"They say there is a rainbow after the storm. To me, that depends on what is left behind as the carnage. Whoever said whatever I'm criticizing, clearly forgot to think about the carnage.
I literally climbed across the rubble. The roads were a mess; not a building stood straight up, and what were left of others were their mere foundations - metal rods sticking out of the concrete that was left. Not a single building was fully intact. None except the State House. The entire city was gone. Over one night the bustling area had turned into a virtual ghost town, complete with soft moans of pain, both from back at the camp and also muffles under rubble.
Striker dogs covered ground from both the east and northern ends of the city. Only two people were found alive there - Lyshar and Jake, if I remember. The rest - well, we found 47 bodies. We think hundreds more are down there, pressed, awkward, squashed, or split open like a fish under the pressure of concrete and steel-titanium buildings.
I shook the nausea inducing thought from my head and tried to focus on the job at hand. Hundreds more down there, we believe. "And as long as there's one more body left to be accounted for, one more bastard who's dead, we'll all bloody hell stay down here and find that body," our captain said. "We all came in here to find everyone, everyone! And we won't leave without that everyone!"
I put my hand onto a huge piece of bent metal and climbed up onto the rubble to get into a building. It apparently used to be a department store. Of it's foundations, the roof was entirely ripped off, the alarm still ringing from something that flew out of the door. I looked around the place. Everything was, well, everywhere. The counter had shattered; pieces of glass were erect on the walls like razors. I tried to look past the destruction to see if I could find anyone, but the dust got into my eyes and I decided to go deeper in.
I stepped across the strewn masses of pills, rope, gears, sand, concrete - it was all just there ripe for the picking. But no one picked. Not a looter tried. That was because there were no looters left. They were all dead.
The sight behind the counter caught my breath in a bad way. The man, probably in his mid-20s, was lying face-down, glass jutting out of his body like spikes. His entire lower body had been blown off by the counter; the glass stabbed him into place like a piece of art by the storm.
I went deeper in. It was out of fear. The sight scared the hell out of me and I wanted out. But for some reason I went deeper in.
Then, somewhere along where the middle aisle should have been, I nearly dropped. There they were lying, three bodies - a family. A woman, who looked like she was pregnant, a man and a child.
I tried to choke back my tears. I covered my mouth and went deeper in. The tears just flowed out like a monsoon.
And deeper in, I heard a small muffle. I head jerked around, trying to find the source, helmet being the only thing stopping me from turning 360. Another muffle. A weak cry for help. I spotted a hand under the hard iron. It was twitching.
Another cry, and I couldn't take it. It was a child and I had to get her out. I went to the iron and tried to pull at the iron. I tried to reassure the girl, but when I heard what she said, my heart broke over and over again.
"Please help me. I want to see my parents."
I knew that wasn't going to happen, not after this. Don't worry, I told her. We'll get you out. And a fetched the radio from my holster. Code 2, I said. Central Lane side two structure six, the one still half-standing. I have 4 bodies and one survivor under rubble, a young one. Immediate assistance. Out, I said. They were to come immediately, they replied.
I tried to talk to the girl, but she kept saying she wanted to see her parents. I eventually fell silent as a helicopter flew overheard, and I heard shouts from outside. I picked up an iron rod nearby, and I threw it out. The clang got their attentions, apparently, because they shouted to my direction. "There he is!"
As they came in and tried to take out the iron trapping the girl, I went out and look up at the reddening sky. It had been dark for over three days before the storm now, and probably will be dark for the next few weeks. And I wondered, was this all just a test?
The Overwatch detected a massive unidentified group of objects in high orbit. Did that cause the storm?
But of course, being me, I knew the truth. I chose this path. I look at the carnage around me, and I looked at the girl stumbled out of the door with a blanket over her shoulder and a soldier at her side, coaxing her to a nearby helicopter.
And then I wondered. This was only the test run. It was an overwhelming success for the visitors. Every century this happened, and if whatever I had studied was true, there would be another two destructive 'storms' before the end of this century. It was an all out war. And this was only the first, successful, test run on ion technology and manipulation.
The visitors want us dead. I stumbled over to one of my comrades - Kyle. "Did you get their names?" He looked up. "Yeah, her name was Mira,"
Mira? Not so fast. There it was, all over again, the sign to turn back. Time was not an obstacle anymore. This was only the assessment. The war was just about to begin. Again."
Ion manipulation technology can be used to cause supermassive storms and space time relay errors - or parallel vortexes. In other words, the technology is nothing but a weapon, and other than a destructive source of energy, it can do nothing but tear time into shreds and reverse space.
As for the character, he was a soldier under Overwatch sent back in time from a freak accident. He met up with a mysterious crusader from Mezias who called himself Steven. Agreeing to help Steven, he witnessed the future of his people as well as the past that made the present the way it was. And, although he didn't know it, he played a pivotal role in making use it all happened. Sort of like Gordon Freeman in Half-Life.
Along the way he find out Mira was another character who was key in the coming stories. He had to avoid getting in her way, so in order to stop the temporal paradox Steven asked him to fuse out of time temporarily and enter somewhere in the future whenever he could under foresight of Mira.
Along the way he'll meet other people - like Kyle, who aren't as important to Steven's eyes, but just as important to the character. Kyle will find out that the visitors came and destroyed a city because they detected an entity that wasn't supposed to be there. In other words, they were hunting Steven.
Can't spoil the story now, can I? ;) So hush hush.
Oh, and the story's meaning? More is coming your way, and also that the exams are over. You can tell that I did horribly. One fail, no 'A's. Damnit!!
Arshad.
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