- The War -
That is what they called it.
Just, the war.
It had been occurring since the start of time to the end of time. In a linear sense, it had lasted for over twenty thousand years, but in the more abstract sense throughout countless time periods - accurately lasting an eternity. It was an impossible war. All stratagems outwitted by time traveller foes who rewrote any victory or loss for either side. It was a war that had lasted longer than anybody had dreamt in their worst nightmares and a war that would last long after their last breath.
It was the Last Great War of the Time Keepers - truly the war to end all wars.
The year was seven billion, five hundred and sixty-two million, five hundred and sixty-three thousand three hundred and fifty-three years young at this point. The Time Keepers had existed since the very start (some say before). This was the year that the dishonourable detainee #13113 was standing accused of desertion is the abandonment of duty without permission. Detainee #13113 had been serving in The War for almost five thousand years, but had decided to flee when a forward operating base was destroyed.
Aboard the Arcadian XI Class Cruiser
-Detainees 13000-16000 step forward-
The arrested Time Keepers took a single step forward, knowing this entire processing centre took literal weeks.
Every few hours a guard in a monotone, robotic voice would command them to step forward in line as all one hundred thousand arrested would be summoned before the Grand Committee and tried for catastrophic treason. This was where detainee #13113 had ended up.
Breathing heavily as he had only just arrived off of a now departing transport ship, the Time Keeper looked all around, his red coat swinging by his side a little before settling.
"Oi, wiseguy," he gestured to a guard, nodding upwards to arrest his attention. "Ain't no way to fast track me is there? I'm guilty alright," the arrogant Time Keeper scowled. "I've fought in this damn war for years man. I'm going to happily sit the rest out whilst you fools fight forever..." he didn't mean that figuratively either.
The blue armoured guard sneered, looking at the red coated man's tag. "Detainee #13113. The penalty for desertion has been declared as banishment-" he paused, the death sentence impossible as Time Keeper's were biologically programmed to be unable to murder each other, "-to the temporal zone." But that was just as bad! The temporal zone is a space between time, acting as a limbo in between it. Upon being trapped there without some ability to navigate one would be literally lost for eternity. For a Time Keeper that meant eternity as they lived so very long.
'Detainee #13113' was just about to interject, his brow creasing angrily before a robotic voice echoed through the entire vessel.
- ᴀʟᴇʀᴛ -
???????????? ???? ????? ?? ????????.
ℂ?????? ????? ??????, ??????? ????? ??????.
??? ??? ?? ?????? ????????. ??? ????????? ???? ??????? ?? ?????????? ??????? ????.
- ᴀʟᴇʀᴛ -
Unexpected time shift? That meant that the ship was under attack from outside of this time. The enemy had travelled back in time and attempted to kill the creators, architects, anybody involved in the creation of this ship from existence.
The Time Keepers had protocols to defend against this type of attack but the enemy had protocols to counter-attack the counter-attack until one side ran out of steam. "Screw this shit," without warning the Time Keeper headbutt the armoured guard and sent him flying into the wall opposite, all Keepers having super strength after all. As the guard went flying, 'Detainee #13113' managed to slyly steal his metal baton and start to flee, the ship exploding here and there as parts of it simply stopped existing.
Randomly throughout the ship vacuums were created as panels just disappeared - sucking Time Keepers into the sun and vaporising them instantly. That was the danger of parking an entire battleship beside a giant star.
The Time Keeper had two options. Survive this battle (if it were to even be possible) and spend the rest of eternity trapped inside the Temporal Zone. Alternatively he could flee and steal a time ship. The later could kill him too. It could burn through his regeneration cycle in a near instant due to the time locks in place. He only hoped, hoped, that the captain had diverted power to sustaining the ships structure and depowered the security.
Some time later at the time vault
Slowly the Time Keeper crept through, looking down at his bruised fists. It had taken quite a fight to get here. He didn't enjoy beating other Time Keepers but no idiot was going to let him die on this ship. Over his shoulder was a guard, knocked out and ready to be used as a make-shift key. Detainee #13113 bent down and rest the guard beside the time vault, looking at the bio-metric scanner knowing his hand print wouldn't work here. He grabbed the guards thumb and placed it onto the device, the door didn't open... It vanished. Time vaults only existed when required to exist.
