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

by Douglas Howell

  “Yes I do recognize the language.” La’jyn’eu said after he heard the recording.

  “So… what language is it?” Dr. Verrone said. He was still nervous.

  “It’s a dead language from western Xiy’o’tlo.”

  “Can you translate it?”

  “Loosely. I can only give you a rough translation of it. Play it again.”

  “So… what did he say?” Dr. Verrone asked after La’jyn’eu finished listening to it again.

  “The darkness forbids you to use all of it. Heed our warnings… or else.”

  “W-W-W-Well… th-th-they… shouldn’t worry about it. We have more than enough. There should be… somewhere between… um… 500 to 1000 drops of it left when we are finished resurrecting your people.”

  “I don’t think that is what he meant.”

  “Then what?”

  “I think they have some other plan for it.”

  “Like what?”

  “I don’t know. But it can’t be good. It’s not the will of death. But rather it’s the will of those who made it. They want it for something. Something dark. Something sinister.”

  “How do you know that’s what they want with it?”

  “Because it’s obvious. Look at the people who created it. Didn’t you read Parker’s report on it?”

  “Yes.”

  One day the EOD will learn about the existence of that jar. There was roughly 800 drops of the dark liquid left when the last of the Hau’rino nationals was brought back. When the EOD learned about that jar, they will stop at nothing to possess it. Unfortunately for all, they will acquire it.

  (8)

  Galactic Prime just arrived in the Ishtar planetary system on 22 October DTS. When they were within sensor range of Golden Hyperion, they learned that when the Marines kicked in the door, it was a small door. Too small for everybody’s liking. The sensors detected satellites (both dead and active) in orbit, space junk, one destroyed Marine ship and two destroyed Space Core ships. Much to their dismay, the sensors also detected a small robotic fighter base (it was not known if it was still active) in the rings of Ishtar. Although they also detected a starbase near-by (it was close enough to detect them), it didn’t appear to be interested in them. The starbase appeared to have been created to monitor the ground, not what is in orbit.

  Two hours and five minutes of analyzing all that data, the crew of Galactic Prime received a rude awaking. Something (not the starbase) detected them. Galactic Prime alarms started going off. Vaistll, Taylor, Ramirez and Second Lieutenant Murphy had to make a quick decision. They could either hurry up and complete the mission without getting ready, or they could scrap the mission all together. In a near panic they had to turn to the one person that probably could get them out of that mess. Somebody who knew Galactic Prime quite well. What it can and can’t do. They just didn’t know if he would help them. Not after what he did.

  Peaceful Landing

  (1)

  Mad Dawg was in his quarters when he heard his doorbell rang. He think he might know who it is. So he walked over to the door in his typical cocky manner. When he open the door he got more than what he anticipated. Vaistll, Taylor, Ramirez and Second Lieutenant Murphy was at the door.

  “All of you came here to apologize? Apology accepted. Just don’t let it happen again.” Mad Dawg said with a smile. All four of them came in without saying a word.

  “Such manners! Not very hospitable of any of you.” Mad Dawg said.

  “I think you know why we are here.” Vaistll said.

  “Yeah… finding newer ways to be rude.” Mad Dawg said.

  “No. We are here because we need your help.” Ramirez said in a almost rude manner.

  “Oh… I see. You guys need a big strong Marine to help you move some furniture.” Mad Dawg said.

  “We’re serious here!” Taylor said with a slight raised voice.

  “Look… you are the only one who knows this ship and…” Second Lieutenant Murphy started to say.

  “Nah-ah. This is no longer my ship. It’s your ship Murphy. What that means: you are the one who is suppose to know this ship.” Mad Dawg said.

  “Is this what all of this is about!? You’re mad because we took over your ship!? You’re the one who is fuckin’ paranoid!” Ramirez said being a bit annoyed by Mad Dawg’s behavior.

  “Then why are you here boy?” Mad Dawg asked Ramirez. Ramirez was angry when Mad Dawg said that. You could see it in his eyes.

