Brian Bowhay bbow73@verizon.

net

FOR MATURE READERS

All characters and civilizations are purely fictional
and are in no way allegorical to any groups or
individuals, past or present.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

META-TRIBES #4 - LOSS

Her wine and honey will allay your fears,

And her beguiling voices charm your ears-
And when you’re sure that she will never show
Evil to you, she strikes the fatal blow.
Epic of Baal

THE PORT CITIES UNDER ATTACK

PAGE 1
“Seige engines are ripping through the city.”
“Maddow, why can’t we get through to central communications?” “The only thing working are the HCEs”
(Hand Crank Electrowaves) “We’re out of range.”

“Where are the guardians? We don’t know who is alive or dead.”

“Get everyone to city hall. We have to-”

Woman on the floor against a wall is screaming and convulsing like she is having an epileptic seizure.

she continues to thrash as she begins sliding up the wall off of the ground.
“What the fu-“

PAGE 2
She claws her own face and digs deep scratches
across her face and chest.

She pulls a fist full of hair off of her scalp with the
other hand.

Her eyes are white and she is foaming at the mouth.

There are three different voices coming out of her
throat.
“we will rape your cattle” “nihtiw sllewd ohw eh
ma I” “the ancient lover crows from the black
garden”

She stands with crooked posture flailing her limbs.

“Show us your children”
“ouy ot yrc I shtped eht fo tuo” “Our songs will kill
the canvases of time.”

A soldier is training his rifle on her and ordering her

to get on the ground.

PAGE 3
she grabs a pen and jabs it into his neck. “you
murdered us” “nepo lliw seiks eht dna”
“your gods will pave the streets of paradise.”

Other soldiers open fire on her.

she falls to the ground

“What the hell was that?” “Check Olberman, see if

he’s still breathing.”

The woman’s eyes open

PAGE 4
She springs off the floor and onto another soldier,

she is clawing his face and laughing.

She takes off his helmet

and begins bashing his head in. “We know where

you live” “skcor eht no sdaeh seibab ruoy sehsams
ohw eno oht no gnisselb a” “valleys filled with
blood, mountains smeared with entrails”

PAGE 5
Another soldier cracks her on the head with the butt of his rifle.
She falls to the side

and crawls into the corner of the room like a spider.

She is grinning with her head hanging crooked on a broken neck and hitting her own head with broken pieces of
furniture.

Everyone is shoving and stumbling out of the room.

PAGE 6
A group of soldiers are trying to stay together as they get out on to the street.
There are explosions going off in the city and rubble flying through the air.

pan out, The streets are littered with people panicking and being attacked by dozens of other that seem to be
possessed. There is a naked man with white eyes sitting on the ground crying and smearing feces on himself.
There is young boy behind him with a contorted face and green goo running out of his mouth down his chest.

pan out, city wide chaos

pan out, away from the port cities with pillars of smoke

DAHUD AND LUNA

PAGE 7
Wide shot of the Kayn Mountain.
Moving in there is a single opening in the cliff face
with no land access.
The opening is elaborately chiseled out of the rock
face. There is a goose sleeping in a little doggy bed.
Dahud, “Not that it’s any of your business, but yes.
I’ve made jewels before, but this has many different
colors. It is so small that I am having a hard time
focusing.”
Esh’la, “So this is how you have been spending your
time.”

Close up, Dahud is looking through a magnifying

glass at a jewel. He is smiling.

Pan out, Dahud’s dwelling is not huge but filled with

comfort, decorated with gold leaf, cedar panels, red
and purple linen and a large fire pit. The walls, floor,
ceiling, all have been chiseled and artistically
sculpted.

Esh’la approaches from behind. “Something special

for your special friend?”

PAGE 8 Dahud sits up, no longer smiling, “is there

something I can do for you?”
Esh’la, “…How do you think this is going to end?”

Dahud, “She will say yes?”

Esh’la, “She is an outsider. Your purpose is
incompatible with her. The two of you have
separate devotions that are fixed and
irreconcilable.”

Dahud, “I’ve made my peace with the great one.”

Esh’la, “…you won’t have peace.”

