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

by Douglas Howell

  “It’s about fucking time that I find you boy! How many times…?” The father was yelling at his son. The twelve year old boy ran off with his dog when they could hear the battle in the distance. When the father found his son he was shocked and horrified by what he was seeing – the boy was transforming into a six foot tall red looking monster.

  “My boy turned into Satan!” The father ran off screaming. It only caused the monster to laugh in a guffaw manner. Dawson was back with only 13.8% of his memory lost.

  “Now where was I! Oh yes… the factory!” The beast shouted.

  What nobody, not even Dawson, realized was the fact that his symbiote, combined with it’s upgrade, actually did preserved all memories it just selected certain memories and block them. Why? To keep him alive and functioning mentally. What nobody knew was that his type of GET-ME symbiote was a prototype that has a psychological algorithm that attempted to keep it’s host as sane as possible. But there was also a fail safe mechanism within that will kill the symbiote should it becomes problematic in an effort to keep the host sane. What the beast that is Dawson didn’t realize is that his memory lost is also a counter that once it hits 100% his symbiote will terminate itself.

  Apparently nobody ever told Dawson that the EOD don’t want their GET-ME to run amok on any particular world. A clone is a clone but a GET-ME is a weapon. A clone could still lose their mind if they can’t accept being a GET-ME. And that becomes a control issue. So why else would there be a fail safe psychological algorithm mechanism within his GET-ME?

  Whatever Dawson is rushed back to the factory as fast as he could. It didn’t take long before he caught up to Task Force ZH-3C. But for whatever reason he decided to not to fight them but to get back to the factory as fast as he could. It didn’t take long before the team realized that he was still alive. And far worse still they quickly realized that he’s faster this time around.

  (30)

  “Our options are few and far in between.” Lenkov was informing the other captains over the inter-ship video feed.

  “Any recommendations?” Captain Irwin asked.

  “Theoretically we may be able shine light on it’s inner workings given the fact that it is now unstable. If not, or if we are unable to ascertain a method for increasing it’s stability, then we must find a way to extrapolate the data within it’s computers.” Sayaka responded.

  “That last part will be very difficult ma’am.” Captain Easton mentioned.

  “I’m well aware of the difficulties involved. But I do have a way to achieve it, but it will take some time to implement. What I purpose is this: this ship is far better at resisting radiation than it’s closest competitor. Since there are no humans on board we could get close enough, and using machines hook up this ship’s computers with that of the starbase.” Sayaka responded.

  “Wouldn’t that be detrimental to your ship’s computers?” Captain Easton asked.

  “Thanks for the vote of confidence, but no.” Sayaka responded.

  “Why not just tug the thing away from the star?” Captain DeVore asked.

  “Try it already. Back when we first arrived. As powerful as this ship’s engines are, the damn thing wouldn’t even budge.” Lenkov responded.

  “So what would happen if we destroy the starbase?” Captain Easton asked.

  “It would completely destabilize the dark void. And because it appears to be some wormhole, and given how close it is to the star, it would suck the star into it.” Captain Iverson responded.

  “Exactly.” Sayaka responded.

  “Our only option is to do as Sayaka is suggesting.” Lenkov mentioned.

  “So what do you want us to do?” Captain Iverson asked.

  “Leave this system and return back when the dark void is neutralized.” Lenkov responded.

  “Time is precious. Conference over.” Sayaka mentioned.

  (31)

  “I thought you people killed that fucker!” Captain Maxwell raised his voice at Vaistll.

  “Have you ever seen that movie John Carpenter’s The Thing?” Vaistll asked.

  “I’m not as old as you captain.”

  “Well if you did, then you would understand.”

  “Captain… this is Lenkov. Your mission is only half over. You WILL destroy him and leave nothing behind. I seen that movie, so I know what you are dealing with. We are going to send our last Dragon Clones to provide you with assistance. They will stay with you until Dawson is no more. But you must understand that me, Sayaka and this ship will not be able to provide you support from a indeterminate length of time. Over and out.” Lenkov ordered them.

  “Shit, we needed them.” Maxwell said under his breath. He was referring to the Dragon Clones more so than he was referring to both Lenkov and Omori.

  “Apparently Dawson’s humanity only extends as far as the most bestial part of the devil’s nature.” Lenkov mentioned to Sayaka who said nothing.

  It took almost three hours before Jaguar 42R caught up to the beast that was Captain Dawson. He kept up the pressure upon the beast until Viper 33X arrived in a heavy dropship and started to napalm the area. Neither one stopped until they ran out of ammo. What they didn’t know was that they got him but within the hour he found another victim (some animal). After he finished his transformation back into the monster that he has become his memory lost stood at 20.2%. And still he kept on heading back to the Factory. And yet it took almost twenty minutes before it was confirmed that he was still alive. It took another fifteen minutes before both Jaguar 42R and Viper 33X caught up with the ground forces. Yet again the beast had time on his side.

  “We need a fucking dropship! This is getting ridiculous!” Ramirez shouted out.

  “I hear and obey!” The pilot responded.

