Seven Years

[Protagonist]

As far as the eyes could see, there were farm lands growing wheat. There was decayed equipment laying around haphazardly, though the sight was not ugly.

A group of TERRA conscripts were marching in perfect step down the broken road. They were carrying a large crate.
A crowd had gathered around them. Men, Women, Children all alike. Most of them were very sick. The conscripts opened their crate. Inside were lots of pills. Not medicine, but rather recreational drugs. To make them forget about their pains. They left the crate there, for the people, who cheering the whole time.

Projected onto the night sky was an image of a face. Ira Mankato, prophet of Prometheism. She spoke her daily message to the citizens of TERRA. It faded into the background, like white noise.

Meanwhile, in a bunker miles away, there was an Icthus base. Chapter 134.
The place contained a sort of...sterile beauty. There was no color, and itt was rather suffocating. However, it was far from ugly, the entire place had a nice polish to it. It might resemble to some the Death Star's interior.

David was at the range, practicing his shooting.

 

[Minerva]

[3 weeks prior]

Aaron opened his eyes.
"Max time reached. Contacting CDC. Error contacting. Shutting down." The computerized voice said. Aaron listened as the door to where he was stored cracked open. He stepped out and looked at all the other containers. All the other agents had died. Aaron was the only one left. He grabbed his sniper Rifle from the rack along with two packages of ammo. He grabbed his HAZMAT suit, and the other things he was ordered to take with him when they put him in. There were skeletons of workers at computers. He shook a computer from sleep mode, and wiped the dust off of the screen. He saw the date. That's when Aaron felt the cold. He was in a giant metal building in Antarctica. There was bound to be some holes after so long in Cryogenic sleep.
"Gloria Patria, et filio. Et Spiritui Sancto." He said. He walked to the giant vault door that led outside. He typed in the passcode, and exited. Two very startled men stared at him.

[now]

Aaron inserted the syringe into the man's arm. He was working as a temporary doctor at a Hospital. The man began to whimper in pain. Aaron took the needle out.
"It's fine. It's all good." Aaron said throwing away the syringe. "My shift is over. Check out with the nurses, and you should be done." Aaron walked out of the room and into the busy hospital hallway. Since the plague hit, they had been extremely busy. Aaron walked into a bathroom, and after making sure he was the only one, he called David.
"Just finished my shift. I'm going over there now." He hung up.

 

[Cahill]

Cool night air tugged softly at white hair. Jane was seated outside, cross-legged atop the bunker some Ichtus members called home. She enjoyed the relative stillness the night brought and was quite annoyed when the dull buzz of the Prophet's announcement system drifted towards her from the distance. She shouldn't have been though considering the projection had become a daily occurrence. Ignored by those who hated the Prometheisms and tolerated by those showered in free supplies.

She sighed and leaned back, turning her eyes skyward to look at the dim stars. She sat there for a while, trying to lose herself for just a moment. The sound of the bunker doors swishing open arrested her attention. Two members she idly recalled as being named Dina and Phillip came out chattily. They didn't even notice the Synthetic, so enamored were they in their conversation. Jane tried her best not to listen, but just like the Prophet's words from miles away had drifted towards her on the wind, so did the embarrassing words the two uttered.

With a shake of her head she stood and a moment and a jump later her feet met ground. In she went into the bland building that was the bunker. She had been at this specific Chapter for a little more than a few weeks, before that she was at Chapter 111. The two weren't much different, except for the layout that had some minor alterations, both were sterile and mechanical. One would expect a non-organic to feel quite at home, but Jane despised the place. Her own little spot in the building always had some kind of plant to bring life to the surroundings.

The corridor had some foot traffic. Most members nodded in recognition, others offered a cheery "Evening", but there was still a handful she passed that ignored her completely. In the time she had spent with these religious humans, she had realized some of the more conservative one didn't entirely agree with her attire. In an attempt to remedy this, she added a string to keep the open front of her shirt from falling open. Not even this had helped with some men and she chalked this up merely to the fact that they didn't like non-humans. She wasn't the only synthetic that had banded with Ichtus. She had traded stories and found out origins of quite a few. Some were standard models, whilst others were custom like her.

Speaking of which, she had ended up in a common room area and in the corner sat two of the robots that she had spoken to quite a few times. Although both kept the eternal youthful looks that accompanied the Synthetics, they had fallen into the habit of old men. They must have somewhere seen a film showing two old men in a park, because they had set up a chess board and met up every day for a game. The dark steel horse had just taken a light steel bishop when she sat on a chair at their table.

 

[Protagonist]

David salutes to Aaron as he calls him.
"Hello, Medical Offic-"
Suddenly, someone runs into the range shouting "Guys, guys! You've got to see what's on the news!!"

David raises an eyebrow "Propaganda?"

The other guy shakes his head. "No, no...well, actually, yes. That too. But also something...incredible!"

The TV Screens show what's on the news.
An anchorwoman stands in front of an awful chroma-key effect, showing an image of a large, blurry, square-shaped object in space.

"Astronomers have discovered an object entering out solar system. At first thought to be a dwarf-planet, new images show that the object is cube-shaped. Researches suspect it to be an alien spacecraft. However, all attempts to contact it have been met with silence..."

