Origin: Eternity's End

by Uneeb Qureshi

  The Eri soldier fell. Prox rushed to next soldier but stopped in his tracks as the ground rumbled.

  He gazed upward, the sky brightened above him.

  Az did it…

  Several shockwaves cut through the caverns. A violent earth-quake sundered the cavern. He was thrown aside as the ground he stood on split apart and slid down the cliff face.

  His body felt like a rag doll inside of his cloak. He tried to grasp the rigid structure of the tent but his grip was failing.

  He could only recall bits and pieces of the ordeal. The violent cranial injuries he sustained were brutal. He closed his eyes when he finally realized his body was weightless.

  Chapter 21

  Demons of the Past

  An Hour Ago,

  Arlington National Cemetery

  Sheppard stirred from his sleep. His adrenaline kicked in, he had been asleep for nearly fifteen minutes. His AI was on quiet mode. He hit his helmet waking the system.

  “Sir?” The AI asked.

  “Nothing…” he replied, “I feel something coming, we should be moving…”

  He crawled out of a hollow tree and brushed off the insects and dust that settled on his armor. He crouched low as not to be seen.

  “Commander, I’m experiencing heavy interference in this area, it’s coming from the cemetery not far from here. I have no telemetry data.” Sheppard nodded and licked his lips. He had wasted too much time sight-seeing.

  As he stepped onto the road he heard a rustle coming from the trees. He crouched on the ground again like a lion ready to pounce on its prey. Someone was jumping from tree to tree above him, Sheppard rolled onto the main road to avoid being circled. He kept a close eye on the stealthed enemy just as it disappeared. He knelt on the ground in the par terre position as if taunting his opponent forward.

  An alarm went off as his opponent landed behind him. Sheppard tried to turn but was immediately grappled. His left leg and right arm were locked as his opponent threw him into a nearby tree. Sheppard would have lost his wind had his suit not absorbed the impact.

  Before he could react, his opponent grabbed him again by the leg and swung him to the ground face first. Sheppard’s helmet scratched on the surface but he was not injured. To an outside observer the battle looked like a mannequin being thrown around.

  After the next swing Sheppard took the opportunity to compress his caught leg and grapple his opponent’s neck with it. With a swift throw from his hip his opponent twisted under the pressure and hit the ground back first. Sheppard had a hard time keeping control of him. The attacker was exceptionally strong.

  Sheppard kept his composure fixed. His opponent stood up as if unscathed by the battle thus far.

  The two mimicked each others’ actions. Like gods of war they kept confident and unwavering. Sheppard’s silver and black laden armor juxtaposed with his opponents orange and black couture.

  The trees rustled but there were no other motions or words spoken. As one figure inched forward the other inched backward. As they bobbed their heads they did so in unison.

  He raised his fists to his head and kept his eyes on the soldier. A maniacal laughter emanated from his opponent’s helmet. The dark knight emerged from his shell and he instantly recognized him.

  The man underneath the armor was nearly a shorter. His blue eyes remained radiant even in the moonlight.

  “Sometimes I don’t even know my own strength, slaw…” It was Dom.

  “Slaw…” Sheppard replied as he lowered his fists.

  “How’s Bert?” He asked.

  “He’s good, and yourself?” Sheppard eased his stance and let his arms hang. Dom would not try anything brash, he needed Sheppard alive.

  Dom nodded, “Almost killed ya for a second, huh?”

  “You’re a fool if you think strength alone will win this conflict.”

  “O-oh, Mr. Sensitive just came back.” Dom pretended to be frightened, “Don’t worry about us sugar. We’ll keep your boys busy for a while.”

  Sheppard walked up to him with his chest held high and a bitter countenance across his face. “You won’t win this.”

  Dom laughed, “I was never expecting to win the Earth back by force.”

  Sheppard gave him a confused look.

  “Where’s your pathetic allied Federation?” Dom asked, “All I’ve seen is the Legion engaging us all over the planet. Or do you even have any influence with them anymore?”