  “That’s what I thought. You need the ol’ Dawg to help you out. But this dog don’t wanna hunt.” Mad Dawg said.

  “What? Afraid that the big bad EOD might tear your ass up?” Ramirez said in a mocking manner. Mad Dawg then laugh when he heard Ramirez say that.

  “What the hell is so funny… you crazy paranoid fuck?” Ramirez asked.

  “Apparently you all think that I’m stupid enough to either go into battle without protection, or give you dumbasses advice on how to fight someone.” Mad Dawg said.

  “Now hold on a minute you bloody yank! We never said that you have to do either!” Taylor said with his British accent coming through.

  Mad Dawg than looked at Taylor in a ‘Oh really is that a fact?,’ look on his face. Vaistll then read him and realize what he really wanted. Something that they took away.

  “You want your ship back. Is that it!?” Vaistll asked.

  “Now… what ever gave you that impression?” Mad Dawg asked her.

  “Well… it’s obvious.” Vaistll responded.

  “It ain’t gonna happen! Not after that shit that you pulled earlier!” Ramirez said being totally ticked off by Mad Dawg’s desire to get his ship back.

  Mad Dawg then went over to Ramirez and smelled him. He then said to Ramirez, “Is that shit I smell on you boy? Scared of the EOD?”

  Ramirez then looked furiously at Mad Dawg then said something in Spanish.

  “You know…” Mad Dawg was saying to Ramirez with a smile. “…you’re in a EOD star system and you… have a death sentence impose upon you. Think about it.”

  “Are you going to help us or not?” Vaistll asked.

  “So what was all those alarms going off about? Let me guess. You have no defenses. You still want to complete your mission. Neither one of you wouldn’t be here if you didn’t feel that this ship was in serious danger. You have bad intelligence on this star system. And you need someone who knows this ship. Does that sum it up? No? Let me help you sum it up then. Your rank is a misnomer. If you don’t have somebody who knows this ship well enough… we all die. So what would be the point in me helping you? Huh?” Mad Dawg said.

  They all knew he was right. If something were to go wrong, they would need him, with all of his faults, in command of the ship. Ramirez, remembering all that Vaistll told him about her past with Tsk’llk and Llyysta, and how it was forgiveness that save her, decided to do the same thing with Mad Dawg. He felt that it was the right thing to do.

  “If you can behave yourself… and stop being so damned paranoid… we can give you back command of your ship.” Ramirez said.

  “And what do each of you say about that?” Mad Dawg ask the other three.

  “Yeah… alright.” Vaistll said.

  “Taylor?” Mad Dawg said.

  “Sure.” Taylor said.

  “Murphy… are you sure you can give up the chair?” Mad Dawg asked.

  “Yes sir. I agree.” Murphy said.

  “Murphy… aren’t you forgetting something?” Mad Dawg said.

  Second Lieutenant Murphy then went over to the intercom and inform the ship that they agreed to give Mad Dawg command of the ship. Mad Dawg then left. He stood in the doorway, turned slightly to the right, raised his right arm, extended his index finger and said. “Whether any of you can believe me or not… I really am sorry for all that I did a few days ago. I guess… I should thank each of you for saving my career. Come with me to the bridge.” Mad Dawg said.

  All of them then headed to the bridge. Mad Dawg spent the next se
veral minutes quickly analyzing all the data that was collected on Golden Hyperion and the data from the Robotic Control moon.

  “I hate to say it again… but you’re rank is… Never mind. First: our missing EOD ship is obviously either on our side, or not with the EOD. Second: either the Marines and/or the Space Core personnel, destroyed the small robotic fighter base. So long as the EOD don’t sent any reinforcements you should not have any problems getting down on the ground.” Mad Dawg said.

  “How do you figure all of that sir?” Murphy asked.

