“I am Dead”
My name is Joshua MoonShadow and I am dead. You might be wondering how I ended up this way. It is a long story so I will give you the highlights before the darkness claims me you know how it works life flashing before your eyes and such.
I was born in the year 2125. In a cabin in the woods, my mother Rose was an old earth Native American. My dad, Xarxes, was an Imperial Phoenix. A War Mage trained by the emperors Mage Quorum to fight in his black division. My mother loved my Father dearly and when he died in a flyer accident, I was all she had left. She treated me like her world. She started training me young; it started with the old world arts as she called them. Like walking through the forest and not disturbing a blade of grass. By the time I was 10 I was a master hunter I could walk through the forest and the animals wouldn’t even see me. That started my training with bows, pistols and rifles. I was a master sniper by the age of 15 I could shoot a penny flipped in the air at 75 meters with a pistol. I had an eye for detail and pushed all my limits. I wanted to move faster, lift more, and I trained for it. I wore weights on my body until I got used to it then added more. I had adapted the antigravity or a flyer and made it smaller making it into a belt.by reversing the polarity I could add gravity to myself it was powered by a mini reactor that drew energy from the human body. When I turned 20 I was at 5 times Earth Norm Gravity (EN-G). I found that at 5 EN-G when I turned the gravity back to normal and tried I could move faster than the human eye could track I could “Step” from one place to another like a track runner pushing off level to the ground traveling faster than the human eye could follow. I would look like I disappeared from one spot to appear in another. I was in the forest on a run when I saw the flyer overhead heading for my home. Walking into the clearing, I noticed some men. Dialing the gravity down, I stepped behind the flier out of sight. Listening to the men I realized they were old friends of my father’s. They were Tim, Allen, and Dale or as I knew them Bruiser (Tim), Survivor (Allen) and Butcher (Dale). He had asked them if he died to come and help me learn how to fight, defend myself and teach me to survive. My Mother smiled at them and called for me to come out of hiding and meet them, My Mother always knew where I was and I could never hide from her. The men held a letter from my father for me and one for my mother. Dads letter told me how much he had loved me and was proud that I was his son he had gone to a Seer and knew the things I would accomplish and I had made him proud he told me that my “uncles” would help me on my path and to never give up. I went to my mother and held her as she cried. We show them around the house and the property letting them set up in our barn. The next day was full of surprises for me and for them, learning how to fight required me to move up my bodies training to 6 EN-G so I didn’t hurt or overpower my uncles to fast and they learned that I was pushing the limits of my body and they were pleasantly surprised. Bruiser taught me how to fight unarmed from grappling to martial arts I learned how to fight someone in close combat. Butcher started me off on knife fighting and then moved into using weapons of opportunity and then anything as a weapon. Bruiser and butcher worked together to show me how to fight against an armed or unarmed opponent. And survivor taught me just that to survive in the wilderness; we started off with a pack and then worked until we walked out with nothing but the clothes on our backs. For the next ten years they trained me hard and pushed me. A week before my 30th birthday we walked out naked they left me out there for a week before coming back to get me it was my final test. It was nice having my uncles around but knew they would have to leave and when the day came I was sad. We watched them lift off in the flyer and head south to the space port. I hugged my mother and head out to find dinner. As I crossed the forest I turned Hearing an unfamiliar sound. Looking up I watched as a missile flew over my head impacting in the clearing where my home was. I turned the gravity down and was stepping through the forest trying to get back as fast as I could. When I got there I found a crater where my home once stood, Looking around there were no signs around the crater of my mother making it clear. I knew she was dead and dropped to my knees in grief not knowing what to do. Thinking quickly my uncles crossed my mind, I started through the forest to my neighbors place which is a week walking away. Stepping through the forest I made it there just before nightfall. John came out when he saw me staggering in. I explained to him what was going on and that I needed to get to the star port. He headed inside and grabbed his gun belt and pulled out his flier. We made it to the star port in an hour. I looked for my uncles only to find out they were on a shuttle that exploded outside of the atmosphere. I had no idea what to do I didn’t have a home I didn’t have any family. John tried to talk me into coming back to his place and we would think over all my options. Instead I thanked him and walked into the recruiter’s office, knowing that either people thought I was dead or would know otherwise soon and that I needed to get away and where better than the military. The Imperial Marines took me and 12 hours later, I was shipped off planet on my way to the fleet ship Orion. I kept my training a secret and breezed through training, advanced training, then into sniper training, and finally ranger training.
