Angel of Death

    Tabitha awoke, but there was no music being played, she had just woken up naturally.  Her eyes were still heavy and yet Tabitha couldn’t possibly imagine returning to sleep.  She stood up with a simple smile on her face and wondered why she was no longer asleep.  The silence she heard was actually quite disturbing in many ways.  Tabitha crept over to her threshold, she couldn’t see or hear anything unusual, everyone and everything was still and quiet.  
    This made the sudden crash of the heavy work music all the more intimidating.  Tabitha had woken up just moments before it the time she was meant to.  She found this distressing, she worried that this place was conditioning her; she didn’t want Jotnar to leave an everlasting impression on any part of her.
    All around her, Tabitha’s fellow inmates were being abruptly brought out of their brief period between conscious living as the music echoed throughout the dungeons, signalling that it was time for work.  Everyone was waking, apart from one, the woman in the cell opposite Tabitha’s.  Tabitha was willing her to get up; she wanted her to see that she was ready for her.
    Tabitha thought of how lazy this woman is and how she hated her, not the most she had ever hated someone but she was definitely among her long list of enemies.  She stood there, eyes fixed, as if her stare could awaken this woman faster than nature.
    The far rows were always cleared of inmates before Tabitha’s, so she could see a guard deactivate the woman’s Sensitivity Field behind the groups of prisoners being lead along the walkway by more guards.  Tabitha struggled to see what was happening behind the shifting yellow blur, but she could just about manage to make out the guard entering the woman’s cell and trying to wake her up.
    Then Tabitha saw the guard fail to wake the woman up.  The guard looked puzzllingly at the immobile prisoner, and then tentatively reached out to feel the woman’s pulse, all the time waiting for her to spring up and attack her, she didn’t.
    The guard discovered that this prisoner was dead; he had never had to deal with anything like this.  The only thing he could think of doing was calling his supervisor, Eric Lancer, on his communicator.  After a few moments, Tabitha saw a couple of guards pushing a gurney along the walkway from the direction of the guards’ lift.  
    For all Tabitha knew, it was the same trolley they used to bring her down here.  The gurney followed the procession of prisoners and Eric Lancer followed it.  The panicked guard stepped aside as the prisoner was lifted onto the trolley and Eric Lancer approached to inspect what his guard claimed to be the ‘body’.
    “I think she died of her wounds,” one of the guards said.
    “I thought the doc said that she was stable,” Eric said as he looked at the woman’s shattered face.
    “Stability can change.  Besides, the infirmary doctor of this place isn’t meant to take the care of prisoners very seriously.  He’s here for us guards, not this scum.”
    “I guess,” Eric said.  “I suppose our Tabitha must’ve really tried to hurt her.  I’m liking her more and more.”
    “Do you think she’ll fight for you?”
    “She’s behind us, you know?” Eric said.  “Keep your voice down.  I think she will, though.  From what I see here, it seems she has a passion for violence.”  The guards started to wheel the body of Tabitha’s nemesis away when Lancer stopped them.  “Wait,” he said.  “I want to make sure of something.”
    Eric stepped up to the gurney and removed his baton from his belt.  He then proceeded to drive it as hard as he could into the woman’s belly, nothing followed.
    “Alright,” Eric said.  “She’s definitely dead.  Take her to the incinerator.”
    The guards took the corpse away but Eric remained, he stared at Tabitha and smiled the smile when you’ve just seen something that wasn’t funny at all.  Tabitha felt nervous under his gaze, as if she’d done something wrong.  Fortunately, this feeling didn’t last very long because Eric Lancer soon followed his guards and left this level.
    “Wait!” Tabitha called.
    A group of prisoners lead by a guard obscured her view as they passed by her cell.  The guard deactivated the filed around her cell and ordered her to get out.  Tabitha feared she had missed her opportunity, but she was wrong.
