Pirates of Vallahar

This story has been ten years in the making, and after all this time I still enjoy reading it. Since this has never happened to me before, I am trying it out on you guys to see what you think. Maybe I have something worth publishing here. This first entry is an omniscient timeline that introduces the setting, general theme, and some of the main over-arching characters in a short "history book" fashion. While entirely expositional, hopefully it will give the reader the necessary background information while whetting her appetite for the real stuff like character development, dialogue, and action. The actual story picks up where the timeline leaves off. If you like action-packed, realistic sci-fi with a post apocalyptic feel, please give Pirates of Vallahar a chance.


The Rise Of Vlakk

64 A.D.: Vlakkorodorododados is born on the planet Stagakh in the Stakkha system. He is a deemed a gifted oothecate and is the only male ever to acheive female proportions and intelligence. Throughout his nymphood, it is clear that he is growing both far more intelligent and quite a bit larger than any stagakhri in history.

80: Upon receipt of divine revelation, Vlakk (etc.) develops the Philosophy of Vlakk which labels all races of the explored local cluster of stars sentient and dangerous to their own survival. Using his Philosophy, Vlakk begins a long campaign that he believes will eventually bring the stagakhri species out of sentience and into "sapience." He prophesies his own death at the hands of a sentient and vows to return six times: once every six hundred years, in the form of a ‘Tuvonik’ to ensure that the galaxy is on its 3000 year path towards sapience. This prophecy is known in Stagakhri as “rukk” and this cycle becomes known as the rukk cycle.

96: Vlakk tours the nearby star systems to enlighten the other races of the galaxy by preaching his philosophy of sapience and prophesying. It is widely rejected as tyrannical elitism by the mammalian species of neighboring systems and he is banned from many systems. Under his leadership, the stagakhri and their cunning Ophiuchi allies devote their entire respective species to Vlakk’s Philosophy and form a Confederation of Sapients. They gain immeasurable wisdom and make many technological advances, as well as bitter enemies, under the wise but racist counsel of Vlakk.

106: Vlakkorodorododados is assassinated as a hate monger. This sparks an epic galactic war that will last millennia between the sapients, the Stagakhri and Ophiuchi, and the sentient species of the galaxy.

660: The Confederation of Sapients has driven off all other species from the nearest star systems and solidified their forces. The sentients desperately campaign for allies against the surprisingly strong Stagakhri armadas. The sapient culture anxiously awaits the return of Vlakk to lead them in their second six hundred year crusade.

664: The second Tuvonik is born. He perfects faster than light travel, which identifies dozens more sentient races in the Lupus Cloud. Some of them are destroyed by the stagakhri as a threat to sapience, some of them are conscripted into the now growing Sentient Alliance. He becomes the first Tuvonik to label himself King, and takes an exceptionally large and sapient female as a Queen.

1264: The third Tuvonik is born, but is killed as a juvenile in an ambush on his way to Stagakh. The stagakhri morale falls greatly, and the ophiuchi must take up the slack, leaving their own fleet decimated. This rukk cycle is marked by hardships and losses for the sapients. The stags begin losing their way.

1864: The fourth Tuvonik is born. He becomes a great king and turns the tide of the war in favor of the sapients. With the rapid improvements of warp drive capable of sending warships through hyperspace at twenty times the speed of light, he expands the sapient territory out past Antares.

1945: Three sentient infested planets are invaded in the Aquila Rift and the indigenous peoples are completely wiped out, cementing a species-wide campaign to “save the galaxy” from sentience by the stags. No longer are stags content merely to drive sentients away. Infested planets are conquered, their people hunted down and slaughtered, and the planets are then colonized by the stagakhri. Their territory increases tenfold. The Sentient Alliance falters, and plans are made to abandon the local bubble and send colonial ships to the Arm of Perseus.

2007: A Stagakhri deep space probe discovers Voyager 1 deep in the unexplored Sirius Supercluster just outside of the Sol system and learns of the human race. A nearby science vessel cataloguing habitable planets Spica is rerouted into the system.