At 35 I was finally on a battlefield, where I earned the nickname “Requiem” it became my call sign. It happened when I was listening to some old earth bagpipe funeral marches as I killed the enemy. It became my thing people soon realized when the bagpipes played people died. I earned many medals wounded in action, Silver Star, too many to count. At the age of 36 on patrol with a general along to oversee our patrol I saw motion out of the corner of my eye. Jumping in front of the general, I took three bullets meant for him. As I fell I fired a three round burst, killing the insurgent and two hiding in a nearby bush that I didn’t even see. My squad retreated with the general while Jiang our left flank stayed by my side. He kept pressure on my wounds but it didn’t help much, my heart stopped as the medical evac flew in. I woke up in a hospital a two weeks later with the doctors telling me my heart had stopped and I was declared dead twice. The doctors had to be told to try again and revived me they thought I wouldn’t make it back or that I would be a vegetable. The general had ordered the new generation of nannites to be pumped into me and they were the deciding factor for my survival. I spent a month in the hospital and I started to realize something had changed. The general came to talk to me, when I went down they had found the grav belt I had and realized I was walking around normally while at 12 EN-G. I nodded and explained my past and that I had always wanted to push myself. Later that day a man in a dark maroon robe walked into my room I noticed the imperial seal on his chest. He proceeded to brief me about the Phoenixes and he told me about my father. He wanted to train me; I had always been smart and loved to learn so I went with him.
A hundred years later I was a new man, a master of magic. I spent years devoting myself to any form of magic I could find. The military had assigned me to specialized unit the “Black Suns”; we were a group of people who all had different kind of abilities. There were thirteen of us total, there was; “God” a high priestess of the Goddess Bast was our leader, “Blood” a 50 year old new vampire, “War” a Sniper that had his eyes augmented to be able to see in various different ways , “Forest” a female Druid healer our outdoors guide, “Death” an assassin thought to have over a thousand kills under his belt (but he wasn’t one to kill and tell), “Hermes” a communication expert and linguist thought to be a daughter of the god Hermes with how much of a natural she was for languages, “Blade” a Ninja the last of his clan our stealth expert (I could give him a run for his money), “Dyna” an Explosives expert as we liked to say she had an explosive personality, “Coryphée” a master of disguise she was a natural and got into the group and was there for a year before we found out she was a female and that was by accident, “Polaris” a pilot could find any planet anywhere and get you there was his motto, “Tinker” an Engineer was hard to get his head out of electronics and onto the mission briefs, “Smoke” an Escape Artist claimed to be Houdini reborn (had to look him up), “Professor” a Tactician credited to saving the imperial armies butt a couple times when things looked grim, “Watcher” a spotter who had a natural talent to spot a spec of snow in a sand storm, and me “Requiem”. We were sworn in before the Emperor and were one of his Black Book Groups. We only answered to the Emperor and did any mission he gave us to the letter we worked like a well-oiled machine, we were a family. Of course things happen and feelings develop when you work with someone for so long but I could never let myself get to close. God and I had a short relationship and I ended it because I couldn’t stand to take her from what she loved but I could never get involved with someone in a dangerous line of work like we were in. I told her about it and she was hurt but understood after that she stayed away we were still friends but never more.
