Origin: Eternity's End

by Uneeb Qureshi

  But they soon realized the ship was not completely devoid of Eri soldiers. Engagements erupted across the ship. Two strike teams escaped with prisoners back to safety, now one group remained.

  Out of the shadows one Legionnaire grappled with an unarmed Eri soldier, eventually ending in the unarmed soldier’s death. The fighting was wearing everyone in the unit down.

  They rushed through the ship toward the vessel that brought them here but soon found it overwhelmed by Eri soldiers trying to escape their vessel.

  “Team, split up.” The strike force leader took a handful of his men and set up cover fire to save their ship.

  Their ship was eventually too damaged to fly, constant rocket fire destroyed the thrusters and caused air-fuel to leak into the cargo bay. The pilots and any surviving Legionnaires were eventually forced to retreat as the ship was scuttled.

  On the run, outgunned, outnumbered they were wreaking as much havoc as they could on their path to the other docking bays.

  A communication arrived minutes later.

  Team GU-7210, recent reports show a stockpile of biological weapons that are being transported to Earth from the vessel you are in. You are tasked with destroying the vessel in anyway you can, and hindering the transport process.

  The team leader punched a wall in anger, there was no way off after disabling the ship. He reported back but was met with a similar reply.

  Your unit is hereby authorized to initiate the No Return protocol.

  They were never going to leave here alive. But that was what they signed on for, they each checked their ammunition one last time and prepared to strike critical portions of the ship.

  The team leader would take a select few to commandeer the bridge, while others would strike the reactor complex and the engineering bays.

  They split up and reported as they went. The reactor team was especially hindered. After a five minute advance against light resistance near the core, thermonuclear and biohazard warnings were blaring in the hallway.

  Their suits would be able to absorb exorbitant amounts of gamma and beta radiation for a few minutes before electrical systems in their suits would be vulnerable. Upon entering the chamber they would be on a death march to disabling power to the ship.

  They placed charges on the blast door hinges trying to manually open the reactor door. As the rest of their team took cover behind pillars they braced for the worst.

  A wave of heat brushed across their armor from the explosion, nearly burning the insignias off their gauntlets. Sensors blared warnings as radioactive particles bombarded their suits, they had successfully breached the reactor.

  Entering one by one through a small blast hole in the door they quickly surrounded the reactor room and started dismantling everything.

  The effort was futile as the reactor was several stories tall, it would take them longer than they could survive to accomplish such sabotage.

  Below them a large pool of super-coolant was beginning to evaporate. The blast had damaged the container as well.

  Seeing an opportunity to overload the reactor the soldiers took it. But such a path was not without risk. The coolant was liquid helium, and it was already creeping out of the container onto their greaves. Their feet were beginning to feel cold from the icy vapors.

  The radiation was starting to seep into their electronics, static filled their screen and their muscles were beginning to ache. Their targets now were reactor cells submerged ten meters below the coolant. Looking at each other one last time they plunged one by one into the coolant below.

  Surviving heat was one thing, but freezing liquids presented a whole new problem. Their joints would lock up, their batteries would stop working entirely and their visors would frost up on the inside eventually before cracking. Time was of the essence.

  Their suits blared, Power Failure Imminent. Exposure to electromagnetic radiation will reach biohazardous levels.

  Their timer began.

  Their cold muscles began to lock up, making it harder to move. They struggled to dive to the required depth but eventually made it. The last temperature reading read in the negative two hundred.

  With what strength they could muster each of them ripped out the cells lodged in the reactor container. Wiring and all.

  Pulling out the conductors in series worked, inside the reactor the toroidal plasma was slowing down, electrical systems around the ship were flickering. Emergency power was setting in. The cells that leaked reacted violently with the frigid liquid Helium, explosions launched some of the Legionnaires back to the surface. And of the few that made it out alive, they could see the fruits of their labor.

  The reactor itself was going to implode. They radioed the other teams with what power they had but realized they were it. Everyone else was dead.

  Three made it out of the coolant vats alive, and only one of them was able to move. They shivered violently as their hearts palpitated. They had a hard time breathing as their bodies adjusted from the frigid temperatures to the hot air in the core. Their skin was frost-bitten and numb.

  The one Legionnaire able to move decided to end this quickly for all of them. He inched closer to the control panel and removed a grenade from his pack. After warming up it was ready to detonate.

  He set it on the panel and awaited the end.

  Back on Earth.

  Prox and the others read the reports about the brave team aboard the Goliath. They were able to prevent the shipments of remainder of the toxin for now.

  All Legionnaire’s on-planet. Be advised, neuro-pulmonary toxin has been classified as a highly perceived threat to local populations. Vector-borne by inhalation and possibly open wounds, exercise extreme caution. Initiating the Au Protocol. As acting officer I am ordering all forces to engage the Eri with extreme force, and prevent the toxin from being released ground-side.

  Commander Solb

  The orders were clear, Sheppard was missing in action and a new perceived threat was visible. Had he been there the other Commanders would have agreed. Full force was now necessary.

  Prox stepped up his mission plans. This was most likely the reason Eri were gathering at such critical points across the globe.

