Chapter One--Praeterita (the Past)

A uniformed soldier sat behind his administrative desk, papers in hand, his eyes skimming each line. Ruffling through, he nearly slammed them down in anger, quickly picking up other papers spread out over the surface of his desk, apparent he was looking for something in particularly important. He tapped the screen of his computer, sliding his fingers left and right until he threw a tempered smack from his palms onto his desk and shoved himself to his feet.

He stood in front of his window and just stared out; the gorgeous view brought him comfort as he stood at attention. The dazzling glow from the rainbow sunset gently glistened off the fresh waters, a harmonious arrangement of brilliant colors each fading into one another. If it weren't for the floating lanterns designating the boundaries of the Skyway littered with zooming vehicles at various heights, the view would be mistaken for a painting.

"Still throwing tantrums…" a voice echoed from the doorway.

The man jerked his head toward the entrance of his office as he smiled. Another man entered as the two of them drew close and embraced with a hearty hug, tightly refusing to release their grasps.

"Valen," the visitor was greeted with a hearty grin, "I've missed you!"

"And I you brother," he replied with a chuckle as they pulled away. "I should tell you, Divad, that you won't find anything. This mission is unsanctioned. That paperwork are the dossiers for the mission. Only the Kindred defender has the full details…"

"Of course, they would trust you over me," Divad replied with a shake from his head. "I mean, I've only killed hundreds of Revenants, saved Orivaarian delegates, destroyed seven Vampearen outposts… but hey, who am I compared to the defender as long as he gets his glory?"

"Now, now…," he said in rebuttal as he walked in. "It's just semantics; don't be cross, little brother."

"I hate it when you call me that!"

"Hey, twins or not, I came first! If you want, I could call you second?"

"Shut up…," he replied with a shake from his head and a chuckle under his breath. "Valen, what in the deep is going on that I—the one who bleeds for this kingdom the most—am kept in the dark?"

"It's nothing personal, really. Like I said, it's just semantics. I'm sorry, little brother, but I cannot disclose anything more at this time. Just understand that this mission merits my attention."

A uniformed woman rounded the corner of the office entrance as she stood in the doorway. She gave a pound on her chest and a slight bow as Valen returned the salute of rank respect.

"We are ready for the mission to begin, my Lord."

"Thank you, Commander Mordarr…" Divad returned as Valen gave a "let's go" gesture with his head, leaving the office.

They made their way into another meeting room, as Jace stood next to a line of soldiers at attention, prepared in wait for their arrival.

"Ladies!" Valen greeted as he approached the middle of the wellformed line, "I am your Regent, Lord Valenarr Tarso—Battle Master to the Realm Legion and rited Kindred defender. That is about the extent of my small talk so I will get right to the point. You all will accompany me to Garrison atrium for an investigation, one that merits my attention. Your chief has hand-picked this platoon for each of your unique expertise, recon and navigation, communications and tech, contact and security, and medical support—namely me."

"Moreover, you all have earned my trust after years under my command," Divad added. "One of the atria along Garrison has gone dark. All forms of communication have been severed. It is our job to find out why. A lot of this mission has been kept confidential, so we are going in blind. Proceed with caution and gather what intel we can, and come home in one piece. Be ready, be prepared." One soldier jerked his body forward and stood at attention. "Staff Sergeant, do you have something to add?"

"Permission to speak freely, sir!" he asked with clear sternness in his voice.

"Staff Sergeant Mikial." Divad returned as he stood in front of him, the two of them making eye contact.

"With all due respect, why is His Lordship accompanying this mission? This seems like a common infiltration and recon."

"All you need to know," Valen added as he stepped closer to them, "is that my presence was requested. We must always stay prepared for the unexpected. Do we have a problem with that, Staff Sergeant?"

"Sir, no sir!" Mikial replied as he pounded his chest in salute and stepped back into line.

**********

Stretching nearly five miles into the sky stands the massive granite wall…the Garrison, a great barrier that separates the Romanussian borders from the eastern Badlands of Verol. Eight entrance watch towers along this great wall stand as the only way to enter the kingdom other than aerial craft, enormous obelisk watch towers, atria, keeping their vigil eyes locked on the borders.

