The commander's office is built like a rich man's study. The walls are constructed out of finely-made oak and are sectioned off with shelves between every other wall slit, where books and files have been stored at. The wall's have been polished and shinned with some kind of shinning gloss that makes the wood reflect an exact mirror image of the room. The room is carpeted with green, low-cut fabric across the entire square campus of the room. In the center of the office is a large, rectangular wooden desk with a large, rotating chair behind it facing toward the room's only door. Facing away from the door and placed against the desk are three four-legged, metal chairs that have soft, red cushions as seats, June and Sherah are sitting in two of these seats, with the one on the far left remaining open for Raphael.
Sitting on the other side of the desk and motioning for Raphael to come into the room is a middle-aged man wearing a white and blue military outfit and hat. His hair looks slightly aged, with streaks of white stroking out of the completely black hair that escapes from the back of his military hat. The man's eyes are as black as his still-colored hair, but he seems to have a hardiness in his stare, one that can only be brought into being from a stiff and long military career. Despite having a menacing face, his demeanor is kind, showing a smile and waving for Raphael to come in and to have a seat next to June.
Even though Raphael is slightly nervous about the meeting that is about to take place, he knows that his new role as the Guardian means that he needs to do some tough things, so he walks to the empty chair and sits down right as the ship's commander begins to speak again.
“So, you must be the Key's Guardian? I must say, you are a lot more different than I had expected you to be, but than again, if the Guardian lore is correct, you must have a heart of pure gold. I guess time will tell of that.” says the commander to Raphael. “Oh, but where are my manners. I'm Brigadier Commander Johnathon Tyrone Lendlock, captain of the U-MASS Starlooper. I've been assigned by the UMA to look over the Key for the duration of the war.”
Raphael reaches over top of the wooden desk and shakes hands with Lendlock, while saying. “It's a pleasure.” Once he sits back down in his seat, Raphael continues to speak. “My name's Raphael Horizon Danteo, and apparently, I'm the Guardian. Sherah told me that once the UMA, which I suppose is you guys, picked us up, they would explain everything that is going on here.”
“Well,” questions Lendlock. “how much do you already know?”
“All I know is that alien's crashed in my backyard and now I'm on one of their ships with super powers, so yeah, I'm pretty uninformed.”
“Have you, by chance, ever been told about the UMA or the DuskWar or about any of the life outside of your earth?”
Raph shakes his head dishearteningly.
“Crap,” says Lendlock after lowering his head and letting out a deep sigh. “it seems like your government is one of the secretive types, which means that we're going to have to give you a deep briefing, and since you're still a child, that's going to make things even more difficult.” Lendlock turns his gaze away from Raphael and looks toward Sherah and June. “I'm going to try to explain everything I can right here and now, and for that I'm going to need help from both of you.” June and Sherah nod both of their heads in agreement.
“Alright, to start off,” says Lendlock. “were you ever taught about the big bang while you were in school?”
“No, not yet at least...” Raphael mutters out.
“If you're ever taught about that in school, don't believe what they say if it's the opposite of what we're about to tell you. The big bang was when the universe was basically created, which is space itself. The big bang was when a single planet that made up the entire universe exploded, which created the universe we live in today. This, of course, took place billions of years ago, well before any of us were born.
You're probably going to be taught this in school. What you aren't going to be told is what exactly caused the big bang. The cause of the big bang was when the Over-god split it's kingdom to create Hell, the eternal resting place of the wicked and evil. The massive planet that had been the universe was actually the domain of the Over-god. When heaven was split, the entire planet cracked and shattered throughout space, creating the universe. Before this happened, there was only a single god, but once the Over-world split, so did the Over-god and the Over-demon, creating the multiple gods, demons, and religions in general.” Lendlock stops speaking to get a drink of water from the mug on his desk, he swigs down a few gulps to wet his dried throat and places the mug down with a sigh. He looks over at Sherah and nods to her as a sign to continue the briefing.
Sherah acknowledges Lendlock's request and begins to speak after thinking for a few seconds about how she would word her explanation. “After the big bang, the universe was barren of life for a long time. Without a god to seed life into the universe, it became silent. After an unknown amount of time, gods and demons began to appear, but not on the planet's themselves. All of the gods appeared in their own separate dimensions.
