History Lesson
Maya sprung up out of her chair, looking at them all in baffled wonder. "By God it is true, the prophet was right!"
"The prophet?" Sarge asked.
Calming herself down Maya answered. "Over two thousand years ago a prophet appeared among us, he came to both wizards and muggles, and he was said to have possessed powers that no one could have fathomed at the time. He united muggles and wizards, and taught humanity many great things, he was said to have been like a god. Many took his teachings as a word of god, and in fact a religion did spring up from his teachings and ways, people actually prayed to him. Not long before he died he said that Exodus would come forth, that eight great men would come on that day, that they would be greater then him in power, and that they would unlock the door to another world. Once he died the religion really took off and gained momentum, even after the scientific enlightenment people still believed, and they pray to this very day, perhaps even more so because of the times we live in. There are people that pray to you, that would give their lives for yours…to many you are gods!"
"We are not gods. We are simply fully human…" Sarge was about to get into the whole history of the human species but thought better of it at the moment. "This prophet, did he have a name? Did he leave anything for us?"
"Why yes, His name is Talos Thramasurius and he left for you a tablet which no one has been able to open, or even destroy. If only you knew how much blood has been spilled for the possession of that artifact, it is mind boggling the amount of wars it has caused, but we have it with us at Haven Four for the time being at least."
"And how did all this come about?" Sarge swept his hand, indicating the situation.
"I apologize that I'm not great at my history, so I can only give you a rough background." She apologized.
"That is okay, tell us what you know."
"So after Talos died muggles and wizards lived together, there were wars, conflicts and so forth. About a hundred years ago or so a group of scientists and archeologists began trying to uncover who Talos really was, but as was later revealed their real agenda was power, you see Talso was powerful, and they wanted that. What they found was that Talos had used modern technology that is even beyond us today, and magic in unison, completely together, a fact that was unheard of and at the time absurd to even consider. A human could not posses both traits of a muggle or human, some muggles could develop magical powers and vice versa, but never both in one person. For a while this group lay low, but as we now know they made great advances in biological engineering…" Maya paused for a second. "What happened next I do not know precisely, I don't think anyone knows except Them. This group known as the Independence fused magic and biotechnology together, they created viruses and mutations, abominations, creatures that should not exist, daemons that were neither machine, nor creature, but a chaotic fusion of both. Whether part of it was accident or all of it was done on purpose we cannot say, the horrors of it point it to being an accident, yet the power they gained, however horrendous it is, points to all of the experiments as being intentional. Anyway, they began taking over governments by force, starting wars, killing all those who did not join them, they were never very subtle about it, they sent their creatures out into the public to terrorize and wreak havoc upon civilization. What controls them none know, but we are almost positive it isn't human, perhaps a form of some sort of virus, or some sort of machine, mutation perhaps, we just don't know, maybe it really is a daemon. What ever it is it began killing off humanity, a global war ensued, and those that joined them willingly were never seen again, or perhaps they were just unrecognizable."
"An organization delves into who Talos is and then goes onto preparations for world domination…" Maya interrupted Sarge.
"Actually…Their motto was `Galactic domination. A new human race to rule the Galaxy.'"
"…Interesting. So they wish to take over the galaxy and delve into genetics, creating what they call the new supreme human race, start a war and kill off anything that stands against them, is that the gist of it?" Sarge tapped into her mind a bit, reading the emotions and what she was trying to get across.
"Yes pretty much, we have historians that will know more, for the last fifty years we have been in a post apocalyptic war. Chemical weapons were used, viruses, mutation weapons, anything and everything you can imagine. The Independence, they caused all this, the sky, the creatures, everything, they're responsible for it."
"There was an explosion on the outskirts of this city yes?" Sarge asked.
"Yes, there was. The Independence had set up some sort of base, heavily guarded. It was destroyed little more then a day ago by some giant explosion. We have no idea what it contained or what they were trying to do, or how it was destroyed."
Exodus let out a sigh of relief. "Rest assured we destroyed it, now about the human population on this planet. How many are still alive?"
She looked at them with an unceasing wonder. "Why millions! There are still many of us left that resist. There are five Havens, fortifications that we have constructed around mountains; I must say their defenses are nearly impenetrable. We have our own water supply, power, food, everything…just not much of anything else. The Independence launched an attack on this city a few weeks ago, we had been largely untouched up to that point, and they used a new chemical weapon that made the air toxic and un-breathable. But we're dealing with it, as we deal with each new thing they throw at us."
"This city had inhabitants when the attack was launched?"
"Yes it did, there were many evacuating to Haven Four when they attacked, they slaughtered so many…the wretches…the convoys were barely protected…"
"So you have everything needed to survive, just nothing to strike them back with correct?"
Maya nodded sadly. "But we have hope, hope that Exodus will come. Many believe in the prophet now more then ever, the believers think of them as gods, the unbelievers…well, we don't think of them as gods but damn it we think you're pretty damn close to it. Either way it gives people hope to continue on, the children are told tales, movies and books are written and made, there have been all sorts of incarnations about you, people trying to imagine what you are, what you will do." She stopped. "What will you do?"
Sarge smiled grimly, millions of people still alive, looking up to them as their saviors, they were their only hope, and their true mission…was to kill everything. The others clued in to his train of thought, shifting their weight uneasily.
"Give it some time Sarge, we'll decide." Destroyer said solemnly.
"I can't. I won't do it. Even if we get there…millions of people, millions of people who have been led to believe that we are their saviors, that we are to help them, and what does our mission end up being? Destroy the planet…I can't let that happen. Scrap our old mission, I'm making a new one. Objections?"
