“Communications with Mid-Childa went silent a week ago,” the officer said and gestured towards the blurry image on the screen next to him. He was sweating a lot and his hands were shaking. But I knew it wasn’t from nervousness. It was from horror. Just like the rest of us. “This is the only image we’ve been able to get a hold of from one of the satellites still functioning around the planet. As you can see, it’s... I don’t know what it is.”
I sat in the Admiral’s Chair, sharing the officer’s feelings. The image that was on display before me showed a world nothing like the Mid-Childa I knew in my heart. It wasn’t the vibrant, colorful planet it had been. Now, though the image was blurry, I could see that it was a dark version of its former self. The planet, it seemed, had been turned inside-out. It was something from another dimension. It didn’t belong in my reality.
“We are closing in on the solar system,” the officer continued, “and we’ll arrive in less than day. Until that time, we need to prepare to face whatever unspeakable things that now wander on Mid-Childa. If, that is, anything remains.”
I appeared calm on the outside, as a superior officer should in front of his subordinates, but on the inside my emotions were in turmoil. My entire family had been on Mid-Childa, everyone I knew and loved, and I didn’t know if they were alive, dead or worse. The officer’s last words affected me more than I would admit. Even more so when I knew there was nothing I could do about it.
“As such, all combat mages are to report to their supervisors and get ready. All non-related combat activities are suspended until further notice. Dismissed.”
The audience of senior officers quickly dispersed from the bridge. The officer in charge had been broadcasting the debfrief to the entire ship and I could already hear the chaos of people running around, transporting supplies, gear and weapons to their designated locations. I remained in my seat, however. There were nowhere for me to be but here, supervising the whole ordeal.
“Maya, magnify the image please,” I said to one of the operators, “I want to take a closer look.”
“Of course, Sir,” she replied and made the image on the massive screen even bigger. The resolution decreased, making it even harder to see, but I could now make out a few more details than before. I leaned forward, squinting.
“Magnify again, please. Sector five through seven.”
Maya did as instructed and the screen moved to focus on a small object next to the planet. It wasn’t on it, but beside it. From what I could determine it was a lone warship.
“What’s that ship?” I said. “Any possible identification?”
“None, Sir. I think we’re too far away, or something is disrupting our signals.”
It must be the planet,I thought.
It has to be. I punched a few commands on my panel and leaned on the armrest. The ship might hold valuable information about what had happened, but I couldn’t find out until we arrived, so I turned my attention back to the planet. I focused, staring at it intently. There was something peculiar about it, I noted. A weird feeling boiled within me as I looked at it. It felt like... Premonition. Something waited there, expecting us to arrive. But I didn’t feel less determined because of it. I had to go there. I must go there.
“Sir? Are you alright?”
I blinked, my focus broken. Maya stood next to me, a hand on my arm. “Yes, of course. Why do you ask?”
“You didn’t respond when I called for you. You were like that for a good ten minutes.”
“What?” I said, bewildered, and checked my clock. Maya was right. It had been ten minutes. So what had I been doing? “I’m sorry, Maya. I seem to be out of it today.”
“It’s not strange,” Maya said, then carefully added: “You had family on Mid-Childa, didn’t you?”
I nodded with a sad smile, eyes looking down. Maya bowed apologetically as she realized what she was hinting at. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have brought it up.”
“It’s OK. Did you have family there, Maya?”
“No. They all live on another planet, far away from Mid-Childa.” She drooped her head and whispered: “Thank the Kaiser for that.”
I nodded and rose from my chair. “Maya, I’ll retreat to my quarters. Please notify me if anything happens.”
“Of course, Sir.”
I left the bridge, walking through the corridors bristling with activity. As the people passed they saluted me and I returned the gesture. I had never been fond of it, but in the situation I found myself in I couldn’t put much defiance into it. The last thing these people, my subordinates, needed in a time like this, was a self-pitying Admiral.