    Tabitha was taken up, with all the rest of her fellow inmates, to the assembly hall.  There they stood, ready to get to work, all but Tabitha.  She had something else in mind.  Tabitha saw what she was waiting for; Eric Lancer descended the stairs to open the doors.  When they creaked open, the huge crowd of prisoners was eased forwards by their captors out into the courtyard.  Tabitha didn’t move.
    The vague yellow shapes drifted past her, occasionally one would brush against her shoulder but Tabitha remained rooted near the front of this crowd.  The more prisoners who left Tau-Block, the more obvious it became that Tabitha had no intention of leaving.
    A guard approached her and roughly grabbed her shoulder, he tried to push her forwards but she wouldn’t budge.  Instead, she just continued her hard stare at Eric Lancer.  The guard lost patience very quickly and jammed his shotgun into her back.
    “Wait!” Eric called.  “Leave her.”  The guard obeyed him and backed off as Eric Lancer advanced on her.  He didn’t stop until he only a few inches separated them, he gave the most sincere smile he could manage, which just turned out creepy and said, “Is there something wrong?”
    “OK,” she said simply.
    “OK?” a look of complete bafflement engulfed his expression.
    “OK,” she repeated.  “I’ll give it a go.”
    “That’s as good an attitude as any I suppose,” Eric said.
    “I want to work on the Solar Farms,” Tabitha said.  “With a person of my choosing.”
    “Slow down,” Eric said.  “You have to win some fights before you get anything.”
    “OK then,” Tabitha said.  “Let’s go.”
    “I’m afraid there are no fights today,” Eric said.  “I’m entered in one tomorrow.  We’ll see how eager you are then.”  He turned away and started to leave.
    “Wait,” Tabitha said.  “After then, can I get the work?”
    “If you make me enough money, you will,” Eric promised.  “We can then talk about moving you up the shift list.”
    “Where am I on it now?” Tabitha asked.
    “Well,” Eric began.  “Everyone is supposed to have a shift in the fields and those at the top of the waiting list are the ones who have been here the longest.  Seeing as how new you are and when you take in the facts of how many people there are at Jotnar and how small the groups are who take each shift tending the Farms, I’d say you’re pretty low down.  I can change that but, for now, you have to work in the Pit like everyone else.  I’ll see you tomorrow Roth.”
    Eric ascended the stairs up to the guards’ quarters; Tabitha wished she could see them, at least once.  The guards didn’t need to escort her out of the block, Tabitha practically ran outside to join the rest of the condemned.  As she ran to catch up with the procession, Tabitha could hear the metallic echo of heavy doors closing behind her.
    A flood of inmates headed for the central Pit.  As the combined numbers of six blocks clustered together around the rows of access lifts, Tabitha actually managed to spot Jane before they were forced down into the mines, mostly because she was the only one among the immense crowd who was waving.
    This was the first time Tabitha had seen Jane outside the foreboding environment of the Pit, and the truth was she looked no different.  Jane’s demeanour was no more pleasant than it was underground, Tabitha couldn’t even imagine that being possible.
    Tabitha and Jane pushed through the crowds until they were together; they embraced as if they were old school friends who hadn’t seen each other in months, when in fact it had only been a day.  Tabitha made a note of moving her mental calendar along one place to the 16th of May.
    “Hi Tabitha,” Jane said.  “I haven’t see you since the guards carted you off, I was afraid they were going to kill you.  How are you?”
    “I’m still here,” Tabitha said, smiling uncomfortably.
    “Is your face OK?” Jane asked, inspecting it closely.
    “My nose is broken,” Tabitha said.  “That’s all; I got the day off though so that’s nice.  By the way, thanks for what you did.”
    “No problem Tabitha,” Jane said.  “Don’t worry about her, a person of her temper won’t last long around here, believe me.”
    “You’re right about that,” Tabitha said.  “She’s dead.”
    Jane and Tabitha took their places in the lines as they waited for a free access lift to take them down for some more forced labour.
    “She died, huh?” Jane said indifferently.  “Like I said, I’m not surprised.  What happened?  Did the guards kill her?”
