The Death of Sergeiovich
Posted: Wed Oct 22, 2003 2:33 amI made this story to accompany the closing of my account... enjoy...
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“Go here, kill this, Serg; Go there, kill that, Serg...” I muttered under my breath. “All I seem to do now is butcher everything, only to be told to run off to the other side of the planet to kill some other insignificant…” I pause my muttering as I hear my commlink gently beep in my mind. I simply think about opening the channel, and the thought-controlled commlink opens the channel to hear the urgent message.
“Sergeiovich, we have an urgent mission for you.” The voice informs me in a slightly distorted voice.
“But I am not done with the last one. It will have to wait!”
“No, your last mission is pointless now. This one is much more important. You *will* do this one. Understand?”
I mutter a gentle curse thankfully not heard by the voice sitting behind a desk in Omni-1, and the voice then continues to give me details of the next mission… And boy, it’s going to be a rough one indeed.
After crossing into the horrendously cold area known as “Penumbra”, I check my NCU for directions to my objective. Thankfully, it’s not too far into the zone, but it is right in the middle of a Redeemed camp. I make sure my Augmented Hellspinner is fully loaded, and trudge off through the snow, keeping an eye out for ambushes and guard posts.
After a short while, I see the gleaming white towers of the Redeemed camp, and sneak through some trees up to the gate. Nothing. Not a soul nearby. Some fortress this is.
I slink into the camp, and am almost to my objective when I feel something. Something isn’t right. I check my inventory, and after making sure I have everything, I am about to get moving again when all heck breaks loose.
First I see one Len-Dosa step out of the blowing snow, and then as I look around, I see that I am slowly becoming surrounded by Redeemed, and their minions.
I first mutter a few curses, send out a distress signal from my commlink, and start blasting away. I eventually have to throw up my mirror shield, and at first, I seem to be winning. They are thinning out, but I am also running low on ammo... I didn’t have time to get more prior to this mission.
My mirror shield goes down just as my Augmented Hellspinner clicks on an empty chamber, and there are still several Redeemed left. I start using my gun as a club, and actually dispatch one of them, before I start taking hits. First, my left leg gets sliced. Then my right arm. My helmet gets knocked off by a beam that glances off my helmet, and then my cheek gets an ugly slash across the front, frightenly close to my left eye.
I almost have the next to last redeemed killed, when I see a shimmering blade come screaming towards my head from the corner of my eye. I have just enough time to scream as I feel the impact on the right side of my head. The world spins, taking on surreal colors, as I fall to the snowy ground. The world is still spinning, but my vision seems to be going into a tunnel. I hear massive amounts of gunfire as my friends come to my aid, but it is too late. The darkness has me.
As I slowly open my eyes, I am immediately blinded by the extremely bright white light around me. My eyes gradually adjust to the brightness, and I get an idea of my surroundings. I am on my back, in an extremely bright white room. I can’t see the walls, or ceiling, or even the source of the light that is so blinding. It seems to be coming from everywhere.
I slowly push myself into a sitting position, and take a look at myself. All of my wounds seem to be gone. My armor is completely clean. No blood, no ichor, nothing. It looks better than when I first received it from Supply Master Eel. My helmet is still gone, but that is the least of my concerns... I don’t know where I am.
“Greetings, Mr. Cratty.” A voice sounds, coming from nowhere and everywhere at once.
“Um, hello. Where are you?” I ask, not knowing where to direct my question.
“That isn’t important. Welcome.” The mysterious voice sounds again, giving me a sense of welcome, and oddly, happiness.
“Where am I? How did I get here?” I question as I try to figure out what the heck is going on.
“You are home.” The voice matter-of-factly states.
“Home? This sure as heck doesn’t look like my apartment in Jobe.” I am starting to feel a bit confused, but every time the voice speaks, I calm down, and keep myself from panicking. “Where are my friends? What the heck happened?”
Just as I say this, my mind fills with images. I see my body on the snow, from above, surrounded by my comrades. I see Irrylyn, Ruzan, Zidjahn… All of my friends. I didn’t know they *all* came to save me. But I am not moving. And there is a pool of red slowly expanding in the snow under me. And they aren’t doing anything to stop it... What the…
“Yes, to them, you are dead. They didn’t get to you in time.”
“But then, how am I here?” I question, not really caring about this voice that seems to know everything.
“You are only dead to them. For you, this is an opportunity. It isn’t the end of your life. It is the start of a new one.”
Just as the voice states this, I look up, and see a door. I know it wasn’t there before, but for some odd reason, that fact doesn’t bother me. I stand up, and step over to the door.
“Open it.” The voice demands.
“Why? Where does it go?” I do not fully understand what is going on, but I feel at ease. Opening the door just seems… ‘right’.
I open it, and see a black expanse of nothing. But wait… there is something there. Stars. Thousands and thousands of stars. More stars than I have ever seen. Even out in the wilderness of Perpetual Wastelands, I didn’t see this many stars.
“Now what?”
“Step through the door.”
“Where does it lead?”
“Don’t worry about where it leads. The destination is not what is important. It is the journey that counts.” With that final statement, the voice fades from my mind, and I feel its presence leave me. I am truly alone now.
I look into the field of stars, and take a step forward. All I see around me now is darkness, but I am not worried. I am not really dead… just starting a new chapter in my life.