But I couldn’t avoid the the feeling of sorrow that I felt. I was clenching my fist as I smiled and saluted. I wanted to find out what was going on. I wanted to find out what had happened.
It wasn’t far to my quarters and I was glad for that. As I opened the door and stepped inside the door I barely had the time to close it before I felt tiredness washing over me. I stood in the middle of the room, eyes shut and my hands curled into fists again. Even from within the enclosed space I could feel the soft hum of the engine and hear the distant clatter of movement, but it didn’t annoy me. I had gotten used to it over the years. The feeling I had within me, however, I had never felt before.
I laid down on the bed and stretched out, staring into the roof. My head was pure chaos and yet I managed to fall into a deep, but worried, sleep.
*****
I felt... uneasy. Our warship, the
Nostra, had finally gotten close enough to identify the drifting ship. It had taken us longer than expected, but once we had intercepted an encrypted signal coming from it, it released a deep tension within us all. We then knew, at least, that the ship was still operational and that there would possibly be survivors. We clinged to that hope, anyway.
“Admiral,” one of the operators said, “we’ve decoded the signal. It’s a video message. Do you want me to put it on the big screen?”
“Please do,” I said and leaned forward. The screen in front of me filled with static and the rest of the operators, and the few officers on the bridge, turned to watch it. The static was loud, but it wasn’t coherent. It varied in volume and pitch, almost as if there was something trying to break through it. I started to wonder if the recording was corrupt and my heart sank from the thought. The only evidence of what had happened was in our hands, but it might be useless.
“This is Admiral Dandelion of the Warship Felicity,” the speakers suddenly boomed as the static cleared and the face of a very tired man filled the screen. I perked up immediately and watched.
“We... I don’t know what’s going on. First the planet was invaded by... something. Madness, I assume. I don’t know what to call it. Then it started up here. People started to panic. They were screaming and crying. It was all incoherent babble.” The man looked behind his back and, seemingly satisfied, returned to the camera.
“I think it was because of our vicinity to the planet. We are too close to it. The madness is infectious, spreading through us all.”
I exchanged a glance with Captain Moore who was standing beside me. He gave a sad shake of his head.
”We are... I mean, I am the only sane one left. The rest are all mad. Rabid dogs.” Something banged on the door behind him and I heard shouting in the background.
”I’ll make this quick, my time’s up. Whoever is listening to this message: Don’t come here and investigate. Don’t go to Mid-Childa! Unspeakable... things are down there and-”The door behind him finally broke down. The Admiral turned so fast that he accidentally knocked something over and blocked the camera’s lens. We could only hear the rest.
”No! Stay back! I have a weapon and I’ll- No!”
A weapon was discharged and the Admiral screamed, but it was hard to determine when he stopped because of the sheer roar that filled the speakers. The roar continued for a few seconds until it died down. In the background we could only hear organic, squishy noises before the video returned to a static state.
The bridge was quiet for a long time. I was rubbing my temples, interpreting what I had seen. Several of the crew were covering their faces, disgusted and sad. Only Captain Moore, stoic as he always were, displayed the meer hint of disgust.
“Admiral,” he whispered in my ear, “I want to suggest something: Do as the man said. Don’t go to Mid-Childa.”
I looked at him, anger flaring within me. “Are you suggesting we will just abandon those who might still be alive?”
He looked at me for a long while, considering what he was going to say. Eventually he nodded. “Yes, I am. It’s a trap. I can feel it in my gut. And my gut is rarely wrong.”
“Fuck your gut,” I said, surprising myself with my choice of words, “we are going down there whether you like it or not. We will investigate the
Felicity and we will investigate Mid-Childa. Leave no one behind.”
“Admiral, you’re not using your head. We risk losing not only our crew, but the ship as well. Mid-Childa is already lost as far as I am concerned. With all due respect, don’t let your emotions get in your way.”