After 50 years of doing missions we were given a year rest and I returned home. I took a flier to where my house once stood and found a small lake. I decided to rebuild my home there at the edge a nice lake home. Doing it by hand was harder than I thought but in the end I had a feeling of accomplishment. I would go into town frequently. At the ripe old age of 190 I still looked like I was 30 and that was a good thing and a bad thing. I didn’t have trouble finding a lady to spend a night with but telling her my age was kind of a deal breaker no one wanted to be with someone who would outlive and still look better than them when they were in the grave. But everyone gets lucky or in my case looking back it was pure bad luck. I met Kristin one night while I was drinking myself into a stupor at a bar in the capital. She was a meter and a half tall and came up to my shoulder she had long blonde hair and curves in the right places and boy did she know how to use them. We started dating and at the end of my leave I asked if she would wait for me, this being a test and she said she would. Boy I should have known better. She and I kept in contact often I would go home after every mission to see her. After a year she told me we should find a place together in the capital that way we didn’t have to fly out into the middle of nowhere to go home at night. I agreed and started the move, as soon as we were out of my lake house she totally forgot about it. During this time God cornered me and asked “why I was moving out of my gorgeous house?” I looked at her not realizing she knew I had the house and told her “Kristin has asked me to move in with her in the capital.” I should of thought a little more about this before saying it as the look of hurt and pain that crossed her eyes as she said “Oh I loved that house just don’t sell it.” As she turns around and hurried away, I thought I saw a tear in her eye but didn’t follow her to find out. After that I saw God hanging around with Blood more and just decided to let it pass. A year after I moved in with Kristin I proposed and she accepted. We were married in a chapel on Brook with all her friends and family attending. I had asked a few people to show up and was surprised when a lot of the people I had served with showed up, all the Black Suns were there and even the emperor. My new wife was very surprised she knew I was in the military but didn’t know more than that. Blood and Death stood as my best men, God sat in the back and I didn’t get to see her much during the wedding and when I went to ask her to dance my wife threw a small fit and got jealous coming close to accusing me of cheating after getting married only an hour. During the receptions dinner the Emperor stood and said a few words about me being the best at what I did (Nudge Nudge Wink Wink), and about how many lives I had saved. Quite a few people stood at this to raise their glasses, my new wife was looking at me with different eyes and I was happy to have my “family” there. We took our honeymoon on Paradise, A tropical paradise, and I noticed a few things about my new wife. She loved to party and she would go to a bar to party, she would come back from the bathroom without her wedding ring on or how I would lose sight of her during the night, but I brushed them off as just figments of my imagination.
Ten years later the Noble courts started to get greedy and wanted more power. The emperor was dying and they wanted the new heir under their control, so they started to whisper in his ear. When the emperor died all the Black Suns attended the Funeral in full Combat “gear”. Each Black Sun had a Mask and outfit that was specially coded to them; the outfits had body armor and sonic shields. Each mask was unique and had a specially designed heads up display built into them. They didn’t have eye holes but the inside of the mask was a vid screen that eliminated blind spots. As each of us approached we left a trinket on the body each of us had loved this man and he would be dearly missed. As we were leaving the funeral God approached and asked to talk to me alone. Walking away from my wife I knew she was not happy. God took me to the side and switch on our private frequency sealing her mask as she did and I followed suit. God started off slowly “Josh I need tell you something and you probably won’t like it.” Looking her over I ask “what could be so bad, Angel that you would corner me at a funeral to tell me?” she turned and faced me “I did some checking and you had told me one time that your wife was going to a bachelorette party, and you did want to go out because you didn’t want to give her the wrong impression. So I followed her and she went to an upper class bar and was greeted by someone and they started kissing. After dinner and some drinks they went to the Chandler Hotel and got a room under your name I went up to the room and just passing the door I could hear her and him…. I don’t know how to say this without you getting mad at me. Josh they were having sex they stayed there for 6 hours before she went home to you. I am sorry josh she was cheating on you and since then it has happened a few more times with a couple different guys.” I was cold I could hear the bag pipes playing in the distance. But then the denial kicked in, and I turned from her “no that can’t be true she wouldn’t do that to me you have to be mistaken she loves me.” God stepped closer trying to comfort me “Josh I am sorry she…” I cut her off and said “No God it couldn’t have been her you must have seen someone else, sorry I need to get home.” I left her standing there as I returned to my wife taking my mask off.
