The universe is a dangerous place. Our isolated little planet is a vulnerable one. Even just the things in the universe that the average person can learn about is enough to frighten, but there is far more out there lurking in the dark corners and dimensions than we imagine. There are intelligences and beings of all sorts, some who play by rules so different from our own we would only be able to comprehend them as magical. Many are indifferent to us, some are even sympathetic. But some are very much a danger to us all. The reasons vary greatly. Some seek to destroy us from hunger, some for sport, some for commercial reasons, others because they’ve lost connection to anything a civilization would call reason or sense a long time ago. Either way, the earth needs someone to protect it. One of the best kept secrets of our world is that there are those who protect us from outside threats. 41 someones actually. Always 41 at a time. Scattered around the world, chosen for a variety of reasons, all willing to lay down their lives to save the world. These 41 have delivered us from danger many times. When one of their number falls, she or he is replaced. Three separate times in recorded history they have all fallen, and it is only blind luck that has kept our species alive during the transition into a entirely new 41. The last time this happened was in 1971. All 41 appeared to spontaneously combust. We don’t know how or why. Perhaps they were engaged in some battle and paid the ultimate price to win the day. Perhaps they were all assassinated by some dark power, which was the leading theory at the time but it has fallen out of favor since there never seemed to be another step to the plan, whoever carried it out surely wouldn’t have let us reestablish the 41 after successfully eliminating a past version.
trigger fiction. 