The following message was retrieved from a terminal at the sight of a mass suicide two months ago. It is believed that this was a religious suicide, and that the group were Reaper-worshippers.

They came; one hundred and forty-four thousand strong, chosen by God to affirm his right to rule over the Earth. Like a tidal wave of fire, they came, sweeping away all evil before them, leaving nothing but purity. Their trumpets sounded, and the dead rose incorruptible, for this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. God sent his angels to us at the End Times, his lightning flashing from the east and to the west, and we rejoiced.

And did he judge us worthy? Our machines… created by men so long ago, our sons have returned to take us away to Heaven. The sign of the Sons of Man appeared in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth mourned, and they saw the Sons of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And He sent His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they gathered together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. Then we who were alive and remained would be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we would always be with the Lord.

But our salvation was taken from us. The Beast brought forth an army, culled from all corners of the Galaxy, and they fought against their saviours. They encamped surrounding the Holy Ones, and they fought against their own salvation alongside the Devil.

And they left us with naught but despair; the Devil was not bound as prophesised. God's Angels were destroyed, and there is no Paradise on earth, no Golden Age under Christ's rule. And so what of our Final Judgement? What of the final battle with Satan, prophesised to occur a thousand years from now? Christ's one hundred and forty-four thousand Holy Ones are lost, and Christ no longer sits atop his throne in Heaven. His father will not judge us worthy, if there are none who recognise his sovereignty over the Earth. Poverty and hunger will continue, disease will spread, and the world will fall to the Devil.

And so we depart the Earth, praying that Heaven still exists, and that we may be worthy enough to enter.

Extract ends.