Chapter 49: The Destruction of the White City

Date: November 26, 3007
Time: 02:00
Location: Orbis

A resounding voice reverberated off of the pearly white walls of the marble buildings lining the street. Michael Reinhart’s head jolted up to try to find the source of the cry, but to no avail. The tone of the voice pierced his spirit like a metal spike, sending chills down his spine. A clap of thunder followed, drowning out the echoes with this new source of fear.

Up ahead, Mikhail advanced fearlessly, seemingly oblivious to the arriving tempest. His EDEN soldiers followed close behind, their faces contorted into grimaces of war. Michael followed up with the rear guard. His squad, what was left of it anyways, was all fatigued as hell, but despite everything, they pushed forwards. He smiled to himself and turned back around to face down the street. Through the misty night, he could finally depict the first faces of the Dominion’s army, rising from within the shadows, lit with the flames of their burning headquarters.

Mikhail signaled for the company to quiet down. The entire army stopped its march as a single unified unit and started to cautiously creep forward. Another crack of thunder rumbled across the sky. Then, Michael felt the first drop of rain hit his nose.

It came down slowly, like the tears of the heavens. But then, the drizzle became a shower, which became a downpour. The torrential rain soaked Michael to the bone, and he could feel his fingers grow numb with each passing second as he grasped his S-16 Scarab Assault Rifle. Jolts of lightning lit the sky up for a fraction of a second before letting shadows close back in around the world. The edifices on both sides of the street seemed to lean forwards as if to collapse onto the armies.

Suddenly, a flash of lightning streaked across the murky sky, revealing a silhouette of a figure atop one of the tall buildings. For a moment, Michael felt a stab in his heart, a sudden pang of fear and trepidation tore through his nerves, racking him to the bone. But then that moment of consternation vanished into the night, leaving Michael dazed and confounded.

“Captain?” a soft voice behind him quivered, “Captain let’s go.” Michael looked around and noticed Deirdre pointing at Mikhail and his entourage already a distance away. The fire from the headquarters seemed to drive the mist away, revealing everything and anything. In his mind, Michael pondered for a while as he marched forwards, but then his brain started to piece it all together. Like a puzzle, he placed everything where it should be to paint out the picture of a rogue faction bombing the damned place. And from the looks of it, that rogue faction was hanging around, awaiting action.

Glancing up again, he noticed there blurry figure was not there anymore, replaced by emptiness. The rain continued to pound the city of Orbis, but the flames of the wreckage stubbornly persisted, the sky’s tears unable to quash it. Then, Michael ran head first into the back of one of Mikhail’s soldiers. It fell like colliding with a brick wall; he stumbled back a few steps as the soldier continued to stand there, unfazed.

“Shut up,” he muttered as Maldran started to chuckle. “Why are we stopping?” Michael looked forwards towards the head of the column. Mikhail had his fist raised in the air, signaling a halt.

Then, he saw him, standing in front of his own army like a sentinel. His long black cape ruffled wildly in the gale force wind. Dual S-32 Sai Automatic pistols rested nervously in two holsters around his hips. From behind his dark sunglasses, General Fenris welcomed Eden with open arms and pupil-less eyes.

“Ah, the prodigal son has returned!” Fenris’ booming voice shook the stormy air. His follow up laughter rattled Michael’s head beyond belief. “Tell me, how many men do you have? I don’t know, but I’m sure you don’t have enough.”

“I’ve brought more soldiers with me than you’ve ever seen,” Mikhail roared back, a hint of anger rising within his throat.

“Haha, same ol’ same ol’ Mikhail Shale, always delirious to his surroundings,” Fenris sneered back. Even from this distance, Michael could see his two rows of razor sharp teeth, much like a wolf’s, slide together into a demented grin. “Are you ready to die like your mother and father?”

“F*** you Fenris!” Mikhail roared, “Don’t you ever talk about mom and dad, ever!” Mikhail fumed. A nerve must have snapped inside his maniacal brain. Michael wondered what Mikhail meant by that.

“Aha, hit a soft spot have we?” Fenris continued to taunt, “Well what are you going to do about it? Kill me? Bullsh**! You couldn’t kill a Balrog if it landed on your nose! You were always the soft one. People like you don’t deserve to live!” Michael’s mind, ever more perplexed by this verbal duel, started to spin in the confusing words.

“FENRIS I’M WARNING YOU!” Mikhail gnashed out with all of his rage. Michael felt the ground shake a little as he spoke. What the hell was happening?

“Haha! Warning me?” Fenris cocked his head back into a laughter which sounded eerily like wolf’s howl, “Get on with it, you son of a b****! It’s a disgrace to call you my blood brother!”

Brothers!? Michael looked from Fenris to Mikhail to his squad mates. What the hell was happening!

“EDEN!” Mikhail roared, rattling the night once more, “F*** THESE GUYS UP LIKE NO OTHER! NO PRISONERS! NO MERCY! ANNIHILATE!” Before his voice stopped resounding off of the marble buildings, his Eden warriors vanished into the night, no doubt into the buildings for a higher vantage point. At the same time, Mikhail moved with amazing speed as he ran backwards, firing his FF-20 Fair Frozen Heavy Duty Machine Gun into the Dominion’s ranks. Michael roared for cover as he dove behind a steel mailbox.

The windows above him instantly smashed open, showering the street with glass. Then, the air above him exploded in a lightshow of muzzle flashes. Taking the cue, the Dominion’s soldiers dove for cover and returned fire from behind shelter. Michael raised his S-16 up and over the mailbox and fired blindly in the Dominion’s general direction, not caring if he hit anything. Bullets whizzed by, rebounding dangerously close to his body.

