My account begins on a day not unlike any other on the plains of Havershamewich, where my studies of farming techniques were leading me to the musings for some new construction which would greatly aid the labours of the average farm worker.

My own involvement in the establishment and subsequent cultivation of a farmstead afforded my co-workers - true soil turners - and myself no little pride now that our works were ready for harvest. Being a scientist of sorts, I was looking forward to seeing the results of my improvements on certain of the accepted methods and means of cultivation: the crops were yet to be proven, but I felt greatly confident in my work and waited eagerly to make confirmation of my assumptions.

It was just as I bent to the uurth to aid my companions in the reaping of our experiment that a great shadow fell across us all, clearly in the shape of some huge boat, or ship, call it what you will. This struck terror into us, for we had all heard rumours of how the damned insects had uncovered some strange and ancient knowledge that had enabled them to take to the skies in such huge vessels, which they had utilised to devastate the lands of the now-ruined isle of Latistan, and to take prisoner and enslave those not of their own kind.

Such a fate was obviously to be ours, unless we could escape from the awful fiends that were already descending from ropes and rope ladders hung from the sides of the ship - and yet these were not insects at all, more like terrible demons - the majority of them seemed to have some basis in the configuration of human bodies, from what little I know of such things - forgive my innocence and ignorance: indeed, though I said I was a scientist, I am a student more of flora rather than any other biological form.

However, as I have said, these creatures bore some resemblance at least to human forms, but all horribly disfigured - squat, muscle- bound curiosities in some cases; others with additional limbs or heads, or an absence of such - to the point that several showed facial features set into the very mass of their body, or sprouted heads instead from extremities other than their necks; still others wore limbs that had degenerated into awfully writhing tentacled growths - there were such a variety of forms in fact that I could not possibly list them in any short space - and not a one of them could be in any way pleasing to to the eye of the goddess (not that even 'normal' humans are a particularly palatable sight in the first instance).

My astonishment at these creatures was my own undoing, for I stood quite awestruck and was instantly captured in the remarkably strong grip of some four-legged, tube-nosed creature little more than three or four feet in height - smaller than myself, and yet undoubtedly much stronger for its size than I.

As I was hoisted up one ladder towards the ship, I watched my companions being caught as they tried to escape from the invaders. One of our number, Gorri - strong-willed and most able-bodied of our group - struggled free of his captor and took it upon himself to set about the creature: and yet it seemed little affected by his vigour, whether from sheer stupidity or stubbornness I know not - but to my horror, the thing dealt Gorri a punch in return which snapped his neck with discomforting ease, felling him instantly.

Still watching as I reached the ship, I saw those creatures that remained on the ground making for the produce we had taken so much time in growing, whilst others headed directly for the farm house, where the wives and children of my fellows resided. I could look no longer, but I was unable to close my ears to the screams that arose from that place. I can only be thankful that I did not witness the full horror of what must have happened in that building: suffice to say that those awful creatures came out without captives. I am grateful that I passed out before I saw the creature that had killed Gorri completing the action of biting into his flesh.

I remember regaining consciousness due to some unaccustomed motion of my body, and came sharply awake to the solid metallic clink of heavy chains. I was immediately aware of my burning wrists, my aching head, and my unsettled stomach. As my vision cleared, I found myself shackled to the shaft of what turned out to be a huge oar-fan - that motion I first felt being the rowing movement it made under the efforts of my partners on the hard wooden bench on board that same ship.

My rowing partner was one of those awful creatures: my stomach heaved, but I had such little nourishment inside me that I could do no more than retch. When the feeling had subsided, I looked furtively around to see where my two remaining friends, Erim and Nat, had been stationed - and was rewarded for my concerns by being struck sharply across the face. I looked angrily around for my tormentor and stared straight into hundreds of polished, mirror-like, unblinking eyes. We were in the 'employ' of the insects after All.

Ugly, serrated jaws formed distorted words - "nnoo sslackingg, ssssofftsskinnn" - which the creature emphasised with a threatening gesture. I complied for that moment, deciding to try to locate my friends later.

Looking forward, and now taking part also in the activity of rowing, I saw that there were more - not only of the strange marauders that had attacked us, and of my own brethren (of a clutter of species, all being made to power the ship) but of course also of these insects - three of which were before me (I was not about to see if there were others behind, for fear of being struck again by the discipline master): two were busy beating a drum-rhythm for the oars, while the third seemed to have some higher office, standing aloof and unoccupied, save for watching over the rowers with an uneasing, facet-eyed stare.

