Novelas:Failure167

"Though thou exalt thyself as an eagle and though thou set thy nest among the stars, thence I will bring thee down, saith the Lord" -- Obadiah verse 4.

Jordan Hamilton
June 4 2067 Jordan Hamilton was sitting on his drop site, as the shuttle was taking them nearly to their destination, his hands were cold and trembling, his eyes reflected the fear of a horrible feeling of disobedience. His ears were listening to the powerful worship and singing of Hillsong United on his IPod, still this didn’t help either to seize his thoughts.

Hamilton was Christian since he was born, was raised as a Christian, and kept being a Christian. He was able to kept his beliefs in a world where the faith of Christ is not well seen, not since those robots appeared and the Artificial mines of Mercury appeared, though the Bible always had an answer to that, and Hamilton always found out that, he stayed loyal to his beliefs and to his faith. At his 18 he entered on military duty to complete his service to community, though then he was assigned as a special operative inside the special International forces, he was commended with lots of medals and was named among the best of the best in Worldwide military.

Though now, against his will, he was doing a mission he did not want to, he hated to though. When he first knew about the colonizing mission, he argued against it, saying that will be impossible for Humans to live in other planets, whenever this planet could be suitable enough, and then he realizes that people in that colony went missing, he reaffirmed his faith.

Now after a second attempt of making people comfortable at the idea of making a colony in other planet, and this also failed, he was sent with other troopers of all the world to check the failures, he did not wanted to, but still he went, he was "the best of the best" among many.

Now he was embraced in a fear that could not be healed, the fear of being part of an action against the will of God, he was a teacher in Sunday church school, a preacher among youth ministry, so he knew the bible of heart, even his parents, his pastor, his friends told him to not go, but still he had to, Christianity was not well seen among other people.

Arrival
I was getting calmed before this whole situation, I didn't knew nobody, as well as they didn't knew me, I usually am a social guy that loves meeting new people, but this time, this time was different, I turned my IPod on and began listening to music, I choose my Album CD of Hillsong United and waited for the shuttle to arrive to that place, it would last just ten days to make it to Armageddon, Why they had to choose that name! I though, 'Armageddon'.

I was completely merged with my thoughts that I was ignoring everyone in the place, more than once somebody tried to talk to me, but they got bored and leaved me alone, we were ready after eating something, now we were at our dropping seats, ready to be deployed, I checked and double checked the instructions of Armaggedon, its atmosphere was similar to earth, deserted planet, in conclusion, an M-class planet twice the size of earth without fauna, just flora, and this one was poor.

"Hello!" said suddenly a guy that was walking towards me and sat in my immediate right, I did not listen to his salutation, I kept going in my thoughts, taking with one hand my IPod and with my left hand my rifle, that its right, I was left-handed, the guy sitting repeated his sentence, I did not listened, he saw that I was watching my IPod choosing the next song in the album, he hit me on the back, and I suddenly jumped in surprise.

"Hello?" I said a little bit angry.

"Hi there!" said the guy.

"Why did you do that?"

"You weren't listening to me"

"Oh sorry, for how much time"

"I said hello twice"

"Well well" I said a little ashamed by my attitude, "So how are you?"

"Little nervous, isn't this exciting?"

"Exciting in what way umm... sorry what was your name?"

"Greg, Gregor White" said the guy.

"Jordan Hamilton" I replied, "Nice to meet you"

"Aha" said almost whispering.

"So in what way you find this exciting"

"Ok, you really are weird, don't you see the fact that we are on space?"

"Yes"

"And that we are going to land on other planet"

"Yes"

"In what way isn't that exciting?!?"

"Well..." I was going to recite scripture, but that wouldn't help in this conversation, Greg looked at me waiting for an intelligent answer, enough to keep this conversation.

"I wouldn't be that exciting" said a voice incoming, it was another guy that sat next to my immediate left.

"How's that" said Greg.

"Thomas, Thomas Whitmore" What happened to America? why people now introduce themselves with their first name.

"Greg White" repeated Greg.

"Hamilton, Jordan" I repeated.

"I wouldn't be that exciting, 'cause that colony failed twice"

"Well... let's be optimistic, we are going to land on another planet"

"So..." I interrupted, "What do you guys think failed in the space colony?"

The two looked at me thinking.

"Man, really don't know" said Greg.

"Aliens!" said suddenly Thomas.

The two looked at him, and then started to laugh, "Come on Thomas!" said Greg, "You don't believe Aliens did that to us do you?"

"Why not?"

