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The Protagonist
By: Johnson Truong
Note:
This is a Fiction story. Visualizing this story is better by imagining it as a cartoon. This is highly recommended if you want a better experience of the story while you're reading and visualizing the story.
Please Enjoy.
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Chapter
Prologue
“It begins”
So, you came. Did you came here to hear a tale about the Protagonist? Hmhmhm… Well, I may have some spare time for you. This is a very long story to tell about so please sit back, relax and let your imagination guide you.
The Year is 4020, on planet Kepler, a big, blue, beautiful world, about 1.6 times larger than Earth, also in the Goldilocks zone. A very peaceful planet to live on. Of course, it also has intelligence life that inhabits the planet. There is one species that is similar to humans, they called themselves, “Humanoids”. You'll learn about these Humanoids later into the story, for now just think of them as regular old humans
These Humanoids that live on Kepler are peacefully and live in harmony, no violence, no problems, nothing. Until of course, "They" came. Aliens, that called themselves “Xhaters.” These aliens have invaded planet Kepler, killing every Humanoids in sight. Why you wonder? Well, save your questions until the end. After the first invasion of City T, the Union decided not to tell the news to anyone but instead to kept it as a secret, so the population would not panic. About a year after, the Union thought it was all over, thought the attackers would not return. Of course; they thought wrong
The Xhaters learned how Humanoids are quite resistant and waited for two years after their first invasion. This time around, the Xhaters decided to regroup and divide half of their species, one-half going inside an astronomical spaceship and started invading planet Kepler again. The Humanoids promptly realized that they were being descended upon and managed to disclose where they were being attacked. Xhaters were sieging two voluminous Cities, City B and City S. Civilians that lived in those megalopolises obviously did not expect that this was happening, they never even conceived the existence of Xhaters. Since there were military pre-stationed in those two cities, they quickly set themselves up and readied for the invasion. And hopefully, with a little bit of luck, the Military that they requested from the other cities will show up to help the fight.
Year: 4022, March 26th, Time 20:30 pm, “The Battle For City B”. The Humanoids were surrounded and outnumbered by Xhaters from the East, South, and West. Thirty-five thousand Xhaters versus a mere Ten thousand. A man named Max, a seasoned fighter. At this very moment, in fact, Max is about to come around from being knocked unconscious.
“Max...Max...Max! Get up!” As Max opened his eyes, he found himself in the middle of the battlefield, a young soldier yelling and signaling him to take cover. He dove for debris before quickly remembering what was going on around him.
“Get up Max!” Shouts from a fellow soldier brought him out of his daze. “There's no time to slack around, we got thousands of those things heading our way! Come on!”
As he warned Max, the soldiers between them started running towards the conflict. Max got up to his feet and grabbed a rifle from the dead scattered around him before running into combat, fighting for his own life rather than “the” cause.
“There’s too many of them! We can't hold them off!” Screamed another trooper
“Heavy assault craft ahead of us, get down, get down!”
A female soldier tackled Max as he spotted the armoured vehicle missed him by a few inches and blew up one of the bunkers that was behind him. She helped Max to his feet. “You alright? Come on get up, we gotta find a way to take that tank down.” The female soldier took off. Max looked around and spotted a man giving orders to a bunch of soldiers. After a few seconds of blank staring he recognized him.
“Chief.” Max voiced.
“Ah, Mr. Steward! You're alive! I thought you went Tango Uniform.”
Max went behind cover beside him. “Nah, I'm just taking a few more bruises than usual. Don't worry about it.” Max checked his clip.
“Yeah whatever you say. Listen, we tried to call air support but it seems like those Xhaters have a jammer somewhere behind their lines, presumably around 30 meters ahead of us. We can't use our comms if that stupid jammer is laying around.”
“Jammer, huh? Stay here, keep them suppressed for me, I'll go look for it.”
“Hmph, godspeed captain.” Chief ended the conversation.
Max went forward to find the jammer. “Max? Max, do you hear me?” A familiar voice broke through the chatter.
“Victor?” Max tried to listen to Victor.
“Ah Max, it looks like I manage to get to your comms.” Said Victor.
“But… how? Actually no, Victor listen, can you call air support for us?”
“No can do.” He replied. “Those fighter jets are moving too fast for me to contact because of this jammer limiting my connection.”
“Well, can you find a way to locate the jammer instead?”
“Well I do have one way to find it but it won't be simple, that's also the reason why I called.”
