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Armageddon Written and Typed by [robotv56]
Some one once said the world will end from mans mistakes. Who knew that they’d be wrong? It’s never right to say anything will happen in the future, because no one can predict the future. Now what if even that is wrong? It is the year 2000 when the military knows it’ll all be over soon. But for a reason left unknown they didn’t tell anyone. But our story doesn’t begin now. Now we go to a small town in California where a young boy surfs the internet searching for a small hole in the planetary defense firewall. His name is Zeth and he’s 14 years old. It is June 19 2009 and it’s summer vacation, and a lively one it’s been. He had just gone over to a friend Josh’s house yesterday and was given a new computer program called Shift. What it was supposed to do was scan a firewall for all of its uses and how to get around it. But late into the afternoon all Zeth had been doing was twisting his thumbs around trying to find a way to make it work correctly. It had only been giving him messages back saying “Invalid information” or stuff like “Classified documents not compatible”. “If I were you computer, I’d sort this one out before I rip another gigabyte off of your memory!” Zeth yelled as he shook his monitor. Of course he knew that his monitor wasn’t the one making the problem or even the fact it couldn’t understand a word it was saying. But he needed to let off some steam. “Zeth, stop yelling. I’m trying to get some sleep!” Said his sister who was joking of course, it was 5 hours from when they were ‘supposed’ to go to bed but most of the time they would pull off all-nighters playing the old Xbox 360. That exact moment when he remembered what Josh had said. In the search window he was supposed to type in a code he wrote down. That way he could access classified files. Now Zeth wasn’t really into the idea of doing things that would give him a criminal record. Most of the time, the only reason he’d hack stuff would be because he was so stir crazy or board. Than he’d take hours from his day making sure that what he did had no digital finger prints. 6 times he had crashed a system. But that’s not even the half of what he’s done. “Hello, Zeth, are you listening to me?” His sister talked louder. Zeth just turned up his Linkin Park music and ignored her as he pulled out the orange crumpled piece of paper from his pocket. “SH1FT? Yeah, no one is going to think of this little code.” He said sarcastically. “Zeth, Mom says not to have your music so loud. You remember what happened last time!” His sister said blasting through the door. “Gosh Clare, You have to be so up on my case?” Clare was his sister’s name. “Don’t call me that name. My name’s Rebecca, hear me now, Rebecca!” Zeth’s sister was 3 years older than him and changed her name because of all the nicknames she got. She’s got a boy friend no matter how many times she denies it to her parents. His name is “Z”. Now where do you think that name came from? By now ‘Rebecca’ had slammed the door and left. “Kids, Be nice to each other or I will cancel your party.” Said Zeth’s mom, Shelby. “Mom, why do we have to share the same dance? There is like 20 girls that Zeth is inviting and none of them are friends of mine. Why can’t ‘Z’ come to the party?” “We already explained this Becca. He earned it by helping me at my work.” Zeth’s mom works at a flowering company. “I’m 17, I’ve got a drivers license, a car, and I’m paying for collage. But I can’t be in love with the dreamiest boy at school? Why not?” “Well driving isn’t exactly your second nature sis.” Interrupted Zeth. “Just shut up.” And Rebecca once again shut Zeth’s door.
It was a beautiful day. Big blue sky, big bright sun, and silky green grass with the smell of a chlorine pool in the backyard. As the setting sun comes in the door bell rings, And to Zeth’s surprise, it wasn’t dad, it was ‘Z’. Now ‘Z’ wasn’t the best of friends with Zeth but he was pretty good at playing halo 3. And Zeth had forgotten he had set up an Xbox tournament with him. Wow, Zeth thought, He doesn’t break a promise. 8pm, right on time if not three minutes early. As he came in Zeth noticed he had flowers. Without a breath Rebecca runs into him trying to get to ‘Z’. He gives here the flowers. And than shows Zeth the new Halo Wars video game, he explodes into joy. They than get settled up stairs with a couple mountain dews, Rebecca cuddling with ‘Z’, and a Humming plasma display hooked up to a vibrating Xbox 360. “You know Zeth; I bet out of the two of us, you’re defiantly better than me.” ‘Z’ said modestly. “I don’t know. You’re getting better and you know it. I lost to you 9 times last week.” “Why do you two always insist on throwing compliments just before a battle to the death?” Asked Rebecca “Because I can’t fight with hatred on my conscious, especially since you’re almost like a little brother to me Zeth.” Replied ‘Z’ “Wow, Thanks dude” said Zeth “Hey, You better get ready for me to kick you butt.” ‘Z’ said with a teeth clenching expression. That’s his way of showing you he wants to fight and is more than ready.
