(General P.O.V)
Having the entire task force X base teleported to the middle of the jungle and another world to boot, would have mostly been met with a lot of panic from trigger happy soldiers. Men who had been to war did not hesitate in labelling every and anything as hostile in a strange environment.
That caution had saved many of their lives while on tours in Afghanistan, Iran and other dangerous warzones.
Colonel Rick flag watched silently as Amanda Waller reviewed the scout's information with her brutal keen attention to detail.
"None of our gps or coordinates measuring devices inform us of where we actually are."
The scout stated the obvious,
"Just that we're not on earth. The most obvious example of this would be that we cannot recognize any of the constellations."
He traced a finger over the rough sketch taking up half of the makeshift table they had made, along with an I pad showing photos of the new land they had scouted as well as the stars in the night sky. His finger hovered over a section of the map as he continued his explanation.
"40 clicks to the Northwest and we come up on a large lake, easily over 5000 miles in diameter. The area itself is occupied by these...strange creatures." He swiped his hand on the screen of the I pad and revealed to them a herd of beasts that looked like a cross between a moose and something lizard like.
"I'm thinking, Dragon moose."
Everybody looked at the tech guy.
"Shut up Economos."
A blonde woman seated next to him on the flat surface of a sawed off log nudged him on the ribs. At Waller's no nonsense look, they quieted down.
"Continue captain."
Waller ordered.
The Captain nodded and continued.
"We have identified multiple unique species each sharing a trait between two..."
"We are not zoologists, Captain." Waller interrupted.
"I need to know if this base is safe, not whatever abominations you and your team came across. Given the fact that you lost not a single one of your men, regrouping with the rest of our operatives is priority number one. I doubt we were the only ones teleported here."
And that was why Rick Flag both hated and admired Waller. She discarded any other distractions that would detract from the main mission. However that same cold disposition did not translate well when it came to concern over the well being of her troops. To put it simply, Waller could be a bitch. A massive one.
Flag listened without listening. A necessary skill he had cultivated to simuteneously pay attention to the surroundings and still hear what was being said. The Captain's report ended with an observation that a massive storm was coming.
"Flag any thoughts?"
Waller asked for his opinion. On what he didn't really know but he could guess.
"For now, standard operating procedures. We reinforce this base enough to handle the harsh conditions from the environment and then do what we have mostly been doing, scout. We can even use the flares to send a signal to anyone else who might have been teleported here like us."
"It could also be an invitation to hostile parties."
Harcout pitched in.
"Not if we use the flares away from the camp."
Flag walked over to the table and pointed at the map, showing the base.
"We know we are here at the foot of this cliff. Well protected at the back by the range of hills and with a direct view on the mouth of the valley without being too visible. Behind the hills we also have the lake, which is much easy to keep watch of because of the animals. If they act strange then we can assume someone is trying to access our position from the back." He traced a finger to the left, following the hills before stopping at the top of another hill, almost 3 miles away from the cliff the base was under.
"If we use the flare here, our men will have a higher vantage point, seeing anyone coming towards us from miles away."
Flag finished making Waller nod in satisfaction.
"Ok, I expect you to organize that Colonel."
Flag face a curt nod.
"On to the next agenda. Harcout?"
Waller called out to the blonde agent.
"We have enough supplies to cater for all 185 of us for one full week. We can stretch that out my minimizing the rations by a few days but we will need to look for alternatives by then."
"That is thankfully easy to solve. The air is breathable and clearly the ecosystem supports life. We can scavenge for food." The Captain shrugged.
"Find out what's edible and what's not. Worst case scenario something turns out poisonous and we can administer a dose of that special antidote commissioned from Lexcorp. Single most valuable thing off of taxpayers dollars."
Waller agreed to the reasonable idea.
"Get to that then."
The Captain saluted and gave a nod to Flag before going out.
Waller sighed a little after the man's exit.
"Finally got that vacation you have been bugging me about Economos. Hope you're happy."
She joked in that serious way that only further served to alienate her from those under her command.
"My options were Hawaii or Italy. But this works as well, I hear Rome sucks this time of the year."
"What would you expect? There's always an influx of middle aged Americans facing mid life crisis going there this time of the year. Like you."
