“What are you…”
Before Valkyrie can finish her sentence, Seven holds his hand over her. She feels thousands of volts of electricity surge through her body.
“What the hell was that!” She angrily questions Seven.
He turns his attention to the War Maidens now coming in for their swooping dive attack from the sky. Seven holds his hand out toward them and suddenly the batteries to their suits turn off. They plummet out of the sky, each one of them crashing into the nearby vicinity. Seven turns his attention to the direction Red went. He focuses. Light forms around his body. In an instant, he’s gone.
‘I can’t believe you’re leaving now.’ Valkyrie tries her telepathic communication.
‘I’m not?’ Seven’s reply comes instantly
‘Whoa, that worked…’
‘See? Now let’s end this together. Shall we?’
‘I’m on it.’
“Alright bitches.” Valkyrie cracked her fingers, feeling the surge of power within her. Her combat suit may have been damaged before, but now, it was surging with the energy Seven latched onto it – “Let’s do this.”
The trio of Maidens get to their feet. Nemesis instantly opens fire on Valkyrie but Xeilya activates her shield barrier with the quick swap of some buttons, forming a shield strong enough to absorb the kinetic energy from the gunfire. Once fully absorbed, She presses a few more buttons that turns the shield offensive; now returning the fire it absorbed to the trio. They flee in different directions. Valkyrie chases after them.
In the midst of the action, Josh is managing to keep up with the army of clones at the other parts of the broken city. A combination of his speed, wit and tricks to outmaneuver their firepower, knock one or two down with a solid series of hits then onto the next. The problem is they just keep coming and eventually, Josh will be worn down from the assault.
Would that be enough to stop the endless hailstorm of firepower chipping away at his already broken armor?
He finds cover behind one of the buildings then looks out to see what would be the wisest tactical move here. He can see enemies closing in from left to right but they’re patient in their approach. So he decides to surprise them by taking them head on. A quick lunge into runner’s stance, the ground shifts beneath him and in the blink of an eye he’s already charging one of the clones into the nearby building then smoke rises from the crashed area but not from the impact; it’s from Josh’s second charge. This time he heads right into the middle of the clones, forcing them to either fire at each other or don’t fire at all.
At this point, Josh’s zipping in and out of the hot zone, using confusion against his foes. It’s doing work but Josh is losing stamina. He can’t keep this up forever. In the midst of his endless charging, he gets shot a couple times, tipping over his balance and sending him flying into one of the buildings. He gets back to his feet and takes a few deep breaths, observing the other clones getting back up again.
He remembers what he’s fighting for.
‘Can’t give in here.’ He reminds himself.
Valkyrie’s chase would soon come to an end as she’d find herself face to face with Nemesis down a dark corner. Nemesis unsheathes her knife, insinuating a duel. Valkyrie looks around the dark corners for any ambushes. She knows the deal with these three. They don’t like to play fair. Even with the odds stacked in their favor, an attempt at chivalry would be foolish. War is never fair.
“You’re not scared are you?” Nemesis taunts.
Valkyrie ignores the bait. She looks around desperately trying to find the other two
“No, not really.” She replies uninterestedly as life comes to her wrist computer. She presses a sequence of buttons, activating a shoulder mounted cannon.
“Oh shit…” Nemesis whispers as energy sparks around the cannon, condensing into a lethal bolt of light that tears through her armor, sending her through the wall behind her. Valkyrie charges another shot to make sure she finishes the job, but she feels a grip behind her, tearing the gun off its mount. She throws a quick backhand but Iris ducks, evading the attack and returns a swoop kick that floors Valkyrie on her back. When Valkyrie comes to it, she’s looking into the air, seeing Athena descending with her spear aimed right at her chest.
Valkyrie rolls to the right, avoiding the could’ve-been finishing blow. She jumps to her feet while simultaneously unholstering her sidearm but before she can train it on her assailant, another swift strike from Athena’s spear knocks it off her hand. Then another swipe to Valkyrie’s neck nearly takes her head clean off but she manages to backflip out of its deadly reach. Iris speeds past Athena, charging into Valkyrie anyway. She throws a few fists at the Alpha maiden and lands a few hits but something happens to Valkyrie.