Each atrium, completely diverse from one another—each fitting to their locations—holds important status throughout the kingdom. The workers, known as Foyer Keepers or Foyers, bear that title with pride as they are held to nearly the same esteem as knights of the Raven Order. Under their supervision, no outsider has ever breached the lands were a Foyer's watchful eye is present.

However, the past has a harsh way to remind us that peace is not always meant to last. Divad stood outside the massive entrance with his men and paced the ground, his eyes locked on a massive metallic slab appearing to block the entrance.

"Avia," he said as his team looked around, "the blast doors are sealed shut. Are any emergency exits or ventilation chambers suitable for entry?"

"Negative, Commander," a woman's voice echoed from his gauntlet's speakers, a mechanical ring to her tone, "according to the limited access I have with the Atrium's VI, the security measure implemented after a distress protocol became activate. All entrances are completely sealed off. The only way to open them is from the inside. Accessing the nearby terminal can override the protocol."

"So it would take someone with exceptional hacking abilities," Divad replied as he turned his eyes to a woman in his company, her stance not wavering.

"Correct, Commander." the voice said from the speaker.

The woman in his company looked to Divad as they both grinned at each other.

"Get out of my way…," she said with a shake from her head.

She approached the terminal near the sealed doorway and began typing on a hologram of a keypad shinning just off the surface of her plated gauntlet as her fingers flayed to and fro. A smile crossed her face as she stopped, the thick metallic slabs slowly rising into the ceiling.

"Lockdown protocol lifted…," she said with a grin.

"My sensors now detect heavy damage to the Atrium's VI—ADEN. I advise extreme caution.

"Thank you, Avia." Valen waved his hand as his men rushed in.

When they pressed on, the atrium was dark, hindered only by flickering overhead lights. Bloodstains wiped on the outside walls as if it were a warning. They hesitantly ventured in, and what they found was unlike anything they had ever seen. It was a wild and intimidating massacre; the workers were slaughtered, their remains scattered on the floors of the entrance atrium.

It was silent, the calm before the storm, a mutilation of murdered workers scattered across the room. Their blood painted the atrium with their chastised bodies from the carnage, and the air reeked of their death, the sour metallic aroma festering from the intense slashes of decaying wounds. The blood was fresh with a hint of dark stain…a happening of near recent events. Divad stood with his men over the carnage, absorbing the horrendous crime scene.

"Tallinn, Jace," he barked his orders, "take to the computers. Establish communications with ADEN, access any security footage or audio logs. Mikial, stick close and protect the defender; his safety is now your top priority. Gabriel, Tarious, search for any survivors. See if you can find anything that can shed light on what in the deep happened in here!"

He walked toward Jace and Tallinn already typing away at the computers.

"Much of ADEN's operating system has been damaged and will take some time to recover. However," Jace said, her fingers continued typing away as her eyes locked from one side of the screen to the other, "I was able to clean up an initial distress call sent to the defender…"

Divad looked toward Valen with lowered brows as the recording flaked in and out.

"Mayday, mayday, mayday…" She continued typing as the broken, fragmented voice now cleared up, "this message…for…kin… defender…we are…attack…Revenants…have breached… [Static.] Please help… [Static.] I repeat…Revenants from Vampearen have…the atrium, please help… Send immediate…"

Divad's eyes widened as his glare refused to waver from his intense stare at Valen.

"This is why you involved yourself…," he asked as Valen was nearly hesitant.

"The man in the recording is Marric Yamaharr," Valen continued, "a Shanter of the Regal Military Commission…and a close personal friend. The RMC put him in charge of scanning the grounds throughout the Badlands for possible locations into Vampearen."

"Movement!" Tarious shouted as he rushed to the mutilated man's twitching body, grabbing Divad's attention. "We have survivors over here, my Lord!"

He reached down to his level and arched one off the ground.

"Sir," Tarious continued, "I am an infiltration assassin from the Raven Order. You are safe now."

"Not safe…," he said as his eyes locked on the convulsing man next to him.

