Ozar of Soal
Ozar of Soal
A son of the Ungali from the water planet Aquarian. He is a member of the Kazar cast and a member of the mining guild.
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Truth Seeking
We take over the ship that is on Soal. As I climb into the pilot's seat Soal sends me a vision. I see my life replay quickly before my eyes. I see that the Thraum are missing from Oqthcalia. Life is a constant struggle for resources. Instead of our mostly happy life, all is dark and sad. The people war against each other, fight over every scrap, everything is in short supply or does not exist.
I make a decision. We must retrieve a Thraum. I know that on the asteroid where we are heading are Abril and Kazar and Wells. This is not enough. The dark knowledge that we touched deep in Soal showed as much. The Thraum were on our planets before the rest of us. Our great civilization based off of their previous times. The Abril suppressed the knowledge of the Thraum and what they were and what they represent hidden and twisted in their teachings. This cannot be allowed to happen.
Chronos and Stellar Sentinel join me on the bridge. Just as we are about to launch three orbs arrive in the bridge cabin. They speak to Chronos. He is accused of crimes against time. He is told to let Soal explode and destroy our civilization. He attempts to stop the orbs from continuing their message to him. As he destroys one, more arrive. Eventually, they complete their message.
"We are missing a critical piece to complete Soal's mission. We need a Thraum."
I am glad to hear that Stellar Sentinel agrees with me, and somewhat surprising, so does Chronos. I turn and set the coordinates of our ship to Sector Seven, where last we saw Thraum.
When we arrive, I set the ship to hover just above the tops of the buildings. I float down, letting Soal's light shine from me. I invite a Thraum to join us in our mission. I open myself to them. One of the larger ones moves towards me. I lift him towards me with the winds of Soal. We touch hands, and again, his knowledge flows through me, but, as I have already seen much of what the Thraum knowledge and touched the dark knowledge that was flowing back into Soal, knowledge that should never have been hidden, I am not as overwhelmed as I was the first time. I feel from him that he has been chosen by the Thraum to travel with us to try to save our culture and to help rebuild it after Soal's next heartbeat.
We return to the ship, and I set the ship to fly to the asteroid belt.
We arrive close to the asteroid and we are hailed. I respond with the ship's code and we are at first told that we are not allowed to land on the asteroid. Chronos gets on the radio and somehow is able to get us clearance to land.
We disembark from the ship and we are met by two Kazar weapon masters. Chronos drops his time bomb again, and I am again locked in time. I do not understand how Soal has chosen me to do his bidding and yet I am never able to fight for his needs.
Between Stellar Sentinel and Chronos the two Kazar masters are pushed off the ship. Stellar Sentinel flies me out into space and outside of Chrono's timelock effects. We land back on the asteroid, and still have to try to enter the rest of the base. Stellar Sentinel has encased us in a bright light. I cannot see him and the light around him is bright.
I walk over to the doors and request entrance. It is denied. Chronos does him time manipulation and sees that the lock is voice controlled. He tries to repeat the phrases that he has seen spoken. I reconize the prayer to Soal that he speaks. Such disrespect in his recitation. I must teach him more later, but for now we need to hurry, time is running short.
I step over and sing the prayer to Soal, in the way that it was intended to be. The doors open and we step forward, still surrounded by Stellar Sentinel's light. I can see that there are at least five more weapon masters. They fire at us and before we can really do anything, we all fall. I hope that they have not killed the Thraum, or all is lost.
I slump to the floor with a prayer in my head to Soal, to help us all, even those who think we are fighting against them. My eyes close as I fight to stay awake, and see the others have already fallen.
<< Soal, help us to do your will......... >>
Long Nights End
They asked me questions about why I was in the room where the power cells disappeared. They didn't believe me at first.
Tahbor, the being from the room, is brought in and they started questioning him. I am the only one that really believed him. The other Kazars felt that he was responsible for the disappearance of the power cells. I was sure that he wasn't.
He was taken from the room. I began to meditate and seek Soal's guidance when I heard some commotion in the hallway. I thought I heard my companions in the hall confronting the guards around Tahbor.
