Chapter 4 - The Devil
Chapter 4
Time: 12 April 2007
Location: UMSS Valkyrie â€" Terran System
Kestra had one chance to make this work, she had to end this war, the war that had inflicted pain and suffering onto millions across many different worlds. She sat in her chair on the bridge of her damaged starship, the Valkyrie which had taken so many beatings during the war that there did not seem to be much of a ship left.
The bridge was circular room with a chair in the centre for the commander and two consoles in front of her which controlled ship operations. The lighting in the room was dim and battle-scarred with many blast explosions that scarred deep into the wall.
Commander Kestra Valentine was an Echidna, she had long green hair which trailed off down her back, she was very dirty from the amount of oil and grease that was on her face and hands, her black military uniform was grazed with numerous torn sections within it.
Kestra sighed, looking out at the screen at the front of the bridge that showed Terra but also a large, white structure above it that looked like a massive white angel with a huge wing-span that covered the entire planet, it glow ominously. Kestra knew that this was Asgard, home to the spirits of Valhalla that originated from another dimension with intension to spread balance back to the universe however the United Terran Alliance saw their vaunted words for a prelude to an invasion and declared them as false gods which caused the great war that erupted all over Terran Space.
Kestra herself had been through so much in her short life-span, at only aged 31 she had seen the harsh nature of the universe first hand and had been through it. Kestra had learned that she was not a person at all and was not "born" but created by her father and DNA donor, Leviticus Valentine who set free the evil Asgardian spirit Galladia and captured her, using technology to fuse his DNA with her ascended blood which resulted in the birth of Kestra. Kestra had then learned that Leviticus planned to use her extraordinary
"Valkyrie" powers to defeat Sky, the Guardian of the Ascended Plane and gain access to Asgard where he hoped to become a God. However when Kestra was 16 and living with her adoptive parents who had also cared for Leviticus fate intervene the "Erika", Leviticus's ship vanished from known space leaving Kestra alone after her adoptive family, who had knowledge of Leviticus's plan were murdered.
Now Kestra was sat alone, all her crew had evacuated the ship, leaving just her to make a suicide run on Asgard in order to stop them from wiping Terra's memories and sealing them away so that they would never remember their heritage and would start anew.
Kestra expertly piloted the damaged Valkyrie through the mass graveyard of metal that now surrounded Terra like an orbital ring, these fragments were the last of the Terran fleet which had been obliterated thanks to the Asgard. Kestra kept the ship unpowered and used thrusters only, her plan was to transport onboard the Asgard and defeat Odin herself and finally put the "would-be Gods" to rest in order to restore freedom to the galaxy... it seemed a noble goal... noble and stupid.
Date: 16th Septembera 2256
Location: Everonth Mountain Excavation Site
Diamond knew that Mrs Carmichael was going to kill him for not paying his rent this month. He had spent the last few nights under house arrest at the Phoenix Grace Company Headquarters until he had proved to them that he had no involvement with Remmy's murder.
However suddenly yesterday evening they had awoken him and took him, under armed escort back to the Excavation Site. Diamond had wondered what this could have possibly meant, why were they bringing him back here? But then they made their purpose oh so clear.
"Mr Dust" said the same agent with sunglasses that had questioned him for days. "We have brought you here because we believe that you were innocent in the killing of Remmy Scarlet." Diamond let out a sigh of relief, finally he believed his life was getting back to normal however it still did not solve the question as to why he had been brought back here. The whole area around the wreckage of what he had finally discovered to be the "Valkyrie", the same ship which he had read about from an ancient file at the ruins in old Chentrilla.
"We have brought you here in order to decrypt the computer systems inside the Valkyrie".
Diamond laughed, Remmy had been trying to get inside that thing for ages and the agent had said it so calmly that it made him giggled slightly, he felt a nervous itch under a wing on his back and covertly scratched it. "You have been under house arrest for a few days so I will brief you on what has happened." Diamond nodded in acknowledgement as he banged his head on the ceiling of the van as it went over a bump on the road on its way to the now locked-down excavation site. Diamond rubbed his head from the painful bang and sat back down again inside the van, bracing himself for a long explanation, somehow he felt that Agent Giles was not going to make it interesting using the monotonous sound of his voice.