Dahud, “What was it you told me, ‘El is not a

respecter of bloodlines’; ‘I was anointed into office
as was my predecessor as will be my successor’,
Um what else? ‘It’s the House of El not the House
of Dahud’.”

Esh’la, “I don’t think any good can come of it.”

Dahud, “those are your words, what does the voice
say.”

The room goes dim, Esh’la lifts her head and her
eyes illuminate.

Esh’la, “…she is in trouble, …she is going to die.”

Dahud, “WHAT?!?!? Can I save her?”

Esh’la, “…no”

PAGE 9
MERANTI INVASION
The sky is bright blue; there are dozens of alien vessels filling the sky. The ships are more like deep sea
monstrosities than machines, although they belching smoke and bleeding oil. Huge pillars of smoke stretch into
the stratosphere.

Dahud is flying as fast as an Arabian stallion and makes a B-line for the destruction.

Flying around the towers of smoke looks anxiously at the explosions going off in the city.

Dahud dive down into the inner city.

Close up of Dahud’s face, he is in horror.

Smoke and cinders are bellowing over him. Buildings are crumbling around him.
PAGE 10
Dahud hears the ambient snaps of gunfire in the distance, He runs towards it. (high up behind him there is the
back half of a horse sticking out of a wall).

He passes a window where a mother can be seen attacking her own children. The children are holding her off
with a chair and a shovel.

He comes to a group of soldiers at a traffic circle

with a large fountain sculpture in the center. The
soldiers are armed with bolt action carbine rifles.
They are shooting towards a 12 foot perfectly round
opening that has been gouged through a building.

Dahud looks down, there are humanoid faces

sprouting out of the ground on thick eel like stalks.
Dahud’s face expresses horror and confusion.

He hears thunder and looks up.

Dahud sees a cluster of airships in the distance; they

look like a swarm of flies. There is someone
fighting them.

Dahud flies up for a closer look, it is Luna. She is

covered in soot and blood. She is blindly shooting
lightning bolts at ships and punching things.

PAGE 11
The ships look like six-eyed black sharks with glowing multicolored coral/vessels growing out of their flesh like
an infection. Their mouths are filled with bugs, and spiny polyps. Under the dorsal fin there is a translucent
pod where a fishy face with a head of long hair can be scene. She blasts a ship apart.

The pieces separate and reattach to other ships, forming even more perverse abominations.

Luna sees her lover, “Dahud!!!”

Dahud, “Luna, we have to get out of here!”

Luna, “I cannot leave my people!”

Suddenly they are engulfed in a shadow of an enormous craft. It is the size of a football field.
PAGE 12
An orifice opens and something like a reptilian embryo with webbed spines on trailing tentacles slides out; it is
the size of a bus.

It slams into Luna; she is stuck to its mucus lined surface. They are hurled to the ground.

Dahud makes pursuit. There is a trail of sticky spores sloughing off of it.

The think hits the ground with an explosion before Dahud can catch up.

PAGE 13
AFTERMATH
Wide shot, a hillside over looking the destruction. The skies are clear of the invaders. The city is in ruins. As
far as the eye can see there is desolation. People wander like ghosts, they are in shock. Mothers hold dead
babies with vacant expressions.

One top of the hillside Luna is sitting on a rock. Dahud has six people laid out, he is checking each one of
them.
Dahud, “I came as soon as I heard you were under siege, when I got to you the cities were already lost. If I had
stopped to gather other champions you may had been killed, I wouldn’t had been able to forgive myself.

Luna has a blank expression and is absent mindedly twirling her hair around her fingers. She is staring at a little
monkey wearing a red vest and matching hat, it is backed in a corner, shaking with fear.

Dahud, “There is a healer in Kayn. She’s kind of a recluse, her gift left her with a strange visage and stranger
politics. It might take some…convincing.”
PAGE 14
Luna is mumbling, “…my people”
Dahud, “Do you know why they did this? How did
it start?”

Luna, “we were building a bridge today.”

Dahud, “A bridge? Luna, listen…we need to
organize refugee camps, your people will need
medicine, clean water...defenses!”

