Beyond Apocalypse

by Bruce S Larson

  Ursuhr glanced at his maul. He looked at his Ship Master, Martis, waiting for the wingless demon to give him a reason to take his weapon into combat.

  “I have plotted the trajectory of the distortion, Lord Ursuhr,” Martis said. His voice was deep and rasping and unique among his kind. It was rare for demons to have affectations. However, when a mind could pilot a ship that traveled galactic arms yet was always marooned on the same bridge, that mind could become tweaked over time. “It confirms the origin was Sol-Zjaun.”

  Ursuhr inhaled and then made a deep, groan like grating boulders. Both he and Martis looked at his maul. Ursuhr nodded and spoke. His voice was a seismic rumble.

  “They are coming.”

  On the planet, Kwal reached street surface. His fellow demon followed from the underground site. Deep within it, Almok guarded the strange machine. Kwal and his nameless partner crouched and scanned for enemies before taking flight.

  “Rok!” the second demon said.

  “What?” Kwal snapped his stare from down his sights to his companion.

  “That is the name I would choose if I could be named.” The demon said while still scanning.

  “You cannot choose a name!” Kwal sneered. “You are not recognized, so you have no name!”

  “I am sure I will be for this discovery. As were you.” The demon lowered his rifle and nodded to himself. “But, I am not permitted to think, so I may be wrong.”

  “We do not think.” Kwal said and stood. “Not like Almok. And he does not think as well as our Field Master Kalak, who does not think as darkly as Lord Ursuhr.”

  “And he is stupider than the Dark Urge.” The would-be Rok said.

  Kwal began to raise his rifle to club his partner for impudence. He then realized what he said was essentially true, if crudely phrased. And then Kwal’s own head began to hurt. He shook it and focused on their task.

  “We need to summon Kalak!” Kwal barked. “Our rifles will boost our thoughts, but the signal will be stronger in flight.”

  “I feel—” The other demon rolled his folded wings and shoulders. “There is…a tingle.”

  Kwal also felt the growing charge in the air. Both demons heard a crackle of energy above them. A sudden force pulled them off the ground. They looked up through their guns sights to see the huge, silver sphere falling straight at them. Their last thought was to open fire.

  The sphere struck the demons and then the ground. City debris began to swell and roll towards the sphere just before it vanished with a thunderclap and cyclone of metallic mist. Air rushed out from the where the sphere had landed. What stood there now were three black giants. Their homeworld of Sol-Zjaun called them the Titans. They had traveled interstellar distance for one cause: kill everything from Hell.

  Each Titan had a basic, human form made impossibly massive and clad in burnished, black armor. From the shoulders upward the human comparison ended, as did a comparison to all life. The armor flowed into half domes of arched, black bands over their shoulders. A head and neck would be expected between the domes. Instead, there was a gap from each Titan’s back to its chest. Over this gap hovered an orb unique to each Titan.

  The energies of the Crimson Titan surrounded him in a red corona. Ruby hued flames knifed between the narrow gaps in the black, dome bands and curled across their tops. The gap below its orb radiated light and heat like a foundry’s crucible, yet this crucible held the surface of a red star. Its orb was a perfect sphere cast in the crimson. It hovered over the stellar fires as more than a floating ball. It was an eye. The red eye stared out between the shoulder domes with a thousand, slowly swirling irises of deeper crimson. A crest of black floated above the center of the eye and curved down behind it. The crest tapered to a sharp point near the Titan’s back.

  The Blue Titan glowed nearly white at its shoulder domes and crucible. It appeared as an electrical medusa with arcs of lightening in place of serpents around its floating eye. There were no visible irises among the constant electrical arcs and whips. Some bolts rippled down the length of its black armor. Others struck and burned the ground.

  The Dark Titan was purest black. The force of gravity contained within its armor pulled its eye orb into an inverted raindrop shape over solid darkness. The eye held a single, distorted iris. The iris was a horizon of light drawn towards an unseen, dark center within the eye that created the pupil. Its armor was nearly a solid black surface. The mass behind it compressed the seams to nearly invisible lines.

