.

The entire time this worthless being kept talking, the orbital cages we prepared were being put in position.And when it was time, the second god we met was finally ensnared into a net. He did try to escape, but nothing in his power was able to breach the energy grid that surrounded the entire planet. Soon after, we began to harvest the energy that was furiously trying to flee, only to realized it was a mistake.

This was the first time after discovering the existence of mana that something stumbled us. The numerous devices were overloaded with that strange energy, shutting everything down. That shutdown spread to the energy grid, and the malicious being managed to flee in panic, but not before taunting us one last time. The Primarchs of that time bowed in shame in front of our people, for their pride was the cause of underestimating a god. Striving to wash away their mistakes, they began to study the strange energy.

As more and more miracles were derived from the small part of the god's body that was harvested, it became obvious that truly capturing one would be the most optimal thing to do. Because the element of surprise and fear where taken out, what was only left was the powers of a god. And in that department, none truly knew what it meant.

They were never directly attacked by one of those beings made completely of energies, and because it was the case, they still had no idea what was the extents of their powers. Because it would have been too dangerous to let a god caused havoc and mayhem in their main solar system, they chose a lone planet not far from it as a giant bait. They surcharge the entire system with energy, creating a beacon for every god. And it didn't take very long for one to take the bait.

Because they were truly ready this time, they faked their intentions of being the slaves of that being. They created a smoke screen, portraying the Ancients that lived in that small planet as sad and destined to die. The planet was truly scarce in term of resources, and the alien was fully convinced by that. At the last moment before reaching an agreement, the first of many more gods was finally captured.

This provoked another new golden age for our people because even as we were siphoning his energy, we were also talking and questioning that being. It was still the first and only intelligent species that was met at that time, besides primitive tribes. Thanks to the intelligence that was extracted, the Ancients realized that they had a lot of neighbors in the vicinity, and a few had even managed to build some spaceships.

This revelation provoked a rift in our societies that could have led to a grave social crisis, the first the Ancients ever had. Against gods, no one forgot what happened and will never do. They were the mortal enemies of our people, they tried to lie and enslave us, maybe even caused the first rocket carrying 3000 of our bravest men and women to die without any reasons. But for the other species, it was a debate. The Arm was heavily favoring immediate annihilation or enslavement, the Mind had no real voice because of the confusion while The Heart was more about seeing what was the intentions of those foreign races.

Because the citizens of our great nations were mainly managed by the Heart, it was them that convinced the rest to have a more passive approach for the moment. Because they were the closest, the first intelligent race similar to us was a reptile one, that called themselves the Saksa. They were nearly two times the size of the Ancients and were only listening to the strong.

The life on their planet was very hard, for many monsters and gigantic creatures were almost impervious to any weapons. Even some of the lesser energy weapons made by our people were barely scratching the heavy skin of those threats. Even if they could be compared to a dumb warrior, they were still capable of thinking an even creating some innovative sources of energy. Especially when it was to kill something else.

The first encounters were filled with suspicions and tensions, from both sides, but soon, the Saksa welcomed the Ancients with their arms open. As a more advanced civilization, we helped them a little with their technology, improving efficiency and reducing the waste. And it could have kept continuing if they weren't that greedy.

One day, without any notice, they hijacked one of our ships and kidnapped our own brothers and sisters. They demanded more, more of everything, food, weapons, energy. Those scaly animals only saw a glimpse of our power and thought that we were weak and only relying on our weapons. To answer that, we had to show what we truly were. The sudden shift of opinion let the Arm free of any restraints, and comparable to the treatment the captive god received, the end of the Saksa was not pretty.

After releasing our captives, the entire planet was burned to the ground, every living creature annihilated under the heavy bombardment we unleashed. But because of this, many Primarchs of the Heart lamented across the eons of the lost opportunity to ever befriend another race. For the Arm never let go of its control over foreign diplomacy. But even the smallest threat to any of our citizens was far too horrible to even think. Only a few survivors were kept in the same state as the god, a perpetual remember of what happened.

As for the other neighbors, they were repeatedly enslaved for experiments until no one was left alive. Past this initial massacre, it was decided to repress the bloodthirsty ways of the Arm to only do this after one attack was made against us. Even if it was nonsense and risking lives for nothing, it was still approved by both the Mind and the Heart. Thankfully, the amount of death that was provoked by civilized nations was relatively low, because most of the time, they captured the Ancients in a pitiful attempt at bargaining.

Because our glorious nation was spreading its wing, we had to have something to defend our planets, and not just some robots or androids. Besides the usual glitches that plagued some stations, turning it hostile against everything included its own creators, we needed something reliable, something intelligent. It was at that moment that someone had an idea that was so strange that it almost never saw the light of the sun.

To create a race to serve us. In our current era, something like that would be common knowledge, but at that time, it was a very strange though. What was the need to create a race? How could we be sure that it wouldn't betray us at all? And what would be its characteristics? To answer all of this, someone took the shape of a Saksa warrior and turned it bigger, much bigger. She also infused some of the godly energy in it and had some robotic parts.

The entire thing was so weirdly shaped that it was abandoned until a better solution was found. But she was restless about her idea, sure that it would work. Working with her friends and colleagues, she convinced them that it was viable. Past the initial surprise and misunderstanding, that small group began with a normal Saksa.

Because there wasn't a lot of them still alive, they needed to have some help, and one Primarch of the Arm covered everything for them. After a few failures, they managed to have a more or less good combination of both organic and metallic parts, living and artificial intelligence, mortal and godly energy. When they presented their product to that Primarch, he was ecstatic and immediately showed it to the rest of the Arm.

A perfect servant, not having any need, not having a true conscience, built only to defend a planet against foreigners and external threats. Only the recognition of targets and some commands were still not that perfect, but its ability at using mana and weapons was beyond anything they ever met. The perfect soldier was created, albeit only at a smaller scale. But that proof was enough to begin the creation of something big enough to truly defend an entire planet by itself.

Of the initial project, only the name and the vague shape was maintained. The name of Saksa was not related to a reptilian race anymore, but to the deadliest creation of the Universe. Even today, every planet terraformed or even built by us still have a Saksa defending it, whether it is against a natural disaster like an asteroid or some pesky pirates that think they can steal. So fear not citizens, for nothing can happen to us thanks to them. For we are the Ancients.

-Arm Primarch Geril Ofterneïn