Things to Come *Full edited version*

“I’m just

saying we shouldn’t have used Project Eclipse in the capital, regardless of whether or not we finally got Mercer,” muttered one of seven people inside the room. The sparse items of furniture consisted of a table, a swivel chair behind it, two seats in front of it, a wall of one-way glass making up a massive window and a row of filing cabinets lined against the far side of the room, one of the mentioned sitting on top of the middle cabinet, kicking his feet back and forth.

The two front seats were occupied by blackwatch soldiers, both of whom wore standard uniforms sans the masks. The seat behind the desk was occupied by their glowering commander, also forgoing his mask, and the last three were standing against the window. Everyone in the room had a uniform on, exceptions being: the commander, who was dressed in a much less elaborate version, just plain black with one red star on each of his shoulders, and the man sitting on the filing cabinet, wearing simple blue jeans and a white wifebeater, the only other colours in the room besides black, grey and red.

“Well, we sure as hell weren’t going to use Project Godzilla in the capital. We’d end up incinerating all the VIP’s in the area with the plan you had,” said the one sitting on top of the filing cabinets, one of his hands going up to graze the ceiling as he passed the time. “Project Eclipse was the best one we had that promised a complete wipe of Mercer.”

One of the soldiers turned around, gazing through the one-way window set up over the nerve center of their operation. They crossed their arms as they looked over the army of loyal soldiers, working on their computers, doing their best to direct their forces across the country. A distinctly female voice sounded through the mask, “I’m starting to think we should have activated Project Crusade.”

At her admission, all the heads in the room turned towards her, only one associate did not glare at her with varying degrees of disapproval. The man sitting on top of the filing cabinets instead, smiled at her idea.  The commander was the first to speak up. “No offense meant, but take as much offense as you want, you’re a fucking idiot to suggest activating Project Crusade. We’ve been fine without using it this far. Honestly, why the hell would we activate, Project Crusade? And you-” pointing at the one sitting on the filing cabinets “-keep your damn mouth shut.”

The one on the filing cabinets threw his hands up in mock surrender as he glanced over at the woman Blackwatch trooper, waiting for her to elaborate on her idea. “What I’m saying is, our intel points to Mercer trying to chase down Pariah, correct? We could have just dangled, Crusade in his face and he would’ve followed to the ends of the earth. Not to mention we don’t have any idea of how well Crusade would fare, our simulations just don’t do some of our projects justice.”

“Regardless, it’d be too risky to activate Project Crusade. Better to risk ripping the president apart molecule by molecule with the Eclipse, than have Mercer get access to our nuclear armaments,” said the man sitting in the right chair. Looking over his shoulder, a nice peach fuzz showing on his chin. “Sure we kind of lost our secrecy factor with every world government and we’re more or less traitors now, but it was worth it to wipe both Heller and Mercer off the face of the planet once and for all.”

The Blackwatch lady trooper turned around and jabbed a finger at him, “Exactly! If we had activated Project Crusade we could have lured the both of them away, and still maintained our sec--”

“Lure doesn’t translate to kill. All we would’ve done is give them a chance at weapons that are much more useful against us than they are against them, or do you not remember Mercer shrugging off our first attempt to cleanse Manhattan. Project Eclipse-”

“Project Eclipse was a fucking black hole. Give the politicians some credit, even they’d notice if all their scientists told them a fucking space anomaly was on the planet,” said the one on the filing cabinets, picking at his fingernails in disinterest. “What’s done is done, the real question is what are we going to do now? We’re wanted in practically every country that could do something about it?”

The one sitting in the left chair spoke next, taking a moment to brush at his blonde hair that grew long past regulation, madness leaking through his words, “Set loose the rest of the Projects on them. If they want to fuck with us, we have plenty country busters on call. Not to mention the weaponized Redlight we have hidden in spades. It’s not like if it ever grew out of hand we couldn’t just nuke it. It’s so much easier to burn than Blacklight was.”

All seven of them grew quiet as they contemplated that. They’d never had much of a plan besides end the virus and protect the US under any circumstances. But now, after wiping out a good portion of Washington D.C? What he just said could very well be a their best option, but before any of them could think any further, the man on the filing cabinet tipped his head back.

“We got incoming,” Was all the warning given before he disintegrated into black dust, completely disappearing from view. All the others in the room sprinted back to their positions, the two sitting down pulled their masks back on. Shoving the chairs back in place, they took up positions on either side of the door while the remaining three went behind the commander, standing behind his desk.

