The Cross of Mithras Vol. 1: EOD Operation Welcome to Hell (33 page)

  One week before General Ydxx’od’omaa left his time line to permanently change the past; a incident occurred in Tyknuna that he was aware of. The Tylkuoply hive laid siege to a government laboratory within the city. At one point, for some unknown reason, the Tylkuoply ground forces stop their siege and started looking for something in the city. Then he received intelligence that the Imperial Forces were doing everything that they could to protect an airplane that was leaving for a secret location in SAW. The plane left and was out of danger when Ydxx’od’omaa went back into time. When he got back to the new alternate time line, he learned that the incident still occurred with only one major difference - the plane was destroyed after lift off. He then learned that on board that airplane were scientists, their data, samples and equipment on a cure of the Tylkuoply hive. That if he didn’t went back into time and change the time line... the Apollinarians would have won the war anyway. Not only that, but it also meant that there would have been no Waldaxx Union. And thus... slavery on our home world would have die out.

  To say that he was shocked would be an understatement. The Waldaxx Union will become the new superpower. With the Hau’rino Empire they lost their entire Imperial family, most of their government, and top military leaders. There was nothing to challenge the Waldaxx Union rise to world domination. Because of the political instability within both the Hau’rino Empire and the Republic of Kase’hyn’nkk, the Waldaxx Union was able to place a pro-slavery government in power. The people of both countries were so fed up with war they did nothing against the move.

  General Ydxx’od’omaa, who was a General for thirty years at the time, left the time line with the crew of RMX. Some of the people from both Kase’hyn’nkk and Hau’rino joined him bringing the total crew up to 922 people. They came with him because, after he picks up Vaistll, he was going to head into the future.”

  “Why did he want to go into the future?”

  “Because of Causality of Predetermination.”

  “How’s that?”

  “Was it the destiny of the Apollinarians to become extinct? Did he do the right thing? But that is what he said. What everybody on board RMX gathered was, that the real reason was perhaps... one day, the Apollinarian race will move away from its slave holding genes. And everybody wanted to be a part of that time period.”

  “So why not change the past instead?”

  “Because it was impossible due to the subtleness of his tactics.”

  “And what type of tactics was it then?”

  “Words of wisdom. When we got back to when Vaistll was at Natas Ovast palace, right before she disappeared from history, we detected a disturbance in the time line. We thought that it might be more Time Enforcement Officers but it wasn’t. Some of our people were already on the ground looking for her. After they narrowed it down to where she was, we then realized that is the same location to where the time traveler was. After several minutes, we detected that the time traveler left and headed into the future. We then locked onto his ship so as not to lose it in the time line. Our people on the ground then found a dead guard where the time traveler was. They could tell that the guard was killed by a sword, and they found pieces of a broken chain by his body. They then went and asked some of the warriors outside the palace who killed that guard. They then asked to be taken to his body. When our people showed them the body they said that it must have been Vaistll. With that we promptly left the time line to hurry up and catch up to her.”

  “Do you know what happen to Tsk’llk and Llyysta by any chance?” Vaistll asked being concerned for the fate her friends.

  “Yeah... Natas Ovast killed them.”

  “What!? How!?”

  “I don’t know actually what happen, but one of the warriors who seen it said that he saw Tsk’llk dive upon Llyysta to save her from something. He then noticed that somebody threw a heavy spear and it killed them. When he looked to see who threw it... he noticed that it was Natas Ovast.”

  “I knew it! Those Dumbasses! God, how could they be so stupid!?”

  “So what happened next?” Taylor asked, just trying to hurry things along.

  “The time traveler’s ship traveled 6,139 years beyond the point where went back into time to get Vaistll. We know that because when we arrived at the destination the people there told us.”

  “Did they say anything about me?” Vaistll asked still being shocked by the total number of years that passed by.

  “Yes. First you have to understand that they were resistance fighters. When they saw your clothing, and your scars, they thought that you might have been an escaped political dissident.”

