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  As Caros thought about his tender, first kiss with his beloved under a tree, tears formed in his eyes. As he thought about how he rained hot, passionate kisses on his beloved during their nuptial night, he was sobbing his heart out. Her tender, loving care while he was sick in bed stole his heart completely. Caros looked up into the sky and thought he saw his beloved smiling down at him. A deep choking sound came from his throat. He shouted out long and loud, releasing days of pent-up grief. An echo could be heard far away in the mountain valley. Isis stood some distance away and witnessed this sad scene. She was the nanny employed to look after Veah.

  Caros was very unhappy with Veah as he thought that his son had caused the death of his beloved. Hence, he did not bother much with Veah, leaving the child-raising responsibility to Isis and the many servants in his house. He took to drinking and did not bother about other things anymore, including his family business. His Renada Goron wine was the most sought-after alcoholic drink in the whole of Goron. His family was one of the wealthiest in the whole of Goron.

  Nine years later.

  Late into the night, Veah sat by his tiny table reading an old worn-out book which his friend lent him. It was a Goron alphabet book. The faint candle light on his table flickered unsteadily. He had started the day fetching water from a nearby hill, making a total of three trips. The cattle in the barnyard had to be fed twice daily. He had to take care of the three meals now that there was not a single servant left in the house. All of them had left after Veah’s father could not afford to pay them anymore. Veah chopped all the firewood during the afternoon, when he found spare time in between cleaning the many bedrooms in the house. Looking at the Goron alphabets in his book, Veah thought the alphabets seemed to be dancing, his eyelids weighed heavy.

  On the next day, Veah left his house early to buy breakfast. The landlord came knocking on the door. Veah’s father answered the door.

  “When are you going to pay up? Three months’ rent is overdue. If you don’t pay up by tomorrow, I will chase you out of my property!” the landlord warned and left. Veah’s father was worried that he could not pay the rent. He started to think about how to raise thirty Goron dollars, for that was the total amount of the overdue rent.

  Veah was walking along the dusty road clutching a small packet of brown bread under his arms. He had bought it cheaply from the cattle-feed vendor. This type of bread was meant for feeding cattle and was made from mouldy flour. Veah was going to eat this bread for his breakfast!

  As he neared a bend of the dusty road, he saw a Goron nobleman walking along with his son, holding his son’s hand. Goron noblemen generally wore a strip of red headscarf around their heads, a sign of their noble heritage, while the common folk dispensed with such formality. At this instant, the little Goron was not careful to step into a depression on the road and hurt himself. The nobleman bent down quickly to attend to his son, wiping away the blood on his son’s foot and using his headscarf to bandage up the wound. Afraid his son would catch a cold from the strong wind blowing at that moment, the nobleman took off his outer garment to cover his son. He lifted up his son and carried him in his arms and walked away into the distance. This act of fatherly love left a deep impression on Veah. Dust particles got into Veah's eyes and some tears formed naturally.

  As Veah walked further on, he met Isis, his former nanny. Isis was carrying a basket with food bought from the market. When Isis saw Veah, she did not recognise him at first. Veah called out to Isis, only then did she recognise his voice. She was shocked to see Veah in such a state of neglect. She was even more shocked when she learnt that Veah was going to eat animal feed for breakfast. Isis had great difficulty controlling her tears! She quickly took some food from her basket and gave it to Veah, telling him to eat these instead. Isis also took out an old photograph of Veah's mother and gave it to him.

  "This is your mother, keep it well," said Isis.

  Veah looked at this photograph for a while and gazing up at Isis, nodded his head. He kept this photograph in his pocket. Veah walked hurriedly home as he was afraid his father might scold him for loitering outside. Isis was already in tears as she watched Veah disappeared round the corner of the sandy road. Just when he stepped into his house, his father called out to him from the bedroom.

  "Where have you been?"

  "To buy bread."

  "Forget the bread! We are running late. Follow me."