Harcourt joined in, throwing a jab that made Flag almost wince.
"Fuck you Harcourt."
Economos showed her the middle finger and promptly turned away to stare at his laptop screen while the woman laughed.
What Economos was doing with a laptop in the bathroom when they were all teleported away, was anyone's guess. During the lighthearted jokes, Waller motioned for Flag to follow her to what dubbed as her private office.
The were lucky in how they found this base. Setting up a perimeter below the cliff and infront of an abandoned cave tunnel that was suspiciously well made. It looked as if the cave was made by man made machines. An oddity, Flag was no doubt aware that Waller has noticed.
After the flap had fallen behind him, Waller turned to address him.
"We cannot stay passive like this. We have no back up, fall back plan or any of our resources."
"We also have no man power or knowledge of our surroundings. Staying passive is the only thing we can do."
Waller frowned at his answer.
"What are you thinking Flag? Out with it."
She demanded.
"Well, the whole situation is weird. However, we still have a few more options. Whoever is responsible for bringing us here might be keeping tabs on us without our knowledge, or they might contact us soon. And given the fact that we are still alive I think it's a fair assumption we will get out of this more or less unharmed."
Flag shared his thoughts.
"Never took you for an optimist."
Waller snickered.
"Yeah...it comes and goes."
"Well, now that we..."
Flag held up a hand to silence her.
A few shouts were heard from the outside. They made eye contact and knew that something was up. Without much fanfare, Flag handed a handgun to Waller while he himself grabbed the assault rifle strapped to his shoulder. They were lucky they were carrying out a training exercise when they had been teleported.
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The shouts increased as Flag and Waller moved towards the entrance.
"Ma'am move back!"
The Captain said upon spotting Waller and Flag.
"What is going on here?!"
Waller demanded.
Over 40 of her best soldiers had their weapons trained on a green sleek looking drone that floated in the air.
A sudden blue light shot out of it's eyes and scanned Waller. The soldiers immediately opened fire at the drone. The bullets seemed to hit its body and lose momentum.
"Stop! Hold your fire!"
Flag ordered and the assault ended.
Waller looked down at herself and found she was unhurt.
"Greetings, Amanda Waller."
The head of Task Force X widened her eyes. The green drone had a slightly electronic and echoey feel to it's voice.
"How do you know who I am?"
"It was no wish of mine to alarm you. Before the exo planet designated as Earth was destroyed, my systems managed to interface with all of Earth's telecommunications, technology, science and every database containing every written word ever invented. This includes movies, documentary, music, photos and much more. You can say I have the repository of man's recorded history on the planet."
Silence dominated the whole area. A soldier dropped his weapon and fell to his knees.
"Earth...was destroyed."
"No." Another shook her head, lifting the weapon in her hand and pointing it threateningly at the drone.
"This thing is lying!"
Flag on the other hand was massaging his temple in worry. Worry that the claim grew more credible the more he considered the Drone's words.
"Lower your weapons."
Flag gave the order and although there was some hesitance, they all complied.
"Ok,let's start from the beginning. Who the fuck are you?"
The drone flew lower as it came to hover slightly above Flag and Waller.
"Steady Captain."
Flag cautioned the happy trigger man fidgeting with his gun and his team.
"I am a scout unit, outfitted with communication and medical programs. Are there any injured among you."
"No, although telling us you're a scout unit dies not really answer our questions." Waller answered in a calm tone that hid her true feelings away. Flag noticed her finger nails biting into the flesh of her hand.
"Oh." The drone blinked it's lenses, a particularly human like action.
"I am part of a whole and the whole is me. You can call me Gaea."
Flag and Waller shared a look.
"You said the earth was destroyed. How many...how many people survived?"
The scout unit drone blinked as it tallied the number and answered immediately.
"7,067,605,193 earthlings possessing the human d.n.a, 231,765,310 earthlings possessing a variant of the human d.n.a designated as Atlantean, 6,199 Earthlings with alien d.n.a and 458 hybrids."
Hope came back.
"How many losses were incurred when the earth was destroyed?"
She doubled down and the drone answered.
"As of now, none."
And that answer more than anything stunned everyone present.
"Impossible."
