The shadow was seething over, beginning to cover everything. Darkness would follow as it always has.

We travel the stars, just to snuff them out. Wherever we go, darkness follows. Wherever we step, darkness follows. Wherever we look, darkness follows. Are we truly doing this for survival? To maintain and support our race? Or are we just a plague, creeping through the gray, and destroying the light. Our past is a darkness that we never want to return to. There is nothing there for us anymore. It is just bare, bare of everything that it once gave us. We thrived as a species, making and creating. But everything comes to an end, just as we had caused our own. Everywhere we went, destruction followed. Everywhere we stepped, destruction followed. Everywhere we looked, destruction followed. And yet, we still survived, following the pattern. We are doing whatever we can to survive, just as a virus does. Darwin had the right idea. Survival of the fittest. Paragraph from the Notes of Doctor Farsen

Ive stood here now, for an hour. Just staring out into the darkness. Theres nothing out there now. Emptiness stands where the stars once stood. Ive always wondered, is there something back there? Is there some monstrosity born from necessity back there, following and stalking us. Well, I guess we have always been running away. Weve always been scrambling away from death, and all of the horrors that go with it. Rats. Rats. Thats what were like. Always running from something, but always spreading. Spreading across every god damn thing it can get too. Life wasn't always like this. I remember when planets still existed as a place to live. Those days bring nothing but nightmares. But it was a sight better than what we had now. Humanity, as it always has, repeats history. First, it began when we suffocated our home, Earth. We thought that we learned our lesson and would never ever repeat the same mistake ever again. Oh, how wrong we were. Next came Damascus, then Helios 5, then Quaron. It continued, and continued, and continued. It spread like a disease wherever humans went. Horror and desperation spread through the galaxy. War, hunger, poverty. Every single iota of human darkness shined in this light. And the final straw, ho, the final straw was the Fall of Eden.

I remember it as if it was yesterday. No, thats bull crap. I remember it as if it just happened. That event is part of me now, and it will haunt me for the rest of my existence, words carved onto a grave. Most people will say what caused all of the FAR projects was the Dread Purge. Though it definitely did cause a lot of talk, it never would have done anything. Eden was the final push that changed all of humanity. Eden, the so called future planet. It was said to be designed for perfection, the perfect place for mankind. It was also Earth. White lab coats had finally come up with some technology that we could use to terraform Earth. With the terraforming, they used it to create the perfect place for humanity. Everything was designed to accommodate us. We were the baby and that was our cradle. Except, we were a really fat baby, and that cradle was extremely fragile. The life on Eden was good. The air was good, food was good, nothing bad happened. Though the population was still and always will be a problem, it was at that time controllable. But, like wood to a flame, life on Eden was about to get a lot worse. Everything went wrong. Everything. The crap the fan. The terraforming had done nothing than cover up Earth. It was still the same horrid planet underneath that we knew and loved. With us living on it again in this so called "future", we were only making the planet worse and worse. Finally, the planet imploded. Natural disasters became a common occurrence happening everywhere, all together. All finishing what we began. When it finally imploded, it killed most everyone. Only 2 percent of the population survived. I was one of them. One of the very few were evacuated in time. There was nothing I could have done, I was just trying to survive. Survive. Yes, that's what we always do. We always try and survive. Whatever the cost. God why. On that day, I was able to get to one of the evacuation crews fast enough. I left everything. I took nothing with, even though I had everything. Nothing. Nothing. Why didn't I just stay down there, why everyone else. Why should I have been the one to survive. As I looked back at the planet as I left, I saw its destruction. The planet was dying, destroying itself. After all of this, this will just be another asteroid belt. You know what's funny? Even with seeing

all of this, I didn't feel anything. No emotions. I just felt, nothingness. It wasn't until a few days later did I feel anything. And it broke me. Shattered, there was nothing there for me. I left it all. Everything. Dear God why. Why. I should have been done there... I should have... I... I.............. should have been with them. I have only one thing. A shell. After I broke, I just wandered listlessly. Horror. That was everything to me. The horror of hope. After the Fall of Eden, hope was gone. Mankind scrambled to survive, reaching for everything. War, hunger and famine. We repeated it all again. We became what we needed to be, to be in order to survive. There was no hope, no light shining through the darkness. Cruelty was the currency that ran everything. Round and round I spun, searching for something. Anything at all, because an empty grave should always be filled. Then came the P.A.C. projects. It was our last hope, even if we were capable of it. Governments made sun sized Arcks, capable of carrying the population of entire planets. Arcks looked so serene and hopeful. Just what we needed. Something else that we would end up screwing up. Arcks were supposed to be our salvation, having us ascend beyond our planetary dependence. Space would be our home, something that humans couldnt squeeze to death.