As far as we know, in the center of certain planets, there is a gateway at the center of the given world which leads to a certain religion's dimension. We've found a lot of the world's so far, but we're missing a single religion's gateplanet, and that's for the religion of The God of Many, which we believe is the Demu's main target. As far as we know, your earth might be the gateplanet to the God of Many's heaven, since the UMA hasn't done extreme exploration this far back from the front lines of the DuskWar, but that is only speaking hypothetical with no proof. Simply put, it's just an example.”
“Wait,” asks Raphael out of curiosity, interrupting Sherah mid-sentence. “whats the DuskWar? Does it have anything to do with those Nes. Demu people?”
“We're getting to that Raphael.” says Lendlock while calling Sherah off with an open right palm. “That's the main part of the briefing. What we're telling you right now is just historical knowledge that leads up to the DuskWar's explanation. Since you now understand about the multiple gods and gateplanets, we can move on to the demon explanation. You may not know this, but the god of many is the strongest out of all of the gods, and because of that, the Devil, the demon of the god of many, is the strongest out of all of the demons.
“Unlike the gods, who rule their own domains with the corresponding gods of their religion, the demons all rule in the same exact place, all within an adjoining hell that exists in a single dimension. They had all grown to hate each other over the millenniums, but the Devil, the most powerful one of them all, rose over top of the other demons and declared himself the ruler of Hell. Even after demonstrating his strength against all the other demons, however, they still did not follow him as his servants.”
“We have no idea when the Devil decided on doing this, but the fact is that it has happened and there was nothing we could have done in the past to fix it. The Devil decided to attack the universe and bring it under his rule as the tyrant king that he is, so that all other demons, and gods, would serve under his heel. June, I'm told that you have a good understanding of what happened next, so could you take the next turn?”
“No problem.” says June with a smile. She turns to Raphael and begins to speak. “A long time ago, nearly a million years ago to be exact, on my original home planet, there lived my ancestors. At the time, the elder of my family had just died from a freak accident at his place of work, which was a spaceship manufacturing company. His wife was devastated by the loss of her husband and fell into a deep depression.
For reasons I still don't understand, the rest of my ancestors decided to leave her alone. It might have been tradition or something, but I still don't get it. Either way, the fact is that she was left unattended. One day, a group of travelers with gray skin and red eyes met her on the streets while she was weeping and told her that they knew a way to bring her husband back and that they were going to need her help to do so. As far as I know, they didn't give her many details about how to do so, all they told her was to follow them back to their ship and to the planet that the UMA has now designated as Planet Demu, which means hell in my ancestor's native tongue.”
“So Demu means hell, huh? What does the Nes. Demu stand for?” asks Raphael as he plays back the information he has just learned in his head multiple times, making sure that he didn't miss anything.
“Nes. Demu...? Oh, you mean the Nespec tie Demu! That stands for Conquerors from Hell. Once the Demu had brought my ancestor to Planet Demu, they led her to a monolith beside a massive chasm at the height of the northern portion of the planet. Their leader, who's name has gone down in history as the name of lesser evil, Zard, instructed my ancestor on how to open the gate.
All she had to do was cut her hand and place it on the monolith's hand-shaped incision and chant the words 'open'. She did as she was instructed, only to see the chasm that she had previously been looking upon now has been filled with a lava-like substance. Unfortunately, that was where her tale ended. Before she could even mutter a single word to her multiple questions, Zard drew his sword, placed his hand around her mouth, pulled his sword arm back and...” June's eyes fill with a sudden sadness, a sadness that could only be brought by seeing a tragedy befall someone over and over again as she continues to speak. “He... stabbed her... through her... back.... The last thing she could have possibly seen was the Nespec tie Demu being released into the universe. I just hope that she understands what she has done...”
June's eyes suddenly light up and her mood changes. “But there was still hope, though. The rest of my ancestor's family left on a starship a few days before the gate opened to explore the universe for whatever the nation of my home planet was back then. They left with another group of adventurers and were a few galaxies away before they received an emergency response from their government. All it said was 'Run, escape the horde....' My ancestors were most likely a very cautious group, so they fled, going as far as they could into the deep reaches of space, putting as much distance between them and the supposed 'horde' as possible.”