“Just tell me.”
“Well, I only am able to reach you because you're not 5 meters next to the jammer, if you are, you and I be hearing nothing but disrupted signal through our comms.”
“Got your idea.” Max starts searching again.
“Oh… well, good luck then. I'll leave the channel open between us.”
“Yea yea sure.” As Max roamed around the battlefield, trying his best not to get too much attention from the enemies around him, it didn't take him that long to find the jammer. “Signal’s losing, must be around here somewhere. Ah, there it is!” Max walked up to the jammer and placed a charge on it, he then stepped back and blew it up.
“Alright, all communications are clear on my end. You're good to go.” Said Victor.
Max took out his radio to call in air support. “Eagle Wing, this is Captain Steward. I have armored enemy reinforcements closing in fast. Twenty kilometers southwest from my position. Can you take it out?”
“Roger that Captain Steward, danger close.” As Max looked up into the sky, he saw several black arrow shapes fly overhead, closing in and raining hell on the targets. “Target neutralized. You're good to go-” A large blue fireball came out of the shadows to hit Eagle Wing’s jet. The pilot's voice cried out. “Crap! Mayday, mayday! I'm going down!
“Eagle Wing! Eject!” Yelled Max.
“I-I can't! It's not workin-” The radio than abruptly ended when Eagle Wing crashed in front of Max. Close enough for Max to feel the heat from the wreckage.
Max dove for cover, eyeing the origin of the fireball. “Damn it. The hell was that?”
“Max, Max! Come in!” A rough voice called out over the radio.
“Chief? What is it?” Max almost lost his bearings, due to multiple voices speaking on the channel.
“Max! I need you to get back here asap! Their closing on us! Our Visitors already breached the city’s defenses from the east! Hurry up and-” The Chief was cut off without an ounce of warning.
“Chief? Chief? Damn it!” Max stood up to return fire.
Max’s radio automatically changed to a different channel. “Max, Max! Pick up!”
Max ducked back down to focus on the call. “Victor? What's wrong?”
“Max! I need help over here! Those Xhaters just entered the city from the West! They're entering the building that I am in right now! All my guards are getting killed. I need help!”
…
Back in Victor’s lab, the doors behind Victor exploded inward. He turned around and saw a Xhater walking through the debris, resulting in Victor becoming panicked. He grunted as he quickly ducked to avoid the Xhater’s weapon but the shot hit the computer behind him, which ended the communication between Victor and Max.
…
Max tapped his comm unit “Victor? Victor! Are you there?! Come in!” Max vigorously tapped his mic to get it to function but he only got static.
“Roamer spotted! Attack!” Max quickly turned around and dodged a shot by a Xhater. Max then tried to hurry back toward the center of the city. He ended up being slowed down because he had to fight his way through Xhaters left and right. With lots of energy and adrenaline, he yelled through ragged breaths. “I... will... make it back.. to the city!”
There were too many Xhaters to fight against, the horde was horrifying. City B was then completely surrounded from all sides and was already crushed under their power. The military that was fighting, ended up being pushed back to the point where all the innocent lives were at stake. Fighter planes were being shot down left and right. There were only two thousand marines left fighting, no longer for their chain of command, but rather for their very lives. They took their final stand against the horde of aliens. The backup they requested never made it. There were fireballs being shot out from the light assault carriages, aimed all over the city. One of those managed to catch Max just outside its blast radius when he finally got back into the battleground.
Max then opened his eyes, deaf, numb, Xhaters ran past him as if he was just another corpse. Then, he saw a large shadow fall over him. He turned over onto his back and saw a huge Xhater before his eyes.
…
On the other end of the city, victor stood over a smoldering, distorted body. The guardian lowered his gun and lifted his helmet.
“Professor, are you ok?” Said by one of the Victor’s surviving Guards.
Victor’s hands were shaking, realizing how close he was to death. “I'm ok... I'm ok... I'm good…” He said as he tried to calm himself down.
He offered his pistol to Victor. “The city is completely surrounded and in the process of being wiped off the face of Kepler. The armed forces can't handle the assault! We must evacuate to the escape tunnel downtown!”
“Hold on!” Victor grabbed a large suitcase and grabbed as much of his belongings as he could. “Ok, I'm ready. Let's go.” Random data drives fell to the floor. “Whoops!”
“No, take only the necessities.”
“These are necessaries.” Victor replied.
