[ OT ] Sunday Free Write : The Elder Gods Edition

I may or may not be writing a space opera. 
 
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 The portrait showed a landscape of cerulean skies and sapphire rivers, of emerald trees that kissed the skies. Houses lined the shore, sparkling and pristine. 
 
 Verrick lowered the photograph, and his lips turned a moue at the harsh view that awaited him. 
 
 The lake was a dry and cracked bed of dirt and bones. The houses were gone, their foundations crumbled to near ash. Behind the cloud of brown smog, the sun beat ever on. 
 
 He wiped his visor for the third time that hour and turned on his heels, tucking the photo into his breast pocket. The others had fanned out, and were now combing the dead land. 
 
 `` There's nothing left,'' he muttered with furrowed brows. 
 
 `` You do n't know until you look,'' Shara chirruped over the comm unit. `` And besides. This is a rite of passage. Do n't you want to see the land you come from?'' 
 
 Verrick turned his back and started for the lake bed. He snorted, muttered, `` No one has been born on Earth in three hundred years. This is n't my land. Not entirely.'' 
 
 And truth be told, it was n't. He was half Volton, as most of the population was now. Both him and and their alien compatriots had lost many in the War of Earth. To diseases and weapons they fell. When the smoke cleared, there were few viable options left for the continuation of their species. Nowadays it was utterly normal to be of the two. Pure bloods were nearly nonexistent. 
 
 The lithe young man turned his eyes on the desert landscape as he walked. At the base of a hill, a statue peaked out, half buried in the sand. He slid down the brown sands for a better look. He'd never seen a human sculpture before. 
 
 The subject was a woman with haughty but pretty features. Her gaze was turned upwards, towards what Varrick did not know. Thin lips and doe eyes, features that stood the tests of time. Thus far. The upturned nose was cracked. 
 
 `` She's kinda pretty,'' he commented. `` Does anyone know who this statue is? Over by the lake?'' 
 
 At first, there was silence. He wondered if anyone had heard, and was about to repeat himself when Marv spoke up. 
 
 `` That's her. Queen Calla.'' 
 
 Varrick turned his gaze sharply to the woman. His jaw fell slightly as he drank in the sight of her. The Queen. First and last of her name, Calla. 
 
 Just over three hundred years ago, she had been the chosen one. The human who was deemed to be the purest of soul and mind, and made Queen to their benevolent ruler. Her twenty year reign brought peace to the entire galaxy. 
 
 A peace that came crashing down in a maelstrom of nuclear fire. 
 
 Calla lost her title when she was assasinated by an agent of Mallara, a human who was as brilliant as she was cruel. The books said that Mallara had been an assistant to Calla in her early days as Queen. The scientist had, in secret, made a pact with the mortal enemies of the Volton. Joton. A beastly race of aliens utterly despised throughout the galaxy. 
 
 Mallara came to contact their ruler, and offered him a deal. She would give him the key to bringing down the Volton... if he destroyed the Earth. 
 
 And so, trades were made. She gave him an unstoppable virus. He gave her the keys to the nukes. Billions perished in days. 
 
 They fled across the galaxy after their joint genocide, a failed endeavor. Queen Calla caught them and had them executed. Alas, an agent of the dead fiends stepped up to avenge their deaths. The Queen fell to his bullet mere days later. The population was plunged into a frenzy, fearful that another virus might strike their already waning numbers. It would be a century before peace found a foothold in their galaxy. 
 
 `` Why would a human want the Earth destroyed?'' He asked aloud. `` That does n't even make sense. Why would she turn to the enemy?'' 
 
 `` She was insane,'' Shara answered immediately. It sounded like verbatim of an age old argument. 
 
 Varrick rolled his eyes and scoffed. `` That's the lazy answer. And the obvious one. Really. Why?'' 
 
 Looking at Calla, he could only wonder. She had been a good and just Queen. The books said that. Just about eradicated disease and misfortune. So why would someone want her ( and the whole of Earth ) dead?