A brief silence passes before Raphael realizes that the briefing is over. He looks around the room repeatedly during that short period of time waiting for someone to pick up the story. Once he realizes that no one is going to speak, he says. “Um, is everyone done?”
“Yes, Guardian.” says Lendlock after he takes another sip from his mug. “The briefing is over. Now we need to get down to business.”
“Wait,” interrupts Raphael. “but aren't you going to tell me what the UMA is, or the lore-stuff about the Guardian, or what I'm supposed to do in the middle of this mess!?”
“I'd love to tell you more,” says Lendlock with a slight hint of haste emanating in his voice. “but we barely have any time right now to begin with. Sherah told me about the Demu ship that had attacked June's ship earlier, and they are most likely very close to our current location. Judging from Sherah's description, the ship is about twice as large as the ship that we are currently on, so we need to get things sorted out first before we give you a complete history lesson. Once we get everything figured out about where we are going to take June and who will be part of her defensive group, you, June, and the defensive force are going to have to be portaled out of here as fast as possible. Now, where do you think would be the best place to hide June?”
“Me!?” says Raphael in surprise. “You think that I should be the one to decide this!? You've been in the military way longer than I have, you should be the one choosing something like this! I mean, even a soldier going through boot camp would know more than me!”
“This has nothing to do with how much training you've had, your military rank or how long you've served. I'm only asking you this because you're the Guardian, and you're supposed to know what's best for June. You must choose carefully though, since this will be where June will stay for a very long while, not to mention the stronghold that will hold June until we push the front line back to Planet Demu.”
“Hold...?” questions Raphael for a split second before speaking in a sudden uproar of anger. “You're telling me to Hold June in a single place!? Nobody can Hold a human being and store them away for later use, and last time I checked, June was a human-freaking-being! As long as June is alive and I'm the Guardian, she will never be held against her own will in a single building! Oh and by-the-way, our names aren't 'the Key' and 'the Guardian'. We're June and Raphael, and you better not freaking forget it!”
The entire room falls silent at Raphael's sudden outburst, everyone thinking and feeling differently to the situation.
Lendlock feels a sense of amazement from the massive bravery that this pre-teenager had just shown by speaking out of anger to a seasoned military leader, and apparently not having any fear of what may happen from his outburst. Lendlock at this moment believes with absolute certainty that this boy was meant from the very beginning to be the Guardian. With the massive spirit that he had just shown moments ago, there was no way that he could not be the Guardian. Raphael has just won Lendlock's full and complete trust and loyalty.
Sherah looks at Raphael with fury in her eyes. She has it in her mind to beat him for speaking to a superior the way that he just did. She didn't care if he is right or not, he is still out of line on all accounts. The fact that the Guardian is only a twelve-year-old child had made her begin to distrust him earlier, but now she is fairly certain that Raphael doesn't deserve the role that he was given, and she is completely certain that she is the only one that can protect June.
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But perhaps the one that is most enlightened by Raphael's statement is June. Almost no one aside from her family has ever expressed as much care for her feelings as Raphael has just shown, and no one has ever given her the amount of free-will that Raphael has just wished upon her. Most people have always called her 'the Key' whenever they didn't know her name, and half the time when they did know her name. She had always found it slightly disrespectful, but never said anything to anyone about it for the seven Pontractus years that she has been with the UMA. Overtime, she had started to grow used to being called 'the Key', and was starting to not even care about it a few days before she had the premonition from The God of Many about the Guardian's location. The fact that Raphael, her Guardian, cares so deeply about her feelings has planted a seed of courage in her heart. From that point forward, she would refuse to be called defenseless or weak and if it ever came down to it, she would make sure that she is strong and brave enough to face whatever stands before her, be it with or without her friends.
Raphael stutters after his words, saying “I-I'm sorry... I didn't mean to... I don't know why I freaked out like that....”
“Don't worry about it, Raphael.” says Lendlock after making sure that Raphael is finished speaking. “You're completely right. June is not an object, she is a human-being and we are going to treat her just as such.” Lendlock turns his head towards June. “June, if anyone ever calls you 'the Key' again, tell them that your name is June and that you prefer that. If they continue to call you 'the Key', then come and find me, Raphael or Sherah and tell us, okay?”
