Dawn of Hope- Exodus

by Dobrin Kostadinov

  ‘We’re losing the battle. I want you to redirect all the water from the ship to the anti-fire system. Bring the largest hoses here right now!’ he yelled and cut off the transmission as he dashed ahead to launch his own series of fire on our attackers. Four big red trucks appeared behind us–they seemed to be the firefighting system of the ship. They were dragging and unfolding enormous hoses, about three feet in diameter, which emerged from the access door of the roof and had stream concentration attachments. We made them way so they could pass quickly through our troops. They took the frontmost possible position, lowered side stanchions that came from their inside parts and planted them on the ground. The risistence the water caused was visibly great just as I had suspected. The onboard pumps were turned on and the hoses got filled up with water in a matter of seconds, the vehicles jumped up a foot athough they were firmly rooted in the ground. Waterfall-like amounts of water gushed out–the water capacity of the ship was unseen! A river formed down the slope and our attackers began sliding and dissolving partially. That resulted in a spectacular episode. The water dragged a large thick mass of critters down the slope. They rose up in a titanic wave. What a paradox that was! We were using water, it was fresh, though, against creatures that lived in the salty ocean. But I was not at all taken aback by that fact, everything was possible on that planet . . .

  Shortly after the ship’s holds ran out of water. I hoped that the rainclouds hanging over our heads intended to step in and serve their purpose. The scene was followed by a few minutes of utter silence and then Milev continued instructing his army.

  ‘We lost three tanks and a few dozen soldiers, but many more of their kind were struck dead. Good job, boys, we’re almost there! Almost there!’ He murmured the last words, for he knew that that battle was going to last for quite a while.

  Not long after that the army of Menoetian demons returned for another lash-out. This time their front line was entirely composed of the black members of their race. They were running up quickly, ready for one more offense, but about a hundred and sixty feet away, right before our automatic defense systems got activated, they divided into two groups. They split like a tree struck by a thunder at the middle and headed towards the rocky edges of the plateau. They jumped off one by one and grabbed hold of the softer rocks so they could climb their way up the steep slopes. What was that? Did they actually have an assault tactic?! I was absolutely stunned by what I saw. I ran in their direction and saw the soldiers guarding the edges open fire on the approaching creatures. Standing in the back, Milev shouted his orders at that moment.

  ‘Third-liners, keep the slopes safe!’

  All soldiers guarding the back line broke into a run and surrounded the ship so as to protect it, otherwise the creatures were going to climb up and besiege us, putting an end to the war against us.

  A deafening crossfire started, the machines were engaged into pulling down and drilling the edges of the plateau in an attempt to force a large portion of land to tumble down and knock the creatures over. Clods of earth and chinks of rock rolled down towards the demons, hitting some of them and sending them straight into the mouth of the steep abyss while others still held their feeble grip onto the slopes. But they were coming and coming like colonies of ants whose number could not be counted. The crests of the plateau were almost completely covered by the members of the alien species and we were surrounded by them from all sides. The front line at the forest border still withstood the onslaught thanks to the tanks, the drones and the five perfect killing machines which were engaged in ripping up the main core of the invaders. That was the dividing point of the two teams–one took the rocky area and the other attacked centrally. I was standing close to the edge, right in between two of the machines which were breaking off pieces of the rock as the warriors around me were steadily shooting at the enemy. The indescribable commotion together with the bullet storm and all the hollering echoed through the entire land around us and floated on across the space. Was that a simple war or was it a battle for life? Could it be both . . .

  I decided to step back as the creatures had covered most of the way up to the plateau and had some serious advantage over us. Suddenly I saw with my own eyes how two of them climbed up and caught onto one of the small excavators–the size of an average tractor. They dragged it away and tossed it into the abyss with their solid limbs. At last I could see them from up close, there were some fifty feet between us. That was close enough for them to inspire awe in me. Their physical strength seemed to be limitless and their formidable appearance could drive away entire armies without even having them engage in a battle at all. But just like every other living thing in the Universe they were not immortal. Those two creatures were hit by the dozens of shots that came out of the snipers’ weapons that were waiting in their positions at the almighty terraces of German Ascend 1. Before I had succeeded in backing away, they started to break our flanks. They came up one after the other, some got killed, others lived so long as to pull to pieces our impenetrable defense lines. Things deteriorated by the minute, so I decided that I could do more than just film the events and provide some practical help for the soldiers by opening distant fire. But since I lacked the confidence to do long-range shooting, I got close to the main scene of action, so I did not injure some of our defenders. I was right about to get ready and join everyone else when at least five of the enemy popped out of the blue and killed many of the soldiers. One of the beasts was treading in my direction, yes, it was coming for me. I was shaking, yet I opened fire on the attacking creature, but it would not cease its advance. Then after it gave out a guttural cry I started walking backwards, still shooting and absolutely terrified that it was going to get me. It looked as though it paid attention to no one else but me. It had singled me out and I was meant to die by its hands. The cartridge was empty, I slipped on the white transparent liquid left of one of the Vacari and fell back. I had no other option but to just cover my face with my arms in a pitiful attempt to defend some part of my body. My eyes sank into darkness, my eyelids were tightly shut and trembling. I gritted my teeth and prepared myself for the deathly blow. But it never happened. I heard three weird shots being fired, followed by the sound of bullets hitting their mark quite close to me and then the creature’s remains in the form of dust and something liquidy sprinkled on top of me. I opened my eyes and saw the grayish-white ripped apart from the torso down sliding down onto the ground.