  Sheppard did not respond.

  “You see Shep…you’re all alone, no one but your zealous troops will help you. Your fleet has been exposed to the mortals… fuck… they don’t even know what’s going on. One day they’re living their slow, pathetic lives and now you me and the whole alien invasion squad fly in and start a war on a planet neither of us control. They’re probably praying to some pathetic deity right now to save them…” Sheppard grabbed him by his throat and raised him into the air.

  “Don’t demean them! No one has that right!” He controlled his anger, “Because you and your lost cause had a point to make by coming here doesn’t mean you will make it out of here without retribution.”

  They were being watched, Sheppard could tell. He played along with the situation further as not to elicit any unnecessary suspicion. Dom was his bargaining chip.

  Dom grabbed his wrist and pulled himself higher just to speak words. “You have no friends in your allies…” He coughed forcefully, “You have their sympathy but not their help…your dream of the Legions is slowly dying.” Sheppard lowered him, “Your men, women and children will slowly desert this futile crusade, you know of the Eri sympathizers on both fronts, mortal and immortal…”

  Sheppard glared at him.

  “Oh? Mr. Bigshot wasn’t told we used the mortals to flush you out? I came here for you, you son of a bitch!”

  Sheppard shook his head, he was never that calculated in his plans. Mortal sympathizers?

  “You chased me across the galaxy for centuries…and now I forced you to come to me.” Dom laughed harder, “The failure to pass the resolution in the senate? You fell for it you fool, you pushed this little war faster and faster until it became inevitable…you forced yourself to expose immortal-kind to the mortals. Now the rest of the Federation thinks you’re a war-mongerer, they’ve already lost their trust in your Legions. The Magistrate especially…”

  “No.” Sheppard’s eyes grew wide, Reham was behind this.

  “No? How do you think that mortal died on Denosc Dene? Our mortal agents tested the mutagen, it worked perfectly.” He cackled maniacally.

  “You brought it here.” Sheppard whispered to him.

  “Oh we’ve brought it in full force, everywhere around this pathetic planet!”

  Sheppard threw him back to the ground, Dom continued.

  “Remember our old friends, the mortals? We finally convinced them that we would leave this world had they helped us to bring you out. We’ve been keeping an eye on you Sheppard. Atros viela Lib. We found the opportunity to strike and force you into the open.”

  Dom laughed out loud again.

  “Wait!” He gasped, “Here comes the best part! I’ve gotten rid of all of them for you! No more stinky mortal pests to deal with.” Dom smiled and patted Sheppard’s on his neck in laughter.

  Sheppard was disgusted not only at the situation but also with himself, he was an idealist now. Long past ruthless killing. But something inside of him was relieved that their ancient enemies had finally been defeated.

  “If your men are done on this planet, then leave…”

  “We’re far from done,” He let Dom free, “Waterways, sewage treatment and soils have probably been infected already. Our plan has only begun. I mean listen to yourself, you aren’t even worried about them, all you care about is saving your own ass.”

  It hit home, in reality he really was trying to cover up the Legions from the mortals. He wanted their people to remain secret for a just while longer until they too would have been ready to see the stars
.

  “You’re deluded.” Sheppard clenched his fists.

  “Am I? Hah, you talk about saving them, but you don’t treat them like equals, you treat them like children. You’re the hypocrite Shep, not me.”

  The wind rustled at their backs, it picked up at times nearly swaying their heavy bodies downwind.

  “I know I’m not perfect, but I will give them a fighting chance, even if it means us siding with them against the rest of immortal-kind. They deserve the right to life no less than we do.”

  “They persecuted the fuck out of us Sheppard! You of all people would know, you were the first! You were the most perfect, and you saw it all… how they burned our villages, slaughtered our people and raped our mothers, sisters and daughters!” Dom caught his breath, “By siding with them and sharing our technology you will make them nearly equal to us. Don’t give them the chance to kill us again…”

  Sheppard shook his head, “Your forces are isolated and defeated, and they have no way of completing this failed crusade. Though it will take some time for us to clean up this mess, we will learn to respect one another in time.”