“Oh… well, follow me, sir.”
The man guided Victor out of the war torn building without encountering any more of the Xhaters that are in the building. They fought their way through the war zone towards the secret escape tunnel. The last few Marines were trying to save as many civilians the best they could while the civilians headed down the tunnel. Finally, Victor saw the building that had the escape tunnel in it. The guard turned around and grabbed Victor by the shoulder and gestured forward.
“Sir, the tunnel is right in that building, straight ahead. Go in, head right to the basement, and take the tunnel. Follow the route out of the city where all the other civilians are.” The Guard looked and realized that Victor just stood there, inert. “Sir? Are you alright?”
“Oh no…” Victor realized his mistake. “My… my daughter! My daughter Sofia, and my grandson! No.. I can't, I can't leave my love ones!”
“Crap, no we can’t.” He paused, biting his finger. “Where are they?”
“I think she's still at her house. She lives over at B3, I must get to her. Please!” He turned around to run.
“Hold on!” The Guard stopped Victor. “That's on the north side of the city. I'm sorry to say this but... it's too risky to go after them, that area has already been swarmed by Xhaters. It's probably too late to save them.”
Victor dropped to his knees. “No! I can't! I can't leave them! They’re the only things I have left for my life! Please! I don't want to lose them!”
The Guard sighed and thought for a moment. “Gimme back my sidearm.” Victor handed his sidearm back. “I'll go.”
“Really?!” Victor was almost hysterical from the statement.
“Yeah. I got it.” He answered.
Victor felt rejoice. “Thank you. I owe you one, big time.”
“Sure. Now go. Head to the tunnel quickly!”
“Wait!” Victor held up his hands.
“What now?”
“What's your full name?”
“Name’s John Smike.”
“Ah. Thank you, Smike. Good luck.” Victor then ran to the tunnel.
…
In sector B3, Victor’s daughter Sofia and her child have already ran out of their home. They tried to reach the escape tunnel but was completely cut off by the Xhaters. Somehow they left the city and wound up in the middle of a dark forest. Before they knew it, they were surrounded by Xhaters that were hunting for them like a hungry beast. Sofia and her child were invisible. No, they’re not hiding behind anything, literally invisible. Xhaters surrounding them, unaware of their close visitors.
“My child” she whispered, “You must turn this off, please.” Her child nodded ‘no’. “Please, you mustn't hurt yourself. You must turn it off! You just recovered from that last incident you did earlier.” Her child pulled her further into the forest, moving past every Xhaters quietly. “Please my child, you can't keep this up. Turn it off, we must go hide somewhere so you can rest.” Her child nodded no. In a heartbeat they were surrounded by a whole battalion of Xhaters moving in. “Oh goodness…”
One Xhater with bright armor stepped up to another in dulled armor. “What are you all doing here? The battle is over there!”
The dulled armor lowered his weapon and thumped his shoulder plate. “We are searching for two Roamers that escaped to the forest, a female and a small one. Will you assist us?”
“I see, troops, search for those two, we can't leave at least one alive.”
One with edgeless armor approached. “Can we just let them go? It's just two of them…”
The bright one snapped at him. “No, we must eliminate every one of those Roamers for our King. He order us to do this. He will be furious if he sees at least one Roamer alive.”
“Fine…”
“Don't let that heart of yours get to you, just stay fierce.” He placed his hand on the dull one’s shoulder. “It’s for our King and remember what they did to us.”
The edgeless one nodded. “For our Kings.”
Sofia and her child continued moving forward.
…
At the tunnel, back with Victor, he got inside the building and ran to the stairs. He couldn’t see any civilians yet but he could hear them moving into the escape tunnel downstairs. Then, in a heartbeat, a Xhater with a dangerous looking blade busted down a wall and stared Victor down. “Oh no, it's a Knight!”
“You Roamers must die!” The Knight charged at Victor.
Victor thought to himself out loud. “I can't head to the tunnel! If I do, this Knight will know where the rest of civilians are and the secret tunnel is at! He’ll tell the others!” Victor tried to run as fast as he could and use any objects around him to slow down his pursuer. He ran through cubicles, the cafeteria, the bathroom, more stairs, MORE stairs, the bathroom again! And he still couldn't lose the Knight. Until he got to the point that the Knight caught up to him! It knocked him to the ground but Victor held up his hands.
