Chapter 4: A Wolf Among Sheep
He fiddled with the coin between his fingers. His contact lifted it from the former commander of the PMC, Jason Argo. They needed an object that was permeated with powerful psionic energies, and the coin that was procured would do the trick. He met his contact two days ago. Some professor. He was supposed to meet him here at the artefact vault located by the eastern tower. He was ready. Mankind did not need these aliens. If he had to do this so mankind could stand on its own again, then so be it. He felt a tap on his shoulder and whipped around, staring into a bleak, bespectacled face.
“The Sons of Adam are pleased. When you depart this world, you have my word, your family will be taken care of.” David said his face wildly contorted the smile on his face maniacal. His eyes twitched and his breath smelled like death.
“I am not doing this for the Sons. I am doing this for mankind. So, what is so important about this tower?” He asked.
“I can’t tell you. If you are caught and interrogated all our plans will be undone. Just trust that this target is important somehow and your life made a difference.” David finished.
“Then why the coin?”
“It has enough power for your…spark, your spirit, to trigger a strong enough explosion to devastate this entire area. If conventional bombs are used, you will be detected long before you get to the target area. Keep the coin in your pocket. I will do the rest.” He finished.
He touched the man on the chest and he visibly flinched.
“It burns.” He moaned.
“It will only get worse now. Get to the target area and just wait there. It will be over soon enough.” David finished and simply walked off.
The doomed man stoically straightened up and walked toward the tower. He stood in one of the alleyways and clutched at his chest. It felt like he was on fire. He stepped out from the shadows. Walking over to the middle of the intersection he stood there, barely able to keep himself upright. The pain was getting unbearable and he looked at his hand. The veins beneath the skin started to take on an amber glow, mirroring the fire that lay beneath. He gasped and sank to his knees, his chest was on fire now. He couldn’t breathe.
“Citizen, are you well?” An Athenian woman asked him. He just shook his head in the negative.
“Look at me.” She asked him. He looked up and she took a step back.
His eyes seemed like a swirling maelstrom of molten steel, the veins in his face and neck were pulsing with amber fire.
“Run!” He gasped. And that is when oblivion took him. Him and the entire intersection as it became engulfed in flames.
---
“What happened David?” Bracus asked as they stepped off the bio transfer pad.
“You guys better arm yourselves. The Sons of Adam have landed.” David replied. Diane kept looking in the direction of the Eastern tower.
“Something wrong Diane? David asked her, a slight knowing smile.
Diane’s brow furrowed into a warning look, effectively silencing him. A scout craft sped overhead towards the beach where the Sons army has landed using archaic landing craft liberated from the old United States military from the forties. It then turned back on its original flight path, back to Aegis Prime.
“Didn’t radar pick them up?” Hanson yelled over the chaos.
“Someone was sleeping on the job.” Bracus said shooting Jason a knowing look while ramming a clip into his rifle.
“Grab your junk and let’s go!” Death yelled.
---
It was like Omaha beach…only the Coalition held the high ground and the poorly armed Sons of Adam charged towards their doom. Some of them were armed with stolen Athenai rifles and shoulder-mounted cannons, and to their credit, destroyed a few entrenched positions, forming a beachhead. They held their advantage for a while until the team joined the fray. Jason was like psyonic artillery, obliterating them from afar.
Death and Bracus were like perfectly synchronized fighting machines, dancing the dance of carnage, choosing the hardest clusters. They waded in and laid waste to all that chose to stand their ground against them. Hanson picked a cliff overlooking the beach, a massively barreled rifle and picked the rebels off one at a time. But something was wrong. For all their ineptness, the tide seemed to be turning against the Coalition as craft after craft kept on landing and their numbers seemed to swell. Jason’s energies were waning and switched over to his rifle. God their numbers are endless. The more they killed, the more kept on coming. Jason touched his earpiece.
“D’Nak! Where are the damn planes? Our position is about to be overrun!” Jason roared over the vox.
“Hold fast Jason. Our leaders do not warrant the use of our attack craft just yet. Detection shows their numbers are decreasing rapidly.” D’Nak replied.