Maybe it’s the knock to the head, maybe it’s the heat of battle finally taking hold but during those blows something clicks inside her. Something dark, something she wasn’t supposed to unleash. Regaining her footing, she backs off from the minor beating and smiles.
“Awh, how cute, you think you can hide your distress behind that grin?” Iris asks. Valkyrie spits blood on the ground, the red liquid still clinging in between her teeth, makes for an unsettling sight as the smile forms again on her face. She eases into a hand to hand stance. Iris leaps at her again and throws a similar series of attacks that worked on Valkyrie before, but this time none of them connect and she quickly feels a knee landing in her lower stomach and an elbow smashing into her temple. Iris abruptly falls to the ground. A mixture of surprise and fear quickly takes over her usual delightful demeanor. Iris tries to swoop Valkyrie again but Valkyrie simply moves her leg just inches away from the attack and returns it with an ankle-crushing stomp against Iris. The maiden screams in pain, that is until, Valkyrie comes to her side and delivers a kick to her chin that shuts her up cold.
“There you are at last.” Athena understands what’s going on. She points her spear at Valkyrie – “Now, let’s get to business.”
Red watches over the raining clouds on a broken three-story building thoughtfully. An energetic twist in space emits behind him and implodes into pure blue light, rearranging Seven’s atoms and leaving a violent energy signature behind him as he briskly walks over to his cloned ‘son’.
“Why’d you do it?” Seven asks, stopping in his tracks and giving Red a chance to speak.
“I did what you wanted me to do, father.” Red’s response gives off subtle hints of emotion underneath his bad boy exterior.
“I wanted you to destroy?”
“You wanted me to create a better world. And this is what I’m doing. Sorry I had the balls to make it happen, while you just sat in there waiting.”
“You brought the remnants of the old Sirian war here. You shot the beacon into space to bring them here.”
Red faces Seven, “And you still won’t kill us now, will you?”
A telepathic vision of the current unfolding events enters Seven’s mind. He sees Valkyrie fighting Athena and Josh holding off against the army of clones but it becomes painfully clear the clones won’t stop coming and Red’s the heart of it all.
“I’ll tell you one thing.” Red confidently exclaims – “We did succeed.”
Seven pays close attention to his meaning.
“The Rebirth’s already happened. Now it’s up to you how you’ll take this future forward.”
Seven senses a dark disturbance in his wife and an incoming discord Josh would soon have to face. In another vision – he sees Josh stopping to catch his breath but is immediately shot at by a helmet-less assailant; Nick. The sight of the augmented abomination of his best friend sends Josh into a chaotic fury.
Red extends his hand at Seven. The micro machines crawl up the sides of the building, forming an aggressive wall behind him. Seven glances over him with a look that warns Red to stand down but Red keeps testing Seven’s patience. The micro machine army forms a large shape resembling that of a cobra; indicating the incoming attack against Seven.
�
��Red…” Seven tries to warn him of the grave decision he’s about to make. Red points his hand at Seven, signaling the machines to attack. They immediately charge at Seven overwhelming his body completely and attaching themselves to it. Red snaps a finger then light particles form around the encased Seven a few seconds before they blow up, engulfing the area entirely.
Red leaps away from the blast radius. He lands on his feet, performing a quick roll to regain his composure. Clones gather by his side as he telepathically communicates with them to aid him. He sees Valkyrie and Athena dueling.
“Mrs. Red needs some help.” He points.
The clones instantly carry out his will, rushing to the scene of the brutal fist fight between the two lionesses. At this point, their weapons tossed aside the two are brutalizing each other with their fists. Valkyrie feels the circuits of her suit giving out. That temporal power boost Seven gave her is coming to an end. Athena’s blows feel increasingly stronger, Valkyrie’s combat suit tearing apart at each blow but the black dragon’s still in her and it doesn’t care if she’s clad in armor or is fighting out there butt naked.