  He was aboard a small observation ship that hovered over a city at nearly four-thousand meters. He issued orders quickly. If the communiqué was correct then they would be in for heavy resistance.

  We were never trained for such urban guerilla war, especially on Earth…

  He was unfamiliar with both the terrain and its people, though he seemed to closely resemble them. His facial features seemed similar. Late in his academics he had spent years on his science courses. Where Lispara and Mairwyn excelled he lagged. But he found the concepts fascinating.

  Immortals shared nearly ninety-nine point nine percent of their genes with mortals yet it was that miniscule difference that made them nigh eternal.

  He would never know how recent his ancestors were. For most never knew their families. But strangely he felt like he belonged here.

  “Prox!” Az yelled out by the craft’s rear hatch.

  Prox walked up to the edge unrestrained, held only by the guide rail. Far below them they could see the flickering of gunfire and explosions littering the streets. It was dark outside, nearly an hour after sunset.

  A united European air strike bombed the center of the city. The Eri advance had been halted but they were putting up resistance. From all sides in a wide radius one of the last known Eri bases in Eastern Europe was surrounded.

  Az pointed to several illuminated portions of the base below. His visor zoomed in as far as it could and his worst fears were realized.

  A missile array…

  Payloads were being prepared, but Prox was not going to take any chances.

  “Stop all artillery batteries and air strikes, ground units advance faster! Stop the launch and extricate those missile payloads!”

  The ground war now raged on more voraciously. If the toxin was going to be delivered by air then any
explosives might release it pre-maturely. Hundreds if not thousands of mortals, civilians et al, would be unprepared for the biological attack.

  Containing such an outbreak would have been beyond the scope of even his unit’s capability. But there was one hope, Lispara and Mairwyn stumbled upon a denaturing agent for the toxin.

  “Any and all Ghosts capable and willing to drop into enemy lines, suit up.”

  He opened a private communication channel, “Mair, I need you and Lisp to join us in the base. We need to neutralize any and all of the toxin we can.”

  “Prox…” She replied, “The particles are synthetic, it’s contained in what looked like fullerenes, it’s why our bodies have such a hard time breaking them apart. By the time they enter the cell they break apart. Mortality rates are expected to be extremely high for civilians; our bodies are slightly more resilient to its effects however.”

  “Good enough of a reason to neutralize it now, while we can.”

  “No, Prox…” Lispara entered the channel, “The agent needs to be in extremely high concentrations, we’ve only made a small batch so far.”

  “Where the hell are you?”

  “We’re at a local laboratory. We’re creating a benzene solution that can dissolve the toxin and then force it to crystallize, so we can dispose of it more easily.”

  “Then let’s give it a field test.”

  His ship blasted into the distance, homing in on their position. A giant thermally controlled container was rolled onto the ship as they landed. The outside of the facility was heavily guarded by a perimeter of Legion soldiers. Scientists and personnel were evacuated quickly. The whole city was turning into a hell zone.

  Blood smeared the alleyways, while screams from civilians fleeing the city were heard everywhere. The whole operation was a logistical nightmare, a rushed assault.

  Half of their forces were preoccupied with civilian operations, while the remainder struggled to hold their ground.

  It frustrated the hell out of Prox, his casualties were mounting faster than the Eri at this point. He slammed his helmet into the ground, according to his scientists there was not enough of the reagent to neutralize more than a few warheads. He could not afford to waste any of it, lest the mission fail.

  Shit luck… Prox was furious, but he was not one to give into defeat. He donned his helmet again and twirled his fingers in the air signaling the pilot to take off.

  The ship jerked around wildly, its passengers consisted of several Ghosts who understood the No Return protocol. They held on to the railings with little care. Flight formations were erratic and unpredictable, but they trusted their pilots.

  “Land us in the Kill Zone.” As Prox said those words all twenty helmets that lined the ship’s aisle exchanged glances. The Kill Zone was almost impenetrable by air.

  Almost. He thought

  He had trusted his pilot this far, but this would truly be his greatest challenge yet. Magnetic rail-guns were aligned into an anti-air array.

  “Prox, this is near suicide, we may survive a fall at this height but once we hit the ground…we may or may not get back alive.” Lispara said.

  He walked up to her and whispered, “You know as well as I do that they will launch whatever this toxin is any minute. We have to do this Lisp…I’m sorry to bring you and your sister into this but you two are the only ones who know how to neutralize this thing…”

  She bit her lips and nodded, her heart pounded violently. She and her sister were not their best soldiers, but they were their brightest scientists. She took a seat on the aisle, death row, with the rest of the soldiers. Mairwyn checked the stasis chamber for the solution they prepared. The ship was nearly pitch black; all power was diverted to the thrusters.

  A dim red light illuminated the aisles, casting shadows on the ground. Each of them donned their helmets.

  Their center of gravities kept shifting as the ship banked left and right, dodging anti-air fire almost instinctively. Some grew nauseous, but they remained vigilant. The turbulence picked up the closer they got to the missiles.

  Forty-seconds… The pilot whispered as he focused on his flying.

