Four Horsemen Finale

Updated Sunday 15 May, 2011 12:18 PM

Four
(4)

Horsemen

Final Chapter

Once upon a time, in a future, far far away…

The thirty souls watched the holographic images in silent horror. It was in part over the destruction of the Crux system & in part that, even though they all witnessed the most destructive force known to mankind, the Entity seemed none worse for wear. Furthermore, there was not even a farewell message from Harvey. Just the raw data that the X-60 had collected during the conduct of this business. Then, as the Entity got closer to the ship, the holograph went blank then turned itself off. No one said a word.

Everyone was dumbfounded. All hope, it seemed, disappeared without a trace. Indeed, depression had set in. Even Gideon, the strongest member of the group, barely had the energy to speak up. Suggesting that they submit this information to the Earth body politic, hardly anyone said anything let alone object to Gideon’s suggestion. Yet, deep within Gideon’s thoughts, he knew that the Earth body politic would not have enough time to react to the coming danger. They would, as was their right, debate the issue until a consensus had emerged indicating what action would be required. But, if their calculations were right, the Entity would arrive at Earth well before a decision was made.

Gideon was, unfortunately, right about the body politic. Upon submitting the data from the X-60, two things happened. The first was inevitable: debate commenced at once among Earth’s citizens. And because of the very nature of the issue, the debate was long & furious. Furthermore, it opened up older issue such as the military. Soon millions of people were completely occupied by the debates & the same old arguments were renewed. Essentially, though, it came down to two issues: whether to have a military or not & what ramifications could having a military mean for the greater good.

The second happenstance, one which surprised Gideon, was he & his friends would have to explain themselves before a court what role they had to play in the theft of the X-60. As it turned out, this was almost taken as serious as the coming of the Entity & the debates taking place. Although not as many people followed the court proceedings against the Four Horsemen, it nonetheless concerned many that such a small group could have conducted, what was considered by many, as a serious crime. Ironically, whilst many thought that the Four Horsemen were guilty, the court case also publicised the situation in how desperate the defenders feared what could happen to everyone in the near future.

In this respect, the debates over the Entity was fed new fuel. Yet if Gideon thought that the court case may bring the debates over the Entity to a quick conclusion, then he was wrong. All it did was to add a new dimension to the debates which dragged them on even further. Furthermore, the actions of the Four Horsemen, or more exactly the twenty-two souls that had stolen the X-60, were brought into question, even though the court proceedings were still under way.

It was probably this slip, by the Legislature into the realm of the Judiciary, that somewhat saved those on trial. But other factors also emerged, which without a doubt, were true. The most important of these were questions of ownership of the X-60. As was argued, the X-60 was not Earth property, nor did anyone on Earth lay claim to the vessel. Although taken into Earth custody, the rightful owner was the Babylon government. Even though contact with Babylon was impossible, a representative of the Babylon government, that being Hussain, was present even of he did claim sanctuary. Technically speaking, Hussain was allowed to do whatever he wanted with the X-60, provided no Earth law was broken. And even if he did break a law, or several, it was he who was answerable & no one else. In the end, the court ruled that the accused were innocent & thus realised. However, an entire week had gone by with no gain.

Contrary to the opinion on Earth, the Entity had been gravely wounded. Although its survival of the supernova was, more or less certain, some of the damage was probably irreversible without a great harvest. Earth was, now more than ever, its only target as if that was not going to happen all along. But now it needed millions of human souls soon, otherwise it could die. Having said that, its powers had not been completely removed. It could still travel unaided. It could still produce armies of monsters when it wanted however reduced. And it could still fly at around 800 times the speed of light if needed. This may have been slower than previously, but it was enough to catch the ship that dared to kill it &, needless to say, it was fast enough to get to Earth.

Apart from its wounds, which truly troubled it, there was something else which it could not understand. There was a deep internal feeling that something was wrong other than its wounds. It began at the same time when it had consumed the souls from the X-60. Although there was the taste of fear & hatred coming from some of them, a taste identical to that it had enjoyed at Babylon, there was something different about the several of the other human souls. It tasted bitter, almost like a poison it reasoned. Maybe it was because these were the tastes of Earth. It was somewhat confusing, if this was the case, because all the Entity could tell was the humans from Babylon & Earth were the exact same specie.

Furthermore, another thought struck the Entity. If the humans were prepared to destroy, not only one of the planets they lived on, but also an entire solar system for no other reason but just to attempt to kill it, there was also the chance that the humans might do the same thing to Earth’s solar system once it arrived. For the first time ever, the Entity truly became concerned about its own existence. But, far more importantly, it was more so worried about being denied a great harvest. For if Earth did commit suicide en masse, it would most likely die as a result. There seemed little it could do, hence, other than being fully committed. It could not hesitate if Earth defended itself with warships. It would have to attack the largest city on Earth immediately, reap as many souls at once, then deal with any attacks which might follow.

It was in this dedicated mind-set, hence, it left behind the dead hulk of the X-60 & headed for Earth. The X-60 would be the last of the Babylon ships ever to grace the emptiness of space. Although some 90 Babylonians still survived on Earth, they, like the seven billion people who lived on Earth, would suffer whatever fate now awaited them. For the X-60, though, it would now float for eternity throughout space. It was a shame, in many ways, as the ship had conducted several important missions in recent years which would have an enormous impact upon the future. But now it would be a ghost ship for the remaining existence of the universe.

