My name is Marina and I am Number 7,

I laid here in the Nunnery and began to think about every experience since I came to Earth,

We came in the night, storming winds could be seen outside the ship,

The lightning was blue, the rain was crystal clear, it was the most perfect storm I had ever seen,

My Cêpan told me that we induce storms whenever we come to Earth,

Did I become confused? We've been here before? Why? Such a primitive world.

Whether it was in ancient times or now, the storms still hide evidence of our arrivals,

'Why do we need to hide?' I thought. Shouldn't we be gods to them?

My naïve thinking had been quickly forced out of me as a member of the Garde,

I have the ability of precognition so while the others probably can't remember Lorien, I can.

I sometimes dream about it as if I had lived there my entire life,

The moons and stars that seemed so close, it was as if you could reach out and claim one for your own,

The festivals we celebrated to honor the Elders, and thank Lorien for our blessings,

And blessings we had in abundance – the green streaming with life galore,

The exotic animals that were so commonplace, but appreciated nonetheless,

The times when both moons would hang on opposite ends of the horizon,

Highlighting all below the sky for all to see and appreciate,

I can still recall the crystal clear snow, we called it the time of 'God's Glistening Tears',

The event would happen once or twice a year, it signified how much Lorien cared for us….

But sadly dreams are just dreamed in the end,

Sometimes I get nightmares that replace the happy dreams, at those times I grit my teeth and watch,

I know that for all the happiness I see, I must never close my eyes to the bad as well,

I see the deaths of the fellow Gardes who came to Earth, I see the deaths of all Numbers,

I see us crawling beneath the feet of the Mogadorians,

At least that's what I use to see,

That was until … they appeared.

But enough about them, I will get back to that a bit later,

I dare not get my hopes up too soon only to be disappointed greater in the end,

When we got to the ground, people were there to greet us, "Greeters" my Cêpan called them.

To me, they were all pathetic people who wanted so much to matter,

They should also see it right? They won't matter… at least not here,

All that matters is our own survival, not theirs – being selfless should also have limits,

I have had enough dreams about the Lorien War with the Mogadorians to not know,

What would become of these people should they ever be caught by the Mogadorians.

Who were no doubt coming to Earth, if they already weren't already here?

"Go Home!" "GO back to your families" "If you help us you'll be the first to die" were the words I wanted to say but it just wouldn't leave my mouth.

I know I was selfish and I should have told them, but with the fanatical look in their eyes,

I knew it would be useless, if I could hug my mother and father once more, I would do anything,

But here these people are when they have families, risking their lives for "Ancient Astronauts",

Yet a 'beggar is not a chooser' I thought, and true to those words, I would find out how much they would come to mean to me in the very near future.

After we got off the ship our Cêpan received their respective mission and starting locations, courtesy of the greeters.

Our jobs were somewhat simple - adapt, acclimate, assimilate the culture, follow the trend, blend it, don't stand out, and last but not least stay on the move,

3-4 months anywhere is the maximum time you should be there,

The final and most important part of the mission is…

'When you become powerful enough when the nine had grown into their legacies… FIGHT BACK!'

That phrase resonated with me very deeply especially since I already partly awakened my precognition legacy,

With all I had seen in my dreams, I wanted nothing more than to fight,

I am not sure what my goal was when I thought that but I am sure now,

My goal was to fight and die before everyone else so I didn't have to watch their eventual slow, painful deaths,

Like I said humans are selfish beings, Loric are similar, the difference is we have already suffered so much,

Suffering before prosperity, suffering after prosperity, suffering while leaving home,

Suffering when coming to a new planet, you could say that what made us different from the humans was our lust to not suffer anymore.

Our lust to save ourselves for posterity,

Something that drove us together instead of apart, what is money, wealth, power when the suffering has made all that is wanted – peace.

We received our first location from the greeter assigned to us,

My Cepan's name is Adeline, a strong-headed woman who lost her husband and kids back on Lorien,

I pity her, I truly do, losing a child is much more painful than losing a parent, I don't know how I know that but I just feel I do,

Our first country assigned to us, on the slip of paper given out was Spain.

Each Garde had to hide their assigned locations, we would hide, even from each other,

So one Garde could not be tortured to give information on the others,

With that, we separated and started our own individual odyssey into the depths of pain and despair,

But I kinda hoped to see a twinkling star at the bottom of the abyss,

Little did I know I would indeed see a star, but one bathed in blood and corpses.

But 'A beggar is not a chooser' – that phrase again huh?