Epilogue Event

Ron dashed through the hallway, roughly shoving people aside as he charged through towards the war room in the end. He heard somebody yell at him through his cochlear implant, but he ignored them as he skidded to a hard halt in front of the large doubt doors.

“Annexe de contrôle”

He impatiently stamped his foot as the door authenticated him, via his neural implants, and let him in. A long hall stretched in front him, ending in the large control room. He jogged through the hallway, noticing the floor and walls subtly start to shake.

It had begun.

Leaping the stairs three at a time, he climbed up to the main floor of the control room. It was an oval room, with the back consisting of a large bank of equipment, and hallways leading into various different rooms. Ron strode across the floor to the front, bringing him into full view of the dominating feature of the room. The front wall was entirely taken up by a giant curved screen. A small portion of the large screen showed a running list of a variety of information pouring in from throughout the facility.

The main window on the screen was taken up by a feed from a series of cameras. The cameras were set up inside a large space, which was completely dark at the moment. Only the large details were visible. The cameras were centered around a large sphere, suspended in the middle of the space, its powerful magnetic levitation drives keeping it stable.

On one side of the sphere, there was a large stage. On it stood two figures, unrecognisable in silhouette, standing in front of a large bank of equipment. Their hands were on the deck, as they had been for the past 3 days, since they had gone on the stage.

Ron walked up to the man standing behind one of the terminals. He was talking to a man in a coat, “Get me Dr. Whitman over here right now. She’ll be in the reactor’s control room, an Annex 2.”

Finishing his hastily spoken instructions, he turned around, “Ron, finally, what do you have for me?”

Ron pulled out the first sheaf of papers from his folder, and handed them to the man, Major Mason Brodeur. “What I have is bad news. Based on the last probes data, if the Echos keep ramping up at that rate, given what we know about our guys, that sphere will not hold under anything but the absolute best circumstances.”

“I thought as much.” Brodeur replied with a sigh, and put the papers down, noting a glass of water on the table rippling.

“Yeah I noticed a while back. It’s starting isn’t it?” Ron said, following the Major’s sightline.

“I had really hoped I wouldn’t have to be the poor son of a bitch who had to see this day finally come to pass” the Major said with a sigh, and walked over to the desk towards the back of the platform. He pressed a button at the desk, activating his mic to broadcast over the Agency’s cochlear network.

“This is Major Brodeur. It is my solemn duty to inform all of you that The Epilogue Event has begun. Please ensure that if you must step out of the insulated section of the building, you wear the necessary protective gear. All external communications will be shut down immediately. Ladies and gentlemen, it truly has been an honour serving with you all. God bless you all, and may he have mercy on our souls.”

All across the large compound, everyone stopped what they were doing for a second. They had all been working towards this day for years, indeed their Agency had existed since 1997. While all of them were more than aware of the dangers and the magnitude of the event happening right now, a lot of them stared in disbelief as screens across the campus came to life. All but a small handful of people monitoring the main Acoustic Wave Generator stared at the screen, their work all but forgotten. It wouldn’t matter. Not in another 10 minutes.

The building had started vibrating more powerfully now. Every unsecured object was now shaking intensely. Ron stared at the screen, mesmerized, as he held onto the terminal for stability. The fated Epilogue had arrived. Written nearly 390 years ago, by the creators of the Agency, it was always supposed to be a fail safe weapon. Only to be used in the most extreme of circumstances. Unfortunately, now was such a time that a doomsday weapon might be used.

If the Epilogue was not used, the Echos on the other side of the sphere, that stood still shrouded in darkness, would consume all that there was to consume on the planet. Beings of pure energy, they thrived on one thing, and one thing only, and that was sound. The rarity of sound, requiring a medium to travel in, and its uniqueness across the cosmos, they consumed all mediums that sound passed through. Until in 1997 they came to Earth, and were met with the First.

Ron nearly fell as the floor started thumping regularly in time to an alien beat. The feed now showed a slightly different scene. All around the stage, surrounding the two men, soft lights had begun to glow.

By using an electrically sensitive acoustic gel, the stage was capable of producing sounds, lights and colours that were impossible to produce with any other equipment. It was necessary to follow the ancient notes in their entirety. The whole stage was powered with its own dedicated fission reactor, and was capable of providing enough energy to play the final note, a note requiring a sound of 1100 dB. Enough to create a miniature blackhole.

With a perceptible shift in the air, the stage started to draw an immense amount of power. The duo had decided that now was the time. They prepared to play the symphony, known only to the two of them. A symphony written by the First. Written right after they met the Echos. The story of their meeting was lost to time, but right after the meeting, they began to craft the symphony. It would take the rest of their lives to finish, but when it was, they handed it to the first Major of the Agency. It was kept secret, only ever revealed to the successors who were trained to play it should the need arise. As it had.

The building suddenly stood still. Everyone watched the screen with bated breaths, and waited. The men on the stage glanced at each other, one final time, before staring straight ahead, and playing the notes carrying humanity’s last hope.

x-----------x

36 years later,

Ron climbed up the steps to his attic, his prosthetic legs silently powering him up. His son followed him, looking a bit concerned.

“Dad, you know you really shouldn’t be climbing up there” Thomas said, climbing into the attic to find his father opening up the door in the back wall. Thomas had never seen that door open, and spent a good part of his childhood trying to get it open.

“You were seriously waiting for my 18th birthday dad?” Thomas remarked with a laugh and watched his father pull out a dusty box. He opened it and took out a package wrapped in protective plastic. He handed the package to Thomas and indicated to him to open it.

Thoroughly confused, he went ahead and tore the plastic off, revealing a gleaming Silver Helmet. He looked up at his father questioningly, vaguely recognising the shape from the poster in his father’s den.

“There must always be a Daft Punk”