"Well," I started, "In our briefing they explained to us the geography of the planet, saying that according to pictures and videos taken by colonists, it was a deserted planet, empty of wild life, just few variety of small plants, like Southern United States desert, just a little greenish on the ground that's all."

"Weren't you listening?" asked Greg.

"Well, the truth is that I ran asleep" said a little ashamed, and this was the best of the best? I asked myself on my head.

Greg could not avoid the laughing out loud, making a funny noise that resembled a broken machinery, I almost laughed, not with him, but of him.

"So, what do you think failed in there Jordan?" asked Greg, I wanted to die in that moment, I probably knew the answer, but I feared the possibility of loosing two new friends, because Christianity wasn't appreciated in this days!

"Well... ehem I..."

The two looked at me like two moron guys, and retarded.

"I think it was the will of God to that colony to fail, nothing less" I said, and waiting for an awful reply.

"What makes you think that?" said Thomas a little bit interested.

"Well just simply that, it was God's will"

"What do you mean?"

"Do I have to repeat the same thing always?!" I asked, and so Greg changed the question.

"Are you saying that God did not wanted us to colonize a planet?"

"Yes..."

"Why God would not allow that to us?" asked Thomas.

"Because its written, on the bible" I said.

The two looked themselves, a little bit surprised.

"You Christian Jordan?"

"I am"

Silence.

I almost laughed at the common response of a non-believer at the fact that I am Christian, the two recovered from the impression.

"You really are a Christian?" Asked again Thomas.

"I am, want proofs?"

"Ok"

I grabbed my bag and showed to them my Gideon Bible, with its red portrait and golden titles.

"Ok, ok I believe you, just don't get too religious"

"Never!" I said, and put it back again in my bag.

"Sorry for our surprised faces" said Greg, "Its just that I never saw a Christian in my life... and alive!"

"Me neither" said Thomas, and I felt like if I were of another species.

The time we spent together sit down in those uncomfortable seats of military deployment, the two acted like they were speaking to an Alien, saying sorry for the bad words, and bad corporal language, if the seats were uncomfortable, this was bigger.

Fortunately, more people came into the deployment area, and began filling the empty seats, making our conversation to stop, or better say paused, I knew that in the future more questions about my beliefs were going to be made, Greg's head suddenly came closer to mine, "Don't worry, we won't say you are christian"

"Why?" I whispered.

"Because like 4 more guys on your left there is a muslim, and I think that someone here is a cultist"

Oh my God.

How I envied the Christians on 2000-2030, they were loved and even respected, people met them for counseling, for comfort, but not in this time.

After 2030 the Christian community diminish a lot, since in 2032 occurred the most big christian-jew massacre ever in hands of Muslims in Europe, and so the Christians began having problems with raged communities, supported and leaded by cultists, christians were rather killed or disappeared, assuming that they were also killed, fortunately, Christian community was protected by Governments and were allowed in counter strike to preach everywhere they wanted to. Though this last thing outraged more muslims and cultists, and they lifted up a prayer for Governments involved to chase down the remaining Christians, they were not listened. And so the Cultists and muslims (which grew a lot in numbers between 2023-2030) started to hammer Christians under water, illegally, this could only mean one thing for me, the last times were close.

A speaker started then to come out of the wall's corner, a weird thing I have never seen, but hey, weren't we in the last times?

The Ship started to tremble, though this shuttle was still experimental, a little updated from the first two, it still had several things that made him real uncomfortable for the entry in Armageddon's atmosphere.

A red flash back began to flood the whole compartment, Jordan grabbed strongly his seat belt that covered his arms, his space suit designed for combat was working well, he did not felt anything unusual, but still the pain of an entry was there.

Greg White
Gregor W. White was a young, enthusiastic special marine of the American Union, he dreamed with serving his country one day when he was a children, he was in favor of the governments, and agreed with everything they said, even with the massacre on 2032, he was one of the Marines that risks his own life to protect the christians, though he never encountered one, for him where a race in extinction, or well saying a religion, a legendary belief, hated by almost everyone.

Though because of his actions, his family, his friends and other people he didn't even knew started attacking him, stop talking to him, still, though they said to him that he was a christian, he argued that he was only doing his faithful service to his government, with no exceptions.

When he first knew of the first flight to Armageddon, he was excited, believing that probably in his old days he could be living in the successfully placed colony in that planet, though he never knew why they sent another shuttle, but suddenly he was called among the best of the best to travel to that planet, his orders weren't what he expected of this kind of voyage.