"Yesterday, our science base on Serenity Island was destroyed and all the personnel were found dead on site with horrific injuries..." Giles handed several photos to Diamond who took them and looked into them horrified. Each of the photographs he held showed in graphic detail, the extent at which these people had died, with one with his entire face ripped off. Diamond began to feel rather sick at the notion of this, and put his hands over his mouth. Agent Giles just raised one eyebrow and gave an icy look at Diamond's expression through his dark sunglasses.
"As you can see, the staff of the science facility were all mutilated in graphic ways, this all occurred after they began to work on the artefact of the girl inside the sphere was recovered from the facility and sent to them. The girl inside the sphere was positively identified as a mythical race we refer to as "human." According to our ancient records, humans are a mythical species that live far away on a planet called Earth and obviously this girl was quite real..."
Diamond snapped his fingers, he finally realised that did know what the girl's species was but had forgotten since he only learned about Terran Mythology in primary school. "So that is where I have seen her species before."
"Will you not interrupt me..." asked Agent Giles, rudely shooting a dark look over at Diamond, with a deep frown on his face which looked like his flesh was going to melt off.
Diamond skulked and looked down at the floor, as if he was a young boy that had just been told off by his teacher, he nodded for Agent Giles to continue. "We have also managed to gain access to the artefact that was correctly identified as "the Valkyrie" and believe it to be some sort of ancient space-ship. We have learned a great deal from what we can decipher in the computer..." Agent Giles paused to take out a cigarette and light it, he offered one to Diamond who did the same and opened a window allowing warm, alpine fresh air to seep into the van. "We have learned that Valkyrie is indeed a Terran ship and commissioned 200 years ago, unfortunately no records in our computer extend that far back and there have been no published works or files before that which would suggest the existence of such a ship. There is also an inconsistency in the level of technology needed in order to create such a ship because it is well beyond Terran resources, it does not use combustion fuel engines but according to a very basic schematic, it runs on some sort of energy conversion technology which we have never even conceived. Your mission is to decipher the computers and allow us access to the restricted areas of the ship and also to learn as much about the cargo, passengers and especially that "girl" who broke her way out of her containment."
Giles looked over at Diamond who was staring straight pass his shoulder, the shear movement and development of the conversation had bored him into a daze. Giles clapped his hand together, making Diamond jump into the air and causing him to bang his head on the ceiling of the van again.
"Dust, were you listening to me?"
Date: 17th Septembera
Location: Everonth Mountain Excavation Site
"Come on... please work!" said Diamond as he tapped feverishly onto the computer screen which was linked by a USB port into his laptop. He had been inside the Valkyrie for only a few hours and he had already found amazing similarities which could be explained no other way, his computers seemed to synchronise perfectly with the Valkyrie's computer, when it decided to work and he had already found USB ports on all the major consoles.
There was no other explanation;
This ship was Terran.
However despite the compatibility between technologies, the Valkyrie's computer was A LOT more powerful than the laptop and diagnostic equipment that Diamond and his team were using and would occasionally completely burn out a laptops hard-drive while using it.
"Must be a higher copy of Phoenix-Window?" joked a chirpy young wolfian scientist called Amaro. Amaro was a blonde wolf which a long patch of white skin along the base of his stomach, he wore a lab coat and was very attractive with some his fringe coming down to cover his beautiful blue eyes. Amaro was very young but had intelligence with computers that could outstrip Diamond (much to his annoyance) and seemed overly confident and happy which Diamond truly found irritating.
Diamond shrugged the bad joke off and let out a short lived grin while inwardly thinking that he could not put up with him any longer and do his job at the same time.
"Hey Di!" said Amaro who had walked over to another laptop on the broken small bridge of the Valkyrie. The Valkyrie's bridge was completely trashed with metal all over the place in this dark room, the screen at the front of the bridge was destroyed and half of the doors into the room had caved in, letting metal and pipes drift from the ceiling, Diamond and
Amaro were using torches to move about this hazardous place.
Diamond looked over at Amaro with an annoyed expression on his face. "Will you stop calling me that?" he blurted out at Amaro who had been getting under his skin all day.
Amaro looked shocked but shrugged and ignored was Diamond said, he could not understand why Diamond did not like him, he thought that they were friends and had worked well together... obviously not.
Diamond walked over to the controls, he scratched the back of his head and shuffled uncomfortably in the silence. He was wearing a black, Phoenix Grace uniform which consisted of a black dungaree type jumpsuit which was comfortable to work in. He looked at Amaro and felt guilty as the kid was only just out of university and eager to please everyone around him with his new job. "I am sorry Amaro..."
