PROLOUGE

May 1, 1970, Somewhere off the coast of Vietnam

VIRTUOUS

"Frequency Generators are operating at full capacity."

"Electromagnetic Coils charging."

"Check and check".

"All stations at standby."

"Check."

"Captain, we are ready for go."

"Roger that, test begins in T-minus five minutes".

So far everything had been going according to plan. The EM Coils and Frequency Generators were all running nominally and the U.S.S. Virtuous was in top shape, its crew's morale high, all of its crew ready for this latest test, this latest rigor. The Bridge crew was in perfect order as well, keeping their ship under control and in order. First Officer James P. Fitzgerald was confident that whatever on God's green earth the U.S. Navy's plan for his ship was, it would go off smoothly and without a hitch. He was told only what his CO, Captain James Parker, knew himself. The scientists and researchers that had taken up residence with them these last few months were going to try out a radical new idea. These Scientists believed that generating both an electromagnetic field around the ship's hull using huge Tesla Coils, and bombarding the air around the ship with high frequency sound waves with something called a Sonic Sound Generator, would cause the ship to essentially become "invisible" not only to the magnetic mines that clogged the various waterways and canals that crisscrossed Vietnam like a checkerboard, but to the naked eye itself.

In the simplest terms, they were going to "cloak" the ship, science-fiction style.

In theory, the electromagnetic coils would negate the vessel's electromagnetic field, making her undetectable to magnetic mines. At the same time the Sonic Generator would charge the air around the ship, creating a "mirage effect". It would seem as if the ship had done a disappearing act. All the enemy would see would be a faint shimmer in the distance.

It sounded like madness to him. Then again, Vietnam was a war of madness. If this test was successful, the Viet Cong and the Communists in general would never know what it was that hit them, literally. He let his mind wander for a moment as he stared out at the deck, now cluttered with strange electronics and equipment. The potential for such technology was immense.

But potential success was still three minutes away, and maybe not even so. These things, to the best of his knowledge, had never been done before, but the pace of war caused many seemingly exotic and harebrained ideas to be questioned by the Military for possible use as weapons against their enemies. As in this case, it was super electromagnetism, sonic frequencies, and the Communists.

Fitzgerald only hoped that if this experiment were successful this night, its results would bring about a quick end to the Vietnam War. And he would be able to return home to his wife and young daughter. She would be turning Three this August.

"Two minutes to Test Sir."

"Roger that, Ensign."

The Chief Scientist aboard, Dr Ashton Cray, was making notes on a small clipboard. Two of his assistants, Dr. Anna West and Dr. Franz Hopper, were standing to either side of him, taking notes and/or making observations. Cray's colleague and good friend, Dr. Winston, was on the forward deck, making last-minute preparations with the crew.

"Commence final preparation stage."

"Aye-Aye sir."

"Electromagnetic Coils charging."

"Current regulators at one hundred percent."

"The Sonic Generators are active."

"All systems are still in the green."

"Roger that", the Captain says.

Fitzgerald turns to the Captain. "Captain, Permission to speak freely?"

"Granted." The Captain replies.

"I just realized something, Sir. We could all be at home right now, reading a book, instead of out here in the middle of nowhere, reading a book and not screwing with the Laws of Physics."

"I realized that when I joined the Academy."

That got chuckles out of several of the Bridge crew.

"Sixty seconds to test start", one of them says.

"Commence remaining preparation sequences," The Captain orders.

"Power distribution is grid at full power capacity."

"EM coils fully charged."

"Sonic Generators at one hundred percent charge"

"Thirty seconds to test."

The deck began to glow with a bluish light as the EM coils began to radiate with energy. At the same time, everyone began to hear a strange ringing in their ears.

"That ringing you may be hearing is the supersonic frequency being generated by the Sonic Fields," Shouted Cray, as if to make himself heard over the hum.

No one mentioned the hum, thought Fitzgerald as he began to wince from the sound. It wasn't painful, but annoying and making it difficult to think. The glow began to intensify around the ship. The surrounding waters seemed to shimmer and distort in strange ways. By all accounts, the thing seemed to be working. Well I be damned, thought Fitzgerald, it was going to work.

"Ten Seconds!" He suddenly heard above the roar he now was hearing.

The Virtuous literally began to vibrate. The lights began to flicker all over the ship. Monitors and dials began to malfunction.

"Captain, our sensors are malfunctioning!"

"Five, four, three-"

A monitor exploded at the far end of the bridge. Glass flew across the deck. An Ensign on the Bridge clutched his face, howling in agony.

The same instant arcs of electricity danced across the bulkheads on the deck of the ship, causing stored munitions to detonate in a spectacular fire works display. Metal fragments smashed through the Bridge's windows. One operator caught a piece right through his neck, cleanly decapitating him. A fountain of blood took the place of his head as it bounced across the deck, a surprised look in its face. Another fragment glanced off Fitzgerald's own head, slicing to the bone and sending him sprawling to the ground, barely conscious.

"Shit!" Someone screamed. Bridge operators took cover. Captain parker's fist flew down on the emergency stop on his armrest. To his horror, the countdown continued.

"Two, one-"

"DAMMIT!" was the last word Fitzgerald heard Parker say.

"Zero!"

"Too late!" Fitzgerald heard someone scream bloody murder before blacking out. At the same moment, everyone and everything on the Virtuous vanished in a blinding, blue-white light.

At that instant, the Virtuous seemingly vanished from existence, though only for a second, as the next second it reappeared, but radically changed. The charred, burnt-out hulk of the Virtuous suddenly materialized, looking as if it had went through Hell itself. According to the survivors, it wasn't far from the truth. Out of five hundred and fifty crew, plus 4 scientists, only eleven survived the hell they claimed they had endured for what seemed an eternity. Eventually, all but three of those survivors were committed to mental institutions or insane asylums, the claims of being tortured and slaughtered systematically by monsters following a dark energy-creature muffled by cover-up and conspiracy.

And their claims that this dark evil's name was Xanadu, as well as the prediction he would soon unleash his darkness on Earth once again, were both muffled as well.