by Troy Dukart
He smiled as he took a sip of his drink, “My name is Ibrahim. These Whiteclouds of yours are quite beautiful.”
“You've been the one who's been guiding us these past few years, haven't you?” I asked.
“Yes,” he nodded while rocking in his chair, “While your brother healed in Tibet, I kept tabs on you. One of our top priorities was to get you to safety after he did.”
“So, you know what's really going on here, across the world?” Zixin said.
“My boy, does anyone? Besides, I don't watch the news anymore. Too depressing, even for an Irishman. There are more important things to worry about, like how much hair I might have tomorrow,” Ibrahim jested. That got us all laughing. “In all seriousness though, I'm sure you have questions. Maybe I can answer them for you.”
We turned to each other and nodded before turning back to him.
“Why do you think the Slates are appearing on Earth?” I asked.
Ibrahim looked down at the ground before looking back at us, “I believe it to be because we humans, the children of God, lost our connection to our Father. In His place, a Dark One has emerged. The Dark One's only purpose is to hurt us, to spite Him.”
“What a load of crock,” Zixin gawked.
Nudging him gently with my elbow, I whispered, “Let the man speak bro.”
Ibrahim stared into Zixin's eyes intently, “You have suffered much my young man. I can see the toll taken on you. To the point where you didn't want to live. Through Him, you can end your suffering.”
“I never abandoned God, He abandoned me,” Zixin asserted as he walked away. Pup followed him.
“Poor man,” Ibrahim lamented.
I sighed, “It has been hard, for both of us to get through.” Goliath and Esper snuggled up to me.
“Without God in your heart, the Dark One will find a way in. A fact since the beginning of mankind,” he said as he glanced out at the ocean, “Zixin will come to find Him in time.”
“In the other world, I felt as though someone always had my back. Many times we should've died but always survived, in the most mysterious of ways,” I said.
“Until a man exhausts his purpose, God will not let him die. Many, many of my Irish brothers and sisters fought for hundreds of years to reclaim our land from colonial rule. Each life lost only strengthened the cause. That was their sacrifice for the greater good,” Ibrahim folded his hands together, “You were brought there to not only find your family and friends but to realize your purpose Strafe.”
“What exactly is that?”
“You didn't figure it out?” he raised an eye as he took a sip of his brew.
“No, I, never actually thought about it. Should've studied the Ashtamangala more,” I admitted.
“Ha,” he chuckled before he put the cup down, “Our entire purpose in life is to serve others. That is why you had to go to Eternia, to understand that you are a protector from God to those you love. You find joy doing so, I can tell. We are all connected son, and when someone or something says otherwise, that is when the darkness will enter,” Ibrahim said.
Saying those words lifted a huge weight off of my chest. He helped me realize all of the struggles of my entire life had been shaping me to become the person I am. To find a passion in helping others.
“You're. . . right!” I praised.
“Just like a bar of silver must be boiled to release its impurities, life brings down upon us challenges and stress to release our own imperfections. Greed, anger, ego, jealousy and the other negative emotions become erased once you experience the worst of all situations,” Ibrahim continued.
I stood up and walked over to the stone railing, then turned to him, “Is this what the Salvators stand for? Helping the world understand God? Or are you after something else?”
Ibrahim moved next to me and put a hand on my shoulder, “We were not founded here but established a headquarters due to the Irish struggle. Their fight against foreign power and influence likened to my own people.” He gazed at the ocean again, “Strafe, this place will be discovered soon. The Federation are their own entity, operating outside of governments. Like we do. They grow strong and infiltrated almost every level of leadership across the globe. That is why you saw so much destruction in Eternia. They even plotted your own country against you. The Salvators, although known as other names, have been in existence for thousands of years, but now are almost completely gone. Endangered, like many animal species.”
“Because of Tiras or the Federation?”
“Both,” he answered, “They are acting independently though. If we stop one, stopping the other will be much easier.”
“How?”
Ibrahim pulled out a paper near his chair and set it on a table. It was a world map with many circles and x’s.
“We searched for many years and after many raids on Federation cells, we pinpointed their headquarters. Moscow. Deep underground,” he said.
“What are you planning to do? Raid it and kill the leader?” I asked.
“Exposure of their crimes to the world is how we will do this. We must do it with righteousness or we are the same as them.”
“Sure had a lot of weaponry downstairs,” I countered.
“This is true, but one must be willing to play by all rules in war. The enemy does not always see life the way you do. Remember this Strafe.”
Crossing my arms, I knew what he was going to ask us to do, “So, you want us to infiltrate them and find evidence to expose the Federation?”
“I can't force you to do this. I brought you here only to enlighten you. You'll be in great danger on this mission. If you join us though, you will be that much closer to the peace you wish for yourself and your family,” he said.
“Look at this,” I pulled out what was left of the God Blade, “It's a shell of itself. My old power is gone. How will we stand a chance against them?”
“You never needed any of those things. YOU are what the darkness fears, not this trinket,” Ibrahim insisted.
“One more question,” I said.
“Sure.”
“My friend, Yessa, she said the Salvators have her parents. I know you know about her. Do you?”