Amaro quickly spoke above Diamond. "It's alright, no need to apologise, I know I can get a bit excited sometimes, please do not call me Amaro... we're friends right... call me Lance."
Diamond let out a very short smile which he permitted himself to show. "So what is it Lance?"
"Well... most of the systems on the Valkyrie have been destroyed, or damaged beyond repair but this library computer system here is not and we could..."
"Wait... a second" interrupted Diamond. "Are you saying that you fixed this terminal because last time I looked it was broken?"
"Well... yes" said Lance blushing slightly.
Diamond looked at him, he was barely 21 and he already had learnt how to manipulate computers that well!? He really was a clever kid.
"Well done..." he said smiling.
Lance immediately blushed a deep shade of red and tried to hide his shame. "Thank... you" he whispered quietly.
Diamond looked down into his eyes and felt something that he had never felt before, he felt like he was calm and nothing else mattered but he shook the feeling off with; "As you were saying?"
"Well a lot of the file headings are still intact within a backup drive of the computer. It looks like it uses some sort of voice recognition technology which I can activate..." he looked down at the console for a few seconds before looking up. "Aaaa....ha! Try it now" he said smiling.
Diamond looked back at Lance. "What am I supposed to say?" he asked him completely confused. Lance smiled, his jaw widening to show his perfect row of white teeth in his muzzle.
"Computer" he said looking over at Diamond excitedly, the was silence for a few seconds and then a mechanical chirp in acknowledgement. Lance immediately jumped in the air.
"Dammit I am so good!"
"Unable to process command.... Pl.pl.please re...re..re..re...restate" said a computerised female voice that seemed to be coming from all around the room. It was stuttering vastly which seemed to indicate a problem with its processor however there was nothing Lance could do about that, this place of over 200 years old.
"Um....." said Diamond taking over from Lance and waiting. "Computer, do you have um... the general specifications for... this place?"
The computer beeped in acknowledgement. "Aaaaafirmativve" Diamond looked over at Lance and Lance knew instantly that Diamond wanted him to try and fix the stuttering computer and stabilise it so he set to work on bypassing the damaged speech processor which seemed to do the trick. After a few minutes he nodded at Diamond to try again.
"Computer" called Diamond slowly, the computer made the same beep of acknowledgement. "List the general specifications of this... um... Vessel?"
The computer took a few long beeps to gather the necessary information before talking one long monotonous voice without stuttering.
"Terran Starship UMSS Valkyrie, Adel Class, NX-10353..." the computer stopped for a minute still working as Diamond looked over at Lance confused, they were now sure that this thing was what was mentioned in the ancient records and that this thing was Terran-made? But Terran had never come close to this level of technology, they had not even developed speech recognition software yet.
"Primary systems and specifications include;" the computer began listing after a few seconds of silence. "Octal-reflection Shield Grid, 22 automatically, self-recharging pulse energy weapons, 10 torpedo tubes for high-class "Phoenix" homing torpedoes, Pegasus Drive Multi-dimensional Propulsion System, 10 automatically flushing..."
"Alright, thank you computer, we get the idea" said Diamond and the computer made another acknowledged beep and sighing. "Well apparently Terran engineering includes making computers that babble too much."
Lance made a little chuckle and then looked at the computer. "It looks like a lot of power is going into the computer core since we activated it..." he looked up at Diamond confused.
"We have about 10 minutes of power left what are your orders."
"Well Agent Giles wanted all the answers that we could find for him and I say that we have learnt quite a lot from this..." Diamond felt ridiculous for saying it. "Starship. So I say, lets continue"
Lance nodded and waited for Diamond to ask the next question. "Computer?" called Diamond again with a bit of embarrassment in his voice, he was speaking to something that was not there and did he not feel stupid for doing that. "Can you tell us the commanding officer of this vessel?" The computer chirped and Diamond looked over at Lance. "Seems like a good place to start and then we will find out as much as we can about that girl."
"Commander Kestra Valentine" chirped the computer. Diamond suddenly had a realisation, he had heard the word Kestra before but where... yes... on the random computer message in ancient Terra-Nova when he was studying it the night that Remmy was murdered. He had a strange feeling about this, as he brushed back his main.
Lance suddenly made him jump back from the world of thought and speculation with "Hey!