The Four Horsemen, though, would be constantly reminded of the X-60 for the next few weeks at least. Having been released from custody, they went back to their job of analysing the recent data that had already caused controversy in the Earth body politic. Debates still continued on without any indication that a decision would come soon. All the while, without question, the Entity was coming closer to Earth. Yet the general consensus, within the Four Horsemen at least, was that the evidence on hand indicated that the Entity only attacked when it was possibly threatened, or felt threatened as in the case of the initial with the James Cook, or was under attack either at Babylon or by the X-60.

There seemed to be no evidence, whatsoever, that the Entity attacked first. But, although the evidence supported that conclusion, after witnessing the attack of the Entity on the X-60, no one actually believed it for a second. In fact it was Goodwin who first raised the possible creditable piece of evidence to the contrary by discovering a little bit of evidence of what the Entity was doing just prior to the attack by the X-60. Although scanner data was limited, due to the reduction in electronic signals at the time, Goodwin was able to piece together enough information to suggest that the Entity had attacked the research station on Crux Number 3 without any provocation from the Hydrus. Although the evidence was not firm, a simple check on the station’s blueprints clearly indicated that it had no weapons of any description. Nor did the Hydrus carry any weapons on their ships. The only conclusion, then, was the Entity attacked first.

Even though Goodwin’s theory seemed most likely, it still did not explain why the Entity attacked. Khan reasoned that, because it was pure evil, that it did not need a reason. Everyone more or less accepted Khan’s observation, but it still did not sound right to Gideon. About the only thing Wong could think of was they could try to salvage the X-60 & try to gather whatever evidence was available, but even he admitted that such a mission would be fruitless, as the Entity would be at Earth soon, whilst the mission to find the X-60 may have not even discover the Babylon ship’s location, let alone any evidence.

Then there was still the problem of combating the Entity. Nothing so far had worked. Even with a supernova, created by a large anti-matter bomb, the Entity had survived. And such a bomb, besides the fact that such weapons had been banned long ago by every civilisation, would destroy the solar system akin to the Crux system. No one on Earth, the Moon, or Mars, would survive such an explosion. That would mean a holocaust for the seven billion humans & aliens on the Earth, not to mention the five million living on both the Moon & Mars. No. Such a strategy was out of the question & the Four Horsemen were united on that issue.

For Gideon, the answer always seemed to come back to his initial thoughts on the matter. The way to fight the Entity was not to fight it at all, until it showed its venerability whatever that may be. And that could be anything. Upon mentioning this to the group, no one really had an answer. It seemed that it was Earth’s destiny to die once & for all. It could be that God was punishing the peoples of Earth for all the wrongs that Humanity had done down through the centuries, even though many great things had been achieved within the last thousand years.

This was how depressed the group was, even though each one of them wanted to at least try something to defeat the Beast so that Humanity could continue to survive. There was at least the hope that the three billion Humans who lived elsewhere in the known galaxy would continue on. That they, like other humans had with Babylon, find a new Earth like planet & continue on for a better future. But Gideon thought that that just did not sound right. Earth was mother, in many respects, & Earth needed to be defended.

So, with this defiant thought, Gideon demanded an answer from the Four Horsemen. Again there was not one. Then he tried a different track. What was the Entity & what was it made from? Although this angle had been casualty looked before, this time all their resources & minds would concentrated on an answer. It did not take too long before a shocking realisation came to the fore.

The Entity was completely ignorant of the activities of the Four Horsemen. Its single thought now was its own survival. As it flew along at 800 times the speed of light, with nothing but the emptiness of space around it, its mind began to wonder. Everything looked black ahead, whilst the distortion of lights dazzled from behind. It was always a creepy look, even to space veterans. And yet even veterans, who may have been all alone for long periods of time at such high speeds, went mad by the darkness to the bow of their ship & the distortion of stars behind them. Now the Entity was not going mad, but its mind once again began to philosophise who it was & what it wanted. It was at this point that feelings of a family curse troubled its mind. Something about the name of Harvey got stuck in its mind. And then some other name, one which it could not exactly remember, played with its thoughts as it sped onward to Earth.

*****

Regardless of what was keeping the Earth body politic busy, various agencies of the Earth Commonwealth were still left to conduct their normal business. This took place over a wide range of facets, including the long range explorer ships. Several were always out conducting their respective missions &, it goes with out saying, other ships were either returning from theirs or leaving to join the others. And so it was with the EC La Perouse. Having been completed & successfully passed several trail runs, it was now ready for its maiden long range mission. Of course the crew were aware of recent events, especially the fate of the X-60, but that did not overly scare them. They were as keen to venture into the great unknown like so many other missions had before them.

The crew, unlike the ship, were more or less veterans for the most part anyway. Only about ten, out of a crew of 150, were on their first major mission like their ship. In this regards, the crew were used to the long periods of time away from home &, it must be said, were well acquainted should any crises arise. This was, however, very rare. For the most part boredom was the usual experience as one sun would, more or less, look like every other one after several hundred had been seen. Nevertheless, going into the unknown always had an edge to it that appealed to human explorers of every generation. And the current ones were no different to any others regardless of date.

