((A/N: for this entry I used the pictures 3, 4 and 9. The .GIF with the chicken robots stomping through a town, the skeletons and the woman in a black cloak with the mysterious figure.))

Vinjia raised her hand to her smooth head. Not too long ago the loss of her hair would have crippled her emotionally, but now she could care less. Her hair was the price she paid for knowledge. Combined with her pale skin and dark eyes, she looked like a ghost haunting her way towards the Professor. She darted quickly down passageways and her skirts whispered against the floors and the walls.

When she finally came to the Professor's quarters, the sun was setting outside his massive window. She found him watching the city as the skyline began to shift into a silhouette of black on gold. Her arms lifted and she put her palms together in front of her chest before bowing her head to him. He stared silently back at her from under a black hood.

"Vinjia, is it?"

"Vin, sir."

"Professor will be fine, no sirs in my chambers." He shuffled towards a stool, every movement looked like it hurt him. "Come, help me sit."

She moved quickly to his side and balanced the man with her arm across his shoulders. He felt like nothing but bones covered in black wool. That's the price of knowledge. She reminded herself as the old man sat with a hunched back. The cords plugged into the data ports in his back provided him with unlimited knowledge, but she knew they restricted his mobility and comfort.

"You may stand, or sit, which ever pleases you."

Although he made the offer, the only piece of furniture in the room was the stool he was already sitting on. Vin stubbornly sat on the floor and looked up at the Professor, who seemed pleased. "I'm here to learn about the time before the Great Peace," she said.

The old man laughed until he coughed, then coughed until he winced and almost fell off his stool. "So soon in your training?"

"I've mastered every class before this one in two thirds of the time of most acolytes. And I'm the youngest person ever to win a cranial data port." She couldn't help but smile at that.

"So promising." The Professor no longer seemed amused. "The Homonid Wars are a time that have nearly been erased from history. The delivery method of such knowledge is not very...traditional. That data port of yours will be useless."

"I've been warned, I'm very excited to see it."

"It's through that door, but be careful. Don't forget to put on the gloves, and don't rush yourself. If I see one fresh tear I'll have that shiny new port torn from your skull, got it?"

Vin stood up and bowed to the Professor again before exiting through the door on the far side of his chamber. In the room on the other side, she found a pair of white gloves hanging on the wall and slipped her fingers into them. When she finally allowed herself to see her prize, she was quivering. The book was smaller than she thought it would be. She fumbled as she loosened the leather strip that tied it closed. The cover lifted easily under her fingers, though the leather was hard and dry. The words were faded and difficult to read. She had been told the book was written by hand but she never imagined it would be so illegible. At least the introduction was written in neat, consistent loops and lines:

Long before the Great Peace overtook the Milky Way, the Hominid Wars raged for close to a century. A series a wars, intermingled with periods of strenuous peace, that pit nearly every known species of sentient hominid against each other in a struggle for control of resources and habitable planets.

The following is an excerpt from the personal diary of sentient inhabitant GF-327.82.993K, a rebel fighter who died shortly before the Great Peace.

Day 1

Diary, I know this entry is labeled 'Day 1' but it's been a lot longer than that. I forget how long we been at it, so I just decided the day I start writing it down is a new day and we'll count together from there.

I don't know why I decided to write all this down. Like I felt if I don't then nobody will. That's the thing that scares me most, that they'll wipe us out and there won't be a trace of us. Why would we fight if nobody talked about it? At this point there's no way the planet will survive. If we win, we'll be left alone on a dying rock, if we lose...well, I don't like to think about that but it's past time to negotiate. All we got left is fighting.

When they first came, they had these crazy big robots. Like giant, lanky chickens. They crushed things, and burned things and we died by the thousands. We were able to hold out long enough for their chicken fighters to run dry. I guess they underestimated us, didn't bring enough fuel for such a long fight and they couldn't find anything here to use. They needed to wait for supplies from their home world, which meant we had our chance to hit them back.

I was recruited by General Terra but there weren't a lot of us so we only did small things at first like killing their guards at night. More people started to join and we were disrupting entire camps. We always hit them at night and we were always successful. They started bumping up their defences, but we were scavenging their weapons and technology, we were able to fight fire with fire on our own turf.

That was when they actually started fighting with fire.