2012: In response to the hyperspace report sent from far outside the Stakkha Bubble, a Stagakhri extermination armada is assembled in Stakkha and dispatched to the distant Sol system on the furthest conquest ever attempted by the Confederation of Sapients. They are outfitted with state of the art singularity drives that propel them towards Earth at eighty times the speed of light. Their mission is to exterminate the ultra-violent, expansionistic primates known as humans before they become a threat to all of the sapients in the galaxy.

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The Fall of the Old World

2027: (April) The first stagakhri ships appear in orbit around Earth. They immediately commence bombardment of the surface with energy weapons and antimatter torpedoes. Ignoring military targets, the alien spacecraft target the most populated areas first. Taking advantage of what they perceive as a tactical error, the humans retaliate with barrages of surface-to-space missiles and hundreds of squadrons of F-74’s and the fearsome F-89’s sporting nasty high-yield nuclear weapons.

2027: (October) The stagakhri fleet has taken significant losses at the hands of the reckless and resourceful humans. Many of their battleships are brought down at the cost of millions of human lives. The various human armies are stretched thin and remaining human survivors are conscripted in defense of the homeworld. The remaining stagakhri ships deploy swarms of shuttle type craft all across the Earth, and hordes of warriors pour from the airlocks into ground combat, giving the humans their first look at their invaders.

Astonishingly, they look like terrifying, human-sized praying mantises. They wield both energy and blade weapons in three fingered hands with opposable thumbs. With what appears to be some type of subtle group consciousness, the humans have great difficulty in ground combat and surrender territory after territory to the marauding insects.


2028: January 1st 2028, Armageddon. The stags, as humans come to refer to them, occupy what’s left of almost every major city in the world. Their mission is frighteningly clear: Genocide. The last remnant of the United Nations coordinate a massive simultaneous nuclear strike against known stag ground camps and orbiting vessels; prepared to make the final, ultimate sacrifice for the Earth. Every remaining superpower in the world empties its stockpile of hidden nuclear weapons into a vast array of targets across land and sky. Stag occupied cities are obliterated instantly as millions of stags and humans are vaporized across the globe in milliseconds. Every single known strategic target receives at least two hypersonic “super-nukes.” Those few souls fortunate enough to be in the isolated pockets of unoccupied wilderness can do nothing but watch as the immense fleet of stag cruisers plummets to the surface in the midst of colossal, apocalyptic fireballs. Each ship hits the earth with the equivalent of 150 megatons of TNT. The horizon is filled with so many mushroom clouds that survivors recalled an enormous ring of smoke and fire that towered above the wilderness like great walls. The entire stag fleet is completely wiped out at the cost of 99% human casualties over the whole planet.

2100: The few survivors of the “end of the world” holocaust are restricted to the highland areas in the remote corners of the blackened world. Radiation prevents most travel as the human war refugees revert to a primitive existence. Those isolated groups unable to find a niche in the hostile ecosystem become extinct as the strongest and smartest form primitive camps, aided with the occasional piece of technology from their grandparents’ lost civilization. This time is known as the Dark Years when humans regressed to their basest natures. Stories of widespread cannibalism and religious fanaticism still frighten children a thousand years later and serve as a warning of what humans are capable of in their darkest moments.

The few stag survivors retreat into areas of high radiation, as their bodies seem to be immune to its effects. Unlike the humans, who instinctively separated into many small tribes, the stags coalesced into one (currently known) kingdom on what was once the North American continent. In no better situation than their human neighbors, the stags resort solely to cannibalism, raising males as cattle for a food supply in the desolate wastelands.

2100-2400: Stag and human encounters are exceedingly rare but always result in violence as both species fight for survival in the slowly recovering environment.

By now, the radiation has begun to subside in many areas, the dust clouds have settled and, once again, the earth sees sunlight. In the suddenly fertile soil, fertilized with the blood of billions, vegetation grows rapidly and the Earth is soon blanketed in forests and swamps. Humans come down out of the mountains and begin to settle in the paradise-like landscapes of the newborn planet. With iodine rich diets and natural adaptation, the human population remains small but relatively stable, with one out of every ten pregnancies successful. The first primitive cities are built, and the industrious “land dwellers” are quick to abandon the religious fanaticism, and the violence it encouraged, of their mountain brethren. Before long, all forms of religion disappear as the feral mountain humans either die out, or are assimilated into the quiet, secular cultures far below.

