Story [Issue 34] Dawn of War - Part 2

[Kevred 1,586]

List of Previous Chapters

 

Chapter I, The Crimson Blades

-Part I

-Part II

-Part III

 

Chapter II, The Titancore

-Part I

-Part II

 

Chapter III, Dawn of War

-Part I

 

 

 

 

Rise

 

 

"Get him to the medical station. You, initiate compound-wide security lockdown. No one leaves and no one gets in."

 

"Understood!" Eager to please, the two soldiers hastily rushed down the opposite direction.

 

I can feel it. The small nagging sensation in my spine. Subtle, but easily perceptible when you know it's there. The indication of Genetarr mind control. Mother, I and the rest of the Fallen have been exiled for a long time now, fighting a cold war against the Terrans. I have witnessed massacres, betrayals, lies, but never something as unethical as employing Genetarr for military purposes.

 

I smash my fist against a pressure plate on the wall, and, on cue, the lockdown is completed. Whoever is pulling the strings, he's stuck inside.

 

"Attention all personnel, arm yourselves. We got maybe one or several intruders in the base."

 

My finger lets go of the communication button, although it wasn't intentionally. An intense vibration transmits through the walls and onto the floor, causing metal plates to detach from everywhere. I myself manage to catch hold of a protruding monitor just in time. Another vibration comes rolling my way, except this time it's followed by gunshots.

 

"Control center! What on Earth was that!" I shout into the microphone.

 

"The Terrans are attacking! Breaches in outdoor infrastructures!"

 

"Get every fighting man to the front lines. It's time to fight back."

 

***

 

Protecting my face with my arm in a somewhat cowardly fashion, I back off from the advancing Terran special operation troops. Beams and bullets whiz around me, relentlessly knocking down my comrades one after the other. Eventually, my gears click in place and I realize It's going to be a bloodbath if we keep fighting.

 

"Everyone! Head for the docks!"

 

Unlike the chores, this time I don't need to repeat myself for everyone to listen. I cover the fleeting men with my rifle, although the ammunition isn't strong enough to pierce the reinforced armour of the Terrans. Soon I'm unable to resist, and I turn around to follow my men. 

 

"Erexa! Get to the docks! We're evacuating! Get Arshton too!" I randomly find myself wondering how the people from the 21st century could've lived without comms.

 

"I can't," is the reply I get.

 

"What do you mean, you can't? I thought you knew how to walk!"

 

"It's...it's not that, Andy." 

 

From the tone of her voice, I immediately detect something is wrong.

 

"Erexa, what's going on?"

 

"Sorry Andy, but...Arshton's...he's...dead."

 

"Very funny Erexa. Love your humor."

 

"He's dead. The bullet punctured his lungs. "

 

The lie is too blatant to not be detected. I know for sure that a Maxxim Type-5 bullet cannot penetrate more than the skin. Instead, it relies on poison to do the job. Erexa, being a scientist, should know that, so she must be in a complete nervous meltdown to somehow forget about that detail.

 

"Erexa. What's happening."

 

"The blood loss was too great for our-"

 

"Erexa?"

 

"What in the world...Andy! He's...Arshton's...No!"

 

"EREXA!"

 

The small silver object beeps red, meaning the connection was cut on the other end. Refusing to pause in such a critical moment, I swiftly duck into a narrow adjacent alleyway, holding my breath. It turned out to be a wise precaution, for precisely at the moment I get out of view, a squad of five Terrans run right by me. I pop out, charge my rifle and fire a dozen shots. Most of them bounce off, but three corpses are added to the debris lying on the floor. Without pause, I then throw a grenade into the already unstable tunnel, and the entire ceiling is brought down. 

 

I keep running down the hallway, my combat boots resonating on the floor. Absorbed in my thought, too late do I notice the unusual silence. Out of nowhere, four soldiers surround me, two in back and two in front. One of them takes off his helmet.

 

"Andros," He acknowledges. I squint.

 

"Admiral McCollins?"

 

"I'm happy you recognize me."

 

"How could I not? You exiled myself and many others, on the sole excuse that we were descendants of the Illuminate."

