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

by Douglas Howell

  Although their destination was the same security station in the old regional capital that Task Force ZH-3C was at earlier, and the quickest way to get there is by the monorail, Rymer knew (Task Force ZH-3C didn’t) that there was a secret tunnel (it was not on any map) that led to the security station. He also knew that taking the tunnel was the longest route to the weapons storage, but it was also the most safest to the transmitter in case Inferno of Terror 154T cannot be stop. God… he hopes that Cronin is right about that damn monster.

  Five miles before they got to the tunnel they heard a helicopter and they knew who it was. Inferno of Terror 154T came near enough to them so that they could see him flipping them off. He then flew the helicopter and landed it at the opening of the tunnel, got out with a rifle that he’d got from the security station and waited for them. Rymer slammed on the brakes when he saw where the monster landed the helicopter. Cronin laughed out of frustration.

  “Get out.” Cronin said in a weak dying voice. Both did without hesitation.

  Cronin drove as fast as he could at the helicopter while trying his best not to be shot. Although he was shot, Inferno of Terror 154T was shot three times by Rymer who was providing covering fire. Cronin knew that the helicopter will not explode when he hits it, and so did Inferno of Terror 154T. But what the monster did not know was that Cronin had an explosive that Carlson created and no one had the opportunity to use it. Despite the explosion, Rymer had his handgun pointed to where he saw Inferno of Terror 154T jumped to.

  “Here, take this.” Carlson said to Rymer trying to hand him a backpack with all the cell phones in it.

  “Now is not the time.” Rymer said through his teeth.

  “But…” Carlson was saying.

  “Shut up!” Rymer snapped back. He heard a click from the hammer of a rifle being pulled back.

  When they got to the helicopter (and trying to find a way around it while it was still on fire) Inferno of Terror 154T attacked them. Rymer got off three shots, saw the ugly beast stumbled (a sign that he was dying), and watched him attacked Cronin. As luck would have it, Inferno of Terror 154T didn’t have the rifle and he lost his left arm below the elbow in the explosion. Rymer was able to shoot the ugly beast four times in the his left knee before his gun was knocked out of his hands. As Inferno of Terror 154T was coming after Rymer, Carlson, with the last bit of his strength, grabbed the monster’s left leg and held on with all his might. Inferno of Terror 154T then picked up Carlson and threw him against the wrecked helicopter. Carlson, on fire, then ran after Inferno of Terror 154T who then put him out of his misery.

  When Rymer saw the beast picked up Carlson he ran to get his gun. He then ran at an opening that he saw between the helicopter and the opening of the tunnel. He had to crawl on his back as he tried to go under the tail section of the helicopter. After Inferno of Terror 154T killed Carlson he started to look for Rymer. Rymer didn’t shoot him as he saw the beast come after him. Instead he waited for Inferno of Terror 154T to try and grab his foot before he shot him in his right eye. (Rymer didn’t know that he was blind in that eye, nor could he tell.)

  As soon as Rymer was clear of the tail section he got up to run. Inferno of Terror 154T grabbed the burning tail section, screamed in pain, moved it out of his way, and started to come after Rymer who turned to face the beast. Rymer shot Inferno of Terror 154T until he had to reload his last clip. Several shots hit the ugly beast in the face, some missed, while the rest found their mark in the beast’s torso. Rymer then reloaded his gun, turned to run, got several yards, turned again and emptied the gun into Inferno of Terror 154T with half the shots missing their target. Out of frustration Rymer threw the gun at the beast who caught the gun and threw it back after Rymer turned to run. The gun hit Rymer in the back of the head hard enough to knock him to the floor.