The stags maintain a relatively constant population deep in the blasted lands and the wastes, and devote most of their time to reclaiming the knowledge they had lost in the great destruction of the planet. Ancient technology is dug up and studied, as well as the ancient writings of the Tuvonik. They eagerly await the next rukk cycle in the hopes of continuing their crusade against the violent humans.

2464: Kaildannodantin, The Fifth Tuvonik, is born.

In reverence to their expected savior, the stag culture immediately tattoos Kail's body a solid metallic-gold color and his multifaceted eyes a pearly white, thus starting the stag tradition of solid-color body and eye tattooing.

2484: General Kail, despite his gold carapace, becomes known as the Red Tuvonik as he leads the first army of highly trained stag warriors since the fall of the old world into a neighboring human community on a mission of total destruction. Every human in the town is brutally slaughtered with weapons ranging from long spears to bare claws and mandibles. The streets run red with the blood of the sentients. General Kail himself accounts for at least 40-45 kills. Kail's army suffers no casualties.

2494: Throughout the decade, General Kail and his fearsome troops continue the crusade of Vlakk to wipe out the sentients and rebuild the Earth into a stag paradise. Humans retreat even deeper into the mountains and forests in fear of Kail's warriors.

2500: After several more successful raids, Kail names his army of killing machines "The Red Plague". His army undergoes body tattooing to reflect the fear-inspiring name. Blood red makes up the bodies of Kail’s elite, and their eyes are colored a brilliant green, the stag color of battle.

2505: Humans rediscover flight. Using primitive gliders, they drop flaming oil bombs on an invading stag force in the Opina Forest, resulting in the most losses The Red Plague has seen in a single battle.

Adapting quickly to the new war, the humans discover the stags have trouble seeing in wooded areas and many humans retreat to the redwood forests making up much of the northern hemisphere.

2510: General Kail has fathered many offspring in the hopes of having a son matching his intelligence but his only sons were mindless drooling slaves. During his long reign, he records many prophecies in a book appropriately entitled “The Prophecies of Kaildannodantin,” including his most famous, and least understood, seminal work “The Paradox of Kail.”

2538: The first large scale war in many centuries takes place on the border of the Vaspur Wastelands and the Opina Forest. A full force of human warriors sporting leather armor, swords, and bows, rushes headlong into a vast stag army. The battle is long and bloody resulting in the retreat of the stags into the wastelands. Human gliders pursue the retreating stags killing several dozen more before turning back.

Kail is furious. Several stag sergeants lose their lives for the defeat. The Red Plague is called in to hunt the humans through the woods, but the clever human warriors cover their tracks and the Plague comes back unsuccessful.

The humans take control of much of the Vaspur Wastelands and eventually found Paradise City as a forward base in their war against the stags. It is a tremendous victory for the humans. The stags can be beaten!

2626: The venerable General Kaildannodantin is mortally wounded during a campaign in the Kazeet Junglelands. Though his body is never recovered, he dies with the blood of an estimated 200,000 men, women, and children unavenged.

2600-2900: Humans and stags live in constant fear and hatred of each other. Occasional skirmishes and small battles take place, but the majority of the time both races stay to themselves and live in hate and mistrust.

Human flight is evolving slowly but surely. Airships are invented. Similar to wooden sea faring ships, they have a huge gas balloon affixed above the vessel with strong ropes. Gasoline engines are cobbled together with huge fans to propel the large ships through the air. Small rudimentary firearms appear on both sides in the hands of clever craftsmen, as well as ancient, vacuum-sealed weapons dug up in the wastes. Stags soon copy the humans’ flying clipper ships and enlist the aid of the traitorous humans of Ebonwood, descendents of the violent mountain tribes, to construct a Royal Stag Airfleet. Human populations are slowly growing as the hardiest gene pools begin to spread around the continent now known as Vallahar.

