Hero Falls Kingdom Rises

by Farhat Kidwai

  A voice in the background yelled, “This is our life’s work. This is our home. We are not running. Let them come. We are not scared!” It got a loud applause from the room.

  Omega turned to the rest of the STF team, “I will go to Africa alone. I will need you guys to get the GSRC and the city ready for battle. Make sure you give Dashkis the same option that I gave the people at the GSRC.”

  Stan replied, “Those crazy fuckers have been waiting for this. They are never going to leave. They have a death wish.”

  “Well then get them ready the best you can.” Omega gave Stan a handshake and walked over to the Elliot.

  “So, it begins. There is no turning back now,” Elliot acknowledged.

  “I have to make them understand that they can’t attack my people. I have to send a strong message. If I don’t, NATO will kill all of them and then come after the rest of you. Al-Harih had a bad past but it doesn’t make them expendable. Not after they have been loyal to the cause. They have done exactly what I asked them to do. NATO will have to pay for defying me.” Omega was determined.

  “I understand. I am proud of what you have become. It is not an easy choice to take on NATO but we have to make these tough decisions for the greater good.” Elliot reminded Omega of their main mission.

  “I need to go back to the ship to get some stuff.” Omega took his farewell from Elliot.

  Omega walked into the ship but unlike last time there was no hesitation. He was on a mission. He walked straight to the weapons room in the ship. The room was full of weapons but Omega wasn’t sure what any of them did. Most of them didn’t look anything like the ones used by humans. He was hoping that the nano-bots in his body would know how to use them because he sure had no clue. He started going through the ones that looked small enough to fly with him all the way to Africa.

  There was one that looked like a strange mechanical hand that caught his eye. Based on the wrist wrap at the bottom of it is seemed like something he could wear on top of his hand. He took it out from the shelf and tried to put it on. As soon as he put the wrist wrap around his arm it activated the device. The rest of the device started to fuse itself to his hand and pretty soon most of it was absorbed inside his hand. Only a few small parts of the device were still sticking out from the top of his wrist. Somehow he instinctively knew how to use this weapon. He also knew the rest of the pieces that he needed to install on himself that were part of this weapons system. After fusing weapons to his other arm and chest he went into a closet-size chamber and closed the door. Something told him that he was supposed to do that next. The chamber turned on and started to release a dark material from holes in its walls. This material was attracted to Omega and started to cover his entire body. Pretty soon it started to form what could only be described as some sort of futuristic suit. It completely fused to the surface of Omega’s body. After the fusing process was complete, excess material fell off of his body and made its way into the holes where it came out of.

  Omega felt even more powerful than before. He was ready to head to Africa and take on NATO forces.

  First course of action for Omega was to visit the militia members who were attacked. Omega landed at the Al- Harih camp in Somalia that was destroyed by NATO to meet the survivors.

  “We followed your orders and this happened. They bombed us in the middle of the night. So many are dead. So many are injured and dying. We have been protecting the animals like you asked but who is going to protect us?” Al-Harih leader seemed angry and heartbroken.

  “You have been loyal to me. You have done what I asked of you. They should have never attacked you. I can’t bring your dead back but I am here for payback. They will suffer for what they have done. That is my promise to you.” Omega assured Al-Harih.

  “We believe in you. Blood for blood. That is our way of life. We need to see them suffer too. If you deliver that for us and I will be loyal to you till I die.” The leader felt a little bit of relief that there will be revenge for his fallen soldiers.

  Omega flew off to the closest known NATO forces base with revenge on his mind. He could have destroyed the base from the air using his new weapons but he chose not to. He didn’t want another unsatisfactory revenge. He landed at the base and started lighting everything and everyone on fire.

  He was toying with his prey. There was no escape. He was burning them but slowly to extend their suffering. Cutting off the limbs of soldiers but not killing them right away. Ripping their stomachs open and letting them bleed to death. He left them writhing in pain till they took their last breath. He wanted anyone who showed up there to access the aftermath to understand the horror these soldiers went through.

  Before he left the base, he ripped the heads off of the soldiers to create a display on the ground that just looked like the NATO flag.

  He was far from done. There were a lot of bases left in Africa a lot of soldiers to kill. He built similar displays at the two biggest bases in Africa. Lucky the soldiers at the rest of the bases had it easy. Omega blew up the rest of the bases from the air using his newly acquired weapons of mass destruction.

  NATO member got on an emergency call as the news of the attacks reached them. They had seen the images of the human head displays that Omega had left for them. The coverage of this carnage was being shown around the world. NATO was not going to back down this easily. Surrendering now would mean the end of NATO forever. They decided to fight back by attacking Omega’s city while he was wreaking havoc on NATO member’s bases on Africa.

  Some members were not sure about aggravating Omega even more but were overruled by the majority. You couldn’t blame them for being hesitant after seeing what Omega was capable of.

  It was too late. The missiles were on their way to Mersin. Alarms sounded all throughout the nation of Turkey.