  His father walked out of the bedroom, already dressed in street clothes. He took a few more steps and was out of the door. Veah dumped the mouldy bread and food on the table and ran after his father. He tried hard to keep up with his father's pace. Veah was stumbling along the uneven road and his stomach was one big vacuum. He was having trouble keeping up with his father, who was walking ahead at a fast pace. Only now and then did his father turned back to look at him, hurrying him along. A cold wind started to blow at this moment. Leaves rustled on trees by the roadside. It was nearing the end of the summer season, going on to autumn. The Goron climate resembled terrestrial climate to a large degree. The sky was overcast. Rain was expected any moment now. The cold wind bit into Veah’s skin and he shivered.

  Veah had not eaten a proper meal for many days and he was panting as he hurried to catch up with his father. Dressed in a shabby outfit and having walked for more than five kilometres, his tears were beginning to form in his eyes. When he reached a particular bend of the dusty road, he was not careful to step into a small depression and fell into the roadside drain. He picked himself up and sat by the roadside, looking down at his feet. One of his feet was bleeding badly. His father turned around, looked at him, scolded him for being slow, and carried on his way. The touching scene of the nobleman who bandaged up his son’s wound and carried him in his arms flashed through Veah’s mind and he could not stop his tears streaming down his face. Veah quickly brushed away the blood on his foot and the tears from his eyes using his bare hands, leaving a bloodied mess on his face. He had no time to clean himself and stumbled after his father.

  Not long after, father and son arrived at a run-down building. It was a two-storey, gloomy-looking building, which had green mosses growing all over on its wall. Veah could smell the bad odour coming from the interior of this building. Once they stepped inside this building, he saw many dark shapes moving about. It was dim inside. Once his eyes adjusted to the surroundings, he could see better. These dark shapes were ugly aliens moving from one slave-trader to another. He had entered a slave-market, trading in young aliens! These young aliens were either orphans or abandoned by their parents. They were too young to fend for themselves and had no one to depend on. Some of them were sold to unscrupulous traders by their parents for meagre returns. Looking at them each with a price-tag hanging on their necks, their eyes with no spirit, their faces with no emotion, Veah trembled with fear.

  "Hurry up, come here," his father called out to him. Veah staggered his way towards his father and stood behind him. His father was talking to a slave-trader and trying to bargain for a good price to have him sold! Finally a deal was struck and the slave-trader took out a price-tag and hung it around Veah's neck. His father took the money, put it into his pocket and walked away hurriedly without even turning his head back to look. Veah stretched out his hand towards his father and opened his mouth to call after him but no sound came forth. Long after his father left, before he was able to utter some sound, then he gave out a heart-wrenching sob, and his tears started streaming down his face.

  A roaring, lion-face buyer was at the next stall, looking over a trembling, young alien. This lion-face monster kept pinching the young alien's arms and body to feel the muscles. It was thinking of buying a beast of burden to help with the manual work on its vegetable farm. After paying the money to the slave-trader, this lion-face monster dragged the young feeble alien away. Before going away, it turned its head and looked at Veah. It lifted its head and roared, typical of the Big Cats. Veah was frightened out of his wits. He quickly turned his head away. His heart nea
rly leapt with joy when he saw his father coming towards him. Tears started to well in his eyes again.

  "You have only given me forty Goron dollars! We agreed on fifty! Look," his father opened his palm displaying some currencies, confronting the slave-trader. He stared at the slave-trader who stared in return at the money in his hands, making a quick mental count. The slave-trader quickly gave him more money. After pocketing the money, Veah's father walked away without looking back, just like before. Veah trembled with deep anger. He turned his head away and refused to look at his father's departing form. His heart broke into a thousand pieces!

  At this moment, a loud explosion was heard and the whole building shook violently. Big cracks started to appear on the floor and some of the walls began to tumble. Everyone was hysterical and ran to the nearest exit to get out of the building. Veah rushed to the exit on his left and ran for his life. It was a mass exodus of aliens from the building. Every living creature fought to be the first to get out of this crumbling building. Veah followed the crowd and finally ran out of the building before the entire structure began to collapse.