As I step out of the room I'm in, I see Chronos and Stellar Sentinel down the hallway attacking the guards around tahbor. Just as I start to step forward, times seems to stand still.
The next moment, I am in a different room with Chronos, Stellar Sentinel, Tahbor, and a guard.
We calm the guard and question Tahbor some more.
The answers that we get do not completely make sense, but his answers are believable.
Tahbor returns us to the room where the power cells were then we are transported to the surface of Soal.
To be back on Soal, my heart and soul rejoice. Soon my eyes will be feasting on the surface of Soal once again.
I feel that our questions will be answered here.
Praise Soal, may his light guide us all.
New Day's Dawn
Soal fills my mind and body with wonderment. I follow the others mostly on automatic. I don't really notice what is really going on around me until we reach the large chamber.
There are the missing power cells, and it appears that they are the larger ones.
Tahbor finally admits that it was his plan to 'steal' all the larger power cells and return the energy to Soal.
The large power cells contained 'Dark Knowledge' and that is what Tahbor wanted returned to Soal. He said that it should give us another rotation around Soal before the star explodes.
This is a lot to take in. Stellar Sentinel, an Avril, flies above the wall and places his hand in the energy stream from the power cells.
Soal calls out to me, and I lift from the floor and stretch my hand out to an energy beam.
Knowledge courses through my mind, like it did when the Thram touched me in Sector Seven.
Death and rebirth, over and over again. The Oqthcali are not the first to civilize the planet, just the last. The Thram were a great civilization before the Oqthcali. They were pushed out by the Avril.
Soal sears my body with the knowledge granted by the dark tombs.
It is notice that some of the energy is being deflected away from the center of Soal as Tahbor said it was going to be.
Lies upon lies, stories upon stories, Tahbor is full of them. I ask Soal to bless him so that he will be truthful with us.
A waste of a blessing, it just made him more deceitful. I pick him up, and threaten to give him the knowledge of Soal, full force. Chronos lifts one of the crates, and we can clearly see that some of the energy is being syphoned away from the center of Soal.
Tahbor finally tells us at least part of the truth.
We follow the tunnel under the power cell and can see energy coursing down the walls. We follow it to a large chamber that contains several pods.
Chronos and Stellar Sentinel see that the pods contain leaders of Oqthcal, and most of them are Kazar. This is not right.
Chronos removes a couple of pods from their cradles and rip them open. Two leaders of the clans plop out on to the ground.
A new siren sounds, one of much more concern. Tahbor tells us that it is the alarm calling for evacuation of Soal, as its explosion is due soon.
We grab the drugged leaders and Tahbor then begin running for the ship that the others saw when we arrived on Soal. Our path takes us through the control room.
12 hours is all that is left of the life of Soal. Bringer of Life and Death, and now is the hour of our death. Chronos stays a few moments in the control room as the rest of us make our way to the ship.
I run up to the cockpit and begin as rapid a preflight as possible. Just as I am finishing, Chronos arrives and says that the leaders' pods were transported to a point in the asteroid belt of our system.
Seems as good a place as any. I set course and launch the ship.
I hope that my planet survives the oncoming explosion of Soal. There is no time to mourn at this time. Soal, bringer of life and death, please make their end quick.
Now, for more answers...
Thoughts of Home
Oh, how has Soal changed my life.
Not too many years ago, I was swimming with my pod and enjoying the freedom of the waters of my world, Aquaian. Aquaian is a mostly water world. It spins on an axis, in an orbit around Soal, that is slightly out of the ecliptic of the rest of the system. This gives us a strange series of seasons. There are no permanent ice caps on the world, so there are areas of lands that cover and uncover during an orbit. About 20 percent of the world has permanent land masses that stay above the water levels, and none of them connect enough to block the oceans of the world from connecting. One could circumnavigate our world east to west, or north to south.
Early in my life I found that I didn't eat or sleep as much as most of my kin. This allowed me time for other things. My parents were concerned that something was wrong, so we saw the healers. They couldn't find anything wrong. I was just different. My genetics were different from the norm, but not so much that I was unhealthy or a danger to my pod.