  Sol had informed Omega of the attacks and he rushed back to the GSRC. The rest of the team was out helping civilians to safety. Omega was too late. Turkey’s missile defense system tried to stop as many missiles as they could from hitting the city but a few of them got through. The GSRC didn’t take a direct hit but parts of the city were completely destroyed.

  As Omega got closer he saw more missiles in the air heading towards the city. Instead of heading to rescue the survivors, Omega diverted his attention to the next round of attacks. Omega’s anger had turned to rage at this point. He literally flew into the first missile and blew it up. Then he blew up the six others missiles that were heading to the city using the new weapons. Stopping the missiles did not calm him down one bit. He flew down the direction where the missiles came from. He saw a fleet of navy ships, aircraft carriers and submarines in the ocean off the coast of Mersin. Now that he had a target he let out his rage on the fleet. He ripped the ships apart by flying through the middle of them and releasing large burst of energy. These ginormous metal behemoths were ripped into pieces as if they were made of paper. He dove right into the ocean so he could destroy the submarine that was trying to dive under to escape the attack. With one blast from his wrist he took out the entire bottom of the submarine. There was no escaping as the water that gushed in from bottom with immense force. No one made it out as the submarine sank to the bottom of the ocean floor.

  The ships were not doing much better. They were slowly sinking as the water started to fill up in the bottom chambers. It was a matter of time before they were going to be completely under water. Crews were rushing to abandon ship but that was not acceptable to Omega. He wanted everyone responsible to die a painful death for attacking his city so he started raining fire on the ship. He wanted to burn them all alive.

  “Omega, you need to come back!!” Elliot spoke to him on the com system.

  “I am not done,” Omega responded. “Not till each and every one of them are dead.”

  “Son, you need to be here. Please come back.” Elliot had pain in his voice and it snapped Omega out of his rage. He knew something bad had happened. He stopped attacking and flew back to the city immediately. />
  Parts of the city were completely destroyed. Fires were burning everywhere and homes had been turned into rubble. Omega landed at the GSRC where the survivors were being treated in a makeshift trauma center. There were men, women, and children bleeding out; their limbs torn off. As people were dying their bodies were being moved on the ground to make room for the injured still arriving.

  Omega ran inside the GSRC to find Elliot.

  He ran into Sol, “Where is everybody?”

  “They are in the infirmary area with Yasmine. You need to be there,” Sol replied.

  Omega knew something happened to Yasmine so he ran towards the infirmary. He got to the room and saw Yasmine on the bed covered in blood. As he walked close he knew from everyone’s reaction that she was already gone. Omega had just lost another member of his family. It was a familiar feeling. After Roman’s death he never wanted to feel this way again.

  “She was trying to evacuate the civilians when the missile hit a nearby house. She had gotten most of people out to safety but didn’t want to leave anyone behind. That was our Yasmine.” Elliot spoke to Omega with tears in his eyes.

  “I should have been here to stop it. She would have been alive if I was here. I keep failing. This is all my fault.” Omega was hurting.

  “It was her fight too. She chose this path. You are not responsible for our choices. I love you brother but you can’t blame yourself for everything that will happen to us.” Kat tried to console Omega.

  “We will take revenge. The ones who did this will have to pay.” Stan was angry and in pain after losing his closest friend in the world.

  “They will pay. It is my promise. This will never happen to any of us again.” Omega assured Stan as they hugged.

  Everyone was wearing white. It was the day of Yasmine’s memorial. Stan, who was usually the tough one, was a complete mess. He lost his best friend. She had been Stan’s rock from the first day he arrived at the orphanage in Germany. Yasmine was a couple of years older than Stan. Stan had lost his parents during the Chechen war. Some of the surviving traumatized children were taken in by Germany and placed in an orphanage with refugee children from other parts of the world. Stan couldn’t sleep well after what he had witnessed in Chechenia. Yasmine would read him stories till he would fall asleep. She would stay with him all night in case he had nightmares. She was the reason that he started to feel safe again and was able to get over his trauma. Yasmine taught him how to be strong. She gave him his new name Stan. She always had a positive attitude not matter what life threw her way. They were both selected to come to the GSRC together; one for his physical toughness and another for her mental toughness. Her infectious attitude got the kids through a lot of the tough days.

  Everyone said their goodbyes. Stan walked out of the funeral to his room before the cremation ceremony. He was not ready to say goodbye to his sister. Omega wanted to go after him but Elliot told him to stay.

  “Let him go. He needs some time to process this.” Elliot held Omega back.

  Yasmine’s body was set on fire in an emotional ceremony.

  Next day at the GSRC.

  “One of my contacts from Turkey’s Naval Defense Department reached out today. They have all the survivors from the ships you destroyed in their custody. He wanted us to know that NATO has been negotiating the safe return of their soldiers.” Sol informed Omega. The team was still in mourning.

  “They are not going anywhere,” Omega asserted. “They have to pay for what they did.”

  “Do you want me to call the president’s office and talk to them?” Sol asked.

  “Yes. Tell them to stop negotiating with NATO and transfer the prisoners to Mersin immediately.” Omega instructed.

