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Beginning of the End by Mad Dog - CFH
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Beginning of the End
Date: 08 August 2001, 2:14 AM
"It is easy to go down into hell;
night and day, the gates of dark Death stand wide;
but to climb back again to retrace one's steps to the upper air-
There's the rub, the task"
-Aeneid
"--Log on, date unknown, time unknown, place unknown... Hell, let's just call it 00:00 and go from there.
I can not tell you how this story ends, that is beyond my power and control. No, what I can do though to make it up to you reader is tell you how it began. It didn't begin how you would think it would, with a boom, or a crash, or a whimper, or any other sound really. In fact, what I can remember about being on board the Corvette before it blew up, there wasn't much of a sound at all. Maybe my sonic dampeners shut out the explosions, or perhaps what's left of my humanity just blocked it out because the explosions were so damn loud. But I am back tracking, no, how this began was with a bright white light, and somehow I ended up here. I first thought it was hell, but I soon realized it was much worse then that.
I feel something is here waiting for me, guiding me, telling me something. But I want nothing to do with some kind of higher power, or intelligence. I never was a relegious man, perhaps that was half the reason why I became a mech in the first place. That and I had nothing else going for me. Everyone in there life has to chose to have something to strive for, to dream for... or they can choose to give up on life, and die. I chose the second option.
Well, that's a lie now ain't it? If I did persay, eat a round of caseless ammo from my service pistol I very well wouldn't be here logging down my experiences and thoughts to you, would I? I had nothing to live for you see, I joined Solcore's armed forces straight out of high school. It seemed like the thing to do, we had a war going on, there were recruitment posters everywhere, and my whore of a girlfriend didn't give me a reason to stay, hell, she gave me a disease. So I joined up, turned out to be a good soldier, and decided to give it my all, literally. I decided to become one of the elite cyborg units. 2 years later, and about 2 billion dollars in gear I was shipped off on the next troop transport. It seemed they needed us as fast as can be, I didn't know why till later.
I won't ever forget the way blood looks when it is frozen in space, no matter how hard I try. The fact that it was coming out of dismembered limb that floated by the viewing portal I was leaning on, I shuddered... and I don't know why. I must have a bit of human left in my metal soul after all. Though my comrades looked at me with fear when they passed by where I was almost constantly looking out into space. Funny, but isn't that just how humans are? Fearing what was sent their to protect them. Fearing what they do not fully understand, but still depend on. I almost don't miss being human.
The only thing left now is to fight I guess, fight to stop those Aliens from killing off what other humans could be here. Fight to bring them pain for all the death they have wrought on my people. Fight to fill this hole in my being that was taken when they made me into part of a machine. I hope you never have to feel how it is to be made to be a soldier, mind, body, and soul. To have the power of a sun inside of you, driving you to kill like a cold blooded murderer... But I am being over dramatic.
The rest of my life story can wait, I see ion trails from a drop ship coming down nearby, and I am going to go check it out, maybe I can scrounge up some info on the Aliens, or maybe even they were humans lucky enough to get out of that damn ship before it went blammo. Oh, before I log off I guess you should know why I am leaving this log, on some alien relic, far outside of where human's dare to tred. My name is Sgt. Virgil Harden, Cy#22968, I should know that... they stapled it to the back of my neck. I want you to know that this is not a story of blind courage, or dramatic battles, or a one man killing machine that can change the course of a galatic war that is going badly for us... no, I won't blind you with all that happy bull crap. What I can tell you is the truth, I am not fighting this war to live.
No good reader, I am fighting this war to die. I want peace. And maybe, just maybe, that will give me the edge I need to take a few of those fugly bastards with me. Log off."
Virgil stood slowly then from his kneeling position to get a better reading on the descending dropship, hearing the sonic booms rattle the ground around him, sending small insects fluttering around his armored shins. Part of his human side stood out then as he looked over the trees, giving a sigh to all that was going on. Soon he was trudging through the underbrush with a stealthness that came naturally, and was augmented by many technological advantages he had.