He shook his head, “No my dear boy, we don't. Give you my word. Who told her that lie?”
“One of her fellow Space Force people.”
“Ha,” he smirked, “I'm afraid their military is compromised. The Federation infiltrated them as well. We will look into where they might be.”
“I'll talk with Zixin. I'm not sure if he's ready for this,” I said.
“You will need him,” he added.
“Why?”
“Because your mother is there too.”
CHAPTER 18
Yessa
It'd been a few days since my lockdown. I kept myself busy by training in the simulator and watching movies. There wasn't much else I could do.
Amy came after she got off work one afternoon. She set her bags down on the floor, said hi, and went to take a shower.
When finished, she came and sat on the couch next to me. Despite how I felt about Parker, she was still my only ally.
“Stay productive today?” she asked while putting her hair in a towel to dry.
“Oh yeah,” I muttered.
We both laughed.
“This situation they got you in is super shitty. Might be making an example out of you to the rest of us.”
“Ahhh,” I sighed, “Not going to lie girl, I can't sit here any longer. Shit is driving me crazy!”
“But, what about the investigation?”
“Don't you get it?” I stood and clapped my hands together, “Your boyfriend set me up! Leadership isn't listening to me. He's planning something, sinister, and I can't stand by and wait to react anymore!”
Amy ran her hands through her hair and looked around, “Shut off any electronics we have here.”
I paused but followed through with her request. We went around the room
unplugging and turning off anything that might have a microphone. She closed the blinds and then sat down next to me and held my hands in her lap.
“Yessa, I'm sorry you've had to suffer like this. I was told to keep this a secret until now,” she whispered.
“What secret?”
“I've been on orders to spy on Trent the entire time we've been together. The Space Forces Intelligence office has been identifying Federation infiltrators and he met the potential criteria. Unfortunately, we've to gather as much evidence on these people as possible to prosecute them.”
My jaw hit the floor. With my hand over my mouth, she hugged me. She freed me from my internal prison. After I got myself together, we continued the conversation.
“Are you for real?” I sniffled.
“Yes. I'm sorry I couldn't let you know earlier. Your mistrust in Trent, and his disdain for you, helped our investigation. His actions are questionable. He's got powerful allies, but that doesn't make him untouchable. Until he makes a big mistake though, he's hot-shit in their eyes,” Amy comforted.
After wiping my tears, I stood up, “That's too dangerous. If we don't stop him now, who knows what could happen.”
“Yessa, your leadership gave you strict orders hun. You will go to prison if you disobey them.”
“I would never be able to forgive myself if I let Parker or the Federation hurt my family. He might even lead us to their hideout.”
After patting my leg, she walked toward the window and glanced out to see if anyone was watching, “I can extract you, and can tell you where your ex is going.”
“How?”
“You have no idea how capable we are,” she grinned, “But you will need a suit.”
Shaking my head, I said, “My codes are blocked.”
“Mine aren't,” she smirked.
“Amy. You would be in just as much trouble if you were caught. Worse,” I said grabbing her shoulders.
“My leadership would be, more forgiving, IF you expose him and find the Federation hideout. I don't work for Col Blaney or Lt Col Fabian. The military operates in shrewd ways.”
“This means a lot to me Amy.”
With a hug and kiss on my cheek, she said, “I'd do anything for ya Yessa. That's what besties do.”
Once I got some supplies gathered, we devised a plan. Our Space Suits were authorized to be carried anywhere on base, as they were like a gun is to a Marine. Amy would retrieve her suit and bring it back to our apartment. We would then take out and reprogram the identifier and tracking chip. An extremely risky move but I needed to take that chance. Sitting around here and rotting? Not my style.
After she got back, we went to work. Connecting the suit to her computer, she uploaded a program to trick it to think I was her. While we wore these suits, it verified the pilot through a various amount of ways. DNA in sweat, retina scan, and voice recognition to name a few. With a slight tremble in my hand, I equipped it.
If the failsafe didn't trigger once activated, that'd be a successful hack. A lockdown feature was coded in that couldn't be erased. It would trap any unauthorized user if they attempted control. I was sweating like a snowman in June, but I had to try.
“Okay, here goes hun,” Amy said as she patted my wrist.
I nodded my head and touched the chest plate to initialize suit formation. It powered up like normal and covered my body. It didn't lock down!
“We did it!” I cheered.
“Yehaw!” she sang and high-fived me.
“So, you know where Strafe is heading to?”
“Yes. To Moscow. We picked up the chatter on one of the Whiteclouds that your team bugged.”
“Are you sure you're cool with this?”
“You're my one and only Yessa,” she smiled.
With the helmet covering my face, I left the apartment. Amy stayed behind. On the right breast, it read her last name, “Scotta.”
Time to get to the bottom of this.
After inputting the coordinates she provided, the suit's thrusters kicked on and I shot up into the atmosphere. To enter Russia presented a high risk for any US military member. I would have to land near the border with Belarus and fly close to the ground the rest of the way in to remain undetected. They had their own version of Space Suits and weren't too keen on foreign pilots flying in their airspace.