 

He had the guts to laugh, "I did much worse, Callidus. I framed you in front of your brother. I made him fear and hate you."

 

"What are you talking about?"

 

"Your brother was assigned to patrol the dangerous Sector C. Of course, it was only a mask. His real task was to transport a bomb in his cargo, a bomb that will be detonated when sufficiently close to the Titancore. Actually, that was also nothing but a mask," he laughed, "the true objective was for the bomb to eradicate everything in Sector C, including this planet, and it's inhabitants."

 

"You tried to wipe us out!"

 

"Exactly. It's not legally doable, which explains the cover-up. Then we framed you simply to make the whole thing much more complicated, so that no one would be able to trace the path back to us."

 

"You little piece of junk!"

 

"Now, now. We're between gentlemen here. Even the most repulsive shell can contain pearls, you know. Enought talk. Soldiers, take him away!"

 

"Wait! Let me tell you something, Admiral."

 

"What is that?"

 

"Never forget to disarm your prisoners, sir," I say as I pull out my handgun, sending a bullet straight into the forehead of the McCollins.

 

"Oh, and never take off your helmet."

 

 In shock, the now dead Admiral's bodyguards don't react fast enough, and they find themselves dead, too. I calmly continue my path down the corridor, pushing aside all the conflicting thoughts and emotions mashed up in my mind.

 

In what seemed like seconds, I find myself sitting in one of the podships, flying at near-lightspeed towards our space fleet, hidden from view in a gas nebula.

 

"Status report?" I ask the soldier crouching next to me.

 

"One half of our personnel is dead or missing, and we've lost six podships to Terran anti-air cannons and fighters."

 

"Fighters?"

 

"Mate, they've got tons of jets in the air. We'll be lucky to come out of this alive."

 

Just as he finished speaking, karma comes around and the windows in the cargo bay get shattered by rains of bullets.

 

"Should've kept my big mouth shut, eh!" Those were his last words, as multiple dark red spots appear over his body and he's sucked into the void known as space.

 

"Heads down everyone!"

 

Another unlucky fellow receives a jagged metal debris into the throat and doubles over, desperately trying to stop the last parcels of his soul to escape via his last breath. Fortunately or unfortunately the other's witnessed the grimly event, and in the blink of an eye human adaptation and their ability to learn from their mistakes comes into play, and everyone crouched or lied under what remained of the windows.

 

That's when fire broke out. 

 

"The engine was hit! We're all going to die!"

 

"Not yet, we still have a shot at life if we manage to reach the cruisers!"

 

"He's right! I can see them! Only a few minutes guys! We can do this!"

 

In life and death situations, the cultural differences between races become evident. The humans and I simply lay down whilst crossing our fingers, the Konqul yelled and shouted, the Inergons prayed to their god and the Chuhn, a merchant people,  picked up debris from the floor for selling. Everyone resisted the fire as long as they could, but eventually some of them lost hope and flung themselves out the windows, unable to resist the scorch. Screams and wails mixed with the explosionns to form the most total chaos. Luckily, a forcefield prevented the oxygen to be lost into space, but with the pilot dead and the engine in flames, it wasn't going to last long. The last slivers of hope were burning down when finally a cry of hope emanated.

 

"There's the cargo bay! Almost there! I can see the other podships! Brace for impact!"

 

"Yeah!"

 

I reacted too late, my head went clanging to the ceiling before landing face first onto the ground. My legs fell into the fire, but my scream got lost in the ruckus. The podships did a few more gymnastic figures before barrelling into an adjacent vessel. Semi-conscious, I was pulled out by unknown hands and dragged afar just as both ships exploded.

 

My head slumped and everything disappeared.

 

***

 

"Ow...I feel like the world just fell on me," I say while massaging my forehead.

 

"With that big head of yours? Not surprising, must be pretty heavy carrying that around."

 

"Very funny Erexa. Love your hum-"

 

We both pause, the ghostly souvenir brought back by the evocation of the words. Impending silence only interrupted at regular intervals by the beeps of the machines settles between us, me dumbly rubbing my head and her staring blankly at the wall. Finally, unable to sustain more, I brake the silent atmosphere.

