Lets end this
Stories tell of a good day. Or a rainy day. Or a thunderstorm. Some are telling of fogs and other things to set the mood for whatever setting they wanna go. Horror, fantasy, psychothriller or even normal urban stuff.
But John hadn't imagined how it was to go into war. How it would like to be at the front of the Ukraine War, with the expectations, dreams, wishes and hopes of Valeria Chersviç, the Empress of the Valerian Empire and all of Germany, Poland, France, Italy, Ukraine and all of the other nations which feared the nuclear war the nearly-undead mad president was about to unleash. At least they feared it.
John arrived after a small flight - he still wasn't used to his power to fly and the landing was not graceful - in the east of Warsaw two hours later. He crashlanded in a park near the Muzeum Dulag 121. The command center should be in the old shopping mall. He called Valeria with his bio-processing unit on her phone.
"John." her melodic voice vibrated in his skull. "You already landed?"
"Yes." he said with a sigh in his mind. "Still not used to it. Wasn't a landing, more a crash."
"Suitcase is intact?"
"Indeed."
"Good. Talk to the General. Can you activate your GPS for me?"
"Already did. I can see the museum and the roofs of the mall. It is kind of ironic that they set up camp near a museum in the rememberance of the Second World War. And pretty dark."
A short break, then she said "It is indeed. What do you make of it?"
"That we can't let that happen again. And we tried. Now I am here. A walking nuke."
"Don't say that. Think of a Hercules or a Beowulf or Siegfried."
"Uh, I don't think that is going to work. It feels a lot more like Charon."
"But you aren't the ferrymaster."
"No...well, whatever. I call you again after I talked with the General, I am nearly there."
"Yeah, hear you later." The line cut off as John thought about it. Sarah - his fully fledged Artifical Intelligence - displayed helpful information all around his new, sleek Heads Up Display in his field of view, but was surprisingly quiet. A welcoming silence, to be honest. He took the path to the old Rolas Trans building and discovered a K2PL Black Panther and M1A2 v4 Abrams standing in the background of the command center. Well, can't go undefended, but two main battle tanks? Someone was really careful and anxious. The front wasn't on this side of the Weichsel1). "HALT!"
John stopped. The soldier was aiming at him with his Mini-Beryl, a standard NATO carbine. Did the unit translated it automatically? That was new. [I install every language you need so you can understand them and speak it like you were a native speaker. For you it should feel like speaking and hearing german.]
[Yes, it does. Thank you, Sarah.] Yes, it was new. And really helpful. He could get used to it. The entire conversation took about two or three seconds and he put up his arms into the air, the small suitcase dangling on one hand. Technically he could have levitated it, but he doesn't want to scare the poor soldier right away. "Äh, hi!" John greeted the man, his friend spoke into his radio. Something about an unexpected visitor. "The name is John Sullivan, I am the ambassador from the Valerian Empire. You might have heard of it, the old Germany." "Where are your cars?"
"I came alone. I just want to speak to your General to resolve the situation you have here."
That confused the man, but he didn't lowered his gun. John lowered his arms. "I can wait here, you can talk to the General first, I brought my suitcase and a lot of time with it."
That wasn't better, at least not for the soldier, but he made a gesture to his friend and he spoke again into his radio and got a response, but didn't say anything. "I am going to reach into my pocket." announced John and pulled out a paperback, opened it at the point where he left the bookmark. It was a relatively new paperback from a horror-science-fantasy-ero-romance which he found in a store and actually it was kinda good. No idea where the romance and the ero was, but there was a lot of science - not entirely accurate - and a lot of horror with fantasy, so for a few Vals it was okay-ish. He read through five pages until the sturdy metal gate opened and General Bocian - Sarah informed him with a small nameplate over his head how the man was called - appeared with a security detail of eight soldiers. That was a surprise. John put the paperback back into his pocket - those british paperbacks were so good for travels! - and smiled a bit. He doesn't want to look more hostile than necessary, but his long woven military coat, his leather boots and the tailored suit made him look like CIA or some other secret organisation. Only the glasses were missing. But he didn't like strange sunglasses, so no glasses for him. "General Bocian!" he greeted the man and flashed a smile. "The man of the hour. I am..."
"I don't care." The General stood in front of John, only a few centimeters smaller than the large german man. His brown eyes looked hard out of a war-ridden face with wrinkles all over it. "Who the fuck are you thinking to just...waltz into my city and claim you can solve anything at all?"
"As I said, General." John was still smiling. "I am John Roland René Sullivan and I am the ambassador of Valira Chersviç, the Empress of the Valerian Empire, the former Germany." His smile got a bit wider. "You may have heard of us."