Through sheer will, even through the deterioration of her armor she keeps up with Athena but even that will be short lived once the other clones swoop into the scene, raining fire down on her.
Valkyrie falls on her butt, the combat suit now completely dead. Athena grabs her fallen spear, closing in to deliver the deathblow. The clones closing in from the sides, surrounding her with Red in the midst of them; ready to watch the death unfold. Valkyrie smiles. Athena wonders why.
“You realize this is over don’t you?” Athena hisses
“I do.” Valkyrie confirms.
Red catches onto her snarky tone. He quickly turns around, some of the clones following his lead. On the rooftop he had just left, Seven looks down on them. Lightning cracks in the sky behind him. Red’s heart sinks and his mouth tightens up. Seven extends his hand forward at the crowd. Red points to Seven. The clones are ready to charge at him. Valkyrie waves Athena ‘goodbye’.
And the dominos start falling with Red being the first to drop lifeless to the ground. All the clones follow suit, spreading an eerie silence over the battlefield. Seven teleports off the roof to the ground level of the city and looks over all the mayhem and carnage.
Valkyrie kneels on the ground, hunched over Athena's lifeless form; locked in deep thought. Josh stumbles into the scene, his best friend’s arm over his shoulder; limping with him as the two move to Valkyrie. Xeilya cradles the dead clone bearing her likeness, her facial expression now forever serene. She feels neither sympathy, nor sorrow for her loss, only the bitter disappointment of so much wasted potential. There’s no victory. No sense of accomplishment. It reminds her of her last battle on Earth, before she decided to leave the EDF and reunite with Seven on Mars. The pointless death around her fills her mouth with a venomous aftertaste.
Nick falls out of Josh’s grasp, as the rain starts to let up before stopping altogether.
“Nick, get up. Come on, get up Nick!” Josh pleads desperately trying to encourage his friend to keep pushing for life.
“Josh…” Nick can barely keep himself conscious, “Keep looking up buddy. Keep… looking up…”
“Stop it man. Stop talking like that.” Josh shakes Nick as life leaves his eyes. Valkyrie notices them some thirty feet away. She can hear Josh’s pleas and all she can think to say, is ‘let it go’.
Seven silently arrives. He can sense the feeling of dread in the air. Seeing Josh is unused to war, he decides to head over to him first and deal with Xeilya after. A firm grip rests on Josh’s shoulder; at first unexpectedly startling him but when he realizes this grip’s a warming grip – this grip’s a grip of his grandfather, he feels an assurance.
“Come.” Seven instructs Josh to follow him over to Valkyrie.
A neutrally pale look sits in Valkyrie’s face rivaling the initial coldness she felt in Seven’s skin when he was released. Seven wonders if he should intervene with her space. He wonders if he just needs to leave her alone but he can tell that’s not the case. He can tell this isn’t a ‘go away’, this is ‘what have I done?’
“Just tell me one thing.” Her eyes still focused on Athena, “Did we do the right thing?”
Seven intuitively stops Josh from entering the feline’s zone and takes careful steps in her minefield. He holds her hand softly at first, then his grip grows more firmly to get her attention. He leads her away from the vicinity – the destruction, the chaos, nodding for Josh to follow them.
They come to an area less bleak, highlighting the fading warmth of the setting sun.
Valkyrie looks at Seven who’s looking at the sun confidently. Josh walks to their right side, keeping his distance yet staying within range.
“The world will finally have a chance to breathe.” Seven says confidently. The silence of the aftermath in conjunction to Seven’s soothing voice puts Valkyrie into a state of a strange comfort. She wraps herself around Seven’s arm.
“That will have to do.” She remarks in a raspy tone.
Seven reaches for Josh to come over, letting him know it’s okay for him to be here with them. Then Seven senses something. Something, foreign, something different. In front of them, an object materializes. At first it’s nothing but pure light then the features become visible; highlighting a silver-metallic craft – a beamship and at the front of it, Astraea.
“Don’t be alarmed.” Seven tells his family.