That brawl lasted a full 3 hours. But when ‘Z’ was about to leave, he left Zeth his copy of Halo Wars. He knew that Zeth loved Halo 3 so doing this, he knew, would, and did, make him fly off the handle. Later that night Zeth decided to hack the US government just to see if Shift worked. As he typed in the code ‘S H 1 F T’ the screen flickered wildly. ‘What was happening?’ He thought. Then the lights in the house all went out for a couple seconds, was the power going out? Zeth than pressed the enter key, and to his amazement the screen then exploded with codes, numbers, paragraphs full of information on secret operations, and huge server reports dealing with extreme rupturing in the northern California area. Not good, the military may know that Zeth is hacking them. All of a sudden an anti-virus comes out of nowhere assuming that the breach was an attempt to ruin the data stream. Without thinking, Zeth logs out to avoid further confrontation. “Wow, that was weird!” said Zeth who than tries to forget about it by spending the rest of the night playing halo wars.
Assuming the worst, he was thankful he put no personal information in his profile which he used to hack the ‘you-know-what’. He remembered something that had caught his attention in the data stream, something to do with ‘Armageddon’, and Zeth decided that the next day would use a ‘cloaked’ profile and find whatever that project meant.
The next day, things seamed great. It was Saturday. 3 days from the dance he was throwing at the new ski lodge his parents bought. There he’d finally be able to go out with the girl he had a huge crush on whose name was Lexa, even if it was his own party. There would be a DJ and flashing lights everywhere. Of course his parents had no idea that one of the many guests Zeth had invited would be a girl he had a strong relationship with, nor did they know that the Lexa even liked him, which she does. “Zeth, please let me into the bathroom, I need to take a shower” Said Rebecca through the bathroom door. “Not right now, I’m using it” replied Zeth. “Well could you hurry, it’s been more than five-“ “Can’t hear you” interrupted Zeth and shortly after Rebecca gave up and left. Rebecca and Zeth didn’t always fight; usually Rebecca was really sweet but as you could plainly tell, not to her brother. That is why she and ‘Z’ are both great for each other. “I’m out sis” Yelled Zeth down the stairs “Thanks, I’ll be up in a sec” Now for Zeth’s favorite part of the day, Zeth runs down stairs, grabs some cereal, turns on Reptilia (which may I add is a great song by a band called ‘The Strokes’), And starts rock’n out on the guitar. Aw, sweet bass and drum to the tone of unreal satisfaction. Almost as if you’d hear this song as the best part of the climax of a story is just about to commence, it’s the best. And you’d think he was obsessing over Halo Wars. And as the song ends he realizes something. The lights were at it again, flickering off the wall. ‘So it wasn’t me doing that’ thought Zeth. And as he looks outside he noticed it wasn’t just his home but all the houses he could see. ‘Weird, this couldn’t have anything to do with “Armageddon” could it?’ He than turns on the cartoons and starts chowing down on the cereal he brought up. The lights had stopped flickering by now but as soon as the TV showed the first commercial break it turned it’s self off. Assuming he had accidentally done it, he turned it back on. It wasn’t until later into the day when he hacked the firewall again. Disguised as one of its own files he searched for Armageddon. Immediately, a file popped up about a second test run of the project. It was 5 hours old. 5 hours earlier he had been rock’n out on the guitar, the same time when the lights flickered. ‘So this is what is making all that power fluctuations’ thought Zeth. Than he saw another file containing information on the next test for it, ‘What was it?’ it was a giant gun which when fired could destroy an asteroid the size of the moon. But no one knew that in the future they would need every kilowatt of energy on the planet to help them survive. But because of our slow progress through the story we will skip the next part and begin again at Zeth’s home, 3 months from now. September, 12 2009
Things are not set in stone for the future. If something were to come from then, and they destroyed their creator, it would never happen. The future is just as flexible as our actions. Now will that fact become false?
