The Cross of Mithras Vol. 1: EOD Operation Welcome to Hell

by Douglas Howell

  There was one other thing that Vaistll learned from all of that. But she had to wait until Ramirez came along to explain something that didn’t make any sense. The one thing that she learned from uni-Earth 1 and 2 was, up to a certain point, just like with uni-Earth Prime, their history is the same. Yes there are certain major differences between the three, but she can still extrapolate the fact that in uni-Earth Prime the United States, like ancient Rome, should have fallen, but it didn’t. She couldn’t explain it other than one reason, and that reason started to cause her to become a staunch believer that it is true. It was Ramirez who said that what she believes is the most likely the case. He also gave her the most likely reason why it would be true. That the EOD is keeping the United States in a perpetual state of being in the Collapsing stage of civilization. Why would they do that? One word, syntopia. The US is a perfect syntopia to the EOD.

  Ramirez tried his best not to think about Nilosyrtis Prime. But he couldn’t help it. So he started to think about Vaistll run in with the Lyumarian influence. Her run in with their legacy is an example of the sad chapter in human-Lyumarian relations. The Lyumarians are not some evil race, nor did they go to war with the human race. Instead what happened was a simple case of cross cultural differences that creates fear and mistrust on both sides. The Lyumarians created biological weapons in laboratories around the galaxy as long as they have been traveling in space. When any threat to them went away and/or, they no longer needed the laboratory and/or, the biological weapons being develop there, they would do what any responsible civilization would do, they clean up the place before they left. When humans started to travel to those places, the Lyumarians would tell them what they did there, once again they where just being responsible. After awhile humans started to become suspicious of them only because the Lyumarians keep on coming to them and saying, ‘We where conducting biological experiments here a long time ago. Yes we where creating biological weapons, but we cleaned up the place. So please let us know if you should find anything.’ They were just being responsible, but humans didn’t see it that way. Despite the Lyumarians best efforts of cleaning up those places, they couldn’t get everything. When humans started to find what the Lyumarians had missed they called it, “the Lyumarian bio-junk.” Sometimes what humans would find was not junk, but rather it was a container with a biological weapon in it that was lying there for centuries. That added to the human race suspicion of them.

  When humans found those old biological weapons they took them to one place. It was a laboratory where they could reverse engineer those weapons. In 2193 Task Force YC-11P had to go there to provide security, and to correct the flaws in its operations. The people who were running the place were just too inept, and that place needed a serious overhaul in maintenance. Nobody knew it at the time, but one those viruses had escaped. That virus lies dormant in the host until a certain trigger occurs. That trigger is when the host strongly feels that their life is in danger. Once that occurs, the infected host begins to spread the virus through their body fluids. The virus prevents the host from feeling any pain, but it also turns them into something that is determined to spread the virus. The virus takes away the host ability to remember who they are, but it preserves their knowledge in knowing how things work. That means you can’t reason with them, but they can still operate things such as equipment or even a firearm.

  For Task Force YC-11P this would turn out to be their last mission. Vaistll is the only member who survived that terrible day. There was two times in which she almost didn’t make it. It was not because of who she was encountering, it was because of who she was with. She had to take the lead egghead to a more safer location without the support of any of her men; they HAD to be someplace else. So she had to give the egghead a weapon, but he turned to be all brains and no brawn. At one point he shot her in the back. Lucky for her she was wearing her body armor. As for the other time he almost killed her. He came pretty damn close of shooting her in the neck. Needless to say, she got really pissed off at him because of it. She told him, ‘I think that I’m more safer in their hands, than in yours.’ After she put him in his place, he turned out to be no help, which was going to get both of them killed. Vaistll had to tell him, again, that she needed his help, but that only confused him. First she says that she needs his help, and then she says stay back and now she saying I need your help again? It was a miracle that both of them survived. But Vaistll never blamed him for almost getting her killed by his own hand. After all, he is a civilian who didn’t understand what she means by the word help.

  Ramirez just remembered something about that day. Something happen that got Vaistll so mad and angry that she said, ‘As old as I am, I have never been more angrier in my entire life than what I am right now.’ Ramirez would love to have been there just to see that. She’s not the type to get as angry as she was on that day. What occur that caused her to, almost go into a rage, was two things; one, after all that happen upon that day, that laboratory was not shut down, it was business as usual; and two, it was the location of that laboratory. That laboratory was on the moon Triton, which is one of the moons of Neptune, which lies in the same star system as… the Earth. All it would take is one of those infected people to board a spaceship, head off to the Earth, and its bye-bye human race. Vaistll lost eight of her team mates because they had to prevent, by any means necessary, that from occurring. But it really didn’t matter, two years later the EOD went there and shut it down - the hard way.

  Ramirez was sitting on the couch in his room at the Roosevelt, still trying to think about something other than Nilosyrtis Prime. But he couldn’t fight it anymore. The sounds, the smells and the images started to come back to him. It caused him to cry. His crying caused his nose to run. It brought back the memories. The memories brought back the pain. The pain caused him to have what soldiers call the thousand yard stare.

