December 22 2021
The God Hachiman of Rhozgelia
A Horrific Glimpse
White.
All I see is white.
The land itself is bleached with nothing but plains as far as the eye can see. There were no clouds above, only the blue sky.
Where the hell am I?
The last thing that I remember, I was meditating at the top of the mountain and balancing my two Cores after summoning a legion of golems to repair the ship and using some of my vessels in my Gate as spare parts. Everyone was elated at my idea, especially Marine who cried tears of joy. I'm sure she would have leapt into my arms and kissed me were her legs still not numb. I left Suu, Lemonplume and Liz to keep Rushia company and make sure that she doesn't run off on her own again and also my high-level Command Golem to keep the repair in order and on schedule. My meditation won't end for some time and I already told the others that I won't be back in a few days.
What I'm seeing right now must be a vision or a dream. But that also brings me to another fact: Gods experience neither of those.
I look down at my hand, it was shimmering and composed of nothing but light. On the white ground was a spear and shield composed from my Divinity. Behind me were my eight golden wings of light, and after closing my eyes and giving myself a full-body scan, it looks like I have a halo above and behind my head which rotated and spun like a flaming wheel.
I see… This must be my true form: being composed of light and pure divine energy and incomprehensible to lower lifeforms. I tried summoning Mai, but she isn't with me. Nor are the countless other creatures that I made my familiars. I was completely alone. My Gates work but I can't bring any of my possessions out.
The spear and shield float and hover beside me. I kneel with one knee, the ground shaking as cracks start to form. The air hums and buzzes in response to my concentration. I fly up to the sky with a single leap, breaking the ground that I stood on a mere second ago and going past the speed of sound. I was in the upper atmosphere in a blink of an eye and even from here, all I see is white plains along the curvature of the planet. And I see some sort of white wall of wind that blocks my vision far in the distance.
I look up to see the emptiness of space and the stars. I slowly ascent to confirm my fears.
I felt the pull of the planet let go of me, and soon I was floating in zero gravity.
…
…
…
Impossible.
T-This shouldn't be possible.
Mother has an impenetrable shield around the planet that prevents her Divine children from escaping her embrace. The only exemption was me when I merged with my other Self from another reality. Then this would mean that this planet is…
Earth, my homeworld with its surfaced bleached and wiped off everything.
Something caught my eye tumbling around in space when it reflected the light from the Sun. I fly towards the thing to find out that it was debris from something manmade. It was in the form of a cylinder six times as large as a Marine's ship and had other connecting pieces. Or more, it's difficult to estimate its size since I don't have anything to compare it to. I gulp when I realize what I was looking at after going inside and seeing the broken monitors, control panels and life support systems. I see the flags of the nations of Earth, one in particular stands above the rest.
This is…the flag of the massive country to the west of my home.
…
So…
So this would mean that this is the remains of the Russian module from the International Space Station. Or perhaps something else entirely that was jointly made in secret. Earlier before I was transported away, I recall rumours and conspiracy theories going around but I dismissed them as hearsay. I mean, who would believe that the nations of Earth are putting massive space stations in space in fear of something out there? I certainly wouldn't.
I go to the controls to see if they still work after I sent an electric pulse through the module. One of the monitors flicker to life and I quickly float towards it. It had restarted and requested which language to be shown by sheer luck. I go and choose my native tongue and start going through anything that could tell me what happened to my planet. The monitor shows me the Station's logs and most recent events:
DECEMBER 31 20XX
14:00 [WARNING! WARNING! ALERT! ALERT!]
-[ENERGY SPIKES DETECTED IN ORBIT]
14:00 [UNIDENTIFIED OBJECTS DETECTED IN ORBIT]
14:00 [SOYUZ-MK13-X001 EARLY WARNING SYSTEM CONFIRMS INSTANTANEOUS APPEARACE]
-[EXPLANATION: UNKNOWN]
14:13 [COMMUNICATIONS FROM BERLIN, TORONTO, BEIJING, NEW DELHI, TOKYO, WASHINGTON, PARIS, LONDON, STOCKHOLM, MOSCOW AND ST. PETERSBURG AND 50 OTHERS ARE CUT]
-[REMAINING CHANNELS: HOUSTON, HAWAII, NORTH AMERICAN FEDERATION ANTARCTIC BASE, MT. KILOMANJARO OBSERVATORY, MT. EVEREST RESEARCH BASE, FRENCH PACIFIC TERRITORIES, NEW SEOUL AND RUSSIAN PACIFIC EXPLORATORY FLEET AND 9 OTHERS]
14:15 [CONTACTING STATIONS IN ORBIT…]
[…]
[…]
[…]
14: 30 [RUSSIAN, JAPANESE, CHINESE, INDIAN AND NEW KOREAN REPUBLIC STATIONS ACCOUNTED FOR]
-[N.A.F, OCEANIAN UNION AND EU STATIONS HEAVILY DAMAGED FROM UNKNOWN FORCES]
[OTHERS: NO CONTACT]
14:32 [ORBITAL EXPLOSIONS DETECTED OVER THE WEST PHILIPPINE SEA]
[SCANNING...]
