Call of the Harbinger

by Allen White

  She slapped her communicator off, and jumped into the main chamber. The machines began operating immediately, putting her exoskeleton together as fast as possible. She thought of how many friends she might have lost, how many family members had died at the hands of these creatures, and she tried not to think about how they had once called them gods.

  The connecting joints of her exoskeleton snapped together, and power surged through her mechanical suit; the rails began churning, and launched her forward, through the access tunnel, and into hell. Fires baked her heads-up-display, overloading the sensors... she didn't like being blind; her hands found their way to the controls, her fingers squeezed the trigger and activated her exoskeleton's jets. The flames feathered away from her, and the HUD rebooted, restoring her view.

  The battle field was a charred mess of molten rock, fire, and fused earth. The enemy ships above called to her from every portion of the sky; she'd never seen so much destruction... her eyes darted from molten crater to molten crater, looking for some sign of a fallen comrade, or at least part of an exoskeleton. There were none.

  Before she could ask herself how the enemy gained such a weapon, the remains of the base she came from exploded. Her armored body was tossed through the air like a child's toy, the back of her exoskeleton melting from the extreme heat of the blast. Her head slammed into the heads-up-display several times as she bounced off the ground and crashed into the side of a rocky hill.

  The displays were scrambled... which meant that the exoskeleton was useless now. She reached a bleeding arm up to pull at the emergency release lever. It popped, and the front panel was launched ten feet through the air; she watched it slide to a stop. That's when she saw "it" reaching up and trailing back up into the ash cloud above - a glowing beam of energy, left over from the super weapon that the enemy had fired at what had been her home since the war had started.

  Erish clawed at the restraints in the cockpit, scrambled out onto the still-hot glasslike ground, and stood up to, at least, give the enemy a final stare down.

  "Come on, deceivers." She said. "Face me!"

  As if the creators had heard her demands, the clouds broke, and the silhouetted form of a single black mother ship of immeasurable size crawled out - dragging bits and pieces of blackened cumulus with its razor sharp edges. The ground began to shake, and her fists tightened. The ship was flying lower in the atmosphere, and a humming sound filled the heavens.

  She raised her bloody fist into the air, like a general might do if they had an army to back them. The hum grew louder; lightning began to strike the Earth, and a yellow ball of light began to glow from the bottom of the ebony ship, casting reflections all about its twisted and monstrous surface.

  A beam of yellow light erupted from the ship, spreading shadows like a plague. The ground quaked when the beam struck the earth, kicking up a mountain of dirt straight into the air, and creating a shockwave that would kill her any second now.

  She kept her fist fixed in the air; the enemy, the creators, would take her life, but they would not take her free will, or her fighting spirit.

  The shockwave spread out, raced toward her. She closed her eyes-

  ...Reina's screams filled her quarters. She slapped at her face, and rolled off of the bed, patting at her face and arms to put the flames out. No matter how much she rolled, or how hard she patted, the fires would not recede, would not fade; they would persist until they ate at her bones and left her nothing more than a pile of ash for the wind to carry away.

  "Doctor Reina!" The orderly placed his hands on her. "What's wrong?"

  What did he mean? She stared at him for a moment, and realized that the burning sensation had completely stopped... she clutched at her head, and let the boy help her to her feet.

  "I was on fire..." she said.

  "Another nightmare?" he asked.

  Her face straightened, and she tore her hand away from his.

  "Why are you here?" She asked.

  "Admiral Cadmus would like to see you." He turned, and saluted her. "He's just returned from the research station where you were stationed."

  Her eyebrows creased together. "And...?"

  "We shouldn't keep him waiting."

  The Admiral's office was just as bland as the rest of the base where she had been staying since they deemed her unsafe to continue her mission, and had decided to keep her around to run tests on her after her exposure to the orb. It wasn't likely that they'd come to their senses, but, maybe now she'd be able to get some news. She crossed her legs while Cadmus sifted through a few data-pads.