There's a picture on file and some sort of other file, it is separate from the main computer system, almost like it's on a pen drive."
Diamond kept his calmness but was getting more intrigued by the moment. "Lets see it."
Lance tapped the controls to access the separate file which because it had been isolated from the system, there was specifically no power drain or corruption on it.
The Pegasus and the wolf studied the revealed picture carefully that depicted a female species that neither had ever seen before dressed in a black military uniform, she had green hair and powerful green hair.
"She is quite attractive" said Lance looking at the photograph. "I wonder what race she is?"
"Echidna" said a female voice which made both of them jump and turn round in surprise because standing right in front of them was the same woman in the photo. Commander Kestra Valentine.
"Wh...wh...what!?" shouted Diamond as he looked over at Kestra, his face was full of surprise as he moved next to Lance who was also shocked.
"Okay.... Guess you aren't from the Alliance" said Kestra smiling slighty. "Well... this will take a little time to explain... first of all." Kestra looked at the two men, analysing them silently. "Hmm... my recognition subroutine reads you as Terran? Are you civilians?"
Diamond whispered over at Lance. "What shall we say?" he asked to Lance's ear. Lance turned his head round and shrugged at Lance while Kestra tapped her foot impatiently and appeared to flicker like a mirage or illusion.
"I'm waiting..." she said looking down at the floor. "God, how hard is it to answer that question?"
"Um.... Yes we are civilians" said Diamond taking charge and snapping back at Kestra quickly.
"Oh... I see... and you have never encountered an isomorphic projection before?" complained Kestra.
"Eh.... No?" said Diamond unsure of what to say next.
"Great...!? I was hoping the Alliance would find me, not two dim-witted would be bondage slaves."
"Excuse me?" said Diamond in annoyance. Kestra has grinned and looked down at Diamond and Lance's black uniform trousers which were very tight and left nothing to the imagination. "Hang on..." she questioned. "I have seen those uniforms before...Oh great!
Phoenix Grace... Intruder Alert... SECURITY!"
Diamond giggled slightly at Kestra, she obviously had no idea where she was or that the ship was in ruins but he was also slightly concerned as to how she knew about Phoenix Grace. "No...No...No, you do not understand..." Kestra continued to wail out, shouting about intruders. "WILL YOU PLEASE SHUT UP AND LET ME EXPLAIN!"
Kestra seemed shocked by Diamond's shouting and shut up but only to appease him, she was as stubborn as an old horse.
"We are from Phoenix Grace but the company is only a shipping company... why are you considering us a threat?" asked Diamond who glanced at Lance who was already burying his head into one of the panels of the ship attempting to learn more.
"You were responsible for the massacre on the Erika, siding with the Viro'Leese occupation of Terra and you have committed other crimes and atrocities over the years."
Diamond was shocked about what he was hearing but it seemed to confirm his fears about
Phoenix Grace, he pondered for a few seconds only to be interrupted by Kestra talking.
"The bridge looks like a right mess, did we win?" she asked making Lance poke his head back out of the console.
"Win what?" he asked, his eyes transfixed on Kestra.
"The war with Asgard..." said Kestra looking over at both of them in confusion. "No... we didn't, did we?"
"What is "Asgard?" asked Diamond while staring at Kestra while snapping out of his deep thought. "Does that have something to...?
"Right... boys... I will tell you to truth and all you need to know but there are some things I cannot tell you to prevent history repeating itself..." Both Diamond and Lance listened intently. "I am an isomorphic projection, a "hologram", I am not the real Kestra Valentine however if what has happened is what I think I has happen then I was unsuccessful. I would have reverted to my Valkyrie form during the battle which is a human girl and "she" must have succeeded. You have to find and kill me or your world is doomed and Ragnarok will begin again!"
Diamond had a million and one questions that he needed to ask the holographic Kestra. Why were you created? What is Ragnarok? What is a Valkyrie? But he decided to start smaller...
"Is Kestra... Are you that girl in the sphere?" he asked.
"Yes" said Kestra almost instantly. "That is me, in my true form, this "Echidna" form is a sum of my genetic engineering, to convince others and myself that I belonged on Terra. I was put there willingly to contain myself from a great evil but now I must be free, you must kill me or time itself could be under threat...?"
There was a large shake that shook the bridge hard and knocked everyone over. Diamond put his had on a railing to pull himself up and looked at Kestra who was just standing there motionless. "What was that?" he called out to her.
