A little bit of fun I devised to give the photo above some context:

None of my generation could remember how many years had passed since they had arrived: some said it must be 20; some thought at least 30; but the vast majority simply did not know.

Long enough certainly to have destroyed what had once been a thriving and successful society and long enough to have killed millions in an act of unprecedented intergalactic genocide, but not long enough to have completed whatever evil purpose drove them to travel across space, and some said even time, to our small planet.

No, our people were still fighting back, albeit in much smaller numbers than before and now operating almost solely in the outer lands as the Capital had long since fallen.

Rumours persisted though that the King had not been killed or even taken prisoner on that fateful day, but instead had escaped the palaces with most of his equestrian guard intact and was now planning an audacious mission in the warmer months of Rebirth to seize the Capital back.

For the moment though all my brothers and I could do was to try and survive another night: just one more night that was all we prayed for as we sought refuge in an abandoned peasant shack. These darken hours were once a time when here in the outer lands at least we could move around in relative safety, but that was before the drones, those damned inhuman and merciless drones, had arrived.

The invaders themselves appeared uncomfortable in the darken hours and that at first gave our people hope. However, that all changed when the drones were constructed and released into the countryside.

Initially, when they were first sighted we thought that they were purely of artificial intelligence and so simply followed predetermined plans, but it soon became clear that these drones had the ability to think independently and that made them as deadly an enemy as their masters: perhaps even more so.

Yet as callous and evil as they appeared to be we soon came to realise that these 'machines' were to be pitied as much as they were to be feared. For when the invaders first arrived, before releasing the drones, none of our people could understand why they were not only decapitating the fallen, but removing their heads from the battle. Did they merely take them as trophies in the way a huntsman would do or was there more to it?

Some thought they might be cannibalistic and perhaps that was even what had brought them here, but that made no sense to me as surely if that were the explanation they would remove the bodies away as well?

And still as unpleasant as these theories were, our people were still aghast when they discovered what was really behind the decapitations and that became clear when the first drones were brought down and captured. For there amidst all the wires, cables and circuitry encased and held in place within a chromium metal exoskeleton was a living brain.

Not an alien brain unrecognisable to us, but instead that of one of us, that of one of the many fallen that had fought and died across our land.

Our scientists still do not understand the technology and we are uncertain if they retain any of their past once encased and activated. One would hope not and certainly the thought of them being transformed into machines that have the sole purpose of killing their own whilst retaining some kind of awareness is so unpalatable to me and my brothers. However, the truth is simply that we do not know and that troubles us greatly.

So while we have become somewhat hardened to what they are we no longer celebrate when one is brought down and destroyed. Instead, if time allows, we offer up a prayer for the fallen and thank the gods that we ourselves have not succumbed.

In the same way that we pray here tonight, as we cower in this cold, damp and darken shack as the drones hum, hover and fly above us.

Please, please to the gods let us survive another night: just one more night.

*To be continued ... perhaps!