5 parts for August Lore
The Ancient Greece Redemption - Part 1
That morning something different happened: through the bars of my cell I saw the jailer approach, but this time he was not alone … someone with a hooded robe was accompanying him, which did not allow me to see his face … they stayed a few meters from me cell, and the stranger gave the jailer a handful of peds, apparently to be alone … Moments later, the stranger pulled the hood back, and I could finally see his face.
Desmond … the bloody traitor had come to see me … He came over, looked at me with a scowl of hatred on his mouth, and spoke.
-Hi Dante … Long time since you left me abandoned in that damn pyramid … ago … mmm … 8 or 9 months? -He was staring at me.
-Desmond … How could you … We were friends before your betrayal … - I hit the bars with all the accumulated anger.
That got him out of control.
-Treason? Treason, he says … the same one who left me to die in that nest of robots. - Hatred was evident in his words.
He looked at me for a long time … It seemed that he was ordering his thoughts … At last he spoke again.
-Listen, that planetary teleporting was the beginning of great wealth for the Stel, and now that’s just junk.
-Desmond, but don’t you understand that that would have been the beginning of the end of the Entropy Quadrant? … The robots would have invaded everything sooner or later - It was incredible that Desmond did not see the danger that that represented.
-No, it would have been impossible … Once you and that Simon had finished with the robots, my other VIP colleagues Stel would have arrived and hacked the System, to avoid new communications with Calypso’s robots … It would have been OUR … and you would have too participated … - An expression of pain passed over his face - And instead of helping, you left me abandoned to a thousand deaths …
A thousand deaths … what was Desmond referring to?
-Listen, Desmond, in the end you are alive, only that your plans have not come out … But instead of going back, you end up with Simon and you set me up with your boyfriend to blame me … -If it weren’t for the bars of the cell , I would have killed Desmond with my bare hands.
Desmond looked at me … his eyes showed a shadow of madness, but also of that intelligence that characterized him … I wanted to know more …
-How did you kill Simon? And how did you prevent him from resurrecting? And my weapon? Who shot it? - I had many questions, and I wanted to know everything before they executed me …
-Dante, it’s fair that you know everything … Simon was not killed by me, but by you … it is your weapon, a CDF Edition bound to its owner, no one else can use it … unless I take advantage of the fact that you are unconscious, take your hand with the pistol wielded, and press your finger on the trigger … and the gun you have fired, with a little help, of course … -He smiled mockingly …
I can’t believe it… he used me to fire my gun and kill Simon… but how come he didn’t resurrect?
-Of course I guess what you are thinking now … you see … you were both unconscious after the roof of the house fell on you … Mark and I searched you and saw that your friend had an access card to the TP systems, no doubt he used it to follow us … when we used it, we saw that he had sufficient credentials to enter the DNA system … and we took the opportunity to terminate Simon … His death would be permanent.
Of course … the card and keys that his friend who worked in the TP had given him to be able to follow Mark … Damn Desmond … and on top of that it makes me look guilty …
-And now you’ll be thinking why I didn’t kill you too … so that you would suffer a minimum of what I suffered in that damn pyramid … -his eyes showed evil, but … he also looked scared …
-Desmond … what happened to you in the pyramid? - He was curious about what had happened to him …
-Thousands of deaths, Dante, that’s what happened … listen …
The Ancient Greece Redemption - Part 2 - Desmond’s Story
I woke up in the dark … I couldn’t see anything … I just smelled of burning metal, and I heard electrical sounds … short circuits … Those sparks guided me … I was in the anteroom of the hangar …
The hangar door was almost ripped off its hinges, and I could see inside: Only junk remained from the planetary TP… You and Simon had undoubtedly destroyed the system.
When I took inventory, I realized that you had taken everything from me: the TP chip, the Healing chip, my weapons, and the survival rations … I had nothing …
Hours later, orienting myself by the sparks and lights of some systems and screens that were still on, I arrived at the exit of the pyramid, to discover the horror: the huge armored door was blocked, and the opening and closing system destroyed … Well done, Dante… you made sure I couldn’t get out.
