Commander's Rounds Volume 1

Entry 108: War Stories

Captain Johnathan Cochrane found himself alone in hostile waters. He hardly knew why he had abandoned ship and gotten into one of the boats in the middle of a hostile action, especially this far away from anything that could be called civilization. The Arctic Circle had become a line that was not to be crossed under any circumstances by any maritime traffic, and the fleet had been sent to find out why ships kept disappearing without a trace.

And then he remembered why he left.

A horrible dread crept back into him, the same as when he was standing helplessly on board the bridge of his ship. It felt like someone or something had forced his way into his mind, that smiling, long-haired creature with the lantern that invaded his mind and projected visions into it, showing him scenes of terror so real and so palpable it was as though he had lived through a thousand disasters in the space of a single minute.

And then those were those other shadows with her that he wanted to name, but couldn't... Always there when she forced her way into... Everything that he had that was truly his.

He ran despite himself, having lived through it all, as though it all had happened. The calls of the admiral, his officers, his crew, he had only barely heard a single one, all drowned out by the terror and agony that had seized all of his senses at that moment. The scent of burning corpses was still fresh in his nostrils as he panicked and fled through the corridors of the ship, even though the doom seemed inescapable- they had been surrounded by enemies at close range in an instant, as though they had been conjured by the icy fog itself.

And after he escaped... He had a front-row seat to the invincible power of the enemy that now controlled the roof of the world as their territory- it was now land where man could no longer go and be allowed to survive. Black jets seemed to ignore the missiles fired at them to attack their planes with impunity- missiles launched from their ships at their black-hulled foes went in every direction, sometimes even returning to the ship that launched them. Those ships seemed to fight at the speed of thought, as though quietly directed by a single mind.

And if those impossible enemy ships weren't enough, he could tell that there was something else there, something that exerted enormous pressure on the entire battlefield. It was always lurking beyond the fog, just out of sight of anything that could see it, but then, when it felt the moment was right, it struck a fatal blow.

Johnathan had seen it all. He could barely believe it, but he saw it. A bright energy bolt sped forth from some unseen but mighty assailant, and it struck the bow of a supercarrier with such tremendous force that the front third of the ship crumpled in on itself. A hundred thousand tons of military power done for in an instant, and the one thing he knew was that a supercarrier wasn't supposed to just fold up like a cheap beer can. It was then that he had seen enough- What the enemy had shown him wasn't just a vision, but what was certain. He collapsed back into the boat, laying there catatonic for who knows how long.

But then...

"Sit up."

It was a powerful command given in a powerful voice, and his body couldn't be stopped from responding to it. Hovering over the water was a woman with long, white hair, with pale skin, red eyes, and seemingly cybernetic, diamond-shaped headpieces, one on either side. Her statuesque, womanly form was clad in black and silver armor, with red lights placed on the shoulders and forearms. She crossed her arms. "It is important that you listen to what we have to say. Consider that you live only because we have allowed this."

"What are you?" He managed to choke out. It would be the only complete sentence he would ever present to this... Being.

"The important thing that you must understand is that the force we have brought to bear to crush your fleet is the force of a single finger crushing an ant. Overwhelming for the task, and yet only a very small part of the full power of the whole. Today, it was visited on the few- In time, it will be visited on the many. It is necessary for this to be done, though it is pointless to explain why, since you no longer have the faculties to comprehend it."