Existing, Expanse, Endless (Prologue)

From nothing else remembered, a beam of circular and indistinguishable forms in the vast darkness glinted a little light. Vague at first but the shape became sharper until a numerous setting of planets, moons and stars were brilliantly visible within areas of nothingness over the course of what seemed a very long, static time and acknowledged by an energy yet to be formed. The event was quick by human comprehension as if a dream, but the sense of its being was that of unknown spans of time. Time which had passed somewhere. Somehow far away, past the endless void underneath a formless expanse, marked a beginning of a vast number of points of life, light, and design. The darkness was of no being, a neutral force merely for space. The darkened planets seemed abandoned. But the suns were placed and in the distance they burned with an energy incorruptible. The creation had begun here. At this point in time that still was not of time. The flowing of this force continued within the setting of a new creation and harbored the stars and planets within the expanse of unknown size.

The empty space was the very outer part atop of a massive galaxy. And underneath the design was unfinished and unexplored. Still stirring from a dream, the body asleep was preparing to exist somewhere on one of the countless worlds within the galaxy below. A design that knows it belongs to a place of air, water, and other elements. In the deep travel through empty space harbored an overwhelming fear. But that fear is not named. It's unknown. But the strength of its presence brought a coldness that embedded itself into a primal sensory.

Where do we begin? The sleek design of a ship that seemed adrift with no signs of life or purpose was the only safe structure on a terrifying journey. Where was it going? The answer never comes or it foretold its own answer as the massive strange steel structure locked around some passageway that appeared to be nothing more than a thin shield of contained air between deep space and the dim deck of a drifting ship. The view of this outer space expanded and stretched until it disappeared into a warm sky with hues of light that contrasted strikingly as a formed world drew in another soul to inhabit a realm far beyond whatever it was that marked the beginning of the journey. Souls came to learn of the sounds and vibrations of natural movement of a world before being formed whole with it, within it and upon it. All souls were connected in many ways with a world.

Why are we here? And that too was a question that the universe would answer when journeys were taken. The creation of a few souls were given to a creator to take as his own, who received them as spiritual gifts from a long stagnant system that was formed at the very top of a galaxy. Too far up of all other planets and suns to be affected by any activity of the rest of the solar systems. Hidden and secure. Dark and foreboding. A fortress of space that was, by all appearances, truly alone. The journey from which would set apart these souls from being fully connected to any given planet. That something would be stirred when it was the right time for it. A strange way to defeat all fears once realized.

The forming of galactic kingdoms had been long in the making, gods created and populated many thousands of worlds. Created language and understanding and script. Life was boundless. There was no death. No destruction, and no true darkness. But in time entities of darkness emerged from the deep downward side of the galactic pole. They were foreseen by the creators. A will of death came with them. A will that found a way into the nature of the created worlds and especially to life on those planets. The design of an evil that wanted power over all in creation, as a way to control all things. And its very nature was oblivion and desired no creation but a low echo, in a deep unlit well having no substance. Just the vibration of a static, lifeless darkness.

Prepared to combat this, the gods created books and prophecies of all that would be found in the nature of unfolding events and the nature of beings that would come into contact and be afflicted by this evil. Even that worlds would die and be suspended in limbo and adrift. But there was always a plan. A pure and divine design to end this dark fate, that whatever was brought from its will, being death, would ultimately face its own ending.

Vast time spans passed upon a bright system of planets that started to experience this death without knowing what its true nature was, and therefore a multitude of reasons were pondered upon. The population was immortal, having been a part of their worlds since their beginnings. Renewing their life energies by way of light and grand works. Building and giving life. The gods had given their scripts and prophecies to the wisest rulers of these worlds. They knew that eventually death would visit them because of the stagnant nature of the galaxy's top and bottom points, and so prepared to pass down this knowledge that it was not an eternal fate. An energy that had not been built up enough. But time would have to play out in the design the gods had set up to succeed in the defeat of this evil. There was no way to combat something they had only begun to witness. All souls would still exist but pass to places where they could be safe until they'd return. The pathways were so complex that no living being could follow. There were battles in the skies and lands of many worlds, and battles in hidden away places. For the evil was known by some and fought on its own grounds that the spurious spirit had taken by force.

An old, yet beautiful system governed by the God of the Suns, being a favored creation having many millennia and people who were much-loved by their God was the setting of where the final steps of an ancient design would be realized. The first three worlds were in relatively close proximity; the giant world of oceanic plateaus, and mountainous rock, called Cova. A forest and cavernous world called Fiod. And a heavily forested world with several moons and an outer orbit to allow the far off second sun to shine on its surface at given times in its cycle around the main sun. This world was named Arca.

There were outer worlds and outer moons. All of these had been a focus of the evil that wanted them all under its shadow and its will. Throughout these worlds, various scribes and sages were heard speaking to the people about the prophecies and the will of death and how to speak against it. And if failed, that not all was lost. These teachings were passed down from scribe to scribe, from sage to sage. From parent to child.

In a small weakly structured chamber in the glow of forest lanterns upon the planet Fiod, a sage recalled the saga of the gods of the systems of planets. A tale about how they created everything they knew. The light dimmed outside and the sage's features grim in the waning light. It was advised to a small group of messengers to search Cova for a man called Rainier and give tidings of a ship hidden in a mountain alcove, that he would be shown a path to find its whereabouts. That it should be ancient but operational. Left there from the days of long ago when travel to the nearby worlds was a matter of day to day doings. That Rainier was to be known as a ranger of planets. That he could help bring about the end of the evil that had plagued Fiod. The name Rainier was given to identify the star child and connect him to an elusive future mission. But he would not hear of such things until much later.

The God of the Suns would have his messengers seek out Rainier but kept him hidden as a means to protect him and his living wavelengths that would eventually signal that death was being conquered. Nothing should be conceived of by any entity of death. An entity that was capable of focusing on and realizing practically every life in the double solar system. A natural course of things flowed easily. Life had to be felt as patterned. No plan was detected. None of it was sudden. Rainier was chosen, though he knew it not, to anchor a light that was to come. His very soul was designed as such. But he wasn't the only one. There were others. And they were hidden in these worlds. Having had long life already. They were of age and grace. But as most, still unaware of their destinies. A pattern of celestial knowledge and power in their cores. A time would come when instinct alone would define an outcome that was prophesied long before they ever came to be. They were the spiritual gifts to the God of the Suns. He placed them where he wanted them, with great knowing.

And so begins the saga of the Star Rangers...