It was pure luck that saved Virg's life when he stopped to take a look at his surroundings, and just then, two Covenant elites slipped through the bushes next to him to walk beside him, then take a sharp left to go right infront of them. It was the first time the human ever saw his alien enemies up close and personal, they dwarfed even him... who stood at a proud 6'8".They had to be recon, from they way they walked, observed, and kept quiet. The left one even looked straight to the tree where Virg was half hidden behind, and spoke to his comrade in a small alien tone, but finally... looked away.
That was all Virg needed, his left hand dropped to his thigh and slowly he snapped out the machette that was better used for cutting down tree limbs, and grass. But for now, it would have to do with alien skin and flesh, he was way to close for his pistol. He stepped out of the tree line, and "lefty" turned his head to look at the human incoming. He was bringing his pistol around to kill him, when the blade came down and sliced through his neck. He dropped quickly, oddly colored blood flowing from what was left of his head... hanging on by a piece of flesh. The other came around and began to fire off blue bolts of power to the human, but he missed each time. Because the human was not where he was a moment ago, he was closer to the alien, rather then make the rookie mistake of diving out of the way. His blade came up and sent the energy pistol flying through the air somewhere, to land in a bush a good distance aways.
Both fighter's backed up then, Virgil switching his own bloodied machette from hand to hand. The Alien however, was unimpressed... with a harsh snap of power, the energy spike began to grow out of the things wrist. It stopped at about 3 feet long, but it was enough to make Virg take a step back and give a rather brutal curse out to the beast, and it was then when the beast pounced on him, the spike aimed to impale right in his face. The machette was dropped as both hands came up to grip at the wrist of the beast as he got nearer to Virg, and the human side stepped the energy lance. They both fell from the weight of the alien, the energy spike impaling into the ground beside Virgil's head. The crackling of power sent his hair on edge, just before the blade slowly began to move foward to singe it. Both hands kept an iron tight grip on the alien's wrist, but Virg was losing. The Elite added insult to injury, jamming it's other hand into Virgil's side over and over again.
Quickly Virgil lifted his foot, pressing hard to whatever on the beast he could and he pushed with all his might with his leg. His thigh tensed, and his servos added enough force to send the beast back up to stagger back wards against a tree trunk. It never had a chance to do anything else, as Virgil's right hand snapped free his service pistol from his right hip and pounded three shots into the Alien, stiching a light line from the beast's chest to one right through it's jaw. It fell, and didn't get back up.
Virgil only layed there a second or two, he was positive his shots were heard off in the distance. So he rose, but not before picking up his blade to walk over to the first dead Alien. A quick slice down wards finished the job he started earlier, and took off the beasts head. Virgil grabbed it by the base of his jaw, and slammed it into a broken tree branch that was damaged in the battle. It was then he began to run through the forest. He was fighting a war here, not only against the covenant... but to hold onto his own sanity. At least he was winning one of them.
Beginning of the End: Avatar
Date: 08 August 2001, 9:24 PM
"If I can not move heaven.
I shall bend Hell."
- Aeneid.
"...Log on, 14 hours after landing.
I dreamed last rest, or at least the closest thing to it for a cyborg I guess. Dreams are meant to be playgrounds of the minds, right? Well, mine was an insane asylum, where no sane thoughts were allowed.
I dreamed that I was this damn ghost town of an Alien relic, drifting endlessly in the calm, cold blackness of space. Spinning round and round that gigantic gas giant with an eerie stiocness, like a tombstone to whoever built me, or a statue.
I felt all inside of me, keeping the life of plants and animals going like a good mother or father should. Until I felt the taint of those inside of me, and I was... angry. It is the same anger I feel towards the Covenant, the kind that brings me into that white hot rage that can only be satisfied by fighting.
I was hollow in my dream, a ring, yearning to be satisfied enough to live in peace. I think that is a brillant metaphor for who I am now isn't it? Hollow, a hole in my soul that I can't quite fill. I wonder if they did this to me when they made me a cyborg, or if I was like this to begin with.