  “You say that they were resistance fighters, who were they rebelling against?”

  “Look, when we told them who we were, and showed them the proof, they became more cooperative with us. They mentioned the part of the past after we left some six thousand years prior. They said that the Waldaxx Union not only united our planet, but also made slavery legal. With the constant suspicion that the Hun’narlians were the ones who started the Tylkuoply war, the Wol’ga’con Empire, what our united home world was called, went to war with them. The Wol’ga’con Empire won the war through attrition. Three-out-four people were murder for, not only for control purposes, but also out of revenge. The Wol’ga’con Imperial Forces destroyed the library which basically erased any proof of guilt, or innocence, of the Hun’narlians. They then drove half the remaining people into exile. Once again for control purposes. And then enslaved the remaining half. After that... they made the enslavement of any Wol’ga’con illegal.

  When the Waldaxx Union brought slavery to Hau’rino and to Kase’hyn’nkk, 98 % of the people was opposed to it. But they couldn’t do anything about it. So they formed an underground movement. With the formation of the Wol’ga’con Empire it gave them far more flexibility to operate on a global scale. They operated through infiltration - getting into government both local and national, military. You name it they got into it, if they thought that it would help. With the war with the Hun’narlians they helped as many people as they could to escape. Some of them left with the refugees. To make a long story short... repeat their relations with the Hun’narlians all over.”

  “Did any of the refugees keep any evidence to prove, or disprove the guilt of the Hun’narlians?”

  “What do you think sis? There was some evidence. And it all said that it was the fault of those who wanted a business deal when neither government would approve of it.”

  “So what happen next? How long did you stay?”

  “The longer we stayed the greater the time gap. Normally we were anywhere between 300 to 350 years behind you. And each time we stop at some place... the number of our crew shrunk.”

  “How come?”

  “Two percent of the crew got tired of traveling. So they would want to stay at whatever place we were at, at the time. Most of the time we either couldn’t keep them or they wanted to stay and help out the resistance. Before we left the first time line we stop at, 83 people choose to stay to help out with the resistance.”

  “What do you mean, ‘couldn’t keep them’?”

  “Hey... the ship that you were traveling upon... was advanced enough to were it needed very little repair.  We deduced that from each time that you stop at some location - from the sensor logs that is. We were not so lucky. More often than not we had to use RMX as spare parts. If anything broke down and we can’t replace it we had to get rid of it. If something broke down, and there was still something that we could use off of it, we had to use it. We became techno-scavengers. Everything on RMX was breaking down.”

  “What about the biohazard cryo chamber that held Ydxx’od’omaa’s wife?” With that Ikknustll started laugh.

  “What? What so funny?”

  “Well... to put it short... we have a lot of... interesting little adventures with that damn demon whore.”

  Both Okuoyk and Ryyuoxx laughed a little with Okuoyk saying, “I’ll say.”

  “So... what type of places did you guys stop at?”

  “Nothing but starbases. After we left the first starbase, with those resistance fighters, the next eight were heavily damaged. Roughly eighty percent of the starbases were like that. They must have seen battle at some point. The resistance fighters said that the Wol’ga’con Empire could never hold one of those starbases for more than a century. Typically they held them between 90 to 130 years.

  We called those eight dead starbases, ‘the long run to hell.’ Mainly, because when we reach the ninth starbase it was under attack by the Imperial Forces. RMX took several shots and we lost five people. Thank the Gods the resistance fighters knew who we were. They repaired our ship and gave us the supplies that we needed. Before we left fifteen percent of our crew decided to stay behind and help with the resistance.

  When we arrived at the next starbase, 412 years after you did, that was the first and only time that we learned that we were in another galaxy. The resistance fighters have been in control of that sector for 344 years. Although they lived in peace and harmony with their neighbors, they were constantly afraid of being invaded by the Wol’ga’con Imperial Forces. Despite that, 235 of our crew members decided to stay behind since our ship could no longer support them.”

