Part One: Sic Parvis Magna

Year 2208

Akira had nothing against traveling to a tropical island in the middle of nowhere. It was better than the alternatives of getting shot at by a drone during a recon mission, or being on the receiving end of a shockwave in an ambush, or most scenarios she's been in during the last six years. A vacation was fine; she just figured it would come after the war. While the end was nowhere in sight, even after fourteen years, one side had to win eventually. Hopefully, it was theirs.

Outside their little plane, nothing much had changed from when she last checked a minute ago. They were still coasting above the dark blue sea, just close enough to make a relatively safe emergency water landing but far enough to not leave a mark on the ocean's surface. A quick glance at the wing outside her window showed that the camouflage feature was still functional, and a few more seconds of searching the water's surface proved their shadow was receiving the same treatment. But any danger wouldn't come by sea, or by land.

While the pristine blue sky above them seemed friendly and welcoming, everyone on Earth knew it was anything but. They learned early on that clear weather didn't mean safety; if anything, that was how the enemy caught their targets by surprise, and anyone that lowered their guard on a sunny day would be the first to die.

Unfortunately, there wasn't a cloud in the sky, and Akira was in charge of keeping them alive.

"Anything on the radar?" Akira asked, craning her head over the back of the pilot's seat to see the controls. She couldn't understand them, but she figured any flashing red lights would warrant worry.

"No hostiles in sight," the co-pilot replied with more than a hint of impatience.

Akira frowned. She figured the co-pilot's main job was to accept Akira's pestering and prevent the primary pilot from crashing the plane out of annoyance.

But Akira was used to being dismissed. Not only did people assume she was inexperienced as a twenty-six-year-old Army captain, but she was frequently mistaken for being five or more years younger. People weren't used to taking orders from someone that looked like they should be in high school.

"What about our thermal camouflage?" Akira asked. "A minute ago, the display looked like we were transmitting five degrees above atmospheric."

"And that's within the allowable range," the co-pilot said, but they still rapped a finger against the temperature display, as if that would do anything to the digital screen. "Temperature fluctuates in the air all the time—that's science. Even if you're in the Army, you should know how air works. That's where the enemy is, after all."

Akira did know that; she also knew that the margin for error decreased with wind speeds, and gusts at their low altitude were projected to be two meters per second, at most. Five degrees were three too many when it was a matter of life or death.

"Look on the bright side!" Akira's fellow passenger and charge grinned next to her. "If we're attacked, it'll be a perfect time to see my portable airbags in action!"

He tugged at the collar of his combat vest, a garment identical to what the rest of them were wearing but looked baggy on his tall, gangly figure. "They deploy automatically, and they increase chances of survival by 16 percent! Although, I'm not sure how they'll fare in the water... It might actually force the user's head to submerge."

After pausing to think, he procured a notebook from his vest and a pen from the depths of his voluminous afro, then began scrawling zealously on the paper. He seemed completely oblivious to the tense silence that followed his admittance, and the concern seemingly amplified within the tight confines of the tiny aircraft, filled only with the hum of the engines and the erratic scratching of pen against parchment.

"Increasing power to thermal cloaking by 5 percent," the co-pilot mumbled, adjusting the controls.

"Copy," the pilot replied, not taking their eyes off the skies.

While Akira still didn't care much for her charge and his unpredictable behavior, in that moment, she appreciated his candid flair. That usually wasn't the case though; the young Doctor Isaac "just call me Izzy" Cardoso was notorious throughout Base for his unhinged personality and passion for science that frequently toed the line of insanity.

It was because of him that they were on this treasure hunt in the first place, if it could even be called that. "Treasure hunt" implied there was a trail of clues for them to follow, and a glorious prize awaited them at the end. All they had was a loony scientist's hunch based on a story from a random person on the internet. And instead of a guaranteed prize at the end, the best they could hope for was information on the leader of their enemy.

But if this lead panned out, it could change the course of the war, and maybe even end it. People could walk around town without monitoring their surroundings for enemy sightings or potential escape routes. Homes and businesses could be rebuilt without the threat of re-destruction. Kids would see what a world without war was like, a notion they only thought was possible in books and movies from before their time.