I started looking for another way out … nothing, there was no way … I explored the whole place from end to end, and hours later I was aware of the situation: I could not go out, I could not teleport or heal, and I had no food or drink …
Four days, Dante … four days going crazy looking for a way to escape, and the thirst driving me … from a droka I got the cooling liquid, and I drank it … it was liquid and it quenched my thirst, but … it gave me a dysentery that left me dehydrated … I was dying … and I didn’t know if I could appear in a Revive or, on the contrary, I would end up completely dead … Thank you Dante, thank you very much …
Two days later, weakened to exhaustion, I couldn’t take it anymore: with a sharp edge of metal I opened my veins … I committed suicide, I wanted to end it, and my mind flew, with one last thought to Mark, my Mark …
I blinked… opened my eyes… where am I? A Revive? Where?
I couldn’t believe it … the Revives network was working despite the shielding … My joy lasted just long until I discovered that the Revive was right there, INSIDE THE PYRAMID … Damn it !!! He couldn’t get out, and he would go through everything again … Why would robots put a Revive inside?
Well, at least I had another three days until thirst consumed me again… in three days I could find a way out.
There was no way out … and thirst and hunger killed me again … I committed suicide again …
By the fifth time I already knew what I had to do: I had three days before I was too weak to be able to find a way to escape from there … if I did not succeed, I would have to commit suicide again and again another opportunity …
Do you know how many times I died, Dante? I don’t know … I just knew that in those three days I had to prepare everything for the next attempt … Die to stay alive … Magnificent …
Over the weeks I was looking for tools, energy cells, some transport system to help me … I set up my own workshop … I repaired some screens and power systems, and so I was able to mount a lighting system … it was very rudimentary, but at the less I could see and illuminate much of the installation … I also managed to build a system with energy cells to be able to use tools, and to recharge them …
I began to attack the huge entrance door … the robot tools were perfect, but the door had enormous armor … and with so much work in a couple of days I was exhausted … back to suicide …
Months, Dante, months … months preparing everything, months using tools to break the door, months committing suicide, months resurrecting, months without Mark … and you, Dante? What did you do in those months? Ah, I forgot, you were dedicated to saving the planet from a lot of animals … what a hero …
Finally, one night I was able to open a hole in the doorjamb, and I saw the outside … I saw the sky, and the stars … and I was able to pass my body and go out …
But I have not told you the worst … now I know, because I recovered little by little … but so much fear, so much suicide, so much resurrection, so much hardship had destroyed my mind … Now I know that at that time I was crazy, and that my body responded as if he had an Automatic Pilot: work, die, resurrect … work, die, resurrect … but Desmond did not exist …
From what I could find out, a couple of days later some Resa discovered me dying again, but now far from the place … They took me to the camp, and before my ravings, they thought that I was pretending, that I was making fun of them … in that kind of the mist that unleashed the madness, I felt the beatings and the blows, I heard the laughter of the Resa … But I did not exist …
And one day, suddenly, I opened my eyes in that Resa prison … and I remembered … It was Desmond, a VIP Stel … months had passed, I had left the pyramid, I had lost my boyfriend, and the guilty of my misfortunes, you and that damn Resa, you would be having drinks in the bars of Next Island …
That night I pretended to be crazy again, until they left and left me alone … and I escaped … I fled … I didn’t know where I was, so I jumped down a ravine … I died, and I finally appeared in a Revive in Morion Outpost … I already had a reference point … you already know the rest …
He walked away down the hall … a moment before walking out the door, he turned and said …
A thousand deaths, Dante, a thousand deaths … you’re only going to have one death tomorrow, but it will be the final one … I swear …
The Ancient Greece Redemption - Part 3
It is the day … A few minutes ago the guards of Queen Pentesílea appeared with the jailer in front … they opened the cell and I was able to leave … the jailer put some shackles on my wrists and, immediately afterwards, I was pushed without much consideration by the hoplites to the release from Thebes prison …
A crowd gathered around the square … there was a kind of corridor flanked by Amazons to the center, where there was a wooden scaffold where everything was supposed to happen …