  "This is a follow-up to our last meeting," he said. "To determine if you're fit to keep your clearance, and continue your research."

  "This is a sanity hearing." Her eyebrows furrowed.

  His eyes rose, met with hers. "You could say that."

  "Either that, or those idiots ran into a roadblock and their research is leading them nowhere."

  "I don't know what you're talking about." He broke eye contact and cleared his throat.

  "Cut the bullshit, Cadmus." She stood up, and slammed her hand on his desk. "I knew those two were bound to fuck things up eventually. I'm your only shot! You need me back, don’t you?"

  "Haven't you been paying attention to the news?"

  "What? You know I haven’t had access."

  He sighed, rubbed his eyes. "That thing is causing massive electromagnetic problems in our atmosphere... it's causing super storms to form above some very sensitive locations."

  "That's not even its function!"

  "Don't give me that dream bullshit again, Reina."

  "Do you have any positive link between the storms and the beacon?"

  He paused, went silent.

  "You don't... you don't actually know what's causing them."

  "I think we're done with your assessment."

  Her eyes opened wide. "You're going to try to destroy it!"

  His hand covered the data pad that she had been secretly scanning during their conversation.

  "Get the hell out of my office!"

  James tugged and pulled at his wrist restraints; the jeep barreled through mud, rain, rock, and foliage like a wrecking ball through a ghetto. The window next to him shattered, slapping rounded glass pieces and bits of rain into his face.

  "Damn it!" James said. "Yeah, this is stealthy!"

  "Quiet," the driver said. "I'm trying to concentrate."

  James glanced behind, through the rear windshield, just in case... Their path through the woods was about as obvious as a meteorite impact might be in the center of Central Park, but no one was trailing them yet. Even with the storm raging the way it was, someone was bound to notice their approach.

  "Focus on what?" James asked. "Hitting every tree you come across?"

  One of the two cult members slapped him in the face. He winced, and took the hint.

  The jeeps metal carriage continued to shake violently. It was almost as if the driver was determined to make the whole damn thing come apart. The cult members hadn't tried to make conversation at all. Maybe it was because Mai was in a separate car? Several thousand trees and other near-death experiences later, the jeep made a 360 degree turn through the mud and came to a stop in front of a massive and towering structure. It was like no military base he'd ever seen.

  The nameless fools got out of the jeep, opened his door for him, and pulled him out into the rain. The driver grabbed his restraints, and slipped a black ski-mask over his head. The other three men dug out their masks and did the same.

  "All right," the driver said. "Sister Mai is going to be hitting the other side first to give us an entrance. By the time we reach the outer fence, we'll have our opening."

  The leader tossed machine guns to everyone, save for James. Figures that they wouldn't trust me with the toys, he thought. One of the goons shoved a machine gun into his back, and grunted.

  "I'm going to push you into oncoming fire," James said.

  The approach to the gate was smooth,
yet ominous, and the intense deluge didn't help. His jeans were soaked to his legs, and his sweater hung on his torso like a piece of chainmail. His boots dug deep into the mud, and the leader stuck the barrel of his gun into his chest.

  "Stop," the leader said. "Now we wait."

  "We're just supposed to stand here?" James asked. "With these ski masks on?" He looked around, at the tips of the black edged buildings, and spotted several tarps that could have housed snipers. Lucky bastards were smart enough to be out of the rain. "Yeah, we look like terrorists."

  The leader grunted, cocked his gun, and pressed the walkie-talkie to his ear.

  "We're ready, Sister Mai," he said.

  James couldn't make out her voice over the walkie-talkie, but from the intense look on the leader's face he guessed they wouldn't be standing around for long.

  The leader dropped the walkie-talkie from his ear and hooked it on his belt. "Bolt cutters."

  One of the others took out a set of bolt cutters and cut a man-sized hole in the fence. They pushed James through first. He swore under his breath, and looked around.

  A beam of neon light shot through the constant rain, and hovered over his pulsating chest. His body flashed with a familiar heat, and if his body could have sweated, it would have. The goons behind him obviously found the situation amusing, and used him as a distraction to slip into the tall grass and disappear from obvious sight. Bastards.