General Bocian frowned. "I have heard of her. But you? Well, you have a solution, you say? Where is it?"
"Stands in front of you."
"You are shitting me."
"Wouldn't dream of it."
"And what can you do for us?"
"Are we going to discuss that here, in the open field, where drones and other nasty things can read our lips or just listen to us?"
"Right, right." The General nodded to his security detail and they flanked John, letting him no escape to all side. Poor fools, they had no idea. They marched in close formation through the gate, passed multiple armed posts with soldiers in it and then into one of the two large warehouses of the former MLP Group. The warehouse was reinforced, a few soldiers with stationary machine guns secured the entrance, two SUVs with mounted machine guns on top covered the front. John found at least four different ways to break their defense within moments. Not even with his sun-powered energy, just with one or two rockets and some nice shots. They brought John into a small cabinet, scanned him and his suitcase and deemed him harmless. Fools. Then they escorted him into a room which held the war table with maps, small figurines, strategic plannings and the course of the front. Which was basically the Weichsel right now. Pretty straightforward with a few chokepoints, sniper spots, machine gun positions and heavy armament. "Isn't it risky to bring me here?" asked John. "I mean, I claimed I am Sullivan and was sent by Valeria, but what if I am not?" The General smiled a weary smile and showed John his ear with the small earphone in it. "My intelligence already confirmed your statements. We may have a hard time and aren't probably not so itty-bitty as Germany or your new Empire, but we have our methods." "I see... well, great then." He picked up his suitcase, put it on a bit of free space on the desk and opened it. He pulled out a few documents which explained his statues, his order and the thanks of Valeria herself, all signed and sealed. Yes, they started to use wax seals again. It had the right vibe and pissed off a lot of people. "Okay then." General Bocian let the documents fall on the desk like they explained nothing. Which they didn't. "But that doesn't explain anything at all. How can you help us? We already have all of your Leopards and our KS2 at the front and can't use any of your jets. Even when the Germany... sorry, the Empire can deliver us more weapons, we do not have the arms to fire them. We are barely holding up." "We know and that is why I am here."
"Still doesn't explain what one man can do." He shrugged. "Not for an entire war at least."
"You sure?" He looked to one of the soldiers. "Soldier, are your trousers secured with a belt?"
"Yes, Sir."
"Is that so?" John smiled, flicked his wrist and snapped with his finger. Neither the flick nor the snap was necessary, it was merely for show. But the desired effect was hilarious. The buckle of the belt got loose and the next second the soldier stared down his trousers, flaying around his feet. Everyone stared at first at him and then at John. "As I said", continued the german man with the power of the sun, "I want to resolve your situation here. I already saw that you have problems with a few T-14 Armatas, sniper and artillery?" Bocian came faster to his words than his subordinates. He cleaned his forehead with a handkerchief from a few drops of sweat and nodded. "Yes, that is correct. They hold the bridges and the narrow waters of the river. We had tried to cross them, but even in the night they have an advantage over us." [Probably because Putin also made a deal.]
[Yeah, it appears so.] "Okay, that is managable. I need a megaphone and a folding chair if you have one."
One hour later John had left the suitcase in the command center and wore the tall box and the folding chair. He also could have used his powers, but not now. So he wore them and they had basically no weight since he supported his endeavours with energy fields so that they basically negated the weight. It was cheating, but to win a war you had to use unconventional methods.
John strolled to the bridge at the interstate 629 right from the royal palace of Warsaw. It was damaged, gaping holes in walls and roofs and impact craters all around the place. Two burned-out husks of battle tanks stand left from the bridge, crumbled and dead.
It was an interesting weather. John hadn't thought about how the weather would be on the day he would start to decimate the front, but he hadn't expected a strange twilight of grey clouds and burning red sunlight. Like an artist would paint with oil the sunlight bled into the grey clouds from the east, like fire eating tapestry.
He stepped carefully onto the bridge. Nothing happened, but his HUD showed him vectors and the snipers spots. As he reached the middle of the bridge, one of them fired a warning shot; the bullet hit the ground next to his left foot and ricochet off into the distance. John put the box and the folding chair down, the megaphone at his belt.
Then he stepped onto the box, turned the megaphone on and three holographic audiofields appeared in front of him. They should reinforce his voice and clear them of all interferences and disturbing noises.
"Ähem..." made John and the audiofields did their work. His voice was strong and clear and hopefully to hear over the next few blocks and far beyond it. "Hello, soldiers of Russia, Poland, Bulgaria and whoever is now a soldier, officer or whatever in this army. My name is John Sullivan. I am here on behalf of the new Valerian Empire, the polish citizens and every other nation which isn't so eager to go to war.
