The year was 1998, I was in high school and it had computers and the internet, so what did we do? we played games of course. Yes back then flash games were the rage of course but also simple small downloadable games ones you could place on a USB drive and play anywhere without having to access the internet. I can remember Elastomania and Blobby Volley and Battle Painters to name a few, and of course there was Liero.
I played this a lot, and during a creative writing session at school, I decided to write a story line for Liero, I called it LIERO , The Unwanted Legend as It wasn't really needed, or wanted, the game didn't need it but I thought it'd be fun to write. So I wrote most of it around 1999 and then it was left unfinished, until now, so without further I do, I give you Liero the unwanted legend:
Prologue
Liero is one of the most
violent, chaotic and meaningless computer games I have ever seen. It consists
of two worm-like creatures in underground tunnels each in bright colours and
using ridiculously destructive weapons to blow each other apart. This may seem
like a normal shoot-em-up game to some people with the amount of video game
violence today but what makes this stand out is the mindless chaotic
destructiveness with no plot or storyline whatsoever. Which does not mean the
game is particularly bad, I myself like it a lot, But that’s what brings me to
the point of this story, Yes unlike the game this story has a point to it.
I thought it would make an
interesting scenario to try to create a detailed storyline to Liero, to create
reason out of random violence and an explanation as to why this is happening
and why Liero is what it is today.
Justin Durrant
LIERO , The Unwanted
Legend
CHAPTER 1 – The Imperfect
Creators
When the
Creators first came to the planet, it was young and rich in resources and full
of oceans and underground tunnels and coated with an atmosphere which allowed
lush plant life to grow . But other than this lush layer of grass and trees
there was no life, no giant primitive beings, no scaly reptiles, no tiny insects,
not even the slightest living microscopic organism. Creators knew that to leave
such a perfect planet untouched, this was what they had been waiting for. The
chance to create the perfect life-form.
The Creators
were exited over the richness and complexity of the planet, the planet had
everything needed, air, water, grass, trees and it’s relation to the sun
brought interesting dark and light effects. As if it was dark on one side at
one time and light on the other side at the other time. The Creators were
efficient bringers of life, they quickly calculated the kind of life form that
the planet could sustain and created seedlings of the one life form which they
thought would be perfect to start off a whole chain of species on the newly
discovered planet. The Creators laid these microscopic seedlings all over the
planet, on the surface, undersea and in the underground tunnels. Over time the
seedlings began to grow and to the delight of the Creators did not freeze or
melt in the extreme conditions in some parts of the planet.
When the
seedlings finally hatched what came out was an exact opposite to what the
Creators expected. Instead of the white larvae of the proposed “perfect” life
form, there were tiny colorless worms. The Creators were dismayed at the fact
that these were not at all like what they had originally designed. They
frantically hoped that if they failed to create the right species, that that
species would not be able to survive in that environment and would die out
quickly and they could start again. The Creators wanted to make sure that they
had not wasted the planet with their embarrassing mistake.
But the
Creators were successful in one way not the other, Each one of the tiny worms
were perfectly suited to their surrounding environment and multiplied by the
thousands, spreading across the planet with the highest population in their
teeming underground tunnels. The Creators found that they had succeeded in
making their creation be able to live and multiply in perfect harmony with the
planet.
The Creators
lurked in their colossal space-faring vessels pondering over what they could or
should do with the ever-increasing useless mass of teeming worms that had shown
no signs of evolution whatsoever. Knowing that if they tried to launch a second
life form onto the planet it would instantly overrun by the worms no matter how
fast it evolved, there was different opinions and views. Some opted to try to launch a second batch of
seedlings that would quickly spawn and ultra-being that would evolve and be
strong enough to drive the worms to extinction, but this was almost impossible
because of the sheer immensity of the worms population. Others thought that
they should find a way to exterminate the worms without destroying the planet.
Seeing as there was no way to get rid of the worms and start a new race, nor
even save the planet the argument came to two final solutions.
One was to incinerate the
planet and eliminate the race of worms altogether in hope that one day the
planet will become what it once was. The other was insisted by particular
Creators who were sympathetic or intrigued by the race of worms and wished to
leave the planet and in time return in hope that the worms had changed beyond
their original form. The Creators agreed that such a planet and the labor that
went into creating the race should not be thrown away so casually, they agreed
to leave the planet and search for a new untouched haven for another chance.
