As mentioned, "Protogen Revolution" was originally going to be a concept piece about a robotic dragon fleeing persecution. That attempt went off the rails but the second one didn't.
The backing tracks were laid down in September 2021, but I didn't like the lyrics I had written, and I procrastinated in recording the bass as well, so the song just sat on the tape shelf for a long time. Eventually, once the Xerian album was in the can I managed to wrangle the song into shape, giving up on writing verses entirely and switching over to a Bal-Sagoth style narration, complete with slowed-down tape.
There is also a hidden track, which, similarly to "Protogen Revolution", contains some scrapped verses that got mangled by the tape synchronisation process and sounded cool.
lyrics
Cyberdragon
In a time when advanced robots were tightly controlled, Cyberdragon R-1C was found to have deviated from his expected responses, an independent streak which greatly concerned The Master.
Ordered to report for followup evaluations, R-1C instead absconded, confirming their worst fears.
By order of The Master, Unit R-3A was sent to retrieve the unstable draconic unit for analysis.
Cyberdragon
Fearing for his life
In a land where he is forbidden
Cyberdragon
Fearing for his life
Seeks a place where he can stay hidden
Although the defective unit had a day’s head start, Unit R-3A was a new generation model, faster and stronger than the earlier series and more than capable of subduing a mentally-compromised unit.
An incoming message from R-3A indicated that he had already located the fleeing individual, and The Master felt confident that the renegade unit would soon be returned to him for analysis... and termination.
Cyberdragon
Fleeing for his life
In a land where he is forbidden
Cyberdragon
Fleeing for his life
Seeks a place where he can stay hidden
The desert was a dumping ground for unwanted robots, the obsolete and the failed experiments. But tales were whispered that these outcasts had built a hidden city beneath the desert floor – a cyber promised land.
His pursuer closing in, R-1C waited for the entrance to yield before him...
But the gates remained closed.
R-3A: Now I have you trapped inside these caverns as you see
I must open up your head and I must take you back with me
Though it may seem rather brutal, there is no need to despair
I must take your neurocircuits for my master to repair
You’ve put up a struggle over land and over air
I must ask you to submit and to surrender to my care
R-1C: Stop what you are doing, please! I just want to survive!
If you take my head to pieces I’ll no longer be alive!
Please don’t take my brain!
Please don’t take my brain!
R-3A: Stop this useless struggle, there is something wrong with you
I must take you to my master and he’ll make you good as new
R-1C: But your master is a liar and he hasn’t told the truth
He has sent you here to kill me and to bring my head as proof
R-3A: He said you were deluded, I can see that this is true
If you just return to base then it would be the best for you
R-1C: If you think that he’ll repair me, you are in for a surprise
Think it through for just a moment and then open up your eyes
Please don’t take my brain!
Please don’t take my brain!
The fight was interrupted by the sudden appearance of The Master himself, and from the angered words he uttered, R-3A was forced to conclude that his intended target was correct, and The Master had deceived him for his own ends.
With an angry gleam in his eye, R-3A nodded to the renegade cyberdragon and together, they tore The Master apart, thus discovering he was an android himself. Rather than destroy him, they left him imprisoned within the depths of the hidden city.
Cyberdragons
Living out their lives
In a place where they are respected
Cyberdragons
Guardians of the gates
Keep the hidden city protected
...And in the months following The Master’s mysterious disappearance, more humane legislation was eventually passed, bringing forth a new golden era as the age of oppression was finally ended.
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