No sooner had they taken their positions, then doors slammed open, a dark-skinned scientist running through, her hair unkempt from days without sleep. The two by the doors brought up their guns as she slid to a stop in front of them. “What is your business here?”

She struggled for air as she frantically pointed to the nerve center, before saying it all in one quick breath. “Wehavepossiblereportsofsurvivorsfromgroundzero!”

The commander cocked his head as he inspected the woman. “You mean from Washington? The place where we quite literally wiped half of the White House off the face of earth? Now why would you think that?”

“We’re currently communicating with them right now, special task force Mercury, assigned to guard Project Eclipse! Their last known position had been right by the device as we set it off!” At that the commander bolted upright from his seat.

“Show me now.” The woman nodded quickly before sprinting out from the room, followed shortly by all of the room’s occupants even an almost imperceptible cloud of black dust floating close the ceiling. As they left the room and ran down the stairs, none of the men and women manning their stations glancing up from their computers, for they were already staring at one station in particular. The woman who’d just come to deliver the news, slid into her station and began a rapid-fire series of clicking.

She’d apparently finished entering what was needed as she immediately pulled out her headphones while the speakers hissed to life, a steady stream of static coming through. The room fell silent, waiting for some form of feedback. Eventually a voice came through, even set to max, it was barely audible.

“Thi–” – shkt – ”Lieutenant Christopher “ – shkt – “–earence level” – shkt – “Eclipse was a fai–” – shkt – “–repeat Pro–” – shkt – “Eyes on Mer–” – shkt – “wrec–” – shkt – “Heller and Mercer” – shkt – “all out. Orders” – shkt – “–ir?”

The commander looked around at all of his subordinates before gesturing for the woman to move aside so he could take over. Nodding, she retreated back into the crowd as he took her seat, leaning forward into the console, he spoke, “You’re speaking to Hydra of Redcrown, identify yourself, soldier.”

“Com–” – shkt – “–ir? Too mu–” – shkt – “–ference.”

“I said identify yourself, soldier, squad name and ID number, I repeat ID, now!” He turned away from the computer and looked out to the crowd around him. “One of you imbeciles stop gawking and find a way to boost the signal! And somebody, get me this man’s records. We need to verify this is genuine.”

Five scientists ran out to boost the signal while the scientist closest to the console on his left jumped into the chair, his fingers a blur, a list of every Christopher in Blackwatch scrolled down his monitor. “Blackwatch spec–” – shkt – “–orce Guardi–” – shkt – “with defending Project Ecli–” – shkt – “Christ–” – shkt – “–3826. Repeat Bla–” – shkt – “task force Gu–” – shkt – “tasked wit–” – shkt – “Eclipse while it is p–” – shkt – “743826 over.”

The commander glanced to the technician beside him who was busy looking through the soldier’s record. “Do we have any troopers with those credentials?” The man held up a finger and kept typing for a full twenty more seconds, before staring intently at the screen.

“Lieutenant Christopher, survived four months in the Red Zone, hand picked to guard Project Eclipse. Prior military experience until recruitment into Blackwatch includes three tours in Afghanistan. His ID number is 743286 and his last known position was, quite literally, next to the Eclipse. I do believe this is legitimately the lieutenant.”

With a nod he turned back to the console. “Hold your position soldier, I repeat hold your position we are boosting the signal. Etc five mikes.”

“Ack–” – shkt – “, sir.”

He drummed his fingers on the table in front of him, his already waning patience running dangerously thin. The technicians that had run off earlier came back, all of them panting.

“Well? Did you boost the signal?”

“As much as we could, sir.”

Nodding, he turned back to the console. “Are you still there, soldier?”

“Rog–” – shkt – “, sir. You’re coming in a lot” – shkt – “–tter.”

One of his ‘guards’ leaned in to whisper into his ear. “Was it just me, or did he mention something about Mercer?”

Catching the hint, the commander spoke again, “Soldier, did you say you had a confirmed Mercer sighting?”

“Yes sir, we had” – shkt – “–yes on him just a short while ago. Him and Heller were just going head-to-head, rip–” – shkt – “each other apart. We also have eyes on some… things.” The soldier said, a cautious tone evident in his voice.

The commander’s brow arched at that. “What do you mean things? Are there infected at your location?”

“Well, sir…” – shkt – “–netly not human. Not infected as far as any of us can tell either. In fact they lo–” – shkt – “like cartoon horses.”

“What?” The commander did a double-take at that and turned around to those gathered behind him. “You all just heard him right?”

“Something about cartoons horses… yeah we heard him.”

“We also ha–” – shkt – “–veral Blackwatch troopers, at least ten marines and even a secret service member still alive. We also h–” – shkt – “a Gentek member on the radio.”

