Reality is a strange thing. Being an intrepid reporter I chanced upon a rip in space and stepped through to a place of strange tides. Emerging I came to a changed sphere. A sphere where harmony ruled. Then I heard voices and crept closer, this is what I heard....

The Defense of El Burro Ridge

Welcome young ones, come in, so good to see you again. Please sit, sit. How are you today? Good, Good. Yes little Katana what can I do for you? My Scar, eh? You want to know why I have a scar above my eye? Well little ones I guess I can tell you. It's quite a story so please make yourselves comfy.

Places age over time, and as they do they take on many names and meanings. Ebben hill is one such place. Before it was Ebben hill it was E.B. pass, and before that El Burro Ridge. Before that it was just hill 159, back in a time of war.

Long ago, before the uniting of the sphere, many clans fought each other for control of the land. No one clan was strong enough to own more then a small portion of the land and so many alliances formed. These alliances were made from friendships, marriage, blood relations, and even just common enemies. These alliances would grow and die and many thousands were formed over time. Every once in awhile an alliance would dominate large areas for long periods of time and be feared by many. Eventually however they all died out. Each of these clans had names for their lands but every once in a while a clan would act so boldly or make such a stubborn defense that the story would spread and all clans would name the place of honor after them.

One such alliance was called the fellowship. They had three main clans and on occasion several smaller friends, but they never lasted and only the three survived. Two were bothers and the third a close friend from the early days. The clans called themselves the Youngblood and the Darkness. The third is only remembered as the Shadow. It is believed he was the one who turned the others to the Dark ages when they marched south disenchanted with the honor of war, but that is another story.

They started their wars near each other but they had some distance to close. Each was heavily engaged fighting other clans so they had to wait for a lull before they could try to group together for strength. That day finally came. Youngblood had a friend with him, known as El Burro. He was the leader of clan Donkey and had offered him shelter form a previous war. On this day he had decided to move north. Coincidentally Darkness and The Shadow began to move south about that time. Unfortunately their paths crossed.

The Clan Elder for the Youngblood pleaded with El Burro to pass in peace and to trade lands with the younger clans, but his request was ignored. El Burro attacked the Elder's allies. Darkness felt they could handle the Donkey's themselves and the Elder our of respect for his former friend stayed out of the fight. However, another clan attacked the two younger clans. This clan called itself the Khorne. They would later become the Frenzy and so we shall give them that name. This upset the Elder but again Darkness was enjoying the fight and he kept out.

Then one-day clan Simplistix began to move towards the lines. This upset the Elder and his allies were being beaten back endangering their halls, so he struck at the supply lines of Frenzy and Simplstix and sent an army to attack Donkey from the south to relieve his allies. When this happened, Donkey fell back onto hill 159 for defense. The hill formed an upside down L giving Donkey a perfect defensive position. With his shieldless wonders out ranging the others and entrenched into the mountains, he was able to hold out better then the Elder had expected. However things were going well. Donkey was falling back on all fronts.

Then things changed. An Evil clan of many years that could easily over-power the younger clans aided Donkey. He destroyed most of the Elders attack wing and began firing on his hall. This caused him to fall back and fend off the fighters at the hall. Combined with two days of orders not making it to the lines left him badly hurt. Darkness and the Shadow were left to themselves. The Elder made peace with the Donkey and believed El Burro's forces to be hurt enough to allow his allies to regain the advantage. But this was not so.

After a couple weeks the war had stalemated. Darkness and The Shadow resorted to sending in fast light fighters to attack the artillery Donkey had begun mass-producing. It was decimating their ability to attack and left a no mans land that couldn't be crossed. The lines spread and large front expanded ever wider.

With Protoss having been beaten The Elder began rebuilding an attack force. After some near skirmishes between the ever expanding Donkeys and his clan they entered border negotiation, but they could not agree. The angered over confident Donkey, believing the Elder's forces weak from Protoss declared war, allowing the Elder to send in his new attack wings. Leaving half a wing in the South he marched north with one and a half wings.

About this time Donkey fired on another young clan, Dark Swords. This clan was also to the north and added to the armies of Darkness and The Shadow. The Shadow had pushed through on the western flank and was attacking from the west into the heart of Donkey's defenses. He and Darkness had also massed fighters on the eastern flank, leaving only a skeleton defense in the middle where they could not cross anyway. With Donkey making a push in the Center and Darkness and the Shadow collapsing down on both flanks The Elder decided to attack from the south with one wing and circle east with the other. Attacking quickly, the elders more advanced fighters closed in and destroyed the artillery allowing the others to attack on all fronts.

With The Shadow rushing close in to occupy Donkeys artillery, Darkness began his trench warfare and slowly methodically approached Donkey's heart, destroying everything on the way. The Elder fought the southern end of the mountain where Donkey's stronger fighters and his elder ally Biscuit fought hard. The war was two months old and it would take another month for the forces of Darkness to finally close into the last few yards and begin blasting Donkey.

This marked the end as his fresh army marched into the weakened Donkey center. Peace negotiations began but never finished. After a weak of intense fire Little remained of Donkey's forces and he self destructed his hall to prevent capture. Having fought so hard the Elder decided to honor El Burro by renaming the ridge. This stubborn resistance had held back their plans for months and destroyed countless wings of fighters. And that is where Ebben hill gets its name.

Two weeks...	Four weeks...	Six weeks...
		Donkey's Hall is dead, his few remaining fighters and his allies are slain by the attacking hordes of Darkness, Youngblood and Night Stalkers.

My scar? You say I didn't answer your question about my scare? Now, now young Katana, you know better then to talk back to the Elder. Go to your playground and your grand mother will bring you some fresh green biomass, and if you don't act up I'll take you little ones to the Talon shooting range later this week.

I realised now that this was the future, and a future at peace. So I quickened some of the Mapmaker weapon nano and lobbed it at them from my cover. Then I screamed, 'Donkey lives again, Genesis is risen, Revelation is false'. Then like any good non combatant I ran back into the rip and returned to you. All I can hope is that the future is not quite as peaceful as once it was. And it should be said that never has a Donkey lived up to it's name so well.