Things in northern California are going great, but there has some strange things in the papers. Things about a strange rock just months from our planet, but it didn’t seem like it got the publics attention. Religious groups think it’s a sign. Scientists don’t want to talk about anything close to the subject. The world is blind, but Zeth here will cure them (it’s a metaphor).
High School is starting for Zeth. And 2 months ago he had his party. Lexa was there and that’s when Zeth had his first kiss. And of course it was Lexa’s first kiss as well. It’s a shame we missed that part of the story. Now is his orientation and he is already starting to get use to it. But clearly he isn’t paying any attention to it because he’s listening to his Zune which is currently playing ‘Around the world’ by ‘Daft Punk’. “Hey, uh Zeth please turn that thing off before your mom sees it” says his friend Josh. “Oh yeah, well gim’e a sec” “Zeth, was that your Zune?” said his mother “Uh, no, it was my… Calculator, I was seeing how many hours of school I’d need for homework.” Zeth said smiling Then, the earth shook like crazy. It almost knocked Zeth off his feet. Down the hall you could hear tons of things falling over. ‘Armageddon’ Zeth thought ‘Is this another test run. Than Zeth looked outside and saw something he would regret the rest of his life. To his surprise he saw nothing in the sky (yet) but what he did see was Lexa kissing another boy. For a second he couldn’t even come to terms with the simplest things he saw, like the very few clouds in the sky. Then he was overloaded with anger. As he ran up to the newly discovered couple a bright flash lit up the sky. Zeth was so angry he didn’t notice a thing. As he started talking to them he finally saw the giant beam of light shooting into the sky. Huge as it was it rippled through the clouds and seemed to cut the sky in half. And when Lexa began to reply and make excuses for the kissing but than she too saw it and gasped. Strangely enough, the boy Lexa was kissing ran off. And as Josh ran outside to see what all the noise was another beam shot up from behind them, only this time it was closer and it nearly deafened them. Zeth didn’t think of anything before finding the solution to a problem and that’s why the first thing he did when he got home was hack again. The Government firewall was streaming information regarding a large asteroid that was just fired at by the Armageddon project. And because they fired at it the asteroid would now be on a collision course with earth, which is a problem because in the process the cannons got damaged. Zeth thought that he should go try to see if he could help because he learned a thing or two about hardware and mechanics in his old school but if he did go he wouldn’t tell anyone. And he knew someone would have to go with him so he decided to bring along Lexa, because she also knew how to fix computers, and josh, which was just smart in that field of electronics. And when ‘Z’ heard about it he wanted to come as well. The next day they packed up and left for the station even though they had no idea what direction it was in. That was until of course Zeth hacked the firewall again. This was becoming a habit for him and Zeth knew it would get him into some major trouble. But leaving that for later, we will continue on to when the team was on there way. “Why is ‘Z’ driving us there?” asked Josh “We needed someone who knows how to drive and be quiet at the same time, you know, something you haven’t been doing lately.” Said Lexa “Be nice Lexa, I don’t care if you like me but you could at least have a little respect for Josh. After all, if it weren’t for him I couldn’t be able to hack the US Government” said Zeth, taking many breaths wile saying it. “I do like you, I really do.” “Than why did you kiss that other guy?” “Because I wouldn’t see him ever again, he was a really good friend of mine.” “Than you could have kissed him on the cheek, not the lips” Said Zeth ending the conversation. “We are here, or at least close enough not to be seen” Said ‘Z’ who took a moment to get out of the car because he was rummaging through his bag. “Zeth, I have something for you.” Z said which after gave Zeth a strange metallic devise that had millions of flashing lights zipping across its screen. “It’s a vision spectrum modifier, or for short V.S.M. It uses its high resolution camera to show you a wide variety of night vision, heat sensors, and radiation meters. To see an example, turn it on and on the menu that pops up press all and point the camera at my car.” Zeth did as he was told and when the car came into view he saw a gradient of colors with its epicenter, which was red, on the