Lament of the Immortal Colonel

Lament of the Immortal Colonel is the first story in the life of Colonel Etah Owar, and serves as an origin story. It takes place in the Bunker, shortly after Operation Guardian Angel.

Calm Before the Storm
''Night-time sharpens, heightens each sensation ... Darkness stirs and wakes imagination ... Silently the senses abandon thier defences ...''

''Slowly, gently night unfurls its splendour ... Grasp it, sense it - tremulous and tender ... Turn your face away from the garish light of day, turn your thoughts away from cold, unfeeling light - and listen to the music of the night ...''

Etah could feel the music swirling around him, soothing him, calming him, trickling into his mind and soul. The crescendos, the diminuendos, the subeto fortes, the subeto pianos, the slurs and ties, the staccatos, the syncopation and the rythm. He had always enjoyed this human song; it's flowing notes stirred his soul like a river. He had just come back to the Bunker after helping to defend the Shrine of Yetu, and needed to unwind a little. When he finished listening to the song, he sttod up and walked out. There was Tholker, on his why to speak with Etah.

"Etah, can I ask you something?"

"Of course, Tholker."

"You're... really, really, old, right?"

"The day I joined GSSOC was my 5000th birthday. I'm the oldest living Karnasaur and have lived 5 times longer the average lifespan. So yes, I am very, very, old."

"Well, I wanted to ask... what's it like? To be immortal?"

"What do you think it feels like?"

"Amazing! To never have to worry about bullets or poison or anything! You took a direct headshot during Intervention! You're the perfect soldier!"

"I see. Take all that enthusiasim and invert it. Yes, I cannot go KIA, but at what cost? All that I know and love has withered and died before me. My whelphood friends died over four thousand years ago. My parents are dust. My home village has rotted away, even my homeworld has been largely abandoned to nature; it is but a small agricultural colony. I kept my egg fragments, but even they eventually decayed after a few hundred years. I have nothing to live for and yet I must continue living."

"Oh... I see."

"I hope that answered your question, Tholker."

"Yeah... I guess it did. You seem like you have a lot of stuff bottled up in ya about your life, pal. Maybe you should, I dunno, write a book about it. Maybe write a song. Something to let it out, I guess."

"Hm... maybe. Listen, I'll see you later, yes?"

"Yeah, sure. See ya 'round, Etah."

As Tholker walked off, Etah pondered his short yellow friend's words. Perhaps it would do some good to express his life's story a bit...

Darkening of the Skies
Etah sat down at his piano in his room and began to think back on his life. He stirred up memories he had not thought of for millenia. He decided it would be best to start at the beginning; His childhood.

Etah was born in 2A 2531, during the height of the Core Crusades against the Harbingers by the First Iteration of the Senate. His parents were initally farmers, but after he was born in a clutch of seven (as sole survivor), they sold thier land to become traders.

His father was strong, caring, loving, funny, always spent every moment he could with his son. Etah and his father would spend hours on end outside when they were planetside to play hide and go seek when Etah was young. When Etah grew older, his father was always there when there was a certain girl he liked, or if things weren't going his way. He was more than a father; He was Etah's best friend.

His mother was compassionate, smart, and just as loving and good to Etah as her mate. She knitted him a blanket when he was a hatchling, a shirt as a wrymling, a hat when he was a wrym, and another blanket as an adult. Etah kept each one in his personal quarters; His hatchling blanket covered his hand, but he wouldn't dare let any damage come to it. His mother was always there when he was sick, was never too busy, never burdened by him, always cooked him a nice warm batch of his favorite cookies or a cozzy warm bowl of his favorite soup when he was having a bad day. She was more than a mother; She was Etah's best friend.

He was a spacer child, always going form one place to another, always helping with the loads and accounting. He business made him strong and smart, a prodigy child. His clan was made wealthy by the business; Until that fateful day when his father said they were going to start trading in the Core Worlds. Etah remembered now... his mother's concern... his fathers insistance they would stay away from the frontlines...

Not that it mattered any more. They got unlucky that terrible day on RD-725, when the Harbingers launched an unexpected raid. Etah slipped into a vivid memory from that dreaded day in his life...

"Etah! Move!" He could hear his father saying. He was 550 years old, a young adult.

"Gron, we have to save him!" His mother called out.

"Etah, get in the ship! We'll follow you in once it's safe!" His father ordered.

"No! I won't leave without you!" Etah replied.

"Son, know that we love you, and that it's the best we can do as your parents to give you this chance to live!" His father said.

"Go, Etah! Do as we say!" His mother said.

"Mom, I-"

His father grabbed hold of him.

"Son."

"Live your life. Serve Yetu. Honor us. We can't make you a legend, only give you the chance. So take it. Be a legend."

With that, Etah was forced into his family's ship and sent away. The last words his mother and father said as the door sealed were...

"We love you"

"I love you, too, mom and dad." Etah replied through a flood of tears.

"I love you, too, mom and dad..." Etah said, his voice creaking as the memory broke his heart again, across the years. Across lifetimes, he never stopped loving his mother and father. Across lifetimes, he never felt the crushing sorrow of thier loss. Across lifetimes, he never stopped hating the Harbingers, and every damned specied like them.

Across lifetimes, he knew it was only the darkening of the skies.