“Decreasing? Are you not seeing what we are seeing? They just keep on coming!” Death yelled, obviously listening in.
Their pleas were met with stony silence as they kept on fighting. Coalition troops were slowly being pushed back, as Son’s sheer numbers overwhelmed them. Jason threw his gun onto the sand, out of ammunition.
“Come on D’Nak! We’re out here throwing rocks at them now!” Jason yelled as he rammed his knife into the throat of a Son’s trooper.
“Is the enemy unarmed?” D’Nak smoothly asked.
“No, but…”
“Then you are not unarmed.” D’Nak replied, killing the channel.
“Son of a…!” Hanson swore as he switched over to his sidearms ducking behind a rock as bullets and energy projectiles slammed into it.
“Are there any Athenai soldiers fielded?” Bracus calmly asked as he rammed a boot into a face of a machete-armed attacker. Jason looked around and could not see any Athenai soldiers.
“None! Only humans out here!” He reported back to Bracus.
The soldier next to Hanson burst into a mist of blood and bone. Jason felt it and turned on his heel. It looked like a man, but was held together by various machinery and cybernetics. He even walked funny. Every time it raised his hand, another trooper exploded like a watermelon.
“They are fielding psyons!” Jason yelled over the vox.
Bracus swore under his belaboured breath.
“How many?” He asked as he picked up a rusty old earth rifle and checked its ammo.
“Only one that I can see!” Jason yelled back.
“Can you handle it?” Hanson asked as he kept on putting round after round into the faceless mass of Sons advancing on his position.
“I think so! Give me a minute…and lots of covering fire!” Jason requested, throwing his spent rifle into the dirt.
Bracus commanded the soldiers close to him to follow Jason and keep him clear of enemy fire as he attempted to take on this abomination. Jason slowly advanced on it, trying to concentrate his power into a finishing blow. The abomination seemed to sense it and turned to engage Jason, ignoring the fire coming from Coalition troopers. That was until a grenade went off at its feet. Jason was also shocked at this, but only upon seeing that the grenade did nothing but scald the skin. It turned in the direction of the group of soldiers and raised its arm again. But this time, the entire group went up in a massive explosion.
The creature seemed somewhat affected by using so much energy. Jason had a plan now. He picked up, what looked like an old revolver and fired a single bullet at its head. He was trying to get its attention. Now the creature was attacking Jason in earnest now, trying to crush him with his huge mechanical arms, but every time, Jason managed to duck out of its reach.
The team saw the struggle between Jason and this tortured thing and moved to help, but he waved them back. Jason waited for his opening. The creature, enraged at not getting at Jason let out a monstrous howl that shook the earth. More accurately, it was not the howl, but more like the energies building up inside its misshapen form. Jason smiled. He grabbed a grenade off his belt and pulled the pin. He had four seconds now. Ducking under its tree trunk-like arm he leapt at the abomination and in the next two seconds poured every ounce of energy left in his body into the grenade and rammed it into its face.
---
“Wake up! WAKE…UP!” Hanson yelled, slapping Jason across the face. He woke up with a start, yelling. Bracus quickly held him fast, forcing him down on the sand.
“Did we win?” He asked, confused at the Athenai soldiers marching groups of Sons rebels away from the beach.
“Well, you did. We were getting the crap kicked out of us until their gunships arrived, after you were blown clear from that…thing.” Death grumbled, giving them some pretty hateful glares. Bracus held his finger to his earpiece and a deep frown appeared on his forehead.
“Something wrong?” Hanson asked.
“We have trouble. Diane has just been arrested.” Was all he said looking towards Aegis Prime.
---
It was the strangest feeling. The feeling of warmth and of safety, floating in this warm liquid, without any cares or worries. Then something cold and hard yanked him from his warm little womb, yelling and screaming at him in words he did not know. Even hitting him. There was a woman too, screaming at the people that took him from his warm home. She was crying, screaming at him. Remus. The word held no meaning for him, except for the cold, the pain and the obvious mistreatment.
“Let go of me!” He yelled at the people cuffing his hands behind his back.
