Ravens of Eternity

A fighter screamed by, its guns blazing. It was very quickly followed by nearly a dozen more, all of which were similarly designed and bore the same logos – a sun surrounded by three rings.

The fighters intercepted another fighter group, whose logos were of a purple four-pointed star, and entered into a vicious skirmish. Behind them were a smattering of ships, from frigates to cruisers.

All of them were in mixed formations, and it was clear one side was fighting against another. Weapons fire was being exchanged between all of them.

The battle seemed pitched, and for every casualty one side suffered, the other had received in kind.

The hangar bays on one of the ships opened up, and a motley mix of fighters flew out of them. Nearly every ship was different, and they all flew in wings of all sizes.

Each of those wings split up and joined the fray in whatever way suited them best.

Among those mercenary wings was a pair of fighters. The fighter chassis themselves weren’t anything special, but they had been painted a matte black.

The two of them wove through the other fighters expertly, dodged incoming fire effortlessly, and wrecked enemy fighters spectacularly.

.....

The appearance of the mercenary fighters had tipped the scale in their favor, and put the opposing fleet on the defensive. As enemy fighters began to dwindle, the mercenary fighters were given new optional orders.

Acceptance meant a bonus.

The two matte black fighters immediately changed course and headed directly for an enemy cruiser whose hangars were wide open.

Inside those hangars were damaged fighters, and they were being repaired on the field. Powerful turrets defended their position from any capital ships that dared to encroach.

But a dozen mercenary fighters slipped through the net easily, after the enemy’s fighters had been reduced prior.

The two matte black fighters swooped into the hangar, and blasted at every target they could see. Pilots and mechanics alike were turned into bloody streaks by the two fighters’ guns.

They were soon joined by the others, and together they took no time in completely neutralizing the hangar. Each of them fired rockets and missiles into the bay and wrapped every square inch in either fire or shrapnel. The results were devastating.

Munitions caches exploded while repair depots crumpled and enemy personnel were returned to dust and ash.

Satisfied with their handiwork and bolstered by their violent exuberance, the mercenaries sped out of the ruined hangar and rejoined the chaotic fray outside.

The mercenaries cheered as their ledgers were awarded a rich bonus.

~

A storm raged as giant waves crashed on jagged rocks at the nearby shore. On a plateau above the shore stood a very large, nondescript bunker that was surrounded by a smattering of smaller buildings.

It was like a small town, but its center square was a military bunker instead. A logo of black gears being split by lightning was painted on its side. Rain crashed sideways on the heavily armored building, but did little to move it.

A pair of mecha hovered along as they patrolled around its perimeter, the rifles in their hands primed for any encounter.

Without warning, one of the mecha was suddenly struck – a high-caliber round warped its chest armor and penetrated into the core. Its pilot was turned into paste in a heartbeat.

The other mecha was similarly dispatched moments later.

Neither pilot even knew what hit them.

Two matte black mecha skated into the compound, high-powered sniper cannons on their shoulders and shrapnel rifles in their hands. Behind them were the wrecks of other patrol mecha, their cores blown wide open.

They were soon joined by another four mecha from another mercenary squadron. Their colors were muted greys, and their loadouts were much more standard. They lined the large bunker bay doors with explosives, whose lights blinked in unison as the whole team fled into cover.

Then, at once, they all exploded with a BOOM, and wrenched open the bay doors.

Inside, the soldiers, pilots, and staff were completely unaware of the attack and were rendered dazed and off balance by the explosion.

The attacking mecha quickly slid in with guns blazing. They targeted all enemy mecha and turrets first, and turned them into piles of slag. They then turned their weapons on the hapless people scattered everywhere, who were annihilated into oblivion.

The two matte black mecha skated down the large hallways and blasted everything they saw with their shrapnel rifles.

They shredded everything they came into contact with, whether it was flesh or steel.

The six mecha made short work of the entire base and quickly located the goods they were hired to retrieve. One of the storage rooms was filled with blue metal crates emblazoned with a logo of winged laced sandals.

Once they uploaded the location of the cache to their employer, the contract was deemed complete. The reward for completion was immediately transferred to their ledgers.

On top of that, there was a bonus for quickly securing the stolen stockpile, so their ledgers were further fattened.

~

A woman in matte black armor and purple highlights stalked down the dirty hallway of a slum apartment. The sounds of the lives that occupied the apartment building echoed down the hallway in waves. They kept her hidden from those she was currently stalking.

She held a suppressed rifle up and at the ready, and fired a muffled burst just as one of her targets stepped out from around a corner.

THUDUDUT!

The bullets penetrated the target’s helmet in and out, which splattered their brains all over the wall behind them. The body slumped to the floor unceremoniously and their weapon clattered to the ground.

She then continued creeping down the hallway as quietly as she could.

Some distance behind her was a smaller figure, who was also feminine. She too wore the same matte black armor, but instead of purple highlights, hers were a light blue.

In her hands was a datapad and some sort of scanner. And although she wasn’t personally armed, two large chaingun drones hovered above and to each of her sides. Their barrels gleamed as their sensors scanned for activity around them.

They were like a pair of watch dogs, and were ready to pounce on anything that came close to their charge. Not that they had a chance to fire yet.

Unlike her compatriot, the smaller one walked plainly but quietly, and had no inclination to sneak her way around.

Instead, she was busy scanning and hacking into the few terminals they happened across. Unfortunately, none of these terminals had any data that was worth anything to anyone.