Economos muttered the word they were all thinking of.
"I am here with a message from your Earth's representative."
Behind the drone and closing in fast was a huge aircraft in the shape of a slightly rounded leaf blade, colored silver and with a sleek design.
(Elsewhere) (later)
'50,000 miles and still counting,' Flag noted. He'd taken the console of the autopiloted craft and was going over some of the specs and details, the A.I or drone or whatever Gaea was willing to share.
Waller had been left behind as a precautionary measure. In case this was all a trap. Not that Flag believed that. For a trap, this had to be a very elaborate and overly complicated one. That didn't stop Waller from straddling him with a dozen soldiers and a couple of officers. After much thought, Economos was also ordered to join him and the man's constant complaints and ramblings helped Flag stay grounded.
They had been flying for only 10 minutes yet if the stats were to be believed, that was enough to cover over 50,000 miles. Flag knew that none of Earth's fastest aircrafts could go that fast. The mystery of where they actually were in the cosmos, increased as he saw more of this new world.
The vegetation looked untouched by any human, the air was so fresh it was crazy. And the scent of rain seemed to hover around.
"Oh my god..."
Economos' awed tone made Flag turn his gaze towards the area he was looking at.
Flag's eyebrows rose up. The mountain they had been flying over, gave way to a vision of both a modern civilization and one in tune with nature. For miles and miles, he could see silver and grey buildings that looked bizarrely sci-fi spreading out across the horizon. Whatever this piece of civilization it was, the city had to be bigger than anything Flag, the soldiers and Economos had ever seen.
At the center of this pseudo utopia was a huge structure being built that stood head over shoulders above everything.
"New York would probably look like a small town compare to this."
One of the soldiers commented.
"New York?" Another snorted.
"This city has to be bigger than Texas."
The question was how how long it had taken to build such a huge civilization.
"Prepare for descent."
The slightly mechanic voice of the A.I said through the headphones on Flag's head.
The answer to his question was soon answered however, when they pulled closer to the ground.
"Are those..."
"Drones constructing buildings to house more people as well as facilities needed for your species survival."
The A.I of the craft, Gaea anticipated the question and answered.
"What are you?"
Economos asked in curiousity, finally tired secon guessing and coming up with his own explanations.
"I am a creation of the Master. The conscious mind of all you see. The drones, the material used to build your housing facilities, the trees, the air... everything you see and feel interacting with you, I am all that."
The profundity of the response was only broken by her next words.
"I also make a killer butler."
"Neat."
Economos said after a while. No more conversation was had as the craft begun to descend on a cleared out space. This near the ground, they could all see people standing in lines and pointing at the craft they were in. The weird thing, Flag noted was a group of black clad soldiers keeping the people in check with weird weapons strapped to their arms. Flag narrowed his eyes. Something was off with them.
The ship landed and the clear glass doors opened with a sudden whoosh.
"Hope you enjoyed your flight and have a nice day."
Gaea said as Flag disembarked with his team. The craft rose up again and flew off.
Before they could even look around, a commotion appeared in the lines of people going inside the huge building that had the sign of a plate with a fork and a spoon on each side. Eyes were turned their way and fingers started pointing.
Dozens of different languages escaped the mouths of the people there and Flag was suddenly hit with the fact that if what Gaea had said was true, then the world truly had no boundaries between nations or races now. They were all just humans, trying nti maje the best out of a bad situation.
The line parted as whispers sprang out. A small and sleeker looking vehicle cut through the crowds and appeared before Flag and the rest. With barely any sound the vehicle landed and following the action, a draft escaped it's hatch when it opened.
A red haired woman in a suit emerged and looked around intimidatingly. The people gathered around shrunk back upon the urging of the black uniformed soldiers. Flag stood up straighter once he saw the next person to emerge from the vehicle.
"Is that..."
Whispers started ringing out.
"Lex Luthor."
"I hear he's the stand in for the UN secretary general."
"...The president is still missing..."
"Luthor managed..."
"He's got the army in his pocket you know..."
"Shh be careful of your words you idiot..."
Luthor adjusted his tie and walked over to Flag and the others.
"Colonel Flag."