They looked as confused at his words as it was as alien as theirs were to him. A man struck the woman down as she reached out for him. He reached out to her, but felt a sharp pain in the back of his skull and slumbered once more.
---
He awoke, groaning, rubbing the back of his head. His eyes could not focus in this light. He heard a voice in the dark. It was a woman’s voice. He tried focusing again and noticed he was inside a small white room, a woman sitting across from him on another bed. She spoke again. She used the same word. Remus.
“I do not know your words my lady.” He told her. Her eyes widened and spoke one word. Trust.
“Hey! I understood that! Do you know my words?” He excitedly rambled, but she gestured for him to slow down. He tried to keep his excitement in check and waited for her to continue. She obviously tried to find the right words.
“My name, Diane. Your name, Remus.” Diane greeted him in extremely broken Latin. But the meaning was clear and he smiled.
“I fear I do not know this Remus you speak of.” He started slowly so she could hear every word he said.
“This…important. You know me?” Diane asked, could not remember the word for recognize.
He slowly shook his head in the negative. She looked sad at this fact. Was he supposed to know this woman? He did not even know his own name until a minute ago. She stood up and upon closer inspection of her face, he noticed her upper lip was split.
“We not have…time. You take words.” She said to him, pointing to her head. She knew the Martian humans could extract languages and other memories from other beings. Remus told her so when she was host to his spirit. He still looked confused. She took his hand and held it to her chest. He tried to take his hand away, but this seemed important to her somehow. If only he could understand.
And in that moment, Diane flowed into his mind, like a tidal wave of information and emotion bombarding his very being. The language she spoke was simple and he could now understand her as the memories of this other “him” played out like film on a broken reel. Parts he could understand from context and emotions felt, and yet a lot of this was unknown to him.
He stood upon a world that was not this one, and breathed air that smelled and tasted like fine dust. He saw the annihilation of an entire race by beings wearing black, slick armour, wielding terrible weapons and felt the loss of the family he never knew. But everywhere this woman stood in his mind all he felt was love for him. It was all confusing and wonderful and ever so terrifying. He broke free from her mind and fell to his knees, gasping for air. Diane slowly lifted his face.
“Do you understand me now?” She asked him in English. Still, out of breath he smiled and nodded.
“Do you trust me?” She asked Remus. He took a moment and saw nothing but sincerity on her face.
“Yes I do my lady.” He replied.
“Good. People will come to take you away and ask you a lot of questions. The only way you will survive now is to pretend you have all your memories. You are Remus of the house of Roma and you are from Mars. You had a brother, Romulus. The Creators destroyed your people and you fled here. I am sure if you give them this they will consider you sentient enough and keep you alive.” She quickly finished.
“I will tell them nothing else.” He said anxiously, trying to absorb and remember the things needed to stay alive. These names and places meant nothing to him.
“Also only speak in your language. Here it is called Latin. They will send for translators and try to talk to you. Only give them this and if things get dangerous, demand to speak with Bracus. He can help you.” She finished.
As if on cue, footsteps sounded down the hallway.
“Stay alive Remus, I will find you again.” She said kissing him quickly and ran back to her bed, pretending to stare at her feet. The door opened and D’Nak came in, accompanied by three other Athenai soldiers. He stood in front of her, shaking his head.
“You disappoint me Diane Summers. You had so much promise. A pity you squandered it all on this…copy.” D’Nak said with all the disdain he could muster. Diane slowly looked up at him, her eyes aflame with hate. He ignored it, however, pulling up a chair and sat down across from her. The other three had rifles trained on Remus.
“Has it spoken to you yet?” D’Nak asked her.
“He speaks a language I do not recognize.” She replied carefully.
Remus’s survival depended a lot on what she told them as well. D’Nak seemed surprised at that.
“A copy that remembers its own language? From where does it hail?” He asked
“Ask him yourself.” She shot back at him.
D’Nak looked over his shoulder at Remus and saw Intelligence behind those ice-blue eyes.
“Oh we will my dear. At this point you understand what is to happen with you now do you not?” Her response was to spit at his feet. All he did was smile and stood up.
“Bring him.” D’Nak commanded. They gruffly cuffed him and led him from the room.