Having said that, there was some apprehension this time around as much rumour went on about the Entity. No body knew whether they would run into this Entity. And that was a thought no one wished would come true. Everyone had seen the images that were common place on Earth. Although it was far from certain that the Entity was heading towards Earth, its recent sighting at Crux, 220 light years away, meant to say it was closer than previously known. It certainly appeared that it might arrive one day at Earth, but no one knew when. Furthermore, because the La Perouse was about to leave, it may never see Earth the same again. Once again the crew knew that, even though their mission was three years long, Earth may not be around within three years. The Entity may have paid Earth a visit in that time & the result may be akin to that of Babylon’s, regardless of the great difference in civilisations that the two planets enjoyed.

So it was with these thoughts, in the back of their minds, that the crew of the La Perouse left Earth at the beginning of their mission. Usually the crews of Earth explorer ships, at this point, would be relaxed & took things easy for a while. After all there was usually nothing to be busy with. There was no phenomena which required study, no new planets to document, & certainly no maintenance to be conducted. The ship pretty well looked after almost everything else, as its destination location, often some 800 light years away, would have been already programmed into its computers which ensured a safe arrival. Most of the crew, in other words, had nothing to do until they got to where the ship was heading.

This particular departure, however, was different. Because of all the talk about the Entity, & what it might be up to, the crew of the La Perouse were at ready stations. This meant that the crew would be conducting their duty as if on their deep space patrol. In doing so, they would be looking for anything interesting to explore. As a result, every scanner available would be watching the space around them for a good twenty light years in all directions. Considering the ship was new, it also came with the latest technology. So the captain of the La Perouse was confident that they would see the Entity long before it could see them. And if they had to turn around, in order to run from the Entity, then their new Warp Engines, rated at 1 200 times the speed of light, were guaranteed to out pace the Entity. But if truth be told, the captain hoped that he never saw whatever thing the Entity was.

Goodwin could not believe it, nor could Wong. There must be something wrong with the spectrum analyser as far as Khan was concerned. Gideon, however, was of a different opinion. Although he could not understand what it meant, according to the spectrum analyser, the Entity was a Human. The waves that it sent out, especially when angered or in a battle, resembled exactly the waves that any Human would produce when in the same situation. Yet why this was happening, no one, not even the spectrum analyser, could say. Obviously, this was not the job of the spectrum analyser anyway, but not even the most scientific member of the group had an answer either.

What was even more baffling, was the Entity’s construction. In other words, what it was made from? There seemed to be no answer to this other than some form of "electrical" power, if one could explain it in such terms. It just did not seem to have any physical property to it whatsoever. Instead it was probably a non-corporeal life form that had evolved somewhere in deep space & far in advanced of any other living creature currently on record. But if it was such a life form, this could hardly explain why it emitted Human energy patterns.

Needless to say there was much speculation. Two basic arguments soon became apparent: either it was a human which was lost on deep space patrol who somehow transformed itself into the Entity; or somewhere in unknown space a specie had evolved exactly like Homo Sapiens on Earth. Maybe it was even a colony of Homo Sapiens who had left the Earth a long time ago sometime after faster than light speed travel was originally discovered. Although there were no records of such an undertaking, it was some four hundred years ago so something could have been missed in the historical records.

Gideon did not necessarily reject either argument, but there was still the evil feeling to explain. The Entity clearly transmitted this sentiment & either theory never explained why the members of the Four Horsemen felt such a thing. It was, without doubt, coming from the Entity & no one doubted that. Possibly the answer Gideon, did not want to hear, was that this Entity was possibly a path which Humanity could travel. That, like in the history of the human race, & as was evident at Babylon, humanity could still be capable of great evil. And this Entity was an example of where the Human race could be heading. Although this was possible, there was still the fact that it had yet to be accepted that it was Human.

Still, regardless of the arguments on whether it was Human or not, there was the realisation that it was a non-corporeal life form. Clearly, though, it was almost impossible to kill. That was self evident. So the discussions soon moved towards how one kills a non-corporeal life form. This proved to be impossible to discover, other than Wong’s observation that you drain it of power. Although that was stating the obvious, at least it got everyone’s attention. Soon, more detailed analysis took place trying to see how the Entity powered itself. The answer was one which was hardly gratifying.

It was not overly hard to discover, in the end, only rather hard to see. Only the original recordings of the X-60, of the battles raging around Babylon, gave any indication that there might be a clue. The data recordings at Crux, never picked it up, nor did anything from the James Cook. Instead it was a couple of frames of video from Babylon, where there was a clue, & even that was far from clear. But, after much refining & enhancement, a few scenes were captured of the harvest. Blue flame would surround a victim for a second which would then turn the flame white. Then the flame, after a few seconds, would return to its evil blue colour once more. Prior to this, the victim was alive, but immediately afterwards it was dead. It seemed that the Entity had taken something from the victim apart from its life. A lot of speculation soon followed until Khan concluded that the white light was the person’s life energy.