  Dom rushed at Sheppard, grabbing him by his neck guard. He lifted him up in the air and shoved him against a tree with a loud thud. They looked at one another, eye-to-eye. No words were spoken but each of them knew what they wanted.

  Dom knew killing him would be futile. Killing the progenitor of their kind would have been political and social suicide. On both sides of the conflict Sheppard was a man revered like a myth. He had united all of their ancestors from the darkness to the current age. But it was not his status that prevented him from killing him, something was amiss altogether.

  There was a loud noise coming from over the cliff. Dust and leaves picked up and blew at them, Sheppard and Dom let go of one another and covered their faces from the bright lights. A Legion aircraft hovered just shy of the overlook’s edge.

  Sheppard and Dom were both confused. The fighter opened fire on the cliff, keeping its general target locked on Dom, the Eri leader. Sheppard ducked behind the tree and used his gauntlet to look over the edges of the tree seeing what was happening.

  Dom had disappeared into the darkness of the woods. The fighter’s headlights illuminated the entire mountainside. Sheppard donned his helmet and leapt onto the craft as Eri opened fire.

  The bullets were deflected by the ship. Several rockets rained down from the valley and bore down on their position. The pilot immediately took evasive maneuvers.

  The craft pulled up almost completely vertically and blasted off into the sky, the force of the take-off nearly separated Sheppard’s shoulder joints as he held on.

  The fighter pierced the thick clouds before leveling itself at a safe cruising speed. As it hovered just above the clouds the pilot took off his helmet. It was Krontos.

  “Sir, I returned to my jet and traced your movements through your echo-locating drones.”

  Smart man.

  “I’m glad you found me, how is the city doing?” Sheppard said.

  “The city itself has been reclaimed, but…” Krontos replied.

  “But?”

  “There have been reports of a bio-chemical weapon—”

  “I was informed.”

  “Then you know of the base across the river?”

  Arlington National Cemetery…

  “I had a hunch.” Sheppard replied. “Do we have any more men coming?”

  “They’re still mounting teams, but we just got reports of several bases being dismantled over the globe…most on this continent. So far no major outbreaks...” Krontos replied.

  “Good, can you alert any of the nearby units of this location?”

  “I tried but nearly the whole city fell into radio silence. They activated several jamming nodes just by the valley. I barely found your trail.”

  Sheppard looked into the cockpit as he got onto his back on the ship’s wings. There was only two courses of action. Wait or act.

  “You know what we have to do.”

  “Always ready sir.”

  “Low approach, past their main camp into the cemetery. If we evade fire good, land somewhere safe. If not meet at the usual spot.”

  Krontos did not think twice at his Commander’s order, he guided the plane downward forcing Sheppard to cling onto the craft with all the grip he could muster. They dove nearly two kilometers. Sheppard was extra careful, even at this height the terrain might cause a serious injury on a fall.

  By the time they broke the clouds their heads-up displays took snapshots and of the terrain. There was a massive installation being constructed just outside of the cemetery. Sheppard’s heart raced, there was no sign of any anti-air batteries just yet but their approach was dangerous.

  “Kront, pull up, do a wide barreled arc around to level us out, then we’ll do one quick pass over the valley to break our speed then jump ship.” He peered inside as the ship leveled, “Get your weapon ready soon as we reach a safe height.”

  Their speed was nearly mach one. The vertical dive alone had given them tremendous speed. As Krontos eased up the ship’s flaps to break speed tremendous gusts of wind swept around the surface, violently battering Sheppard against the hull.

  Sheppard could hear the winds howling outside of his helmet, any normal human might have already succumbed to a red out during the tremendous change in gee forces.

  The first break of dawn appeared over the horizon. Sheppard could see the sun rising. The sky was slowly lighting up, the clouds turned to amber-blue hues. The golden rays of light, pierced the once dark clouds.

