Might's Odyssey (The Event Book 2) (6 page)

The seconds ticked by and Might remained motionless. Seconds turned to minutes and he still did not move. Eventually, five minutes later he groaned and sat up slowly. He felt tender all over, as if the slightest touch would make him scream in excruciating pain.

The mechanical voice was speaking. But the words appeared to be coming from miles away. He closed his eyes and took several deep breaths before rising to his feet slowly.

There was a smarting sensation in his throat and lungs. He wondered about that for a bit until he noticed the air around him was greenish. This area was irradiated and he was breathing in the contaminated air. Desperation surged on his insides. He had to get inside the biosphere and fast.

“Scans confirm the subject is human___ no trace of the ether-tome darkness on him__ programming states that all human’s are welcome into b1 twelve alpha__ come in stranger__ and may the peace of the last stand be upon you__”

The large cannons on top of the biosphere slid back into their hiding places, covered almost immediately by the hexagonal plates of shinning armored glass. Light burst out of a slit in the glass; Might blinked as he looked at it. It came so suddenly that he could not help thinking that it had just appeared.

The slit in the glass grew wider until it formed a large door. The light streaming out of the door was so bright that he could not see what lay beyond it.

The pain in his chest became excruciating. So much so, that he began to gasp. Staggering forward, he hurried through the door, shuddering when it slid closed with a loud bang. The light that seemed so bright and overwhelming a few moments ago was gone.

Minutes later, his breathing returned to normal and the pain in his chest to vanished. Only when it disappeared completely was he able to examine the world around him. He blinked looking around in surprise.

A clear blue sky greeted him. His eyes narrowed as he looked at it. There was something hazy and unreal about it. It looked as if the hexagonal panes of glass generated it. There was something vaguely familiar about it.

He pondered on it for a couple of minutes before it came to him. It looked very similar to the blue skies visual construct he had seen in Absalom. The only difference here was this one looked primitive and almost shoddily done. It occurred to him then that this was probably the prototype of the construct.

The scientists of Absalom obviously improved on this version. Frowning slightly he examined the rest of the area around him. The interior of B1 stretched on for miles in every direction. Instead of high-rises like those that he had seen in Absalom, there were white pod like structures covering every square inch of B1.

The pods were probably some sort of housing units. Some were bigger than others were. The largest ones lay about fifty miles ahead. Something in his gut told him that was where he had to go.

He strode forward slowly, his eyes examining the environment. The air in here was rose scented and sweet. Twenty feet away lay what looked like a greenhouse. It covered a four-acre land area and was stuffed with tomatoes, oranges, beans, rice, plantain and a dozen other things all growing wild.

The inside of the greenhouse looked like a thick jungle of food crops. Some of the fruits and crops pressed against the glass panes, threatening to shatter it.

A beep shattered the quiet stillness. The sound came from the greenhouse. Two beeps later, rain began to fall. The surprising thing was, the rain only fell inside the greenhouse.

So the biosphere indeed had its own climate. The computer records on the hover cycle were not wrong. He walked faster, puzzled by the silence around him. Wasn’t there anyone here? Or did it mean that the computer systems and programs managing B1 were running on autopilot? Doing what they had been programmed to do for centuries without stalling or falling apart? That seemed highly unlikely. Nothing, especially technology was meant to function that long.

The high pods were more than one hundred feet away and closing. He lengthened his strides to reach it. Eventually he did, stopping a couple of feet away from the one closest to him.

He examined the part of the pod facing him looking for a door. Reaching towards it, he ran his fingers over the smooth shiny surface trying to see if he could trigger a mechanism that would open the door. Nothing happened.

Walking around the entire structure, he examined it very carefully. There was no door or opening that he could see. He was on the verge of punching a hole into it, when a section of its surface lit up. Startled he took several steps back.

The flickering light on a square portion just above his right shoulder widened slowly until it formed a large door and then it slid open with a whoosh.

A dark passage loomed beyond it. Might took a deep breath and stepped into it. The instant he did, a light lit up above him illuminating a few feet in front. He sighed walking forward slowly. The lights along the passage came on with every step that he took.

Another door loomed at the opposite end. Reaching it, light flickered around the edges for a few seconds and it opened with a whoosh. Beyond this door was a large room, which looked like a command center filled with more than three dozen computers. A thick layer of dust covered these computers. The roof above them was clouded with cobwebs.

There was a door to his right. He started towards it with a deep sigh. It opened before he reached it, revealing what looked like a conference hall. A gasp left his lips as he looked into it.

Seated on the twelve chairs were bone white skeletons. A shiny material around the neck of the one at the head of the table caught his attention. Frowning slightly, he walked forward.