I abruptly stood up, my mind clouded with rage. “Captain! Maybe you didn’t hear me the first time, so I’ll make it very clear for you: We are going there. That is the end of this discussion. Or do I have to remind you what rank you carry?”
Captain Moore looked at me, baffled. He had never heard me speak with such anger. Neither had I. I didn’t feel in control anymore. Clenching my fists I sat down again, shaking my head. “You are dismissed, Captain.”
I knew he was a soldier. That’s why I also knew that he wouldn’t object anymore. He would follow my orders, as he always did. It took him a moment before he nodded at me with a face hard as rock and left the bridge. The people around us who had heard the exchange glanced at each other, then returned their attention to their panels.
“Lieutenant Amad, please gather a squad and prepare to board the
Felicity,” I said while rubbing my forehead. A headache was growing within, pounding in my skull.
“Admiral?” The Lieutenant looked surprised. I figured he was still in shock over my heated exchange with Moore. But I didn’t care.
“Just do it!”
“Yes, Admiral. Right away, Admiral!” he squeaked and left the bridge.
I leaned back in my chair and took a deep breath.
What the hell is wrong with me?
*****
The boarding party of five had been assembled and was on their way to the
Felicity in a shuttle. I was still on the bridge, watching the feed from the helmet camera belonging to Captain Moore who was the leader of the small squad. The inside of the shuttle was dark. I could barely make out anything, but I could hear their audio feeds that were linked to the bridge.
“Twenty seconds. Then we are locked onto the Felicity. Stand-by for further orders.”
“Captain, what exactly are we looking for?”
“Survivors, primarily. Our second objective is to secure any leads as to what happened to the planet. The rest we’ll decide when we get to it.”
The men went silent until I could hear the shuttle lurch and secure itself onto the
Felicity. The small compartment began to bristle with activity as a bright light blinded the camera. The entrypoint to the ship had opened.
“Squad, move out!”
The men climbed into the small opening in the ship’s side and disappeared, one by one, into it. Captain Moore was the last to board and the bright light that blinded me was replaced by normal light originating from the squad’s helmet lights.
“The bridge is right up ahead. Let’s go.”
The squad moved carefully as far as I could see from the camera, investigating any dark corner they came across. I could only hear their footsteps and Moore’s breathing as they trodded on. The ship was quiet. Way too quiet.
“Captain, there’s writing on the walls.” The camera panned over to the side and I could see something written there, but the quality was too bad for me to make anything out.
“It’s in another language. It’s a mess. I can’t make sense of it.”
“Ignore it. Let’s move on.”
They walked for about ten minutes. I watched them, glued to the screen. I didn’t want to miss anything as they traversed the silent vessel. The lead man suddenly waved to those behind him.
“I can see the bridge, Captain. It’s right up ahead.”
“Alright. Move up!”
They advanced faster, the camera bobbing slightly up and down in tandem with Moore’s head. I could make out a gate in front of them as they got closer. The lead man stepped inside, and I assumed it was to check if the coast was clear. He eventually waved, lowering his weapon, and the squad followed him. As Moore passed the gate, the camera feed cut out for a short moment, filled with static, until it returned to normal. I didn’t think about it more than necessary.
“Anything?” Moore said.
“Logs. Datapads. We have a lot of stuff in here, Captain.”
“Take it all. We’re not staying here much longer.”
“What about survivors?”
I was wondering the same and was about to order Moore to stay longer, but he turned to one of the still functioning data panels and pointed at something. I hadn’t noticed it before because the camera had been angled the wrong way. I squinted, trying to see what he meant.
“Life signs detected: Five,” Moore said and fell quiet. The squad murmured amongst themselves while I fell back heavily against my chair.
“Admiral. If we must continue to investigate this, it will take too much time. It will be in vain. I’ll check if we have any visual inside the ship, but after that...”
I was covering my eyes, not even bothering to look at the feed. “Go ahead, Captain.”
“Robinson. See if you can get access to the surveillance systems. Try to find the... bodies.”
“Yes, Captain.”