  The Titans were greeted by a hail of demon fire and grenade salvos. They remained unmoved. Their orbs turned to look at one another. Their gaze turned to a massed attack of vicious demons charging on the ground and in the air. The Titans ran, at the demons.

  The two forces met in a wide avenue flanked by rows of fallen towers. As the flying demons circled and fired, the Titans dealt with the ground forces in the universal method used by larger creatures facing smaller threats. They stomped on them. There were too many to simply kill underfoot. More demons left the hunt for saurian forces and came to join the fight against the three giants. The Titans disappeared beneath waves of demons firing, stabbing, and clawing at them. The frenzy had killed tactics. The Titans became still, welcoming the violent swarm.

  The Crimson Titan extended its arms out and palms upward. Waves of flame engulfed the demons swarming him. Their bodies froze and burned into a chain of bronze sculptures before falling away as molten fragments.

  The Blue Titan was more energetic. Arcs lanced over its engulfing demons and incinerated them and their weapons whole. Cascades of blue bolts lanced from the Titan and fused the ground around it.

  The Dark Titan appeared passive, but its method was as lethal. The demons covering it were pulled by increasing gravity and crushed into a hellish aggregate. Their bodies then fell just as sections of a sundered casting mold broke away from a newly cast statue.

  An entire demon army lay vanquished. A faint echo sounded as distant saurian observers roared with delight.

  Demon artillery rained shells at the three massive victors. The Titans again remained unmoved. The eyes of the Titans rolled to look up. Much heavier ordinance was unleashed from orbit. Asteroid fragments burned in sharp trajectories towards the surface. They blasted into the shattered city around the Titans. Demons knew these strikes marked another grand arrival. A large rock was always held in reserve for the event. The force that shattered it struck maul first near the Titans. The city shook even from the controlled impact. Demons now roared with joy as General Ursuhr stepped from his fresh crater.

  All three Titans faced Ursuhr and spoke in a unified voice that vibrated through ears and all frequencies. “General Ursuhr, scourge from Hell, your judgment is passed. Your hour of death is now.”

  “Fools!” Ursuhr bellowed and slapped the handle of his maul in one hand. “I only engage you now because here I know I can kill you! You are the greatest warriors of your world, but you squander your power by facing me away from your stronghold. I by-passed Sol-Zjaun to lure you here. Your people will never recover from your loss. I will sweep through their cities and set your planet to flames. But you will be spared the pain of failure, because I will kill you all, now! Did you not expect both cunning and cruelty from me? From Hell?” Ursuhr bared his teeth in a triumphant smile.

  “No.” was the Titans’ collective reply.

  Ursuhr drew in a deep breath and scowled at his three enemies. His triumphant speech was for naught. He exhaled his disappointment. Dust scattered far down by his boots.

  “Then simply die!” Ursuhr swung his maul.

  The Dark Titan caught the maul and held it fast. The Blue Titan fired its lightning across the massive General. Ursuhr freed one hand and struck the Crimson Titan at his side. It fell to the ground.

  Almok felt another tremor. He was annoyed at having to guard this machine thing while his comrades enjoyed the fighting. However, a voice had spoken to him. An enemy was nearby. He may find a fight right in this rough-cut chamber. H
e would stay anyway, lest Field Master Kalak feed him as pieces to Lord Ursuhr for dereliction of duty. The certainty of the machine’s importance remained although his understanding of its function dimmed as knowledge strands in his mind recoiled for storage. They had temporarily augmented his brain beneath the thorned scalp and reinforced skull. Still, even a demon given greater sentience desired a good fight.

  “A demon.” The voice sounded again.

  Almok swung around, ready to fire. He could understand the language, but not determine the origin of the voice.

  “Hell’s warrior model and most mass produced device.” The voice continued. “And, no doubt, why I’ve been activated.”

  The long, jagged, and still blood-spattered bayonet shot forth and fixed under the heavy barrel of Almok’s rifle.

  “Such aggression,” the voice continued. “You must be frustrated to be a mere guard for a machine. Although I am also limited to predetermined actions.”

  “Show yourself!” Almok shouted. “Come out and fight!”

