Chapter 20
Eternal Glory
A Thousand Years Ago
In his mind it was bright, almost too bright. A young man closed his eyes trying to orient himself. The blackness of space was at his back. From the corners of his eyes he could see a barrage of colored lights hit his eyes. Stars of all different colors and shapes were all around him.
He struggled to spin himself around, away from the bright light underneath him. He opened his eyes again realizing he was floating through the cosmos aimlessly.
He felt tugged toward the star behind him, almost as if it beckoned for him. He gasped for air, but found the vacuum strangely welcoming. The boy reached out toward the stars until he finally felt a small bubble encasing him.
His enclosure rippled to the touch. The waves refracted the light from the stars bathing him in a warm glow. It was as if he was a child in a mother’s womb, nurtured by the fiery giant behind him.
Spires and torrents of energy rushed around him, the star was emitting its vagrant story. The faster he plummeted, the lighter he felt. He breathed in what smelled like warm dusty air, it was soothing to his lungs.
The bright spires engulfing him became a golden storm. Fantastical flashes of amber and yellow filtered in through his vision. From his position he estimated the clouds were light years in length. They swirled faster, as if in a tornado, engulfing him and the star behind him.
He closed his eyes until the star finally absorbed him. The amber flames soon became cool blue hues bathing him in a wispy rush. The boy felt a plunge into a liquid, the stars and golden skies above him came crashing down into a microcosmic void.
He stood up on the opposite side of the liquid, in a puddle of water on a planet very alien to him. Screams emanated from every corner of the world.
The boy awoke from the strange dream, frightened. It was a cold morning on a planet very distant from the Earth. The emerald sky hung low and stretched for miles. The young man stood in the plains, gazing at the sky as the breeze rushed through his unkempt hair. He imagined he was flying away from there. Into the stars where he could be free to do whatever he wanted.
“Proxy!” Yelled a girl in the distance.
Prox was the boy’s name. His long black hair and short stature made him a lot less menacing than he would be long from then.
“The matron says there’s a man coming to adopt us and take us into the stars!” The young girl was Lispara, her locks of curly raven black hair blew in the brisk morning breeze.
The air was stale and thin but they were quite used to it now. The planet had been terraformed just a millennia ago, but it seems the bio-matter on the planet had other plans for the atmosphere. Prox did not say a thing. He turned around and just stared into the stars.
“Come on you two!” Mairwyn followed not far behind Lispara.
Mairwyn was, to the best of the orphanage matron’s knowledge, Lispara’s fraternal twin sister. They shared the same hair and eyes but their height and facial features were far too different to seem identical. Obviously each took from their mother and father respectively.
The three of them were of the few orphans in their home who had been there since the beginning. The girls were the eldest, each over thirty years old but looking no older than teens. Prox had no recollection of either parents or his home before he had arrived on this world, but the two sisters did.
Both the girls refused to remember the atrocities that befell their world before they came here. All that mattered to them was that they once had parents, and now they had each other.
The Legion had rescued all of them from the civil wars many years ago and brought them to this planet as refugees. The wars continued to rage on from whatever colonies or planets they came from. There seemed no end in sight.
Yet each of them cared little for their pasts here. In one another the orphans found solace and friendship.
The grassy plains they stood on were not native to this planet. Many of the grasses were cultivated by the first settlers to arrive on the planet. The original settlers planned to make it more and more arable.
It was a farming planet, heavily guarded by the Immortal Republic for centuries. And when the children had reached a mature enough age they would have to make the choice of leaving this world and attending school at Denosc Dene, or choose to live peacefully and settle here with the farmers.
“Prox come back soon okay? The man from the Legion, wants to take us away from here. And I’m sure you of all people want to.” The girls ran back across the fields, their dresses were plain and uninteresting, but such was the dress of many orphans brought to this planet for asylum.
Time passed as he lay on the grass staring at the sky. There were so many stars, how could he have only seen this one in his seventeen years of life?
Half an hour after they left Prox decided to return. It would not hurt to hear the man out.
He jogged across the plains while the farmers plant trees in the distance. He had heard the trees were native to Earth.
Earth. To him it was some strange planet across the galaxy that the Legion protected and kept secret from the rest of immortal kind. Of all the planets he knew of, he wanted to visit that one above all.
By the time he had reached the front of the orphanage, the Matron was waiting outside impatiently.
“Didn’t Lispara and Mairwyn come to find you?” She yelled at him. He nodded, “Then why didn’t you come back? The man from the Legion is already talking to all of the other children and you were the only one not present. How does that make me look?”
Prox shrugged.
“Look at me Proxim!”
“Don’t call me that!” Prox yelled.
“Why? It’s such a proud name—”
“Just don’t!” He stormed by her and continued inside. She only looked at him.
That boy will do great things one day, if he learns to control his emotions.
Prox threw open the doors of the orphanage and heard it slam somebody in the back. The man behind the door grunted in pain and fell to his knees.