2999: Ishma-Tan is born: A female stag several feet longer than most female juveniles. Her mother dies when her unnaturally large offspring is born. Thought to be the queen mentioned in the Paradox of Kail, her body is tattooed jet black and her eyes gold in preparation for the coming Tuvonik.

3019: Ishma-Tan is given the official title of Queen on her 20th birthday. She celebrates with a large feast of male stags.

3029: Juryrig is born.

Juryrig spends the early years of his life among a band of ruthless pirates who call themselves The Death Mark. Employed for his ability to squeeze himself into small spaces, he is forced to do dangerous repair work on the pirates' stolen airships at seven years of age.

3034: Reshek-Nila, the Queen's only daughter, is born.

3042: The Queen discovers a large artifact in the swamps of Melsha. It is a tower-like structure of obviously stag origin left over from the ancient world. Dubbed Eden Tower, the artifact's function is soon discovered to be a device for teleportation.

Using a system of coordinates, one can travel to a specific location anywhere on the planet. A tear in space and time about 8 feet by 8 feet is simultaneously created in the dimension chamber of the tower and at a specific point in space. Any being passing through this portal is instantaneously transported to the coordinates given to the computer. The Queen soon realizes that a single commando could infiltrate a human city, place a small radio transmitter in a key location, and have an instant army inside the city walls. There is a race to develop such a transmitter before the humans discover their danger.

3045: The portal artifact is used in battle. The Queen discovers a village of humans in the nearby Kazeet Jungle and, with the help of her best scientists, creates a system of measuring and mapping that obtains coordinates that the Eden computer will understand. She promptly opens a portal in the village in the midst of a summer festival. Stag warriors pour through and wade into the crowd of stunned people slashing paths and setting houses ablaze. The village is destroyed and the stags suffer only minor casualties.

3047: (Summer) In a well-known and unbelievable maneuver, Juryrig, at the age of 18, single-handedly steals the largest most heavily armored airship in existence.

Four days after it was stolen from its original owner by The Death Mark, Juryrig, using a combination of luck and probably sabotage, piloted the behemoth out from under the pirates' noses. There are hundreds of rumors as to how an 18 year old kid could make off with a state-of-the-art battle cruiser, but they say only Juryrig knows the details.

3047: (Fall) Juryrig becomes a private trader. Flying around in his elaborate battle-boat he runs food and supplies all over the redwood forests of Vallahar to struggling villages and towns.

After a brief period when it is said to have been known as either the “Jolly Roger,” or the “Happy Maria,” Juryrig renames his ship “Odin” after an ancient, old-world god of war.

3048: (Spring) Stag archeologists uncover an ancient crash site of one of their ancestors' space vessels. The stags are able to strip the ship down and, among other valuable items, they find working repulsor pads.

Salvaging the relatively small rectangular plates from the belly of the ship, the stags discover that the starships could hover at any altitude without any downward thrust. Seeing the enormous potential of such a tool, the Queen sends a huge, heavily defended convoy of cargo ships to collect and transport the hundreds of repulsor pads back to the palace where her scientists and engineers can study them and incorporate them into the battleships of her personal navy.

3048: (Summer) While the gigantic convoy is en route to the Royal Palace, somehow, The Death Mark learns of the transports and their exotic cargo. Now under new command, the pirate band finds the opportunity too good to pass up. In an unprecedented and insane move, the badly outnumbered pirates ambush the heavily armed convoy over the Banderi Jungle. Fighting desperately, the pirates manage to disable and board many of the stag transports and plunder an unknown number of repulsor plads. After sustaining heavy losses the pirates retreat, but their mission is a success, having made off with far more repulsor pads than they could ever use. Out numbered five to one, it was the biggest, most well known pirate raid of all time.

3049: “The Repulsor Raid" puts The Death Mark at the top of the list of the most dangerous of the various pirate groups in Vallahar and they are feared even by other pirates. To rebuild their decimated fleet, the repulsor pads are sold at very hefty prices to those militia, mercenary, or merchant captains who can afford them. The new leader of The Death Mark and mastermind of the Repulsor Raid, Captain James Piper, quickly becomes a legend because of his off-the-wall battle tactics and his out of control personality.

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3052: The story begins...