 

"Wait a minute...Erexa! You're alive!"

 

"For the better or for the worse."

 

"What happened back there?"

 

"Nothing. I just didn't feel too well. That's all."

 

It was quite obvious she was lying once again, but I decided to give the matter a rest.

 

"What's our situation?"

 

"Oh you know, waiting in the nebula indefinitely. Nothing interesting, really."

 

"Well that's about to change."'

 

I throw off my covers and stomp out of the room. Erexa's calling me back, but I ignore her and head towards the bridge.

 

"Where's the queen?" I ask when I reach it.

 

"Sleeping, sir. She needs to recover after several head injuries. Nothing serious, fortunately."

 

I surprisingly find myself barely preoccupied about the situation of Mother.

 

"By definition, since the queen is currently incapable of taking command, I am in charge of this ship?"

 

"Yes, sir. Why do you ask?"

 

"Contact all Fallen ships. Order them to meet us at the border of the Milky Way."

 

"That's right in Terran territory!"

 

"For now, it is."

 

"What do you mean?"

 

"It's time for war."

 

***

 

"Battle stations! Reaching Terran perimeter in fifteen minutes!"

 

"Our seven cruisers are at designated positions!"

 

"Reinforcements from the Andromeda galaxy arriving in ten!"

 

"Those from the Centaurus galaxy in seven!"

 

"Deploying fleet in agreed strategy."

 

The elevator slides open, and out comes my mother, frail but determined.

 

"Andros Callidus, what the hell are you doing?"

 

"Taking back what is rightfully ours, Mother."

 

"Consigned to quarters. Get there, and don't come out. I'm the only boss around here."

 

"You were." With that, I pulled out my gun and, before anyone could stop me, fired at my mother.

 

"I hereby take full command of Fallen forces," I announce whilst pretending not to notice the astonished faces around me. Serenely, I slowly make my way to the captain's seat. Not wanting to sit on the chair of a now-deceased person, I stand in front of the panoramic view instead. Through cutting-edge telescopes and advanced sensory refraction technologies, I am able to witness the life of the Milky Way. A galaxy no different than thousand others, but it's my galaxy. Mine and my brother's. Heaving a sigh, I tap my comm to activate it.

 

"Brothers, sisters, friends and allies. Our ancestors we're executed and called "witches" during the seventeenth centuries. They were called the Illuminati and despised in the 19th centuries. They were used as joke topics and pushed to the rank of myth in the 21st centuries. Seeked out and massacred in the 23th centuries. Persecuted in the 24th. Cast out and exiled in the 25th. But now, it is time to reclaim our home. For we are the Fallen, our ancestors have endured countless pains to give us life. We are the Fallen, we have lived as outcasts for long enough. We are the Fallen, and today, we shall rise from the ashes of our oppressors!"

 

The first shots of the War of Five Rings carried the scent of vengeance.

 

 

-End of Chapter III, Dawn of War-

 

 

-End of section 1-

 

 

 

Edited July 29, 2017 by Hexed

[CombatCat2 248]

Good job, as always. Someday you're going to repay me for all my niceness and compliments, right?

 

BTW the only bad thing about it was that it was a bit confusing.

[jazz20 1,181]

Nice work :)

[liverpoolaum 811]

nice

[Darren4Turbo 4,913]

Good job @Kevred my friend  :D 

[Firenze_PRO 80]

GJ! I'd upvote, but i've reached my quota for the day :/

[EpicTroll99 572]

Good job, as always. Someday you're going to repay me for all my niceness and compliments, right?

 

BTW the only bad thing about it was that it was a bit confusing.

Hate to say it, but CC is right, it was a little confusing at times. Other than that, I though it was excellent, a very gripping story.

Edited May 13, 2015 by EpicTroll99

[Kevred 1,586]

Hate to say it, but CC is right, it was a little confusing at times. Other than that, I though it was excellent, a very gripping story.

I don't blame you, if I read a story my top priority wouldn't be to remember the details during an entire month either :P But I've come up with a solution to deal with it...if it works or not is another story.

 

Get it? Story? No? nvm.