Dawn of the Void

What followed was a bunch of meetings. Hackworth and his command folks, meetings where other generals were pulled in, folks from the NSA, the local leadership, Emergency Management.

James sat through them all, steeped in thought.

Barely heard what was said. Answered monosyllabically when addressed. Ignored the angry stares, the expectation that he pull an answer for this crisis out of his Blue Light hat.

But something was stirring within him. A realization. It came in flashes. The Monitor floating down to address him. The system messages that appeared each time he leveled, the Benediction synergies. The staggered waves of demons. The symbols.

“James?” Hackworth was addressing him. “James!”

James looked up. Everyone was staring at him. James didn’t know who half of them were. Didn’t care, not anymore. “Colonel, we need to talk.”

Hackworth blinked, taken aback. “We are talking. All of us. Except you. You’re a thousand miles away.”

“No, I mean you, Star Boy, Jessica, me. We need to talk.” James stood up, ignoring the dark looks, the spluttered indignation from important looking people on the screens. “Now.”

And he strode out the room.

Go ask Jessica to join us, will you?

His Anima snapped out an imitation of a sharp salute with one of his sword-arms and flitted away.

Voices were raised angrily in the conference room behind him, but James strode toward the ballroom and made a beeline for Star Boy. “Richard. We gotta talk.”

Star Boy was sitting back, arms crossed, shaking his head slowly as he scrolled through different video feeds. “Hmm? I mean, what?”

“Up. Follow.” James turned as Hackworth came storming into the ballroom, expression livid.

“Sergeant, acting like that -”

“Enough, Hackworth.” Something in James’s tone, his weary certainty, his detached calm, caused the other man to grow quiet. “We’re past pretending all this matters.” James waved at the ASOCC, the buzzing activity. “I’ve a decision to make, and I want you in the room when I make it. You coming?”

Hackworth inhaled deeply, visibly calming himself, then lifted his chin. “What’s going on?”

“Come find out.” James strode past him. Led Star Boy and Hackworth into the Marriott lobby just as the elevator doors opened to reveal Jessica. She looked exhausted, eyes ringed with shadows, hair mussed, clothing rumpled, but eyes James with the same piercing curiosity. “James?”

“We’re going up. Need to find Serenity.”

They rose to the penthouse and James led them into the large living room. A handful of Crimson Hydra were watching the TV, but Serenity was in the kitchen making herself a cocktail.

Everybody oriented on them as James entered the room. “Serenity? We’re having a talk.”

“No shit.” She poured a pale green liquid out of the shaker into a martini glass. “Ready.”

The penthouse suite had a small business room. James waited for everyone to file in, then closed the door.

Nobody spoke. They were all alert, watching him, aware that the ball was in his court.

“We’ve been doing this all wrong,” said James, moving to stand behind his chair. “All of it. From the beginning we’ve been following the systems cues. Reacting and being led. Rewarded with levels and powers for behaving as it wanted. Forming teams, killing demons as they showed up, forming larger groups, organizing.”

“Right,” said Star Boy slowly. “For a reason.”

“Sure. Synergy. The need to save folks. We’re not idiots. Doing what this system wants makes sense. Fabricators, Blue Light, all of us working as hard as we can to save humanity.”

Tentative nods all round.

“You say this like it’s a bad thing,” said Jessica.

“Look at what’s happening out there right now.” James pointed at the window. “We’ve some ten million people trying to get into the city. The Fourth Wave tomorrow will be a massacre of biblical proportions. We’re talking a hundred thousand Nemesis 3’s.”

Nobody had a response.

“And today millions died in our city alone. Across the country? The world? Who fucking knows? We’re doing everything this system asks of us, and it’s never been enough. We might have held the line here in New York for a week or two, but the Nem3’s are putting the lie to any sense of confidence we had. Worse, we got a glimpse of how bad things are going to get while we were in Philly. Hives covered in black fire where our powers are weakened. Even my gloria-infused Heavenly Assaults weren’t killing the Nems.”

