Incursion 440

by HC Leung / HC_Leung 

When we die, we die. Right?

Like in the book of Ecclesiastes, the dead would know nothing and have no more reward, for the memory of their name is forgotten? Their love, their hate, and their envy would perish, and forever they'd have no more share in all that is done under the sun?

In death, our bodies would turn to dust and return to earth as it once was. Correct?

The reason for asking is because I thought I died. When the bombs fell from the sky, my unit and I were instantly pulverized. I saw my limbs scattered over the upturned mud in my last moments. I was 100% sure I died.

Yet here I was, breathing normally and gazing down at my clean, bare chest. Drops of sweat trickled down my forehead. My bum felt cold against the hard, metallic bed. And oh, I wasn't dressed.

My stomach growled while my hips felt sore from prolonged sitting. Hunger, check. Pain, check. Reductive reasoning had me believe I wasn't in heaven.

So where the fuck am I?

I leaned over the bed railing, only to see miles and miles of other people waking up around the same time. They were naked like me and looked no less puzzled and astonished than I was. It was hard to tell how many of us were there. Hundreds, if not thousands? This hall was boundless, bordered only by where the light ends. I looked up to check the ceiling, but it was too high up to be visible.

This place felt familiar though. A gut-wrenching feeling told me I had been here not once, but multiple times before.

The place jumped up without warning as if a boulder had tumbled underneath us. I fell off the bed and realized the back of my neck was tethered to some kind of luminescent cable. I tried to yank it off, but no luck. It was embedded too deep down my skin tissue. Everyone else had it too.

What kind of place jumps up like that? Parts of my memory resurfaced to form an incomplete puzzle. I was able to piece together some form of an answer.

This is not a building at all. This is a vehicle. We're in a warehouse-sized, military ground transport.

A tall figure loomed out of the shadows. It was a woman in high heel boots. She sported a navy coat that came with a multi-head dog logo. Her long, silvery hair waved and shined under the low light. Behind her, strings of human skulls draped down from her waist and clattered in her wake. Her sheer presence terrified us all.

The woman towered over me and sneered. Of all the people, she seemed only interested in me.

She seemed familiar. Something told me I had dealt with her not once, but multiple times before.

"Ramirez, we meet again." She poked my bare leg with her solid heel. "Looks like you're struggling to say my name. That breaks my heart. For the 440th time, it's Rudwell. Ghislaine Rudwell. Try not to forget that again."

"What's happening to me?" I asked. "And all these people?"

"You don't remember, do you?" Her tone was more intimidating than the devil.

"Am I supposed to?"

Ghislaine turned furious. Something in her got triggered. She clenched her teeth, and the veins on her forehead became prominent. My memory came back a little more - I remembered Ghislaine was a dangerous person. She could manipulate people into selling their mothers. If she didn't get her wish, she becomes venomous. Revenge was her second religion.

And I realized it too late. Ghislaine stomped on my feet and made me scream. It surprised those who were spectating by their beds. Not satisfied, she stubbed her heel deeper until I apologized and begged her to stop.

She stepped back from me. "All of you, listen! This is what happens when you disrespect me! I brought you back from death and gave you a body. If it wasn't for me, you'd be dispersed into the universe as quantum particles. So be grateful! And do as I say!"

The people around us nodded at her like a flock of sheep that had found their shepherd. "Gear up," Ghislaine added. "We're going to war in fifteen minutes."

War? With who? That maniac returned to the shadows and left us with more fear and questions. The grand hall became quiet but in an ominous kind of way. I tried harder to remember, tried to dig deeper for those faint traces of my memory that lingered in the abyss. No luck. Nothing but a blank slate down there. At the same time, I felt awkward with this body. It was as if I had moved in just recently.

Then came the black rain.

It started as droplets. Those liquid beads felt icy as we looked up to trace their origins. Soon, the rainfall turned into a downpour that was hot and acidic. It burned every square inch of our skin as we filled the hall with morbid screams.

Amid my immeasurable affliction, all the puzzle pieces fell into place. I remembered everything. There was clarity on all the sufferings I had experienced on repeat.

