The cacophonous sound of multiple alarm bells filled the bridge of the Olympus, as it was rocked back and forth by terrifyingly powerful and strange forces. Moments earlier, the ship had encountered an unknown phenomenon in space, while investigating what could have been signs of a Fomorian scouting force near the edge of what humans called the Sol system, where Rysthael/Earth was. As the ship had approached the unknown signal, it had been engulfed in this rush of energy and was now practically shaking apart while the alarms continued to sound.
“Mercury!” Zeus, standing at the main command post in the center of the bridge, snapped an order. “Adjust our heading to three-seven-five and put full power to engines. Whatever this energy is, I'm going to open a hole in it to get us out of here. Aim for that. Athena and Artemis, ready all weapons. Whatever this thing is, there might be teeth behind it. Poseidon, shift half power from shields to engines for this. It’s more important that we have power to get out of this than it is to last longer inside it. We need the sprint, not the marathon.”
With that said, the gray-haired man focused on his own power. It took a bit of effort, given how unfamiliar the powerful energy surrounding them was, but he managed to pry a hole in it large enough for their ship to fit. The moment that opening appeared, Mercury threw all the power he could into the engines, and they rocketed that way. The lights on the bridge dimmed very slightly as even more power was diverted to the weapons that Athena and Artemis were powering up and preparing to target anything that might have tried to take advantage of their distraction.
Had this been the original Olympus, they would have been in more trouble. Yet, in the multiple thousands of years since that first ship had been built, there had been multiple refits and upgrades, to the point of making the ship practically brand new several times over. This version of the Olympus was far more advanced and powerful than the first had been, and was more than capable of handling this situation.
Even so, the alarms were clearly unhappy about half of their shield energy being turned off and shunted to the engines. But it was what they needed. Just as the ship's violent shaking got bad enough to make it seem as though it might literally tear the whole structure in half, they punched through the hole that Zeus had created, and returned to normal, far calmer space. Instantly, the shaking stopped, and a moment later, Apollo silenced the alarms.
“Tactical, report,” Zeus ordered in a tense voice as soon as the bridge was quiet once more.
There was a very brief pause before Athena spoke, after going over all of her instruments. “No enemies in sight. No one with weapons powered, no ships at all within scanning range.”
“The energy field has vanished,” added Demeter from her position at the science station in one corner. The small, slender woman was frowning as she tapped at a few holographic controls before looking over her shoulder to the captain. “It's like it was never there.”
Frowning thoughtfully, Zeus spoke toward Mercury. “Helm, where are we? How far did that energy field send us, whatever it was?”
“That’s the thing, Captain,” came the response, “As far as I can tell, we haven't gone anywhere. We're still in the Sol system, near Uranus.”
“Well, that seems doubtful.” Shaking his head, Zeus looked that way. “Are you certain? Tactical, you said there were no ships at all on the scanners.”
After a very brief and murmured consultation between Athena and Artemis, the former spoke up. “That’s correct, Captain. There are no active ships within scanning range, though we are detecting a few resting vessels on… well, on Rysthael and a couple of the other planets. None are powered up. And nothing to the extent that should be here.”
Before Zeus could find a response to that, Poseidon spoke first as his second-in-command. “What about the satellite defense systems? What about the Pluto fortress, the Eighty-Seventh fleet, Hephaestus’s Sol cannon? That should all be on the scanners, unless…”
Grimacing, Zeus shook his head. “They’re not all destroyed. There are over forty ships in the Eighty-Seventh, spread throughout the system. Whatever that energy field was, it couldn't have destroyed everything that fast without leaving any trace at all. We were right in the middle of it and we survived. We just…” He trailed off for a moment, staring at the screen in front of him as it reported the same things he had already heard from his subordinates.
Finally, he turned to look toward the crew liaison agent. “Aphrodite, how’s it look in the rest of the ship?” Yes, he was briefly distracting himself from trying to figure out what was going on by checking on the rest of the ship’s population, but it was important.
“Almost fully clear, Captain,” the woman reported after consulting her own screen briefly. “Minor injuries at most, save for two possible concussions down in Engineering. Hephaestus already sent them to get checked out by Hades. Other than that, we’re clear.”