  At one corner of the building, a fire started to burn. It quickly spread to other parts of the building. A wall tumbled down and buried a few aliens. Cries for help were heard. Screams followed. One young alien was too shocked to move and simply sat on the ground and cried. It appeared to be a young female alien judging from her crying. On his way out of the collapsing building, Veah came across this alien and scooped her up in his arms and carried her along. After running down the last flight of stairs via the emergency exit, Veah ran out safely onto the main road. He looked around him and spotted a pile of big boulders near a deserted building. Panting heavily, he picked his way up the gradual slope lined with many small pebbles towards this pile of boulders. He hid behind it, put down the young alien and sat down to catch his breath. He was exhausted from this ordeal. This shabbily dressed young alien looked up at Veah with teary eyes. She had stopped crying and kept stroking Veah’s arms. Feeling pity for her, Veah hugged her close and patted her back.

  When Veah raised his head to look at the sky, he was stunned beyond words! He saw three gigantic robots wreaking massive damages everywhere by firing their photon beams. Two of these robots each had a photon gun attached to its right arm. The third robot, which looked like a massive scorpion, was firing photon beams from its tail. Many nearby buildings crumbled under this onslaught of firepower. Children were fleeing for their lives. Adults flew off in their space shuttlecrafts.

  Suddenly, he thought he heard his father calling him.

  "Veah! Veah! Where are you?"

  He ran out quickly from where he was hiding and picked his way towards the direction where his father's voice came from. The air was filled with dust and vision was bad. Slowly, his father's voice sounded nearer and louder. Only a few steps more, Veah thought, and he would be able to find his father. Just at this moment, the scorpion swept its tail around and knocked against a building, breaking down several walls and sending rubbles flying all over. Veah looked up and saw a big chunk of rock crashing down on him! Terror was written all over his face. When he thought his head would be squashed to meat pulp by the falling rock, suddenly, a big shadow covered his body. It was his father!

  It was the first time his father hugged him, and they saw each other eye to eye. His father smiled weakly at him. Veah could see some blood oozing out from the corner of his father's mouth. Time ticked by slowly. His father gradually closed his eyes and appeared to be in extreme pain, before spitting out a copious amount of blue blood onto the ground. He released his hold on his son and lay on the ground unconscious. Veah clutched at his father and cried and cried, until he was hoarse, until no more sound came from his mouth.

  At the security outpost on top of the Morogon mountain, one officer was desperately trying to contact the Inter-galactic Council.

  "Transmission failed, seems to be some kind of magnetic storm in quadrant LX985," reported the Goronite officer.

  "Quick, switch to low-frequency radio waves, these monsters will tear us apart if we don't get help soon," urged the chief-officer.

  "Begin low-frequency radio wave transmission," said the junior officer.

  "Mayday. Mayday. We are under attack on planet Goron! Please save us!" messages were transmitted at regular intervals into outer space.

  "Hope somebody pick up the message," the chief-officer said gravely.

  A Vokon battleship convoy was travelling in deep space at sub-light speed. On a patrol mission sent by the Inter-galactic Council, it was heading for an outlying region in the Pollux star system, where a roaring slave trade was going on. This region was notorious for black-market trading in aliens.

  This Vokon battleship convoy consisted of a main battleship, two auxiliary battleships and approximately one hundred escort fighter-crafts. The main battleship took the form of a long cylinder with a nicely proportioned sphere at the anterior. At its posterior were afixed with three small cylinders for fuel exhaust expulsion. A large, round wheel was attached by three spokes to the middle of the cylindrical body of the main battleship. This wheel added an awesome dimension to an otherwise sleek and slim battleship. The whole convoy’s exterior was built with a yellow material which had an unusual sheen.