Let me paint you a picture: Wagner has left you for good after a few years, your new mercenaries are gone, killed, injured. This war is now going on for close to fourty years. Everyone is tired of the war. And I think you are too. You don't wanna die for an old, war raging man with his fantasies of Nazi-Germany or the rest of the world.
So I am here to give you a choice: lay down your weapons, retreat from the city and nothing will happen to you. From our side you can return to your families, your loved ones, your pets, children or just go about with your life. I come over this bridge in around thirty minutes and will destroy every equipment you have. But if you are still here in thirty minutes and start a fight with me, you will lose. I kill everyone who stands in my way, but I hope I don't have to. - Thirty minutes and... go!" He displayed a digital clock with a timer in latin numbers over his head, then he dropped off the box, opened the folding chair and sat on it, reading his horror-science-fantasy-ero-romance novel. He also flipped his favourite sword to his side, a battle-ready replika of an old viking sword after a now long dead king. Hopefully he doesn't need it. The clock showed twenty seconds left and John finished the chapter right on time. He put the paperback away, secured the sword with the scabbard at his belt and climbed onto the box, the audiofields appearing again. "Alright folks, you had your time. I am coming now." He coughed. "I destroy everything you can use to wage war. If you want to fight, do it, but there is no mercy, not anymore." The bullet from the sniper in the park ricochet from his energy shield, which shielded him from any harm. And since he had the power of the sun with him, he could sustain it with various strengths and for a really long time. He used this power to form a ball of glowing energy in his hand and threw it. The hot yellow-orange ball flew in a ballistic curve - John could have shot it like a tank, but he wanted to demonstrate it - into the park, detonated with noise and a lot of heat and light between the trees. They broke, flew around and started to burn because of the heat. "Hab ich euch gesagt." grumbled John and started to walk over the bridge, drew his sword. The first houses were just ruins, scarred, burned out, crumbling. The first machine guns had no soldiers, no operators; they had left. Which was good as John started to burn it, melting metal, letting bullets fly, glassed the rest. But after he reached the Galeria Wileńska there was resistance. At first he started to shoot smaller sun-bullets - hey, that could actually be a name for it! - and destroyed everything which could shoot. The soldiers screamed, cursed and started to go into close combat, but John had trained and he was cheating. His bio-processing unit showed him attack patterns, incoming vectors and everything he needed to know, to dodge and to kill. Larger sun-energy projectiles flew over the city. Heat, shockwaves and fire exploded, melting tanks, melting artillery and vaporising people. As he ventured into the houses he left a trail of blood and bodies. He memorised every face and every name he could see, even the officers. Well, not that he could change it; the bio-processing unit saved it all, if he wanted it or not. He had to live with everything he had said, had done and would say and do in the future.
As the sun was setting, the sky was burning and overcast with the clouds of burning houses and equipment. Helicopters, two jets, and over ten main battle tanks of type T-14 laid still smoking where they went down. Houses were still smoking, John had put out the fires he caused as good as he could.
John scanned the area and it was nothing left. Over three thousand soldiers left the city, a few hundreds chose to fight and were dead now. Ammunition, guns, heavy weaponry destroyed, worth millions. Melted away into clumps of metal.
Slowly he tapped back to his box on the bridge on the 629, sat down on it, the bloody sword at his side. He started to clean it and after a few minutes Sarah showed him contacts in the direction of eastern Warsaw, one of them was General Bocian.
John looked up, tired as he was. Not physically tired, his mind was tired. This was not a good day for him. This was the first time he had to kill and he killed 672 soldiers in the process. After he returned he would puke for a few hours, that's for sure.
"Mr. Sullivan..." Bocian stood in front of the sitting man, his face grey and full of wonder. "How did you...what..."
"One man against one army." John put his sword back into the scabbard and rose from the box. "The city is empty. I killed everyone who stood in my way and destroyed their equipment. This is just a demonstration. Call your political leaders and we will negotiate how, when and on what terms Poland is going to be part of the Valerian Empire."
John patted the General on the shoulder. "And after this I am going to destroy the entire front. Hopefully with you and your land at our side, General."
"Yes." he said with a sigh in his mind. "Still not used to it. Wasn't a landing, more a crash."
"Suitcase is intact?"
"Indeed."
"Good. Talk to the General. Can you activate your GPS for me?"
"Already did. I can see the museum and the roofs of the mall. It is kind of ironic that they set up camp near a museum in the rememberance of the Second World War. And pretty dark."
A short break, then she said "It is indeed. What do you make of it?"