It all now began to fall into place for the Four Horsemen. Although, there was much detail to be filled in, the basics were known at least. The basic theory ran that the Entity was a non-corporeal being who lived, in fact could grow stronger, by feeding upon the living by draining them dry of their energy. This could be of a significant amount too, depending on the life form involved. Even though little research had been done on this, even in this advanced age, it was generally thought that Humans had the most powerful life energy. But this finding, even though it explained why the Entity attacked, still gave no clue as to how to kill the Beast. Only Gideon had an idea, but no theory how to make it happen. For now, the possible way to defeat the Entity was to ensure that it could no longer feed. Alas that would be impossible. The Four Horsemen, regardless of the fact that they knew a lot more about the Enemy than ever before, were back to square one.

The La Perouse, travelling at 1 200 times the speed of light, gave no indication from the outside that its crew was manning all its stations. If it was a warship, one would think that it was ready to attack at a moments notice. In many respects, it was very similar, although it would be attacking in a different way by not using weapons. Instead it would use its scanners & computers to challenge anything interesting by recording its data & analysing that information to make sense out of it. In this way the explorer ship was ready, should it encounter anything, especially the Entity.

By an act of fate, as much as anything, the long distance scanners of the La Perouse soon picked up the tell tale signs of the Entity as the James Cook had done before. Unlike that previous encounter, the La Perouse knew, thanks to the ship’s computers being updated with the data from the James Cook, exactly what it was. Although it was not travelling on an interception course, the Entity was, however, travelling in the direction from where the explorer ship had departed from only a few days before. This, the captain thought, was not good & immediately sent word to Earth of his discovery.

In many respects, this was a good thing, because the Earth Explorer Agency did not have to go to the Earth body politic in order to change the mission of any of its ships. As being a part of the Executive, it could make decisions on its own provided they did not run against any policy or legislation. As it so happened, after several messages going back & forth between ship & headquarters, the La Perouse was ordered to forget its original mission & keep an eye on the Entity. Needless to say, this was far from welcomed by the crew of the explorer ship, but was followed nevertheless.

As part of its new mission, the La Perouse began an intensive analysis of its own on the Creature. Although still 15 light years away, much detail was ascertained. No conclusion was made, however, as the ship would have to get much closer for it to do that. No one was exactly that crazy, considering they all knew what that could mean for the crew, but a number of interesting & unexplainable readings soon got the better of them. Their curiosity had been engaged, they were explorers after all, & if they could discover something which could ensure Earth’s survival, then surely the risk was worth the danger.

Still, no one on board the ship wanted to kill themselves so, even though the decision was made to close the gap significantly to the Entity, close enough to be, what was called, "in local space", the captain made sure that the instant the Entity tried something, the La Perouse would go to full speed & escape the Entity’s intentions whatever they may have been. This seemed reasonable as the fastest the Entity had been recorded at was 800 times the speed of light. If so, this meant that the Earth ship enjoyed 400 times the speed of light more than the Entity. This was deemed more than enough.

At the same time as the La Perouse was manoeuvring closer, the Entity sensed the ship not far off. As before, though, the smell of fear, & above all hate, was not the same. This was akin to some of the souls that it had harvested at Crux. If this was indeed the case, then these must be humans from Earth. It wondered whether all Earth humans thus tasted the same. If so, then it began to think whether Earth might be worth its while as the satisfaction was very different to its frenzied time at Babylon. There fear & hatred was beyond anything that it had experienced so far in its existence. Having said that, it was wounded & would need the souls from those on Earth to at least recover so that it could move on to a planet more suited to its requirements.

The scanner officer quickly warned the captain of the La Perouse that the Entity had changed course slightly & was heading towards them. That was all the captain needed to know. Ordering a charge of course for the ship, & an increase in speed, the La Perouse quickly turned around & headed for Earth. Various strategies quickly filled his mind as to what could be done next. Possibly he could lead the Entity away from Earth & off into another part of the galaxy, known to be void of all life, but that was probably just extending the inevitable. As he was contemplating this, the scientific analysis team called the bridge. They had an amazing discovery to tell. It appeared that the Entity was possibly of Human origin based upon the results from their spectrum analysis.

At this point the captain was at a loss as to what to do. He immediately sent a message to headquarters for further orders as well as forwarding along the revealing data from the scientific analysis team. This was a mistake. Not knowing any better, he was given new orders to head to Earth along with the Entity. If it was Human then First Contact should be attempted & done so by the best experts in the field. And these were obviously on Earth. Furthermore, as an afterthought, the Explorer Agency announced to the body politic that the Entity was on the way to Earth escorted by the La Perouse.

Although this seemed to calm the majority of people, living throughout the solar system, it sent mental alarm bells ringing within the dwelling which housed the Four Horsemen. Gideon could not believe what the authorities had done, regardless of the fact that the La Perouse was "escorting" the Entity to Earth. Gideon was soon demanding, no longer asking, answers from the group. Two were of the utmost of significance. Where would it strike first & how to kill it once it was on Earth. The first answer was offered by Wong who suggested, like on Babylon, that the Entity would probably strike the largest city on Earth by population. That was currently Jerusalem with a population of about 30 million. The answer to the second question was much harder. Finally Goodwin offered the notion that it could be killed if it turned into a corporeal form. Other than that, he added, use something that could conduct electricity.