"What's your name?" Tarious asked.

"Marric Yamaharr…," he muttered out, "Shanter…of Romanussia. I'm not infected…" he cringed in great pain, "but they are…"

The man next to them quickly began convulsing in a violent temper as thick foam filled his mouth, each vein bulging out. Tallinn quickly dragged Marric away as Tarious tried holding him down as Jace rushed to his aid, trying to comfort the man sitting him upright. The convulsing stopped, the man was as still as a corpse again. He leaned in and opened the man's eye as he shined his light hoping to get a reaction.

As quickly as he shined the light, the man's irises filled with a thick layer of blood as both eyes widened. Without warning, the man lunged up and gripped hard on Tarious's back neck, pulling him down to his face as he quickly drove pointed fangs from his eyeteeth into his neck. He struggled to get away as he screamed in heated agony, Jace pulled him away from the wild man's grip and latched lips.

Tarious went limp as blood poured from his mouth and his body crashed to the floor, as dead as each surrounding corpse. Jace quickly pulled twin cleavers from her shoulders and drove them both into the infected worker's chest, with a twist on the handles. The blades quickly illuminated with a bright white glow as the Foyer's skin quickly crumbled to a flaking ash, his body disintegrating piece by piece until it was nothing but burning flakes floating in the air.

"Valen, take this man to safety!" Divad barked his order as Valen rushed over with a glare, "You are our medical support; go, we will take care of this!"

"Marric!" Valen shouted in shock as he reached them.

"Good to see you too… old friend…" Marric's broken voice muttered out.

Valen rolled over top of Marric with a flip, easily hoisting him over his shoulders as he rushed out the door. The entire atrium filled with an eerie silence. Not the normal silence where you can hear machines running in the background, nothing but the gentle broken hum emitting from the busted overhead lights flickering. It was indeed like the calm before the storm as a few of the bodies twitched.

It started off slow with a shake from their fingers…then their heads jerked, tremors from their shoulders and arms quickly followed. Heavy convulsions set in, their bodies shaking violently as some slowly arched their limp bodies up. Soon the atrium was alive, filled with moaning workers; their voices muffled with thick foamed saliva pouring from their mouths as they growled like wild animals.

As quickly as the workers' eyes locked on them, they jolted to their feet and charged; their foam-filled mouths wide open with fangs hanging from their upper teeth. Divad pulled an erratically designed baton as a brilliant white long blade materialized from its surface. Divad lunged to the side and spun around, slicing into one with one hard swipe cutting into the worker's arm, severing it from its limb.

The glowing blade itself seemed to disintegrate the arm as it dropped to the ground, the entire arm quickly flaking away into red hot ash. He rotated the sword around his waist and slashed it down into the worker's head, the entire body beginning from the neck down melting away as hot ash. He turned and gripped another nearby Revenant by the neck, pulling him closer to his face.

As the Revenant was forced to his face, he dropped his sword as the blade disintegrated and drew his pistol, driving it into his mouth with a firm hold over the trigger. Multiple blasts of glowing bullets— similar glow to his sword—blasted out and flaked the worker's head into ash, shortly followed by his body. Gabriel forced his hands to his waist as a bright glow emitted from in between his palms.

He slowly moved back, his legs still spread and firmly planted to the floor, and pushed his body forward as a brilliant ray of light shot from his hands like a beam and smashed into three Revenants nearby with a rupturing metallic screech. The beam disappeared as fast as it was unleashed, leaving a screeching echo.

The three Revenants were gone, vaporized by the beam as he fell to his knee, his nose pouring blood as he panted. He soon was surrounded by hungry Newbloods, his fatigued body preventing him from moving. Divad rushed to his aid but was too late; after a shortlived struggle, the horde quickly overpowered him.

Divad watched in horror and listened to Gabriel's anguishing screams as pieces of his armor were torn off and flung in the air with fragments of his clothes ripped from their place. It was a hard and grotesque scene to behold, their comrades in arms being torn apart and eaten alive by the swarm of unremorseful sharks. A large pool of blood flowed from the horde, some of the Revenants trying to get into the pile jolted to the floor to slurp the crimson puddle.