We worked at the oars for several days before we reached what appeared to be - for want of a better word - the hive of the insects, which consisted of a single tower many hundreds of feet high, apparently built directly out of the very uurth - a marvel of 'natural' architecture. Near the top were four large cavities served by protruding platforms, three of which were already occupied by similar vessels to ours, all of which were busy with people of my own kind and of this new demi- human species - which I had discovered were known collectively as 'Melts'.

As we docked, it became clearer as to what the crews were busy with, as I could see them carrying food stores and other animals - these being dragged or carried into the openings within the tower. Where they were being taken to I was unsure, but I reasoned that they were also to be utilised as slaves just as we were. This, then, was how the insects prospered, on the toil of captive labourers.

Even as I watched, there seemed to be some commotion around the opening directly opposite our docking platform, and all at once there came a terrible, loud rattling noise - like a series of small explosions - set at intervals less than a second apart; this was accompanied by the unexpected sight of several of the larger guard insects running from the cavity in obvious panic. I felt a little heartened at seeing these creatures apparently getting some of their own medicine, after the suffering and punishment I had undergone whilst under their ministrations, and I strained to see what it could be that seemed to terrify them so - noting at the same time that the insect crew of our ship had become markedly agitated, as if they knew something I did not.

My curiosity was soon rewarded as, from the opening, stumbled a huge creature almost as tall as a lion and easily as broad - but there the similarity ended, for this was another of the Melt kind - much more human in form than any that I had yet seen, though this seemed to me far more terrible than had it been more like the others of its kind I had already encountered.

This beast was massively built, a veritable mountain of sinew, and it carried in its huge hands the contraption that made those rattling noises: I watched as this machine spat fire, shredding the armoured skin of several of the guards like so much paper - killing the insects instantly. Looking closer I could see that the machine this aweful creature was carrying was of similar sort to those mounted on the deck of our ship, and it was even as I recognsied this fact that the melt nearest to the deck- mounted version of the thing had taken control of it and turned it upon the insect crew: they surrendered without delay. However, the machines of the other three vessels had been aimed towards us - and at the creature on the platform - and they began to fire at once.

Looking once more to the grey beast I saw it making for our ship, impeded somewhat by machine-fire and the hail of missiles from several ballistae, and by the fact that one of its legs seemed damaged - I was amazed, for such a wound on any normal creature would have rendered it immobile, if not dead: the limb was all but maimed - almost half of the bone of the upper leg was protruding from the flesh of a ragged and horribly bloody wound, and I felt sick to see it; and yet here was this creature - with its ruined limb held together by the merest of makeshift splinting - still hobbling towards us and seemingly oblivious to the lethal hailstorm raging around it.

Despite further wounding, the creature finally made it aboard and tossed a set of keys to the melt nearest to him, who then began to un- shackle himself and the others of its kind: of course, my own hopes that we too would be freed were unfulfilled. The arrival of this dark figure seemed to have acted as a catalyst, for the other melts were suddenly galvanised into action, working the ship and its weapons to draw us away from the landing- platform as methodically as if the group had made previous plans.

Missiles from the other ships cut into our vessel: indiscriminate fire now spelt the deaths of many on board, but the return-attack from our own craft created many casualties in response.

After a short but highly dangerous tussle we began edging away from the tower of our captors: two of the other ships gave chase - the remaining vessel so damaged in the furore that it had lost whatever power kept it airborne and had crashed to the ground - but they failed to follow for long as we greatly outstripped them for distance and they were unable to keep pace with us.

The beast who had begun the whole course of this escape by his arrival was - to my surprise - still conscious through most of our journey. I saw him personally adminster the punishment he thought fit for the remaining insect crew, as he first meted out systematic dismemberment for them, leg by leg, wing by wing: and then, with their pain and agitation obvious as he took each of them in turn - their heads the only remaining appendages on their bodies - he pitched them screaming over the side of the ship, to their deaths hundreds of feet below.

It was only a short while before our ship touched down to earth that the grey giant finally passed out - whether from his wounds or his fatigue, I know not - probably the combination of the two, since he remained unconscious for the next two days. During the whole of that time very little happened, the other melts listless and unoccupied save for eating, resting and guarding our people - all too apparently lacking the direction that they'd had when the grey one had been leading them. Only two or three of them performed any other tasks, being the females of their breed, and they were almost wholly concerned with the welfare of the wounded melt.