When the Heir apparent took the throne he refused to accept our Oaths, saying he was disbanding us and that we were no longer needed. What he didn’t realize was that the Black Suns was an age old organization that predated the empire. We joined the first emperor to help guide the rise of the empire. So he couldn’t take away our power and we drifted back into the shadows. Our Ids are what gave us the powers we had. Each Black Suns Id was a Black Metal card that showed a holograph of the user and could open any door give us any clearance and had an unlimited credit limit. So instead we went black sky and made it seem like we were done. I went home to my wife and boy did things change I thought I had a loving wife. Though the truth was a totally different story I found my wife was gone long hours to see her friends and they went out every night but she would get mad if I wanted to tag along. She would come home and complain about me being in her space all day and wanting me to get a job. So I went out and got a job just trying to make my wife happy. Ten years after we went black sky the Empire got a message from deep space. The “Kaire” wanted to talk with us they were on their way and would be in our systems in five years. A Few Days before the Kaire were due in our systems; I woke to my comp beeping with a message. My wife rolled over and asked me in some not very nice terms, who was messaging me. I take a look at my comp and sit up walking into the kitchen. The encrypted message was from Blood telling me about a meeting for everyone that day. Closing my comp I get dressed and my wife asks me what is going on. I told her I had meeting that I needed to go to today and I will be back later. She gave me a weird look before kissing me and wishing me a good day. I left heading to an old abandoned warehouse before reaching out and pulling myself to our old base, a Dragon class Dreadnaught ship, hidden in a dead planet. I had designed this ship as a mage ship it was powered by three mage reactors the life support system was an entire level that I had grown into a forest and I loved to walk through it.
Stepping onto the ship I started the mage reactors and walked through the forest pulling my mask and putting it on. As I get to the center of the forest I stop and watch Forest step out of a tree. I greet her and we walk out following the halls up to the conference room. People started coming in slowly and we greeted them and stood around talking catching up. When there were twelve of us we sat down to start, thinking Blood was just running late. The discussion was based on what we as Black Suns were going to do about the Kaire, about what we had heard from inside the empire about the general populations’ thoughts on the Kaire. After a couple hours we decided that we would wait and see how the Kaire acted before we made our decision. We would be neutral taking neither side until we knew the full story and we would try to have a meeting with the Kaire ourselves to see what their plans were. I was starting to wonder where Blood was when I got a notification on my desk. Looking down I realize that it is a boarding notification. Standing I quickly pull my weapons, getting the attention of everyone in the room. “We have boarding notification on the starboard airlock” I say looking around the room. God stands and looks at me “it could just be Blood” she says. Just then a second notification pings my desk I look down at it. “Ok then explain the second boarding notification from the port airlock.” Everyone is moving at this point getting their weapons. When everyone is ready I step to the center of the room and face the door everyone circles up around me. I throw up a shield around us “we will see their intentions before we act agreed?” Everyone nods agreeing with me. The door explodes inward and a group of soldiers rush in and open fire when they see us. The first bullets gets by my shield, when I realize something is wrong and adjust my shield to melt the bullets before they impact on the shield, the molten metal rolling down to the floor. I look behind me at war on the floor a bullet in his head. I activate my music and the bag pipes begin to sing throughout the ship. And we start killing, the soldiers fall one after another. After the room is clear I move to Wars body and collect his mask, Id and his weapons. I slip them into a pouch and hand it to God who adds it to her belt. Looking at the body I summon mage fire to burn it fast when it is dust I banish the fire. Looking at god I tell her that these bastards need to pay and she can only nod in agreement. We start to sweep the ship killing anyone we see. Making it to the starboard airlock we stop around the corner and call out for them to leave and they will live. Instead we got