Read Alien Space Gods Of Ancient Greece and Rome for Free Online Page B

Must the innocent always...?’
     
    Computers clicked, symbols glowing on the wall spelled grievous news. An atom-bomb in the last raid had wrecked the energy-plant charging the laser-light defences. The Leader sighed, then spoke into a microphone spurring his men to speed repairs. Time! He needed time. In subterranean laboratories his scientists were striving to control that primordial force which motivated the stars; soon he would free beloved Earth and carry the war to the planets to conquer Space.
     
    The Leader stood on a rock outside and watched the sun gild the mountaintops in glory. He filled his lungs with the sweet dawn air and prayed to the Creator, who destined the affairs of men. The stars faded from sight, night fled before the wondrous splendour of a fresh day, from the sun- dappled valleys far below murmured the sounds and scents of awakened Earth reborn to new life.
     
    Such blessed tranquility recalled those last days of peace. The Leader's gentle face smiled in reminiscence as he recalled that daring mission to Jupiter which had provoked this war; when rebelling against Space Overlords he with his two brothers landed on that giant planet and stole the secret of solar fire to benefit mankind, that escape by Spaceship through the planetary patrols still thrilled his adventurous soul. The outraged Jovians and their Allies promptly invaded Earth, assisted by rebels from the old regime who lived underground, their fantastic sidereal weapons blitzed the world. The peace-loving Emperor soon suffered defeat; his forces routed by Supermen from the stars. In that last battle both the Leader's brothers were captured; the youngest still defiant was imprisoned on a mountain in Africa; the other collaborated with the Jovian King and married a beautiful physicist, who as dowry brought a nuclear-reactor, this exploded catastrophically, its deadly radiation decimating the world.
     
    Sirens howled. From the clouds swung a sinister Spaceship. The Leader swore as the enemy approached, the laser-rays were out of action, the fortress sprawled defenseless. Was this the end of Man on Earth? Must the planet yield to Aliens from Space? He gazed across yon sunlit hills, this radiant world he loved like a woman. Compassion for all humanity surged through his soul; for Earth he lived, for Her he died. The invader circled lower for final assault. From out of the Sun swooped a Scoutship, its blazing ray-guns ringed the assailant in flames and hurled it down to the valley exploding its nuclear-bombs.
     
    Before this hero landed the Leader recognised that swashbuckling Giant whose exploits in battle and boudoir were the scandal of the Universe. His mediation brought honourable truce; the Jovians appointed the Leader Governor of Earth to rebuild civilisation. For many years he taught men all the arts of peace until the long-prophesied comet from Sirius menaced the world. As the fiery dragon approached, the Jovian King massed the planetary fleets to launch sidereal rockets to shatter the comet's head. Earth was spared total destruction but storms of fiery stones scourged the planet. Mankind degenerated to wickedness, the waters rose in mighty flood. The Giant rescued a man and a woman to start humanity again.
     
    Science-fiction? Fantasy of the future? This story forms the earliest history of our Earth told with tragic brilliance by Hesiod, Aeschylus, Ovid and all the classic writers of Greece and Rome . Greek legends relate how Cronus (Saturn) ruled Italy in a Golden Age; his rebellious son, Zeus (Jupiter), was reared by the Cyclops, who under Vulcan were said to have great factories underground. Zeus revolted against his father and aided by the Cyclops overthrew him. The Titans refused to submit to Zeus; the leader, Prometheus, with his brothers, Atlas and Epimetheus, stole fire from heaven in a hollow tube. Finally Zeus chained Prometheus to a rock in Caucasus where during the day an eagle devoured his liver, magically renewed by