6th April, 2015
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Arthur Wilkins was seated at a computer in the operations room at the McMurdo Station. Besides him sat his new friend and radio technician, Jacobs. Arthur and Jacobs were part of the skeleton crew left behind for the Antarctican winter in America's main ice station.
The residents of the station had decided upon a specific time to try and establish communications with the 'outside world'. It had been ninety days since last contact with their superiors in the US. Radio communications, satellite communications, internet, everything was down. Everyday Arthur would sneak in an email to his sister Julia when trying to connect to the internet. Like always, the mail would never be sent though.
"Come in. Come in. This is McMurdo. Over." Jacobs spoke into the microphone.
"Broadcasting over a range of 1000 Khz frequency band. Anyone out there? I repeat. This is McMurdo station. Over."
All that came back was static.
"Sigh. We should shut this down. We are running out of fuel for the generators. We'll die from Hypothermia first before we die from hunger. I am going outside for a smoke. See if that foolish boy Zach has come back from the 'OB hill' with any news. Come find me if you get anything." Arthur said as he pushed his chair and went out.
On 'Day Zero', Zach had sighted a falling star from the 350 meters tall Observation Hill, OB hill for short, that stood towering over the McMurdo station. Since that day, he would go everyday to the top of the hill to observe the surrounding area of the continent in hopes of rescue from Antarctica, the cold prison that it was now.
The McMurdo station could house a staff of nearly 1200 residents, but it's current staff was about 250 people. Nearly all of whom were supposed to be changed in March before they were imprisoned by God himself. Residents of the nearby New Zealand station, 'Scott Base', were in the same situation as the residents of the McMurdo station. Trekkers from Arthur's station had taken many exploratory expeditions as far as they could.
Antarctica wasn't a bad prison. The twilight that they experienced in Antarctica was truly an invaluable and pleasurable experience, except for the cold. Antarctica experienced three kinds of twilight. Civil twilight that lasted from 31st March to about 5th April, Nautical twilight that lasted the longest for about 15 days and Astronomical twilight that lasted for another five days.
The Nautical twilight was just starting and the flag lines were already in place days ago. The flag lines are used to navigate outside the station during times of very low visibility. People couldn't communicate with the outside world and hence their work had been cut by half. Things like setting up flag lines, rationing of food, fuel, computer time, and repeatedly observing the climate and the sky had become the hobbies of people present. They did have their regular jobs to do of course, but they wouldn't be able to publish their findings in scientific journals unless they got out of Antarctica, which seemed very improbable to Arthur.
Arthur's job had changed from observing Animal life to being a therapist at the station. He knew everyone here. Zach was someone Arthur had taken under his wing whom he at that moment saw running towards him as fast as he could in the wind and the snow along the flag lines.
"Arthur! Arthur! Three submarines just docked at the harbour!" Zach said running past Arthur towards the snowmobiles, binoculars dangling from his neck.
At the same moment, Jacobs came outside,
"Arthur! You need to look at this! There's an email from your sister. We have communications up and running!"
"Did I forget to logout? Never mind, shit! SOUND THE ALARM AND CONTACT ANYONE WHO IS LISTENING!" Arthur took off after Zach.
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4 hours before the Submarine Docking
Olaf Sklett didn't mind the freezing -30 degrees celcius temperatures as he stood outside the Dumond d'Urville French station. Beside him stood four other Kings.
"I hate this cold" Shawn William Webb spoke up surprising everyone around.
"I know." Olaf said with a grin, "but look at the Auroras above. So beautiful. It reminds me of my home in Norway."
"Hmph. Cherry blossoms are prettier." Honda grunted unimpressed.
"I am leaving. The next time we see each other will be on the battlefield and the last time you see anything! As decided, we go our seperate ways. Every man for himself." Chaoxiang Wu threatened with his parting words.
Everyone except for Olaf went ahead in different directions. He started going back to the harbour towards his ship, Paralus, as he chuckeled to himself. He already knew where each one of them was planning to go.
Wu had gone towards the Indian station, Maitri, North of their landing spot. No guesswork required to realize his intentions. What an idiot! There was no need for fulfilling grudges. Ravi Sharma wouldn't be present there. Even if he were to come to Antarctica, he would be too late. But it could be counted as a smart move at the same time since in order to travel to Maitri station, Wu would cover half the coast of Antarctica. The other three had gone towards their national stations. Honda towards Dome Fuji, Egor towards Vostok and Shawn towards McMurdo.
Olaf had no plans to search for the gift all by himself. He was going to Paralus to signal his advisor to order the fighters and the soldiers to arrive and search at various places. Antarctica was the big, larger than Europe and Australia, but once the meteor was found everyone could arrive at its location within hours if not minutes. After signalling he would head over to the Concordia station himself.