Divad stood side by side with Jace and Mikial as Tallinn plunged his body in front of them, continuously drawing his bow, his metallic arrows firing into various Newbloods, as many as he could fire. He quickly jerked his bow to his waist, causing it to fold into itself and flew back the hood from his armored tunic and crouched down with a bow from his waist, his eyes locked on the horde.

He slammed an elevated section of his gauntlet as each arrow quickly exploded, blasting his pelted targets into nothingness. Others ignored the blast and rushed back into their feeding frenzy. His attention drew to the monitors above as he jerked his head to Tallinn as their eyes met. Tallinn quickly looked to the monitors and pulled his arms back, his hands glowing bright with a dark green radiance.

Divad pulled back his arms as a glowing red flame ignited in his mouth. With a hard push from his neck, a stream of thick flames forced from his breath and streamed toward the monitors, stretching from his mouth like a flaming tongue. The flames pelted the first pole and melted the steel.

The Newbloods jerked their heads above and watched as they slowly stood, their postures straightening while each of them wiped the foam from their mouths. They each seemed more docile as if they were once again in control of their bodies as they looked around.

They turned their attention to Divad and just stood there, watching the stream of fire continue to melt the pole above. Each Newblood, now Revenants as the blood fed their virus, took a step toward the four of them, the melted pole pulling from place as the monitors began to collapse.

Tallinn cracked his neck and leapt into the air, smashing his glowing fist into the ground as giant jagged boulders pierced through the hard tile floor, knocking the infected Foyers off their feet. Just before the monitors crashed into the floor, Jace rushed for a wall outlet and slapped her hand over its surface, thick streaks of electricity forcing from the wall and wrapping around her arms as she threw her hand toward the Revenants with a loud war cry.

The brilliant white streaks of lightning forced from her hand into the monitors. Mikial quickly rotated his waist, his knee gently touching the ground. He crossed his arms together as a large glowing dome sprang off his skin and covered his fellow warriors. The monitors blew up with brilliant explosions, shooting massive rubble in every direction, crashing into the energized dome, the Foyers' bodies nearly blowing away from the carcass of their friend.

Divad rushed for his baton and tightened his grip as the glowing blade materialized, twirling it around from his feet to his face. The fires died down as the dome disintegrated leaving them unharmed. The Revenants slowly stood, the blast having little to no effect on them—battered but intact, and turned their hard gaze toward them.

He slowly pushed back his leg, sliding his foot across the floor as he lowered his sword. With an arch from his neck, he widened his mouth as the Revenants charged. His eyes bulged from their sockets as a massive stream of flames spewed from his mouth and engulfed two of the workers. Lit ablaze, the workers moaned in agonizing pain as they fell to the floor, the fires eating their bodies.

The flaming stream died out, as Tallinn was shoved out of the way, Divad's firm hand pushing him to the side, standing in front of Jace and Mikial. He rotated his sword with such a fluid motion, he hacked into each Revenant with ease, slicing off arms, legs…anything he could. Each body part flaked away into burning ash as he cleanly decapitated each one.

He turned his head and fixed his eyes on the corpses of his fellow assassins as he watched their still bodies shake in a violent temper, the fallen bodies of his foes behind him now burning as hot ash into nothingness. The once dead warriors slowly arched to their feet and jerked their gaze toward them, their glare like the others before them, a wild animal hungry for fresh meat.

Divad slowly rotated the blade of his sword, resting the glowing tip to the floor. The infected soldiers charged with mouths full of thick foam as they growled. He held his ground and closed his eyes, relaxed in stance as his three warriors stood still, confident in their commander's skills. Tarious reached him first. Divad spun around to avoid their clash and swung his blade with enough force to slice clean and quick, Tarious bursting into hot ash.

He spun on the ground with an extended leg as his back shin bashed into the Gabriel's back knee, knocking him to his back. He rolled and plunged his hand into his face, gripping hard with tight fingers. Brilliant red flames forced from his palm and engulfed his head as screeches filled the room, Gabriel's body aggressively flying about until he turned into burning flakes. He slowly stood up as the others approached.