Behind them was a trail of bodies that led all the way back to their entry point. All of them wore some sort of lightly armored uniform, a bloody dagger emblazoned on each of them.

The two of them continued on their path and mercilessly eliminated everyone that stood in front of them while they looked around for potential datamines.

At the end of the hallway was an entryway to a server room, and was guarded by a handful of uniformed enemies. But the first woman had made short work of them.

She simply peeked into the room from just outside the door, and picked them off one by one in rapid succession.

They barely knew what hit them.

The two of them quickly took control of the entryway. The larger one slid to the inside and posted up defensively while the smaller one entered the server room by herself.

In the dark, chilly room, the smaller girl scanned each of the humming machines that hung from the ceiling. When she found the one she was looking for, she used her datapad swiftly and decisively and broke into it with ease.

Her fingers nimbly tapped on her display as she unlocked its defenses. Within moments, she had taken complete control and injected some code into it.

To her, it was as easy as peeling an orange.

She reviewed how well it integrated into the server’s neural code, and watched as it traveled further into the hive network. Her spider quickly spread into the other connected servers and worked their magic in taking them over.

Satisfied with the results, she shut down her datapad and walked out of the server room.

The two of them then left the building the same way they came in. They were able to leave without meeting any resistance, having cleared out the majority of its defenses on their way in.

With their contract completed, their ledgers couldn’t help but swell.

~

Luna spun slowly and lazily around Gaea as a shard of Sol’s light shone on both their surfaces.

Gaea’s blues had turned duller, and her greens had long since disappeared. Instead, her surface was dotted with billions of lights, all of whom covered land and sea alike. Even Luna had a multitude of lights on its surface.

Both stellar bodies were filled to the brim with people, their surfaces marred by humanity.

Two figures floated into view. They wore both black skin tight pressurized space suits and sealed flight helmets with transparent faceplates. The two women were beauties, though one looked to be a teenager.

Both of them smiled, and looked straight into the camera and waved.

“Hello, I’m Freya,” said the larger one.

“And I am Raijin,” said the other.

“We used to be from Earth,” said Freya. “Not the one behind us, but the one you’re on.”

“The two of us used to play Bellum Aeterna and disappeared,” said Raijin.

“‘Cept we didn’t die. We ended up in this galaxy, and it looks a hell of a lot like how Bellum Aeterna did.”

“And although we said it is like Bellum Aeterna, it most certainly is not.”

“Prolly a better way to look at it is that the game and the people who played were plucked out and dropped in here. Like one of those claw machines you see everywhere.”

Freya made claw grabbing motions with one hand, to help illustrate what she meant.

“Millions of us suddenly came to life in this universe,” said Raijin. “From what we understand, we awoke here at the same time we disappeared there. It was as though we were transported here for some purpose. With us came many designs and ideas from Bellum Aeterna. See for yourself.”

They showed their matte black fighters – the same ones from before. They were still the standard D-ranked fighters from the start of their careers, except they had applied a custom livery.

Eva expertly floated towards one with her suit’s jets. She ran a hand across one of its armor plates and patted it lightly.

“This is one of the fighters in the game,” she said, “and it’s completely real here. Absolutely, one-hundred percent tangible. I can get in it, fly around, shoot its guns.”

As she spoke about it, the camera came in closer to it and showed all the little details on the ship itself.

Armor plating, weapons, landing lights, missile bays, thrusters, decals, scratches, dust, everything.

Eva had even opened up its armor and core, and displayed the complex flight deck inside. She even flipped a switch or two with weighty CLICKS. She rapped a stretch of armor with her knuckle, and it reverberated audibly. Then she ran a finger across some dust and wiped it right off.

.....

Her every action gave the machine weight and substance and presence.

Miko zipped over and sat in the pilot’s seat. The chair immediately adjusted itself for her size, so that she could reach all of the controls easily.

“We know that this is difficult to believe, but it is true,” said Raijin, “We are very much alive and well.”

“We’ve even connected with our families back home,” said Freya. “They thought we were dead. Safe assumption though. People get transported to other worlds all the time, right? Well, at least only in fiction, I guess. This time, we made it through to some sorta human utopia. Some sorta paradise.”

“It is not a peaceful kind of utopia,” interjected Raijin. “Rather, it is the kind that provides for all types of people. There is great peace, but also great violence. Think of it as heaven and hell combined.”

“It’s most certainly not perfect. But what matters is that we’ve been given a second chance at life. It was like we had a game over, used up a continue, and respawned. I became a bit stronger and smarter... we all did, honestly.”

“Nn. Freya has also become one of the most beautiful women in the galaxy.”

Miko giggled while Eva rolled her eyes.

“And Raijin’s among the smartest,” she countered. “But we didn’t make this to tell you how awesome we are, or how hot we have or haven’t become. We wanted to say that you can reach out to the ones you thought had died, too. You can see for yourself how amazing their lives have become.”

“We are sure many of you miss each other,” said Raijin. “Luck allows us to have a mode that streams our lives to our old personal computers. Anyone who has access to them simply has to power them up and accept the stream. Although there are some technical challenges, of course...”

“Never mind that!” said Freya. “Every single one of you all really oughta connect back with the people you thought you lost, even if it’s only once. Everything in this universe, and this crazy afterlife that we’ve found, is absolutely, completely amazing and needs to be shared.”

“And speaking of sharing,” said Raijin, “do not forget to subscribe to our channel, and share our video.”

The two of them then saluted the camera playfully, and signed off.