He nodded at the soldier's way. Flag had met Luthor several times before. Mostly to test out new weapons Lexcorp had developed for the army. The billion dollar company had many contracts with the government.
"Luthor."
Flag returned the nod with a smile.
"So you're humanity's representative huh?"
Luthor laughed at the words.
"You flatter me."
He shook his head.
"The world simply needed someone to take on the responsibility of where to steer the vehicle now that we're on rough terrain."
He gestured around them.
"A fitting analogy, don't you think?"
Flag's eyes fell on the black uniformed groups of soldiers directing the people into orderly files towards the building. Luthor followed his gaze.
"I call them the Enforcers. The different facets of the army and police was too unequipped to deal with over billions of people from different ethnicities, cultures and nations. So I proposed a unified force made up of carefully vetted personel who would help maintain order."
Flag snorted.
"And I bet they only answer to you."
Luthor's smile never slipped.
"Naturally. No one else was willing to step forward and lead humanity through these uncertain times."
Luthor turned and gestured to the vehicle he had come in.
"I assure you Colonel, my intentions are purely benevolent. I seek the prosperity of our race. If you would like, we can continue this conversation somewhere else?"
Flag looked around and noticed how everyone's eyes were on them.
"Alright, lead the way."
Then he turned to the Captain.
"I need two of your guys With me. The rest can walk around and see the sights."
The Captain face a curt nod understanding that Flag was basically telling him to investigate this place and see if there was anything that stood out.
"I only have one question."
Economos spoke to Mercy once they boarded the craft. Economos was seated between Terror and Mercy Graves, facing Flag and Luthor directly opposite them.
"What are they building?"
He pointed out towards the center of the civilization.
Luthor smiled.
"This whole realm belongs to one being." A look of uncertainty appeared in his eyes.
"People have called Superman a god for years. He can fly, shoot beams from his eyes and can tank anything we throw at him without fail. But...he doesn't hold a candle to him. Out of everything earth had faced...this man is the closest thing to a god there is. And his name is Aden Strong."
Economos was listening with rapt attention now. Flag was weirded out by the almost zealous fervor Luthor unknowingly spoke with.
"What they're building is a statue in his honor. A being capable of teleporting out each and every human from our planet in an instant and with no deaths or injuries sustained during or after the action. Do you know that no one has died in the 38 hours since humanity found itself homeless?"
Luthor let out a mocking laugh.
"A problem we have all been working, trying to solve, poof! Gone because one teenager decided death wasn't a thing anymore. The drones are something he created to help in constructing residences for people to live in. Families have been reunited because apparently, Gaea decided to copy everything we had stored in our memory banks."
Luthor leaned back on the seat as he loosened his tie.
"Makes you wonder, you know." He said with a far off look.
"For all my brilliance, it makes no sense. Science does not work like that. The physical world does not follow such unconventional rules. No sense at all."
He whispered.
Silence fell among the occupants of the vehicle. Luthor sighed and shook his head.
"I just want what we all want. A new start. Earth is gone. Maybe we can make a life in this paradise. Or maybe our host gets bored of us and decides to finish the job."
Flag's perpetual scowl never left his face.
What kind of a person could make Luthor so...reflective? It was clear that every word that left the former billionaire was true. There was just no way you could fake all the smallest cues successfully. Flag was an expert in reading body language after all.
"You speak of him as if he's an actual god."
Economos joked and laughed a little. The laugh petered out when he looked around and saw the serious looks on everyone's faces.
"Wait...guys, you can't actually be serious. Mr.luthor, gods don't exist. There's only one God, the creator. You know the one responsible for basically fucking everything..."
"It's all in belief Economos. We ascribe the title god to a being we cannot understand based on the way we perceive their actions. That begs the question, what is a god. The answer is the scary part." Flag's eyes established contact with Economos' own through the glass.
"What if gods are actually real and the closer we are to them, the more we give them a foothold in our lives? I have seen some unexplainable shit during my life. Lived when I should have died. The unbreakable will of a priest who defended an orphanage with nothing but a rosary and words that cut through like a knife on butter. Just one of the many examples.
"Maybe gods are real but most of us have closed our minds and hearts off to such a possibility that we fail to see what is visible underneath all of it...maybe that makes us unreal to them except the chosen few."