Sulfur and Ash - Neo Sol - 2718

I remember that day so vividly.

It was a brisk spring morning. The season in Neo Sol had just begun and there were many shades of green starting to populate the landscapes, the slow budding of the trees especially is a favorite of mine. The clean, white snowfall and precipitation of winter was finally starting to melt. Thank god. I can still hear the crisp sound of my shoes crunching through the well maintained gravel sidewalks that defined the capitol district. You see, I was walking to my brother’s home so we could run to The Center for some weekly errands.

I always liked spring. It always holds the potential to symbolize so much. For me however, I always like to think of it as the time for new beginnings. In a broad context, Spring just always naturally feels like a breath of fresh air that commemorates another year gone by. Zoom in to my perspective and I was just glad to finally just be done with relying so heavily on generators to maintain the heat. You’d be surprised how many accidents and people pass away due to low temperatures annually, even with our current technological advancements. All it takes is a couple minutes away from the heated streets and sidewalks to start losing your bearings. So yeah, call me grateful for a large portion of a new year to be able to live without that anxiety present.

The neighborhoods in the capitol district are fun. Most of the homes have carbon fiber exteriors and the homes are often very geometric in shape. This is largely due to the capitol district being built directly around the landing site for the Arcs in the late 2300s. Much of the resources used to make the ships were recycled in order to help speed up relocation processes.

I love this trek from my home to his. The Astro Rail route from the quaint scenery of The Outskirts of the Capitol District to the heart is always over before you know it. Then this walk through his neighborhood is always refreshing. Just seeing all the families, both young and old, living in their own peace is the best. I usually end up getting lost in thought, thinking about how I hope to eventually migrate to the heart of the Capitol.

Maybe next job rotation I can apply to move.

Then next thing you know I’m right in front of the black and yellow cubical home that my brother resides in. I approach the facial scanner near his front door. Once it recognizes me the door slides open and I walk on inside. As I step in his virtual home assistant alerts him that,

“Teo Galaway has arrived”

Like clockwork my brother enters the room. Even when we were kids Ajax was never one to be late. On top of that, his tall frame is always the first thing to be noticed when he enters a room. His shaggy black hair barely rests on his shoulders. He’s dressed in his signature black trenchcoat.

“I’m proud, you’re getting better at being on time” he remarks.

“I’m over you always pointing it out, no time like the present to change,” I reply.

“You ready to get going?” He asks, slowly approaching the front door that I stood in.

“Sure am!” I confirm, backing out back to his front entrance.

As we depart his front door slides back shut and locks. While I love the handprint biometric lock at my house his facial recognition lock is so cool. We begin to walk northbound towards The Center.

“Just to confirm, we’re still going to just pick up this year’s issued spring season home modules, right?” Ajax asks.

“Sure, I don’t think there’s anything else I need to grab today but if we see something I have the time to check it out,” I reply. As cool as the industrial sized markets are in the Center, I genuinely don’t often need to buy anything that’s not essential from there.

We keep a steady cadence of conversation while walking down the marbled sidewalks that lead to our destination. One thing that is always a guarantee in this area is an abundance of people. If you were to try, you could literally be in The Center for months and not run out of new activities to try and experience. Truly this monolithic and clean giant is the peak of modern industrialization.

The Center is also home to the Sanctum. This building is often the main point of contact in which the Global Alliance Pact (GAP) meets to discuss global affairs. Its marbled white architecture is definitely an homage to the capitol buildings present in the 21st century. It’s definitely a building I wish I never have to hold business in but at the very least its gold and white color palette is always fun to look at as we pass through.

As we pass by the Sanctum, we see a group of people gathered in a cluster. They’re clad in black leather jackets with red accents. All it takes is one glance at the emblem on the back of their jackets to know who we’re looking at. In a bold scarlet color scheme is an aggressive illustration of a hound. These guys are a part of the Blood Hounds, a pseudo-gang that often handles trades containing valuable items preserved from Earth as well as high-value items from Neo Sol. They’re a shady bunch, there are ample violent rumors to how they acquire their goods but none of them ever get confirmed. Yet I’m sure they play some role in the structure of our economy seeing as the GAP is yet to crack down on their operations. Of course it’s just our luck that one of the members approaches us. It’s hard to tell much about them due to their uniform. Their expression is masked because of the cloth wrap covering most of their face as well as tinted goggles over their eyes. A small red figurine is suspended by chains from the front pocket of their jet black jacket.