  Perhaps now they can finally outflank the monster. But none of them thought that they had a chance at that. When Maxwell realized what Vaistll was trying to imply through the reference to that movie it caused him to panic and issued an order to burn down all foliage and life that led to the Factory. He also ordered all dropships to be on the prowl looking for any signs of life in the targeted area. Nothing can survive not even human life.

  The beast was caught up in one those death runs and had to find another victim (another animal that was wounded). His memory then stood at 25.7% lost. By that point in time he was having great trouble in staying focus on the “task” at hand. He didn’t get that far before he got caught up in another run and thus his memory now stood at 34.1% lost. But by that point he was able to allude them by making it to the nearby river. He was now close to the lab complex and the defenders are going pay a high price for their determination in killing him.

  (32)

  “Why is it taking you so long to repair this ship?” The Hau’rino national asked Sayaka.

  “All the hardware has been repaired a long time ago. The problem lies with the software.” Sayaka responded. More reasons why she hates software.

  “So what’s the problem?”

  “Everything. This ship, as you know, is two ships and a starbase combined into one. Both ships and the starbase has it’s own unique software. One alone contains one trillion lines of code.” Sayaka said with a sight sigh.

  “Wow. Why so much?”

  “In an effort to prevent someone reversing engineering the security software that protects each one of the many different sectors within this ship… Well, to put it to you simply I would be dealing with a multi-dimensional enigma maze. What’s worse there is a monster within that security maze that is a strong AI. That’s 300 million lines of code to defeat.” She responded with another sigh.

  “Wow you really have your work cut out for you.” The Hau’rino national responded.

  “You don’t know the half of it. Each sector has such a maze. And of course, has it’s own strong AI. This ship is thirty-six years old. And I have spent all of that time in learning all that I could about the software. Just so I could upgrade the retched software. If you can believe this… 90% o
f the software is not even needed. Why? Programmers and their notes, orders from the EOD to them, stolen software with the notes that accompanied them, redundant lines of codes and so on.”

  “Now I fully understand why you feel the way that you do about your kind.”

  “About my what?”

  “About why you feel the way in which you do about monkey cunt whores.”

  “That’s better.” Sayaka really didn’t mean humans, just computer programmers.

  Sayaka was serious in everything that she mentioned to them. It was driving her nuts that she could not get drunk. She really wanted to. At one point, before the humans left, she tried to get her old body to drink so that she could “feel’ the effects of the alcohol. But nothing came of that experiment. And why is it that she wanted to get drunk? For the most obvious of reasons: the stress in dealing with her nemesis, computers. Like Joseph, she was always a heavy drinker and like him she always needed a good reason to get drunk. Neither one of them ever drink just for the sake of it.

  “The download is now complete. You guys have fun with that data.” Sayaka informed each one of the Hau’rino nationals. She was referring to the massive data that was in the symbiote from the hive. She was not the type to resist the urge to add more to her beautiful ship’s library.

  “Naw, I got something else in mind.” The Hau’rino national mentioned.

  “Like what?” Sayaka asked him.

  “Knowing this ship… a long walk.”

  “To where?”

  “I wanted to take a look at those alien artifacts from Andromeda.”

  “You will have a long walk since the elevators are not working properly. But there is a shortcut. Well from the bridge to the Psonia sector.” Sayaka was informing him.

  “To the what?”

  “It’s Greek for shopping.”

  “Now I understand why this ship is so big.”

  “And I understand why your ships were so small and lifeless. You need to understand one thing about that shortcut should you take it.”

  “I’m afraid to ask… but what?”

  “It’s cold and windy. You now know why I like to wear gloves and boots on this ship. And a jacket.” Sayaka informed him. She was not being rude let alone sarcastic, she was just being herself: realistic. Each of the Hau’rino nationals identified that early on. He did decided to take the route and learned that she wasn’t kidding about the cold and the wind. The shortcut was a air circulation system that moved cold (like minus 40 degrees to a balmy minus 30 degrees) air through the ship. The purpose of the system was to either use or lose hot air that accumulates within the ship. More often than not the hot air had to be lost. Rather it’s the heat that is generated from the machines that keeps the ship fully operational, the computers, or keeping the crew within their comfort zones of heat/cold, no ship was ever fully able to become so efficient as not to have the air circulation system.

  Like the other Hau’rino nationals on board he was young when the war against the hive broke out and lost everything before he had a chance to know what hit him. Like the other Hau’rino nationals he was only “evil” because of his experience and not because he was. Each of them was suffering from PTSD long before the hive consumed them. It caused them no pain or lost to “give” Captain Dawson all of their memory. And just how young were they? The youngest was thirty-five and the oldest was sixty-five which meant that they were considered babies by their species standards. And he was the second oldest at fifty-three. But he was also the smartest with the highest IQ of his group. Like the others, his greatest pain was being what he was – a Wol’ga’con. Because he was the intellectual of the group he became deeply curious about human culture and fell in love with the music of the 1960’s through the 1980’s. And what about the movies? Like Lenkov and Omori he became a movie junkie. It was not surprising since he was a farmhand and never experience culture outside the farm that he worked on. Like the others of his group, he was the reject of his society and his memory, like the others, are on file for everyone to see. To the Hau’rino people and the government, he was just nothing more than a tactic to save the Imperial family. And now? He holds value above and beyond what his own people would ever allow themselves to conceive.