  About half the size of the main battleship, the auxiliary battleship took the form of a sting ray with a rather long pointed tail behind. It had two triangular flaps elevated to about thirty degrees from the horizontal. It's anterior was slightly humped where the command deck was situated. A laser gun was attached to the underside of the auxiliary battleship, making it looked like a ferocious predator.

  Each escort fighter-craft was about one-quarter the size of an auxiliary battleship. It had a U-shape base with a transparent cockpit at the front and a weapon gun supported by an inverted V-shape rod behind. It had two fuel chambers at the tips of the U-shape base. Although much smaller in size than the main battleship, it made up for it in numbers. There were close to one hundred of these escort fighter-crafts.

  Inside the command deck of the main battleship, Vokon commander Kohn was looking at the navigation console. This creature had an elongated face with a pointed chin. A pair of narrow eyes were slanted upwards and it had no eyebrows. It had a large fish fin on either side of its head. The skin on its body was dry and reptilian-like. It was bald, had a short neck and stood at two metres tall.

  Vokon communication officer, Lieutenant Sorog, signalled an alert.

  "Commander, we receive a distress signal."

  "Where's it coming from?"

  "From sector P540, planet Goron."

  "Set course for sector P540. Full speed ahead."

  "Yes commander."

  This Vokon battle fleet headed for planet Goron, not knowing what lay in store for them. Long before they reached Goron, Lieutenant Sorog again signalled an alert.

  Inside the Vokon main battleship.

  "Commander, three metallic objects detected in sector P540, heading towards us."

  On the Big Screen, three tiny metallic robots slowly grew, and grew until they turned into three enormous robots!

  "Open communication channel."

  "Channel opened."

  "This is Commander Kohn. Identify yourself. Who or what are you?"

  "Commander, we are being scanned by sensor beams and I’m getting an audio signal," Sorog reported.

  "Life-forms detected. Search and destroy!" Omegaton-1 declared.

  "How dare you deny our existence!" Vokon commander Kohn was fuming. He took a deep breath and let out a big gust of air. Both of his fish fins by the side of his head were flapping back and forth.

  "Search and destroy!" Omegaton-1 repeated. These words were echoed by Omegaton-2 and Omegaton-3.

  "You are the three stupidest robots in the universe to make me angry!" Kohn was furious. His fish fins were flapping more rapidly now. His subordinate, Sorog, looked around the command deck and saw all Vokons breathing heavily and their fish fins flapp
ing rapidly by the side of their heads.

  Omegaton-1 carried an array of ten arrow detonators on its back. Laid out nicely in an arc, these arrows were stuck onto a special magnetic carrier with grooves made specially for them. Upon activation of this weapon, the magnetic carrier separated into two and lifted itself slightly above Omegaton-1’s shoulders. These two weapon carriers then switched into a horizontal position and took aim at the Vokon main battleship! Two arrow detonators flew towards the main battleship at ultrasonic speed. A series of violent jolts rocked the main battleship as it was being hit by the arrow detonators shot by Omegaton-1.

  Omegaton-2 carried a large, crescent metallic cutter on its back. This cutter had a cutting edge of one kilometre with jagged, razor-sharp teeth and looked deadly even to the most well-equipped battleship. Omegaton-3 was fashioned like a scorpion, except that it stretched for twenty kilometres from its head to the tip of its tail. It had two powerful pincers, one on either side of its body and some kind of weapon-like protrusions inside its pincers.

  "All stations, take up Torrent Battle Formation! Shoot the enemies!" Kohn issued battle orders with vehemence.

  "Yes commander!" Major Thor and Major Sonia obeyed.

  "Lieutenant Sorog, maximum power to deflector shield," Kohn ordered.

  "Yes commander!"

  Major Thor and Major Sonia were the commanding officers of auxiliary battleship-1 and auxiliary battleship-2 respectively. After the battle order was given, the two auxiliary battleships took a portion of the escort fighter-crafts and went for a direct confrontation with the Omegatons.