Fozdak's
Opportunity
The crime which troubled nearly four million days of
history, and altered some of the customs of the sunnoadex for
evermore, was allowed to happen by a striking coincidence
of misfortunes.
Fyayman powers, encouraged by Syoom's absorption in the
mascon expeditions, and perturbed by Syoom's capacity to mount those
expeditions, had prepared an attack.
Society being healthy, and crime levels low, security
was lax around the Sunnoad and his palace in Skyyon. Security was
also lax around the installations he and his staff were using
for research and for the storing of secret intelligence concerning
the mascon worlds.
On one of the mascon worlds, a species of bird, made,
like the mascons, from partly degenerate matter and able thus to fly
through ordinary solids as though they were air, had been penned by
force fields so that scientists from Syoom could study them. The
bird-creatures were in a state of rage and, if released, were liable to
fly in any direction and wreak havoc.
Finally the presence of the warped genius of Nehal
Fozdak, the criminal mastermind who was determined to leave his mark on
history, ensured that the opportunity was taken.
Fozdak's Crime
He accomplished
the seemingly impossible. He arranged for the mascon-birds to be
released in such a way that they flew upward towards the Uranian surface
at a point in the mountains of Jersh; and at the same time he himself
wormed his way into the Sunnoad's quarters, murdered him and donned his
golden cloak and took his place.
Fozdak had had a long feud with
Sunnoad Ahim Trarv 77062, but it is unlikely that the killing was pure
revenge. It is more probable that Fozdak meant the impersonation
to last, and to take control of Syoom in the chaos that soon
ensued. For the mascon birds, as they shot out of the surface of
Ooranye and into the atmosphere which to them was like a deadly vacuum,
broke the mountains of Jersh in their throes, causing volcanic outbreaks
and signalling to the waiting Fyayman forces that it was time to
invade. The latter did so in force, and this, combined with the
havoc caused by the great birds, meant that this day, 13,324,486 Bi,
ended with an eomasp and was followed by day
one of the Polonium Era.
Fozdak's most evil act, however,
would have been repudiated even by his Fyayman allies, had they known
of his plan. For Fozdak had rediscovered the long-lost and
well-lost Corruption Ray, last heard of in the dawn of history in
era 7. To make sure of the chaos out which he planned to forge his
own regime, he released the Ray, in more concentrated form than ever
before. This event brought the Polonium Era to an end when it was
only two and a half hours old; yet another
eomasp wracked the minds and disturbed the
clocks of Syoom. Thirty-two minutes (the Astatine Era) the ray blazed; then it was
found and destroyed, and Fozdak driven into hiding. The end of the
broadcast of the Corruption Ray brought on another
eomasp, this time of relief, and yet another 1
day, 2 hours and 40 minutes later, after its influence had been
sufficiently shaken off for the horror to fall below the threshold of
despair (this short period of recovery counting as the Radon Era). None too soon. Fyayman forces were advancing, Syoom
was being invaded, and morale needed to be at its height in order to
save the situation.
>> Invasion
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