I was a Union soldier from the year 2250. I fought in Spanish Grenada alongside the 29th Mobile Infantry. One day, enemy stealth bombers broke through our air defense and delivered their entire payload of GBU-109 cluster munitions. None of us survived.

The next thing I knew, I woke up in a body I didn't recognize, next to a roomful of strangers who claimed they were also from the 29th. I managed to find my buddies: Big Lorenzo, Antonio, Sally, and Hiroshi. My God, their faces looked different. I almost became delusional.

Ghislaine walked in, said we had officially become her property. The day we died marked the beginning of a perpetual war between the Atlantic Union and the United Sub-Sahara. As the name suggested, both armies were locked in a stalemate, and peace was nowhere in sight. To keep replenishing the depleted frontline units, the government passed the Deceased Warrior Management Act. Souls from those killed in action would be retrieved, broken into quantum particles, and reassigned to bodies grown in labs. Ghislaine was the head of Cerberus, the Union's largest mercenary group. Her job was to reincarnate us again and again and again and send us into battle, until the end of time.

By the time the black rain receded, our neck cables dissolved. I got up and opened my eyes: a layer of fish scales had grown out of my skin. Black, shiny. The scales were intelligent in their own right, able to adjust and deflect high-caliber ammunition.

An array of weapons also materialized from my back: a rifle, a long sword, and a micro-missile launcher. We were walking arsenals. The term "armed to the teeth" was somewhat applicable to our situation.

"Ramirez," a man called from behind. He tapped my shoulder. "It's me, Lorenzo."

"Big Lorenzo!" I got excited when I saw a familiar unfamiliar face. "You're skinny this time."

"Honestly, I like my old body better," he replied. "Is you still feeling the burn?"

"Not anymore," I said. "It's weird, I feel like this scaly suit is healing me. I'm not sure if that's a good thing."

"That's going to be the least of your concerns," said Big Lorenzo. "Look, I found the rest of our crew and they're all waiting for you. There's something we need to tell you. Come with me."

Lorenzo led me through the crowd. I saw those people - they were covered from head to toe just like us. But they were calm, still, as if not bothered by the upcoming battle. As a soldier, I knew that was unnatural. Their scaly suits were controlling their emotions. The countless reincarnations had corrupted their souls, making them vulnerable.

Which led to another question. How come Big Lorenzo and I were still ourselves?

Anyways, we waded past the people as discreetly as possible, trying not to draw attention. We found Antonio, Sally, and Hiroshi at the back of the hall, marveling at their new outer shells. When they saw us, they sprung up and embraced us. I think we all had tears. After all, we were comrades in arms. We had gone through 440 reincarnations together and still, we managed to stick together. Maybe that was what kept our souls intact, the fact that we had each other.

"Alright, boss, here's the quick lowdown," said Big Lorenzo. "You know how Ghislaine Rudwell is in charge of capturing our souls when we die in battle?"

I held my chin. "Yeah, that I remember."

"Turns out she has a twin sister," said Antonio, our group's intelligence gatherer. "Name's Lenora. Rumor has it that they were separated at birth. Ghislaine ended up in an orphanage and then bounced between foster homes when she got older. Lenora, on the other hand, straight-up got adopted by a rich and loving single mother. Two lives, separate paths."

"How did you know that?" I asked.

"Sarge, we've been on the same battlefield 440 times," Antonio replied. "I practically know everyone. I hear things through the grapevine, and it doesn't take a genius to piece them together."

"That's true," I commented. "Gathering intelligence is your thing."

"Ghislaine signed up for the Army the day she turned 18," Sally, our tech and demolitions expert, added. "She later joined Cerberus and took ownership of the company when the war broke out. After that Deceased Warrior Management bullshit was enacted, Cerberus scientists developed an in-house quantum technology to trace and capture our souls after we die in battle. Lenora found out about this, and guess what? She gave up her comfortable life and signed up."

"For the war?" I asked.

"Exactly," Hiroshi, our sharpshooter, replied. "Lenora also traces and captures our souls after we die. The difference is, that instead of giving us to Cerberus, she releases us into the universe. Apparently, there's some kind of afterlife out there, beyond the stars."