It shows a clip of Adrian Delmore, wearing his typical charming grin. "Hello" he says with a smile. He pauses a moment, to give the fangirls time to swoon. He rarely appeared on camera. "I say to our new friends, welcome to Earth! Do not fear, people of Earth, for when they arrive, they shall see all the good things we've done on TERRA. Remember, the distances in space are vast. It'll take many years for them to get to the inner solar system. In the meantime, I ask my people to continue on with their lives as they would normally".

The Anchorwoman smiles, nods, and says "Well, amen to that. In other news, the heretics responsible for the assassination of Vladimir Bagrov have been found, and are sentenced to be executed over global television at 5:00. And, after that..." it plays a clip of a sneezing panda "We'll talk about the sneezing panda that's warming the hearts of billions around the globe, and the controversy over whether TERRA's official mascot should be the panda."

The screens shut off.

 

[Whirlwind]

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. (John 1:1-3)

Hera held tightly the thin piece of paper she read every morning. It was torn out of a Bible that had belonged to her mother, and she kept it on her person at all time. All she had was the first chapter of John, but she had ripped it out since it was dog eared and she couldn't take the entire book with her at the moment she'd taken the piece. Her lips moved as she observed the words, but no sound left them, eyes moving back and forth across the page and every blonde curl moving as her head did.

The young woman sat on a couch in the recreational, common room area, wearing a loose dress but no shoes or jewelry. Her makeup was unexpected but not for anyone who knew Hera, as it usually was with her. She had three purple streaks starting at the top of her cheekbone and moving to her nose, wide eyes accentuated by well placed mascara and long lashes.

She was almost finished with the page when someone said 'Look!' Hera frowned a bit and looked up, seeing the tv screen and the flickering image of the space object. She stared, not reacting much until the screen went off. "Well... amen to that..." she repeated the anchor woman softly, her words obviously meant to be a bit mocking.

 

[Minerva]

" Ye who is Without sin may throw the first stone."

Aaron got into his car. He turned on the radio and began driving through city. The radio talked about a deep space object. Aaron laughed. Lots of people from his time always were worried about some deep space object. This era was no different. He stopped at a new office building with a marble facade. He put on some red robes he had and got out of his car. He drew with chalk "Romanes Eunt Domus." And "Romanus Ite Domum." Aaron took off the robes, got into his car and laughed. He drove off. He stopped by his apartment building. He went up to his suite, and opened some drawers. He grabbed his rifle's case, his HAZMAT suit, and his Medic uniform. He locked his door with his ID Card, and went down to his car again.
"Crap, I have another interview tonight!" He muttered, not remembering he still had his headpiece on and connected to David. He sat back and rubbed his face.
"I wish I died like my friends."

 

[Cahill]

"Checkmate!" James said enthusiastically as he placed his Queen, ending the game. Jeremiah frowned, nose scrunching up a bit as he tried to puzzle his way out of the conundrum he had found himself in. With a sigh he conceded, tipping his King over. A small coin was traded between the two. This was a ritual Jane had seen a few times between the two bots. Surprisingly enough it always appeared that the previous winner was losing the current match.

Just then the melody signalling the start of the evening news played from a nearby television screen. Heads turned and bodies shifted. Eyes focused of their closest screens as the local anchorwoman came into view. Jane listened attentively, but dismissed the article others seemed so intrigued by. As far as she could recall humans had quite a curiosity for space, when they didn't even know all the secrets of their own planet. That curiosity had prompted the launch of satellites and spaceships. In the end she chalked the mysterious cube up to space debris.

"Another execution. Wonder what evidence they have this time." Jane turned to look at Jeremiah. He was still watching the T.V, but was apparently speaking to either her or James.
"Likely just a show to force down their power. What other reason would there be to show the public an execution."
"And pacifying the event by using an animal."
"They may be evil, but they are not stupid. They know how to keep their power."

It was true. If there was something that Jane knew, it was that those in power were there for a reason.

 

[Protagonist]

2 Conscripts walk by the hidden message.
One reads it. "People called Romans, go to the house? What house? Where?"
The other says "I think they mean, Romans, go home."
The first says "Oh! Oh! I get it, now. They want Romans to go home."
The second says "I guess...well, we're Romans, right? And they want us to go home?" he checks his watch "Unfortunately, my shift's not up for a few hours."
The first shrugs "I think there's some sort of reference we're not getting here..."

---

David watched the news intently. He had no idea if any of what they were saying was true. It wasn't that uncommon for them to just make stuff up off the top of their heads.
But he thought a little bit about this one. Making this up wouldn't aid TERRA's purpose. At best, it would be a distraction. And it's not like you can just make up a dwarf-planet sized cube.
His mind raced for possible explanations. Certainly, this couldn't be a-Oh, look! A baby panda!

"Aww...." he said, audibly. He then felt a flush of embarrassment, and immediately restored his stoic composure.

He hears his friend mention that he "wished he died". He says "You really shouldn't talk like that. It could get you committed".


A few moments pass. A message comes on the intercom. "All people, head towards the auditorium. We have an important announcement."