Luna, “so much suffering, how can there be so

much suffering in the world?”
Dahud, “Luna…”

Luna, “They should have finished the job…”

She darts off into the sky.

Dahud, “Hey!” he flies after her, “what are you

doing?”

PAGE 15
FLASHBACK, DAHUD FOLLOWS LUNA
Dahud is flying next to Luna.
Luna: “I need more power, and I know where to get it”
Dahud, “Would you stop and tell me what’s going on?”

Luna, “If I told you that there was a way to make this all better, would you help me?”
Dahud, “of course I would…”

Luna, “In the north there is a ziggurat, it is unclaimed but for some ruins. That should be all I need”
Dahud, “need for what?”

She accelerates faster.

Dahud pursues.

They arrive at the overgrown wreckage of a wooded town.

Dahud, “what is this? How did you know about this place,” she keeps walking. “this is where you are from…
this is where your tribe came from.”

PAGE 16
Luna, “not anymore…they were bad people.”
Dahud, “bad people, is that why this place is a ruin? Did some of your people do this?”

Luna, “well, you can ask them yourself…” Dahud looks up,

there are dark figures descending around them.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PART 2: VYRISS
PAGE 1

Vyriss is riding on Tijan’s shoulder. Indar’s assault

has brought them in visual range of the wall
surrounding Nin’eva. Tijan is cutting across the
enemy ranks. He is shooting eye beams, using energy
shields against incoming ordinance, kicking, swatting,
and stomping.

Vyriss is shooting people out of the air that get too

close and sniping people at a distance that pose a
serious threat.

Vyriss, “Okay, that’s close enough. Make it look

good.”

Tijan pulls a bomb off his belt and throws it towards

the main gate.

Tijan, “Let’s do it.” Tijan lifts another bomb up to his

shoulder;

Vyriss jumps on and holds on tight.

PAGE 2
Tijan throws the bomb.

The Nivians are shouting, “incoming!!!” and diving

and ducking for cover.” The bomb goes over the
wall and

Vyriss lets go.

She arches backwards and falling head first and

eight translucent appendages shoot out of a
compartment on her back. They are jagged spidery
looking protrusions.

Vyriss flies close to the roof tops

and through a hole in the wall of the Nivian ziggurat

made by Tijan’s bomb.
PAGE 3
NIN’EVA
Ash’Eshur, “I spliced a trace off the giant. ‘V is in
the air, start the clock’ just after he threw the
bombs.”

Sha’Rukien is silent and motionless for a moment,

“What is the latest report from the Spy-Well?”

Ash’Eshur, “Sushanese delegates negotiated an

exchange of a high yield weapon for a meta-
enhanced terrorist.”

Sha’Rukien turns to alarmed rage, “There is a

plague in Susha!!!; they could have just delivered a
bio-weapon!!!”
Sha’Rukien looks at the hole in the wall of the
temple. “I will divine a trail,

but Persica will pay highly for their audacity. Pour

everything on their favorite son, I don’t care what it
costs, kill Indar.”

PAGE 4
VYRISS INFILTRATES THE NIVIAN ZIGGURAT
The city is empty, everyone is out fighting.

Nin’eva is bizarre, there are monuments made out of skulls, human skins hang on the walls like tapestries.

She enters the Ziggurat.

Deep inside the Ziggurat Vyriss sees terrible things. There are rows of people strapped to tables in different
stages of mutilation. There is an insect like vivisectionist poking an old man’s eye ball.

Another man’s crotch is gone; nothing but tubes and wires protrude and connect to a console on the ceiling.
Part of another’s gut is out, with clamps on it and syringes in it.

A woman’s left hand has all the meat striped away. A man’s right leg passes though a glass box is a rodent
inside. In the corner there is a monkey strapped into an electric chair with a human head sewn to the top of its
head.

Vyriss passes a collection of plants that have human body parts growing off of them.

She sees Luna suspended in a bio-tube.

PAGE 5
THE WRATH OF SHA’RUKIEN
Vyriss is in a dark tunnel with a woman over her shoulder, dust and rubble is falling from the ceiling.
There is loud rumbling in the back ground.
Tijan, on the com-link, “Vyriss, Indar is down. We are losing our ride. Get out of there now!!!”