Behind the door, an entire room appeared full of little silver spheres. Each sphere contained a spaceship capable of travelling anywhere in time and space. The Time Keeper looked over at the first sphere and activated it, two metallic hands spun the sphere around at a thousand miles an hour a thousand times until it opened. It would only open in the presence of a Time Keeper - it didn't care of their intentions.
Time travel was a birthright to his race.
He raised a palm to take the stone.
He knew if the security was still active within the ship for even a fraction of a millisecond his life would end the moment his palm touched the ship. But if it worked? He would leave this dreadful war forever... But then he heard a croaking, the Time Keeper guard slowly crawled into the room, both of his legs broken from the earlier fight and his nose bloodied.
He raised an arm, a blaster was pointed straight towards Detainee #13113.
"...If you steal that," he coughed blood, "you are forsaking your own kind. Time Keepers have existed forever! You can't just steal a..."
Detainee #13113 snorted. "What are you gonna do, shoot me? You know we can't kill each other. What a stupid rule."
Without hesitation he grasped the gem - simultaneously the guard tried firing his weapon, but it didn't work. He almost broke his finger trying to squeeze the trigger - but it was locked in place, he was unable to overcome his biological limitation. "COWARD!"
The other Time Keeper roared instead, throwing down his gun and watching as Detainee #13113's entire body started to disintegrate under the pressure of the gem. The guard laughed. "The defences weren't shut off! Ha! YOU TRAITOROUS PIECE OF SHIT, DIE!"
The Time Keeper felt himself dying, every single cell of his body began to regenerate and then disintegrate one thousand times in the matter of a nanosecond.
His body tried clinging to life....
...Was this the end? What a cowardly way to die. The Time Keeper turned to the guard, saying nothing as everything didn't go black.
It simply stopped.
Earth, 2017, study in Millennium Academy
The Time Keeper rest his eyes for a moment, reading a few books to pass the time. In his travels he had found a very intriguing one. It was from the 1800's, a very old journal in fact. This woman had been on many adventures, he loved reading those. With a rested sigh he opened his eye again and plucked up the book, reading a new passage...
October 20th, 1888
Yesterday, I chanced to hear the professors discussing an expedition
Of archaeologists exploring a region of particular interest—an
Underground temple to the God of Thunder himself. But I don’t recall anything
-
About the Scandinavian people carving out subterranean tunnels to
Revere any of their deities until this point. I believe the
Excavation could show a
-
Notable deviation from the usual artifacts found previously. I am certain if I had the
Opportunity to examine the ruins myself, I could finally reveal evidence for my
Theory that the Norse gods were, at the very least, inspired by creatures from
-
Another planet, not merely figments of religious ideation. Perhaps one of these
Lifeforms left some sort of artifact that could grant a clue, something anachronistic or
Otherworldly. Imagine if Thor’s infamous hammer was actually a device capable of abilities
Never understood by more primitive minds—an alien implement that could serve as proof of
Extraterrestrial life! There may be evidence at the site. I wish I could see for myself.
—Maddy
He did a double take. Reading the diary entrance again. And then again, and then, again.
"What." His eye gazed at the words. "No. No that can't be." Placing the book down the Time Keeper leaned back in his seat and knew this needed investigation. But not alone, no, nothing this serious. First of all he needed to be able to time travel again. It would not be a hard problem to solve. He had planted another wrist device in the ground when he had met Archivist. Next stop, was meeting Ali Outsider and Uma in hospital to ask for assistance - after that, came meeting Anakia to ask for help. All of them had been told the exact time he was going to request their help.
And just like that, wherever they were, a purple portal would open up in front of them. "Hello friends," he waved at the three, two of the group in different places, but he was inside the classroom.
His familiar old face smiled.
"Step along inside and you'll be transported here. Adventure time!"
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