I went down the hall while the villains cursed me, spit, scold and threw rotten fruit and even excrement … I was a murderer and I was going to be executed …
I climbed the steps of that makeshift stage and faced the crowd … Gods, if that looked like one of those old “Autos de Fe” where they burned heretics and witches in the past …
On one side a representative of the VIP Stel … It was one with whom I had interviewed along with Simon to receive payment for the durasteel of the robots … Now I know that he and his partner were some of those who knew about the planetary teleporter … he looked mockingly as his lips silently formed the words “you’re dead” … In his hands a Revives and DNA controller … they were going to erase me from the data banks …
On the other side the representatives of Queen Pentesílea, flanked by a series of hoplites and a huge warrior with a huge falcata in his hands … I would bet my head that he is the one in charge of cutting it off …
-People of Greece … travelers from other worlds … this morning we will deliver justice on behalf of Queen Pentesílea on this settler, accused of murdering another settler who was also a friend …
A lot of howls interrupted his spiel: the people clamored for my blood at the magnitude of my actions, and more now, that the people of Greece had discovered the resurrection thanks to the Revives of the “travelers from other worlds” … The representative cleared his throat and continued with his sentence …
-That is why he is condemned to death, for the life he took … His head will be cut off, but before that, to prevent him from being resurrected, his people will erase the memories of his existence …
A simple way for those minds of the past to explain that he was going to be erased from the DNA banks …
The VIP came forward … he showed his controller to the crowd that was huddled there, and he switched it on … Some lights flickered, and my photo appeared on the screen … the people howled with even more fervor …
The Stel pressed a button, and my photo on the screen started to flash red… He looked at the Greek representative, who nodded at him… The Stel pressed the button a second time and…
A lash of pain ran through my body … it was the disconnection of the DNA banks … I did not remember that deadly sensation that I experienced years ago in Calypso when I was connected … it was the same pain, but with a different purpose …
Between gasps, I looked at the audience … and saw them …
Katalina was there, with a hooded cloak that hid part of her face, but I saw her … and next to her was a figure that could not hide part of the turban that encircled her forehead … Moustapha the Toulano … what they did there?
I saw them both… but I didn’t see any pity on Katalina’s face, nor on Moustapha’s… I saw determination, nervousness… what were they up to?
The executioner came forward amidst roars from the audience … he opened his arms receiving the cheers of the public as he showed the huge falcata … at the same time, the hoplites had made me kneel while my head was in a low position … I looked at Katalina for the last time …
What are these crazy people doing ??? Katalina and Moustapha opened their capes showing their perfectly repaired armor … and some long-range weapons …
The huge executioner raised the falcata and began its downward movement to my neck …
BLAM !!! An accurate shot smashed the weapon in the giant’s hands … only the hilt remained before the perplexed look of the executioner …
The panic began … the people detached themselves from the side of my two rescuers … they could already see their weapons in their hands firing into the air … The hoplites let go of me while they readied their egidas as defense and pointed with their sarissas …
Katalina and Moustapha fired at their egidas… they were strong shields but they had nothing to deal with the BLP shots… The hoplites took cover…
And I while there, alone, chained, in the midst of the general panic and the shots … and suddenly I saw them … A group of Stel guards approached, undoubtedly the VIP escort who had to erase me … well armed and looking to conquer the world … Katalina and Moustapha were lost… There was no time to lose…. I turned to my right and with a great impulse, I gave a head butt to the jaw of the VIP, who collapsed unconscious … I threw myself in the middle of some barrels of goods … now I had to be very careful, because a shot could definitely kill me …
The shots raged on both sides in the now deserted square of Thebes … how were we going to escape from there?
A huge roar made my eyes look up: An Arkadian Dropship was about to land while its hold was being opened… in that ship there was space for up to eight people, but who was driving that ship?
The dropship landed and I didn’t think about it: I ran to the open door of the cellar and dove headfirst, while Katalina and Moustapha covered me with their shots … Seconds later, they too entered as the doors closed … From the cabin came a voice well known to me …
-Grab you all, welcome to JoseGaltor Airlines !!!