  A sixteen year old girl found something in a field that sparked her interest. From the looks of it, it had to be lying there for centuries. It had some type of a language on it that she didn’t recognize. So she wanted to see what was inside of it. After she forced the container open she got an electric shock. She said that, after that, she doesn’t know why she thought it, but at first she thought that there was candy in it. So she started to eat it. Then to her shock and disgust it looked like she was eating maggots. She left to go home, but she was in a trance. After awhile, she became very sick, her skin was turning a dark green color, and her belly was getting bigger. Doctors didn’t know what to make of it, until somebody found that container. It was Lyumarian bio-junk. It was some biological weapon that they were developing 750 years ago in the 15th century.

  After some time, as her condition was deteriorating, both doctors and nurses started to notice that when they touched her, they got a static shock. Later those shocks became stronger. She was slowly losing her sense of self. She would shock someone like her mother, knowing full well how strong they are. Then she would cry like she didn’t mean to do that. When her mother came near, she did it again. After that, she would smile real big, and she had this evil look in her eyes like she was enjoying it. Eventually she could give someone an electrical shock when they are a few feet away. It hit them so strong that it took them a several seconds to recover. But each time she did that, she became a little weaker. Doctors realize that she was using her bio-electrical field to do that - like an electrical eel could. They tried their best to restrain her, but it was not easy. Eventually her stomach became so large that it burst open. Some of the people in that room got hit by the fluid. Which caused them to become infected, but unlike her, their stomach never swelled up and burst. What’s more, what took her days to change, took them only a few minutes. And then all hell broke loose.

  The authorities call out for help, any help would do. Their situation was becoming more dire by the minute. The closest ship that could help was the one that Ramirez was on. Ramirez started to become very concerned about what is going on there. Ramirez asked the
Captain what was going on, but the Captain wouldn’t say. He was too busy trying to get there ASAP. No, as he put it, ‘We HAVE to be there… like last year.’ That comment made Ramirez all the more concerned. When they finally did land the Captain told them what had happen. When Ramirez heard that it disturbed him. Two years before that incident, Ramirez came to Nilosyrtis Prime. When he arrived, as usual, he went to the bar. One day while he was there, he noticed this beautiful, blonde, blue eyed woman. After a few moments, he finally got up enough courage to go over to her to see if she was available. She was, and she was going to ask him the same thing. They hit it off real big and decided to leave together. He learned that she’s been a police officer for five years, and she really loves her work. She didn’t care that he was with the EOD. After a couple of dates, she took him back to her place; she wanted to make love to him. Not right away, but that’s what she wanted. When Ramirez arrived on Nilosyrtis Prime, it was her that he was concerned for.

  When Ramirez first encountered those infected people, he slowly came to accept that she was dead. At least, that’s what he hopes for since he didn’t want her to be infected. Towards the end, for Ramirez that is, they were in a field fighting those people. Ramirez then heard his closest friend screamed out in pain, ‘Oh my God! It burns … It burns! Oh God it burns!’ His hands were over his face when he screamed that. Ramirez then watched as his friend dropped to his knees, took off his helmet, took his laser rifle, and shot himself in the head. The shot took off half of his head from his nose, to the mid part on the top of his head. Ramirez then heard someone yelled at him to get on the helicopter, but he had to fight his way there. Twice he got one of those electrical shocks from those people. When Ramirez was on the copter he heard one of his friends say, ‘Black napalm ‘em!’ Black napalm, part napalm, part neuro-chemical, 100% lethal. As the neuro-chemical burns it turns into a gas, anybody standing within eight feet of the gas will be affected. As Ramirez look, in between two hills, he could see a river of fire moving towards them. It was a river that once was people. People who, no fault of their own, became infected because of a very old bio-weapon. But what got him the most was, not seeing that, but the callousness of his friends. They were ordered to travel to one out of two locations. But Ramirez knew that it was a matter of time before all of them would get killed. He knew that a Project 21 ship was coming to help out as well. He knew where it would land. It would land not far from where he was. He had to make a decision, before it was too late.

  After Ramirez made his decision, the helicopter had crashed, and his friends were dead. He lost an eye, and he was burned on one side of his face. He then ran to where the Project 21 ship would land at. As he ran he felt free, for the first time in his life, he felt free. The rest became history for him. But as he told other Project 21 agents, ‘If you were never apart of the EOD, then you would never realize why it is impossible to run away like I did. Its not why people think.’ As he told them, ‘When I was with the EOD, and I was with my community, my friends, and my family, it WAS impossible for me, or anyone else for that matter to leave. It was very hard to even think about it. Because it meant saying goodbye, forever, to my friends and family. But when I was not around my friends and family, I could think about it. That’s why it is impossible to leave it.’

  (5)

  It was 07:28 hours and Vaistll heard a knock at the door. She knew who it was; she was surprised that he would come so early. She went to the door and answered it. Standing there was Ramirez like she suspected.

  “Wow. I must be awful popular… you came early.” She said with a smile, causing him to smile back.

  As he came in she asks him, “Did you eat breakfast yet?”

  “No. Did you?”

  “No, not yet. I was thinking that we could go and eat breakfast at some place around here.”

  “Okay. Sounds good to me.”

