Odyssey of Eden

Prologue The acid rain whipped through the sandstorm, cutting jagged, misshapen lines that lingered for only a moment before the rapid, raging vortex reclaimed its form. A caravan of armored vehicles plodded along, attempting to cut a path from the Underdwelling to Olympus. A shrill, but excited voice stilled the sands and stopped the rain mid-fall, “Uncle Samuel!" Genevieve groaned with a great deal of exaggerated disappointment. Uncle Samuel looked at his granddaughter and playfully raised his brow, feigning ignorance, “What? You asked to hear about how I saved our people." Uncle Samuel pointed at Genevieve and then wagged it disapprovingly, “No patience." Genevieve interrupted again, “I'm patient!" and she pounded her small fist against the ground in defiance. Genevieve smiles to herself as her grandfather smiles back at her knowingly, “I just wanna skip to the part about the bombs!" Uncle Samuel laughs and Genevieve joins in. Uncle Samuel pats her head as he returns to his narration, “If we had never reached Olympus, we never would have found the bombs." The caravan had been travelling for days… weeks… maybe months. Olympus seemed just as far away as it had when the Warborn had begun their journey. “We're almost there everyone!" a voice attempted to rise above the harsh elements of Ares' surface. A woman could be seen standing atop one of the armored vehicles. She wore a dark brown cloak that covered her entire form, making it impossible to tell what she looked like without it. A glowing amber light seeped from the darkness inside her hood. She looked like a creature from a science fiction story. In truth, the light came from her VisScan helmet, a device designed to help someone see clearly even through the impossibly harsh elements of Ares. The woman was waving her arm, repeatedly motioning for everyone to keep moving forward, to overcome adversity and never give up until they had walked through the gates of Olympus. “Empress Ariadne!" Genevieve shrieked in excitement. Uncle Samuel held his finger to his lips, “Not yet." Suddenly, Ariadne's hand shot straight up, informing the caravan to stop moving. All the vehicles jolted to a halt. Multiple people began exiting their vehicles, poking their heads out of the windows, asking each other what was going on, why the caravan needed to stop. Ariadne began to travel along the caravan on foot, stopping at each vehicle and saying something inaudible to those inside. After Ariadne stopped at a given vehicle, the occupants excitedly rushed to exit their transport and began running towards the front of the caravan, quickly disappearing into the sandstorm. Eventually, Ariadne reached the final vehicle in the line, the one I was driving. “Mother?" I leaned my arm out of the window as she approached my vehicle. Ariadne stood there, just looking at me for a moment, almost as if she didn't recognize me. The sandstorm had gotten worse as Ariadne had gone from car to car, I could barely see her face despite her being right in front of me, not that I would have been able to see it anyway with her VisScan on. She reached her hand up to a spot just behind her right ear and pressed a button which retracted her helmet back into her collar, the metal pieces folding into one another and collapsing downward in a spiraling motion as they laid down to rest around the collar, making it only slightly bulkier than before. When the helmet was done folding itself away, and I could see my mother's eyes, I was astonished to see tears coating her face. I had never once seen my mother cry in nearly twenty years. I quickly opened the door and stepped out of my vehicle, I grabbed my mother by the shoulders, “What's wrong?! What's happened? Evacuation? Is it a stampede?" My mother pulled my hands down and held them in her own. She let one go and wiped the tears from her face, “It's wonderful!" she smiled at me. A bigger and brighter smile than I had ever seen anyone display. It shone through the putrid air of acid rain and swirling sand. My mother started laughing as she threw her hands to the sky, “ WE MADE IT!" she yelled into the wind. She leaned her head through the window of my car and told the others. They hurriedly exited the vehicle and began to run in the direction of our comrades. She turned and hugged me. A big bear hug. And she spun me around. “Oh Sam… Sam!" she finally set me down and pointed off to where the former inhabitants of my vehicle were running, “Olympus is beyond the lead car. It looks incredible!" I grinned at my mother, I'm pretty sure it was as grand as her smile had been just a few moments ago. I remember my cheeks hurting afterwards, “Why did we stop outside Olympus? I thought you wanted us to continue onward until we entered the gates of Olympus," I playfully nudged my mother as we started to walk towards where Olympus supposedly stood. She didn't miss a beat, “The cars couldn't have gotten through. It looks like they had a stampede a few days ago. There is so much sand, and rock piled up around the entrance and I guess they've only been able to clear enough out to open up the emergency tunnel." I brought my hood up over my head and situated my far less impressive cloth mask over my face, “So we traveled all the way across the Storm of Phobos just to go back underground?" “Stop being so dramatic, the tunnel leads into the main structure, we'll be back above ground in no time. Only without acid rain and tornadoes of sand surrounding us." “We should probably hurry though, in case of any more stampedes, or god forbid a skytear." My mother pressed a different button, this time on her collar. Her mask unfolded and recovered her head and face in seconds, “You're right… I'll hurry ahead and make sure everyone knows what to do and where to go, I'll see you in there." And with that, Ariadne ran off to catch up with our companions. Just as she disappeared, through the sand, Olympus emerged into view. A giant spire rose from the Ares' sands, it looked as though it reached beyond the stars and kept going. Three, bright tendrils were positioned around the spire, spiraling up just as high as the spire itself. The acid rain and raging sandstorm moved around it, never once coming close enough to touch the spire. The tendrils were repelling the elements, a shield against the natural weapons of War himself. Below this, where the spire and tendrils rose from, a massive complex sprawled out where a mountain had once been. A pristine, clean white facility clashed against the dark red and brown of the surface around it. It seemed to rise from the very depths of Ares. It was so radically different to behold compared to everything else on the planet, as if it were defying its very existence upon this world. I stood in the raging winds, stunned into stillness. I might have stood therefore ever, infinitely taking in the spectacle of Olympus forever, had it not been for a light tug on my cloak. “Mr. Samuel?" a small child stood before me, she wasn't looking at me, however. She was looking at Olympus. She might have been there as long as I. Maybe longer. Finally, she managed to tear herself away from the grand sight before us, “I think everyone else went in?" She pointed over towards the tunnel entrance. The door was closed, and our companions were nowhere in sight. I looked back at the little girl, recognizing her now as one of my passengers on the journey here, “Looks like you're right young lady," I held out my hand for her to take. She grabbed it earnestly and the pair of us made our way to the door of the tunnel. Just as I opened the door to the tunnel the girl craned her head back, trying to get one last look at the spire, “It's amazing…" she looked at me expectantly after I didn't answer. “Truly," I said as I too took one last look, “come on kiddo, we gotta catch up with the group." The girl stopped gawking and followed me into the tunnel, and we proceeded down the corridor together, “My name's Eve by the way." I smiled at her as we strode down the dimly lit tunnel, “I'm Uncle Samuel." “You're first name is 'Uncle'?" Eve looked as though she were on the verge of laughter. I laughed for her, and she happily joined me, “Weird, isn't it?" She grabbed my hand again, “I like it." “Thanks."