The combination of the creature's own hardiness and the healing talents of these females (it raises fear in my heart to think it, but I believe they employed magik of a sort in their ministrations, and I am loathe to consider the consequences of the paths of that art being open to the melt kind) meant that the grey one was mobile and well again in a matter of days, where any normal being would surely have been crippled for life, had they even survived such terrible wounds as his.

Once the creature had risen, things began to happen once more - this one seeming to be the leader of the group by unspoken consent: whether he had been their leader before their capture I cannot know, but my doubts of this arose when I saw the beast talking with the others of his kind in the manner of one at a first meeting: this was one of the first times I had observed and heard the creatures conversing, and it aroused some interest in my mind - for while the leader seemed to have a remarkable (if colourful) grasp of our commonly-used tongue, those that he was talking to seemed to possess little more than an elementary knowledge of the language. This grey one though seemed capable of making himself understood nevertheless, and his leadership soon brought the beginnings of work on basic fortifications, so it seemed he meant to settle here.

As slaves to the melts (though I can say that at least we were no longer shackled as we had been with the insects - our bonds instead being the knowledge that death was the punishment for disobedience), we carried out a great deal of this initial construction work, though we were well-aided also by the lesser minions of the melt group, all overseen by a pair of melts who were a little more intellectually gifted than most - not that I am saying that the average melt is moronic - rather, they seem to exist by basic instincts: eating, sleeping, and so forth - until gathered and utilised collectively, whereupon they become a most efficient and deadly unit of destructive force possessed of remarkable cunning and organisation.

Walls began to arise; a nearby river was redirected through the boundaries of the growing fortification, and areas were set aside for livestock and planting: the melts had neither of the latter - a slip-up in their planning, perhaps? - and being few in number, perhaps fourteen in all, made them a little vulnerable (though none of our people felt bound to attack, despite the fact that we outnumbered them three to one - for we had all witnessed how formidable they were in battle, and there were few of us worthy of the name 'warrior' in in any case); and with only five females amongst them, they had little scope for a rapid population increase; however, we began to hear rumours that there were plans for couplings with our own females, and were all greatly sickened at this thought.

For now,though, the grey one seemed more concerned with filling the livestock pens and the planting areas, and with making plans to put the ship to the skies again: a week later, taking half our people, and half of his own aboard, we set off in flight again over the plains.

About three hour's travel brought us to a small farmstead not unlike the one I had occupied earlier - though this one had an additional tower structure upon which two guards were already alerting the residents by the ringing of their alarm bell, having seen our vessel from some distance away: though the grey one was certainly aware of strategies that might have taken us there more secretively, it appeared that he was not too concerned about having to attack by surprise - quite obviously confident enough of his own abilities, if not necessarily those of his sometime followers - to deal with such an adventure without the need for such subterfuge.

I watched as the bell - and one of the guards - were silenced forever by the application of a heavy rock dropped from the ship. About half of the melt crew descended with the leader amongst a hail of arrows from the defenders, and quickly made their way past the farm's meagre defences. The grey one took bolts through arm and leg and still persisted, crashing through the heavy tower door to deal with the remaining guards inside. I saw little else after that, for I had seized the chance to escape from the ship whilst the melts were distracted, quickly descending the ropes trailing from the ship with several others of my people and heading rapidly away towards the cover of the brush: the last I heard was the sound of the tower collapsing, and could only hope that it had done so with the melts' leader still inside.

My friends and I finally returned to civilised lands after three weeks of hard travel, and I vowed that I would never again revoke the safety of a town for an undefended farmstead in practical isolation. There was no possibility that the melts could consider attacking a whole town, after all.

I thought that I could finally rest easily in my bed, believing that the creature (- now what was his name? Something basically phonetic, little more than some sort of grunt in a long-forgotten tongue; I cannot remember it, though I heard it used many times -) had been finished in the collapse of that tower, but I have heard rumours in the news that some great grey beast has been sighted in the far-off continent of Ankarana: If it is he (and I hope for the sake of those living there that it is not) I know not how he travelled there, but I do know from some of the tales he related to his fellows that he hailed from there originally and meant to return some day.

Woe to my people in that land! I send this as a warning of the terrors to be visited upon you, for such tortures had I witnessed in the short time under his rule that I dare not repeat them. I am once more reduced to a fear of the shadows and darkness, not knowing what might be waiting for the chance to take me from this world. I hope this message reaches that far land in time to give my neighbours heed of their imminent plight. I can only offer my sorrows if my warning comes too late.

My heart goes out to you, my friends, and my wishes that you be spared this horror.

Yemel Sanfir