  While he was listening to Simple Man by Lynyrd Skynyrd he noticed an airlock and went into it. He could see Ishtar and Golden Hyperion through the small window. His memories before the war against the hive (only those memories of that war was given to Captain Dawson) started to come to him and it caused him to cry. He was given a second chance in life by these humans when his own people treated him and his friends like scum. He was just nothing more than a farmhand (which was a dirty word to his own people) but to these humans he was a hero.

  “Ynieno… humans.” He mentioned when the song Free Bird was playing. All of the pain of that war left him while he was listening to that song. His own father and mother rejected him when he became a farmhand even though he couldn’t help it. He was forty-two years old and had just recently lost his job and getting a job as a farmhand was the only job that he could get. And now he is amongst humans who wouldn’t even care what type of job he had. They only cared rather he is a good person or not. Nevertheless, he was still a Hau’rino national and when he heard the song Sweet Home Alabama, not only did it reminded him of his home, it also turned him into a huge Lynyrd Skynyrd fan.

  “Paru’edull xiyo’netal… (one month in hell) wadal’ull wt estool’ullt (for an eternity in heaven).” He mentioned and than left. It didn’t took long before he became a huge Rolling Stones fan, all it took was one of his friends to become one. He became a huge fan when he heard Street Fighting Man.

  (33)

  “Our situation, my dear, has went from grave to something far worse.” Captain Maxwell was sending a message to his wife. “All ships must leave for their own good and I am stuck upon this world trying my best to protect those under my command. I also know that if Lenkov and Omori fail than all human life upon this world will be lost. I miss you so much that it hurts. I am lost without you and I can’t wait for your loving embrace. Please do not cry for me my darling wife for I know that we will spend all of eternity in the great hereafter. I love you so much but I fear for my life, for I do not think that I should live much longer.”

  Captain Maxwell sent the message when the spy drone caught more activity at the Factory before it was shot down. With the beast that is Captain Dawson slowly making it back to the Factory and the likelihood that Task Force ZH-3C may not be able to disable or to destroy the Factory, combined with the fact that he is the last officer, is greatly demoralizing him. His only reaction is one of death before dishonor. He will not leave his post until there is either victory or he dies. For he is just showing the signs of doubt about the victory.

  (34)

  “We are now in position. Wish us luck.” Lenkov informed everyone who could still received the transmission. But because of the interference from the dark void the only thing that anybody got was a garbled message. There was, however, a probe but the only thing that it could send back was a video and that too was receiving interference. Nevertheless everyone could still pick up the emergency beacon that transmitted the health of the ship (in this case it’s computers).

  Although everyone thought that a robot would have been sent it was actually one of the Hau’rino nationals who went over to the starbase. Traveling in a heavy dropship with a high capacity data transfer wire in which one end was connected to a computer terminal on The Hammer of Doom, and enduring the interference from the dark void, he finally made it to the starbase. Once inside he connected the other end of the wire to a nearby computer terminal and then returned back to The Hammer of Doom. He couldn’t have been more happier than to get off of that starbase. All he could sense was death and it reminded him of why he chose to forget the last part of his life.

  (35)

  “This is getting fucking ridiculous! We kill that mother fucker and he keeps coming back! Stay the fuck dead as
shole!” Coté yelled out when let again the monster obviously came back to life. They got him earlier and now his memory lost now stands at 85.8%.

  “Hey wait until he gets to Lake Russell. It will get a whole easier to kill him.” Nakada responded.

  “Yeah, kill him an infinite number of times over. Real fun.” Wexler added.

  Nakada was right since there was no foliage or visible life around. Captain Dawson will almost make it back to the Factory but as he got near his memory lost stood at 90.2% And then yet again, like so many times before, he is destroyed only to rise again. While making a practical suicidal run to take him out, Jaguar 42R, Viper 33X and the dropship bearing Task Force ZH-3C finally killed him, despite the fact they didn’t realized it at the time. All three was shot down and miraculously they all survived minus the pilot and co-pilot of the dropship bearing Task Force ZH-3C. But the most amazing thing was that they were now on the grounds of the Factory and thus behind the robotic guns that protected it. Now if only they could figured out a way to neutralized those guns.

  (36)

  “Sir! We are no longer receiving the emergency beacon from The Hammer of Doom. But I did detect a probe leave the ship.” The bridge officer informed Captain Iverson.

  “Understood. Let me know when we received a message from it.” Iverson ordered the officer. He was the only one of the Captains who stayed behind. The other three was ordered by Lenkov to leave the area after the dark void became unstable and now they are leaving to go back to Roscadia. It was their original order. Five minutes later they got the message from the probe.

  “Sir they want us to send over our robotic transport fleet minus the human operated ones.” The officer informed Captain Iverson.