There were no objections, only determined grins all around.
"The way I see it, our ancestors did this sort of thing once, and they played with more then two planets. I say we can handle this no problem." Said a determined Snipe.
"Huh?" Maya looked at them confused. "What's going on?"
"Nothing, we're going to do exactly what you believe we are going to do." Sarge answered her. "Tell me, why were you here?"
"Oh that. Well there was a major power surge, we redirected the lines to go to this station and I went to check it out. They don't let me go on major missions, because I'm a woman and because my father is who he is, no one treats me seriously, they think of me as a Barbie doll because I have a nice chest and pretty smile." She said the last part in disgust.
"You went off by yourself without telling anyone." Sarge corrected her.
"How did you?" She reminded herself of whom she was talking to. "Yes that's right."
Sarge smiled. "Its okay, I understand your motives rather well. Could you take us to Haven Four?"
"Yes certainly, I should actually really be getting back now before they go all crazy and send out an army to search for me." She laughed. "But you still haven't told me, where are you from? Who are you really, and what's going on? You seem to know a lot about the prophet Talos, did you ever meet him?"
Sarge held his hand up to stop her waterfall of questions. "Your questions will be answered in time, for now rest assured that we are here to help."
Were Sarge anyone else then the legendary Exodus she would have continued with the questions, but with him it was better not to refuse. "So what will you do now?"
"Now you will lead us to Haven Four." He told her.
"Okay, but I came here on a bike, and frankly I can't walk the distance."
"That is alright. What I want you to do now is think of the path to get to Haven Four and open your mind, be calm." He told her soothingly.
Nodding, Maya relaxed her mind and thought of the way to Haven four. As she did this she felt something probing her mind, something extremely powerful coming in gently, warmly, reassuringly, it was an odd experience as she put the thoughts of the directions to the fore front and the images began to flash through. Then the other thing seemed to withdraw and the images stopped, and she found herself back in reality. "What was that?" She breathed.
"That was me reading your mind." Sarge answered. "Meet us at the eastern entrance, we will wait for you there, just on the outskirts of the clearing." He turned his attention back to the others. "Lets suit up." He said putting his helmet back on. Once everyone was ready to go he opened the door and the noxious air flooded back into the room. The sentinel was powered down and packed up again as they watched Maya run off to find her bike. They stood in silence for a few moments, looking around the area, each of them deep in thought as they heard a bike engine power up and zoom down the streets.
"What do you think guys?" Sarge asked walking back inside.
"I want to know why Talos came so early, did the Exodus gene popup thousands of years ago?" Pyro wondered.
"And what the fuck are we fighting here exactly?" His brother added in.
"She said the slogan of this Independence was `Galactic domination. A new human race to rule the Galaxy.' That must mean that they found something about our past, but the only ones that knew anything were Talos and Alos. Alos came to us, and Talos came to them but a few thousand years early." Bulldog put forth.
"You suggesting it could be some sort of rivalry?" Asked Sarge.
Bulldog shrugged. "Who knows, Alos had inferred that he was in charge, maybe he didn't want to but it seems by the way he talked that he was at the head of the thing. What if his brother was jealous, and when you're starting the human race again it would seem like a good time to go and take over, then take over the part your brother was controlling and basically do whatever the hell you want."
"But you still have two to three thousand years between his death and this organization taking over and turning things to hell." Snipe argued.
"So much of this doesn't make sense, there are too many unknowns." Destroyer mumbled.
"When I was at university taking quantum physics the first thing our professor told us was that if you have a seemingly incomprehensible problem then don't try to dive in and solve everything at once. Work off of what you know, one by one and see where it takes you. I say we work off of that." Said JJ.
"So lets see what we know. Humanity was on the verge of dominating the galaxy, virus pushed them back pretty much destroyed everything. Group of scientists restart the human race splitting the DNA up, and sowing the seeds for a new empire on two different planets. On our planet things go right, supposedly. An organization starts up, there is friction between muggles and wizards, organization wants to find out about wizards. Unknowingly Exodus comes together as the organization gathers humanity's best. Alos comes tells us about things, who we really are and all that jazz. And now we are on the second planet that has gone to hell. The question we have to answer is what went wrong?" Sarge recounted.
"The friction." Said Stalker. "On our planet there was friction between muggles and wizards, both sides didn't want anything to do with the other, the organization that springs up has no intention of world domination, just world preservation. Think about it, that's the difference."
"Could be, who knows. Our first step right now should be to go and figure out that tablet, there have to be answers in it."
"And that brings up the question of how should we go?" Destroyer said. "Should we clean up and make ourselves known gloriously, with red capes and glimmering armor?"
"You just want to wear a cape don't you Destroyer?" Joker asked him with a laugh.
"Shut up."
"Destroyer brings up a good point, and what I think we should do is the opposite. We should put on black cloaks to conceal ourselves, and let everyone be afraid of us, and know that the most frightening thing on this planet is us, and that we are on their side. It will make people realize that there is nothing to be scared of, for we are the worst of the worst, we are not fear, we are death." Said Sarge, an aura of chilling death seaming to surround him.
…
A stream of dust followed Maya's bike as she ground it to a halt just outside one of the main entrances to Haven Four. She fumbled with the little transmitting device that had been given to her. "Sarge, hello? I'm here."
Exodus got up, making sure that they took everything they focused on Sarge as he prepared to apparate. "Next time you guys are doing this by yourselves." A sharp snap announced their presence beside a surprised Maya
Pyro whistled. "Not bad, not bad at all." He commented looking upon Haven Four.
-->