With a nod, Zeus turned to his wife on the far side of the bridge. “Logistics, where are we sitting on fuel after that little engagement?”
Hera, shifting a bit in her seat, offered her husband a very faint (still mostly professional) smile. “We were at one-fourth supply before investigating, Captain. We are now slightly under that. We have enough fuel to operate at normal capacity for two months.”
He had delayed long enough getting normal reports (a trick to give himself time to think while still getting needed information), so Zeus finally focused on the main issue at hand. “Navigation, confirm your previous statement.” Those few moments would have given the helmsman time to double check what the scans had said.
And yet, Mercury simply nodded. “We’re in Sol, Captain. Rysthael is about a two hour ride at normal impulse power that way.” He gestured to the right. “Believe me, sir, I’ve quadruple-checked.”
Zeus knew better than to question that. He trusted the man, especially after everything the two of them had been through together shortly after their first arrival on Earth. It was a series of events that had led to many things, including all of them being the people they were today, and Zeus--then going by his birth name of Puriel, discovering the truth about his subordinate’s status as a Mendacia.
Those events in the early days of their time on Rysthael had changed all of them. And they had ensured that Zeus trusted his helmsman completely. If he said they were absolutely in the Sol system, no matter how impossible that seemed, then that was where they were.
So, straightening to his full height, the man ordered, “In that case, point us to Earth. Let's get back there and see what the hell is going on. Tactical, you're absolutely certain that there's no powered-up ships or satellites anywhere in the system?”
“There are satellites around Earth,” Artemis put in, “but they’re all incredibly primitive. It looks like they're limited to communication, observation, and navigation. They have no shields, no weapon systems, and I’m barely detecting any magical energy on them.”
“Captain.” From his own mostly-enclosed station near the very back of the bridge, the Olympus’s head security officer spoke up. “That was a lot of energy. You think it might’ve hit us hard enough to punch us backward through time? Maybe we showed up before any of us were supposed to be here.”
“Interesting thought, Ares,” Zeus acknowledged the big man. It wasn't impossible, of course. Yet he hadn't wanted to be the one to bring it up first. With that thought now fully in everyone’s mind, he turned to the rest of the crew.
Artemis, however, shook her head. “We checked the star charts. It's still the same year we left. What the humans call 2018 AD. We didn’t go anywhere in time. It’s just… everything is different.”
Drumming his fingers thoughtfully along the console for a brief moment, Zeus finally settled on the only thing he could say. “Everyone settle in for the trip back to Rysthael, and be ready for anything. We’ll find the answers we need about what’s going on when we get back there.
“At least, I sure as hell hope we will.”
*******
Unfortunately, things didn't get that much less confusing once they arrived at the planet. On approach, Zeus gave the order to cloak the ship. They had no idea what was going on, and he wasn't going to take any risks. Whatever had happened to the defense structures of the solar system (not to mention the fleet that should have been there), could still potentially affect them.
“Captain,” Hera abruptly spoke up once they were in orbit over the world, “Sensors are picking up an incredibly powerful energy field surrounding the planet. It’s a worldwide spell, trying to latch onto something on our ship.”
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“Spell deflectors up,” Zeus ordered. “Bring our counter-mages into the loop. What's that spell targeting? What do you mean, it's worldwide?” Even as he said that, the man was stretching out his own senses, attempting to answer those questions for himself with his power. Sure enough, he could sense a staggeringly powerful spell, but what it was for, he couldn’t say just yet. It was too intricate, and would take more time for him to unravel the purpose.
For the next sixty seconds or so, there was a flurry of activity on the bridge as everyone set to work decoding what that spell was, and what it was targeting on their ship. Not to mention ensuring that it did not accomplish whatever it was setting out to do.
Finally, Artemis leaned over to whisper something to Athena, who stood and moved over to Demeter. Those two had a brief, murmured conversation before the latter addressed him. “Captain, it appears that the spell is targeting some of the humans onboard. Specifically, those who have not bonded to anyone yet. We've run the calculations three times, and those are the people it's trying to affect.”