  When Rymer got up to run, Inferno of Terror 154T caught up to him and was only close enough to backhand him and knocked him to the floor. The beast then came down to attack Rymer who rolled out of the way before the beast was on top of him. As Rymer was getting up to run, the monster claw his right tendon causing Rymer to fall back down. He then rolled over as Inferno of Terror 154T grabbed his foot and dragged him back to him. Rymer then took out a knife and cut off two of the monster’s fingers as the beast was bringing his hand down to finish the job. Rymer then used the knife to cut the beast’s throat, but it was not that deep. Rymer then turned to the beast’s left side, took the knife and stabbed the beast in the left thigh. Rymer then broke the handle off leaving the blade in the monster’s thigh, and then he started to crawl away. As Rymer was crawling away Inferno of Terror 154T reached back to pull the knife out. He then screamed in rage when he realized the handle was broken off. The beast then reached for Rymer, but he was already out of range. The two then started to crawl down the tunnel as fast as they could.

  What slow Inferno of Terror 154T down was that twice he puke up blood. When Rymer heard it the first time, he laughed. He stopped when Inferno of Terror 154T screamed at the top of his lungs. It was so loud that Rymer had to cover his ears. As soon as Rymer got to the end of the tunnel he quickly got up and put in the access codes. Before the door closed, Rymer disable the door panel. He then flipped off Inferno of Terror 154T after the beast managed to get up and saw the door close on him. Rymer then headed to the only place that offer him the best chance to end it once and for all.

  Rymer could hear the ugly beast trying to get through the locked door. He knew that he didn’t have much time. Using the wall for balance, he hopped to the chemical laboratory to grab a bottle of acid. He then headed to sickbay, sat down on the floor with a medikit on his lap, hid the bottle behind his back, and waited for Inferno of Terror 154T to come. He didn’t have long to wait.

  When Inferno of Terror 154T got into sickbay, Rymer had the medikit opened and started to act like he was treating his wounds. The ugly beast then quickly crawled over to Rymer and when he was close enough, Rymer threw the acid into the monster’s face. The monster screamed in pain, punched Rymer in the left chest and then bit Rymer in his left side. As Inferno of Terror 154T was reaching to grab Rymer’s throat, Rymer took out a medical knife from the medikit and cut the beast’s wrist. He then had to cut off the beast’s thumb in order to free himself. Rymer then started to frantically cut Inferno of Terror 154T’s throat while the beast was eating Rymer’s left side. After Inferno of Terror 154T died, Rymer fainted from the pain and loss of blood.

  After Rymer woke up he struggled to get Inferno of Terror 154T off of him. He then took care of his wounds, crawled over to where they keep the crutches, and then traveled to the communication room. After Rymer sent the message to The Hammer of Doom informing them of what he’d learned about Shackley, he crawled off to a safe place, curdled up, and waited for help to come. Although he didn’t have long to wait, he couldn’t sleep. That nightmare will haunt him for the rest of his life.

  (2)

  After Lenkov finished talking with Rymer he ordered Captain Maxwell and a couple of officers to meet him in the Cartography Room. He then called Omori, who was in engineering assisting the other engineers with the computer mainframe, to come as well. Omori was the first to arrive, Lenkov came next and both of them had to wait awhile for Maxwell to arrive. (The two officers arrived before he did.) He was looking at a duty roster when he got the call and he had to go through a part of the ship with no power and no gravity. After everyone arrived Lenkov told them of what Rymer informed him about Shackley and the dire need to locate him.

  Lenkov knew that is was futile to look for Shackley, and he told them that, but like he told them, they had no other choice but to narrow down where he could be at. Maxwell had the communication officer to look at past transmissions for any clues (there were none), and had the other officer to search for any past coded communiqué that Shackley may have sent (none was helpful). Omori hacked the satellites and the ground communications array and sent any promising data to the communication officer. Both Lenkov and M
axwell used game theory but to no avail. There was just too many possibilities of where Shackley could be at. Each one of those possible locations were the most plausible at the same time they were the least.

  “Man… this is pointless. We ain’t going to find him. It’s like looking for a needle in a haystack.” Maxwell said after thirty-three minutes.

  “Well if you don’t like it… there is another possibility with one little drawback.” Omori responded.