The audio feed went quiet as the Private worked. The squad didn’t talk amongst themselves. I didn’t know what they were doing and I didn’t care. I felt as if I had been pierced by something hot, hope having been crushed. The
Felicity was only a dead husk.
Someone gasped on the feed and I uncovered my eyes, but I still didn’t look at the video feed.
“Found anything?”
“Somewhat, Captain. I found the crew.”
“What?”
“Hangar Bay, Section 8. Bodies everywhere.”
“Show me.”
Silence. I still didn’t bother to look at the feed, concentrating on the audio.
“My god. They are all... Are those knives?”
“I think so, Captain.”
“... Collective suicide?”
Silence again. I made a decision. I felt empty inside as I gave the order. “Captain. Return to the
Nostra. Your mission is done.”
Moore didn’t respond right away. After a long pause he said:
”Yes, Admiral.”
I shut off the feed altogether and looked up into the roof. A stream of thoughts invaded my head, making the headache worse. My hopes of finding survivors had utterly been crushed to a pulp. But I knew there was one last place to look and I held onto that faint hope hard. We would go to the source of it all, to look for that hope.
Mid-Childa.
*****
After the squad got back from the Felicity, I didn’t wait to form a group that would go down on the planet to investigate, myself included. While there were protests against my decision, I paid them no mind. I had already decided a long time ago, especially after the logs from the
Felicity had been analyzed. Most of it had been useless, either corrupted or making no sense at all, but one of the logs had contained a map over the edge of Cranagan, focused on the airport. That’s where we were going. I could, perhaps, find answers there.
The trip down to the planet a day later in the small shuttle was uneventful. We were secured tight against our seats, and I couldn’t see anything but the dim red light on the inside. There were no windows on the vessel, so we couldn’t take a peek at the madness outside. To me, that was a weird sense of relief. I didn’t want to watch as the dead planet approached. I just wanted to land and tread onto the ground with my own boots.
“Ten seconds. Brace for landing,” the pilot broadcasted through the vessel. The shaking brought on by the atmosphere decreased as we descended, smoothing out into a steady fall. I could hear the engines increase their power as gravity became stronger.
After a few more moments the roar of power deafened me until the shuttle shook violently and powered down. The straps around my body relaxed and let me loose. At the same time, the rear part of the shuttle began to open, letting dead air to flow inside. We had analyzed it from space, and there was nothing in it that could harm us. But that didn’t help against the rude smell. The crew coughed and spat. The utterly disgusting smell turned my stomach. Someone in front of me vomited straight onto the shuttle’s floor.
“Alright,” the officer at the back said, “let’s get moving!”
We all left the shuttle, carefully stepping onto the scorched ground I had once known as green grass and looked around at the insane landscape. Pillars of black matter stood a distance away, rising above us higher than we could see. To the west we saw the old HQ building, the sole structure standing amongst ruins.
“What in the world...” someone in the crew whispered and I silently agreed. The HQ building was a shadow of its former self. It stood there as a beacon in darkness, but it was still part of the darkness itself. Massive, fleshy snakes crawled through the entire building, from the inside out. It was a structure from a nightmare incarnate.
“I sincerely hope that isn’t where we are heading,” Corporal Hastings said and shook his head. “If it is, I’d have to decline.”
“There is no declining this, Hastings,” Captain Moore replied, ”but no, that isn’t where we are headed. The map we found on the
Felicity indicated a location not far from where we are now, in the opposite direction of HQ.”
“And where is that location, exactly? With all due respect, Captain, why did we land here? We could have flown wherever we wanted.”
“The airport,” the Captain said and gazed across the landscape, “and the reason we are walking from here is that we picked up heat signatures from the air. We don’t know what lurks on this planet anymore, so we didn’t want to take the risk of flying above it all.”