And with that limited knowledge to act as their advantage, as little as it was, the Four Horsemen collected their weapons & headed for their aero-cars. Within six hours they would be in Israel, with some time to spare, to welcome the arrival of the Beast.

*****

All thirty members of the Four Horsemen arrived on the outskirts of Jerusalem within a few minutes of each other. For the most part two travelled together per each aero-car. They were an amazing development, the aero-car, & although they were far from new, in fact the technology had been around for close to three centuries, the manufacturers continued to develop this form of transport to new levels of success. Although the first models were very limited in range, & carrying capacity, the latest models could fly non-stop around the world in just under a day. Furthermore, they were fast, as terrestrial transport was concerned, plus had added features such as an autopilot. Although not as comfortable, over long distances, as aircraft or maglev trains, they meant ease & individual freedom that no other form of transport could offer. Furthermore, you could travel with weapons if this was required, however illegal that may have been.

At first, whilst Gideon was circling over Jerusalem, he did not know where the Four Horsemen would make their stand. They had to be some distance from the city, otherwise it would have been very likely that the Entity could take their souls as it attacked the city itself. They would need to observe from a distance before they could attack. And no one knew when that time might come. Yet they still had to be ready whenever that time might be. And they could not hide from the Beast. They would have to make an attempt sometime to save Humanity.

It was a pity, Gideon thought, that it was highly likely that Jerusalem & the 30 million people who lived there would more than likely be destroyed. It had become a living example of how Humanity could change its wrongful ways & embrace all that was good. Having been destroyed one thousand years ago in nuclear flames, the city had been rebuilt by all of Humanity. They had come from far & wide in order to make an example. Within a few years, the radioactive contamination had been cleaned. The environment had been healed, as much as it could have been. Then, when it was safe, the builders went to work. Not before long, the new Jerusalem was slowly being rebuilt upon the ruins of the old. And the sins of the past were to be left in the past as far as anyone was concerned.

Gideon took one last look at the new Jerusalem with sorrow. Especially at the great Shrine of Remembrance that now toped the Mount. No longer was there a religious building there intolerant over everyone else. Instead a Memorial stood there dedicated to all of those killed during the Tribulation & was open to all peoples of all creeds. Furthermore, it served as a constant reminder to everyone of the great cost Humanity had suffered once before. As such, when the Memorial was originally dedicated, not long after the new Jerusalem was opened for business, it was never to be a witness to the same rivalries that had ensured the deaths of so many innocent people. But today, that was probably all going to change.

The La Perouse jumped from Warp Speed with an urgent rush. It immediately entered Earth space well within the orbit of the Moon. Such a manoeuvre was not all that unusual, although returning long range explorer ships usually headed to the Moon first in order to make sure that they had no contaminants on board the ship which could damage the Earth’s environment. In many respects, the La Perouse should have done the same thing here as one huge contaminant was not far behind. Still, the powers that be within the Explorer Agency thought otherwise. They were eager to see, not the explorer ship, but the Entity that followed it.

The captain of the La Perouse, though, thought otherwise. He was not overly certain that this idea was a good one. Although his ship had not been attacked at all, by the Entity, he had not at the same time let the Entity get close enough for it to try an attack. Contrary to what messages were coming in from headquarters, he nevertheless manoeuvred his ship into an orbiting position on the opposite side of the planet to the expected entry location of the Entity.

To say that the experts, in the First Contact group at the Earth Explorer Agency, were nervous would be an understatement. An event such as this had every been attempted before. Previously, First Contact had taken place at a great distance away from Earth, either in deep space or at someone else’s planet. For the most part, these were successful, & even when the occasional First Contact was rather tense, again they usually worked in the end. But never before had First Contact been made with an alien creature at Earth, especially a non-corporeal one which showed signs that it was human.

With little warning the Entity exited Warp Speed & arrived at around the location where the La Perouse was only a handful of minutes before. It would be fair to say that both sides to the meeting were overwhelmed. For the First Contact team, as well as everyone else watching on with either the naked eye or through a holograph vision set, it was simply an amazing sight. Nothing had prepared the people of the Earth for such an object, even though the Entity had been seen previously through either the data from the James Cook & the X-60. But this moment was different as this time it was in person.

Similarly the Entity was surprised by the world before it. Everything seemed, on the one hand, so different, whilst at the same time everything seemed so familiar. It had a sense of deja vu. For some unknown reason it knew that it had been here before. But then the next thing struck the Entity. And that was a power which radiated from the surface. It was very different in nature from that felt at Babylon, yet it was power nonetheless. This is what it wanted from this planet before it, even if it felt that it was different to the power of fear, hatred, & evil, from before. In many respects it reminded the Beast of the taste it had when it attacked the X-60. It had survived the taste of those few souls, so it could not see why it would not survive this harvest. Furthermore, the Entity sensed that they were seven billion sentient life forms on the planet. And then it decided to select the city that had the highest number.

