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Rakoua
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« on: September 22, 2008, 02:55:50 pm » |
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The Arsenal of Freedom
Lightning struck straight down onto a metallic tower, resulting in it's destruction. The area around the tower, usually surrounded by a transparent orange dome, was set on fire. The dome was no more. All around one could see broken towers, electricity sparking all around them. Every now and then an explosion would happen, eating away the rainforest in the area bit by bit.
This was no ordinary lightning storm, it seemed. It was like nothing ever seen before... And it wasn't accidental that it passed trough all defenses and destroyed the defense grid of the area.
The storm, after unleashing it's full fury on the area, disintergrated, only to be replaced by another storm, this one made of screams and death. It wasn't long before the once green and dense rainforest was now a burnt wasteland full of dead bodies. It was as if the ground exploded.
The night sky was clear, moonlight and starlight illuminating the destroyed landscape. And out of the death life emerged. At first it was only a small movement, but then one person woke up. His face was badly burnt, his hands were covered with blood... But he could walk. Looking toward all around himself, he wondered... All these years of instability, all these years of fighting...
But the grid never failed. It was sabotaged.
The man walked to what was the only tower left standing. It's metal was twisted and the transmitter was melted, but it will do. The shield generator's computer should provide access to the defense grid.
But it was deleted... And now it was clear.
In the now flat landscape, one could see far away. And what caught the man's attention wasn't what was there, but what wasn't...
He had spent many years at his position, and allways massive towers of modern material had dominated the horizon. But now... There were none.
The tower wasn't small at all, actually... It was a building, ten meters tall, with two floors. Bellow was a cargo bay, and a hangar.
Whitout speaking a word, the man entered. He never exited... The tower collapsed taking his life with it.
Seconds after that happened, miles away, there was a meeting. Five people were in the meeting room, under the large flag containing hand on a red and yellow background. The men weren't dressed properly for the occasion, being in war uniforms. They even had guns, but luckily none of those were pointed in an... Unfortunate direction.
"Why, in the world, did you call this meeting in the middle of a battle, while antimatter missiles fly right next to our windows? I, honestly don't see the point! We all know our faith, discussing it will only speed up our destruction!" Someone yelled.
The man that was sitting under the large flag spoke.
"Because I have one more weapon at my disposal. You said a storm destroyed the southern defense grid and let the enemies in?"
The man that spoke before nodded.
"The storm was caused by a discharge in the atmosphere, destroying a part of our weather controll matrix. It caused a discharge of all the energy kept locked behind the matrix. If we should shut down the entire matrix..."
Another man stood up.
"The only safe place would be inside the Fortress! Thoushands would die!"
"They would die even if we didn't do it."
"Sir, don't play with energy storms. It would destroy everything inside the grid..."
"That's the point. Now, evacuate everyone you can inside. I'll go face to face with the defenses of the controll center."
The conversation stopped, and the men left the room.
The man's name was Asteno... He was brave, but foolish. This was his worst idea yet... And nobody could understand the fact that it could actually work.
So Asteno walked into the first room of defense.
Three lasers, two swinging axes, seven flamethrowers and a falling floor stood between him and the second challenge...
Asteno knew how to pass them. The floor was in small squares, and there was a system to pass the traps.
Two to the left, one forward, three to the left, three forward, two to the left, one forward and there you were.
Oh, and the flame thrower.
Asteno didn't remember how to avoid it so he just ran into the next room.
This one was empty. No traps, or so it seemed. Asteno moved forward... The part of the floor collapsed. Then Asteno noticed that there were numbers on the floor.
"Oh come on, did the guy who was designing this have to watch Indiana Jones? Those movies are three hundred years old! SHEESH!" He said and ran over the floor, it collapsing under him... But by some crazy game of luck, he got to the other side.
It was the controll room. There were spikes on the ceiling and on the floor, too far to jump... But he had to try.
If the scream that he yelled out while falling was any louder it would have shattered the mirror he fell on. He was Finlay in the room.
"Access code needed." The computer said.
Asteno was not authorized to know it... He was only a lieutenant anyway. But he had suspected it to be the name of the rebellion...
Typing in the words carefully, as if knowing that a wrong answer would kill him, he typed in:
T. H. E. . A. R. S. E. N. A. L. . O. F. . F. R. E. E. D. O. M.
The controll matrix begun to overload. Sparks flew on the keyboard, and Asteno ran as fast as he could, ignoring the fact that the traps almost killed him on his way.
When he walked into the normal hallways of the building, he saw people. Thoushands of people. Someone greeted him and told him that there was nobody dead... And that he forgot to tell him the code to deactivate the traps. That was unimportant though...
Asteno walked to a window. Outside were ruined buildings, but the sky was clear... It seemed that the weather controll matrix destabilized for long enough to destroy everything, but then it repaired itself again.
He wasn't happy for what he had done... Hundreds of years of work, destroyed... But nobody else really cared. They were happy to live in peace once again... Even though there was nothing left to keep in peace. Everything was in pieces.
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