Vyriss is double timing down a corridor.

Suddenly a lone silhouette, 20 meters away, occupies her exit.

Vyriss has never seen her before, but some how she knows…it is Sha’Rukien, the sorceress of Nin’eva.

Seconds seem like an eternity, Vyriss’ brain is screaming at her to act. Vyriss’ veins fill with adrenaline.

Vyriss drops Luna off her shoulder and begins to retrieve one of her micronized weapons.

Before Luna’s body hits the floor Sha’Rukien has her hand around her throat.
Sha’Rukien, “PERSICAN BITCH!!!” (there are strange glyphs over every piece of Sha’Rukien’s armor)

Sha’Rukien smashes Vyriss’ head through a stone wall.

Vyriss, “ahhhhg---”

PAGE 6
Vyriss decompresses a sword and mace from out of her cache.

Sha’Rukien grabs the sword with her left hand by the blade

and twists it around her forearm like it was a ribbon,

Sha’Rukien back hands the mace with her right hand and smashes it.

Vyriss ignites a jet that shoots her down to the corridor, trying to get distance between them.

Vyriss decompresses a massive weapon that is mounted on her shoulder and a tripod.

Vyriss fires and hits Sha’Rukien square in the chest knocking her to the ground.

PAGE 7
Vyriss shrinks down in size and tries to flee.

Sha’Rukien gestures towards the exit and it becomes a stone wall. Vyriss hits the wall

and returns to normal size,

she immediately starts decompressing everything in her arsenal; armor, shields, guns, knives.
Vyriss, “Come on! Come on! Come on!”

Sha’Rukien is getting up, she is smoldering and charred.

Sha’Rukien, “…dogs will f--- your corpse, s--- in your skull…”

Sha’Rukien’s right gauntlet dons glowing pentacles.

She makes stone blocks move out of the walls and hit Vyriss.
PAGE 8
Vyriss shoots three tethered orbs at her.

They wrap around Sha’Rukien’s left guarding arm

and explode.

Out of no where Sha’Rukien is on her again.

Vyriss has a hand gun and shoots Sha’Rukien in the left temple at point blank range.

The bullet rears Sha’Rukien’s head but ricocheted off.

PAGE 9
Sha’Rukien starts boxing Vyriss relentlessly.

Vyriss’ armor is cracking,

Sha’Rukien tears pieces of it off.

Vyriss holds up her guard, Sha’Rukien hits her so hard that Vyriss’ gauntlets and helmet crack.

Vyriss touches the comlink on her helmet.

Vyriss, “Tijan…hel-.”

Sha’Rukien punches Vyriss in the head and her helmet cracks apart.
Electrical sparks are snapping everywhere.

PAGE 10
Sha’Rukien has Vyriss by the hair

and leans in close. Sha’Rukien’s iron mask is touching Vyriss’ cheek.

Sha’Rukien, “You smell like a whore.”

Vyriss has a dagger in her left hand and lifts it with feeble strength.

Sha’Rukien grabs Vyriss’ left wrist,

lets Vyriss’ hair go, and grabs Vyriss’ cheeks forcing open Vyriss’ mouth.
Sha’Rukien, “It’s time for you last meal.”

Sha’Rukien starts forcing Vyriss’ dagger into her mouth with her own hand.
Vyriss’ face is swollen, bruised, and bloodied; her eyes are filled with tears.
Vyriss, “Gog! nooo pwease….”

Suddenly Sha’Rukien’s muscles are locked up, she begins smoking and sizzling and then falls to the floor.

Vyriss looks over, Luna is on the ground holding a power line in one hand and grabbing on to Sha’Rukien’s
ankle with the other.
Luna says softly in an emotionless expression, “that won’t keep her down for very long…”

PAGE 11
WELCOME TO PERSICA
Luna is being treated in the Persican Basilica.
Saimak: “How are we feeling today?”
Luna says in a cold tone: “I’m alive.”