"That we can't let that happen again. And we tried. Now I am here. A walking nuke."
"Don't say that. Think of a Hercules or a Beowulf or Siegfried."
"Uh, I don't think that is going to work. It feels a lot more like Charon."
"But you aren't the ferrymaster."
"No...well, whatever. I call you again after I talked with the General, I am nearly there."
"Yeah, hear you later." The line cut off as John thought about it. Sarah - his fully fledged Artifical Intelligence - displayed helpful information all around his new, sleek Heads Up Display in his field of view, but was surprisingly quiet. A welcoming silence, to be honest. He took the path to the old Rolas Trans building and discovered a K2PL Black Panther and M1A2 v4 Abrams standing in the background of the command center. Well, can't go undefended, but two main battle tanks? Someone was really careful and anxious. The front wasn't on this side of the Weichsel1). "HALT!"
John stopped. The soldier was aiming at him with his Mini-Beryl, a standard NATO carbine. Did the unit translated it automatically? That was new. [I install every language you need so you can understand them and speak it like you were a native speaker. For you it should feel like speaking and hearing german.]
[Yes, it does. Thank you, Sarah.] Yes, it was new. And really helpful. He could get used to it. The entire conversation took about two or three seconds and he put up his arms into the air, the small suitcase dangling on one hand. Technically he could have levitated it, but he doesn't want to scare the poor soldier right away. "Äh, hi!" John greeted the man, his friend spoke into his radio. Something about an unexpected visitor. "The name is John Sullivan, I am the ambassador from the Valerian Empire. You might have heard of it, the old Germany." "Where are your cars?"
"I came alone. I just want to speak to your General to resolve the situation you have here."
That confused the man, but he didn't lowered his gun. John lowered his arms. "I can wait here, you can talk to the General first, I brought my suitcase and a lot of time with it."
That wasn't better, at least not for the soldier, but he made a gesture to his friend and he spoke again into his radio and got a response, but didn't say anything. "I am going to reach into my pocket." announced John and pulled out a paperback, opened it at the point where he left the bookmark. It was a relatively new paperback from a horror-science-fantasy-ero-romance which he found in a store and actually it was kinda good. No idea where the romance and the ero was, but there was a lot of science - not entirely accurate - and a lot of horror with fantasy, so for a few Vals it was okay-ish. He read through five pages until the sturdy metal gate opened and General Bocian - Sarah informed him with a small nameplate over his head how the man was called - appeared with a security detail of eight soldiers. That was a surprise. John put the paperback back into his pocket - those british paperbacks were so good for travels! - and smiled a bit. He doesn't want to look more hostile than necessary, but his long woven military coat, his leather boots and the tailored suit made him look like CIA or some other secret organisation. Only the glasses were missing. But he didn't like strange sunglasses, so no glasses for him. "General Bocian!" he greeted the man and flashed a smile. "The man of the hour. I am..."
"I don't care." The General stood in front of John, only a few centimeters smaller than the large german man. His brown eyes looked hard out of a war-ridden face with wrinkles all over it. "Who the fuck are you thinking to just...waltz into my city and claim you can solve anything at all?"
"As I said, General." John was still smiling. "I am John Roland René Sullivan and I am the ambassador of Valira Chersviç, the Empress of the Valerian Empire, the former Germany." His smile got a bit wider. "You may have heard of us."
General Bocian frowned. "I have heard of her. But you? Well, you have a solution, you say? Where is it?"
"Stands in front of you."
"You are shitting me."
"Wouldn't dream of it."
"And what can you do for us?"
"Are we going to discuss that here, in the open field, where drones and other nasty things can read our lips or just listen to us?"
"Right, right." The General nodded to his security detail and they flanked John, letting him no escape to all side. Poor fools, they had no idea. They marched in close formation through the gate, passed multiple armed posts with soldiers in it and then into one of the two large warehouses of the former MLP Group. The warehouse was reinforced, a few soldiers with stationary machine guns secured the entrance, two SUVs with mounted machine guns on top covered the front. John found at least four different ways to break their defense within moments. Not even with his sun-powered energy, just with one or two rockets and some nice shots. They brought John into a small cabinet, scanned him and his suitcase and deemed him harmless. Fools. Then they escorted him into a room which held the war table with maps, small figurines, strategic plannings and the course of the front. Which was basically the Weichsel right now. Pretty straightforward with a few chokepoints, sniper spots, machine gun positions and heavy armament. "Isn't it risky to bring me here?" asked John. "I mean, I claimed I am Sullivan and was sent by Valeria, but what if I am not?" The General smiled a weary smile and showed John his ear with the small earphone in it. "My intelligence already confirmed your statements. We may have a hard time and aren't probably not so itty-bitty as Germany or your new Empire, but we have our methods." "I see... well, great then." He picked up his suitcase, put it on a bit of free space on the desk and opened it. He pulled out a few documents which explained his statues, his order and the thanks of Valeria herself, all signed and sealed. Yes, they started to use wax seals again. It had the right vibe and pissed off a lot of people. "Okay then." General Bocian let the documents fall on the desk like they explained nothing. Which they didn't. "But that doesn't explain anything at all. How can you help us? We already have all of your Leopards and our KS2 at the front and can't use any of your jets. Even when the Germany... sorry, the Empire can deliver us more weapons, we do not have the arms to fire them. We are barely holding up." "We know and that is why I am here."