He never though that he would be sitting next to a guy that he protected all his military service, a christian, his name was Jordan Hamilton, and Greg first felt as he was speaking to a legend, or better say, alien, crazy guy who insists on continue with this suicidal belief, still something was on this young guy, probably two year older than him, probably more.

Landing
"Prepare yourself" I said to Greg, as he seemed to never been dropped of an air vehicle without this one stopping at all, "this is going to be rude"

He looked at me in a moment, I could see something in his eyes...

Fear.

The screens in our top indicated us to secure our space suits, put helmets on, and prepare rifles, whatever was on that colony, it wasn't an enemy, there was probably nothing.

Suddenly the shuttle moved, everyone remained on its seats, Greg got even more nervous, the radio suddenly was heard:

"Emergency drop! I repeat, Emergency drop!"

The seats suddenly disappeared leaving a hole, we fell, into Armageddon.



The Atmosphere of this planet was similar to earth, stronger than that of Mars, and so the speed that its gravity was pulling us could simply burn us, the shuttle won't take risk to get disabled in unknown territory, and so they dropped us before planned, Ok... I said to me in the quiet of the void, This was the glitch of the voyage.

In elegant and swift formation we orbited the planet, as this one was pulling fast, but sensibly slow to its ground, it took just a few hours to enter officially the planet, Indeed I was never in space, and I could only imagine the greatness of my Lord and His glory by creating such a thing, still, I was afraid.

The Lord is my Shepard I started, I shall not want....

"Ok guys" said a voice in my helmet's radio, what other surprises will technology make for me?

The voice was the pilot in the shuttle, "We had to drop you by orders of Houston back home, but your suits have been equipped with heat shields strong enough for you to survive the entrance, you know the plan fellows, so from now on you are officially in the mission"

"Hey!" another voice was heard, it was Greg "Why they did not warned us!?" his voice was angry, "This is great, I was not prepared, I wasn't expecting that"

"Just follow my lead" I said.

Though I never was in space before, I was following instructions, the scientists back on Earth instructed us on how to perform in orbital altitude.

Suddenly my respiration went faster, and faster, and I could hear the voice of Greg complaining about the heavy weight we instantly felt by entering the planet, we were on Armageddon's purple sky now.

We kept falling, this time it seemed faster than before.

"Uh Jordan!" said Greg.

"What do you want Greg?"

"I'm not sure of doing this!"

"Just hold on" said Thomas, falling just next to me, at average distance in order that our parachutes won't collide.

"Greg follow my lead, just do everything I do, trust me, I have been dropped in the sky before"

"But I can't level my body!"

"Do exactly as I do!" screamed a little worried.

Like expert parachute, I moved with an experienced move until I was into the right position of landing, Greg followed me on everything, I believe Thomas wasn't sure also, because he did exactly the same thing looking at us.

My eyes could not believe what I was seeing, someone was firing at us!

"Incoming!" said a trooper, and the sky suddenly was filled with small tiny yellow points passing really fast and really close.

"They are firing at us!" said Thomas.

Greg was falling right beside me, as well as Thomas, this one was laughing and screaming like this was vacation, Was he mad I asked myself, we kept falling.

"Jordan!" said Greg into my right.

"Yes Greg?" we were screaming to hear each other because of that damn sound of the projectiles passing

"Am I crazy or this fire power is ours?"

"You are not!" I said, thing were getting real interesting.

"Yeeeehaaa!" screamed Thomas suddenly.

"Easy Thomas, concentrate, our first goal is to reach ground safely!" answered back.

Suddenly one of ours was hit by a some of bullets, and his dead body started to fall next to us.

"Prepare for the parachute!" screamed to my new friends, everyone around us started to drop his parachute out.

"Jordan everyone is dropping its parachute, why not us?"

"Trust me Greg, try to not speak, I'll give you a signal!"

The three kept falling, fortunately, it wasn't a rain of fire, just a few drops of bullets, but unfortunately, whoever that was firing those, it wasn't friendly, and one of ours will not return home.

The others were following procedure, dropping their parachutes in the right time, but in my experience, it was better to drop a little closer to ground in sunlight and in the middle of a fire.

"Now guys!" I ordered.

The three dropped our parachutes, the initial hit was a little painful.

"Whoa!" said Greg "This thing is killing me!"

"Thomas, what's your status?"

"I'm with you man!"

Our falling was loosing speed, and back on the top the parachutes of the others were also seen, answering to the fire taken, a cross fire was taking place, for my luck, and for that of my new friends, they were distracting the enemy.

"Can you see the shuttle Thomas?" said Greg, I made an effort of looking more on the top.

"I can see a white thing flying away!" said Thomas, it took time to me to see it.

