Ex Hominum Deus.

The beast within 1/2

The sudden silence passed. The buzzer echoed again. A clear, computer generated voice echoed. "Decontamination complete. You may proceed." The decontamination fog slowly faded. Matt tried to ignore the distinguishing smell that followed the process, he always found it disturbing.

A hand touched his shoulder, the Corporal's words came vaguely to his beeping ears. "I am to report to General Calvius. He is in the Council room with General Davon and His majesty. I presume you are also headed there?"

"Yes, this way" said matt and stepped decisively towards the exit of the chamber.

The door closed swiftly behind them. Two soldiers were on guard, wearing the royal insignia. one of them raised his hand, "badges and ID's please". The man seemed rather bored. His boots were loosely tied, his sleeves folded up to his elbows. His every move was a part of a routine that everything seemed to disturb. He raised his one brow and said "Ok all seem good, you are clear to pass." He slowly raised his one hand to hail and yawned.

They passed the door quickly and walked down a dark hallway. "These guardsmen have been here for way too long, i don't blame them." said Greene. Matt smirked, "i doubt they have even faced one of them... if they could just see the horrors the men in the frontlines do..."

"What do you mean? Have you seen one of em? one of the... immortals?"

"Yes" Matts reply came slow, after a big pause, he almost choked on the words.

The next door opened and it was a whole other world. A huge room filled with all kinds of personal, stiff guards, dirty mechanics, tired pilots and some journalists doing all sorts of tasks. Small wells of chatters were gathered around a small bar in the side of the huge room, above all of this chaos aircrafts were transported in and out their holding bays with huge chains moved in perfect coordination by robo-cranes. Ball shaped camera drones monitored every move in the area. Huge 1's were sprayed everywhere.

They quickened their pace silently and went through this chaos and reached an elevator. Matt waved his hand, the motion sensor beeped. A capsule lifted them.

"This hangar always gave me the chills from above." said greene trying to break the silence.

Matt did not respond.

After a few moments a friendly face slowly appeared as the capsule's doors opened. Athos was smiling. "Finally you are here!" He tried to keep his anxiety hidden. With a delicate move he cleaned the sweat from his forehead. A short man, about 1,70 with messy hair and dark brown eyes, spitting out fire with their every look, giving away the boy's witt, he was about 27. "Matt come with me, quick if you like, we are already late!" He paused for a moment and looked at the second figure. His eyes fell upon the shoulder of Greene. "Corporal" said Athos with a quick gesture of recognition, "are you accompanying little Matt here?".

Athos never seemed to pay attention to any necessary formalities that made all official personnel uneasy around him. All the personal assistants of generals were beyond the hand of any authority. they only answered to their Masters and thus had a very bad reputation among officers. Now for Athos that was the perfect playground to show off his skills... He jested between formality and mockery, often ending up in hands with short tempered soldiers and even the "educated" commanders. But the package didn't come without skill. An expert in logistics and systems organisation, rhetorics and a cunning that could only be matched by his "Boss" and the greatest men of the whole UHA.

Matt noticed the frustration on his face. "Good morning Athos, what is going on?"

Athos was walking fast, matt hasnt seen him so frustrated for a long time.

"About two hours ago, a cargo moose landed on hangars 4 runway, its landing systems were severely damaged and so it had to crash, causing enough damage to keep the hangar shut for a couple of days. Anyway a sole man came out, a knight. He claimed he was attacked by the winged hoplites of Mars themselves, demons incarnate with fiery red eyes so ferocious that only rumors survive their mighty lances" Athos's voice was all serious and filled with grandeur. "Anyway he reported that the second army got over flanked by the armada of Titan Helios. The command panicked, Mars chopped his way through the lines, death engulfed, the, mighty, second ar..my .... he fainted after these words. Now Theo is on his way with Davos and a bunch of "strategists" to the medbay. If the information this man brings is true, then this whole war might mean the destruction of our race."

Greene got pale yet Matt seemed calmer. He knew the forces the UHA could muster, the second army was indeed the most powerful force in numbers, but most of its founding veterans were selected to create the 3rd and 4th armies, so the loss of the second was indeed a huge blow, but it would take much more to actually threaten the backbone of the UHA. 

They were now approaching the med bay. Judging by the calmness around the area meant that the news about the location of the survivor did not spread yet.

The door opened. Davos looked at Matt. Theo welcomed them with a nod and walked towards them. "Matt i hope i did not totally ruin your morning coffee. Athos were the fuck have you been the last 30 minutes? this brave knight is about to wake up... And you.." He paused and faced the other man that entered the room behind the two prodigies. "You must be lieutenant greene i suppose?" He touched the man's chin with his gloved hand in a pompous way and smirked. Greene shivered. A man of such importance, a mastermind, a god among men(!), right there, crusted in his gold detail uniform, not just in front of him but also touching him with his masterful hands. These very hands that had punched and subdued Hercules himself. His emerald green eyes starring in his very soul, he felt his knees getting weak, his hands numb, his ears buzzing. He tried to look away but he couldn't, he tried to reply to this gesture, he knew that if this man decided it, he could end up burning in the same flames of tartaros as the raging Cronos. Yet no voice could be heard from his moving lips, like he had some sort of spell on him.
"Corporal" said Athos correcting Theo.
Theo looked away, ignoring Athos' s comment.
A cough... "Ah, our brave knight is awake!"