  “A fight against me might erase the translation protocol I’ve worked so hard to build. Plus, to do so you would need to access and then reprogram complex, phased data. Can you do that? Doubtful.”

  “I can kill machines!” Almok screamed. He darted his head out of the hastily cut chamber and quickly glanced down the metal tunnel in both directions.

  “Conclusion of my form, accurate. My location? Failed. To be fair, I’ve toyed with sonic projection. So let me help. I am part of the thing behind you.”

  “You are this machine’s mind?” Almok turned and looked at the generator. He placed his bayonet against it.

  “Not quite. But a mind, yes. I am a failsafe. Unfortunately, the computing power built into my design to overcome sophisticated program infiltration is unneeded. But I do need a diversion as energy builds. I am all too aware my life will be quite short. So, entertain me you ugly beast.”

  “I must guard you,” Almok groaned. “I would rather fight you. Strike at me!”

  “Sorry to disappoint. I can only employ passive scans.”

  “I live to fight!” Almok smiled at the thought. “You are not a warrior. You are nothing. We will dismantle you. Your parts will become ore for the greater glory of creation. You will serve the Dark Urge.”

  “As you serve this Dark Urge?” The failsafe asked.

  “Yes!” Almok shouted. He opened his jaws as he smiled and revealed glistening shark teeth. “In obedience to my Lord, General Ursuhr.”

  “The lizard-like people of this planet did not realize the enormity of the gift this generator bestowed.” The failsafe paused as if in disbelief. “They only attempted to repurpose it to kill your General.”

  “Impossible!” Almok glared at the machine. He wondered if he should shoot it for impudence, or keep it intact for Kalak and their great and dread Lord. He eased his trigger claw.

  “Yet, they could not detect me.” The failsafe continued. “Now I must make sure neither does your Ursuhr. The plan may still work if gets close enough. Right now he may survive what is to come. We won’t.”

  Ursuhr wrested his maul from the Dark Titan, but staggered back from the continued blue bolts fired by its ally. A wave of incredible heat replaced the Blue Titan’s attack. Ursuhr sank into the ground as it became a molten lake from the flames rolling out from the Crimson Titan as it stood.

  Across the city, Ursuhr’s Field Master Kalak observed the battle. He alit on a jagged spire that was the vestige of a narrow, obsidian pyramid. It had reached above clouds before Hell’s invasion. Now it was a mere perch for one of its destroyers. Kalak observed Ursuhr’s fight. His General faced an enemy equal in power. That should be impossible, given the will of the Dark Urge. He wondered if their power was part of her black will. He looked up at the ship visible in the daytime sky as a red glow above the clouds. He thought to target the Titans with a missile strike. Yet, if he interfered and it cost Ursuhr glory, his General would kill him. If he allowed Ursuhr to be embarrassed, his General would kill him. Faith said that Ursuhr would win. Curiosity and imagination allowed other scenarios. If Ursuhr lost—if Ursuhr died—Kalak wondered if he would become General. Kalak belayed his call for supporting fire. Whatever occurred in this battle, the future now seemed more interesting.

  From inside the lake of fire, Ursuhr laughed. “I was born in Hell!”

  Ursuhr swung his maul and struck the molten earth. A lava curtain flew across all three Titans. Ursuhr leapt into them. A shower of orange and gray globs and beads of cooling slag exploded from the impact. The Titans fell like massive steel columns into the tower ruins.

  Ursuhr directed his momentum toward the Blue Titan. It fired bolts from both hands into Ursuhr, who cried out. Ursuhr summoned his strength to thrust his maul’s handle through the chest of the Blue Titan. Behind Ursuhr, the Dark Titan recovered and struck the General’s back with both its gauntlets. The force knocked Ursuhr into his maul and drove its handle farther through the Blue Titan.

  The Crimson Titan rose and knelt, and then focused its heat at Ursuhr. Ursuhr ignored the steel incinerating blast and rolled to his side to launch a kick of his left leg into the Dark Titan. The force of the blow drove it off its feet and through burning buildings.