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“Go here, kill this, Serg; Go there, kill that, Serg...” I muttered under my breath. “All I seem to do now is butcher everything, only to be told to run off to the other side of the planet to kill some other insignificant…” I pause my muttering as I hear my commlink gently beep in my mind. I simply think about opening the channel, and the thought-controlled commlink opens the channel to hear the urgent message.
“Sergeiovich, we have an urgent mission for you.” The voice informs me in a slightly distorted voice.
“But I am not done with the last one. It will have to wait!”
“No, your last mission is pointless now. This one is much more important. You *will* do this one. Understand?”
I mutter a gentle curse thankfully not heard by the voice sitting behind a desk in Omni-1, and the voice then continues to give me details of the next mission… And boy, it’s going to be a rough one indeed.
After crossing into the horrendously cold area known as “Penumbra”, I check my NCU for directions to my objective. Thankfully, it’s not too far into the zone, but it is right in the middle of a Redeemed camp. I make sure my Augmented Hellspinner is fully loaded, and trudge off through the snow, keeping an eye out for ambushes and guard posts.
After a short while, I see the gleaming white towers of the Redeemed camp, and sneak through some trees up to the gate. Nothing. Not a soul nearby. Some fortress this is.
I slink into the camp, and am almost to my objective when I feel something. Something isn’t right. I check my inventory, and after making sure I have everything, I am about to get moving again when all heck breaks loose.
First I see one Len-Dosa step out of the blowing snow, and then as I look around, I see that I am slowly becoming surrounded by Redeemed, and their minions.
I first mutter a few curses, send out a distress signal from my commlink, and start blasting away. I eventually have to throw up my mirror shield, and at first, I seem to be winning. They are thinning out, but I am also running low on ammo... I didn’t have time to get more prior to this mission.
My mirror shield goes down just as my Augmented Hellspinner clicks on an empty chamber, and there are still several Redeemed left. I start using my gun as a club, and actually dispatch one of them, before I start taking hits. First, my left leg gets sliced. Then my right arm. My helmet gets knocked off by a beam that glances off my helmet, and then my cheek gets an ugly slash across the front, frightenly close to my left eye.
I almost have the next to last redeemed killed, when I see a shimmering blade come screaming towards my head from the corner of my eye. I have just enough time to scream as I feel the impact on the right side of my head. The world spins, taking on surreal colors, as I fall to the snowy ground. The world is still spinning, but my vision seems to be going into a tunnel. I hear massive amounts of gunfire as my friends come to my aid, but it is too late. The darkness has me.
As I slowly open my eyes, I am immediately blinded by the extremely bright white light around me. My eyes gradually adjust to the brightness, and I get an idea of my surroundings. I am on my back, in an extremely bright white room. I can’t see the walls, or ceiling, or even the source of the light that is so blinding. It seems to be coming from everywhere.
I slowly push myself into a sitting position, and take a look at myself. All of my wounds seem to be gone. My armor is completely clean. No blood, no ichor, nothing. It looks better than when I first received it from Supply Master Eel. My helmet is still gone, but that is the least of my concerns... I don’t know where I am.
“Greetings, Mr. Cratty.” A voice sounds, coming from nowhere and everywhere at once.
“Um, hello. Where are you?” I ask, not knowing where to direct my question.
“That isn’t important. Welcome.” The mysterious voice sounds again, giving me a sense of welcome, and oddly, happiness.
“Where am I? How did I get here?” I question as I try to figure out what the heck is going on.
“You are home.” The voice matter-of-factly states.
“Home? This sure as heck doesn’t look like my apartment in Jobe.” I am starting to feel a bit confused, but every time the voice speaks, I calm down, and keep myself from panicking. “Where are my friends? What the heck happened?”
Just as I say this, my mind fills with images. I see my body on the snow, from above, surrounded by my comrades. I see Irrylyn, Ruzan, Zidjahn… All of my friends. I didn’t know they *all* came to save me. But I am not moving. And there is a pool of red slowly expanding in the snow under me. And they aren’t doing anything to stop it... What the…
“Yes, to them, you are dead. They didn’t get to you in time.”
“But then, how am I here?” I question, not really caring about this voice that seems to know everything.
“You are only dead to them. For you, this is an opportunity. It isn’t the end of your life. It is the start of a new one.”
Just as the voice states this, I look up, and see a door. I know it wasn’t there before, but for some odd reason, that fact doesn’t bother me. I stand up, and step over to the door.
“Open it.” The voice demands.
“Why? Where does it go?” I do not fully understand what is going on, but I feel at ease. Opening the door just seems… ‘right’.
I open it, and see a black expanse of nothing. But wait… there is something there. Stars. Thousands and thousands of stars. More stars than I have ever seen. Even out in the wilderness of Perpetual Wastelands, I didn’t see this many stars.
“Now what?”
“Step through the door.”
“Where does it lead?”
“Don’t worry about where it leads. The destination is not what is important. It is the journey that counts.” With that final statement, the voice fades from my mind, and I feel its presence leave me. I am truly alone now.
I look into the field of stars, and take a step forward. All I see around me now is darkness, but I am not worried. I am not really dead… just starting a new chapter in my life.
RIP bro.