Moore turned me and I nodded. The defiance he had showed before was gone. He gestured at his lead scout and told him something. The scout saluted and ran off in the direction we were going. Slowly our group began to follow him, eyes gazing at the horrible wonders around us. Whispers floated around me, but I paid them no mind. I was busy with my own chaotic thoughts.
It took a while for us until we could see the airport, and once we did our group halted. Seeing the HQ had been a shock to us all. The airport provided us with the next one.
“What is that thing?” Moore whispered and brought up his binoculars. Most of the men around me stared, dumbfounded. I joined them, my jaw agape.
The area around the airport was burning, enclosing it like a gigantic fence. Pillars of fire rose to the skies, reaching several meters in height. Beyond that there were only scorched earth. Then it was the airport’s central building. The planes, some of which had been on the ground when the invasion started it seemed, were gathered in a circle around the building, turned up-side down, sideways, vertical and in other impossible angles. They formed monuments, I mused, but nothing I could classify as made by a human. Their shapes were beyond me.
“What the hell happened here?” someone in our group murmured and I shook my head. The flames and planes I could handle, but what rose from the central building was so weird I could barely think about it. It was... something made out of flesh. It was dark red and grotesque. Gigantic. I couldn’t describe it, even visualizing it in my head brought me a headache.
We stood there for a few minutes until Moore woke up from the shared confusion and began to move again. I kept my eyes on the thing at the airport, and so did most of those around me. Of the objects we had seen from the air there were no sign, but we kept moving, on alert.
After ten minutes of walking we reached the outskirts to the airport and for the first time I wondered how we were supposed to get inside. Moore’s scout had wondered the same thing it seemed, because he came from our left, breathing lightly as if he had been jogging and saluted at Moore.
“Sir, I found no entrance. It’s a solid wall of fire.”
I could see Moore was thinking about the issue and I looked into the fire. The flames licked the darkness, lighting it up around us. They were hypnotizing, in a way. They moved with rhythm, crackling and roaring. Even from my distance, which was ten meters, I could feel the mighty heat burning my skin, but it wasn’t bright enough to make me look away. It was almost... soothing. Almost as if-
I saw someone standing behind the fire. Her face was grizzled and torn. She was smiling like a beast. Her hair was blonde and black, scorched by fire. Compared to the things I had seen so far, she looked human, despite her black eyes and deep scaring running along her body.
Come.
I shook my head and blinked. The human who had appeared out of nowhere was still there, staring at me, and I felt myself walking on her command. My body obeyed, but my head screamed at me to regain control. The woman was too absorbing. Too similar to someone, but I couldn’t figure out whom. My memories were sealed off by an invisible force.
I barely felt the heat of the flames as I approached them. They seemed to cool off, dying. My imagination, playing tricks.
“Admiral!”
Finally Moore had noticed me walking towards the fire. I couldn’t see them as I was facing the wrong way, but I could hear them screaming for me to stop. But I didn’t listen. All I had in my head now was that woman.
Come.
The hollering behind me died down as the flames in front of me lessened and died out. At the same time I felt as if a lock was released inside of me and I fell to my knees, suddenly exhausted. My mind raced and I looked up, vision blurry. The woman was still there, but further away, motioning for me to follow. She had moved without a sound, instantly.
I felt a hand on my shoulder and I was picked up by Moore.
“Admiral? Are you alright? What the hell happened?”
I stared at the woman still. I was in a drunken haze as I pointed at her. I didn’t think Moore could see her. It was my imagination. My mind was broken. But Moore followed my gaze and from his widened eyes I could see wonder. He could see her.
“Who are you?” one of the men beside me shouted at the woman. She simply smiled and waved us to move towards her. We looked at each other, confused.
“We should get out of here,” Moore said. “The situation has... become much more dangerous than anticipated. We should-”
He became quiet as he turned around. I turned as well. The wall of fire had awakened again, capturing us on the inside.
“Let’s go on,” I said, shaking myself. “She wants to show us something.”