  He closed his eyes, as he had in his dreams... but, then the ground started shaking, and a booming sound assaulted his ear drums. His eyes shot open, and he could see a tower of crimson smoke rising into the rainy sky. He sighed, and tears mixed in with the rain. The neon beam was gone, and he was free to flee... but, that itching sensation crept back into his eyes. His temples throbbed; he rubbed them. It hadn't ever been this strong before...

  "What've I got to lose?" he said.

  He darted into the tall grass, toward the facility.

  Explosions continued all through the fields, and scattered shrapnel and bits and pieces of the facility fell all about his path. He never caught up to the cult goons, for which he was partly glad. If nothing else, though, they had the guns, and that would count for something in all the chaos. He sighed and jumped out of the tall grass.

  The facility was a black mass of technological superiority, casting scanner spotlights in every direction. He could hear gunfire in the distance, maybe a few screams and battle cries. Then, he saw where the Cult of the goons had entered the facility. A massive hole, the size of a diesel truck, had been blown straight through the wall. He walked up and scrutinized the entrance.

  The hum of a tank rolling around the corner wrested him from analysis, and he scurried into the building, hoping, perhaps, to find his answers.

  His feet were getting tired. The halls flashed a constant strobe of red and blue, which confused his eyes and distorted the hexagonal shaped corridors. Soon he was lost and disoriented. The entire base shook again; his knees met the shiny black floor. What the hell was Mai doing? If he was interpreting the itch in the back of his eyes right, he had to stop her; at minimum, her kind of crazy might get most of these people killed, and at worst... He tried not to think about what she might do if she found an actual alien weapon.

  Six more corridors, and not a single door he could open. Suddenly he found himself in a large dome shaped room with monitors, and a few keyboards. At last, something not monotonous.

  "Freeze!"

  At first, he thought the female voice that echoed through the room belonged to Mai. Hearing the gun cock, he turned around to face her.

  "Who are you?" James asked the middle aged woman who stood pointing a gun at him.

  "That’s the first thing you thought to say after breaking into a top-secret military base?" she asked.

  "Believe me, it wasn't my idea..."

  "Stay still!" She crept toward him. At first glance, he'd thought she was just another soldier, but, she was so uneasy, so obviously scared. She grabbed at his motionless, restrained hands. "Why are you people here?"

  "You're not a soldier, are you?"

  Her grip tightened, just as he heard her gasp.

  "Relax," James said. "I'm not either. I'm not even with the Cult that broke in here."

  "Why the hell are you here then?" Her grip tightened around his left arm, the barrel of her pistol pointed into his back. "Speak wisely, if you don't want me to pull the trigger."

  "That's a very long story. I came to them because they said they could give me answers..."

  He sighed.

  "Answers to what?"

  He tried to tell her why he had gone on this journey, why the dreams propelled him there, and why he had to find their source, but it sounded just as crazy as one of Sister Mai's sermons. Sad, and pathetic, like one of those people spouting doomsday theories on a conspiracy forum. He honestly wouldn't have blamed her if she pulled the trigger.

  "You've seen them?" She grabbed him and shook him. "You've seen the beacon's message?"

  "What beacon?"

  "That's why you went to that cult! They're here because they know!"

  "What the hell are you talking about?"

  She spun him around again, and cut him free of the bonds that the Cult of the Old-Ones had restrained him with. He heard her footsteps as she started to move. "Follow me."

  She began to explain as they walked. Her name was Dr. Meredith Reina, and she had seen the source of his dreams. She was a researcher aboard a science station that studied the Harbinger Beacon, an advanced probe from an alien world. They kicked her off the project when she started to figure out what it really was; thought she was nuts. And maybe she is, he thought. But I'm certainly not fit to judge.

  "They're going to destroy it," Reina said.

  "Wait," James said. "They just discovered this thing... why?"