This is a race and I always come first.
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7th April, 2015.
Helena Carrizo and her companions Emilia and Prieto were gunning at the top speed of 100 Km/hr with their latest BRX-II snowmobiles on the snowy terrain of Palmer Land, Antarctica. With them were the 100 chosen fighters of the South American Kingdom.
Helena had assumed that the meteor would be located at the exact location of the geographical south pole. Either that or the Geomagnetic South Pole located about 500 Kms from it towards the Russian station.
She wouldn't back down from this battle, she thought. She wasn't weak if that is what the others were thinking. She had every right to fight for the seventh gift just like the other Kings.
My people need me to get this gift. So that we can be at the summit of the world.
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Shoaib Khan stood up after performing Namaz at the prayer hall inside his palace. Imran Tahir entered the room.
"You do not wish to participate in the battle, your majesty?" he asked with his head bowed.
"No. I do not. I don't think I can win. The other Kings are just too powerful. The plan to have Ammon's powers didn't work. And now all is lost. I do not wish to throw my life away." Khan answered.
"A life that isn't lived while chasing your ambitions is a wasted life. All is not lost, your majesty. I will be the announcer and you be the boxer this time around." Tahir smiled.
Shoaib looked thoughtful for a while and then asked, "How long to get the Dragons ready?"
"Pegasi are faster. And they already are ready, my King. They already are."
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Lucie Caspienne was climbing down one of the mountains of the Trans-Antarctic mountain range. She was heading towards the South Pole, running away from Shawn William Webb and the American soldiers that had arrived at the McMurdo Airport in staggering numbers. Lucie thought of him as the 'Devil in the Black Suit'.
Along with her were for the hike were Yadav, Markos, Brock, Aditya, Veer and 10 other warriors from the Indian Kingdom. She was the only female which both surprised her and annoyed her. They and Raymond had gone seperate ways after docking at the McMurdo station.
"Ravi is a good friend of mine and I would love to team up with you guys to get the gift but I want it all to myself. So I am headed over to the Roosevelt island. See you when this is over. Make sure you honeymoon in Australia. It's going to be the best country in the world." he winked and took off with his men on griffins that they had brought along on the submarines. They would most probably fly over the Ross ice shelf. Raymond could drown in the ocean for all Lucie cared.
It turned out that all of their worries about getting to Antarctica were unwarranted because the barrier around the continent never came back once it was removed.
She hoped that Ravi would arrive soon. He had been gone too long and she was getting more worried as each minute passed. She also hoped to outsmart the other Kings and reach the gift first. She had lots of free time in the submarine to plan things after they reached Antarctica. She had studied the continent's topology well. She knew time was of the essence and that the meteor would most likely be at the pole. She was hoping she would arrive first.
What she didn't know was that she and all Kings except for Ravi and Shoaib would arrive at the pole at about the same time. Helena was headed straight for the pole. Olaf would make a short stop at Concordia and then go to the pole. Raymond would search the Roosevelt island and do the same. Webb was hot on her trail.
Honda had flown to the Valkyrie Dome (Dome Fuji) using his leg thrusters. There he spent a few hours organizing a robot army of about a hundered small and big robots before heading towards the pole. The Japanese Ice station was already researching robotics in the unforgiving climate and terrain of Antarctica before the barrier came down.
Neither Egor nor Wu needed an army. Egor took a snowmobile from the Vorstok station towards the pole while Wu used his ability in combination with physical strengthening to cover long distances within a very short period of time.
All four Kings, former companions of Olaf, had found a way to keep their plans a secret from him. It was a simple technique. Don't plan ahead, make plans as you go.
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8th April, 2015.
Amundsen-Scott station, USA,
South Pole
"Hurry up! We need to get to McMurdo by day's end!" Thomas Tully yelled at his juniors as he got on a tractor that carried cargo on specialized sleds. Airplanes were waiting for them at the McMurdo station for evacuation. They would be taking the 'McMurdo-South Pole Highway' over the Ross ice shelf. The snow road is 1600 Km (995 miles) long and the route is flag marked because the road is not paved. The road was formed by levelling snow and filling in crevasses (deep fractures in ice sheets/shelfs) over a period of four years.
The weather was growing worse and worse since the day before. Auroras had vanished making it very dark. Usually mild winds at the Pole called Katabatics blew snow and clocked at 40 knots (50mph) making visibility more difficult.
As soon as Thomas started the tractor engine, he saw a sight that he never thought he would see in his life; A man crashing into the Amundsen-Scott station's historical Dome from above.