Across the street hiding behind a marble bench, Deirdre stood up, took aim, fired off a round, and then crouched back down all under a second’s time. Ahead of her, huddled behind a truck, Damiver and Maldran each took turns peaking around the corner to let off a few shots.

Michael’s clip clicked empty. He ejected the smoking black box and slammed home a new one; the first bullet just reached breached when Michael’s finger forced the trigger down again. The barrel of his assault rifle was getting hotter with each passing bullet.

Suddenly, Michael felt the ground shake like an earthquake. The rumbling became atrociously loud; Michael wondered if it really was an earthquake. But then, as he peaked over the edge of his mailbox, he saw a behemoth bearing down at him. The large truck was covered in steel plates on all sides except for the top. There was no top. As the machine drew closer, Michael could tell no one was driving it. It picked up speed. He suddenly knew exactly what this was.

“FALL BACK! FALL BACK! GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE!” Michael left his mail box and dashed over to the truck Maldran and Damiver were hiding behind. Grabbing both of them by the collar of their uniforms, he dragged them up and screamed at them to follow him.

Picking up Deirdre as they went, the four of them sprinted down the street; looking behind him, Michael saw the Dominion truck slow down. They didn’t have much time. Then, an alleyway opened up in front of him; a sight for sore eyes. Without hesitating, he veered into the dark alley and threw himself down on the ground, “GET DOWN! GET DOWN! GET D…”

Even though it was still the early morning when the sun was still sleeping, the world suddenly became white like mid-afternoon. The sound seemed to be drained away from the battlegrounds as everything went still. Then, it released everything.

The noises of the world rushed back in a concussion that tore through everything in its path. Michael could feel his ribs vibrate sickly as he lied on the ground covering his head. The explosion decimated the street, crumbling the buildings into the ground and engulfing the people inside, regardless of side, in white hot flame. Fragments of concrete and marble fell to the ground, smashing open the pavement as if it were glass. The Orbisian street instantly turned into the catacombs for a thousand people.

As the rubble settled down into the dust and smoke, Michael opened his eyes. The world was a blurry grey now as the sun started to rise, unaware of the tremendous explosion that had just blown away half of Orbis. Stumbling out of the alley, he collapsed onto the ground, weak from the aftermath of the concussion that rattled his body.

Looking up, his blue eyes dilated in horror. The area was completely unrecognizable. Through the smoke and ashes, Michael could make out a humongous crater engulfing the street. Every single building that lined the avenue had collapsed partially or was completely obliterated. As Michael picked himself up, he couldn’t even begin wondering how bad the casualties were.

Staggering forwards down the street, he could fear faint popping noises of random bursts of rifle fire. The explosion seemed to have dazed both sides; the chaos was just too much. Making his way to a large block of marble, he sat down with his back propped up against it. Michael’s fingers clumsily fumbled around his pack for a new magazine. When he finally reloaded his rifle, the rest of the squad had reached him, all of them equally dazed and inept.

“That bomb sure f***ed us up…” Damiver mumbled as he shook his head, trying to clear the dust off of his head.

“What’s that noise?” Maldran asked groggily, as if awaking from a dream.

“That ringing in your ears?” Deirdre asked, “I have it too. Talk about a powerful blast.”

“No,” Maldran shook his head awkwardly, “It’s a voice. I recognize it.” Michael pricked his ears up, trying to distinguish a voice, any voice in the air amidst the burning flames and screams of the unlucky men who were not completely ripped apart from the initial bomb.

But then, he heard it, a female’s voice. That’s when Michael realized that there were still people living in Orbis. The civilian casualties must have been insanely high. All those poor people…

Suddenly, Maldran sprinted forwards, out from the cover of the marble slab. “MALDRAN! MAL GET BACK HERE!” Michael roared, but to no avail. Swearing loudly, he ran after his sergeant.

The woman’s voice grew louder as he followed Maldran. Maldran was already climbing a pile of debris that stretched up all the way to the roof of the building. Through the grayness, he could barely make out the outline of a woman clinging on to the edge of a fallen away floor. She seemed to be calling out for someone.

“Hey lady, hold on!” Maldran called out to the woman. As Michael made his way up, Maldran had already reached her. “Let go! I’ll catch you!” From the looks of it, the woman seemed to have slipped rather than let go, right into Maldran’s arms. “Gotcha! You’re safe now, but you have to get as far from here as possible, who knows what…” Maldran suddenly stopped, his eyes fixed upon the woman’s face as if she was hypnotizing him.

Michael finally reached the two of them, but someone else was coming from within the crumbling building.

“Caleio are you alright? I thought I had lost you, Cal…” A man appeared from within the darkness, his black eyes gleaming with tears.

“Caleio?” Maldran whispered, as if afraid to talk, “Is… is that really you?” Five more people appeared from behind the man. At the same time, Deirdre and Damiver both reached the summit of the wreckage. The woman, apparently named Caleio, rolled out of Maldran’s grasp and straightened herself up. Her midnight blue eyes darted from Maldran to the man, to Damiver and Deirdre, to the five people standing behind her. Tears shimmered in her eyes and flowed down her cheeks, creating fine lines through the layer of dust on her face.

Michael, utterly bewildered at this uneasy silence, could only look on as Maldran, even more bemused, gaped at the woman and the man.