"What a great view Thomas!" I said.

We kept falling.

The ground was getting bigger, suddenly, and as always, I found out that my fall speed was bigger than expected, as it hurt a lot when my legs collided with the greenish ground of Armageddon, the parachute fell above me, covering my sight, I quickly moved away, but this space suit didn't allowed me to moved correctly.

My two other friends, Thomas and Greg, were already on the ground, with their rifles ready and securing the are, I could not see their faces as the black glass of that helmet didn't allowed me to.

"That was a hell of an emotion" said Thomas.

The firing could be heard very far as a scattered noise.

"Yeah" said Greg next to me helping me to rise up, "It almost killed me literally speaking"

I smiled, Armageddon greenish ground was now below my special boots, though I was scared about all this stuff thing of colonization, It was an awesome feeling to be standing in an unexplored Earth-like planet.

I could only think in that moment, Thank you God, How great are You

Thomas Whitmore
Or Tom, in the way his family and friends call him back home, he is older than Jordan Hamilton, and with a little bigger experience in combat, he was born in 2035 in Europe, in what in the past was England, his accent is very distinguishable, his english is good, but as far as he can do, he cannot hide his european or old french lineage.

He is Atheist, just as Greg, he was obligated to sign in the special Marine business due to his great eye capability, he served for five years in European special Ops. performing as a sniper in the Cauteaulikan wars, a short conflict between what was France, Italy, England and Sweden, he served with the Cauteaulikan band, and when this faction neutralized the government of the rest of the Union, he was commended and assigned to International special Ops.

When he knew of this special mission he was about perform into another planet, he was excited, he always wanted to believe that Earth will start a war against another Sapient species, but this belief is laughed by everyone, still you never know what could caused the failure in the colony, so discussions of this type are short and cut by someone in the argument.

Exploration


We walked for three hours, in the direction planned, the checkpoint, in order to meet with the rest of the troopers, the shuttle was moving fast when it dropped us, so we where just a few Earth Km, we saw in the path a small river, strange, but amazing, the water was purple, and there seemed to be grass and orange ground near it, Armageddon was indeed a beautiful place to remember, and I though that if I would make it back home, I will certainly remember this place.

"Strange" said Greg, "purple water!"

"Its space remember?" replied Thomas.

Greg picked up his space camera and picked a photo of it, I did the same since he remembered me of my camera, then Thomas did the same, the three started recording and taking photos of everything, it was funny and we looked like happy foolish tourusts tourists. Something was true we never stopped in the time being.

There was no wind, the plants weren't moving, the place hadn't life at all, just us, our rifles, and our gear.

"Jordan let's rest" said Greg to me, "We have walked through hours, I'm little tired" And this WAS the best of the best I though.

"Bad Idea" convinced Thomas, "If we let down our guard, the ones that fired at us could surprise us"

"I never said of letting our guards down, just to rest"

"Precisely"

"Come on, we are Km away from them, and in a place like this you can see them co..." he stopped, as a noise suddenly was heard in our walking direction.

It sounded like a shot, then another one, other one at then it sounded like a rain of shots, "Hurry, its not too far!" said Thomas.

Greg stood up and Thomas started to run in that direction, I followed, and Greg followed, the noise was heard near, even if my helmet didn't allowed us to hear very well, the sound was heard damn close.

"Charge your rifles!" said Thomas, we obeyed, in here, no one had a highest rank, our platoon officer was probably in that crossfire.

Greg started to look tired, as we were running at a rhythm that probably he wasn't get used to, but my fellow Thomas and I were really used to it, as special Ops. we could ran distances in order to accomplish our objective.

Thomas indicated to stop, and he lay down, we did the same, he started to move in that position, we did the same, he stopped we did the same, but at his same distance in order to see the better we could, far away, it lied indeed a small battle, but who were those grayish big head people?



"See?" said suddenly Thomas, "Aliens, I was right"

I was really starting to get frustrated with the idea.

"Shut up and fire" I said, as I pointed with my rifle and fired to the critters down in the hill, Thomas and Greg did the same.

The grayish men didn't expected us at all, and we killed most of them, the other ran out, fleeing and cursing in other language.

"I got it" said Greg, "You go and check, I'll cover you"

We obeyed, Thomas and I ran to the place where the Gray men were firing at, it wasn't the checkpoint, but a small, improved house, made of the greenish sand of the planet.

"Hello?" We watched through the window, but we saw nothing.

Suddenly three more of those gray critters appeared, one was instantly killed by Greg's rifle, the others were really close of me.