“Oh sh—” Prox said as he tried to help the man up. “I’m really sorry sir, I—”
“You must be Proxim…” The man said picking himself up.
“You can call me Prox…”
“Okay Prox,” the man said brushing the dust off of his uniform. The pleated royal blue and silver tailoring made him look regal. The cut of his uniform was strange, not like any Republic soldiers he had seen. “You can call me Sheppard.” He said outstretching his hand with a smile.
The man was nearly twice Prox’s size. His hands were also gigantic compared to his, and they shook strongly.
“Your Matron said you would be coming last, always one for an interesting entrance I see?” Sheppard said with a light chuckle. Mairwyn and Lispara both emerged from behind laughing at Prox.
“Owned fool!” Krontos yelled from the other room.
“Shut up Krontos!”
The man unveiled his hood, the Matron recognized him instantly. It was Sheppard. “Always looking for a fight, isn’t he?”
The Matron nodded strongly as she stared at Prox in disdain.
“Good, so the boy has some fight in him left.” He looked down at Prox. “I am Commander Sheppard of the Immortal Legions. I am here to give you a choice young man.”
Prox glared at him, who was this whacko? From the Legion? Sheppard’s hair was gelled into a faux-hawk making him look strange to the young children.
“If I gave you the opportunity to travel amongst the stars, seeing strange new worlds and helping mankind find new habitable worlds. Would you do it?” Sheppard asked kneeling to his eye level.
“You have me interested…but what would it cost me?”
Sheppard smirked, “Smart boy, he knows how to bargain.” He punched Prox light heartedly in the shoulder, his countenance did not budge. “Serious one too, am I right ladies?” He said to Lispara and Mairwyn who both nodded vehemently before sitting by the bench behi
nd him.
“Well Prox. You will have the opportunity to serve in our Legions, and become a great officer who will do whatever you love doing. Whether you enjoy travelling through the stars or helping save lives and deliver food to the war-trodden. A chance to serve in the greatest armies in the known universe and do what you love doing, how does that sound?”
“Like a load of shit.” Prox replied, much to the shock of those around him.
Sheppard laughed as Prox continued, “Because you’ll make us do the grunt work so your senior officers can do whatever the hell they want with us and push us around. If that’s all that I’m going to do till I get sent to a shitty colony somewhere to die then thanks but no thanks, I’d rather become a simple farmer here and order myself to do as I please for eternity.”
“Funny,” Sheppard said as he smirked to the Matron, “Learned as well.”
“Young man,” Sheppard reiterated to Prox, “You have the spirit, and you share the curiosity that drives our men onward. What would it take for you to accept my offer?”
“Give me a ship, something to drink, a beautiful woman and a hanful of competent soldiers and I’ll win you any battle you want. I’ve read books on ancient battles and modern ones, and I’ve seen that all your battle plans are wasteful and slow.”
Sheppard smiled, “Unreasonable. You need to give me a better offer.”
“Then I refuse.” Prox’s words caused Lispara to dig her face into her palms in shame. Mairwyn patted her on the back.
“Then prove to me, young ‘Prox’. Prove to me that you are wise in leading your fellow soldiers to victory and the universe will be yours for the taking. I am not a god, I cannot give you everything you seek. I am merely a man who wishes to change the future for the better. And until you realize in yourself that that is what you want, I look forward to meeting you again.” He patted the boy on the head as he bid farewell to the other orphans, his men filed out promptly.
Sheppard put his hand on the shoulder of the Matron as he left and whispered into her ear. “He’s a fiery young man, but I see a fire that refuses to die. He will do great things some day.”
The Matron smiled and whispered back, “You always pick the brightest ones, Shep.”
He smiled back, “Is that why you decided to return here after your tour of duty?” She smirked and playfully pushed him back, he knew her as a Ghost. “It’s good to see you again.”
Sheppard and his recruiters left promptly. One of them caught up ahead to Sheppard, the blindfold on his head was the trademark of the mysterious Apollyon battalion leader.
“That Prox,” He added, “I think he was worth waiting for.”
“So do I.” Sheppard said.
Prox woke up later that night. The twin moons on their planet were on opposite hemispheres but they were always visible in the night skies. The moons were especially bright that night.
“Hey!” Mairwyn whispered as she entered his room.
“What do you want, Mair?” Prox asked.
“So are you gonna leave tomorrow?”
“Leave?”
“The man in the strange clothes didn’t tell you? They’re leaving tomorrow with a giant spaceship back to their home world, Denosc Dene! They said they were gonna take those of us who wanted to join the Legion tomorrow at noon, they would not come back for another ten years.” Lispara appeared behind Mairwyn, hugging her sister lazily. They were all tired from the morning. She sat by on a bench across from Prox.
“What in the world are you two going to do with those a-holes?”
“We both want to be doctors, the man said we would be trained and free to do whatever specialty we want to do.”
“They’ll make you specialize in dirty-work. You’ll be taking care of their fancy officers while they just ogle you and stuff.”