CHAPTER 2 – Growth,
Evolution and Adaptation
Ironically not long after
the Creators had left the planet’s solar system, the worms began to evolve
dramatically, they grew bigger and fatter and eventually turned into what
looked like a giant snake-worm. The most distinctive changes were the fact the
worms no longer squirmed across the ground, they grew to an enormous size and
reared up in an S-shape. They grew bigger, fatter, stronger and taller (up to 1
and a third metres). The other quite noticeable change was that the worms had
developed arms and clumsy, fat but strong hands and fingers.
The worms adapted to the land
and to the underground tunnels where most of them lived and even underground
the planet was rich in resources as the worms had the ability to make a meal
out of almost anything. But as the species evolved they started acquiring
certain tastes, some craved large tasty flowerbeds other preferred watery
lilies and lush ferns, and some ravenous minorities had even started to get a taste for flesh
eating small cave creatures and even other worms . This heightened intellect
resulted in the worms quarreling over food, warmth, living space, even personal
possessions such as large sticks or uniquely shaped rocks.
Years pass and the worms
had virtually dug an underground city of tunnels and holes, and had uncovered
water by drilling holes deep into the ground, they worms did quarrel from time
to time but this was stemmed to the fact that they were still a primitive
species with limited intellect. The worms seldom had anything to anger them
they were all roughly the same height same shape and were the same pale white color
from the darkness of the underground. But as the worms dug more and more this
reasonable peaceful state could not go on forever and the inevitable was about
to happen.
CHAPTER 3 – The Surface
In what was to be the most
significant event in the life of the worms, the few that were at the highest
point of the underground tunnels, felt warmth coming from the surface and small
groups of them started digging upwards and upwards, this escalated into millions
of worms shoveling out the roofs of the their tunnels toward the surface. After
this happened it took barely a week for the first of the worms to reach the
surface.
When the first worms broke
through the surface of the planet they noticed at once that there was a bright
glow coming from the edge of the horizon they reeled back at the harsh light of
the sunrise as more and more worms erupted from the ground. Hours passed and
the sun had reared up into the sky in the full light of noon the worms had
barely adjusted their dark eyes to the sun when their skin made a dramatic
change. As the sunlight beams down on the pale white hoards of worms their skin
began to change shade into bright colors of the rainbow, some just turned a
much brighter white other made a more dramatic change to pale red or yellow or
even a dark blue, green or even black.
Weeks passed and the worms
entire population had made it to the surface and as they explored the “new
world” with new foods, plants, creatures and resources they began to build huts
gain and new possessions and weapons, similar to what they had done in the
underground but this time there was many distinct differences, on the surface
the worms could use their vision to a greater extent and they could even climb
tress and hunt other smaller creatures.
The worms explored the
world their population ever expanding and gaining insight and influence and
access to much more resources that they had previously, decades passed and the
worm race evolved into the most populous and technologically advanced species
on the planet making use of modern inventions, and weaponry. To counter their
lack of limbs they used bungee style ropes to gain heigh and move quickly There
was no leadership within the worms, as they all managed to coexist peacefully.
CHAPTER 4 – The War
for Resources and the return of the Creators
The Worm kingdom enjoyed
years of peace but after the constant farming and desecration of the planets
natural habitat, resources started to dwindle, the worms started to divide themselves
into separate colonies by colour to safeguard their remaining resources.
However this tenuous situation could only go for so long, soon various colonies
began to attack each other on resource raids, leading to all out war between
the colonies. The war went on for 500 years and terrible weapons were used on a
global scale leading to devastated landscapes and millions of worms dead, the
planet was eventually turned into a war-torn wasteland.
It was during this time
that the creators decided to return to the world and saw with their horror at
the consequences of allowing the worms to live, the worms had evolved so much
that they had gained enough intelligence to be dangerous and that had led to
them destroying their own planet. The creators had no choice but to incinerate
the planet destroying the worms before they figured out how to travel the stars
and infect other worlds. The entire population of the worms was destroyed as
was whatever was left of their civilization. And so the creators left richer
with knowledge of their failed creation.
However unbeknownst to the
creators some worms had survived and fled underground to escape the scorched surface. But instead of rebuilding their society the remaining worms dig through the
earth and hunt each other down with the weapons they have left, so ingrained is
their will to survive is that they will fight each other until they are the victor.
Thus we have LIERO
JD
Oh the little joys