But before that could be done, it was sent a message from the First Contact group. Unlike previously, no one had yet tried to contact it directly. For most of the time, it was vaguely threatened, but such messages were not transmitted on a frequency which it could immediately understand. This time, however, the message came in loud & clear. It was as if, whoever was sending the message, was standing right next to it. Furthermore, it needed no translation or some such to understand what the message was saying. It was as if whoever was sending it knew the Beast’s own language.

This somewhat stunned the Entity. It had, for a moment, lost track of its original intensions. It wanted to reap its harvest of this bountiful planet, but it kept on getting messages of peace & goodwill. Somewhere in the back of its mind it began to remember more & more of its former self. It could picture itself giving grand speeches in great halls & chambers to the creatures that it had fed upon only recently. Yet these memories were of long ago. A thousand years ago. Then it remembered wars. Lots of them. Then it recalled its own destruction at the hands of these beings that dared now talked of peace. It know of no peace, only war. And thus the Entity would make war upon these humans.

Now having rejected all thoughts, which had troubled its mind for some time, the Entity now returned to the job at hand. Noticing a city of 30 million souls, it decided that this would be its first target for harvesting. Ignoring the messages that the First Contact group continued to send, everyone was soon worried about the Entity’s intentions when it began to more towards the Earth. Without any reply to their messages, the First Contact experts now felt fear. The warnings of the others might be indeed right. The Earth could be doomed.

Gideon & his comrades looked up at the same moment that the Entity began to make its decent towards Jerusalem. At first not overly much could be seen from the ground. The dark menacing blue colour more or less made it more or less impossible to see at first, but then things soon changed. Soon it began to enter Earth’s atmosphere & friction began to make its presence felt. Soon, a small fire could be seen as the Entity continued its dive. Not long afterwards, the small fire had grown into a fireball which continued to grow until it was several kilometres across. As the Four Horsemen watched on, throughout Jerusalem millions began to look up into the sky as this great flame came hurtling down towards them.

The Four Horsemen did not know what to do. Knowing that the Entity would miss them, their hearts went out to the 30 million humans who would be trapped. The air at this point went silent. Little could be heard as the fireball came closer. A minute went by before the wind began to get stronger & a roaring sound was all that could be heard. The Four Horsemen braced themselves for the impact that was about to take place. And fear was beginning to take control. At that moment the Beast struck.

Within seconds thousands of souls had been ripped from the bodies of humans well before the dust started to settle back to earth. From a distance, all of the Four Horsemen had survived. But soon millions of their fellow kind would not. Forcing an effort to see though the dust & blue mist, thousands of blue flames could be seen shooting out at hapless innocents, killing them in the process. All the while the Beast fed upon the souls of these lost humans in a hungry frenzy. For what seemed like an eternity, but was in reality less than a minute, the rest of the world watched on in horror as the First Contact event, turned into total disaster, was being telecast everywhere. But the Four Horsemen did not need any holograph vision set to see what was happening. They were there in person.

It did not take much more of this nightmare before most of the members of the Four Horsemen could no longer restrain themselves. Watching the great holocaust of humanity taking place before their very eyes, they lifted up their swords & charged into the madness. Their four leaders, Gideon, Khan, Goodwin, & Wong, called out to them to return. Now was not the time for the attack. But with the thunderous noise, along with the fact that these men had lost all sanity, they charged on regardless that certain death awaited them.

They got no further than a mere one hundred metres before the Entity, completely mesmerised by its feeding frenzy, spotted these puny creatures who dared to challenge it. It gave no second thought as to any danger & lashed out with its blue flame of death. Within a few seconds, all twenty six of the crazed Horsemen had their souls ripped out of them with little warning. This was the result that the four remaining Horsemen knew would await any such attack. Now the future of then entire Human race came down to these few surviving brothers.

Yet, the taking of the Horsemen’s souls seemed to have an effect on the Beast. At first it was hardly noticed, considering the wild chaos all around, but it soon became apparent that the blue mist, which always surrounded the dark blue sun, began to swirl around the Beast unlike the apparent random movements of before. Soon this swirl began to speed up which was soon as violent as any tornado. Something was happening. Maybe the colleagues of the final four had not died in vane after all.

The Entity knew something was wrong long before its blue mist began its swirling motion. Having gorged itself upon 30 million souls, as well as the small group that threatened it with ancient weapons, it already felt something was not overly right. That, as before, there was nothing satisfying with taking these souls of the people of Earth. It first noticed this feeling after consuming the soul of the human known as Harvey. And now it was the same, only millions of times multiplied. There was no fear or hatred to speak of, in this feast of souls, rather, although each soul had committed a number of sins in the past, these had been forgiven. To the horror of the Entity, it realised that these souls were far from evil. These souls were those of the innocent. These souls were those of the good.

In a manner of a toxin, then, the Entity realised that it had poisoned itself on good. Instead of seeking the evil that made it strong, it had consumed the only power which could threaten its existence. It could take away its strength, not to mention its power. It could return to something of its former self. And now it appeared that was taking place. It quickly went though, in a matter of desperation, what had been the trigger that began its devolution. It could not think of anything until it remembered the band of madmen charging it with total commitment, showing no fear, only human courage. It realised that these men had willingly gave up their lives in order that others may live. At the very moment, when they were harvested, they were true saints. They had transcended everything that meant humanity could be & far more. They had become the best that humanity had to offer & even more. For once the Entity was terrified. For once the Entity was truly vulnerable.