engine. At the same time millions of rays came down from were the sun use to be which was assumable the radiation detector. Then if the screen saw all dark with very little amount of radiation on the screen it all turned blue and it looked a little like what you would see in night vision goggles. “Cool!” Exclaimed Zeth “I know, I thought you might say that. That thing cost me a lot so don’t loss it here. If we succeed I’ll let you keep it” said ‘Z’ And off they went to the gate. The guards had black armor and gas masks on which probably meant there was dangerous in the air near there, but Zeth scanned the area and the only radiation came from the cannon, thus they when on. After clipping the fence they came across a small robot the size of a lunch box and after seeing them started to approach them. Assuming it was going to go back and report they hit it with a wrench. As it sparked and twitched hydraulic fluid seeped out of it. The blast door computer wasn’t to hard to break into with Lexa’s help and as the huge metal beast opened its jaws they stepped inside to find 5 guards waiting for them. “Oh I really wish I wouldn’t have to do this” said Josh as he pulled out a surprisingly small tranquilizing gun. All 5 of the guards fell to the ground within a few seconds. And when they start to look around something seemed wrong. The computer used to control the cannon was smashed into pieces. “What… this shouldn’t be destroyed. How are we supposed to fix it now?” Said Josh Within a heart beat ‘Z’ then started fixing up a new basic operating system using pieces from the backpack he brought with him. 3 minutes later it was fully operational, but there was a problem, it was really unorganized. But as ‘Z’ started typing in codes using the slightly scratched rubber key board he also brought it became obvious that he knew what he was doing, but after about 10 minutes of sitting around Lexa noticed something. There was a hissing noise coming from a nearby pipe. “Hey, Zeth, that pipe behind you is hissing. Could you check it out?” said Lexa And when Zeth looked at it with his VSM the part near of the pipe with the leak glowed yellow and orange in the middle. “That pipe is getting pretty hot so I’d step back.” Than after the entire pipe had turned red it started to have red rays popping off of it, Radiation. “Now I’m picking up a lot of radiation and the orange glow is growing. We should leave soon.” But before they could the blast door all of a sudden slammed down behind them and locked. “Uh, that pipe is going out of control. Plus, if this is correct, that gas coming out of that is highly concentrated Xenon and it’s coming right for us.” “Don’t worry I brought gas masks, they are in the bag behind me.” ‘Z’ said finishing up the last few codes. “Zeth, if we don’t get out of this, I just want you to know that truthfully I… I love you and I never want to change that” Said Lexa just before putting her gas mask on. “We will get out of this alive! Just watch.” Said Zeth as he put on his, and shortly after took a wrench and began hitting the blast door with all his might, but it wasn’t enough. Four minutes later after searching for an alternate exit they find one near the bottom most part of the room where there was the leaking pipe. “This looks like an exit but even with these gas masks we will need to close our eyes to avoid harm.” Said Josh, his words muffled by his mask. “Yeah but it’s near 200 degrees around there and we’ll burn our hands if we touch the knob” Replied ‘Z’ “I’ll break through wearing my jacket. The hinge must be weak because of all that heat.” Said Zeth Zeth started to run toward the door and began to notice the temperature change with every step he took. He closed his eyes as his VSM began to beep wildly like a radiation detector. But as he was about to hit the door he felt a sudden burst of heat on his back and pants, he caught on fire. And when he hit the door, sure enough the door nearly snapped in two. And on instinct he began to roll on the floor, but it was still really hot and he knew he shouldn’t open his eyes. So he kept on going until his outstretched hands touched something quite cold. His radiation meter went quiet and he started to hear the noises of his friends who were currently screaming.
To be continued The first thing that most people don't understand about the world they live in is that they sub-consiously control everything around them. Which means, in therory, all of us can predict what we will become. It's in your dreams, your visions, your everyday lives. Truth is, or lives are what we make of them.
robotv56 · Mon Nov 03, 2008 @ 06:35pm · 0 Comments |
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