For most Ungali, our skin does some of the work of taking in and expelling the gasses that our cells need to work. We have organs in our chests that also do the same work as most other races. It appears that my system is able to recycle most of these without exchanging with the environment. Our healers and scientists have taken samples of my genetics throughout my life. If they can find a way to replicate what my body does, it could be helpful for those who are unable to leave the water of our world.
While many Ungali would be sleeping, I would go exploring. One of the permanent land masses wasn't too far from my pod's regular hunting areas. I would go exploring there. I was able to walk the land for more time than most other Ungali, so I could walk farther on the land than others. Perhaps the time I spent exposed to Soal made changes to my body that I later experience, who knows for sure. The land masses had life on it, but nothing like what lived underwater. There were animals and plants that looked similar to what lived in the seas, and others that were completely different. I enjoyed walking around and studying the life of the land animals.
I knew that I was different than most, as I always had an attraction to the surface of the waters of our world. I would float on the surface and listen to the sounds of the air, and study the skies of Aquaian, and the stars in the night sky.
Some of our scientists had created suits that we could wear that would allow Ungali to walk the land for more time that even I could at a young age. They carried the Sea with them. So, we knew about the land, but just couldn't explore all of it at a time. I could be out of the water about the same amount of time that our scientists could in their suits. As I grew, I found that I could spend almost as much time out of the water as in it.
As I sit in the chamber waiting, I close my eyes and think back to those days. A calm comes over me as I think about lying on my back just floating on the surface of the sea near my home.
I felt Soal calling me then, as I feel him calling me now.
My mind drifts to my first assignment to the Kazar cast. Aquaian was visited by representatives of the Council of Oqthcal, the central government of our solar system. They visited every season. Tests were done to see where we would continue our work. With my special abilities, I was chosen by the Kazar leader to join one of the mining teams on Soal. A chance to be closer to that which powers our Solar System, feeds our worlds, and powers our equipment.
I was still young when I started in the mines. It was hard work, but worth it. I was doing something that benefitted all the inhabited worlds in our system.
I eventually learned that my mutation allowed me to survive in many different environments. The heat or the cold didn't seem to affect me. Areas that were dangerous to others without special gear, didn't seem to affect me. I'm not sure exactly why Soal gifted me with these abilities, but he did.
I soon found that I had other abilities also. An area of the tunnel we were in started to collapse. I quickly prayed for protection from Soal, and I was able to create a 'wall' of energy that held the collapse at bay long enough for us to escape the area. I was also covered in a shimmering field of energy around my body.
One of the transport ships that I was on, had an accident, causing the atmosphere in the ship to be evacuated. I was blown out of the ship, which for most would have been a death sentence, but I found that I could feel the solar winds coming off of Soal, they felt like the currents of the sea, and I found that I was able to 'swim' the seas of the solar system. On one of my rest days, I tried to see if I could swim in the atmosphere of a planet. I was able to do that also. It was such a joy to be able to move freely. Blessed by Soal I was and am.
I continued to be blessed by Soal. The more I dedicated my life to its teachings, the more I learned to do.
I am awakened from my musing by the entrance of someone into the cell that I am in. I open my eyes, and realize that I am floating off the floor, as I had been when I was young, looking up at the sky from the waters of my world.
Secrets of The Commission
I have felt that something is off since I took this posting from the Kazar cast leaders.
Rka'Lin, who said that he was tasked with retrieving the heavy energy crate by The Council, the Council that hasn't been heard from in more than 6 cycles, feels that he failed, and that his family will suffer. I blessed him in the name of Soal, but he still would not come with us to explain his part. We watched his retrieval vehicle turn and leave, when it saw us outside the door to the sector. I pray that Soal is merciful to his family. He did not fail other than the fact that we were able to overpower him.
We return to the commission building and give our report. The Avril leader seemed to be very excited about our information. The commission asked us to investigate something on the moon. We agreed, but the others needed rest and sustenance. I chose to use the time to commune with Soal.