Gideon, & the other three remaining Horsemen, looked on in wonder as the appearance of the Beast began to change. The blue mist, which had begun to swirl around it, went faster & faster. Soon a tornado formed in its centre which obliterated their view. Yet such things were not overly considered important, by the four men, as their personal safety was soon threatened by the wind. They grabbed whatever their hands could grip as the wind began to challenge their ability to stand. Soon the blue mist turned grey, more or less exactly like a tornado, & it began to expand in size. As it did so lightning flashed around it &, above the roar created by the wind, thunder could be heard. It seemed to come to a great climax as the tornado turned white. At that point a great blinding light could be seen at the base of the tornado which coincided with the fact that the storm began waning.

Within a minute the tornado had spun away into nothingness. The once great city of Jerusalem had disappeared. A great plan of destruction had been created instead, more or less void of any building or anything else worthy of description. As the wind settled down, which in turn let the dust settle back to earth, only one thing remained that struck the four survivors with complete surprise. Coming before them a man came walking. Although not everything about him appeared human, as this creature had that same menacing blue mist circling him as the dark star of death, it nevertheless appeared as human. The remaining Four Horsemen were unsettled, not knowing what to do, until Gideon had a good look at this strangers face & recognised who it was.

*****

Gideon could not believe who it was walking towards them. But unlike the other three Horsemen, Gideon made it well known that this creature, whatever it may have been as the dark star of death, was none other than John Drache, once President of the United States 1 000 years ago. This man had once waged war upon the People’s of the Earth. And the man, as it had been claimed ever since, was the Anti-Christ. Although the others, Goodwin, Khan, & Wong, found it hard to believe Gideon’s sudden realisation, it all now seemed to make sense to Gideon.

Regardless, however, of what the other three thought, Gideon knew better & began to move towards Drache who was still at some distance from where the Four Horsemen were standing. Having been transformed, from the dark star of death back into human form, it appeared that the opportunity had finally come to kill the Beast & send it to Hell for eternity. Yet, Drache did not look completely human. Apart from the fact that he was somewhat surrounded by the same menacing blue mist, which had always been present around the dark star, there was also something else eerily different about Drache.

Gideon could not see it at a distance, even though he had recognised Drache without any mistake. But as Gideon left the other three , at first at a walking pace, which soon became & jog, & then finally a run, he could see that Drache’s eyes were of the same dark blue colour as that of the star of death. It was completely clear to Gideon the truth about Drache. He was not simply a man who had been seduced by the power of the office of American President. Instead Drache was the Anti-Christ. And he had returned to complete the destruction of Humanity 1 000 years after his initial attempt.

In the first encounter with Earth, Drache had seen the deaths of well over one hundred million people. This time, however, only 30 million people had been killed on Earth so far. But the destruction of Babylon, albeit a hideous place, nonetheless still saw the deaths of over 250 million people. Furthermore an entire planet had been laid waste. Every living thing, not just the humans who lived there, had been killed. Even the plants had been turned into ash, either by the nuclear weapons that the Babylonians, or the great destructive power that the Beast had let loose.

Yet Drache had only just started his attempt to rule the universe when he destroyed Babylon. Earth would be next. As far as Gideon was concerned, the Beast would continue, if not killed here & now, throughout the galaxy leaving death in his wake. And so Drache still had billions upon billions more to kill. Instead of the galaxy being united in peace, it would be united in death. But things had changed &, strangely, even Drache knew that he was in some trouble. Having digested the souls of 30 million good souls, it was he who was now under attack as a stranger, armed with no more than a sword, came running at him with the intention to kill.

But now it was Gideon’s turn to be surprised. Thinking that the Beast Drache was vulnerable, Gideon attacked on the run. Being an expert swordsman, Gideon could swear that he had struck Drache well on the chest. Yet, as he looked around to see a gaping wound, all he saw was Drache smiling at him. This angered Gideon & he tried to strike Drache again. This time Gideon failed as Drache was able to deflect his attack using the blue mist which still obeyed his commands. Then, when Drache struck back with the blue mist, instead of harvesting his soul, all that Gideon received was a nasty burn on his left arm.

Noticing that battle had commenced, the other three Horsemen, all armed with swords, charged from their vantage point & began desperate combat with Drache. Drache, however, proved more than capable with their attacks, relying on his blue mist to act as an armour whilst lashing out at the same time. The Horsemen tried several attempts, regardless of total failure, to kill Drache all the while suffering injuries themselves. And as these injuries began to mount up, each one of them grew more & more angry. Their own hate seemed to be driving their attacks &, in many respects, they had become no better in their evil as the Beast that they wanted to destroy.

The Four Horsemen could not understand what was happening. Each time they tried to attack Drache, even if they managed to get past the defence he offered, none of their blades could penetrate the blue mist that continued to surround him. Again Gideon tried another attack only to be foiled. Furthermore, Drache was able to counterattack, when given the opportunity, which resulted in either a burning or bruising for Gideon. The same thing happened to the three others, although Wong was confident that he had a broken right arm due to the combat.