“I don’t understand,” said Hackworth, tone curt. “What are you saying?”

“That our fundamental mistake has been to trust in the benevolence of this system. To think that if we do what it wants, how it wants, if we team up in groups of nine, if we train, if we fight, we’ll win through. But it’s horse shit. Even doing everything right people are dying by the millions, and we’re still two months out from the Pits opening.”

James looked at each of them. “If we don’t change this up, we’re going to lose this thing. Following what the system wants will just get us extinct.”

Serenity drained her martini in one long slurp then set the glass down with a distinct click. “Great pep talk, boss. So, ah, what’s the solution?”

“We have to look outside the system. Stop thinking we can use it to our advantage. Sure, we can keep leveling, gaining new powers, but that’ll never be enough. I saw that today in Philly. Crimson Hydra is as tough a team as I know of, and we got our asses kicked. So we have to find a new approach.” James straightened. “It’s why I want to go to Old Crow.”

Star Boy blinked. “Old Crow. Ah…?”

“Patrick Belanger,” said Hackworth. “You want to find him.”

“Who the fuck is Patrick Belanger?” asked Serenity.

It was Jessica who answered. “The first person to report being contacted by a Monitor.” She smiled apologetically to Hackworth. “I took a look at the files. He reported speaking with one three days before anyone else.”

“Belanger has been off the grid since,” said Hackworth. “The Canadians haven’t found him. That, and he has a history of mental disorders. He spent most of the ‘80s in a mental hospital, claiming that Armageddon was coming.”

“Smart dude,” said Serenity. “Looks like he was right all along.”

“I want to find him,” said James. “He claimed to carry something called the Light Eternal, and Old Crow is the only place I’ve heard of where a demon symbol appeared without their being a ton of people. If anybody knows what’s going on, it’s Belanger.”

“That’s a hell of a long shot,” said Hackworth.

“Better than just doing what the demons want,” said James. “They went after him. Maybe have been contacting him for decades. Look, I know it’s a long shot. But we’re going to lose this if we keep just taking to the streets and trying to kill demons. The rest of Blue Light can do what they can. But I need to find Belanger and find out what he knows.”

“And tomorrow?” asked Hackworth. “The Fourth Wave?”

James sighed and sat down. “Yeah. I don’t see any good outcome. I could stay and help, but when we’re talking a hundred thousand Nem3’s distributed across the city, would I make much of a difference?”

Jessica raised an eyebrow. “How do you think Blue Light would take it if you disappeared on the eve of our greatest battle yet?”

“Precisely,” said Hackworth. “It’s not a question of your killing a hundred or two hundred demons, it’s your being able to inspire Blue Light to kill thousands, maybe tens of thousands.”

“Like that’ll make a difference,” said Serenity, sitting back.

“It will.” Hackworth nodded decisively. “Every demon we kill is one that doesn’t get into a hive. Every demon we kill is another 100 people who are spared being massacred. I’ve no illusions about our ability to defend everyone tomorrow. But that doesn’t mean we concede the fight. We’ll muster everything we have and fight as long and as hard as we have to. And your presence in that fight will make a difference, James.”

James frowned, tapped his fingers on the tabletop, then nodded. “Fine. Yes. I’ll fight. But as soon as possible, I want a flight to the Yukon.”

“And you’ll have it,” said Hackworth. “But first we have to deal with the Fourth Wave.”

“We’re at almost three hundred Angel Wings,” said Jessica. “That should help. And all the work I’ve been doing has leveled me to Battle Engineer 5. Which… I’ve not had enough time to fully explore, especially as higher-level creations require exponentially more components, and nothing seems as initially beneficial as Wings, but…”

“But?” prompted Serenity.

“But I’ve put together a prototype that should be ready for the Fourth Wave tomorrow. It’s called a Canis Bello in my menu system.”