Turning his head to glare at the planet below them, Zeus half-growled, “That means it’s targeting children and our Freshman cadets.” By their sophomore year, the humans would have chosen something or someone to bond to. The fact that this spell was specifically targeting the vulnerable humans on his ship made him want to stretch his power out and rip the whole thing until the magic shattered. But he knew that even he wasn't strong enough to do something like that. Not with something this powerful. It must have taken hundreds of years to make this thing fully envelop the planet, and yet… how?
“Whatever it is,” Hera interrupted his musing in a worried tone, “we can’t let it affect the human cadets. They’re helpless down there.”
“It’s some kind of memory spell,” Artemis put in, sounding uncomfortable. Which made sense, given the history she had with her mother being affected by a memory curse. “We haven’t untangled the whole thing, but my best guess is that it makes non-bonded forget anything… unusual that happens.”
Demeter was nodding. “That’s what I’ve got too. It erases or rewrites anything in their memories about magic, or non-human sapients, or anything like that. And then it… it feeds off them to sustain itself. It uses their own magic energy to maintain the effect. It’s really quite fascinating how they managed to put something like this together.”
Looking at her pointedly, Zeus asked, “Fascinating how who managed to put this together? That’s what I want to know. Who managed to do this so fast? I can’t think of a single species we’ve encountered that could have done something like this. Not this quickly. That spell down there would have taken even our people hundreds of years to get right. At least, to this extent.”
There was even more strange news after that. The Seosten academies on the world were gone, as if they’d never been there. Entire cities had vanished or had huge chunks missing. There were a few scattered pockets of what looked like non-human societies, but they were clearly hidden. It was like entire chunks of their civilization had been erased.
Abruptly, Athena spoke up. “Captain, I am detecting weapon signatures powering up. A ship came out of cloak just above the planet’s surface. But it’s not targeting us. I don’t think they know we’re here.”
“What the hell are they targeting then?” Zeus demanded. “And who are they?”
“Scans say they’re Seosten,” Poseidon doubtfully reported. “But it doesn’t look like any of our ships, and the power readings I’m getting off it are ridiculous.”
“It’s hovering over Las Vegas,” Athena put in, fingers dancing over her controls to get more information. “Looks like they're targeting something underground, but--” That was as far as she managed to get to before the ship in question fired straight toward whatever they were aiming for. A few minor alerts came across the screen to note the weapon fire, but it came nowhere near them.
After a few moments passed with no return fire or repeat of the first, Zeus finally shook his head. “Looks like they killed whatever they were going for.”
“Should we hail the ship?” Apollo questioned, hand poised over the controls.
Zeus briefly considered that, then shook his head. “We don't know what's going on. I don't want to tip our hand too soon. Whatever happened, the people responsible must think they've gotten rid of every ship in this system. Let them keep thinking that. Stay cloaked and prepare a landing party. I want to see what's going on down there in Vegas and what they were shooting at. And make sure our spell deflectors keep that effect away from our cadets. I don’t want anything erasing their memories.
“Someone down there owes me an explanation, and I'm going to get it.”
******
Given how clueless they were about the entire situation, it was difficult to narrow down who would work for an effective away team. In the end, Zeus chose himself, Artemis, Hera, Hades, Ares, and Hestia. Honestly, if there was a threat down there that they couldn't handle, it was doubtful that a larger group would have been able to. At least, not without bringing everyone, and he didn't want to do that. He needed a decent command structure left on the ship just in case anything went wrong and they needed to be rescued. Poseidon was left in charge on the bridge, with Athena as his second and Apollo at the helm. The first two tended to butt heads a fair bit, but they were both professional and could get along when they needed to. Especially in situations like this.
After making sure his group was ready to go as they stood in one of the transport rooms, Zeus reached out a hand and activated the already prepared spell. The portal flared to life, and they all moved through it, with him taking the lead.
As planned, the portal took them to where they had detected the most activity following that single shot from the previously cloaked ship. It was a hotel-casino that appeared to be heavily covered in various types of magic. The portal specifically let them out onto the roof of that building, and the second they emerged, Artemis was checking her handheld scanner. “All readings say we were right. This is the same day, month, and year that we were in before. Effectively no time has passed since we went into that energy field.”