Their higher pitched gritty voice states, “Gentlemen, we just received a shipment of rare items from the Warehouse district. Surely we have something you’re looking for”

“We’re not interested” I quickly pipe back, not wanting to get involved because frankly I don’t care.

“Oh don’t be such a poor sport, you don’t even want to see what we have to offer?”, The Blood Hound slyly asks. “One of our guys even found some Cryax, surely that has to pique your interest. You seem too young to have been an adult while there was still plenty in supplies.”

As much as I hate to admit it, they were right. My brother always told me about how Cryax was all the rave once it was discovered about a century ago. It was a safe and legal stimulant that would leave a user absolutely wired. As you could imagine, the workaholics loved it. It was their way to stay focused all day and then they’d safely come down after their shift was done for the day. Creatives, like my brother, would use it to garner just about limitless inspiration. Ajax himself describes it as “a substance so strong that you’ll feel like you’re one with God.” Yet all this craze ultimately led to the natural reservoirs to be depleted. Shame, as it would’ve been nice to try it without breaking the bank.

“Sorry, again I’ll pass,” I say.

“I insist that you at least…” the Blood Hound says before they are cut off by Ajax.

“We’re good, we promise. Thank you and I hope the rest of the day brings in some good clientele,” he says, a clear certainty present in his voice.

“Well fine, I hope you two have a great rest of your evening, you know where to find us,” the Blood Hound states as they lift up their goggles to reveal a winged eye winking before they place them right back on their face.

“Don’t you worry, I have a feeling I may be coming back for some of what you have after we’re done today,” my brother boldly states with a smile on his face. Goddamn, guess he really wants his fix. Hopefully he at least shares.

After our brief interruption we keep walking down the street until we arrive at the Office of Housing Allocation. We walk through the grandiose entrance to the giant hall full of service people at their desks helping those who have any needs in relation to their housing situation. The red carpet is always so pristine and fresh here. I wonder how they do it so consistently.

As Ajax and I walk to the Home Module pickup zone I can overhear a disheveled man asking about his application to move out of The Heart of the Industrial district. Poor guy, it looks like the early morning orchestra of various people working away on new innovative projects has slowly worn him down. Can’t say I blame him for trying. By the sounds of it, the new assignment he got doesn’t need him working in The Heart any longer.

Alas, I have nothing to complain about. For what I am looking for, my life in The Outskirts has been perfect so far. My small family and I have had all we’ve needed and I’m always grateful to remember that.

As we intended, Ajax and I retrieve our modules. They always come in these boxy metallic backpacks that are surprisingly not too heavy. I’m unsure of what’s different with this year’s Spring Module but it’s no worry to me. The GAP has dedicated mass amounts of resources to ensure that each module is equipped with upgrades that will best suit your home for the next upcoming months of weather challenges.

“Well sick, mission accomplished,” I state as we leave through the grandiose entry we came in.

“Hopefully installing this is just an evening long task,” Ajax replies, “the last one took me so long to figure out.”

“Well to be fair that was because your smart ass just moved into your new home,” I casually snipe back.

“So? It’s a house, doesn’t have to be rocket science just to install your new roof coating and yard furnishings,” Ajax replies, a clear smile on his face while he laughs.

God I love these moments.

“So, are you gonna load up on some Cryax you little junkie?” I ask as we’re slowly approaching the court yard.

“Oh whatever, you know I like that stuff. Can’t be that bad, it's a completely legalized substance!” Ajax remarks back, smile still intact.

“No judgment whatsoever! It was just funny watching your eyes start to drool when that Blood Hound offered it to ya,” I reply.

“What can I say, they knew a way straight to my heart… weird they’re nowhere to be seen,” Ajax says as we enter the courtyard.

“I don’t see why it’s weird, there’s still plenty of people here. Perhaps they just wanted to change where they set up shop for the next few hours. Or get this, what if they got hungry or something like that,” I propose, keeping the light hearted mood afloat.