  “They are not going to do that. It goes against UN treaty.” Sol wasn’t sure he could make it happen.

  “They will if they know what’s best for them. It would be wise to not get in my way. The soldiers are not leaving here alive. Are they really willing to fight me to protect the people that attacked their country?” Omega was going to get his way.

  “I am sure they will comply if I put it that way. We are really not in the business of making friends these days.” Sol was seeing a completely different side of Omega.

  The President of Turkey put up some resistance at first about handing over the prisoners but was quickly convinced by his own military leadership that it was in the best interest of the country not to defy Omega. The military were not very keen on releasing the soldiers who attacked their country without any warning. They couldn’t do what they really wanted to do to these soldiers. Their hands tied because of UN treaties but Omega’s weren’t. Nothing they could do to these soldiers would come close to the type of brutality Omega was capable of.

  A couple of hundreds of prisoners were transferred to Mersin in the middle of the night. This was done without informing NATO or UN.

  Dashkis had dug a large pit on Omega’s instructions. As soldiers arrived they were taken straight to the pit by the Turkish army. The army was happy to push the prisoners in the pit. Media that was already in the city covering the devastation from the missile attacks had gotten wind and were on-site to capture whatever was about to happen next.

  Dashkis and the army had surrounded the pit to watch the spectacle. The feeling of revenge had turned into rage and primal barbarism. The crowd was thirsty for blood. All the curtains of social decency were lifted and primal human nature was on full display.

  Omega landed near the pit and all of a sudden, the crowd went silent. There was anticipation in the air as to what Omega would do next. Reporters rushed to Omega to ask questions.

  “What are you planning to do with these soldiers?” One reporter asked.

  “Why are they being kept in a pit?” Another reporter chimed in.

  “They have to pay for what they did to the city. They killed my family. They killed Yasmine. I warned them not to attack my people. These soldiers will pay for the arrogance of their leaders,” Omega replied.

  “But why would you punish them for the actions of their leaders? Seems somewhat unfair,” Reporters inquired.

  “Because blindly following orders makes them complicit. These soldiers didn’t have to attack my city. They didn’t have to kill innocent people. But they did. They made that choice and now they will suffer.” Omega responded as he flew up in the air. He settled a few feet above the pit.

  He pointed his left arm out towards the pit and let one blast of fire into the pit. A dozen or so soldiers caught on fire as the rest of the soldiers rushed to get away from them. They screamed in agony as they were burning alive. The crowd erupted in cheers watching them burn. Within the few minutes a screaming of the soldiers stopped as the bodies still burned on the floor of the pit.

  Omega wanted the rest of the soldiers to watch what will eventually happen to them before it actually did. Smell their burnt carcass in the pit before they themselves met the same fate. The whole world got to witness this live event. He wanted to make sure people in NATO countries witnessed the punishments being handed out for blindly following their leaders.

  Then it was time for the big finale. Omega pointed his left hand towards the pit and the soldiers knew it was their turn. This time the fire rained from the sky and filled up the entire pit. The fire was followed by unbearable screams from the soldiers. You did not want to watch it but you couldn’t take your eyes off either. The message was sent and the world was put on notice.

  Chapter 10

  After the entire world witnessed the NATO soldiers being burned alive, the Security Council called for an emergency meeting to de-escalate the situation. Working back-channel through Elliot they invited Omega to the meet in the hopes that an agreement could be reached between NATO and Omega.

  This was this first time Omega would be seeing the Security Council members after finding out that they tried to eliminate him as a baby.

  “I don’t enjoy dealing with politicians.” Omega was reluctant about attending the meeting.


  “It is necessary if you want to further the agenda. You don’t have to play politics. They don’t hold any cards to negotiate with you. Just stay firm on what you want from them.” Elliot tried to convince Omega.

  “And just don’t try to kill anyone while you are there. They are divided and we don’t want to give them a reason to unite. Some of the nations were against attacking us. We have to try to get them on our side. Use the age-old empire building tactic. Divide and conquer,” Sol added “Most of these nations have been enemies for decades and will have a hard time forming an alliance against you. Use that to your advantage. If they don’t feel threatened by you it would be easier for them to align with us.”

  “That could work. If it can avoid more bloodshed I am for it. I didn’t enjoy it but it was necessary to send the message. Can we work those angles before this meeting?” Omega requested.

  “We will. Elliot, Kat, and I will also work our international contacts to get a feel for where each nation stands. If we can do some alliance building before this meeting it will make the Security Council powerless to take any further action. Without the support from every member they cannot move forward on a resolution,” Sol added.

  “It will be a busy next few days. Treat it like any other mission.” Elliot instructed Sol and Kat. His goal of saving the planet started to seem feasible for the first time. Elliot was going to do everything he can to help prepare Omega for the meeting.

  “While we work on that you should meet Jack Helm. He has been trying to meet you for a few days. I am sure he will have his own agenda but he can be a great ally to us.” Sol informed Omega.

  “We could use him. How soon can he get here?” Omega replied.

  Helm arrived in Mersin within eight hours of getting the word from Sol.