-Damn crazy … Jose, Jose … what are you doing here? - I couldn’t believe that my old friend left his adventures with him and his RockTropía Vixen to come and save me …
-What do I do? Save your ass, as always … thank your pretty wife and your friend in the turban …
The ship just took off and launched at high speed, gliding over fields and rivers … Now we were outlaws on Next Island and Ancient Greece …
The Ancient Greece Redemption - Part 4
That night we took refuge in the fields of Ancient Greece … My friends and I were uneasy: we were outlaws on the planet, and also a death sentence weighed on my head … As if that were not enough, I was now a mere mortal, since I had been deletion of DNA banks.
Katalina told me what I needed to know. Once I was arrested and the charges for my conviction were read, she was on her way… she quickly flew to Toulan in search of Moustapha, and they both created possible escape plans.
But due to the strong security measures, and the surveillance to which she was subjected as the wife of the condemned, there was no possible way to get me out of her prison.
-So your little wife got in touch with me… With how happy I was in Rocktropia surrounded by pretty Vixen and betting on Thief’s fights… -The one who spoke like that was my friend JoseGaltor.
We met Jose a long time ago in Calypso, when we were rookies … But he went to Arkadia, and had great luck mining and hunting in the Underground … in fact, he was very rich, but he did not invest in land or shops: he enjoyed the life.
-As you suppose, dear Fenix - He always called me that, in memory of other times - the only way to save you was the day of the execution, but of course … where they were going to get a pilot crazy enough to land near a scaffold in the middle of a crossfire with a ship the size of an Arkadian Dropship that, by the way, is stolen !!!
Definitely, I have been lucky enough to surround myself with good friends and colleagues … I’m sorry that Simon is no longer among us, but now the main thing is to unmask Desmond and be able to prove my innocence and clear my name …
Moustapha began to sort out our alternatives:
-Now we can’t get close to the Stel, because they would hand us over… Desmond is missing, and his boyfriend Mark too… The Resa will hate you because Dante is supposed to have killed one of their own, and we have to flee Ancient Greece.
-Right - Katalina intervened- Queen Penthesilea will declare us fugitives from the law, so we can’t expect help from her …
I was thoughtful for a moment … I didn’t see any kind of solution to the situation … Although at the moment the main thing was to get out of there …
The next morning we left the stolen ship and approached Thebes Market again… it was abuzz with both Greek and Stel soldiers… everyone was looking for us…
We went through some alleys that led to the houses of the villagers … near a patio we heard the voice of a woman, singing something … Katalina approached carefully and saw her … she was laying out the laundry, a lot of robes, chitón and layers … Katalina made us a gesture of silence.
The woman finished her task and returned to the house … Quickly, Katalina came out of her hiding place and went to the clothes hanging … a moment later she threw us some Greek robes and capes with which we muffled ourselves to be able to camouflage ourselves among the people of Thebes.
We left from there to the field, and we walked a long way avoiding Arges, Mirinians and others … Finally, after a good while walking and circling the area, we arrived at Orpheus Cave … To discover that there was a squad of hoplites guarding who entered and who came out of there …
There was no way to pass through there without being seen … Surely our faces were already on all holo-screens, so the only way to pass would be by shooting.
We got closer on the road … there was a movement of people back and forth although in a more leisurely way than other times, undoubtedly due to access control.
Under our robes and capes we had our weapons loaned … Each time we were closer, we could already see the faces of the hoplites scrutinizing the faces of the people, asking for documents … There were barely two or three people left in front of us, and …
One of the hoplites looked up, looked at us for a second, and looked down again at the documentation that a guy was giving him … suddenly, he froze, and looked at us again with wide eyes: He had recognized us .