"Jordan watch out!" said Thomas as he started to shoot to one, but the other didn't let me chance to fire, it jumped at me and seemed to want me to take off the helmet, I punched, kicked pushed, pulled and more to get it off me.

Suddenly the critter was killed, and the next thing I saw was Thomas laying me a hand, I accepted, and we saw how two more troopers arrived, a little surprised to see us in one piece.

"Hi there" I said, "You heard the noise?"

"Yeah!" said one, "We were afraid another small group was attacked by those terrors, they really look ugly, they killed two of ours, including the one that was killed in the sky.

"Any news from the others?" Said Thomas, Greg was moving toward us when he saw everything was safe.

"Nope" said the trooper, "Were you making those things flee? Because we saw four moving to west, they looked a little bit scared"

"Sue us" I said, "We were inspecting this strange structure before we were attacked... again, and before you arrived"

"Hamilton, Jordan" I added, "here is Thomas Whitmore, and Greg White"

The three shocked hands with them.

"Ramirez, Ramone" said one, Wow, at last someone that says his last name first! I though.

"Theodore, Carmichael" said the second, this one said his name like Thomas and Greg.

"So..." said Ramone, "Shall we inspect the house now, finish the mission and get this over with?"

"Sure, be my guest" said Thomas.

We entered the house, and it was really ugly, the place was covered by dead, all with people without masks or helmets, I looked into someone, dead, another, dead, other one, dead, no one was even twitching.

"Guess we arrived too late" Said Greg.

"Well this gray men were certainly wanted to this people to take off the helmets" said Theodore "look at this..."

Suddenly a corpse moved, the body started to tremble, I felt like I was standing in front of a demonic full manifestation, the body then calmed and turned gray, his head went a little bit larger than ours, we were all now pointing at it.

"Sshoijfknkkasd..." said the revived body, it was now one of those critters!"

We didn't hesitated at all, we fired, as well as all the bodies, specially in the heads, that thing was dead in a matter of minutes, we were all shocked, well maybe not me, I have seen this type of things, in a normal man, so my mind started to think about the possibility of the...

The door of the closet sounded, like some was knocking into it, we opened, ready for another attack.

No this one was a normal human being, alive, healthy, with no signs of mutation or mental instability.

"Oh thank God All mighty you are here!" he said, panicked, we were all panicked.

"You ok?" said Ramone.

"I am now"

"Who are you?" asked Greg, still recovering and breathing really fast.

The man wasn't breathing at all Armageddon's air, he was breathing thanks to a mask, a filter mask he probably had made, as the colonists in the pictures were all wearing a helmet similar to ours, just a little bigger.

"George Brown" said starting to calm down, as Ramone was embracing him trying to comfort him, "I am a Colonist of the second expedition, when we arrived it was all a mess, then this horrible, humanoid critters attacked us from nowhere!"

He panicked again, as he was returning to the memories, Ramone calmed him down again.

"All right" I said, " Do you know who are this critters?" I wanted to be sure, what I was thinking was something that it was awful.

"They..." said George, "They are us!" and hided his face in Ramone's arm.

"Wha-t?" said Thomas.

"It seems that they are not Aliens as you supposed"

He agreed, but then his helmet glass looked at me.

"Well there is always your theory" said Thomas laughing, but that made me think, will this be the answer of God's warning in scripture?

From my opinion, this mission was completed, we came, we saw, and we discovered, now we will have to figure out how to get out of this place, now I will really remember this place!

Ramone Ramirez
A Mexican, among the best of the best, he is really intelligent, has the gift of leadership in opinion of his superiors, this allowed him being moved from Mexican regular army to Special International Ops. Him among other 50 mexicans were chosen for the job.

Ramirez was born in 2042, practically the same as Jordan, he was born catholic, but then abandon his religion to become a strong preacher among Christianity, though his duty as an Op. didn't allowed him to much time to work on the Lord's field, he suffered the martyr along with his fellow christian friends when Cultists started appearing from everywhere killing every christian in sight.

Though he protected his brothers in faith for a long time, now he was sent on a mission he didn't liked as Jordan also thinks, Ramone was chosen of this mission for his old duties and performances, though he also thinks this voyage to another planet does not goes with God's plans for humanity.

Walk across Armageddon
Along with George, the survivor, we walked towards the colony, the fact that we were specialized soldiers calmed him a lot, we were prepared and we have already faced this "men", Greg payed more attention to the communications in his radio than the survivor.

"So," said suddenly Ramone, after ages of silence, "Could you tell us again what happened here?"

George took a long breath, I was looking him directly.