  "I saw the order before your Sister Mai attacked the base." They stopped at a massive hangar door. "Ironically, this is exactly what I need to get back to my project, and stop those Neanderthals from destroying my work."

  She shot the pad, then opened up the panel, exposing an emergency switch.

  "I want to help," James said.

  The sound of metal on metal gritted through the air; the door opened to the hangar, and Reina turned back to him, looked him over.

  "You're young. You'll be the perfect distraction while I fix this mess."

  "Thanks?" Maybe I was better off with the Cult?

  She strolled into the launch pad chamber, aiming her weapon into the darkness. James followed, but something wasn't right. Before he could open his mouth, he heard the sound of weapons cocking and a bright red dot appeared on his chest. Reina was staring at the source of the laser sights.

  "We don't have time for you," Reina said.

  Sister Mai slinked out from around a corner, and aimed a strange looking rifle at James.

  "I'm sure you don't." Mai smiled, then hit a switch on the console next to her. The corridor stopped flashing red and blue; the lights came on. "I'm glad you found us, Brother James, thank you for finding Dr. Reina for me. She'll be a great help in finding the aberration."

  "Wait, what?" James stepped forward, and Mai shook the strange looking rifle at him to stop. He knew better than to argue.

  "We've been searching for her, James." She removed her hood, directing those fiery blue eyes at him once again, and moved around the circular base of the launch pad. "This is the opportunity the Old-Ones told me about. With her, we can prove our loyalty to them!"

  "Loyalty?" He shook his head. “Judging from that weapon in your hands, I’m guessing you found the artifacts.”

  “You’d be right,” Mai said. “With weapons like these, we were able to quickly turn the tide, though, not without suffering some casualties.”

  “You murdered them,” James said. “Both those soldiers you’ve fired on, and your own followers. They’re all on your hands.”

  “They will be remembered,” Mai said. “They died for the Old-Ones.”r />
  "She's just like the military, James," Reina said. "She'll destroy the beacon if we let them leave!"

  "We're the same, Brother James," Mai said. "We've both seen the visions, and we've both felt the will of the gods, scratching at the back of our eyelids, commanding us to prepare." She approached him from the other end of the launch-pad, and placed a hand on his shoulder. "These visions, they're a warning, they're the future."

  "You're an idiot." Dr. Reina trained her weapon on Mai. "They're memories."

  Mai scowled at him. "It's time to choose, life or death."

  “Your followers died for nothing,” James said. “I can accept the idea that we’ve had contact with aliens in the past - hell!, they may have had a hand in our evolution, but there is no such thing as a god.”

  She frowned, stabbing daggers through him with those eyes. The rifle she held began to make a strange sound, and otherworldly blue light began to travel up the strange alien curves and etchings on either side.

  “You disappoint me, Brother,” Mai said.

  “I’m not your brother,” James said.

  He locked eyes with Dr. Reina. She had a fire growing in her eyes. He mouthed the word no, but, her finger squeezed around the trigger anyway. Mai's eyes shot open wide, and she tried but failed to speak. She fell to the floor in a lump; before James could say anything, Reina tackled him to the floor, and otherworldly energy shot out from Mai’s rifle, ricocheting off a metal desk they used for cover - near the closed door that read: TO LAUNCH PAD.

  "We need to get to that shuttle," Reina said.

  "How?" He heard the pattering of boots in the distance. Mai's men were getting closer...

  "We run for it, take our chances." She grabbed his face, tightened her hand on his bearded cheeks. "Focus! This is bigger than us!"

  She was right. He didn't know why, or how, but he knew she was. He nodded, and she ducked around the corner, fired shots at the five goons to keep them from advancing.

  "Follow my lead!"

  She took a deep breath, counted, and dashed up the ramp. He followed, moving his tired legs as fast as possible. He caught glimpses of ski-masks in the background, and the light from their machineguns; he ducked, rolled, and hid behind the metal wall. Bullets danced; Dr. Reina screamed, fell to the floor; he crawled over to her, grabbed her arm; she smacked him away, glared at him.