Gideon took a step back to think. As he did, Khan made another wild & angered attack. He had no discipline left & was behaving more like an angry animal than a Human. Goodwin, Gideon noticed, was not all that much better. Then Gideon took a good look at Drache. It appeared, as the Horsemen became more angry with every failure, that Drache was enjoying the action. It even seemed at though Drache was getting slightly more powerful with every attack. Furthermore Drache was tormenting the Four Horsemen, making them more angry.

This became even more obviously when Drache deliberately targeted Wong with another shot of blue flame. Although not lethal, as in Drache’s previous incarnation, it still burnt with much pain. Thus, with Wong screaming in agony, only increased the anger in Goodwin & Khan, & drove the other two Horsemen onto the attack once more. Again their attacks went without success, only resulting in defeat. Furthermore, Khan took a jolt of blue flame in his face which resulted in a hollowing scream reminiscent of a primeval ancestor. Goodwin, on noticing his friend’s demise, readied for another attack, but was interrupted by Gideon.

Goodwin looked at Gideon who showed no sign of emotion at all. He was in complete contrast to the other three Horsemen. He appeared at peace with the world, even though the Apocalypse ragged around him. Now was Gideon’s time. Now he was in the right frame of mind, body, & spirit, to attack. He had released his anger & all his hate. He was at peace with all things. At this moment David Gideon was humanity’s last hope for peace. He was also humanity’s last hope for life. Now fearing nothing, Gideon made several faints against Drache, who knew something was wrong, just not what. Everything had turned reverse circle. Now the Beast was devoid of information as the Four Horsemen had been for so long.

Gideon soon tired of this deceit, but had to wait patiently until the right opportunity. This soon happened thanks to a distraction made by Goodwin. Gideon swung his sword at Drache’s neck. Before Drache could counter, the blade of Gideon’s sword past through the blue mist that had acted for so long as his impenetrable armour. Drache had hardly the time to scream as he felt the blade first cut the skin of his neck. But it would cut much deeper than that. Next the blade cut deep into the flesh & continued into his neck bone. Still it continued until slicing through his neck bone & once more into more flesh. Finally, Gideon’s sword exited from the other side. The battle was all over within a second.

All Drache could do is give a look of complete horror mixed with surprise. A second later, gravity had taken over & the head of the Beast fell to the ground. But as Goodwin & Gideon expected the body to fall to the ground, like the head had done, they were mistaken. Similarly no blood gushed forth from the neck as one would expect. Instead the body just stood there in front of them as if frozen in time. Just as Gideon was about to stab the body with his sword, a thin ray of white light shot up into the sky from the neck.

Up into the heavens this ray of light continued & disappeared into the galaxy. Not long afterwards, only a few seconds as a matter of fact, the ray of light began to increase in diameter albeit slowly at first. As it grew in size it began to travel outward faster. The Four Horsemen began to watch, regardless of what pain they were in, as curiosity had grabbed their attention. No one knew what was happening, yet everyone was speechless. Still outward the light continued to grow. Soon it had engulfed all of Drache’s body & showed no sign of stopping.

Yet instead of fearing the sight before them, the Four Horsemen felt an unusual feeling of calm & love. It was unmistakable. It was completely unique. Something none of them had ever experienced before. It was as if they were on some fantastic drug that brought some great high. Yet they were on no drug. There was no artificial hallucination. No false feelings. No fake emotion. It was real. Very real. It was the beginning of the Rapture.

Without warning the light that had beamed out of Drache’s body transformed into the most dazzling blinding white light imaginable. It was pure white as white could ever be known. The Four Horsemen could no longer see each other or anything else for that matter. Yet a friendly face appeared to all of them. It was one they had never seen before, but one that seemed so familiar. The Four Horsemen were not afraid. They felt no pain. Instead they welcomed & embraced what came next.

And then the light exploded. Out from this small area, amongst the ruins of Jerusalem, a wave of pure white light sped through the solar system within a twinkling of an eye. Further out it sped, faster than the fastest of space ships. It stopped no where & waited for nothing. Within seconds it had reached Alpha Centauri. A few seconds later it flashed through the Corvus System & beyond. It continued at the same pace until it reached the edges of the galaxy. And then the light stopped, having completed its purpose.

Initially, the survivors of this light wave thought some great disaster had taken near their respective location. But it was soon realised that no great explosion, crash, or some other mishap had occurred, until it was realised what had actually happened. The Humans had disappeared. Each & every one of them had vanished into thin air, regardless of their location. They had all simply gone.

No one knows where they went.

No one knows if they will return.

Although they numbered 10 billion, spread out across the galaxy, they were in reality, no greater in number than any other civilisation. Yet the Humans were the best of us. Their example to the rest of the galaxy was beyond comparison. Even at their worst, they were better than most. Few, however, have followed suit. Nonetheless, with the example of the Humans still within our memories, many have tried to live up to their example. For it was they who, within a few centuries, had set an example for the rest of the galaxy to follow.

They shall be sorely missed. Yet still keenly followed. Many of us hope that some day we will meet them again. Whether it be through their return, or better yet, our own Rapture, we will once again be with our friends now currently lost. In the meantime, however, we will endeavour to follow their example until another time & place.

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