  They both went and sit down on the couch. Vaistll was looking down as she was preparing herself to tell him about her life on her planet. She had the look of, ‘I have a lot on my shoulders that I want to get off… and I don’t know where to begin.’ Ramirez didn’t say anything; he knew actually how she felt.

  “I decided to start you off by telling you about the civilization that I came from. The name of my civilization is: Iomiyya. Yes... I know it does sound something like, ‘You lyin,’’ or more like, ‘Whom lyin,’ but... I really don’t want to mention it around our men. I just don’t feel like hearing them making fun of it in all.”

  “That’s okay, I won’t say anything.”

  “You know, it’s kind of funny but… I don’t remember what Iomiyya meant. It’s not because of my age, it’s just that… I must have heard it at least three or four times and each time… I forgot it. I wish that I didn’t. Oh well... I guess it doesn’t matter.

  When I first arrived on the Earth, with those nano-probes making me look like a human being, people would ask me about my ethnic background. I didn’t say anything. Mainly because I didn’t know what to say. But it started to get me to think about it. So looking at a lot of cultures around the world, and comparing them to mine... I narrowed them down to four - Greek, Irish, Danish, and Native American. So I started to tell them that what I was - multiethnic.

  With the Native American part, I never really pick any particular tribe. To me it just didn’t matter. When people asked me which tribe that I came from, I told them, ‘With the way that America treated the Natives, my family never talked about it. So I really don’t know.’ I pick them only because they, like all Apollinarians, have hyper-sensory perception. Like most Native American people would say, ‘The eyes are a window upon the soul.’

  At first I was gonna pick the English instead of the Greeks, but I decided not to. I made that decision base upon the fact that English, at times, can be mean spirited. They had that bad habit of killing the Natives... and that’s something that my people would never have done. So... I would have picked them if they were a lot more nicer.

  So I decided to pick the Greeks instead, because they, like Iomiyya, were a maritime society that is regarded as being highly influential, producing very talented people, and a lot of brilliant minds have come from them. Unlike the ancient Greeks, however, we had no use for slaves. My people valued knowledge and peaceful trading, not the enslavement of others.”

  She then laughed and said, “It is so funny… every time I heard an Irish comic joke about the Irish…“ She started to laugh again and finished, “I was like, ‘Oh my God, that’s my people.’” With that, she laughed out loud and said, “We’re just drunk fighters.”

  After a few moments she continued on. “During St. Patrick’s Day, when I first arrived on the Earth, I would tell people,” - she started to talk with an Irish accent - “We Irish don’t need a four leaf clover. We are a four leaf clover.” That caused Ramirez to laugh out loud.

  She continued on, “With the Danish I pick them because they, like my people, are tolerant and they have an ironic sense of humor.” After a few moments she asked Ramirez a simple question with a smile.

  “Hey, you want to hear something really ironic?”

  “What?” He said with a smile expecting the obvious.

  “I love things that are ironic.” That caused Ramirez to laugh out loud.

  She added, “Life is filled with it’s little ironies.”

  “Yeah.”

  She continued on, “When it comes to the culture of the Iomiyyans, I don’t remember that much about it, other than that it resembles ancient Greece, but more mystical. When my civilization declares war upon some nation, and we conquer them, we would put their leader’s head at the end of a pole, not literally. What we did was, we made a bronze bust of the head of their leader, and then we put that at the end of a pole. That pole resembled one of our ceremonial spears. Flanking that ‘spear,’ in an x pattern, is their leader’s standard banner or crest, his military’s standard banner, crest, or whatever they use to represent their military and their leader. The spe
ar, and both the leader, and their military’s crest, is put midway on a column. On top of that column is our goddess of victory, which is made of gold. At the base of that column was our leader’s coat of arms. Below that, I don’t remember which it was, but there was either a gold or bronze plaque telling a little bit about the war. It gave the years that it was fought, the name of our leader, the battles, and the year that those battles was fought in, the losses on both sides, and the names of our best military leaders. When it came to our losses, and that of the enemy losses, my people told the truth, no matter how embarrassing it was.

  I don’t specifically remember actually what it looked like, but I think that it went something like this. Each one of those columns was connected to one another, and was put in a circular pattern with the oldest being in the center. At the center was a small round temple. Inside the temple, in its center, was a statue of four of our most hallow of gods - the god of thunder and lighting, who was facing north. He was the king. The god of the sea who was facing south. The god of war who was facing east, and the goddess of wisdom who was facing west. The king of our gods represented honor and justice - the righteous ruler who all kings should simulate. Our god of the sea represented our way of life. He was facing south because that was the direction of our sea. When we used the expression, ‘Sacred waters of our forefathers,’ we meant the sea nearest to our homeland, and thus, him. Our god of war was facing east, in the direction of the rising sun, because it represented our youthful fighting spirit - a Spartan warrior. What’s more, most of our wars were fought in the east. The goddess of wisdom is facing west; because it is wise to acknowledge that all things are fleeting - wealth, power, beauty, age, etc. She was important to us because we where a learned society. As a matter of fact, my civilization had the highest literacy rate that I know of.”