  “What?” Maxwell asked her.

  “You know this ship is big enough to do one thing. Primarily because it has enough power to do so. But if we were to do it, there is the possibility the engines would go critical if were to succeed. But… given the situation of this ship…” Omori responded. Both Lenkov and Maxwell knew what she was talking about and both of them knew she was right.

  “If we did what?” The communication officer asked.

  “Time travel.” Maxwell responded.

  “Hold on sec. How could this ship be a time machine?” The other officer asked.

  “Simple, loophole within Relativity.” Maxwell responded.

  “Our desperate situation is turning us into fools. We should know better than to underestimate those bureaucratic assholes in High Command, the Council, or even the Founder himself. But just as much as we shouldn’t underestimate them, we also shouldn’t overestimate them either. They are indeed the most arrogant people in the universe, but they are not stupid. We must first acknowledge the fact that they hold all the cards. It is lack of information that will turn out to be our downfall. I know that each of you don’t want to do it, but maybe we should look at all that we know and see what we can come up with.” Lenkov said to everyone.

  Lenkov didn’t say anything while the others were talking, choosing to listen instead. It gave him the chance to think and form ideas. After twelve minutes of listening it became apparent to him that they were just going around in circles. Two minutes later Omori noticed that Lenkov had the look that said what he realized and it caused her to do more thinking. Six minutes later she received a message from Vaistll saying that they found yet another monster experiment at the lab complex. The data on this new monster was strongly encrypted and Omori was needed for her expert opinion on cracking it. Although it took eight minutes to send it, Omori knew something was strange about it – far more encryption than what was necessary.

  “Maybe this can shed some light on things.” Omori said out loud after the data finished downloading.

  “What is it?” Lenkov asked her.

  “A file that Captain Adnrwal sent me. She said that it is data on some new Medusa looking monster. But the thing is… the EOD went to extreme lengths to guard the data. There is an unheard of number of layers of encryption just to protect a file that is 3.5 gigabytes in size.” Omori responded.

  “How may layers of encryption are you talking about?” Maxwell asked her.

  “Well, to put things in prospective for you. As you are well aware it normally would take 1,000th of a second to download a file that size, but it took eight minutes to download this one. So… do the math.” Omori responded. Maxwell, along with everyone else, got the point.

  “What, all of that to protect some monster?” The communication officer said out loud.

  “Apparently.” The other officer responded.

  “How long will it take for you to crack it?” Lenkov asked Omori. She just stared at him trying her best to give him an answer. It took her five minutes before she could finally give him an answer.

  “There is no way for me, or anyone else for that matter, to crack it.” Omori responded.

  “What? You of all people can’t crack it? I can’t believe it.” Lenkov said trying to get at her pride and cause her to figure it out. All she did was to stare at him in a manner that said no I can’t, while he was staring back saying yes you can. Several moments later the other officer said something that cause her to think differently and cause her to solve it.

  “I wonder if it’s true what they said in that one movie. That a robot could do it.” He said.

  “What are you talking about? What movie?” Maxwell asked him.

  “Well sir, I don’t remember the name of the movie, but they implied that a robot who is self-aware could easily treat all of cyberspace, including strong encryption algorithms, as nothing more than a plaything.” The officer responded.

  “You know. I think that it could work. It does seems plausible.” Omori said.

  “Regardless of what that information states, we should still prepare this ship for the remote possibility of time travel. Even though we are going to use that as a means of last resort. Any questions? Alright, dismissed.” Lenkov said. Everybody, except for Omori, got up to leave.

  “What’s up?” Lenkov, standing partly up, asked Omori when he noticed that she didn’t get up.

  “I’m starting to think that it was never in their intention to destroy this world.” Omori responded after everybody left and Lenkov sat back down.

  “Why do you say that?”

  “Unlike the other worlds that they destroyed, High Command put a lot of work into maintaining this star sector. It appears to be too valuable to them.”

  “Then how do you explain the explosives within this world?”