  Prox gazed outside. They each checked their weapons. Their hearts began to pump, slowly at first before picking up pace. Underneath each tinted helmet was a soldier grinning for the battle to come. None were scared, many savored this moment, victory or death. Their muscles tensed and their minds focused.

  Their heads-up displays linked, the green signal was comforting. They sat stoically, not saying a word. Each expected the long road ahead would be one of unthinkable danger.

  Ten-seconds…

  Explosions could be heard from the inside, alarms were going off on each of their displays.

  Prox felt the rush. He took a deep breath.

  Five seconds…

  The ship rocked violently, they could hear the pang of projectiles against the hull.

  “As soon as we land run straight into the building behind us!” The pilot yelled as he let go of the controls. “Brace for impact!”

  The hatch flew wide open, the loud whirring of the ship’s rear thrusters could be heard even through their helmets. They all quickly jumped the five meter height toward the ground and bolted forward.

  To each of them, time came to a crashing halt. Their attackers fired from all directions. A propelled grenade shot straight at the nose of their craft. Twenty of them jumped out in unison. They returned fire in every direction indiscriminately, they needed to buy themselves time to retreat.

  Their enemies had difficulty aiming at the Legion elites. Prox was the last to leave. As he jumped off he felt the ship flip upright from the grenade blast.

  The nose of the ship flew vertical then began its descent onto its back.

  He saw the building in front of him and rushed toward it. The kill count was rising, on his visor he could see the enemy casualty indicator, 1…3…21. It stopped at twenty-one by the time he was half-way to the entrance. He looked above only for a moment. The back of the ship was plummeting right on top of him.

  With all the strength his legs could muster he dove inside the doors, just barely missing the crash landing. Flames shot inside the building lobby, trapping everyone inside.

  “Report in.” He said via their short-band radio.

  A series of audible clicks on his radio told him they were all alive, so far. By the time he collected himself and rushed up the stairwell his soldiers smiled. They were all unscathed. The pilot put on a spare armor and was given a fire arm. He was not going back without a fight.

  The Ghosts broke the walls and snapped their rifles in every direction shooting off rounds with hawk-like precision. In minutes the building was theirs.

  “Rail guns are launching projectiles at this building!” Another explosion, the soldier ducked.

  Another soldier rushed in, “The toxin is not here sir.”

  Prox looked at the pilot. “Where are we?” He asked him.

  “Maps should update by now, but we’re close to the launch pad. We might be able to clear the way there.”

  “Set up sniper fire!” Prox yelled. His snipers were already taking potshots at everything that moved.

  “Prox!” It was Mairwyn. “Az is missing!”

  “Where did you see him last?”

  His HUD indicated that Azuryl was outside of the building.

  “Prox I have a clear line of sight into the next structure,” Az crackled over the radio static, “order the snipers to clear the field. I might be able to disable artillery from there.”

  Prox swiveled his fingers and motioned for his snipers to provide cover. Az appeared as a hazy figure trailing across the now scorched battlefield. He had made it unharmed but not unseen. Several troops followed Azuryl into the next building but were met with booby-traps. Fiber trip wires were triggered, causing the entire doorway to collapse underneath rubble.

  “Prox I can see the containers from this building, they’re being transported across the terrace be
low us.”

  “Good, slow them down any way you can. We’ll make our way to the terrace.”

  Azuryl peered outside of the window and had a clear sight at the artillery operator. He took two shots, killing the operator and a nearby soldier in the process.

  “Artillery is down, you all should be able to make it. I’m going to—” The radio cut to static. Their visors displayed an error, something was causing interference.

  In the distance they could see more soldiers closing in. It was now or never. The entire Ghost unit burst out of their first safe house making their way to Azuryl’s building. The gunfire resumed.

  “If anyone can hear me, I am broadcasting this on all available bands. All available units to converge on this location immediately.” A bullet whirred by Prox’s helmet sending off a sensor alert. He turned around and shot his opponents with bull’s eye accuracy.

  His team surrounded the building, setting up rows of cover fire. Lispara and Mairwyn rolled the neutralizing reagent into the building and took cover. The Ghosts converged on the building.

  The canisters of the neutralizing agent were placed in the shade.

  “If the toxin is in the solution we think it is, the amount we have should be more than enough.”

  “If.” The other sister accentuated.

  Prox and his men circled the building to the terrace below. In the darkness Prox made out the lights of a small-bed truck travelling down the slope. The lead vehicle broke down and crashed into the cliff face forcing the whole convoy to stop and investigate.

  “Prox I got a clean shot to the engine block, it should buy you time.” Az said via radio.

  Prox thanked him and prepared to rappel down the cliff face but was met with a surprise. A barrage of missiles closed in on them. Through the darkness he could see they were winding toward their position. The rappel hooks they were tethered to snapped as the cliff face erupted into pieces.

  The missiles destroyed much of the plateau and launched debris everywhere. Prox flailed his arms wildly as he plummeted over the cliff onto the terrace below. He tried to pull his tether but found it had long since broken apart. He swung his body around trying to prepare for a rolling landing.