Everyone Forgets the Beginning (BattleR Saga Story 1)

Closed frontier

"Officer Khail! We have established voice connection with HQ. Shall we send them the current mission status and transport report? Sir?

But Khail’s mind was somewhere else, somewhere where he could do anything he wanted; he was looking into his past. Brown skies with golden rays of light bursting through the massive clouds sure were worth remembering. But what happened below them was a terrifying slaughter. Ocean of dead bodies, most of them decomposed or beheaded. Friends, families, soldiers, and civilians. All that is left is suffering and the black-haired Shiroshura Bakemono, shadowed Monster of White War Zone.

"Sir! Orders?!" the communication officer shouted to his ear with all his might.

"Shut up and call the generals immediately," the tall, purple-skinned, bald guy with huge, yellow eyes calmly answered. "Can't you see he's trying to remember his past again? Now get the generals on speaker."

"Yes sir," said the officer, and he typed some data into the console before him.

At the center of the first bridge appeared a huge holotomic flat screen. The purple guy stood at attention before his superiors, and, with calm voice, reported:

"Chief General, sir! This is TherraN-1 on its way to planet Therra. Second officer Qe Tohr at your services. Status report: we experienced connection loss in the worm tunnel some time ago, but now it's reestablished. During connection loss, our scanner noticed unallied spaceships in sector SF-11 northeast. Commander Dhamm is on his way to investigate those ships and took a small team composed of himself, two supporters and Captain Yakufe. Mission priority C-Class. He should return before we enter the solar system. Estimated time of arrival: 20 minutes. End of report. What are your orders, sir?"

Four shadowed characters looked at each other without a sound. The one on the left, a huge, chubby character, stood up and raised his hand.

"We wait," said a slim woman sitting next to the standing man. "Call us when Chief Dhamm returns, or when you hit SS frontier."

"Yes Ma'am! TherraN-1 out."

The big screen disappeared, and Tohr sat down on the chair behind him.

"All right, boys and girls. Now we wait for Chief and hope we get good news from him."

"What do you mean?" asked Khail out of the blue.

"I mean," he said as he rested his head on his hand, "if something happens to those ships this might bring trouble, and our mission is not a trouble-solvers mission. You following? Or you swinging in the past again?"

"Yeah, I get it..." Khail moved away from the window and looked at the monitor behind Tohr. "You know why he took Yakufe with him? Is it you who is in charge now?"

Sarcasm and irony burst out of nowhere. The crew could almost clearly see green and yellow lightning striking from the high officers' eyes, but both of them smiled.

"Fine." Tohr waved his hand and left the bridge. "You're in charge. I need to take a dump anyway, so have fun here, waiting..."

Khail sat on Commander's chair and closed his eyes smiling.

(end of part 1)

part 2:

We slowly got used to this overwhelming darkness swallowing us inside the huge hangar. Step by step, we discovered some device resembling an elevator, and a white room with shut down screens.

“Looks like it’s abandoned for some time now,” said Meg wiping one screen with her sleeve. “Those monitors weren’t used for years.”

“Meh, go with Yakufe and check the elevator-like thing. It looks like it’s made of some unknown alloy.” Meh nodded and left the screen room. “You, Mah, are going with me. There must be some generator to turn the lights on somewhere near this room.”

And so we split. Meg and Meh disappeared from my sight in a moment.

“Ok, Mah. Listen to me,” I whispered to Mah’s ear. “You can’t tell anyone, especially Yakufe, of what you’re about to see. That’s an order.”

“Yes sir.”

Since Meg wasn’t around, I could freely use at least three elements at once, and, that way, I can find the electric circuit to the generator. The only problem is that combining water, metal and lightning elements is extremely unstable.

“Meh, here.” Meg opened the first part of the heavy elevator doors.

“Step aside, please.” He raised both of his hands, mumbled some incantation, and closed his eyes. “Black Metal Element. Chant #12. Kata Kymbe.”

Clinging noise crushed silence in the hangar as the elevator started to tremble. Meg stepped back more when the elevator fell a few floors down, and Meh went down with it.

“Meh!” Meg rushed to the hole where the elevator and Meh fell into. Doors closed right before Meg got to them, and metallic noises were coming from inside.

“Meh! You okay?

“Move away from the doors,” the muffled voice of Meh stroked deep in her head.

She stepped back a few meters. Doors opened and a tall caped man jumped down from the elevator roof.

“Mission accomplished. Let’s go back for Chief and Mah.”

“O-Okay.”

At this moment, the hangar was filled with faded green lights and the groups reunited at the screen room. Mah was holding me on his shoulder while I was heavily panting. Meg and Meh looked at each other and Meh smiled when his eyes connected with his brother’s.

“What happened? Akh, are you okay?”

“Y-Yeah… Never better.” I forced myself to smile and look at her while passing by. “How’s the elevator?”

“We’re all good. Now that the power is on we can use it without elements. It’s a high tech metallic alloy. I’ve seen one of those, though they aren't easy to get.”

“Great... Now let’s move up...” I let go of Mah and stood up, still panting.

“These screens are out of order... No way could we use them… And we still must find the crew…”

After finally finding my balance and regenerating a little, I closed the screen room and we headed to elevator. A small shadow moved behind the barrels close by, but I was too tired to notice it. We entered the elevator, which, thanks to Meh, was as good as new.

“Up or down, sir? I saw some lights a few floors below.”

“No.” I looked at Meh straight in the eyes and I saw that my iris blackened.

“We go up. There’s nothing worth checking below.”

The elevator moved, and we moved up a few floors.

“Stop. That’s enough. We’re going in here.

“Eeeh…” Meg grabbed my shoulder. “Chief? How do you know where to go and where not? What exactly happened at the screen room?

“Nothing happened.” I looked back above my shoulder so she couldn't see my eyes directly. “It’s just an experience and a hunch, don’t let it bother you.”

Doors opened and a blue corridor going straight forward appeared. We left the elevator, leaving the doors open, just in case. Now the fun part begins.