"As we heard and seen of recordings taken by the first expedition, they turned into this, I don't remember how, but they did, it was horrible, two days later we were being hammered across all the colony, as they started to attack us without regarding, we defended as much as we could, but they overrun us, and me and other five survivors flee into here, few miles away of the colony, and built that house you saw, we ate our supplies, and we waited for some sort of miracle"

He stopped to get his throat filled with water, Earth water.

"Two years later, one of us decided to go check the colony, and so they discovered us, they followed us into here, killed all my friends in a shooting, I hided in the closet, or better saying the compartment we brought with us, until I found you!"

"Ok, nice" I said.

"Yeah but you know how they turned into that?" said Thomas checking the surroundings.

"No we don't know, we didn't finished reading those recordings they left us before they transformed"

"So they did knew on what they were transforming?"

"I believe so"

Moment of silence, I would say like four or five minutes.

"Y-you are the only ones that came?" asked George.

"Nope" said Theodore, "We came with a platoon of twenty troopers, all the best of the best in Earth"

Of course I though looking and Greg, The best of the best...

"And where are they?" continued George.

"We are looking for them, now we are going to the checkpoint"

"Ok, nice" said now George.

I approached Ramone, who was the one leading the group, well it looked like that, since he was ahead of us.

"Anxious of getting out of here Ramirez?" I said.

He looked at me as we kept walking.

"I never wanted to be here" said Ramone suddenly.

"Me neither"

"You see I don't believe humans could one day colonize another planet, moon, asteroid or whatever there is in this Universe"

"Me neither" I said, then added "What do you think it caused this mutation?"

"Umm" he hesitated, I would love to see his face in that moment, but that dark window didn't allowed me to, "Frankly, it was the Will of God"

"Really?" I said, now I knew who he was.

"You Christian right?"

"I am"

There was no silence this time, everyone heard.

"Don't worry" I said, "I am too"

Ramone looked at me.

"You also christian?" said Greg leaving his radio.

"Well well!" said Thomas.

"I cannot believe this!" said Theodore, he stopped.

"What Theodore?"

"You &%$#@!" suddenly screamed, surprising everyone, he pointed his rifle towards us.

"You crazy Theodore?!" said Thomas, Ramone and I knew what was happening.

"Oh no..." said Greg pointing his rifle towards him, Thomas stood in front of us before that rifle of Theodore.

"What is wrong with you!" said Thomas, " You even act like one of those Critters"

"They are christians!" said Theodore.

George was a little shocked on seeing this little dispute, his eyes showed the same fear when looking and remembering the mutants.

"Come on Theodore" I finally said, "You were fine and acting like a nice person, and just when you just knew we were Christians, you are going to shoot at us, risking your life and the success of this mission?"

He did not said anything.

"Lay down your weapon" said Ramone, "Finish this mission"

"What is wrong with you!" said again Thomas, Greg kept his rifle pointing to Theodore.

"He is a cultist!" I said, I could not see his face, but because of his acting I could easily deduce that.

"Oh come on this is absurd!" said Greg.

"I know..." I said.

Things were getting hot in here, I stood up between Thomas and Theodore, "Say, let us finish this mission please!"

"Lay down that weapon!" said a voice near us, we looked toward it.

It was the rest of the team, for the joy of George, and the disappointment of Theodore, and the relief of Thomas, Greg, Ramone and me.

"What is happening here trooper?" said the officer.

Theodore did not say a thing.

"I asked you a question soldier!"

"Nothing sir"

"Then put aside your weapon and focus on this mission instead on that of your ridiculous believes!"

We continued walking, and Theodore seemed normal, again, what could happen to him? we never knew.

In the way, the corporal told us of finding more survivors and of those grayish critters, I could see that there were many people with similar masks than that of George.

The officer stopped like one hour later.

"All right, those who are survivors listen up!" He said.

"We are troopers of the International special Ops. our mission was to find out what happened to the colony here at Armageddon" he stopped gaining air, "Now that we know what happened here, we are taking you home, now you must understand that a ship will not come here and rescue us, no, we are going to take one of your shuttles, and then dock in orbit with ours"

"This is crazy!" said a survivor, it wasn't George. "We haven't used those ships for two years, now you want them to use them!?"

"We have brought with us batteries enough to take the ship to orbit and dock with our shuttle." said the corporal, "Now let's move, the briefing has been done"

Everyone started walking again, we were half an hour than the colony.

Greg approached me, watching close to Theodore.