But through that insane dream I think I understood a little more about the universe we live in. Could fate be something that could be guided through time and space by not a god... wait, wait... stop log."
That was all Virgil said as took a step foward slowly and brushed his armored hand over the bent stalks of grass on the path he had came across. Even through all that armor, he could feel more then most humans could endure without passing out with sensory overload. He frowned, or at least thought he did. You would be amazed what you would miss if you weren't fully human any more.
He stood slowly and snapped back on his mic with a squeeze of his teeth. Brushing off his fingertips on his thigh, absently stroking his side arm just to make sure it was there.
"...Continue log. What was I going on about? Oh yes, Fate and Gods, well, Gods would be a confusing term in these lands now wouldn't it. A god is a higher power, with the will to destroy or create life at a whim. In essence, we are all gods. But I once remembered hearing about an old tale, about the "Nephilim". Angels who gave man the basic knowledge to begin their existence, called giants for their size. Coincidence? The Nephilim stayed, and bred with human females. If I was a betting man, I think that the 'Gods' might have been something other then holy dieties, but Aliens... just like the ones who I am fighting and killing now a days.
The gods of our time might not be alien or human, but all seeing, all knowing dieties. Artifical intelligence. But perhaps these gods, and the gods of the old days are one in the same. I think that makes me an avatar. Can a god be killed? Sure. Can a god be forgotten? Yes. I, however. Intend to be niether of these things. I am going to stain this tomb of the gods red if need be, but the covenant will fear my unholy wraith none the less. I guess I am a vengeful avatar, maybe because a god cries for vengance. Log off."
He was moving before he stopped talking, through the brush to follow the trail that the careless beasts had made when they defieled this tranquil place. His hand snapped free the side arm from his thigh as he just, felt, himself moving closer to the enemy. He was this, an avatar of the gods, thought he did not know it yet. He crept around a tree, and without a thought... began firing rounds.
The first two shots thundered out and cracked through the chest of a grunt who was standing with his back to the armored Cyborg. Virg kicked off and rolled, spinning to a halt as his boot came out to keep him up and he kept thundering out rounds with both hands wrapped around the handle of the sidearm. The way he fought, without emotion, without a second thought... it seemed to affect even the Aliens, the last elite even seemed enthralled with the armored man's grace and naturally agility. The hunter, like the lion back on ol' terra... agile and quick, decisive in it's killing. Virg thought on that, while the last round of his dry clip slammed through the hip of the last Elite, sending him tumbling to the ground.
It was over the easily and quickly, 3 Aliens down and dying, and the human with just one less clip to work with. Can their be anything as comforting, and warm as metal in your hands from a weapon? Virgil didn't think so, he believed he could take on the entire Covenant fleet and come out walking. He guess he had to, he was.
He stood up and moved over to the reddish thing he could only assume was transportation of some kind. It was when he saw the discarded assualt rifle that the voice patched over his comm unit, crackling once before the calm, emotionless voice spoke out in a female tone that, in another time and place... might be sexy.
"...Find the humans, they'll need you Virgil."
Oddly enough, the cyborg was not surprised. He simply picked up the assualt rifle with his left hand as his right dropped the pistol back down in it's plastic home on his thigh. The weapon was dry of rounds, but it would still be nice to have around him. A security blanket of sorts. He looped it over his shoulder to allow it to dangle. Humans on here, they would be a source of ammo perhaps... who knows.
A bleeding wet cough was what finally caught his attention, from an Elite who did not know when to die. The Alien stared up to the Cybrog in what could almost be called... Awe. Virgil stared back down for a few seconds, watching his foe die. It was inhuman in a way, like watching a wounded dog breath it's last breaths. Virgil simply commented down to the beast, which he knew would not even understand him. And then, he began to move off. Sensors stretching out over the land like millions of arms, grabbing for information.
"Yeah, it was good for me too skinny."
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