"Still doesn't explain what one man can do." He shrugged. "Not for an entire war at least."
"You sure?" He looked to one of the soldiers. "Soldier, are your trousers secured with a belt?"
"Yes, Sir."
"Is that so?" John smiled, flicked his wrist and snapped with his finger. Neither the flick nor the snap was necessary, it was merely for show. But the desired effect was hilarious. The buckle of the belt got loose and the next second the soldier stared down his trousers, flaying around his feet. Everyone stared at first at him and then at John. "As I said", continued the german man with the power of the sun, "I want to resolve your situation here. I already saw that you have problems with a few T-14 Armatas, sniper and artillery?" Bocian came faster to his words than his subordinates. He cleaned his forehead with a handkerchief from a few drops of sweat and nodded. "Yes, that is correct. They hold the bridges and the narrow waters of the river. We had tried to cross them, but even in the night they have an advantage over us." [Probably because Putin also made a deal.]
[Yeah, it appears so.] "Okay, that is managable. I need a megaphone and a folding chair if you have one."
Let me paint you a picture: Wagner has left you for good after a few years, your new mercenaries are gone, killed, injured. This war is now going on for close to fourty years. Everyone is tired of the war. And I think you are too. You don't wanna die for an old, war raging man with his fantasies of Nazi-Germany or the rest of the world.
So I am here to give you a choice: lay down your weapons, retreat from the city and nothing will happen to you. From our side you can return to your families, your loved ones, your pets, children or just go about with your life. I come over this bridge in around thirty minutes and will destroy every equipment you have. But if you are still here in thirty minutes and start a fight with me, you will lose. I kill everyone who stands in my way, but I hope I don't have to. - Thirty minutes and... go!" He displayed a digital clock with a timer in latin numbers over his head, then he dropped off the box, opened the folding chair and sat on it, reading his horror-science-fantasy-ero-romance novel. He also flipped his favourite sword to his side, a battle-ready replika of an old viking sword after a now long dead king. Hopefully he doesn't need it. The clock showed twenty seconds left and John finished the chapter right on time. He put the paperback away, secured the sword with the scabbard at his belt and climbed onto the box, the audiofields appearing again. "Alright folks, you had your time. I am coming now." He coughed. "I destroy everything you can use to wage war. If you want to fight, do it, but there is no mercy, not anymore." The bullet from the sniper in the park ricochet from his energy shield, which shielded him from any harm. And since he had the power of the sun with him, he could sustain it with various strengths and for a really long time. He used this power to form a ball of glowing energy in his hand and threw it. The hot yellow-orange ball flew in a ballistic curve - John could have shot it like a tank, but he wanted to demonstrate it - into the park, detonated with noise and a lot of heat and light between the trees. They broke, flew around and started to burn because of the heat. "Hab ich euch gesagt." grumbled John and started to walk over the bridge, drew his sword. The first houses were just ruins, scarred, burned out, crumbling. The first machine guns had no soldiers, no operators; they had left. Which was good as John started to burn it, melting metal, letting bullets fly, glassed the rest. But after he reached the Galeria Wileńska there was resistance. At first he started to shoot smaller sun-bullets - hey, that could actually be a name for it! - and destroyed everything which could shoot. The soldiers screamed, cursed and started to go into close combat, but John had trained and he was cheating. His bio-processing unit showed him attack patterns, incoming vectors and everything he needed to know, to dodge and to kill. Larger sun-energy projectiles flew over the city. Heat, shockwaves and fire exploded, melting tanks, melting artillery and vaporising people. As he ventured into the houses he left a trail of blood and bodies. He memorised every face and every name he could see, even the officers. Well, not that he could change it; the bio-processing unit saved it all, if he wanted it or not. He had to live with everything he had said, had done and would say and do in the future.
FIN.
1) Weichsel, river in poland, called Vistula in english; it divides the city of Warsaw in two parts.
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