"I think he maybe could risk this mission in order to kill you and Ramone" he said, I smiled, "Though we must watch him"

"He is as dangerous as the muslim" I said "Why not watch the muslim too?"

"We cannot anymore"

I understood perfectly, the muslim was dead.

We kept walking, as we got closer and closer to the colony, and closer to our escape.

Theodore Carmichael
American, just as Jordan Hamilton, born in USA in 2037, he is little older than Jordan and Ramone, when he was fifteen he was sent into his initiation as a cultist, as this religion was moving forward in population, he was tough to hate christians, making him believe that they were liars, scum in the world, needed to be eradicated.

He joined military service at 18 years old, gaining respect among the other people, he joined Special Ops. International two years before Jordan could do it, hiding his religion to his superiors but not to his friends, which someone were also cultists.

He was not one of the programmed to travel in the third flight to Armageddon, but still he was selected as substitute to the original, this one disappeared shortly before the launch and he then was selected to the job, among the best of the best, though he wasn't planned there to be.

The Colony
We were there finally, in front of the famous colony of Armageddon, bigger than I thought seeing the pictures, the houses were built with materials brought form the the two shuttles landing, the Corporal explained the strategy, again, the survivors were to stay back while we did the dirty job.

The plan was simple: enter with caution to the colony, extract recording journals from the mutated people and activate again one of the shuttles to rendevouz with the one orbiting the planet, Ramone and I weren't together, but still I was with Thomas and Greg, my new friends.

The Corporal gave the order.

A line of five troopers moved towards the colony, we were the second wave, though it seemed to be nobody.

Our turn, we moved.

"Watch our flank" I said to Greg, as he moved toward a house metallic wall and gave us signal of moving forward, more troopers came in, no sign of the Mutated.

"Ok I need five guys to install the batteries in the shuttle, you two" said the Corporal to me and Thomas, "Extract the journal entries in the main house, that if I recall..." said watching to a colony map, "... it must be over there"

"Yes sir, come Jordan" said Thomas.

We entered the house he indicated, as the other troopers escorted the survivors to the shuttle for better protection, everything seemed normal to me, or that was I though.

"Entering data, check those codes pal" said Thomas to me.

"Ok ok" I said.

"Its asking for code yellow" he said.

"Yellow code Thomas" I corrected.

"Well that thing, Eh oh" said Thomas, the last phrase looked french as I figured.

"Yellow code: a09205092" I said, he tabbed the code, now the screen was asking another code.

"Red code" he said, I smiled.

"Ok, red code: 202291010" I replied.

He tabbed, we were in now.

Suddenly a shot was heard: BAM!

The two of us shocked our heads, looking for the shooter, or the target, the place suddenly filled with screams of crazy people, the mutants were here!

"&%#!" said Thomas, even if that was a bad word, I agreed with him.

"Search for those journals quickly!" I screamed, "I'll cover for you!"

The place was suddenly swarmed, how? I don't know, it was just crawling, the survivors, women and men, started to scream as well, a crossfire started, not from a side to side, but everywhere.

"Journals, journals..." whispered Thomas.

A mutant came from the window, I finished him off with my rifle, one gun in his head and it was over, another one, the same, but then they started to come by twos, and then by three, What was Thomas doing?

"Thomas!" I said by killing one, "did you finished yet?"

"Almost, its downloading to our PM, 67% don't worry, just hang on"

He turned with his rifle and made my life lot easier, by helping me killing those people, Greg entered the room, hurried.

"What are you folks doing?" said, the batteries are on, the engines ready, time to go!" he turned and helped us killing the mutants.

"They keep coming, How many people they are?" I asked.

"I certainly don't know" replied Thomas.

In other part of the colony, Ramone was alone with the corporal trying to recover the shot trooper, killing mutants, or getting them really hurt. the others were either on the shuttle or disappeared, and those grayish people were getting out of nowhere.

"I'll open a way for you, go now!" said the corporal to Ramone.

"No sir, I'm not leaving you"

"Go now trooper, that's an order!"

Suddenly a shot hit the corporal, making him falling into the ground, Ramone shocked his head, there, in the middle of the battlefield, it was Theodore, Ramone was really terrified, as he pointed towards Theodore.

Two shots then were heard, but it was too late, Ramone fell to ground, with Theodore smiling at him, he wasn't wearing any helmet at all.

"98, 99, 100!" said Thomas, "Al right, let's get out of here!"

"Come on!" I said pushing the door of that house open.

The three went out, with new courage and new hopes of getting earth safe, firing our remaining ammo.

The rest of the troopers were also running towards the online shuttle, which was already floating a meter above surface, we ran, ran for our lives, with our mission accomplished, our survival was now important.