  “Why didn’t they give you a ship?”

  ‘Because RMX was a time traveling ship with a time shield, and that couldn’t be integrated into any other type of a ship. It was the only thing on that ship that needed very little maintenance and/or repair. Only the hull faired better. Up to that point fifty-five people lost their lives, either due to mechanical problems such as life support, or trying to fix the damn ship. By the time we entered into this galaxy, 129 people lost their lives under similar circumstances.”

  “I’m sorry to hear all of that.”

  “Yeah... well... now you can see why the remaining crew wanted to get off that damn ship. It was a death trap. When we got to this galaxy... and got that EOD ship... we were glad to see RMX burn up in that atmosphere. It took a huge weight off of our chest. Good riddance to bad rubbish.”

  “So... you guys and Ydxx’od’omaa were all that were left when you got to this galaxy?”

  “No. There were three more of us.”

  “So happen to them?”

  “What do you think? They died trying to fix that goddamn death trap.”

  “What were the circumstances surrounding how you got that EOD ship?”

  “We couldn’t take it anymore. We wanted off that ship. Only Ydxx’od’omaa wanted to continue on. Then we lost those three crew members. Some promise... right? He made a promise to you... and he made a promise to the crew. He failed in the latter. We he failed in the former?

  By the time RMX came to this galaxy we were confronted by something out of the ordinary. No starbases. No resistance fighters. No evidence of Wol’ga’con Imperial Forces. Nothing. We knew that the ship that you were on stop there. We knew that we were between 325 to 345 years behind you. We knew all of that because it’s like following a skipping stone. You have no idea of where it’s going to stop at. So you must follow it. If you don’t... you will lose it forever. Wherever it stops at... you have to stop there. If you don’t you will lose it.

  What are sensors picked up was the remains of an epic battle. There were ships that resemble that EOD ship. Those that resembles the ship that we are upon. And a planet whose surface was destroyed by a massively high energy weapon. I could tell that the planet once had an atmosphere. On the side of the planet were the weapon was used, the crust was molten at the epicenter. The epicenter was fifteen to twenty miles across but was once twice as large. The surface of the planet on that side was highly radioactive. I could tell that, on that side of the planet, radiated from the epicenter were cracks in the crust allowing lava to once come through them. The far side of the planet was burned to a crisp. There was nothing in orbit that could account for what could have fired such a weapon. Nor was there any evidence to suggest such a weapon existed on the planet.

  While we were doing a sensor sweep of the area, we found an EOD ship were the life support was still in operation. But only a small section of the ship was using it. The ship was so badly damaged that it would have been impossible for the life support to still be in operation, unless somebody was still alive. Okuoyk and Ryyuoxx then left to go check it out.”

  “What did the two of you discover on that ship?”

  Okuoyk stood up and came forward, and said. “We were in our space suits when we got to it. There was no gravity on board. No lights. Bodies everywhere. Some type of gray dust was floating around. Our sensors told us that it was dead nanoprobes.”

  “Did you collect any of it?”

  “Yeah... got ‘em right here.” Ikknustll said as he handed a small container to Torrio. Torrio would later learn that whoever created them, were the same people who created Vaistll’s Nano-Cloaking Device.

  “Please continue Okuoyk.”

  “When we got to the location where the life support was still working, we found that the doors were sealed shut from the inside. After we found a way to get inside without letting the air out. We found out that three people did in fact live. All three were in a cryo chamber. Two were already dead. The other one was dying. When we open the door to let him out, he recognized us as Wol’ga’con. He then tried to kill us. Because of his weaken condition he was only making it worse. Trying not to kill him I knocked him down. Ryyuoxx then held him while I did a mind meld to learn his language. When I was done I tried to explain to him that we mean him no harm but he didn’t believe me. In the end, he was such a problem for us that I had to kill him.