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If Arvania, their new Queen, had often wondered about the Tolgani device? Why her people continued to suffer and how the terror dragged on. She may well have wondered if, the journey to the Awesa, had ever been worth it?
She knew nothing, of the device in space, as it waited, before activating the trigger, to an inner device.
The research and exploration vessel ‘Darwin‘ Had travelled deep into space, separated from the other Humana colonist vessels. Its purpose was one of seeking information, on what lay beyond certain star clusters. Accruing as much information as it could on its journey, across the galaxies.
Hitting a rift in space, a time fold, caused by a black hole, it had been thrown across the galaxies into this one. Unmapped space? Whatever races, planets, biological and other information it could ascertain it did! In abundance. Its data storage was infinite, as was its ability to self sustain its structures and its crew.
Close to the planet, Cflenia, it had no knowledge of the struggle, going on below. TEN long years the battle had been raging between the Cflen and the Fodawke. Such was the strength of the spawn of the BEAST, as its numbers grew and grew, so did its intelligence. Its cunning. Strength in numbers. In ensuring its nests could not be raided by the Cflen.
The Cflen felt the wrath of, the power of the Fodawke. Their numbers could not be culled except by killing them. The diet of such a creature was mainly anything it could lay its jaws on, even if it had the opportunity, eating its own. The Cflen, was its favorite meal. Were it able to find such! The numbers of the Cflen were dropping. Their instincts to survive, as was, were far more important, than mating. That probably, was why the day came, when losses were so heavy. There would only be, a few hundred left.
The stand off had to happen, the spawn of the BEAST was closing in around them.
It had formed its own circle. They were under siege. Their enemy taunted them and seemed to be biding its time? Reprieve for the Cflen came when the side effect of the DNA changes, that had happened, within the Fodawke. Gave them little protection against a viral infection that affected them but not the Cflen?
For almost two years it remained a killer of the Fodawke, NOT however killing them off altogether. During that time, the Cflen managed to rebuild their numbers and spent time, continuously finding ways, to harass, if not kill as many of the Fodawke themselves. To the point of extinction? NEVER!
Where the Fodawke nested now was often dangerous and exposed. Those Cflen foolhardy enough to take the risks, to the delight of the Fodawke if captured by them, dead or alive, made a very tasty meal!
Still it was a salvation to the Cflen even if such was short lived! The Fodawke developed their own immunity, against the disease. Soon their growth rate, picked up and the numbers, fast outgrowing, the Cflen, meant rapid numbers of them, again battling the Cflen. Seeking them out, hunting them down. The Cflen were suffering, they could not grow food, they found difficulty in flying or traveling anywhere!
Even at night as the Fodawke had evolved to be able to see quite well even in low light. Something a number of Cflen eaten by the Fodawke were to discover, too late.
No place to run, little were the places to hide and starving? Slowly but slowly the Cflen were becoming less and less in numbers. A blip in comparison to the ever growing numbers of the Fodawke.
Fights often broke out between the Fodawke. They killed each other, sought dominance and territories. That helped reduce numbers, especially the ones that ate the other Fodawke, with savage enthusiasm. It would only take time, time running out for the Cflen, now reduced to just a few hundred of them, and in constant fear of the Fodawke. The recent attacks had been almost continuous, day and night they attacked.
Thus the final days of the conflict came to its head. The Cflen knew it would be only a matter of days before they were overrun by the spawn of the BEAST, Their race brought to extinction? Despair was as natural to the Cflen as was the air they breathed. The solitude, the isolation and the sheer terror, of the skies above them, made their nightmares complete.
One can only admire the Cflen, for the acceptance of their fate, with such resolution, to continue the fight, to the last Cflen standing? They had already made plans, for the final minutes, of their offspring. The babies the children.
The Fodawke would NOT have them! The bodies would die mercifully. A chemical that would kill a Fodawke if it ate them. Drastic, but to them, far better in thought and deed, than leaving them to be eaten, by the Fodawke.
Those creatures did not object to eating flesh, dead or alive! Yet let us not, think upon the Fodawke, as savage primitive BEASTS. However the Cflen might have hated them, or loved the idea of their extinction. They had EVOLVED. They sensed, KNEW, the end of the Cflen, was close.
The Fodawke were organised, efficient killers. When they could have seized the opportunity to wipe the Cflen out they held back? They could communicate! Could walk.
The challenge given to the Cflen to die facing them, in one last battle, on the battlefield, chosen by them? Was it the Fodawke who would not permit both species to survive or was it the Cflen? In their hatred of what they had come to see, as the spawn of the BEAST.
Surely its intelligence and will to survive, amidst its evolving cycle to how it was, would become. Was acceptable? IF they could live in harmony, accepting their fate. Bred by them for food was a serious option the Cflen should consider. It would allow them to live and they would only take a certain numnber from them at a time? Selective farming.
The challenge had been made, the final battle set, the plans in place for the Cflen young to die. Resigned to their fate, the Cflen watched the day and the time as it drew ever closer. Their world crumbling around them, few did anything but wait for the inevitable. Arvania had stayed resolute. Her special Gladiators and other selected Cflen safe. BUT. Even she knew, they needed a miracle to save her race from extinction.
Above them all in space, the device had found the exploration vessel. The signal sent from it had been received blindly by the vessels computer systems. They had been modified and the crew, unaware of the course laid in, towards Cflenia, that would spell salvation for the Cflen and doom for those aboard the vessel.
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