We ran.

More mutants came out of nowhere, we opened fire, making a path towards the shuttle, a little bigger than ours.

"Come on!" I said to the remaining troopers, "I'll cover you run into here!"

"Get in Jordan" said Thomas through radio, "get on the shuttle now!"

"Let's wait for the others!" I said.

I waited, I wanted all to be safe, but no one was wearing the uniform with the titles "Ramirez"

"Where is Ramirez?" I started to ask the other troopers, which were arriving in pairs or in groups or three, "Did you saw Ramirez?"

"We do not find the corporal either" said one of them.

"Wha...?" I said, but I suddenly felt a something cold entering my right arm.

The impact of a bullet had reached me.

The shock made me fall into the ground, no more people or troopers were getting in the ship.

Suddenly a shape stood up erectly besides me, I recognized that face, it was Carmichael.

"Theodore!" I screamed.

"What?" said Thomas through radio.

"Yes I am" said Theodore, a little grayish, and without helmet.

"Could you please repeat Jordan?"

"Wait Theodore, did they take your helmet off?"

"JORDAN!"

"No, I took it out myself" said smiling, his eyes were darker and his pupil bigger.

"I d-don-t understand?"

"Well, it is something amazing, something your kind and mine only know, also Ramone, but he cannot now." he stopped watching how the shuttle started to move to avoid mutants get on.

"Come on Theodore" I said trying to calm him down "Let me go, you are not thinking well"

"Of course I'm thinking well, and better than before!" he said angrily, he approached me slowly, "Don't you see Hamilton, this 'mutants' and I are the same, its just I can speak, and they cannot"

The wave of the wind pushed and pulled by the shuttle started to hit us, the crowd of mutants suddenly was finished, by the troopers.

"I was sent here to sabotage this mission, for years the government has protected scum like you, FOR YEARS!"

"Jordan, please respond" said Thomas through the radio.

I was now getting it, he was a traitor, and now as cultist he killed Ramone and would kill me.

"This was our vengeance, now I know that I cannot return with glory, they will probably execute me" he stopped seeing how his fellows were killed by the troopers.

"But if I most die, then I will go to paradise, by killing at least two christians!" screamed Theodore, following a weird laughing, and horrible.

He pointed his rifle towards me, I was saying Good-bye already, and closed my eyes, there was nothing more to do, and my rifle was too far.

A shot was heard.

Then after few moments, I opened my eyes, and realized that I was not the dead, but Theodore, and just behind him, was Ramone, with his legs flexed, he then fell to the ground, I ran as I could, Thomas and Greg jumped from the Shuttle and helped us get on the Shuttle.

We were now at peace.

"But how?" I said, cleaning my wound and looking to Ramone.

"I was shot by Theodore" said doing efforts, "Fortunately for me, it wasn't my time to die"

"It wasn't God's will" I said, affirming.

"No" he said laughing, but then calming because of his wound in the chest, "Hum... Not with this, no"

I relaxed, as I sat down in a chair of comfortable materials, made for passengers, over there it was crawling of survivors, now calmed down and most of them speaking and sleeping, the shuttle moved into orbit where it would dock with out ship, and then return to home.

Thank you God I said, and lifted a prayer to Him.

Epilogue
George Brown was moving towards the exit of the Lab, he was a scientist after all, but his faced expressed concern, as he was getting out of the final exams of Armageddon's air.

His wife, Loren Brown, was waiting for him on his car, sitting and reading a girls magazine, he opened the door and sat down, introduced the key to his place, and started driving.

"How it was?" asked Loren.

"Fine" he said, but he knew it wasn't.

"Did the air of that planet had something wrong"

He though, trying to answer correctly, "No" finally said.

Loren seemed interested and closed her magazine, remembering the page where she was and also because she gets bad when reading on a moving vehicle.

"No?" she repeated.

"No" said George.

"So then, what caused the mutation?"

His eyes got wet than normal, tears started to get out of his eyes.

"It was the mere will of God" he finally said.

Loren detected something wrong in his husband, "Are you all right?"

"Yes" he said moving away his tears, "yes indeed, I need to see someone"

"Who?" asked Loren seeing the magazine portrait.

"Someone who saved my life back there"

"Jordan Hamilton?" said Loren, she knew Jordan at the arrival, as George introduced each other.

"Yes" said George.

"Well, he is weird I got to say" said Loren looking her IPod.

George laughed.

"Surely he is" he smiled, "that is why I'm seeing him"

The car moved away from the building, and got lost in another street.

END.