  “You see Murphy… that is why I’m the captain… and you’re not. Not one of those robotic fighters have arrived yet. And as for that EOD ship? What do you say about that ship Ramirez?” Mad Dawg asked.

  “If it was under the EOD control than that type of a ship could easily access those plasma guns and destroy this ship.” Ramirez responded.

  “Which means what about that infiltrator?” Mad Dawg asked him.

  “It means that he didn’t know that.” Ramirez said.

  “Captain.” Mad Dawg said.

  “What?” Vaistll responded.

  “Get your people ready. Hurry it up and get down there. And… call me if you need me.” Mad Dawg said.

  “Alright. Let’s go you two.” Vaistll said.

  Vaistll, Taylor, and Ramirez then left to prepare their teams for their mission. Neither one of them is a bad officer, not by a long shot. They just don’t have what Mad Dawg have. The experience in being a captain of a spaceship. It’s why they didn’t see what Mad Dawg saw in the intelligence.

  (2)

  William M. Shackley the EOD Regional Station Chief for Golden Hyperion, Sayaka “Cyber Doom” Omori the EOD Chief Scientist and Fleet Captain Joseph “The Hammer King” Lenkov, all three of them basically ran the Omicron Ultra star system. They were in the Conference Room on the EOD Starbase VXN-2212/O, they were reviewing all the collected intelligence over the past three weeks. Although the forward slash O in the starbase name denote that it is strictly for observational purposes only, as anyone who has dealt with the EOD before knows, its defenses are formidable. Trying to take it by force won’t work. It’s suicidal to send in fighter pilots. The starbase has two rotational rings that can rotate, not only independently of each other, but also move to either to the left or to the right. The rings has four large plasma guns on it, on the rings cardinal points. Although the range of the plasma guns are quite limited, they are so powerful that it could take two shots from them to destroy a ship as large as Galactic Prime. Off to the right and left side of the starbase is a large rectangle that is twice as wide as one of the rings. What it is, is a very large shield. The shield is so powerful that the only way that a ship could come close enough to damage the starbase is to be within the kill zone of the plasma guns. The starbase also has the capability to move like a spaceship. But it’s range and speed is much slower, like that of a shuttlecraft. The simple rule of thumb in dealing with one of those starbases is: leave well enough alone. For if you don’t you risk certain death.

  Shackley was unassuming and quiet. He is there to do his job and nothing more. Like Ramirez he was born into the EOD. But unlike Ramirez, Shackley has no desire to leave the EOD. He feels safe with them. Like so many people in the EOD, he sees all human governments (and Project 21) as weak and feeble. While the EOD is perceived as strong and formidable. It is people like Shackley who could turn the EOD into a force that does good instead of evil. If it wasn’t for the leadership of the EOD, then it is quite plausible that the EOD, because of people like Shackley, would slowly move in the direction of goodness. But it is not to be. Nor will it ever be. People like Shackley wants to feel safe and secure. Not to take any chances. The EOD leadership since its founding, including its founder, knew that there would always be people like Shackley. They would come and they will go. And not once would they ever be a true threat to the EOD. So from the very get-go the EOD had a syntopian form of policy toward its people. They saw it as a way to control people like Shackley. People like him may tolerate the darkness to a point, but once that point is reached they will break.

  As for Lenkov and Omori? They always had the saying of: “The difference between being ruthless and being evil is that evil has no limits whereas ruthlessness does.” It’s their way of saying that they may be ruthless, but they are not evil. Both of them are attracted to the EOD because the EOD don’t fuck around. You can see it in their weapons, their ships and their starbases. Tough and super-hardcore to the extreme. Although Omori and Lenkov are not entirely loyal to the EOD, their loyalty is based upon each other and the fact that the EOD gives them better opportunities for their ambitions.