June's next words come as a slight shock to Raphael and Lendlock. Her words are so unexpected and flow so easily from her tongue that it is near natural. She speaks a single word with her eyes shut, her head tilted, and with a smile. “No.”
“But June,” says Raphael in concern “don't you want to be called by your first name instead of some inanimate object!? I figured you would want this?”
“Oh, no, I am happy with that.” says June with a smile still on her face. “It's just that I don't want anyone fighting my battles for me anymore. If anyone starts something with me, then I will deal with it.”
June's sudden rebellion from her protectors comes as a shock to everyone in the room. Throughout the entire seven years that June has been with the UMA, she has always stayed in the background, letting herself be protected by all those that are willing to help, always relying on others. Now, her entire demeanor has suddenly changed from that of a controlled and protected child to that of a brave young teenager who is ready to deal back all of the damage that has been done to her life.
“W-Well then,” stutters Lendlock. “um, back to business, I suppose.... Raphael, where do you think would be a good place to have June live at until the war is over?”
Raphael ponders to himself quietly for about fifteen seconds before speaking. “Well, I don't really have any idea where she could stay at. The only place that I can possibly think of taking her to is my house, but it's not like the place is very secure or my parents won't be back in a week. You did say that earth is extremely far away from the front lines, so I say that she should stay in an uncivilized area of my earth. Of course, that is if she is alright with all of this.”
June nods her head in agreement. “I'm fine with it, as long as I can leave every now and then.”
“It's settled then,” announces Lendlock. “June is going to be staying on Pontractus Numerous until we push the front lines back to Planet Demu. There is only one problem right now though. There's still a Demu ship looming in this sector and we have nowhere near enough time to locate a base, let alone build one. So Raphael, we're going to need to form up your team right now and get you and your team off of this ship and to a safe location for the time being. You're going to need a leader, a second-in-command, an engineer, a Comm's director, and a medic.”
“I know some people.” says Raphael happily. “I'll be the leader, June will be the second-in-command,” hearing that June will be placed as second-in-command makes Sherah cringe and June smile at the same time. “and Miyra Sinnt is a friend and is probably a pretty good engineer. I don't know about all the other roles though.”
“I think I can cover the rest of the unfilled roles.” says Lendlock as he sips water from his mug once again. “I have a good idea for who your Comm's director will be and the pilot from June's transport ship, what's his name, Chiot? Anyway, his military report shows that he has had some practice with fixing field wounds, and since you know him, I'll put him in your squad. I'll call everyone and tell them to get to the portal room.”
“Wait,” says Raphael “I was supposed to meet Miyra and Chiot at the cafeteria. I'll go get them myself and then we'll all head to the portal room at once, if that's alright with you.”
“Well actually, if memory dictates, the cafeteria is on the way to the portal room. So, it would be a lot easier if you gather up Miyra and Chiot on your way to the portal room.” says Lendlock before he presses a button on his desk that opens the office door. “You should get a move on. This ship can't stay in this sector forever.”
Raphael, Sherah and June all stand up at nearly the same time and say their goodbyes before exiting the room.
Raphael, June and Sherah stand in front of Lendlock's office, discussing what should be their next course of action. “Raphael,” says Sherah, “you and June should head for the cafeteria. I'm going to head for the portal room.”
“Why” asks Raphael with a straight face.
“You're the leader, Raphael. I'm just common infantry apparently, so I don't have anything to do with the briefing for the rest of your squad. Besides, there's nothing that they can tell me that I don't already know.”
“That's not true, Sherah.” exclaims Raphael with haste. “You're a valued member of my squad and you're June's protector, so that puts you right next to me and June. Miyra and Chiot are probably going to tell us about themselves too, which is valuable when you are in a close-knit squad.”
“I could care less about their history.” exclaims Sherah as she turns and walks down the opposite hallway. “All I need to know is that they are here to protect June, their past means absolutely nothing to me.”
Before Raphael can say a word of protest, Sherah has already rounded the hallway corner and disappeared out of view.
“Aw, don't let her get you down Raphael.” speaks June as she pats Raphael on his back and smiles. “She's just apprehensive is all, but she'll warm up to you eventually. Now come on, let's get to the cafeteria. Miyra and Chiot are waiting for us.”