"Hang on a second" she exclaimed before closing her eyes. "Accessing external sensors... working."
There was another big shake which seemed to get closer as metal fell from the ceiling, Diamond grabbed Lance and pushed him out of the way of a falling beam. Lance got up from the floor feeling ruffled and smiled at Diamond, he had saved his life.
"Thanks..." he went to say when Kestra opened her eyes. "Analysis Complete, Looks like the entire of the planets crust around this region has shifted, this may have something to do with the large worm-like being I detect under the planets crust...I...I...I...I...I" Kestra seemed to be stuck in a loop when the next shake him, becoming more powerful each time and making the bulkhead strain. Diamond grabbed Lance and dragged him to the exit. "My laptop!" Lance shouted realising that all the data he had collected was stored on it and he left it behind. Diamond let go of Lance and ran down numerous blacked and battle-torn corridors of the ship.
Outside the Valkyrie there was a battle taking place with numerous sounds of rifles and guns going off. Agent Giles pinned himself back against a crate of supplies, he had never seen anything like this in his life. One minute he was sitting in the main tent, talking to the director of Phoenix Grace about their discovery and the next he head a massive explosion and rushed outside to see a massive obsidian black worm which resembled more of a tentacle than a worm crashing out of the ground and smacking into the Valkyrie making pieces of metal fly off of it. Giles peered over the barrel to see the massive obsidian black worm knocking into the tents, destroying everything and with many military personnel from ENRISE armed with the latest weapons technology unable to stop it.
Giles took out his hand gun and crawled over to some nearby barrels, he watched the military team get ripped apart by the enraged worm that simply smashed into them and firing some sort of blue beam weapon out of its mouth. What was this thing and why here was it attacking. Giles pulled the safety off and loaded the gun, somehow he did not think that it would be much use against the worm that was smashing military trucks into each other, causing large explosions.
Diamond and Lance headed through the corridors trying to navigate their way through with the ship shaking and beginning to tear apart for the stress.
Giles jumped out from behind the barrel and fired a few shots at the worm who had worked his way through the entire military team before wrapping itself around the Valkyrie and squeezing it. The ship began to break up and Giles decided to buy another time for all the scientists to get away.
"Hey!" he shouted in a voice, his tail raised as he readied himself for battle. He felt like he was committing an impossible mission, giving selflessly to others. He liked that. "Come and get it you little fucker!" he shouted in a voice which was uncharacteristically him as he chucked his sun-glasses away to reveal hazel brown eyes.
The worm became enraged as the scientist and personnel fled from the Valkyrie with panicked screams of Terra. The worm opened its mouth to reveal hundreds of rows of razor sharp teeth however Giles stared it down. He had to buy enough time for everybody to get away, he was ready, it was his duty as an Agent to protect his company and put his life on the line.
"Brave one... your wish for death has been granted!" commanded a powerful female voice as the worm snarled and a blue light started to appear inside his huge mouth. Giles unloaded his entire clip into the worm and then just stood there waiting... for death.
"Marleen" he said to himself. "Please grow up strong and know that Daddy loves you."
The worm succeeded and the Valkyrie snapped into two, causing one side of this massive vessel to go tumbling down the mountain and off a sheer cliff with Diamond and Lance chucked about inside. The worm roared and finished charging its beam as it shot into Giles, the beam completely covering him and felt like a massive searing force was being pushed against him causing his fur and skin to begin to melt. The pain was astronomical however Giles stood his ground, determined not to die on his knees or lying down. His skin gone and his head boiled to the point where it had exploded, he collapsed dead with only a gold-plated locket and a half-burned picture of his wife and daughter.
The broken section of the Valkyrie tumbled to its doom off the sheer cliff, Diamond had only seconds to react, he picked up a gun from another dead military officer while hanging out a railing and with Lance holding onto and shot into the floor beside him, air pressure ripped the weakened hull open revealing bright blue sky. Diamond grabbed Lance who was praying and put him into his arms.
"Hold on tight!" he shouted as they jumped through the gap in the hull and out into clean mountain air. Diamond quickly pushed out his huge, white feathered wings and looked down at Lance.
"I DON'T BELIEVE IT!" shouted Lance. "YOU CAN FLY!"
Diamond sighed. "YEAH I GET THAT A LOT!"