The crowd before the screen held their
breaths, their flesh rippling. And as they gaped at the screen,
where the terrifying scene was being relayed to them, the red man’s
lips twitched in a mirthless grin.
“Ladies and gentlemen of the spectrum,” he
said softly. “I have waited for eight thousand years for it. And
now, allow me to tell you that my name … is Redgarn.”
The final word of this proclamation seemed to
leave behind a thundering effect.
The crowd gathered before the screen looked
at each other, eyes widened, jaws open. Half of them were beginning
to question the validity of what they were watching, but Redgarn
threw his head back and gave a cackle of laughter.
“This is not a joke, dear world. I’ve come
back, after eight long millennia for
you
. To haunt you.”
__________
Finiros, Mraud republic, Cluster 65
Every pair of eyes in the hallway was peeled
wide. The air in the large office seemed to stagnate, a sense of
unreality and horror breeding through the silence.
The hall seemed to have forgotten itself.
Forgotten everything other than the large screen perched amidst
it.
Everyone in the office, every fully
functional intelligence in the hall was exploding with the same
question:
Redgarn? …
The
Redgarn?
Could what they had heard really be?
The short silence passed and the man with the
ravaged look went on:
“You oppressed us. You prosecuted and chased
us out. For eight thousand years my brethren, the mystics, have
suffered at the hands of this deluded world. And now,” He tilted
his head, and the rip of a smile formed on his face. “we return
what you gave us.”
He walked forward, so that his terrible
features magnified over the screen. “This will be the day you shall
all remember. The day the Order of Xeni returns…”
A loud
cling
came as someone in the
office dropped a z-com, the sound ten times as loud in the
silence.
“After eight thousand years of exile, hidden
in the darkest depths of this spectrum,” went on Redgarn. “We now
come back to finish what we started … and our fury has never been
worse.
My
fury has never been worse. I shall prove it to
you, today.”
__________
Larovez, Selicron republic, Cluster 62
The earlier bustle and commotion in the hotel
had now died out, leaving a piercing silence. Every face in the
large, elegant hallway had its eyes strapped to the screen,
watching the realm’s greatest horror now return to life…
“This day shall forever mark our return”
Redgarn continued. “This is the day the spectrum suffers for its
treachery, and its mistreatment of its own people – or rather, the
greatest kind among its people. Today we release a wrath like no
other, pent up through eight thousand years.”
Redgarn paused, and drew in a deep breath.
“We have wired ten planets in the spectrum with high end electro
bombs. And every one hour, we shall blow one of them off…”
He said this very slowly, as if giving space
for every word to sink in, and stab his audience.
Redgarn’s smile stretched longer. “Oh, don’t
just sit there: you never know, one of them could be your planet,
couldn’t it?”
Suddenly, the silence was in the hotel was
breaking, and panic and confusion were sparking. People looked
about gasping and muttering, their faces all rising with alarm.
__________
Palem, Udro republic, Cluster 41
The air in the conference room was as cold as
ice. Every pair of eyes sitting around the large conference table
was gauntly stretched wide, watching the news channel. The holo
screen that was showing this new madness hung before the wall at
the back of the room. And Redgarn stared out with his bead like,
red eyes from inside of the holo screen. Red eyes that seemed to
sear the air in the room as they gazed out at it.
What he had just declared left a deafening
blare in the minds of everyone in the conference room.
Ten bombs. In ten planets…
Could this really be happening?
“Let me repeat,” Redgarn cleared his throat.
“There are ten unnamed planets in the spectrum which we have wired
with high end electro bombs. Every one hour, we will blow one of
them off…Every hour, starting with
now.
” He dug his hand
into his robe pocket, pulling out what looked like a trigger, and
pressed it…
As inferno ripped apart the conference room,
the men in the room opened their mouth for the meanest split second
to scream. But before their screams had left their throat, the
entire planet disappeared behind a blinding, white hot flare that
destroyed it, spewing its smithereened remains for thousands of
miles out into space…
__________
Utakor, Outer spectrum
“One down,” said Redgarn, the insane glow in
his eyes brightening. “nine more to go. They could be any planet.
Anywhere.”
Ion’s jaw had been open the whole time. On
either side, Mantra and Dantox stood with an icy rigidness, their
eyes clutched to the small screen perched at the corner of the
restaurant they were now inside of.
“Every hour from now on,” said Redgarn. “You
will agree with me, that I’m a man of my word. Like no other. Until
then, keep up the faith, gentlemen. And the let the hysteria …
begin.”
With that, the screen dissolved back into
nothing.
Ion needed a moment to wrench his gaze from
the screen, and turning at Mantra by his right.
The silence seemed to carry a quiet screech
of horror.
The cluster of dragonflies buzzed about the
room harmlessly, the only living inhabitants of the place other
than the three Nyon. Their wings were all varied in colour, so that
it almost looked like a bunch of small, fluttering colours floated
about the place. A perfect irony for the colourless, pitch black
situation they were now in.
Mantra’s hazy white eyes lingered on where
the screen had been for a long moment. And then, he slowly met
Ion’s gaze and sighed. “I thought our position couldn’t get worse.”
He shook his head. “I’m afraid I was terribly wrong.”
Dantox, whose mouth was still slightly ajar,
shook his head in an expression of crushing disbelief. “There
couldn’t be a worse position than now.”
Mantra beckoned for the two of them to
follow. They moved to one of the restaurant’s tables, seating
themselves around it in a circle.