Most of our best fighters died that first night in a blaze that ate hundreds of acres of forest. That was when we realized they didn't want our planet any more. We pissed them off so much, they just wanted us dead, even if that meant killing our planet with us. We decided if we gotta go down we're gonna go fighting.

Day 2

Not much to report today I'm afraid. We've been locked in by their latest blaze so most of our time is spent diverting the flames. Maybe tomorrow there might be some action.

Day 3

We ran out of food a while back. I'm getting hungrier. That's all I can think about.

Day 30(?)

Diary, it's been a long time since I got time to write. I don't even remember what day it is, so I just kind of guessed. We lost the fight with their blaze and had to relocate. Our base along the coast is colder than our last one, but at least we can get safely out to sea if the blaze finds us here. Terra is making us build boats, even though none of us know how. She says it's a learning experience.

Day 31

I'm back at it! I'm going to write everyday. Today I even have something exciting to announce! Terra has decided to send another raiding party. This one will be the biggest one yet! We'll break into six groups and hit their capital base simultaneously. They'll never see us coming. I'll tell you about it after we're done.

Day 37

Okay, maybe I lied about the everyday thing. Sorry.

Day 40

We're leaving today. I'm in Terra's group and we'll be attacking from the south. Terra says that's the most dangerous because we'll be exposed. They'll be focusing their defence on us while the others break through their weak spots unnoticed. While we distract them, our friends will take them out from behind.

I'm so excited but scared too.

Day 80(?)

I'm guessing what day it is again. I know it's been a long time, I guess I kinda forgot about you. The attack on their base went...poorly. When we advanced from the front, nobody came to fight us back. Our hidden groups got into the camp no problem, but then everyone went silent and nobody came to let us in.

They abandoned their camp before we got there. They had this...chemical weapon I guess, I don't know. Our men decomposed so quickly they were still standing when we found them, all their soft tissues were puddled in their armor and all we could see was skeletons peering out at us. Terra commanded us to run, but most of didn't get out alive. When we got home I noticed one side of her face looked like it was drooping, but she pushed me away and went to bed.

This morning we found her skeleton in a mess of decomposed skin and organs. Doc says when we got outta there we diluted whatever chemical it was so it acted slower. He told me to watch out for signs and at this point I'd almost welcome it. Everyone's dead, why should I be alive? They killed my people, my planet, and I couldn't do anything to stop them.

Day 81

Sorry if I get you a little messy today, but when I woke up this morning, my left arm was melting. Not melting, rotting. The stench is overpowering and I've been dripping everywhere. But that's nothing compared to the pain.

Day 82

Other people are showing signs of contamination now. People who didn't even go into their camp. Doc says Terra and me probably contaminated everyone else by coming back. What if that's true? What if, in the end, I'm the one who kills my people?

The rot has reached my shoulder now. I wish it would go faster. The sooner it kills me the sooner I'll stop feeling this pain. I can barely think.

Day 83

People screaming. All the time. We're dying.

Day 84

We're finished. The humans won.

Vin closed the book. She stood in silence for a moment before pulling off the gloves one finger at a time. She left the room and found the Professor right where she'd left him. "What was that nonsense?" She asked, "lies and propaganda? Everyone knows we settled the galaxy peacefully. We helped the hominids races become civilized. Before we brought them our advanced technologies they were living in secluded squalor."

The professor looked up at Vin with a smile. "Everyone does know that, you're right. But that doesn't make it true."

"What are you saying?"

He raised one bony hand and with effort he reached behind himself to tap one of his data ports. "The amount of radiation we exposed to by plugging in is negligible. However, over time it kills every scholar so it becomes a race to learn as much as you can before the knowledge kills you."

"It's a noble race."

"Noble, yes, but what is the prize for that race? Knowledge can be twisted and used to the advantage of the powerful. In essence, we are killing ourselves for an illusion."

Vin blinked and her jaw clenched. She gestured back to the reading room and said, "are you telling me that diary is proof that we took the galaxy by force, rather than uniting it with peace and knowledge?"

"I'm telling you to be ware of the things you think you know." He closed his eyes then and said, "your lesson is over, you may go."

Vinjia inhaled sharply and brushed past the Professor, her black billowing robes whispering across the floor as she went.