Astraea walks over to them calmly while Valkyrie keeps her eyes on the blondie suspiciously.
“I knew it’d only be a matter of time before you came.” Seven speaks to her as she stops in front of them and gives them a much needed warm smile.
“Where is Colin?” Valkyrie demands, remembering their transmission days ago.
“I don’t know.” Astraea responds truthfully, “What I do know is that if it wasn’t for Colin, this world would be in pieces right now. Colin activated the hyperdrive on the alien vessel and sent the ship into an unknown region of space, at the cost of his own life. He’s the bravest man I’ve ever known.”
Seven can feel Valkyrie’s heat rising. He knows she’s about to lash out.
‘She’s not our enemy Ianna.’ He nudges her telepathically
“Why are you here?” Valkyrie tries to keep herself in check
“To thank you personally. All of you. My world wouldn’t have been possible without you. And to assure you that a better future is ahead of you.”
This response confuses Josh and Valkyrie, yet Seven remains seemingly knowing of the stranger – as if the two were exchanging a conversation mind to mind.
“You should leave.” Valkyrie’s states with plenty of implied malice despite the flatness of her tone.
“I hope your travels here will be beneficial lessons to your time.” Seven diverts her bitterness to his smile
“Oh…” Astraea returns his warmth, “It will.”
She turns around and heads for her ship, waving a fond farewell once she reaches the vessel.
‘Be seeing you soon.’ She telepathically says
“Soon indeed.” Seven confirms.
Astraea ship ascends into the sky and slowly, it becomes more and more transparent until it withers away completely from this existence.
The Spheres stand assured, ready to make Astraea’s words into reality. With their closets clean, their past mistakes learned from and a confident demeanor to a better future, they prepare for the new world ahead.
TIMELINE
Zero - Zero is later reprogrammed that year with a counter program; LARS, to assure countermeasures against any rebellion or uprising. All AI and computerized systems follow this pattern. Over the course of a few years, Zero’s contributions to mankind are benevolent and very helpful to augment Mars’ growth.
Legion of Clones – Not all clones were killed during the Zero Sphere war. Some survived and were placed into a form of cryosleep while others were used for genetic
experimentation and observation. Other, vile clones, were exiled to abandoned areas on Mars as a prison colony while some were retrained to work in the MDSU. Some clones even disappeared in the aftermath.
EDF – After a few more squabbles and run-ins with MDSU and the inhabitants of Mars over some years to come, EDF finally withdraws its forces completely from Mars, leaving the Martians to operate and control their planet on their own. This causes a further drift between Mars and Earth, as Mars becomes completely independent.
MDSU – The resolution after Zero’s reprogramming and EDF’s general withdrawal on Mars assures the MDSU as Mars’ central governing force. Crimson Spear’s remnants eventually merge into MDSU and together they create a new central government titled COM which stands for Congress of Mars. COM succeeds in governing Mars to a peaceful state over a few decades, although the start has a few bumps.
Crimson Spear – Valkyrie abruptly disbands Crimson Spear after Zero’s reprogramming, stating the resistance’s goals have been met. Some radical members keep the flag burning a few years longer but majority of Crimson Spear unite with MDSU as COM to assure a better future for Mars as a peaceable world. COM eventually dismantles its nukes and focuses their weaponry on control technology – a form of defense that focuses its scope on counter tactics.
Joshua Sphere – After Zero’s reprogramming, Josh is approached by both MDSU and EDF to join their ranks, along with many other curious research agencies who wish to continue their expansion in genetics, cybernetics and technology in general. Initially, Josh was reluctant to all factions, but over the course of time, picks up where his father left off to make the world a better place. Utilizing the opportunities presented to him, Josh is able to make that dream a reality.
He starts a protector to the Martian council and climbs the ladder – mixing his hands in genetic research, preservation of knowledge, and being a messenger for Valkyrie and Seven who also abruptly disappears after Zero’s dismantlement. Josh goes on to marry Heather and the two eventually become Martian council members and prominent members in COM.
Zero Sphere: A Space Opera Thriller Page 20