And maybe the people responsible for the world's suffering would finally have to answer for their crimes.

With her dreams in mind, she refocused on her mission and kept her eyes on the skies.

Akira only had to maintain her forced calm for about ten minutes before chaos ensued.

Amidst the stiff silence, an obnoxious blaring blasted from the controls and the plane rumbled. The shaking quickly worsened and was joined by another alarm, this time with an accompaniment of flashing lights. A few seconds later, the passengers were privy to a symphony of sirens, and the co-pilot scrambled to conduct them into silence.

"Sensors are going wild!" the co-pilot exclaimed over the noise, pushing one particular button repeatedly, seemingly to no avail.

"Wind's choppy too," the pilot hissed through gritted teeth, their hands clenched on the control wheel. "We hit an invisible tornado, or what?"

But one look out the window was enough to see the same calm blue seas and skies.

"Interesting..." Izzy mumbled, as if he was commenting on what he ate for breakfast instead of their impending doom.

Akira's shock at his calm tone was enough to pry her eyes away from the pilots and stare at him. But Izzy remained oblivious to everything except for the brick-like device in his hand and its numerous analog displays, each with a dial that spun wildly over their ranges.

"Look!" he exclaimed, much more cheerful than the pilots were, as he turned the device towards Akira.

Akira looked obediently, mostly out of bewilderment, before quickly concluding that she had no idea what he was talking about. If anything, the spinning gauges were only cause for more concern.

"Is that supposed to make me feel any better?" Akira yelled back, unable to keep her voice from rising in pitch as she concentrated on bracing herself against the plane's rumbling frame.

"The magnetic field is constantly shifting!" Izzy said, ignoring Akira's lack of appreciation. "I've never seen anything like this occurring naturally."

Just as Akira thought things couldn't get any worse, Izzy began to laugh. And what started off as a lighthearted chuckle soon turned borderline maniacal.

"We have to abort," the co-pilot said, still hurriedly pushing buttons and flipping switches. "Any more of this and we'll be ripped to shreds!"

"You will not!" Izzy snapped, his laughter cutting off abruptly. "We have to keep going!"

"You're crazy!" the co-pilot spat back. "Whatever you're after can't be worth dying over!"

"Either we die now or die later!"

The co-pilot turned to the pilot, desperate. "Captain!"

After a moment of silence, with nothing but alarms whining in the background, the pilot finally answered.

"We'll keep going, but at a lower altitude," they said. "The water looks calm, so whatever this is probably doesn't go down that far. That's fine with you, Doc?"

"Perfectly."

"Ma'am?"

Akira tightened her grip on the plane's frame. "Can't wait."

"We can't waste our lives over...whatever this is!" the co-pilot said.

The pilot only spared a second to shoot a glare at their partner. "Tell that to the people that are already dead."

With that, the co-pilot didn't say another word.

As they descended, the ride gradually smoothed and silenced. Unfortunately, their plane was now mere meters above the water, and the ripples they made on the surface trailed them wherever they went, clearly revealing their location.

Thankfully, a sliver of land appeared on the horizon a minute later. From a distance, their destination seemed to be nothing more than speckles of sand and shrubbery in the middle of the sea; it wasn't until they flew closer that Akira realized it was so much more—and they had only seen the beginning of it.

The island was essentially a narrow mountain that protruded at least fifteen hundred meters above the ocean, its base surrounded by a thick belt of jagged rocks and tumultuous white water. In place of the peak was a crater about three hundred meters across that plunged deep down the middle; it wasn't until they ascended and flew directly overhead that Akira could see the lively village at the bottom, only slightly above sea level.

From a faraway glance, the community appeared to be thriving. To the north was a small forest, while the south had a stretch of green farmland. The west had a pasture with chickens and pigs, and in the east was a large pond. In the middle was a cluster of fifty or so houses, and while each appeared small and primitive, at least they were still standing. It was as if the war's reach hadn't extended that far in the middle of nowhere, or it had gotten caught in the rough reef or the steep slopes. It was like it was paradise.