“It’s happening.” Mantra said, his tone dark
with foreboding. “To release the demon army, they need to fill the
world with the life of Mezmeron first. They need to fill the world
with anarchy. And it’s happening … they’re doing just that.”
They’re blowing off ten whole planets!” said
Dantox, shaking his head. “They’re setting the anarchy level loose
to the worst possible level: the entire spectrum would be in
complete hysteria soon.”
Mantra shook his head. “They’re creating the
worst level of hysteria by
telling
the people that they
would blow off ten planets, and
then
blowing them off.
That’s exactly what they need for anarchy. All over the spectrum,
this message would have triggered a state of mass mayhem. There
would be chaos like no other. And when they slowly blow off one
planet after the other,” He heaved a tragic sigh. “They’ll send
everything spinning well off bounds. Imagine the panic, confusion
and hysteria that would grip the people. And it’s already started …
the wheels are already in motion. And nothing can now stop
them.”
Mantra was a little too right.
__________
Halox, Capital of Valdron republic, Cluster
34
The tense thudding of a group of feet echoed
within the hallway, as a group of suited men stormed down it. The
president was at the frontmost of them, surrounded by his two
bodyguards, his defense minister and a few other government
officials. The lot of them paced down the large hall that led to
the president’s office, all of their faces masked with the same
gravely intense looks.
“Alert every squadron there is in the entire
republic,” the president was saying, his head half turned to his
defense minister who strode along by his right. “And get them to
pull in every officer there is – on duty, off duty – and get them
working now.”
The defense minister nodded hurriedly, his
stride unfaltered as he walked down in a dashy pace with the entire
group of them. “Our armed forces have been called in an immediate
alert. We’re going to send them across all seventeen planets.”
“Do it, do it now.” rushed on the president.
“Send them in now.”
Another of the suited men who was gazing at a
screen before him, atop his z-com, spoke in an equally tense
tone:
“Sir, we’re using satellite imagery to give
us electro radiation spikes in any of our seventeen planets.
They’ll send us a scan in a minute.”
“Good, good.” said the president, as the
entire group of them swept down the hall. “We’ll need it all.”
“It’ll be no use.” Pointed out the defense
minister. “The terrorists would’ve covered the bomb, to shield its
electro radiation.”
The president knew this was true.
“We’re having extra forces called upon,” said
another of the suited men. “to aid the army in scouring the
seventeen planets.”
For the first time since he had seen the
ghastly newsflash that had been telecast across the entire
spectrum, the president stopped himself to heave a deep breath.
“Men, we’re facing crisis. A crisis like no
other. Our republic consists of seventeen planets. One of those
bombs could be on any one of them.” He glanced across the others
walking along with him. “We’ve seen that these terrorists are true
to their word: they blew off Haolo, and Palem. If we lose any of
our planets…”
He didn’t have to finish the sentence. All of
them nodded in agreement, their expressions as grim as could
be.
One of the suited men by the president’s
right was attending a voice call in his z-com, his tone as anxious
as possible.
“Get all the heads of the planets,” he was
saying. “And have them report to us about the developments –”
Before the president could hear him finish
the sentence, a fierce beeping emitted from his suit pocket. He
hastily drew his z-com, and pressed a button to answer the incoming
call. The entire lot of them peered into the holo screen that rose
above the president’s z-com. Inside of it was the commander of
their special forces. The Iveling wore a grave frown, giving a
faint nod at the president before hurriedly saying, “Mr. President,
we’re facing real trouble across the republic. The citizens of
Harog, Menzo and many other planets are calling for immediate
emergency action. They want us to dispatch our troops to their
planets for scouring traces of the bomb.”
“But the Special Forces are already doing all
they can!” came the tense voice of the defense minister.
“They’re panicking,” said the commander,
shaking his head. “and protests are breaking out over many planets.
They want us to attend to them each personally … but we’re far too
short of men to scout through all seventeen planets to search for
the bomb.”
For the first time in his entire term in
office, the president felt a choked, helpless feeling. One that he
had never before given in to. No matter how large the crisis … But
this time, he couldn’t help it. He let hopelessness smother
him.
“All right,” he said with a shallow nod. “Do
your best to calm the protests. Tell them we’re doing all we can,
to see if one of the bombs is –”
Before he could finish it, another tense
beeping emitted from his right: the defense minister was having a
call.
As he pulled out the z-com and answered the
call, they saw their chief commissioner of this planet’s police.
The defense minister tilted the device, so that the screen over it
faced the president. Still holding the screen with the commander of
the Special Forces, the president turned to the other screen.
Without bothering with niceties, the chief commissioner burst forth
in a tense voice:
“Mr. president, the situation in the
capital’s bad,
real
bad! The citizens want emergency
evacuation … they’re expecting us to send vessels to carry them off
to the outer spectrum, which they believe is safer right now!”
The president could feel the tension in the
atmosphere climb rapidly.
“But we don’t have that many vessels!” he
exclaimed, his pulse zooming as he came to face the full scale of
the disaster they were now in. “we’ve hardly got enough transport
for –”
“I know, but all over our cities now, the
protestors have put a block in public transport. They’re attempting
to break into the ships and cruisers and use them for fleeing …
we’re seeing similar mayhem all over the republic!”
The president looked front, feeling a
bloodless, gaunt expression slowly stretch across his face.
This
is a nightmare come to life…