I walked to building, and found the main alter. As I was meditating, I was drawn to the alter. I extended my hand to touch the alter.... My hand passes through, I then climb on through and arrive at the top of the stairs to an underground storage area. I fly down the stairs, and there at the bottom of the stairs is a room holding three of the power chests, including the largest one. There is also someone there who I have never seen.
He starts moving towards me and when he steps between two of the chests, he starts to disappear. I fly into him and knock him into the wall. I was hoping that would stop the containers disappearing. No luck. Soal's will, I will be lead to a way to retrieve the Kazars missing equipment.
I have been lead away to be questioned.
Now, I wait until they arrive to question me.
Soal's Legacy
I was called to the Kazar's council. I strode into the room before the leaders of my cast. Mining and resource gathering and distribution is our mandate. As I was entering the quild hall, I felt the memories of my past well up in my mind. I was not born on Oqthcali, but with my abilities I was tasked to come to the center of our solar system as a child. I grew up in the mines of Soal, and learned of Soal's significance within our culture. The more time that I spent inside of our star, the more it empowered my body.
My race, the Ungali, originated on the water world, Aquaian, of the Soal stellar system. Our world rotates on it's axis, unlike Oqthcali, which makes living on Oqthcali different that what I was born into. Unlike most members of my race, I do not have to spend much time in a liquid. I am unique among my people, and that has set me apart from them. My family pod still communicates with me, and I do all that I can for my world. I have not moved far enough up my cast structure to be able to do much, but, as I don't need the rest or food that others of my race, or even most of the other races within the Soal system, I am able to allocate more credits to be returned to my homeworld.
I am part of a group that worships Soal for it's power and all that it gives to us, and also, all that it takes from us also. Perhaps, that is why I am being called into the council chambers. Most of the others of my cast do not follow any form of worship. Many of the Ungali still follow other deities, we are not as advanced in some ways as the other planets in our system, but we are not without our technologies. I smile at the thought of some of the things that I had as a child.
I shake my head to clear it as I come up to the doors to the chamber. The guards open them upon my approach. I nod to both of them, and thank them as I pass, "Soal, bringer of light, may he bless you both for your dedication to your job." Neither one of them respond, but I see that the one on the left stand just a bit straighter. I smile to myself as I enter the chamber.
This is both a small private arena, and yet, can hold many of our cast at the same time. I have heard that some of the council chambers are very ornate places, but we know the value of the resources that we collect, so are not an ornate cast. I enter to the center spot, and stand in front of the three council that are there. I glance to the left and right, and see that two of the council are not there. This is a good sign, I do not believe that I am to be punished. Those council meetings always have all council members in attendance.
"Council of the Kazar, I, Ozar of Ungali, navigator of the Sea Horse, have come before you as requested. May Soal bless all in this room." I look at each of the members in turn. Council Sazar, who is sitting in the center is the third of the council, so, while what I have been summoned for is important for the cast, it is not enough to require High Council Benic to preside over the meeting.
Sazar speaks "Welcome Ozar of Ungali, son of Soal. We have summoned you here to task you with a new assignment. Will you accept?"
I cock my head slightly, my head fins betraying my confusion and curiosity. "Council Sazar, I am the cast's to command. Soal guides me to do what must be done for the Kazar's needs. I formally accept the new assignment." I nod my head in respect to the council. "Where am I to be assigned, and what duties am I to be required?"
Sazar chuckles lightly, and glances at the other two. "I told you he would be the correct choice. He has always followed orders." He glances at me "Although, sometimes, he as been very creative in following those orders." My head crest flattens to my head, am I being reprimanded for my creativity, or praised. I keep my voice to myself. "Ozar, we are sending you to help with the retrieval of resources on a newly dark section of Oqthcali. The planet has rotated slightly, and several sectors are now in full dark. Citizens were evacuated quickly, and in some cases, too quickly, as some very important items were left behind. You will report to the commander in charge of the retrieval."