Voices, screams, Sarissas at the ready… The four of us launched ourselves like titans towards the hoplites. Moustapha made quick movements with her Twin, while Jose took out a Khulokar Dagger from Arkadia … I had to be more careful since I could die forever, but still, flanked by Katalina, I took down two hoplites …
In a few seconds the hoplite contingent was on the ground, some unconscious, others injured, and some dead that in a short time would dematerialize and appear in a Revive Terminal … It was time to go to Next Island, and then we would see …
Moustaphá crossed the Orpheus Cave TP, followed by a JoseGaltor who, with a gesture, pointed us to a new group of hoplites that was approaching … Katalina and I had just enough time … I didn’t think about it, with a push I launched her into the TP seconds before the hoplites appeared at the entrance of the cave …
Finally, I entered the TP and prepared to be Teleported … Wait, it doesn’t work … what’s wrong?
The hoplites looked at each other smiling as they circled the TP with me in the center …
Damn it… how did we not realize it before ??? Without my data in the DNA banks, the Teleporters were not working for me … I was trapped in Ancient Greece again … and this time, maybe I’ll be executed right now …
The Ancient Greece Redemption - Part 5
Prisoner again … But this time it’s different, something has changed … Once the hoplites captured me at the Orpheus Cave TP, they put me on a wagon that swayed along roads and highways … My hands had been tied, my eyes were blindfolded and gagged, and I didn’t know where they were taking me, But …
Thebes was very close to Orpheus, I don’t understand why it took us so long to get there … It seems as if they took me another way …
After a few hours, the wagon stopped … they grabbed me and threw me out of the carriage in a bad way … I hit the ground hard. Damn Greeks !!! They don’t take care of anything …
-Is he? - A distorted voice asked the hoplites … Without a doubt he had a vocoder or some kind of voice distorter … I remember my grandfather watching an old Videovision series of robots called “Cylons” … this voice sounded the same.
-Yes, he is the murderer … But we should have taken him to the Queen - The hoplite spoke uncertainly … Without a doubt they were going to do something illegal with me.
-Listen, Greek … Here is the agreed payment, 10k peds … You distribute it among your men and you say that it escaped you, or whatever … But the murderer comes with me. -The voice denoted someone used to command
-Foreigner, if the queen discovers us we will not be worth anything … and there are 6 of us in the patrol … some more money would come in handy, I don’t know if you understand me … - The Greek undoubtedly wanted to get something more for my sale.
There was a pause … The stranger would be considering what to do … He sighed …
-Okay … 2k more peds … okay? -Another pause …
I could see in my mind the Greek wondering if he was okay … looking at his companions …
-Okay, foreigner … take the murderer and go.
The footsteps of the Greeks were heard as they approached the wagon … sounds of getting up and settling, and then starting off … Funny, I didn’t know there were horses in Greece, come on, in fact I had never seen any.
The sounds receded, and I was still bound and gagged, waiting …
-Well, friend, now it’s our turn. - The distorted voice addressed me, no doubt.
I heard how he was looking for something, sounds … possibly he was looking for something in a backpack or something similar … I heard how he was armed with something metallic … a weapon? Was he going to execute me?
He grabbed my clothes and pulled … the tunic ripped at my shoulder, leaving him naked … He leaned something cold metallic on it and …
A wave of pain … enormous … As if my body were ripped from the inside out … Agonizing pain … like …
Like when I was deleted from the DNA databases … or when I was connected to the databases in Calypso years ago …
Have I been reconnected to DNA and TP banks?
A strong jerk and the gag tore off … a snap and the ropes that linked my hands were cut … The stranger was releasing me …
I raised my hands and was able to remove the blindfold … I blinked when the light hit my eyes, and I saw him …
A strange black armor, impenetrable… imposing-looking… He reached his right hand to his neck, under the full-face helmet that covered his head, and removed something that he threw to the ground… A portable voice distortion.
I looked at him … something about his bearing seemed familiar to me, but I didn’t quite know who he really was …
Finally, he reached his hand to the armor control, pressed it, and the helmet folded up … At last I could see his face …
-Hi Dante … ready to go back to work?
I couldn’t believe it… a star-shaped hologram projected over his head as he smiled at me.
-Chief Socrates !!! What’s going on???