CHAPTER 3: BEGIN

Goldwood 4:00 PM, Day 4

It had been 3 days since he had seen the rebels he sent out. He lay on a tribal bed that consisted of a roughly sown mattress and some furs, sound asleep. A wristband armed with a telephone and radar suddenly began to ring, so loud that it disrupted his sleep and caused him to roll off his bed.

He clumsily got back onto the floor and looked at his wrist, still half asleep. His name was Ish, and he was the leader of the Rebellion. As he tried to force his eyes open, the device on his arm called out to him.

"ISH!"

Ish's head moved back from the yell. His face came back to the watch, and he attempted to reply, which came out as a slight mumble. "Mmm...yeh...?"

"Ish, this is urgent!" the sound was Neonis, who shared the same device on his wrist. "The drones are—"his voice was abruptly interrupted by static. Typical. These shitty machines can't get anything right... Ish thought as he shook his arm around, as if to brush the static off. Still too asleep to understand what was going on.

"—Short! You have to report this to the unio—"more static.

"...Mm-hm...did you call--me short...?"

"Ish! Get the rebels to the spaceship NOW! There's--"

"I dunno...I'm tired..."

"Ish, for Christ's sake, WAKE UP!!!"

"Wha...?"

"Just listen! The drones are------- - - - - -technology with----------project! It's housed in the-------Get rebels over now! --------------------"And with that, the static took over completely. Ish, still in a daze, held his arm to his face, trying to hear. Still static. As he moved his arm away from his ears and was about to turn it off, he thought he heard lasers sounding off and the screech of a termite, or ant, or what's-it-called. ...Neonis takes things too seriously.... was his last thought before he slid back into bed and a deep sleep.

The 'Spaceship" 4:00 AM, Day 5

It had been early in the morning that Ish woke up, now fully aware, and had remembered the strange message given to him by Neonis. Now suddenly scared of what was to come, he quickly phoned up the Rebellions to report to the Spaceship immediately. As soon as he finished this, he sprinted outside after taking his guns to meet his ship and take off, where he throttled to the place Neonis told him to come to. Ish didn't take in everything Neonis had said—lots of it was muffled by a deep static, but he heard enough to know that he had to get to Spaceship with heavy reinforcements.

Ish arrived first at the ship. He landed on a floor that had been exposed by a giant hole existing on the base since even before the Gemini team screwed Mizar over. Directly in front of him, not a couple yards more, started a narrow hallway filled with darkness. He thought he heard an unpleasant scraping of metal inside, but dismissed it as a hallucination of fear. Still, he couldn't help but think that something would lunge at him savagely and with little effort take off his head. He got lost in that thought, and when he awoke from it, shook his head and realized that he had unconsciously slipped out his pistol from its strap.

When the sound of descending ships filled the air around him, he almost jumped into the hallway. Doors opened, and out came other rebels—humans, Tribals, and the occasional airborne unit accompanying someone. All together, there was about fifteen or twenty of them, all armed with their favorite weapons.

"Beautiful night out, Ish." one human said sarcastically, rubbing his eyes. "Care to tell us what the occasion is?"

Before answering, he made sure everyone was around him. Once he had an organized and silent audience, he answered, "I've recently received report from Neonis that there has been something going on in the Space Station." Murmurs of confusion soon circulated in the crowd, and finally someone shouted out,

"What?"

Ish hesitated. "Well, um...I don't know." Silence. "...But...that's what we're here to find out, right?" Except for the occasional drowsy nods, everyone remained silent. Ish let out a sigh, and then turned towards the hallway. He motioned over his shoulder, and everyone followed him into the Spaceship.

They had been walking through the winding narrow passages of the Space Station. Every so often there were certain 'sounds' that individual members described to Ish, who walked in front of everyone. At the time one heard a noise, no one else did. It had seemed like everyone heard something, but at completely different times.

Finally, at a t intersection, a shadow crawled along the ground along the opposing wall. And this time, everyone saw it. Without saying a word, they all stopped dead in their tracks, to come sprinting after what they saw seconds later. The metal vibrated loudly with their hard footsteps, and it felt as if it echoed throughout the entire station. Ish, for a split second, saw the shadow again—and then it disappeared as Ish and his companions ran into a room.