Hope I'm not too late.
CHAPTER 19
Strafe
Zixin didn't take the news well. He knew there'd be fighting, but he also wanted to see our mother. It had been decades since.
We would fly to Bucharest, Romania and take a cargo train into Moscow. Transporting the Whiteclouds undetected required unique execution. The cars were large enough and covered so nobody could see us. Their strength would be necessary for the mission. After we made it into Russia we would then rendezvous with fellow Salvators stationed in the city. Together we would then sneak our way into the Federation HQ underneath one of the churches in the Kremlin.
Fun stuff, right?
Our plan was to infiltrate and destroy their HQ while gathering as much evidence and intelligence to present to the United Nations. Ibrahim said that the world knew of the Federation but not of their sinister intentions. We needed to expose them. Karma, and a few other Salvators would be traveling with us. They warned us that things could turn deadly and to trust no one.
She loaded body armor, guns, and various electronic equipment onto a larger airplane. Zixin was throwing a ball around with the wolves, so I decided to ask her some questions about herself. She was still kind of a stranger.
“Hey!” I waved as I walked up to her.
“Hi!” she said back.
“Need any help?”
“No, we're almost done. Thank you though,” she grunted while lifting up a heavy bag.
I leaned against the airplane and looked up at the stone ceiling in the hanger, “Karma, you mind if I ask you a question?”
She wiped some sweat from her head, “Sure Strafe.”
“Why are you involved in all this? You came from such a peaceful part of the world.”
She sat down on one of the cargo boxes and drank some water, “Nobody is safe from the Federation, even in China. Close to my eleventh birthday, my family was taken from me. My father was a politician running for governor of Tibet. He wanted the Chinese government to recognize our religion and not attack it anymore. Many people died going to concentration camps just because of their beliefs. My father also demanded the Federation be labeled as a terrorist group. On the campaign trail and in a hotel, my brother and mother were found with their neck's slit in their sleep. My father was hung in the streets with a warning sign around his neck for those who defied Chinese law. I stayed home to take part in a local festival. If I was with them, I would've died too. Their deaths have haunted me every single day.”
“Woah,” I said in shock.
“Our government hired the Federation to kill them I found out. Not everyone in my country is bad Strafe, only a few. Just like anywhere. That same day I made a promise, to do whatever I had to so nobody else would suffer what I did. They robbed me of my soul.”
“That's awful. I'm sorry for your loss.”
“It happened a long time ago but, when someone is taken before their time, it's hard to accept they're gone. Makes me wonder what memories I should've made with them.”
“I know the feeling,” I said as I turned and crossed my arms. I thought about Brutus.
After loading the plane, we got aboard. Zixin kept to himself for the rest of the day. His recovery flew way above my expectations. Our time with Sonam helped reclaim his soul. That day he almost died from suicide remained a sensitive topic. I hoped he never had a relapse.
Zixin's left arm fully restored itself. Even though he couldn't fire spirit energy from his hands like in Eternia, he learned to harness his old power in a new way. My power remained dormant or nonexistent in this world. Before leaving, I went outside to ta
ke in the beautiful green grass of Ireland once more. Thirty minutes passed by and I was satisfied. I leaned down and grabbed a four-leaf clover for good luck.
I always admired the resiliency of the Irish.
Once in Bucharest, we hopped on a train the Salvators had set-up for us. It would take us around four days to make it to Russia, which gave us plenty of time to prepare.
Ibrahim instructed us to infiltrate through a series of underground tunnels near the Kremlin. They gave us passcodes and IDs to enter restricted areas of the complex. Hidden deep below we would find their headquarters. Before fleeing to another hideout in Finland, our mission was to pose as Federation members and gather intelligence.
Once we made it to Moscow, a compartment in the floor opened and Russian Salvators welcomed us. They unlocked an underground passage below the belly of the train. We took this path to their safehouse.
“Welcome Comrades, I'm Sergei, the guy in charge here,” a man said in a heavy Russian accent.
Sergei was a middle-aged man with a five o'clock shadow and grey hair. He wore dark, military clothing.
“Nice to meet you Sergei, my name is Karma from the Tibetan Hideout and these are my friends. Thank you for helping us.”
“No problem, especially for someone so pretty like you,” Sergei smiled jokingly.
“Dude's got game,” I whispered sarcastically.
“What's game?'“ Zixin asked.
“When you. . . I'll tell you later,” I shook my head.
Dark and full of iron pipes overhead, the tunnels we walked down reminded me of the movie Alien. My mind played tricks on me like something was going to jump out at us any second. The smell of copper and moldy water down down here reminded me of pennies.
After walking for about a half a mile, we reached a huge iron door. Sergei approached it and performed a unique knock to open it by beating it like a drum with both hands.
“Welcome to Moscow's Salvator hideout. Please try Russian sausage and soup. Make you very strong,” he invited while flexing his biceps.
Vegetables and the sausage along with a salty soup tasted fantastic. I hadn't eaten warm food in a while. Even Zixin enjoyed it, which is rare because he didn't eat much. Once we finished, Sergei stood in front of everyone and got our attention.