"I knew someone who knew someone," said Antonio. "That someone claimed to have seen some kind of white light before Ghislaine snatched him back. He said in that brief moment, that he felt blissful. Like, just pure bliss."

"I might have seen it myself," I said.

Before waking up here, I was in the white space. There was no horizon, no sense of polar direction. The past, present, and multiple futures were laid out before me and woven into an intricate pattern. Somewhere distant, there was a sense of the infinite. I felt joy whirling into harmony and coalescing into a celestial stream.

That was before Ghislaine snatched me back to Earth.

"Boss, that's lit," said Big Lorenzo. The rest of the crew were speechless, their eyes renewed with hope.

"We need to go there," I said. "That's right, we absolutely must go there. This girl, Lenora, we can trust her? She's actively working against Ghislaine?"

"You could say that," he replied. "One's keeping us in an endless loop, the other one's liberating us. I think Lenora's not just trying to topple her sister. She's trying to make up for her sins."

I crossed my arms. "Where do we find Lenora?"

"Right on the battlefield," said Antonio. "Ghislaine and Lenora look alike, but they're not dressed alike. Lenora has strings of white feathers draping down her back. Whoever finds her while the battle rages on, she'll extract their soul using some sort of quantum entanglement technique. And then eternal life."

"Guys," I asked, "are we all in on this?"

They all nodded yes. Big Lorenzo said, "Our lives ended a long time ago. No matter how crazy the afterlife sounds, it can't be worse than this hell. Lead us, boss. We go wherever you go."

"Deal," I said. "When that woman comes back and opens the gate, get behind me. Wait for my signal and run. Copy?"

"Copy," said Big Lorenzo.

"Yes, Sarge," said Antonio.

"Loud and clear," said Sally.

"All for one," said Hiroshi.

Ghislaine returned from the shadows, geared up in her own scaly suit which was heavier and more flamboyant. She laid her hand on the wall, and a vertical seam shot upward. The gigantic gates opened wide and blinded us with the light from outside. Barren land. Scorched by endless barrages of artillery fire, dressed with mile-long barbed wire and vultures feeding on carcasses. Hallowed by silence, it greeted us with the pungent gunpowder smell.

The troops gathered in front of her. By then they had already lost their old selves, instead cheering her and throwing fists in the air. She drew her sword and gave the ultimate order.

"Soldiers! I stand here as your proud leader. You are about to take part in a glorious war, a war that gives us meaning, a war that keeps us going in this empty and pathetic world! So go and attack! Cerberus, move out!"

As soon as Ghislaine's fighters poured out like a flood, my crew and I followed. The enemy's machine guns lit up and sent bright bullets into the horde in front of us. Artillery fire rained down around us and shook the ground like an angry god. We stuck together, moved together, and focused on searching for the woman with white feathers.

"Two o'clock direction!" Hiroshi yelled.

Lenora was standing in a shell hole, her torso visible from the ground up. Unfazed by the battle, she was perfectly calm and still, waiting for believers to show up.

I made a hand signal, instructing the team to move in that direction. We peeled away from the main force to overcome a hundred yards of walking distance.

Next, there were smoke bombs. They obscured our surroundings with gray fumes while the war cry continued. Sub-Saharan combatants had gotten up from their trenches to engage Cerberus forces. Swords swung, bayonets charged. Gunfires ceased as people traded sharp melee weapons.

"Guys, it's Ghislaine!" Sally reported. "She's on to us!"

I turned back and saw Ghislaine Rudwell looming out of the mist with an impossibly heavy sword, and her strings of skulls were dragging and clattering on the ground. Her eyes were furious, her veins prominent on her blood-boiling red forehead. "You betrayed me, Ramirez. You really really broke my heart this time."

We ran. With the devil chasing us, there was no turning back. Lenora saw us and greeted us with her faraway but intense and merciful eyes, as if saying, "Come to me, now is the time!" So we ran, and after 400 reincarnations, our minds were by then filled with nothing but one desire, one direction, and one solid determination.