The skeleton had a chain around its neck. Where the pendant should have been was a key. Ripping the key from the neck, he started towards the door on his right.

The sign on the door, which he had not noticed before, caught his eye. It read archive. He slid the key into the lock and tried to turn it. The lock gave a grating screech, sliding open as it did so. Opening the door, a dank and musty scent wafted over him. He wrinkled his nose at the somewhat nauseating stench and stepped into the room.

Dozens of high shelves loomed up around him. These shelves were stuffed with hundreds of files. At the far right hand corner of the room was another square of flickering light. He frowned as he started towards it.

A touch screen pad appeared when he stopped in front of the light. He reached forward and touched it. There was a screech and the word error appeared in bright green letters.

He smashed his fist into it. His hand went through like a knife through butter, wrenching it back; the square door came away revealing a tiny safe like compartment behind.

Inside this safe were about half a dozen files with red stamped over it. Over the red stamps were the words classified, written almost eight times over each file. The files were arranged in a straight line sideways. The files were made of a strange material. A material he could not countenance, and one he had never seen before. It looked like paper but felt stronger, thicker, with a stiffness that was unfamiliar.

“Pick the third one__”

Might looked around startled. Eleyon had not spoken for so long that it was a bit of a shock to hear him speak now. He reached forward and picked the one Eleyon instructed. The words written in front of the file that lay directly beside the third one that Eleyon instructed him to pick up caught his eye. It read__

The EVONSO VIRUS – The beginning of the ether-tome’s biological incursion, point of origin – Western Africa.

It took every ounce of self-control he possessed not to lift the fourth file and start going through it. Eleyon had said the third; something on his insides told him that it was best he obeyed.

Making his way back to the conference room he saw earlier, he swept one of the skeletons off the chair it sat on and took its place. Placing the file on the dust covered table, he opened it and started to read the four-page report stapled to the front of the file.

Minutes, transcripts and reports taken – Four months residence in B1 Twelve Alpha

President Howard died six months ago. The ether-tome hit the eastern seaboard and quickly spread over half of the country decimating everything in its path. The white house and Norad were one of the first vital structures to get hit.

A quarter of our military installations quickly followed. Vice – President Kyle Stanton survived because he was en-route when the attack came. He was sworn in the instant it was confirmed Howard had perished.

The presidential plane traveled the skies for almost a week and a half without landing, kept in the air by half a dozen refueling jets and escorted by two dozen F-18s. Holdstatt then suggested that the plane should land in one of the four dozen bases still intact but should not stay on the ground longer than forty-eight hours. Vice- President Kyle traveled the globe in this way for almost a month and a half until word was received then that B1 Twelve Alpha had come online.

The world’s military might it was ascertained had been reduced to forty percent of its full strength in less than two months. We called an emergency meeting, beamed and connected by the most advanced and secret communication apparatus developed by the Aziomle franchise; they call it the axiom foundation core.

The world leaders conferred and decided to pool their remaining resources together to fight the ether-tome’s frightening spread. Most like Vice-President Kyle were kept mobile moving from place to place to avoid destruction by the ether-tome’s forces.

Our government revealed to the others the existence of B1 twelve alpha and the coordinates were sent to them so they could congregate here. The military continued counter strikes against the ether-tome. General Holdstatt led and supervised these strikes.

When regular weapons failed, Kyle conferred with his military chiefs on the use of WMDs. While we debated, Russia launched, firing over sixty warheads. The fallout took out almost all of Southeast Asia.

The other countries quickly followed suit. Two billion people around the globe perished instantly. Another emergency meeting was called. There it was revealed that the strikes had proved ineffective. The remaining world leaders were encouraged to quickly find their way to B1 twelve alpha.

Most arrived within the next four weeks. General Holdstatt called in to say that another wave of the ether-tome’s forces were on their way to the location of B1. According to him, they had somehow gotten wind of our secret communications. He requested permission from Vice President Kyle to use WMDs to halt this movement. Permission was given and three dozen strikes were immediately carried out.

It was ineffective. The viability of the earth’s ecosystem was now down to thirty percent. It was glaringly apparent that humanity was facing extinction. Top brass of Aziomle called in to say B1 was humanity’s last chance for survival.

President Kyle demanded to know what B1 could do to halt the incursion of the ether-tome when WMD’s had failed. After much pressure, Aziomle released some highly secret documentation unrevealed until now. This tabled the history of B1 from test phase to actually completion.

Satisfied, world leaders (those that still lived), almost five million soldiers and close to ten million civilians moved into B1. Holdstatt and the remaining forces remained outside to launch a high secret final assault, giving the rest of us time to enter B1 and seal ourselves in.