  The Crimson Titan reached to aid its blue ally that writhed and arced as it pushed up the head of Ursuhr’s maul. The General’s fists slammed the maul head back down. The Crimson Titan punched him in the face. Hellish ichor sprayed from his snout. Ursuhr and the Crimson Titan rose, trading blows as bolts from the Blue Titan whipped the sky and across them all.

  Ursuhr lunged forward and batted the Crimson Titans arms aside. He grabbed its red orb in both clawed hands and pulled. Both combatants fell to the shattered and burned ground. Ursuhr never lost his grip. Blue bolts still arced skyward and flames rolled as the Crimson Titan grabbed Ursuhr’s wrists. It struggled to free itself from the General’s grip. Ursuhr had little leverage on the ground, but twisted his torso and pulled with all his arm strength. The black crest of the Crimson Titan’s armor exploded skyward as its eye finally tore away.

  The now completely headless Titan rolled away, flailing its arms. It stood but could only stagger as geysers of red starfire erupted from between its black domes. It crashed through the city remains before its empty armor collapsed among the other ruins.

  Lightning still arced from the coursed from the Blue Titan while Ursuhr rolled onto his feet. He still gripped the crimson orb. The Dark Titan charged back and pulled Ursuhr’s maul from its blue ally who struggled to stand while still spilling lightning. The Dark Titan lifted the maul to strike as Ursuhr charged. He turned to dodge the blow of his own weapon. More bolts lanced across Ursuhr, who slammed the red orb into the eye of the Blue Titan. It staggered back with the two eyes smashed together between its domes.

  The Dark Titan paused and stared at its surviving ally. The Blue Titan’s eye was off center with the red orb crushed into it. The impacted eyes formed an oblong mass like a planet suddenly struck by another world. They also acted as if they spun out of orbit. The two orbs spun faster and became unstable. The black bands of the Blue Titan’s domes flew off when struck by the spinning eyes. The whole of its black armor twisted and fractured. It acted as a hollow metal tube caught in a powerful vortex.

  Ursuhr grabbed the handle of his maul and fought to free it from the Dark Titan. As they wrestled, the energies of the Blue Titan became a vortex of circling lightning bolts. The vortex grew into one massive and brilliant blue bolt that burned into the planet and arced out into space. The bolt died. All that remained was a cooling cinder of the Blue Titan’s armor twisted tightly into a giant length of wire.

  Only one Titan survived. The shock of the Blue Titan’s final destruction caused the Dark Titan to pause for the briefest moment. Ursuhr yanked his maul from its grasp. He immediately struck the Dark Titan with it. The sound of the blows rang out in fast succession. The Dark Titan staggered from each one.

  “None are more
powerful than Ursuhr!” Almok shouted his testament of faith even without seeing his General battle three other giants on the surface some distance away. “Save only the Dark Urge.” He quickly added. “All praise to the Dark Urge!”

  “You worship both?” The failsafe asked. “Duality. Yet it likely won’t corrupt your brutal brain.”

  “You strike with words! Ha! May Ursuhr the Mighty smash you with his maul!”

  “I’m curious.” The failsafe paused. “Does such a being give you ironic hope beyond your own death?”

  “Demons never die,” Almok growled. “Our bodies become part of creation’s dark heart where all things arise. We return to the Dark Urge.”

  “Is it a heart or a womb?”

  Almok tensed his finger on the trigger.

  “Is it possible to reunite with her if there is nothing left of you at all?” The failsafe asked.

  “Explain!” Almok barked. He could feel the air in the room was growing warmer. The generator was glowing brighter. He became wary. “No! Silence! You only exist to serve her! Say no more or my rage will kill you!”

  “Had the saurian intellects enacted the generators true purpose, neither of us would need to die. We would never have met. But you found the generator. Thus, it must be destroyed. And sooner than in line with the saurian plans. I calculate that giving them this generator was in desperation. Now the benefactor also fails.”

  “All will fall to the will of the Dark Urge.” Almok snapped. “You cannot stop that, or my Lord!”

  “Well, true. Now. But I was never more than a superseding failsafe program. I was created to cause my own death. I don’t know if I should be sad or glad I fulfill my function. Perhaps that’s why I have no coding for emotions.”