“Are you saying we look pretty, Proxy?” Lispara hinted.
“Well…” He hesitated to respond, “You two are like the only ones I can stand here…so I guess…” He paused and they leaned toward him with their ears. “I guess I’ll have to come with you both.”
The next day they all awoke and told the Matron they wished to enlist with the Legion. Of the hundred orphans in the orphanage, only a third wished to go with the Legion soldiers. The Matron smiled and saluted each of them as they left.
“I look forward to seeing great things in each of you.”
The shuttle driver outside filed the orphans into line and took each of their names and identities as best they could recollect them. At the end of each application the driver reiterated to them.
“Remember your names and origins well now. Because you may never recall them again…”
Prox was the last to file out. Each of the orphans who did not accept enlistment stood gazing down at him from the railings above. Dead man walking.
The Matron stopped Prox for a moment. It would be the last time she would see him, “I know I’ve always been hard on you Prox… but remember this day. You will never remember this life again, the easiness… the care-free days. From this day forward you will embark on the greatest journey of your life.”
“What would you know,” Prox said shrugging her hand off of his shoulder.
“I used to be just like you… and after my Matron died I asked that I be assigned to this orphanage. Sheppard granted me permission to come here and help raise all the orphans who came through here.”
“Why did you have to ask permission from that idiot? Is this an army orphanage?”
“Watch your words carefully from now on. They will demoralize you for every word you fire back to them, you’re taking the biggest step of your life. Don’t mess this up!”
“Why would you want to come back to this backwater planet anyway?”
The Matron smiled, “To find children like you…like me,” she stood up straight now, her robes hung down as she looked at Prox. “The Commander is the greatest man you will ever have the chance of meeting, learn everything you can from him. Respect him and he will respect you. And when all is said and done, you can take your place amongst the legends of immortal kind.”
Prox did not say anything.
“You thought he was kidding yesterday when he said he would give you what you wanted?” Prox shook his head, “He never gives up his promises, prove to him you deserve whatever you want and he will grant it to you…”
“So what did you do?” He asked.
“I was battalion leader in his Legion, one of the finest recruits he said he ever had. But I didn’t want war to be my profession for the rest of my life. I wanted to work with children, people like me who never had families.”
Prox looked at her. “Matron were you really an orphan?”His face lit up, he could not believe the woman who had scolded him every day of his life could have been one of them. He developed a whole new respect for her.
“I said I was once an orphan, didn’t I?” She laughed, the driver yelled for Prox he was the last one to leave. The orphan matron patted Prox on the shoulder. “Go now, and when you find your place in life, grasp it and embrace it. Of all the things you may choose to let go in the Legion, don’t let your dreams fade from memory.”
Prox finally exited the orphanage he called home for over a dozen years, the walk was long and arduous no matter what anyone said. He turned back before entering the bus, pausing to take one last glance. The matron had hid her identity from them all their lives. But she knew that they would all do greater things than the farmers and clerics of this planet. Their destiny, like hers, would be in the stars.
“War Marshal Prox?” A soldier in the present interrupted his dream.
He woke up instantly. It was nearly eight in the morning Earth time. The sun was just over the horizon.
“Yes?” He said with fatigue in his voice.
“Reports just came in from orbit, the Eri ground forces are at several central locations. In this region they’re retreating farther West. We have requested a briefing in the command tent.”
“I will
be there shortly.” He was sleeping under a make-shift tent on the grass. He never liked field bedding. Besides, he always felt younger when he slept on the ground.
His subordinate had interrupted his sleep, but memories continued to flash in his mind. He was finally on the planet he had only dreamed of as a child. Earth, the cradle of mankind.
When he first received the notice from the Federation telecom that the Legions had been summoned to Earth, he immediately jumped at the opportunity. Likewise his life-long friends had also accepted the summons, leaving their posts to their subordinates at the earliest available opportunity.
Since arrival he thought to himself, It’s nothing like they told us.
“Prox!” Lispara yelled outside of his tent.
She opened the slits and gazed inside, he was staring into the canvas. “They’re waiting for you at the Command tent, its urgent!”
“Did you ever think we’d be here now, Lisp?” He asked her, “It’s been so long since I first told you and Mair that I wanted to see the Earth. And now look where we are.”
“It’s beautiful right?” She said.
“I only wish I could have seen it before all this happened, when it was peaceful like they told us in the stories.”
“Well if you can get your ass to the Command tent we can help end this war and rebuild this world just like it once was.”
He nodded and followed her to the Command tent, the commotion inside was slowly building.
High Above the Planet, Aboard the damaged Eri ship Goliath
“Retreat!” Sounded off a radio broadcast from one side of the ship. It quickly ended in static.
A lone team of Phoenix Legionnaires was transporting what looked like a biological weapon from one of the drop ships that never took off. The Legion quickly overwhelmed the whole vessel with a team of strike force minutes after disabling it.
Origin: Eternity's End Page 28