No one objected, knowing they had no other choice, and we walked down the asphalt road leading to the central building. The woman kept a distance away from us and it was only now that we noticed she didn’t walk. She teleported. One instant she would be five meters ahead of us. The next instant, ten. She would disappear for a fraction of a second and then appear again. I had never seen anything like it. I had heard of magic capable of such a feat, but ever since we had landed I had felt no magic at all, from anywhere. The planet had been ridden of magic, like it had been a disease. I couldn’t even use my own powers.
We eventually reached the main entrance to the building where the woman stopped and turned towards us with her infinite smile. We stared back at her. Slowly she rose a finger and pointed at me.
“Me? What do you want with me?” I said and remained where I was. I felt anger now. I couldn’t make any sense of the situation. I wanted answers.
“You came,” something said around us. I wondered where the voice had come from, because it was warped, distorted. Horrible. The woman’s mouth wasn’t moving. “We knew you would come and we knew you would join us. We knew as soon as you saw your home.”
I looked at Moore, who shrugged. None of us could make sense of what the voice was saying.
“We are the new overlords of fate. We came from a plane filled with wonders. And you will join us.”
Some of the men around me began to fidget with their gear and dropped it to the ground. I wondered what they were doing all of a sudden.
“But only you. For He needs servants to do his bidding.”
“Who is He?” I asked. I glanced at Moore who was standing too still for my liking. His gaze was fixated on the woman. I realized that while her mouth wasn’t moving, I felt that the voice was coming from her anyway, somehow.
“He is all of us, the Keeper of Time, the Key to the Gate. He has the guidance for us to lead us to the Fate that awaits.” The woman smiled even wider. “And the Time has come.”
In unison the group around me bent down and took something from their gear. Metal flashed from their hands. Knives. The
Felicity flashed in my mind and horror mounted within my head.
“Wait, what are you-”
“You shall join us and you will find what you seek. We know you are hunting. They are a part of us.”
“Shut up!” I screamed and refused to understand what she was saying, even though deep down I realized what it meant. “I want answers, not riddles. Tell them to put the knifes down. I know you’re behind it.”
The woman smiled. “The Time is Now.”
I reached out for Moore who was standing the closest to me, but he was too fast. I felt something wet splatter on my face and the group gurgled around me, slumping to the ground. I held my breath, staring at Moore’s body as it pumped out blood on the ground. Everything around me was red.
“He has received His servants. Come to us, now.”
Fury rose within me, but I had no words to express it with. I just stared at her, my hands clenched and teeth grinding.
“Aren’t you glad that you found me?”
The voice changed. He knew this voice very well and his fury abated. The woman’s appearance didn’t change, but her smile became sad. Tears were falling from her eyes. Yes, he knew her. But he didn’t want to say her name. He didn’t want to taint it with the being that stood before him.
“Our world is gone, Chrono. Only He remains, and He travels the stars. He is immortality and time incarnate. So come to me, Chrono. Join us and prosper.”
I was shaking my head, hope crushed into dust. I felt empty. There was nothing left within me. All had been lost. My feet carried me towards her and she spread her arms.
“Yes, come to me. Redeem yourself with us.”
I came to stand so close that I could stare deeply into her eyes. They weren’t empty. There were something within them, but it was locked away, hidden behind layers of madness. I realized that perhaps not all hope was lost, after all. It had only moved to another side and waited for me there.
I moved closer and, hesitant at first, embraced her. I felt cold arms on my back and a head on my shoulder. Yes, I knew her too well. And I knew I would find her again.
“I knew you would come... Brother.”
2011-11-30, 18:19
Author
I'll fix on my master copy, thanks for the catch.
.
. It's really good to see Hayate just coming down from her workload and be for Vivio what she probably has never been for any of her previous partners. I like the contrast in Hayate here compared to her approach to Morgan in Gut Feelings. it's touching and just yay! to see that the general is actually with this relationship on a whole other level, and better yet knowing that it's nice to have things working this way. Good job writing this!
....working on it 