I bow again, "As the council commands. I will travel there as quickly as possible." Sazar passes me an info chip with the information that I need on. I take the chip and look to each of the council members. They all nod to me and then turn to each other. That is my clue to leave. I turn and walk back to the doors, and they again open upon my approach. I stand tall and continue to stride down the hall, as I insert the chip into the reader on my arm. It displays the shuttle that I need to board, and where I am going. I have to concentrate to keep my tail from knocking things over as I walk.
I arrive at a compound near the newly dark side of the planet. There are several others that have arrived near the same time as I have. I stride over to the Abril who seems to be recording who is here. I wait my turn in the que, then step up, "Ozar of the Kazar reporting to the commander." The Abril barely looks up at me as he motions towards a door behind him. "That way, down the hall, and on the left." He makes a note on his tablet as I start to leave, "Soal's blessings upon you." I don't stay long enough to see his reaction.
I enter the building and go in the direction indicated, careful to keep my toe claws relaxed so that they don't cause any damage.
I enter the room, and there are seating pods for many. I look around, and see that each seat has a holo name on the desk in front of the seats. I raise my eyebrows in surprise, as the spot for me the seat is designed to accept my tail. I move to the spot with my name, and see two other empty seats near mine. I sit down and wrap my tail around the base of the seat, to keep it out of the way. I begin to study the information in the display before me.
While I was distracted the other seats in the hall fill, and shortly the commander comes in.
"Welcome. We have a dire situation on our hands. The information packet has told you about the latest quakes that caused Oqthcali to turn slightly. There are now new areas exposed to the light that were in the dark, and others that have been plunged into darkness. You all have been sent from your respective planets and casts to help out. You will be split into teams of three to investigate and retrieve the power systems from your sectors. Any questions?"
I receive this assignment with little question. It appears to be straight forward. We are given the information on what needs to be retrieved from our sector. Five of the power systems were left behind. I go to my assigned transport, and there I meet the other two members of my team.
Chronos and Kaylon'tar are the others on the group that I am assigned. We talk a little bit, mostly to know each others names. We quickly arrive at the gate to Sector Seven. As soon as we are through the gate, it slams shut behind us. I turn my head, and think to myself, <<So, are we prisoners now, or is there something in here they are trying to keep in. Not as straight a current as I had hoped.>> At the end of the street is a large armored thing just ripping apart some thraum. Thraum, concidered the bottom dwellers. Every egosystem needs the bottom dwellers. As we approach the first intersection, there is a group of 4 thraum standing around one of the power supplies that we were tasked with retrieving. Pulling on the power of Soal I reach out and try to lift the power supply. It was heavier than we were lead to believe. As the waves of light emit from my hand and wrap around the power supply, I speak to the thraum, "That is not your, by the Power of Soal, I command you to leave." Surprisingly, the thraum turn and move towards me. I am not concerned, as they are nothing more than a nuance. How wrong I was. One of the thraum laid his hand on me. I hadn't put up my shield yet. I was thrown back away from the thraum as images filled my mind, overwhelming me. My body seemed to be acting on autopilot. I moved back towards the power supply and started to lift it again. I really didn't see that another thraum was moving towards me.
Suddenly, I couldn't see anything, as I was blinded by a great light, different than that of Soals. I felt another touch and was again thrown back. I was fighting to clear my head of the images bombarding me. It seemed like from a great distance, I could hear someone telling me to do something. It was enough that I was able to put up my shielding so that I wouldn't be touched again.
I have no clear idea what has happened around me. Slowly the images began to fade as I picked up the power supply and moved it towards the gate. Chronos and Kaylon'tar informed me of what happened. I believe that it was unknown what the thraum could do with just a touch. Perhaps the Abril will learn more.
The large armored thing at the end of the street was subdued by Chronos. Chronos 'walked' through him and projected information for us. He was also dropped off by an official vehicle. This current has plenty of eddies and cross currents to navigate through. I let the others know "Other factions are out there, and perhaps there are splits in the ruling council, and instead of swimming with the school, they are swimming on the outside."
We return the power supplies, and takes a thraum and the armored guy back with us. Kaylon'tar is an abril, and they are all interested in gathering knowledge.
We shall see where the tide takes us. Lead on Soal, may your light guide the way.
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