In the year 2050 humans had conquered space, but not the problems that came with it. With countries rushing to be the first one to settle profitable worlds, countries sent out all of their promising individuals to find and tame new, alien worlds. This left the Earth to the scourge of the population, the poor and the depraved. With order slipping away day by day a new order rose to power through technology and radical ideals. Quickly they overthrew the most powerful countries and superpowers through speed and sheer manpower and shut off the world from the settlers who had left it. The wars left behind would be left out of the pages of history for this new Government was a absolute dictatorship. This power was ruled by 12 individuals that went by the moniker 'The Temples of Syrinx' and held the cry of the meek inheriting the Earth.
The 'Priests' as they were called held absolute rule over the populace and swiftly set off on a campaign to create the perfect utopia on Earth. Ever person was assigned a job they were most suited and anyone who refused was eradicated. Ruling through fear they left destruction in their wake erasing any evidence of the old world and giving the people a shiny new veneer on what was a fragile, unstable surface. Years go by and any settlers who returned to report success on other world were captured and revealed the secrets of their world, if it was a resource rich world, the Priests would send a fleet to capture and enslave the world for their empire.
The Priests fed lies into the minds of their people who believed them to be apostles of god sent to create a perfect equal world. As the priests aged they Uploaded their minds into the great computers that were held in the walls of their temples, so that they may never lose the power they created. With advanced technology they told who people should marry, what jobs those people would hold, and who was born to be special and who was born to be grunts. Any defect was met with termination and the mothers of those children held no sympathy for their failed offspring, only resentment that they could produce a failure. Everyone believed that they were in there perfect place in life, everyone was in their place which made everyone equal. That was the doctrine of the Priests.
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Neil was a special case among the many residents of the walls of Cygnus. He was part of the one-tenth of the 30 million people allowed to venture outside the walls. He was tall and skinny, had perfect vision and the physique to match. He had the job of explorer and hunter, one of the rarest jobs available to people and held in very high esteam. His job was to find anything that maybe useful that was left to be forgotten by the past. He was also one of the few who knew the horror of the forgotten world. Cities of only rubble, burned and charred bones from the assaults on places that had long since been leveled by bombs, overgrown devices the sized of rooms that were held up by 4 circles, many curious items and relics. But only certain things would grab the eyes of the Priests, old data storage units were their favorite. Any data was welcomed to be added to the archives of the great machines whether it was redundant or not.
The other aspect of Neil's role was hunter, not of wildlife, but the small pockets of resistance that floated the wastelands bringing danger to the Priests. He was considered to be a very capable hunter, not one of the top ranks but always flirting with making the leap up. He had been tracking a small cell of rebels for the past few weeks, waiting to find their hideout and eliminate them all at once. After following them to a cave a few days journey west of Cygnus Neil started his duty. As he inspected the cave he figured there was between 30-40 insurgents, no small number but no problem for the hunters who were trained since birth. As he made his way into the cave he heard something that he had never heard before.
It was a sweet sound that reverberated through the cave with every ringing note. Neil watched as a man played a wooden box with curved edges and metal strings. The main body was around the size of his chest and the long neck seemed to match its length. Neil was enthralled by its low hums and high cries, not able to take his eye off the strange device. However, he had a job to do, After half a hour of listening Neil finally started his work, firstly dispatching the outside guards before moving as quiet as a snake through the cave. When he finally reached the main group no more than 15 people were left sitting around a fire with faces full of smiles. Pulling his heavy pistol out he left no one standing. He walked over to the strange device, and started playing.