The room was bare, except for a set of touch sensitive screens attached to the wall. Without thinking, Ish walked ahead of the other rebels towards the monitors, and reached out to touch the center one. Immediately, it responded.

:MESSAGE RECEIVED

SEND

SPACESHIP

REBELLION MEMBERS IN MOTION TO BASE

:SEND

Ish backed away, beginning to understand. He slowly turned around, to see the faces of the other rebels. They had only been standing by the doorway—too far away from the monitors--they had not seen what he had. But they had, in fact, now seen something, as their eyes grew wide and one stepped out, mumbling Ish's name, pointing behind him. Then the tribal turned around to view what they had:

PROJECT ONE BULLET SHORTPROJECT ONE BULLET SHORTROJECT ONE BULT SHORT

PROJECT ONE BULLET SHORTPROJECT ONE BULLET SHORT

PROJECT ONE BULLET RTPROJECT ONE BULLET SHORT

PROJECT ONE BULLET SH

PROJECONE BULLET SHORTPROJECT ONE BULLET SHORT

The one statement reappeared countless times until the letters started falling and jumbling. Ish's eyes stared at the screen in horror. The words, the letters, they had no meaning anymore. It was just a jumble of lines and circles. He blinked several times, trying to clear his vision, trying to shake off what he was seeing. But to no avail. And finally, the screen went blank, snapping Ish from the hypnotism he had been caught in. He ran his hand over his forehead and through his hand, somewhat relieved and worn out.

But his relief didn't last long, for there was now a large noise. The entire rebel crowd began backing out of the doorway, next to Ish. "Get your guns..." he mumbled, staring down the hallway they originally came from. Another noise came, like the denting of metal, like something big trying to crush itself through the small metal hallways. The rebels began to murmur in confusion and fear.

"What's going on?!"

"Just shut up and get your gun!"

"I think I forgot my gun—oh there it is, thank god--"

"Ah, it's coming!"

And then the sound echoed through the room that they were in. It was so loud that when Ish tried to order out commands, even he couldn't hear himself. The quake was so incredible that in its own volume, everything was at silence. Seconds before Ish thought his ears were ready to burst, it stopped with such speed that it seemed to pierce everyone and leave them on their knees.

The Tribal's eyes were closed, and his hands jammed on his ears as he lay on his knees in agony. He dared a muffled mutter of anguish and horror as they all lay there, beaten senseless by a mere sound. As Ish slowly opened his eyes, he realized something wasn't right. Everything around him was dimmer, farther away. It was as if he was looking through someone else's eyes and not his own. He turned his head towards one wall and saw a scrawling. It was a cut in the wall that hadn't been there before, and Ish was sure of it.

PROJECT ONE BULLET SHORT---

He once again blinked and tried to wipe away what he was seeing. "What...the hell is happening here?!" was one of the hundreds of thoughts flying through his head.

ISH HELP ME....

THE DRONES HAVE THE WEAPON...

"N-n-neon—nis...?" The words were cutting themselves in the wall viciously.

STAY AWAY FROM THE DRONES—REPORT TO UNION-----

"Neonis, what's...what's happening?" he muttered, seeking refuge in the words he saw on the wall. If it was Neonis, then maybe—just maybe...he could work out of this and figure it all out. Maybe.

THE PROJECT IS DEADLY-- STAY AWAY
STAY AWA-Y

ISH

THEY SAY THEY'RE HEADED TO THE PALACE—TELL FLAMES BEFORE ITS TOO LATE—

Now the wall was filled with letters, so it began to work its way down to the floor Ish was standing on. Meanwhile, the rebels had recovered and were looking at Ish in astonishment.

"What's he doing?"

"Ssssh!"

"Is Ish going mad?"

"I don't see anything, do you?"

"What's happening?"

HURRY

With that final word, all Ish could do was stare in amazement. Finally, as if to provoke him to start moving, a slash was cut into the floor less than a foot from where he was. Then he got up, and motioned the others to come to him.

"Ish, what was that?" one tribal stood out.

"Did you see it?"

"See...what?"

"Never mind." he paused. "We're going to stop by the Ichor base, then go to Mizar's Palace." The other Tribal's face itself was a question, but Ish ignored him and walked into the hallway leading outside where they would find their ships. Ish had ignored Neonis's advice to report to the Union...and that decision would decide the end of this war.

CHAPTER 3: END