“That may in fact be so!” Ajax laughs back, “I guess those hustlers still are people after all. I wonder what their actual assignments are.”
“This world may never know, but as long as i’m only on the prospective buying end of their trades I don’t have a care in the world,” I state.

Unfortunately, this is where the unforgettable part of the day begins.

The ground began to tremble and in front of The Sanctum a small mouth of a focused tornado began to form. Yet to add another surprise to the mix a spontaneous tornado isn’t what the end result ended up being. A beam of pulsing emerald light shot down from the sky straight to the dust circle.

Many bystanders, including us, gathered in shock and awe. A spectacle of this sort was unheard of. Conversations began to speculate what might be happening and what this unnatural disaster may be.

“Oh fuck, this can’t be good” I say to my brother, ushering us to quickly starting pulling back to the sidewalk that’d lead us back to his neighborhood.

“No, no this absolutely can’t be,” he sternly says. He follows my initiative after concluding his addendum to my thoughts.

As more spectators became entranced by the beam, a tall and humanoid silhouette started to appear from within the emerald aura. As the silhouette appeared to get closer to the edge of the beam, two more appeared on each flank of the initial figure. Once the figures appeared to be right at the edge of the beam of light a bright flash filled the vision of everyone within eyesight of the beam.

“I can’t see!” A woman exclaims.

“My eyes! Fuck, what just happened?” the voice of a distressed man exclaims.

Amongst all the chaotic voices a few crying children can be heard.

Once vision was restored it became clear that those towering, now twelve foot silhouettes were no illusion. With my own eyes I could see that now at the base of the Sanctum stairs stood 3 giant figures. These entities were clad in their own distinct style of jagged obsidian colored armor. The spikey features were chaotic in style but seemed glass-like in both texture and polish. I heard many people laugh in disbelief as well as cries of fear in the presence of these unknown entities. Yet before anyone could run the center figure took in a deep breath. Their porcelain colored face began to wrinkle and their lips pursed before declaring in a giant booming voice,

"Children of Neo Sol, to you I am to be known as Caysar. My brothers and I have come down to spare you from the hellish future that is coming for you. As a collective, humanity has all suffered for far too long so join us in salvation,” Caysar’s jet black eyes scanned his surroundings.

There was a collective silence as those in attendance started to process what they just heard. Hell, I couldn’t believe what I just heard. I know the historical abrahamic religions always mentioned a judgment day, but those are just stories and this right now is reality.

"If you wish to be granted eternal salvation my brothers and I will welcome you in open arms," Caysar declared.

From that moment many of the citizens and officials of Sanctum fell to their knees to begin praying to their new Gods. Few however dared to question these monolithic humans.

"Who are you to judge us! What authority have you been granted to determine our world a failure?" shouted a spectator.

A collective, yet small, rebellion began to rally. I couldn’t believe that there were people with enough of a conscience willing to try and immediately deny their present realities. Yet as soon as their rebellion started they were struck down. Standing on top of their bodies was the figure to the left of Caysar. Grasped within his hands was a burning and jagged blade as pitch black as the night itself. In what seemed like a blink of an eye he had silenced those who began to decry his brother's message. All that was left was their ashes falling to the ground.

Soon after the figure on the right, proclaimed in a prophetically loud voice, " You fools, do you deny to see the derelict world that's in front of you? Have you not seen that without salvation you are all bondservants to your corruption?"

Despite the sudden action from the other two entities, Caysar maintains a calm composure. He begins to slowly walk forward, closer to the spectators in front of him that weren’t just vaporized by his brother’s armaments.

Excuse my brother’s haste, he historically has quite a temper. Nonetheless I once again offer our embrace to those who wish to seek salvation. Consider our offer of a bountiful and painless future. We will provide you two nightfalls to ponder and provide your final answer. We wish to meet you back here and welcome you to salvation,” Caysar proclaims.

I couldn’t believe my eyes because as fast as they materialized they once again stepped back towards the front of the Sanctum and disappeared. Being consumed by another sudden column of emerald light.

“Holy shit what just happened,” I said to my brother. I’m petrified by my fear.

When I analyze the area where the beam struck all that is left is a giant burnt circle with a jagged upside down V shape also burned into the once clean white marble tile.

“I have no clue, but all I know is we need to leave,” Ajax states, grabbing my arm and starting to break into a sprint back to his neighborhood.