As their aircraft steadily lowered into the crater, the locals' shock was palpable from their body language alone. Each of the couple hundred villagers froze in place with their faces directed towards the sky; then, one by one, they fell to their knees and bowed. Akira wondered if it was more out of fear or awe.

"You did tell them we were coming, right?" Akira asked as she squinted out the window. As much as she wanted to get a better read of what they were walking into, all of the locals' faces were directed towards the ground.

"Nope!" Izzy answered without hesitation. And at the incredulous look Akira shot him, he shrugged. "How could I? I'm not even sure these people know the outside world exists."

It took Akira several valuable seconds to comprehend what Izzy had said, and when she was finally done, she felt like an idiot. How did she not realize something was strange when there was no record of a population living at those coordinates, how nothing but ocean showed up in satellite imagery, and why everyone in the plane had to go through thorough decontamination prior to taking off? They were going to meet a group of uncontacted people.

"You didn't think to tell us this before?" Akira yelled, only getting angrier when Izzy ignored her. "We can't be the first ones to make contact with these people! There's...a process to this, or something! Ethics!"

"Pretty sure ethics went flying when death began raining from the sky," Izzy said, more focused on waving out the window at the ground below.

"There's no space to land, but I can get you a few meters away and you can use the ladder—or just jump," the pilot said, clearly not having any moral qualms about the situation.

Izzy beamed, already undoing his seatbelt. "Perfect!"

"No, not perfect!" Akira seized his arm. "What if we end up killing them? We're carriers of disease!"

"Hence the decontamination that I requested," Izzy said with a bored tone, like a child being held back by a teacher at recess. "And we won't tell them more than necessary, or whatever it is you're worried about, okay? We'll just find out what we need and leave."

"But..." Akira trailed off, unable to properly word her concerns.

The situation seemed wrong, but she didn't know how to say why. At the same time, she had her orders, and those should trump her morals every time.

Izzy sighed, as if he could see Akira's internal turmoil. "Look, if it's any consolation, we're trying to save the world, remember? What we find here will save millions of lives, I just know it. And if we leave now, these people will eventually fall to Concordia anyway. Let's at least let them be part of the solution."

Akira hesitated. "You don't know that for sure. If no one's found these people in the last hundreds of years, how could they find them now?"

"Did you forget the mission brief already, Captain Dunn?" Izzy teased. "They posted something to the internet. I don't know how, but if I found them, so can Concordia."

And before Akira could reply, Izzy slipped out of her grasp, pushed open the plane door, and leapt out.

"Looks like your charge is getting away, ma'am," the pilot said.

"Yeah, yeah."

Akira quickly opened her own door and, after determining the height was safe, jumped to the ground. Seconds later, the plane rose back into the air, hovering in wait for their next signal. And once the dust settled, Akira took a better look around.

Her first thought was that there was no way anything there could connect to the internet. In fact, there was no sign of electricity at all.

Her second observation was of the people. Nearly all of them remained bowed over on the ground, each of them pointed at Akira and Izzy. The only ones who dared to peer up were a few children clustered at the outskirts of the group.

"Greetings!" Izzy suddenly shouted, his hands waving wildly in the air. "My name is Izzy, and it is a pleasure to meet all of you."

It didn't surprise Akira when his enthusiasm was met with still silence.

"Apologies for the disturbance, but I had a quick question about a legend of yours," Izzy continued, unperturbed by his tough audience, and retrieved his notebook from his vest pocket. "They were all quite thrilling, really, but one in particular really piqued my interest. It was about two of your gods. They were friends for centuries until one of them lost her mind and almost decimated your village. Does that ring a bell?"

Again, Izzy was met by silence, along with a few more raised heads and curious stares from the locals.

"Not yet? No matter, I'll just keep going."

Izzy flipped a page in his notebook and continued in an overly dramatic voice.

"After a long battle, the goddess was finally subdued by her old friend. Alas, he couldn't kill her, so he sealed her away in the earth and entrusted the dutiful locals to watch over her until he returned. So, every full moon, the people worship her, bathing her tomb in the light until she utters the magic words:

"Damn you, Verus Rex. Damn you."