Saimak: “good, well, if they haven’t already told you, you are in one of Persica’s finest hospitals, I’m the chief
of internal security. I’m sure you have a lot of questions, I can help with that, and there are a few questions I’d
like to ask you as well.”
Luna becomes very hostile: “An interrogation? I’m not one of them.”

Saimak changes his tone to a whisper, “It’s okay, I know. I know you’ve been through a lot. You must be a
very special girl to have made it out of there, but it’s over now.

Everything is going to be okay now.”

Luna looks away.

PAGE 12
Saimak resumes a casual tone and pats his knees, “Well, um, I just have to go through some motions to make
my many bosses happy. Here, I brought you some tea.”
Luna goes back to being merely cold in her tone: “Fine”

Saimak: “I’m here because you spent some time in the Nivian ziggurat. Now, the guys that sign my checks
really want to know how you got there, but why don’t we start with some introductions? My name is Saimak.”

Luna says nothing.

Saimak, “I noticed your bracelet, it’s a coastal design right?”

Saimak, “Are you from B’Shemah…Romati…?”

Saimak gives a slight smile, “I’ve never been to any of the sea cities, but I’ve heard it’s nice. This tea is from
Streinko. It was expensive, but the clerk told me it’s some of the last tea we’ll see from that region for a while.
It’s a little spicy for my tastes-”

Luna, “Nidasta”
Saimak, “Hmm?”

Luna, “My name is Nidasta.”

PAGE 13
SPARING
Soldiers are practicing sword techniques in the courts.

Vyriss is sitting next to Luna; they are wearing training padding and covered in perspiration.
I thought I was in love with him, but when I needed him the most…he just stood there…and watched.
He said that he loved me, how could someone that says that just leave you?”

Close up of Vyriss’ face, something is deeply bothering her

“Sometimes we have to put our responsibilities to the greater good above our own feelings! Excuse me; I’m
late for a meeting.”

Luna is caught off guard by V’s sudden cold tone, “…?”

PAGE 14
DEBREIFING IN PERSICA
Tijan, Khutran, and Khelar are sitting a long table in the front of a small debriefing room. The table has white
linen and a silver pitcher and platter for water. Several officers are seated in the center of the room in a square
configuration. Vyriss is seated among them.

Chairman Khelar: “…therefore officers will neither confirm nor deny the death of Indar.”
Vyriss is very upset.

Chairman Khutran: “On a side note, the armor of Indar has been taken. Although there will be an investigation,
it is of little consequence, the armor was designed specifically for Indar’s unique gene therapy, the armor will
most likely kill anybody else that tries to wear it.
Tijan, “It’s only a matter of time before a body turns up wearing the armor.”

Khelar, “We don’t have it in our budget to grow a special culture of blank soldiers; our engineers hope that we
may have one blank that can grow a positive interface for the Indar battle armor by the end of the quarter. The
Nivian boasts of having killed Indar will be dismissed as propaganda.”

Khutran: Agent V, we are still waiting for your report on your infiltration of the Temple of Nin’eva. You will
submit that report before any private contracts are approved.

PAGE 15
VYRISS IN ANTAKYA
Vyriss lights a candle (montage, panning up from a scene in a tavern)
(background talk) Can you believe it? Nisrokh took out Indar. He’s buying drinks for everyone in our company.
No, I don’t believe it. Old stony? Buying drinks?

(Vyriss’ narration)
On the 3rd day of the new moon,
In the season of harvests,
5th year of Khelar Zu Mazda,
456 years after the fall of the gods,

the light of our beloved champion, Indar, was extinguished.

The empire mourned, not for the loss of our defender, but for the humiliating defeat that was suffered.
There was no mention of his name, valor, virtue, or years of loyal service.

I killed the vultures that ate his flesh,

emptied their entrails

and sent what remained of Indar to ascend into the endless cosmos,
the underworld would have no claim on our shining hero.
PAGE 16
I saw the face of his killer,
burned the image into my mind,

followed him, as many soldiers go after a battle, to Antyhk,

to the House of Drinking Contest.

In a dark room I removed my armor

placed a cold dagger against my breast

and wrapped myself in silk and Myrrh

I watched as he drank

and in a dark room I poured his wine

alone in a dark room I gave him more…

and more…

and more…