Toshio Honda rocketed up from the debris of the Dome using his leg and arm thrusters at full force. No sooner was he about to get his bearings in the bright combination of moonlight and the sun's Nautical twilight than Chaoxiang Wu jumped from the ground below and smacked him back down into the debris.
Olaf Sklett ran at full speed twisting and dodging through the tractors and sleds leaving Thomas Tully and his juniors dazed. Olaf was dodging attacks from three people at once: Lucie, Aditya and Yadav. No matter how hard they tried to cut him or punch him, they were always a step behind.
Helena's abandoned snowmobile crashed into one of the tractors as she flew and tackled a surprised Olaf. The accident caused the tractor to blow up and provide an additional source of light. Helena's companions were engaged in combat with the Indian soldiers. The sounds of clangs of metal and the rush of flames filled the windy surroundings.
With the wind, Raymond clarke permeated the environment in the form of snow. He was everywhere at once. This was a countermeasure against Egor's jail. Egor had created 10 clones of himself trapping Raymond's men and the griffins. The problem for Raymond was that he didn't know which clone of Egor to attack. Which was the real Egor?
Everything was happening so fast around them that Thomas didn't notice the American millitary men dressed in white combat gear start gunfire. Shawn William Webb merely walked towards the Dome in a straight line. The tractors were in his way. He put a hand on one of them and it disintegrated with a huge boom like an explosion. Thomas and his juniors were no more. Webb was the devil who could make anything rot and disintegrate if he touched it; he was 'The Destroyer'.
Lucie's attention was caught by the explosion and the momentary lapse of concentration was enough for Prieto, Helena's right hand man, to land a blow with his short sword at her unprotected waist which was the only place beside her face where there was no armour. Aditya and Yadav quickly attacked him stopping him from giving her the death slash. In front of them Helena had lifted Olaf into the sky and smashed him into the icy cold ground stomach first, making his silver Lion mask shatter into pieces. Blood covered Olaf's already ugly face making it uglier. Before he could get up, Chaoxiang Wu dropped into him from above. There was a big hole in Wu's chest courtesy of Toshio Honda and his flying robots.
To everyone's surprise, Wu got up like nothing had happened. The hole in his chest gradually filled itself up levaing no scar or mark that indicated it had ever been damaged. The only hole left was in his black armour. Chaoxiang Wu was indestructible; he was 'The Inulnerable King'.
There was lightening and thunder as a storm started brewing above. Snow fell on Lucie's bloodied hands. She was smart enough to carry healing potions with her. She took one and waited for her body to heal while holding onto the wound in her side. We are clearly outmatched. They have tonnes of fighters with them and we are a measly 16. We need Ravi.
"You're in my way." It was Webb standing behind her.
Her heart started pounding hard and fast. She didn't know if it was the healing potion she took or if it was fear. She heard many sounds at the time; the thunder and her breathing the prominent ones. Was this how she was going to die? Fighting for something she had never seen and didn't even know what it was? Then she heard a roar and she thought her heart was roaring but it wasn't.
The roar of the Dragon was louder than the thunder. It was something that didn't belong to this world. Everyone looked up as the sky illuminated and a dark figure jumped from atop a golden Dragon. He was wearing a royal blue tunic and was carrying a golden bow with him across his chest, on his back.
The impact of Ravi Sharma's landing cracked the earth below his feet and struck irrational fear in the Kings' hearts.
Ah. My knight without a shining armour. Lucie smiled with relief as she slowly drooped on her back.
He's here. Olaf rolled and sneakily hid behind the burning tractors.
Here comes the boom. Raymond thought as he recognized the real Egor.
The worst guy has arrived. Shawn William Webb grimaced as he turned his back to Lucie to face Ravi.
Someone worthy of a fight. Chaoxiang Wu cracked his knuckles.
I won't loose to anyone. Helena floated an inch above the cracked ground.
One more prisoner. Egor's clones released the griffins from the jail dimension.
That's just super that he has arrived. It's a bloody festival. Honda grinned.
Ravi Sharma lighted his fists with Ammon's black flame.
"I am here to stop the war."
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Author's Note: *Grinning* What do you think? I spent a lot of time on this chapter and even drew a high resolution map of Antarctica. It's attached above. Mobile users can just click on the image to enlarge it while desktop and laptop users can right-click on the image and click the 'view image' option. Let me know your thoughts in the comments. Did you like it?
I know this chapter is not perfect. But I soooo want it to be. And as always, thanks for reading. - Phenil :)
P.S. Before I write this book any further I am going to be editing the initial chapters upto chapter 5. Hence the next update will take a while. But I did just write 4 chapters in 3 days so that should be enough for now, yes? :D