Raphael turns his head to look into June's ruby red eyes and nods in affirmation. June giggles back while closing her eyes and tilting her head. “Follow me.” she says as she starts walking back the way that Raphael had come before.
Raphael follows closely behind June as she leads him through the brightly-lit hallways of the Starlooper. Soldiers and crew member's dot the hallways, chatting with one another or just simply killing time by themselves while they enjoy their break from work. June leads Raphael into one of the multiple elevators of the Starlooper and presses the buttons for one and five, which appropriately brought up the number fifteen on the overhead visor at the top left of the elevator door. The elevator snaps to life in an instant and brings the duo up to the fifteenth floor in the matter of an instant.
June leads Raphael through a few more hallways before reaching the cafeteria. The cafeteria, compared to the rest of the ship's decor, has barely anything of note. The entire room is lit up by overhanging, brass chandlers that have white, florescent flames for candles. Outside of the cafeteria is a large lobby that is about half the size of the eatery itself. The lobby has almost no meaning other than to extend the massive cafeteria line that normally stretches into it. The lobby is built completely of a sleek, silvery metal that reflects the shine of the flames that light the room.
The cafeteria is built in a large rectangle with the food line in the center top of the rectangle facing away from the outer room. The cafeteria is made out of beautifully-crafted marble that encompasses the floor, ceiling and everything else. It is filled with plywood tables that are painted a beautiful, shinning white.
At the current time, there aren't many people at the cafeteria or in the outer room. A few Starlooper crew members are waiting in the food line though. Raphael enters the room while following June and attempts to locate Miyra and Chiot out of the small crowd. June finds the two moments before Raphael does and points them out with an outstretched index finger. “Look Raphael!” June points out. “There they are. Come on, let's go get something to eat and then go and talk with them.”
Raphael tells her a quick “Okay” and walks to the end of the short food line. “What are you doing, Raphael?” says June as she walks past Raphael and to the side of the short line. “You're the Guardian now and special privileges come with that when you're among the UMA. One of them being the ability to skip in line.”
Raphael acknowledges her statement and walks straight out of the line and files in behind June. The two walk straight past all of the crew members and cut in front of the man at the front of the line.
They both order something simple and quick to make, a single ham and cheese sandwich. June goes first. She receives her food in the matter of ten seconds and immediately moves out of the line with her food to let Raphael order his meal. She waits for Raphael to finish obtaining his dinner with her back placed firmly against the wall to the side of the food line. When Raphael exits the line, June gets out of her leaning position against the wall and follows Raphael to Miyra and Chiot's table, where they are eating and killing time.
Raphael and June let out a happy hello to Miyra and Chiot and wave their hands towards them as they walk to their table. Miyra let's out a cheerful greeting as Raphael and June move closer and motions for them to sit on the other side of the table. Chiot also says a greeting, but says it in a less perky tone, simply saying “hey” and then looking back down at his food.
“So Raphael,” questions Miyra, “how did your meeting with the commander go?”
“It went well.” responds Raphael. “Lendlock, Sherah and June explained a lot to me, but I still have some questions.”
“Alright then kid,” says Chiot, shooting his head up from his food. “we'll answer everything you ask us, to the best of our abilities, that is.”
“Alright, thanks.” speaks Raphael with a growing sense of excitement increasing within him. “First off, what's the UMA?”
“It stands for the Universal Military Alliance.” says Chiot with a small sense of honor in his tone. “It was founded in 900 B.A., which stands for 'before arrival'. Right now, the year is 1,004,000 A.O., which stands for 'after opening'. The UMA was established by the Omerit Empire, who, using their advanced technology, was able to see into the future by nine hundred or so years. What the Omerit Empire saw was their home world in flames, completely destroyed by gray-skinned human-like beings who massacred everyone on their world with hearts of ice. Knowing that this was going to happen in the next couple of generations, the Omerit Empire started running research on who these gray-skinned creatures were that they had seen.”