Holdstatt’s final assault failed miserably. The ether-tome appeared to be even stronger and was dispatching its forces worldwide to eradicate the little pockets of human survival scattered across the globe, while amassing a great force to destroy B1.

Emergency meetings were once again called. Hope at this point was all but lost. All our hope now rested upon B1 being able to withstand the ether-tome’s final assault.  But the worst was yet to come.

People within the Biosphere started to fall ill and die. Thorough investigation by medical personnel revealed it was a more deadly strain of the EVONSO virus, which ravaged western Africa before Gerard Summers breached the darkness from the ether.

More research into it showed that everyone in B1 had a mutated gene, which would ultimately lead to the onset of the virus. Further investigation showed that the gene’s life span coincided with the darkness’s explosion from the ether.

We realized that the ether-tome’s plan was flawless. Even if humanity could survive its physical attacks, it would not survive the biological one. To prevent mass hysteria, this information was kept secret.

A quarter of the population of B1 has already perished. Their bodies have been recycled to be used for biological fuel. Aziomle has another ace up its sleeve, which no one else knows about. It is the existence of something called DARWIN. The file on this top-secret weapon is attached beneath.

Might stopped reading, his heart so sad and heavy that he felt like crying. He could not bear to continue. He was reading about the final hours of humanity and it was heartbreaking.

“
You do not have much time__”
Eleyon’s voice was stronger and more powerful than it had been before.

He knew what that meant of course. Eleyon was urging him to make haste. A deep sigh burst from his lips at that. He was unwilling to continue reading these depressing notes, but there was nothing else for it. That was if he wanted to escape from Nephilim. Sighing again, he opened the thick file and started to read.

Project Darwin

We have long suspected that our weapons of defense would be inadequate to deal with future threats. WMD’s, missile systems, drones and whatever else we had in our arsenal would eventually fail to adequately protect us from what might come.

As a result, we at Aziomle deemed it necessary to develop a new kind of weapon. The first of its kind, far superior to anything the world had ever seen or developed before. We decided to call it Darwin.

What is Darwin?

In the simplest terms, it is a satellite/missile/robotic defense system. A self aware, highly intelligent super weapon; its consciousness existing in cyber space to prevent it from being hacked or taken over by virus or a rival country.

The AI in it is so sophisticated that it can hook up, control all other satellites, weapons and defense systems present in its immediate environment, and use it against the entity it deems is its enemy.

The deflective beams it is wired with was developed and fashioned after the earth’s ozone layer, which deflects most of the deadly ultra violet radiation coming from the sun back into space.

Darwin grows more powerful every time it is attacked. It feeds on the fire power of its enemy, absorbs it, and returns the excess back with twice as much power.

Darwin we believe is powerful enough to repel the power of gods or other sentient beings roaming in the vast emptiness of space. Development of Darwin started in the early twenty first century with financial backing coming from the government.

The plug was pulled almost twenty years later for two reasons. One was the high cost of the project. It drove the US defense budget up from about 612 billion to almost 1.5 trillion dollars annually. Frightened by the crippling cost of the Darwin project, US law makers sequestered the budget and voted to have the project closed.

The second reason was the leaders at that time were fearful of unleashing a weapon, which no one would be able to fully control; this was even after repeated reassurances that Darwin’s protocol was simply to preserve human life. The AI in Darwin operated on the premise of human preservation and protection. Should it deviate from these protocols by even the slightest margin, it would automatically shut down.

To ensure that Darwin remained buried and inactive, the government sealed it in a secret bunker under tight security. And the keycards needed to activate it were scattered to the four winds, taken to unspecified locations across the globe and beyond it.

Unknown to the government, Aziomle got wind of what they planned to do. Using our own private funding sourced from different slush funds we quickly completed Darwin. Unfortunately, the keycards were taken from us before we could activate it.

It is our belief that if Darwin had been active, the war with the ether-tome might have had a different outcome. Activating Darwin is our best hope of destroying the ether-tome and saving our world from total annihilation.____

The information in the file continued for fifty more pages, describing the specifications of Darwin, its operations, weapons and a dozen other complicated mathematics and calculus that made no sense to Might.

However, of all the information given, it said nothing about the location of Darwin. Snorting in disgust, Might closed the file. Why did Eleyon want him to read about Darwin? It made no sense. He had barely finished thinking this when Eleyon spoke.

“Search the biosphere for weapons, a hazmat suit, food, transport and a map. You have to find Darwin__”

Might’s eyes widened in shock. “Find Darwin? Why do I need to find Darwin?”

“Because only Darwin has the power to take you out of Nephilim, find the keycards and you find Darwin__”

Eleyon became silent. He did not speak again. Might sighed and stood up, heading for the entrance to do what Eleyon asked.