A Better Tomorrow: Origins

No Man's Land

After falling asleep on the plane ride, I began to dream heavily. Images began to pop into my dream; images that I did not expect. I saw meteors of distinctive colors raining down upon France, along with a vivid vision of something that was a bit startling....masses of dead bodies.

I soon woke up from this dream, and looked around on the plane. Most everyone was awake, some adjusting their soldier uniforms and whatnot. My attention then turned to Dr. Maxis, who was sitting next to me. Evidently, he we looking over his blueprints. Taking a sneaky, and brief, look at the blueprints from over his shoulder, I saw a bit of what was on it. Etched into the blueprint paper was a peculiar outline of some sort of weapon. I couldn't fully describe what it looked like, but it was definitely something I had never seen before.

He must've caught on to me looking at the blueprint, because he cleared his theist almost right after I got done peeking at the blueprint. I shifted my vision away to another side.

"This is only one idea of many that we will come up with after we assume control," he said.

"Control of what exactly?" I asked.

"The dig site," he replied.

I said nothing, for I was confused. I thought Dr. Groph had said that Maxis would fill me in on all the information, but it looked like neither of them were much help. I cleared my throat quickly.
That's when he eyed me, with a look of confusion and slight irritation.

"Groph told you that I was supposed to tell you everything..?" He asked. "That lazy idiot."

He set down the blueprints next to his seat and turned to me with a certain look in his eyes. The look was stern, and maybe a little irritated, but he continued.

"You think the battle in No Man's Land is just for the progression of war land? That is incorrect. Our German army is protecting something for us. A couple of months ago, a meteor had crashed behind our defensive lines. We don't know what it does, or where it came from, but it's unlike anything we've ever seen. Only a few of us have known about it, and today you are one of those people. We have a dig site behind our lines of defense, with the goal of studying this new strange material from space." He told me.

After processing it all, I nodded slowly towards him to indicate that I understood the situation.

"I know what you brought me here for now," I started, "You brought me here to turn our newfound material into weapons for the German army."

"Not just that my friend, but so much more. Think of how many secrets we can discover together, unlocking the mysteries of space."

"You think this is a good idea?" I asked.

He scoffed for a moment, "Of course I do. I'll take any chance of it means our success as scientists and success for the war."

The red flashing light came back on, and it was time for our descent into No Man's Land. After I made sure my seatbelt and straps were tight, I held onto the sides of the seat. Maxis looked back to me and chuckled a bit.

"What's the matter? Air sick?"

"I'm not too fond of flying," I replied back with a slight chuckle of my own.

The plane shook and jerked a few times, and different noises filled the air. At first, there was the loud hum of the plane engine, but it turned into explosions and rapid gunfire. I closed my eyes, at least hoping I wouldn't get sick.

When the explosions began to decrease a bit, and the shaking almost ceased, I opened my eyes again. The plane was slowing down, and I waited until the plane had seemingly stopped moving. Finally, we had landed. Letting out a deep exhale, I unstrapped myself along with everyone else on the plane. Maxis handed me the rolls of blueprints, along with some other trinkets that I did not recognize.

As the plane door slowly pulled down, the sound of gunfire and explosions were slightly louder. I slowly peeked out of the doorway, analyzing the terrain to see what direction the gunfire was coming from. However, I only saw very distant flashes of light through the mist.

A hand landed on my shoulder again, which startled me enough to make my body jump a bit.

"Don't worry, my friend," Maxis said, "We are far from harm. Like I said, the dig site is far behind our own lines of defense. Unless the Britains and Americans somehow pull off a miracle run, we are safe from the war."

I was slightly reassured by his words, but I was still inexperienced in the field, so this kind of situation was new to me. I had never been this close to so much violence in my life. When I looked outside, all I saw was death and violence. I followed Maxis and Group 935 through abandoned trenches, filled with unrealistic amounts of mud and blood. I swear, every time I turned a corner, there was some rotting corpse sitting in the corner. The atmosphere didn't make it much better either: grey skies, lots of mist, bloody trenches, and the smell of rotten flesh and smoke. Those are just some of the examples of what filled my senses.

After around a few miles of walking, I began to see our destination. The dig site made itself prominent in my line of site. It was tall, maybe around fifty feet in the air, and was surrounded by wooden walkways. At the top, however, was the real point of interest. I had to stop in my tracks just to get a good, long look at the object. It was grey in color with spots of shiny blue, and about the size of a large American Tank Machine; the crashed meteor from space.

"Magnificent, isn't it?" Maxis asked.

"It's incredible, Dr.Maxis," I said. "I think it's about time we begin our preparation. You can start by telling me what it is that we are building together."

"The future, Edward, the future. Imagine a new line of weapons and machines for the German army, ready to take out any army that would stand against it. All while contributing to the further research of the unknown elements beyond Earthly reach."

I only stood and watched in awe of the meteor as Maxis kept walking towards the main dig site.

End of Chapter 2