  ‘Nooo!’ I cried in horror, trying to move away because otherwise I was going to be crushed by the massive trunk. Fortunately, it collapsed inches away from my legs, leaving me unharmed. Its head was still moving and it passed out close to my side. At that instant I did not see the bloody background around me. I can now only recollect its eyes. They were as black as darkness. It felt like there was no life in them, but just empty consciousness. I did not really know if that was so, but peering into them I descried no soul, no intellect, not even the most basic spark of human morality. All I saw was an consciousness devoid of meaning and virtues and ready to kill. Perhaps that animal was just one of the many representatives of its species, one with no name and personality of its own, just a random number or a replica of a semblance of the innumerable army of those monsters. I was stunned and so petrified that I could not even pronounce my name.

  Until I managed to prop myself on my submachine gun and get back up on my feet, part of the snipers’ fire concentrated at the debilitated flank in front of me. That was probably the very thing that saved my life. Out of nowhere Milev showed up from behind my back, yelling something over the radio. Suddenly half of the warriors armed with the new shotguns came to our rescue. The electric projectiles flew ahead one after the other in a rain of thunderbolt spheres. One of the air pilotless planes which took care of the front line, flew over us and hovered over the plateau opposite the slope on which the creatures were climbing. He opened fire with the machine gun and send a few missiles at the surface of the rocks. Upon their explosion, I felt the earth beneath m
y feet shake and tremble stronger than an earthquake would have made the ground convulse. I got weak in the knees, but I stood firmly in my spot. What’s more, I stood tall and filmed the perfect frames. They were not recorded by a flying drone or the ship’s surveillance systems, but by a real witness at the scene of action. I set up the focus, fixed the photosensitivity and began capturing the display of unheard-of heroism and military tactics. We managed to resist the attack for now, but how long would we be able to maintain that? Most of the mobilized men were equipped with ammunitions, they extricated the wounded warriors and even joined the defense although we were far from not leaving casualties behind. There were dozens of injured men, some were flattened by machines or crushed by shells. Hundreds were dismembered and ripped apart by the Vacari and their number increased slowly with time. The alien army, though, showed no signs of resignation or shortage of fighting entities. All that limited them was the shape and the position in which the plateau was situated. Perhaps that was the perfect place which was going to play a decisive role in defending our flying palace of steel.

  The tension was mounting. It had been two hours since we got besieged and the prospects for a favorable outcome were non-existent. At that moment I felt a droplet of rain land on my nose. I looked above and saw dark clouds that went grayer and gloomier and sheeted the entire sky. That was an omen. At first it began as a drizzle, but it was going to turn into buckets of water pelting down on us. Balls of lightning started flashing across the heavens, splitting them in two from one end to the other, forcing the army of grayish-white slowly to abandon their invasion. Some of the beasts backed out of the fight, but the black ones fought until the end, for they had no fear of the rain or of the electricity caused by the Menoetian atmosphere. Half an hour more into the combat, battered by the deluge, we finally took the upper hand. I could hardly believe it, I was standing still, surrounded by the wafting vapors of the decomposed bodies which gave off the odor of burnt flesh, but I was alive! We conquered another victory despite all of the losses. A wave of triumphant cries and laughter broke out as we could see Harry in the distance, proudly perched on top of a truck, waving our flag under the hammering raindrops. I felt such content and I was full of pride for my comrades who did not back down despite the impending hazard of death. We won mainly due to the atmospheric anomaly caused by the strong electromagnetic radiance of the colossus, but taming the enemy ranks in a matter of hours was quite a marvelous achievement. We probably just had to allow ourselves to live. Maybe we had to defend our right to live and our place under the stars. Until the spark was still smoldering inside of us, there was no power that would get in our way. But, alas, the difficult part was just to stay alive, because it was the unknown and the illogical that reigned that hellish planet . . .