“W-Wait! H-Hold on!” The Knight paused. “I'll give you a gift! It's very nice! Very powerful.” Victor grabbed a box right beside him and tried to hand it to The knight. Using the tip of its foot, it cautiously opened the box. Disliking the contents it slashed the box out of Victor's hands. “Hey! Those shoes could’ve been for my friend James! I was going to give it to him when I get to see him again after 8 whole years!”
The Knight stopped for a moment, a different look shifted over its face. “One, I'm deeply sorry for that. Two, why did you decided to give it to me then?”
“Stalling you,” Victor crossed his arms and replied. “I'm too old for this.”
The Knight raised his blade. “You shall now die!”
Victor gulped and closed his eyes. The Knight swung his sword towards Victor, but at the sound of air vaporizing, something saved Victor. Victor opened one eye and realized that the Knight that was trying to kill him is fighting with… another battled scarred Knight! Victor quietly mumbled “What the..?”
“Y-you fool! What are y-you doing?!” They both struggled, the first Knight kicked off the scarred Knight. They both started swinging their blades to each other, attacks and counter attacks. A light show of spark processed.
Victor wondered why the one in battle worn armor, saved him.
The first Knight then managed to stab the scarred one into the chest.
“You traitor, I will now eliminate you!” Without thinking, Victor tackled the first Knight. “Ough!”
Before he could finish, the scarred Knight stabbed the first Knight. Victor rolled away and the scarred Knight finished off the first Knight. The scarred Knight collapses to the floor and looked at Victor. He took a moment to breathe. He didn’t know why that the Knight saved him from being killed. But what he did know is that he owed it for saving his life.
…
In the outer edge of B3, Sofia and her child both remained invisible, still not clear of Xhaters as before. “This isn't good, we took so many turns that we’re now lost and we’re still not safe yet.” Her child then fell to the ground. “My child! Are you ok?” Her Child spited out blue flames as if it was his own blood.
One of the Xhaters couldn't help but notice the sound of gagging. “Huh?”
Sofia gasped “Oh no!” Sofia picked up her child and started running as fast as her body could.
“They're over there!” All the Xhaters turned towards them and started taking pot shots at them. Sofia tried to use the large, wide trees as cover. As her goal was to make it as hard for the Xhaters to spot her as possible
In the midst of it all, luck struck, Sofia managed to lose them by falling down an unexpected bank, Sofia moved ahead slowly and she ended up discovering a river. It all came back to her. “Wait a second… this must be…” Sofia looked around and spotted a rickety boat tied down to a rotting post. “There it is!” She ran towards it and laid her ill child down in the boat.
Sofia could barely hear a horrifying distant voice. “They may have went this way!” They're closing in, her motherly instincts dictated her on what needed to be done.
“This isn't good. The stream is not fast enough to take us away. We don't even have a paddle and we don’t have many options .” Sofia tried to think of something, she looked down to her child and gazed at her child as he opened his blue eyes, still very close to being incapacitated.
Sofia listened to her instincts and decided to make her ultimate decision. “I'm sorry my child. Forgive me for doing this.” She started pushing the boat into the river, each push she gave felt like a sting was being rapped, her child finally gathered the strength to gaze upon his mother. She got the boat into the water, trying not to cry as she let it drift down the river with her child on its own. Sofia’s child realized what's happening before long and tried to get up, but could not do it. He reached for his mother.
She raises her hand to the side of her mouth, and said, “Please, take a good care of yourself, my child. I know you can.” As she then said her last few words to her son, she shed a single, painful tear. “Please, stay good.” The last thing the boy saw from his mother was her turning back into the forest.
Before he had time to comprehend what just happend, powerful voices started booming. “There's one! Get the Roamer!”
The boy then started hearing laser shots being fired and saw blue flashing lights coming out of the dark forest. The boy was in shock, leaving him in a state where he could not do anything but just lay there in the boat, witnessing the blue lights that he knew consumed his mother. To add salt to the wound, only ten silent minutes later, he got a crystal clear view of the city that was destroyed. He could see ferocious, demonic flames and thick pillars of smoke arose above the city in the distance. City B was lost.
Everything that just happened, this is how it all started, the bloodbaths, the murders, the beginning of genocide, it started a War between two races alright, it started a extinction race. This has now set the boy to have one goal, one quest: to find a way to stop it all. For now, the mysterious young boy is going to search for a refugee from city B. Throughout the story, he will be known as… or I, myself would like to call him, The Protagonist.
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