“Well something happened,” Hestia, who still appeared to be a young child despite actually being several thousand years old, darted to the edge of the roof and looked down at the parking lot below. “Why do all these buildings look so primitive? Where's all the defenses we helped them build? And I don't see the training academy that’s supposed to be right over there.” She pointed off in the distance. And she, of course, would know where the training academy was supposed to be, considering how much time she spent traveling between various ones on-planet. Helping to prepare the cadets for deployment was one of her primary jobs, after all.
“Wanna know what I think?” Ares grunted. “We are on Earth. Just a different one. You ask me, this is an Earth where we never decided to play nice with the humans. That spell to hide magic stuff, that’s got our people written written all over it. That’s why there ain’t no fleet here, no defense forces, no fortress, nothing like that. We’re all still hiding.” With a snort, the large man added, “Probably still going by our old names too.”
“Captain,” Hades abruptly put in while the rest of them were either looking at Ares or staring off the way Hestia had been pointing, “I’m sensing something… strange moving through the hotel. It seems to be a zombie, with some kind of very powerful spell attached to it. Whatever it is, there’s another spell hiding the fact that it’s dead. From most people, at least. But there’s something about it. The power animating this thing, I could swear it’s from...” He trailed off before sighing. “From him, Captain.”
There was only one him that Hades could be referring to when it came to necromancy. But that was impossible, because the man they were talking about had been killed over a hundred years earlier. Unless this was someone else who had taken up his mantle, or he had somehow faked his--no, Zeus would have known if he wasn’t really dead.
Gaze snapping up from her scanner, Artemis blurted, “Whatever that spell is, it’s starting to activate.”
Whether this was really Fossor or not, Zeus had no idea. He did know that he didn't want that spell activating. With a wave of his hand, he created a short portal, linking them to the room where this was happening. An instant later, they were through it, and ended up standing at the back of a large private lounge full of people. People who, at that exact moment, weren’t looking their way. Instead, their focus appeared to be on a blue-skinned reptilian being who was standing next to a very light-skinned Seosten with short, spiky black hair that had very dark blue tips, and a tattoo of a phoenix across one side of her face.
But no one was looking at the Seosten woman. They were focused solely on the man, whom Zeus immediately recognized as the source of the previously-mentioned spell. Now that they were in the room, he could sense all that power himself. This guy was practically glowing with magical energy. Magical energy that was about to explode, literally. He was about two seconds away from turning this room into ground zero for some kind of spell that must have taken months to prepare.
A blonde girl was standing with her back to where Zeus and his people were, already speaking toward the dead man. “Sit down.”
Just like that, the man sat down. Another human girl asked what was going on, just before the blonde spun back to scream about the man being a zombie. Right when that happened, Zeus felt the spell that had been filling the man start to go off. He didn't know what it was supposed to do, but it was obvious that this was very bad magic. So, raising his hand, he stopped it. The spell fizzled just as it was triggering, as Zeus yanked the energy away and dispelled it safely out through the air surrounding the building. There was so much magic that it sent a bright flash of light everywhere in the entire state, and there would be some minor side effects such as plants growing much better than they had been, a few talking animals here or there, the odd floating person, and so on. But for the most part, it would all be safe. And more importantly, whatever Fossor or his heir had intended for that spell wouldn’t happen.
Then the spell was gone, leaving the zombie, or what remained of him, splattered across the floor and ceiling. And leaving everyone in the room staring their way. Zeus and his people had not been noticed before, but they were sure as hell being noticed now. Dozens of eyes were on them.
“Wh--Kushiel?” The blonde girl who had been controlling the zombie before stumbled back a step, her eyes wide as she stared at Zeus’s wife. “Manakel? Wha--Sariel?! How--wha--what?”
Suddenly, there were many, many weapons pointed at them, while everyone in the room seemed to share the same sentiment as the strange Necromancer girl herself. Sensing his own people start to move as though to defend themselves, Zeus held up a hand to stop them. “Wait, everyone wait. We don’t mean you any harm. There's something strange going on here. Ares, I think you were onto something.”
“Oh, you’re definitely right about one thing,” a familiar voice announced, as Artemis… despite standing just behind him, also stepped out into view next to the blonde girl who had been speaking before. “There’s definitely something strange going on here.
“So why don’t you explain just what the hell it is, Puriel?”