[…]
[…]
14:40 [IDENTIFICATION CODES MATCH THE S.E.A FEDERATION CENTRAL COMMUNICATIONS SATELLITE]
-[LIKELIHOOD OF SURVIVORS: 0% DUE TO NO ESCAPE PODS LAUNCHED]
14:45 [SENDING 3 RESCUE DRONES TO SEARCH THE AREA]
-[ETA 3 MINUTES AND 10 SECONDS]
14:45 [INITIATING XENO PROTOCOLS RED AND HOSTILE]
-[ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE MIKHAIL PRIORITIZING CREW AND STATION SAFETY]
- [FOLDING SOLAR PANELS AND SWITCHING TO NUCLEAR POWER]
- [SEALING WINDOWS AND REINFORCING HULL]
- [CHANGING STATION DIRECTION TOWARDS UNKNOWN THREAT]
- [CREW MOVING TO THEIR DESIGNATED AREAS]
- [SAFETY LOCKS TO ARMAMENTS DEACTIVATED]
- [KV5-KATYUSHKA ROCKETS ARMED]
- [TAALON-15 MISSILE PODS OPENED]
- [Z01-ZHUKOV SUPER-HEAVY ARTILLERY ARMED]
- [P01-PETROV HEAVY DEFENSIVE GUNS ARMED]
- [X21-XENIA HYPERSONIC NUCLEAR MISSILES ARMED]
- [EXPERIMENTAL PLASMA WEAPONRY CHARGING: 5%]
- [EXPERIMENTAL LASER WEAPONRY CHARGING: 4%]
- [EXPERIMENTAL SHIELDING CHARGING: 1%]
- [PREPARING UNMANNED SU-100 SPACE INTERCEPTORS]
14:48 [REPAIR BOTS READY]
14:49 [AI MIKHAIL FIRING SOLUTIONS AND POSSIBLE SCENARIOS CALCULATED IN 0.0001 SECONDS]
14:50 [AI MIKHAIL AWAITING COMMANDER ORDERS]
14:52 [RECEVING TRAFFIC FROM LAND AND SPACE SOURCES… WIDESPREAD DESTRUCTION…WHITE LIGHT…MILITARIES CRIPPLED…CIVILIAN POPULATIONS DECIMATED…CITIES AND LANDSCAPES TURNING TO DUST…OCEANS EVAPORATING…]
I feel overwhelmed by the sudden surge of information and look away from the monitors. I phase through the hull and outside to lay my eyes upon my world. It is barren and devoid of any signs of civilization, save from the tall things from the ground that extend upwards into space that blocks my vision. I don't know what to feel, it's like my emotions have been sealed away.
I can only look upon my world with an empty expression. I don't know how long I spent like that, another debris floats to my right which momentarily wakes me from my trance-like state.
As I was about to go back to the surface and investigate further, I felt an intense surge of energy behind me even greater than mine. I turn around to see a large portal shimmer into existence, violently cackling with pure cosmic energy and spewing forth tongues of fire and light. Even with the cold vacuum of space, I hear its intense hum and vibration which shook my Divine core.
This is-!
A rupture in space and time that transcends reality and connects universes! The same kind that took me away!
I try to fly down but I immediately feel its pull on my entire body and try to suck me into its maw.
Shit! No! Not now! I need to know what happened to my world!
I try to escape its grasp but it only makes the pulling sensation even stronger. I was momentarily free from it when one of my golden translucent wings snapped but it immediately returned its grip on me. Despite the cracks that have appeared on my body and the broken wings, the damage is relatively insignificant. But I'm afraid that will change if I keep this up.
I cry out with newfound rage and look to the space station that tumbling through space.
I-If I can't go back to the planet, the least that I could do is-!
I open a Gate, swallowing the entire spacecraft and all the surrounding debris that I can sense nearby. The pulling sensation finally overpowers me and the cold emptiness of space suddenly becomes apparent. I take one last look at Earth, enhancing my vision several hundred times and burning everything into memory. The twinkling stars look like eyes in the dark watching me silently as I struggle and writhe helplessly against a power greater than me.
I stop resisting as my vision of my home disappears and the portal finally takes me back.