  Chapter Nine

  Becoming a Legend…

  At last the chaos waned. All I could hear were the raindrops hitting my uniform. Everyone rejoiced at our success! One more victory was secured, but at the expense of what? The aftermath of our losses was ghastly. One third of our war machinery and approximately a quarter of our soldiers were untimely lost for good. Even in their dying hours they could not bid proper goodbye with their loved ones. They threw themselves into battle for us, for themselves, for everyone that would come to be after them. I did not want their sacrifice to have been in vain, it was not right. We had to move on for their sakes, to walk the bridge of dead bodies that our dead brethren built for those who remained alive, so we could step onto the shore of salvation. The fate of their mortal remains was for them to be collected in the trucks so they could be cremated later on in the ship’s incinerator. It was truly sad. Unlike the machines they could not be repaired. Unfortunately, when you let life out into space, there was no turning back, regrettably, in those times it was still impossible.

  I was dirty and completely drenched to the skin, all I wanted was to go somewhere dry and have a shower; I hoped I would get to know what feeling alive felt like again. But at that moment it was hard for me to even think about that because my body was shivering with cold and adrenaline. I walked straight up into my room, I was so impatient to get rid of all the dirt that had clutched its nails into my bones. I started undressing, but my hands were still shaking even though it had been an hour since the last bullet had been shot. I hastened to get in the bathroom and the hot water seemed to work its calming effect on me. I had no idea how much time I had spent in the shower, but I remember that at some point I slipped down on the floor, probably out of lassitude. I felt weak and doomed and my tears would not stop streaming. All the emotions from the past few days wanted to blast their way out. But I had to stay strong, I owed it both to myself and to everybody else who was no longer among the living and who would have probably wanted to shed a few bitter manly tears. I found it in me to pull myself together because I knew that I should not let desperation become my master. I dried off, took a bit of rest and satiated my hunger despite the utter exhaustion that had robbed me of my appetite. Nevertheless, there was something I needed to do. The footage waited to be processed and recorded on separate carriers and as far as my notes were concerned, they were going to have to wait as they came last on my priority list.

  I spent a few hours tethered to the screen, processing the videos from both cameras. I could hardly believe what had been filmed although I was right there at the epicenter of the events. It was a good thing that we had it all recorded, otherwise no one would have believed what happened on that Menoetian plateau, now soaked with blood and tears. Several hours passed until I finished going through all the videotaped moments and a few more until I catalogued everything. It was long past twilight outside and I was fully dedicated to my job. I wanted everything to be perfect and polished since I did not feel like disappointing the man who changed my life in just a handful of days. While these thoughts were racing through my mind, I heard something like a telephone ring coming from inside the room. There was a speaker and a microphone with a little button beside them installed by the door. I got up and went to answer the unexpected call. It was Milev himself. It seemed as he knew intuitively when to call for you, it was as though he felt when he was needed or when someone mentioned his name.

  ‘Are you all right, kid?’ were the first words that came out of the speaker after I turned it on.

  ‘Yes, I was just finishing up editing the footage.’

  ‘We’ll be having another meeting, your presence is required. I’m expecting you in ten minutes, get your equipment ready,’ he announced and cut off the transmission. There, I had to go to the bridge yet again. I was curious what was in store this time. I prepared myself for a few minutes and even arrived earlier, but things were different in the control room. I had a burning desire to find out what was going on . . .

  ´By tomorrow morning we’ll have at least as many shotguns as we already have available!’ Zanev was saying. Apparently there was a quarrel raging between the high-ranking crew members.

  ‘If everything keeps developing in the same vein, there will be no one to carry them!’ Scott interjected scathingly. Now they were all dressed like civilians and I could recognize them all so I knew who was talking.

  ‘What if we get defeated tomorrow, what are we going to do then?’ Alan asked the Professor fervently. The American was obviously backing his fellow countryman on that matter.

  ‘Then what do you suggest we do? You don’t think we have much of a choice, do you?! At least hear out the plan we’ve concocted with Jean-Pierre.’ Roman was trying to make the two hot-tempered cousins cool down. The rest of the team were sitting silently in their chairs, looking really pensive. Thomas, Milev and everyone else were merely observing the ongoing clamor.