  “Do we even know what type of explosives they are? Or are we assuming that they are the type that could destroy this world?” Omori asked Lenkov. He got the point because nobody knows what type those explosives are. So he didn’t respond.

  “And how does Shackley fit into all of this?” Omori asked him.

  “Maybe they want him to set those explosives off.”

  “I don’t think so. Shackley don’t strike me as that type of person who would do that knowing full well that it would kill him as well.”

  “Not unless he doesn’t know.”

  “What would be the point in killing him? Don’t forget that people like him is smart enough to have power friends within, and outside the sphere of the EOD. And not all of them are a member of High Command. The Council must weigh his loss with who his friends are. And people like Shackley are also smart enough to have several aces up his sleeves in the form of unknown friends.” Omori said. Once again Lenkov got the point and said nothing.

  “What opinion do you have about how Shackley fits into all of this? Or how about those explosives for that matter?” Lenkov eventually asked her.

  “I have no idea about how Shackley fits into all of this. And as for those explosives? Do we even know it there are explosives in those tunnels? Or, are we assuming that there are?”

  “If there aren’t any explosives… then they are obviously trying to set someone up. The real question then becomes, who. But what if, just for the sake of argument, Shackley will unknowingly set off those explosives. What would that mean?” Lenkov asked her. Omori thought for a brief moment.

  “If that is the case, then there is an apparent clandestine attempt within the EOD to create a possible civil war. That could very well be yet another reason why they tried to liquidate us.”

  “Who in their right mind would do such an insane thing like that? There is no way that it could ever succeed. Never. There’s too many safeguards in place. You’re dealing with a great deal of power and influence. The type that the Founder, and only the Founder, wields.”

  “Maybe it’s his wife.” Omori jokingly stated.

  “Well… it would make sense. Wouldn’t it?” Lenkov responded. Omori, after she thought for a brief moment, left.

  It took five hours and fifteen minutes for Omori self-aware little robot brain to crack the encryption. At first she was ecstatic and relieved that it worked. But as she read the data she became confused and then concerned. She then headed to the “conference room” where both Lenkov and Maxwell was at to inform them of the shocking news that she has. When she arrived, she immediately contacted Vaistll who told her that she was in the middle of something and it couldn’t wait. Everyone knew what she meant – Vaistll was under a
ttack by the army of demons.

  “Because of what you found… this cannot wait. Understood?” Omori informed Vaistll.

  “Yes ma’am.” Vaistll disappointedly responded. It was clear from the video that she was seriously pressed for time.

  “I have decrypted the data that you sent me. Part of it is the identity of the person who Medusa once was. It is the wife of the Founder of the EOD. There is circumstantial evidence that would suggest that she may be attempting to lead a coup against her husband. If so, then the explosives are either there to contain her, or there to create a rift within the EOD in a effort to start the coup. I don’t have to tell you what the consequences are if that were to occur. Under no circumstances should she be let out. She’s far more dangerous than what she looks like. For power and influence are her greatest weapons. Over and out.” Omori informed her.

  In an effort to create an utopian world the EOD at times had to stand against things which it would have been more than willing to embrace. Mind control is one example. In the 21st century technology existed that could easily have been abused and turn people into mindless slaves. During the terrorist attacks on 9/11 in the year 2001, a rat’s brain was hooked up to a computer that allowed a person to control the rat. In affect the rat was nothing more than a robot. Because the EOD believe that there are those who are turning human civilization into a dystopian world, anything that proved that, they had to stand against it. Their favorite target, at the time, was public multinational corporations. Because those type of companies had to please their shareholders by helping them to make money, those corporations had to put emphasis upon their bottom line. In effect, greed must be their motivating factor, not doing what is considered the social right. To make matters worse, those same type of companies are given the same rights as a person. But as a person they had the psychological makeup of a psychopath. It is no wonder why human civilization was slowly appearing to look more like a dystopian world. People join the EOD because they saw it to.