  At first it looked like a polluted golden dawn. The fires from the city contributed to the thick wispy clouds that filtered the sky.

  “Commander!” Krontos yelled over the static filled channel.

  Sheppard stood up. They were circling back over the river. The only thing keeping him standing was his magnetic boots. He knocked on the cockpit warning Krontos to get ready to jump.

  It was not completely bright outside but the sun still hovered above the horizon. Projectile fire from the Eri base below resumed on their dangerous approach. Krontos cracked the seal of the cockpit and activated his suit’s magnetic boots as well.

  “Commander…” Kront asked as Sheppard peered straight ahead. “How are we expecting to land?”

  His balance was still off. Sheppard nodded at him and helped him out of the cockpit, they were just seconds shy of the Eri camp. Sheppard’s AI took control of the ship in the meanwhile.

  The ship flew through the small base at nearly two-hundred kilometers an hour on a low-altitude approach. It zoomed by base. In seconds the ship’s outer hull began to crackle with electricity. Sheppard had routed most of the ship’s engine power to the hull’s surface.

  Their feet both hovered above the craft. Sheppard’s toes just barely held on. After a few seconds they were both thrown off by what felt like a magnetic push. Drag now slowed their fall.

  Sheppard let go of Krontos as they both leveled out. Explosions from anti-air batteries interrupted Sheppard’s approach. The small flaps from his armor tore off sending him spiraling toward the ground.

  They both spun in the air like comets, the electrical polarity of their suits reversed one another. Like magnets they were being attracted, sharing the speed loss.

  The wires on the surface of their exposed armor began to burn a fiery blue, white and orange. Inside their armor the heat rose from the enormous friction. Sensitive circuitry began to fail. To observers on the ground they looked like fieireballs arching toward the ground.

  They hit each other like pin balls on their chaotic descent. Sparks ignited on contact and their electrically charged bodies tried to keep them a sizeable distance apart.

  Sheppard saw Krontos hit a tent canopy, slowing his fall before he hit the ground. Sheppard gazed up and saw he was not so lucky. His legs caught the branch of a tree ruining his intended landing roll. He hit the ground back-first in a bone crushing thud.

  H
is eyes felt weak. It was as if he could only make out a blur of the blinding light source that aimed at him. He lay there motionless wondering what was to become of him. A characteristic ringing in his ears told him he probably had a concussion.

  A dim realization, he should have died from the fall. The shock of the landing ripped through his skeleton and muscles like a series of snaps from head to toe. But his brain repeated the mantra.

  “I’m alive.…”

  It was cold and dark around him. Black and blue. A damp, musty copper taste in his mouth, not good. A veracious headache set in. He took shallow breaths like a newborn child, he wanted to cry like one too. Clarity did not follow his new-found consciousness. Sheppard’s mind felt sluggish, and all attempts at coherent thinking made him lapse into a deeper coma.

  His arms would not move. He struggled to move his toes and fingers, a start. They answered slowly.

  I’m paralyzed.

  He could feel his pulse quickening, he was not afraid of such a predicament. He had been like this before, but not behind enemy lines without any help. He pondered the thought of losing breath.

  Panic set in. Was he finally going to die? He wanted to let go but his body said no. He struggled forward as his mind already accepted the possibility.

  What will be my legacy…

  Jumping off of a super-sonic fighter jet into an enemy camp with little or no thought. Not exactly a hero’s prime moment.

  I don’t even remember my own name…

  “Sheppard,” he thought for a moment. “Or was it Shep?”

  Attempting to remember his ancient names puzzled him, since finding Arnael and Solb in his ancient homelands he went by Shep. The light, in whatever archaic dialect he spoke back then.

  I don’t have a real name…

  A new theory came to him, he was probably already dead. His soul was in limbo now, finding its way through the afterlife. The paralysis did not need to stem from a broken spine. Maybe this was already heaven and God was calling his soul out of his body.

  Always trying to find a reason Shep…