“After about a hundred years of research and future-seeings, they realized the truth. Their planet wasn't going to be the only one in flames. These creatures were going to attack the entire universe, and these people weren't any ordinary human-beings, they were in fact damned souls from hell, sent to conquer the universe. With all of the information that they had uncovered and all the knowledge that they could possibly have known about future events, they set out into the universe as fast as they could, uniting together anyone that would accept what they knew across the worlds and bringing them together as the universe's denizens and protectors.”
“Thus, the UMA was formed, a universal collective of any and everyone who would fight back against the gray-skinned invaders. And that's how the UMA was formed and what it stands for to this very day, except that now it also stands for the dispatching of evil throughout the universe as well.”
“Wow, good job with the details, Chiot.” says Raphael, who sees that Chiot is now exhausted from letting out such a detailed explanation. “ Are the Omerit still around?”
“Believe it or not,” says Chiot as he shrugs. “they're still out there. They basically make up the UMA high command and their home planet is just a few galaxies away from the front line. It's a good thing that you came along, because if we lose the Omerit home planet, then the UMA would be in shambles and would just be torn apart.”
“My next question is probably going to be a lot tougher. Where do you go when you die if all religion's exist?” Raphael asks
“Oh, that's simple, Raphael.” says Miyra as she shrugs with her eyes shut and her head tilted. “You just go to the heaven of the religion that you follow. All be it, that really just depends on how you act throughout your life, cardinal sins and all that. Anymore questions?”
“Nope, not really.” says Raphael as he finishes his sandwich. Raphael had noticed while he was eating that his food doesn't taste odd in any way, except for the fact that he got an odd vibe from the fact that the food is from another planet, like it had somehow the thought had leaked into his taste buds, making him feel a little uneasy about his meal. “We need to get going, Lendlock wants us off of this ship before the Demu find us.”
“Aw, you're leaving?” says Miyra with a small tear forming in her clouded, green eyes. “I'm going to miss you guys. You were all such good company. . . I'll make sure to try and find you guys when the war's over, okay?”
“Oh crud, I almost forgot to tell you,” says Raphael as he rises from his seat. “you guys are part of my team. You're coming with me back to my earth. Take care of your trash, we're going to the portal room when you're finished.”
“Raphael...” exclaims Miyra, her eyes now beginning to tear. “I... I didn't know that you liked us so much....” She begins to weep slightly. She was not expecting to become a fully-fledged member of Raphael's squad. This makes her feel both honored and touched at the same time, forcing tears to well in her eyes.
Raphael knew as soon as he met Miyra that she was an odd mystery just by her hair color and clouded pupils, but as time went on, she seemed to become more mysterious. First, she suddenly had massive strength for her young body, and now she's crying her eyes out over as small a thing as becoming the engineer of his squad. The more he thinks about it, the more confused he gets.
Despite his confusion, he places a calming hand on her shoulder and says lightly to her “You don't need to cry. This is what friend's are for. I can tell that you will be a great founding member of the squad, and I can see a good soul inside of you on top of that.” he backs away “Now come on, we need to leave.”
Miyra looks up at Raphael and wipes the tears from her eyes. She mutters out “okay....” before getting to her feet and throwing her trash away in a nearby trashcan.
They leave out of the front of the cafeteria soon after.
As Raphael exits the cafeteria, he starts to realize that the lobby has absolutely no windows of any kind. The entire area is just a big, metal cube. Raphael wishes that there are, since he now suddenly has a horrifying feeling of uneasiness. He isn't sure where it's coming from, though.
Raphael stops dead in his tracks, forcing his group to make a sudden stop. “Raphael,” says June with concern. “what's wrong?”
Before Raphael can speak a single word to June, overhead sirens and lights begin to flare, lighting the entire room in a bright red glow. Raphael looks up at the alarms that are installed in the ceiling and wonders what is going on. As Raphael starts brainstorming reasons behind the sudden emergency, an immediate blasting noise behind him wakes him out of his state of bewilderment.
The entire group turns their heads at the same time to see a massive gaping hole that leads into black nothingness now jutting out of where a portion of the left wall had once been. Although almost everyone in the group understands what is happening, Raphael still doesn't quite comprehend the situation. Only when he sees the outline of a body moving through the darkness, the shimmering shine of a black blade being drawn from within the haze, and the grunting screams of the monstrous being inside does he truly understand.
The Starlooper is being attacked by the Demu... They have been found...