“One prototype?” Serenity raised an eyebrow. “That’s darling, but -”

“But we need all the help we can get,” said James.

“Beautiful dog?” asked Star Boy. “That’s weird.”

“Not ‘beautiful’,” said Jessica. “Bello in Latin means ‘war’. A War Dog. War Hound, maybe. Like I said, it required a lot of resources, and there are components to it that I don’t yet fully understand. I’m going to try and get it operational for tomorrow, though.”

“Outstanding,” said Hackworth. “I like the sound of this.”

James had to fight the urge to reiterate his previous point. To state how anything that was in line with the system’s guidance was suspect. But Jessica looked so worn out that he didn’t have the heart. “Make sure you take care of yourself.”

She checked her phone. “We’re only nine hours from dawn. I’ll be fine as soon as I can spend an Aeviternum.”

“Hey, Jessica, when’s the last time you slept?” asked Star Boy.

“Slept?” Jessica frowned at him. “I mean, I think…”

“You don’t know?” Star Boy let out a low whistle. “That’s kinda intense.”

Jessica stood. “We do have a war going on. I’m going to get back to work. But for what it’s worth, James, I agree with your point. Once the Fourth Wave is over, we need to run down Belanger and discover what he knows.”

“Agreed,” said Hackworth. “Your point is well made, if hard to swallow. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have several bruised egos I need to placate. This may be a new world we’re operating in, but there are some serious holdovers that can make or break our operations here.”

“Thanks, colonel,” said James. “Appreciate it.”

Jessica, Hackworth, and Star Boy all left together.

Serenity held James’s gaze from across the table. “We need to replace Joanna.”

“Cindy’s supposed to radio me when she’s available.”

“We need to get Crimson Hydra’s head back in the game.”

James grunted.

“I need seven or eight shots of tequila.”

“Wouldn’t hurt.”

She sighed and leaned forward. “How are we gettin’ through tomorrow?”

“I don’t know.” He didn’t even want to think about it. “One step at a time.”

Serenity sighed. “So you think this is all just one big murderous set-up? To give us false hope that we can handle what’s coming? Why not just kill us outright?”

“I don’t know,” said James again.

“Fucking demons. We don’t even know what’s happening in the center of those burning hives.”

“Nope.”

“They could be making some ultra-queens.”

“They could.”

Serenity scowled at him. “It’s really great talking to you.”

“Yeah.” James sighed. “I know.”

“OK, you know what? Screw the tequila. I know what we both need. Come on.”

James frowned, stood, then followed her out of the conference room, across the hall, and into a bedroom.

Serenity closed the door. “On the bed.”

“Ah, Serenity…”

“I’m not aiming to fuck you. Shoes off, on the bed.”

James sat, undid his laces, pulled off his boots, and then lay back, watching her closely. She did the same, then lay down beside him. Reached over, turned off the lamp, and then scooted in till she lay next to him and placed her head on his shoulder.

For a moment they just lay thus in silence, and by slow degrees James relaxed. How long had it been since he’d just laid down next to a woman? He couldn’t even remember.

It felt… nice.

Slowly, carefully, he pulled his arm around and draped it over her shoulder. Serenity wiggled a bit, getting more comfortable, then sighed. “This is what I needed. Just for a little bit.”

James stared up into the darkness. Serenity was warm against his side, the weight of her head in the hollow of his shoulder comforting. After a while her breathing deepened and slowed, and he realized she’d fallen asleep.

Nothing new occurred to him. No new strategies, no epiphanies, no assuaging of guilt or healing of the horrors.

But just lying there, two people together in the dark, did something to his spirit, his soul, that no words of Kimmie’s could have duplicated.

A deep, terrible knot of tension slowly untied itself in his chest, and a sense of troubled peace descended upon him.

A few moments later, despite everything that was to come, everything that had happened, and everything on his mind, James closed his eyes, and slept.

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