the surprise of our lives; we step out and fire into the group of soldiers waiting killing them. Before we can move forward two people step off the ship, two people I never thought to see together much less here on the ship followed by two well-dressed men. Blood smiles and turns his head to my wife and says “I told you he would be surprised.” Turning his head he looked at the other two men telling them “I told you your army wouldn’t get it done if you had wanted it done right you should have let me take them out one at a time.” Standing there I was dumbfounded, looking at god then blood I ask in a dead voice “What do you mean I would be surprised?” Blood smiles and licks his lips “oh just that you didn’t know about me and Kristin, she thought you were starting to get suspicious. But this is even better I get to kill you turn her and have all your ID’s for my new group.” I put a shield between me and the rest of the Suns. Turning down my gravity generator, Blood laughs “you think you can handle me Requiem? You and your magic are worthless against me I have a null magic field around me.” God is trying to say something but I have gone. I remember doing this next part but I don’t remember anything else it was like watching it from someone else’s body. I step to Blood and use the full force and movement to strike him open palm to the chest. He tumbles end over end down the corridor till he slams into a bulkhead. As I slowly walk towards him he stands coughing and looks at me “is that all you have old man? You forget I am dead already you can’t kill me twice like that.” As I start to move again he suddenly draws his pistol and fires four shots. Two impacts and I stumble towards him, looking down I see holes in my chest and shoulder. I fall to a knee and use my magic to move to my shield. Kneeling there I know I am done for looking up I see Blood walking to my wife and kissing her passionately. I chuckle and look at God “you were right, again…” I pull my mask off and slip it and my weapons into a pouch before pulling my ID and slipping it into the pouch too. I look at God and smile “I hope you find someone who you can love who will never do what she did to me.” God shakes her head at me. I hear my “wife” behind me say “I want her dead she has done nothing but interfere in my life, Kill her for me Cassius.” I can see the tears this time, standing shakily I step and stumble to her holding out my pouch she takes it and whispers “Josh we can still leave” I reach up and pull her face closer kissing the forehead of her mask. I whisper “Good Bye Angel” Blood pulls his pistol and fires twice I move into the way as I push the rest of the suns through the portal. I feel the third bullet impact but I see Forest falling dead into the portal. I watch God try to grab me before she disappears and smile knowing that she will be safe now. The portal was to a hidden cave on my land back home. I stumble and turn at the wall and slide down. Blood Laughs at me “You sent them all away and didn’t even think to go with them you are an idiot Requiem, I mean what is the plan now? You die here? You didn’t even think this through no wonder you never knew about me and Kristin you are so short sighted.” I start to laugh, a deep booming laugh that make me cough blood rolling down my chin. He stops and looks at me, I turn my head slowly “Blood you were still young and ignorant when you joined us you never asked about this ship you never asked what its capabilities were you were just happy we had a private base. Well let me inform you now this is a Dragon Class Dreadnaught Mage Ship, what that means is a mage created and designed this ship. It is powered my three Mage Reactors and has a sentient AI. When the mage who created the ship dies the ship either flies itself into a sun or sets the Reactors to explode. Now three mage reactors going critical I would say this entire system is gone in a brilliant super nova and in its place is a new black hole. So when I die here in a minute if the explosion doesn’t kill you the black hole will ripe you apart atom by atom.” I smile as the color drains from his face as the two nobles turn and rush back into the ship followed closely by Blood and my “Wife.” I felt their ship undock and slowly crawled to the airlock I felt the reactors start to go and was surprised when the magic wrapped itself around me. The explosion was huge I felt myself thrown from the system. But now here I am dead drifting in space body torn my legs gone, my right arm broken beyond repair and three bullet holes killing me slowly. So much damage that the nannites can’t even help me, they are fighting a losing battle and I can’t even help them. All I can do now is float here and wait for the end. Closing my eyes I let the darkness take me. I am Dead.