“Hold one second,” muttered the commander as he clasped his hand over the microphone. “Somebody mind telling me why the fuck Project Eclipse didn’t work as intended?”

The same ‘guard’ whispered, “My guess is that nobody bothered to put a camera or radio through to the other end. We just tested it on infected, a couple of buildings, and a few people who went ‘missing’ during the first crisis.”

The commander’s palm met his face, with a resounding smack echoing throughout the chamber they were all housed in, many of the technicians grimacing at the sound. “We’re going to have a fucking serious talk, after we get this sorted out.”

Giving them all one last glare, the commander turned back to the console one last time. “As of now soldier, consider yourself in hostile territory. Do whatever you feel is necessary to keep yourselves alive and do your best to keep eyes on Mercer. If he doesn’t know you’re there then try and keep it a secret.”

“Yes s–” – shkt – ”Anything else?”

“You said something about cartoon horses? Are you all encountering alien life-forms?”

“Errr…” – shkt – “that’s a yes sir. What?… one second sir. Oh about time you three showed up here… is that a horse you’re carrying on your back? Oh for fucks sakes. Well sir we can dissect one if we want now because three of my men just showed up with one of them.”

The commander shook his head at that. “Well I guess we can throw secrecy out the window, hold your position regardless while the technicians over here figure out what the hell Project Eclipse actually did.”

“Roger that, sir, over and out.” The other end of the comlink clicked off and the commander stood up from the seat. He strode back up to his office, his ‘guards’ trailing close behind. The whole room watched them in silence, the only noises being the click of their heels against the tile floors, up until the part he reached his carpeted office.

In his seat sat the same man from earlier – the one that had been residing upon the filing cabinets – his feet propped up on the table. “Well it seems we have royally fucked up huh? Just managed to trap the two men capable of derailing our plans, in a world that we have no idea is even capable of.”

One of the ‘guards’ closed the doors behind the group as they took off their masks. The woman was the first to speak up. “I do have to agree with our… ‘friend’,” she stated sarcastically. “If Project Eclipse just managed to throw them into another dimension, then there’s no telling what the two of them could manage to do there.”

“Well we might be lucky enough that they can’t find their way back, right?” Asked the same man who had suggested fighting the entire world just a few minutes earlier.

Getting up from the seat, the man laughed while giving a mock bow to the commander. “You’re an imbecile if you think he can’t find his way back. Mercer’s the smartest being in existence, he did absorb the greatest minds Gentek and Blackwatch had to offer. If there’s a way back, he’ll find it.”

The commander held his hand up for silence. “How many subjects do we have for Project Crusade?”

The man looked down at the commander, his left brow raised in question. “Forty-seven if I remember correctly, why?”

“As of now, I’m authorizing all Projects to be brought up to full-speed, keep the Project Crusade subjects in semi-cryostasis. Don’t want them loose until we’ve exhausted all other options.”

The man snapped a salute before he dissolved into a black cloud again and disappeared under the doorframe, while everyone else stared at the commander. Peach fuzz was the first to speak up, “A–Are you seriously thinking of activating all of Project Crusade? One should be more than enough, hell we don’t even need to unfreeze any of them, he’s more than capable of doing it himself!”

He clasped his hands and sighed. “Mercer and Heller are gods among men, as of right now we have one being on our side that could match up to one of the them, not both. And you know as well as I do he can’t be trusted, or have you forgotten about the incident? Couple that with a completely alien territory, and we’re looking at a suicide mission that a kamikaze would turn down.

“For all we know, those two could be on a world where they’re among equals, a utopia with technology so advanced that our ultimate weapons are children’s play toys, a hell that even they would beg to escape, maybe all three. The important thing is, whether we like it or not, we’ve made contact. If we could get there, than they can get back here. Our job is to stop all viral threats to the US and this other world is just as much a threat as Mercer or Heller. I don’t want Heller here, I don’t want Mercer here, and unless we can use this new world to our advantage I don’t want a single hoof on this planet. The red line has moved and we will defend it, even if we have to take annihilate the whole planet to do so. All projects are to be activated, immediately.”

“Does that mean I can go through with the final phase of Project Terminator?” asked the one man who’d said nothing so far, his mask kept on the entire time.

The commander looked through the lashes of his eyes. “All projects are to be activated. Immediately. I’ll handle the bureaucrats and retrieve Project Eclipse. This is our only means attack, and no one will obstruct our hold of it. Dismissed.” He finished snapping a salute to them all, the whole of them leaving as soon as they pulled their masks on.