"You three fought bravely today… Send for a containment unit to pacify the atrium," he ordered. "Jace, I want ADEN online and the full audio log downloaded to the citadel." He walked away, "Tallinn, as our designated Gaeao, would you please grant their exsequiae? Our brothers' sacrifices will be honored."

Tallinn reached in a sack at his side and pulled a small leather-bound book, unlocking the pick along the cover to open it as he flipped through the pages. Divad looked toward him as Jace slowly looked away with swelling eyes, angered and hurt. Divad pulled a shawl from his neck and covered his mouth and nose, the ancient symbol of the kingdom's patron goddess embossed on its cloth.

Jace, Tallinn, and Mikial all did the same with their shawls. One by one, they pulled long hoods over their heads, hiding their eyes in shadow. They stood still as stone as they slowly bowed in respect.

"The vulgate tells us that death is not the end," Tallinn read. "Mourn not for this loss, but revel in gain. For though death is final in this world, eternal peace is freely given in the next. The embrace of the blessed mother transcends death and grants the soul everlasting life."

Tallinn closed the book and carefully locked its cover, placing it back in its home as he and the others took a bow.

"Blessed be the name of Gaeanna," they all said in unison, "the mother of creation and life everlasting. Guide our brothers home to your embrace. Grant them peace…so let it be."

"That was beautiful, son," Jace said. "You honored them well."

An eerie peace filled the atrium as they dispersed; Mikial and Divad examining the crime scene while Jace and Tallinn returned to the computer hub. They persistently typed away, their minds still fresh on the ancient ritual performed over their fallen comrades. Divad shook his head and intensely glared at the computer screen. Overhead lights began to brighten the room.

"Power restored at 60 percent," Tallinn shouted as Divad headed over. "That's the best I can do. Most of the power cells were badly damaged."

"I have ADEN online, sir…," Jace continued the good news.

"Avia, now Aden?" Mikial said, "I've never liked AIs… no offense, Avia."

"None taken Staff Sergeant." the voice now echoed throughout the Atrium speakers, "Though I am a form of artificial intelligence, I prefer to be known as your teammate."

"I meant no disrespect, AVIA," Mikial continued.

"I do not get offended… You should know, however, that Adenis not an artificial intelligence, but a digitized assistant program with limited logical programming… Advanced Digital Entity Network is a virtual intelligence which simulates consciousness."

"ADEN," Divad shouted as a blue virtual man materialized over top of a white dome on the floor, "I am Chief-Commander Tarso of the Raven Order…give me a full status report."

"Rental scan verified… Compliance…Critical failure… this… [incoherence]…terminal…[static]…suffered significant damage," the male computer voice brokenly echoed, some of his voice masked with incoherence, "Most of my operating systems… [incoherence]…currently offline. Power cells…[incoherence]…forty percent."

"AVIA, can you clean this up?" Divad asked.

"I have tried Commander; his quantum programming has been severely damaged."

"ADEN, can you tell me what happened within the last forty-eight hours?"

"Compliance…processing…Critical failure…[incoherence]…systems occurred forty-nine hours ago after an explosion…[static]…my operating…[incoherence]…entrances to the atrium. Hostile anomalies breached security…[incoherence]…entering by force…[static]…the Foyers. My emergency protocol…[incoherence]…online and sealed the atrium to… [incoherence]…contamination. Unfortunately, invading hostiles…[incoherence]…outside the entrance before…[incoherence]…protocol went online."

"ADEN, enter live feed outside Garrison within a one-hundred-mile radius."

The screen materialized to security footage of a campground, held together by tents and various campfires. The screen zoomed and focused on a large number of blue bodies.

"Warning," Aden said, "hostile anomalies detected; inferred scanners indicate… [incoherence]…fifty-five Revenants…[incoherence]…the Badlands…[static]…forest."

"Activate the automated weapon system to detect body temperatures stable at 16.1° Celsius!" Divad shouted his order to the program, "Shoot to kill."

"Compliance…"