  Sayaka Cyber Doom Omori like Lenkov was not born into the EOD. Her career and her ambitions brought her close to the EOD. With Lenkov it was no different. As their ambitions got them closer to each other, it also got them closer to the EOD. After they met and fell in love with each other, they join the EOD. Which is one reason why they won’t betray the EOD. If it wasn’t for the EOD, they never would have met. Which is not entirely the truth, but that’s is how they see it. To them, betraying the EOD is the equivalent of betraying each other. After they met, both of them became a cyborg. They did that because they wanted to live and stay together forever. They were meant for each other.

  For Omori and Lenkov their journey in joining the EOD was all based upon their view of the universe and their growing intense cynicism. Omori six months before her 22nd birthday became deeply burned and scarred by politics. Feeling disenfranchise by politics after she could vote, Omori started a “Voter Revolution.” People like her (who is too disenfranchised by politicians) who choose not to vote but could, register to vote. Then on election day, preferably the election of a Prime Minister or a President, the “Red Voters” would go to the capital and burn their voter registration card. She felt that if at least one million people (she preferred five million) were to do that, and they were to tell the media what their grievances are, then change would be ascertain.

  On election day she only got a measly one quarter of a million people to do it and got the chance to meet politicians who she knew would not do anything. And if they did it wouldn’t be enough to create any real change. And thus, on her 22nd birthday she got a rude awaking about politics. And from that point forward, not only did she hated politics, but she also felt that change is impossible with people like that running any nation. People who care far more about getting elected and money than serving a public good. In her mind, the people were nothing more than spoiled little children and the politicians are nothing more than neglectful parents. She started to see how dysfunctional that family is. The Little Ones – the people – are protected by Big Sister. Then one day Big Brother comes along to bully both the Little Ones and Big Sister. Then hear comes Big Mother who baby the Little Ones. Don’t do that, it’s bad for you. Do this instead it’s good for you. Now remember Little Ones, Big Mother knows best. Hey, here comes Big Father. Someone that most people would call a dictator. Where’s Big Sister? Big Family threw her in the dungeon. They didn’t like her position on the Little Ones.

  After Omori’s uneventful attempt to change politics she decided to throw herself into her studies. She was studying; advance electronics, robotics, cloning, cyber biology, and micro engineering. But what kept on irritating her to no end was software. Whether it was losing her work, doing research on the internet for a computer problem, it seems like it was just one thing after another. She started to deeply hate software. She lost all respect for all software programmers. One day while she was listening to “Shut Em Down” by Public Enemy she develop her future persona of Cyber Doom. She like that song because it reflected upon her hatred for software. At first it helped her to release her anger and use the energy to push ahead in her studies. But after awhile, because of the problems that she was having with software, it didn’t help anymore. Her hatred was teaching her to be ruthless.

  Sayaka Omori was gifted in the field of cyborgs.
If she ever lived in a past life then she probably was a cyborg. (She never thought, or believe that she was. Nor did she believe in reincarnation.) But all the problems that she was having with computers was pushing her into a field that she never really cared about. Then one day she realized how important software is to a cyborg and that is when she decided to study the subject. Yes it meant more work and more frustration for her (keeping her grades up didn’t alleviate the stress either) but she kept on going. She studied both software engineering and computer forensics and discovered to her amazement that she was gifted in it as well. But her hatred for software didn’t change. Software only increased her resentment towards it.

  After Omori graduated from college, she spent the next few years getting nothing but dead end jobs. Nothing that really challenged her ingenuity. Nothing that took advantage of how gifted she is. Instead, she was treated like a factory worker. Sayaka knew that with ingenuity it cannot produce like a factory worker. It takes time, which is a luxury that the factory worker don’t have. A factory worker cannot sit around and wait to do work, they must work. With ingenuity it’s like talent. You can’t tell a song writer to write songs on a daily basis. And that is what is being asked of her. To use her ingenuity on a daily basis. She felt demoralized.

  She tried to start a business but it struggled over the next couple of years. All the way up until she met Lenkov. It was a small software company. The product that she created, combined with her hatred for software and her ruthlessness, made her enemies in the software industry. And they made certain that her company remained small. They fear her product more than her.