    “I don’t think so,” Tabitha said.  “From what I saw, they seemed just as surprised.”
    “Was it suicide?” Jane said.  “That happens here occasionally.  That’s another reason why I think they give us spoons, to allow us to kill ourselves without giving us too dangerous a weapon.  Somnus wants us to die; it’s secretly encouraging us to end our own lives to free up space so the guards don’t have to.  It probably will have some sort of psychological consequence if the guards had to kill so many over such a long period of time.”
    “I don’t think it was suicide, either,” Tabitha said.  “I thought I overheard one of them say that she died of her wounds.”
    “Really?” Jane said.  “Wow, you must’ve really hurt her.”
    “I guess,” Tabitha said.  “I wonder what her name was.”
    “Who cares?” Jane asked.  “How was the infirmary?  Did you see Dr. Farrington?”
    “Yes,” Tabitha said suspiciously.  “How do you know him?”
    “When I first came here, there was a different doctor,” Jane said.  “I was given work being his assistant but when they said I’d done enough, they just put me back in the Pit.  When we got a new doctor, I got another chance of a shift at the infirmary.”
    “What do you think of him?” Tabitha asked.
    “Why?” Jane asked.
    “Just wondering?” Tabitha asked.
    “He’s nice,” Jane said.  “Probably too good for this place, but it feels good to have at least one person like him here.  For some reason, it makes me feel better about being here.  You’re nose doesn’t look that bad, actually.  I know the person who did that, you know.  He’s the patrol supervisor of Psi-Block, I’ve seen him before.  He thinks very hands on and spends a lot of time overseeing high priority areas of the Pit.  The guards don’t really like him because he tends just to beat unruly prisoners rather then just execute them as most of them prefer, they find it’s less hassle.”
    “That makes me feel better,” Tabitha said sarcastically.
    “Don’t worry about him?” Jane said.
    “Why?” Tabitha said.
    “Because nothing ever comes from anxiety,” Jane said with a reassuring smile.  “It doesn’t have much of a purpose, just relax and you’ll probably find you don’t have to worry about him for much longer.”
    “What do you mean?” Tabitha asked.
    “He’s not very popular among his colleagues,” Jane pointed out.  “If films have ever taught me anything, it’s that situations like these have a tendency of sorting themselves out.”
    “Yeah right,” Tabitha said mockingly.  “That’s how life works; everything just works out for you by sheer luck and has nothing to do with your own actions.”
    “Just trust me Tabitha,” Jane, grinning broadly.
    At that point, a guard roughly placed them within a lift.  They were the first two to enter this empty lift and they both stood near a back corner as more prisoners were piled in.
    “I had a dream last night,” Tabitha said.
    “Really?” Jane said.  “Lucky, I haven’t even had the opportunity to sleep long enough to get a dream for ages.  I wish I could get a day off.”
    “Then you have to get yourself injured,” Tabitha joked.
    “That’ll only work once,” Jane said.  “If you get hurt again, even if it’s something more serious, I’ll doubt you’ll get another break.  They’ll think you’re starting to damage yourself on purpose.  So what was your dream?”
    “I met God,” Tabitha said.
    “Really?” Jane laughed loudly.  “Sure you did.  Fine, what did he look like?”
    “We were sitting at a simple round wooden table amidst an eternal void,” Tabitha began.  “He didn’t really have a face; he just looked like everyone I’d ever met or seen combined.  It was just a rapid constantly shifting image of every face from my memory.”
    “Even me?” Jane wondered.
    “You had as much time there as anyone else,” Tabitha said.  “Do you know what he said to me?”
    “Tell me,” Jane was actually quite curious by now.  The lift was now filled and two guards entered and pushed the sliding mesh door closed behind them.
    “He told me not to worry,” Tabitha said.  “He said that it was only a practice.”  The guard pressed a button and the lift descended down into the darkness of the Pit.
    Jane had worked hundreds of shifts in her time but, for Tabitha, this was only her third, but she could imagine what all those shifts would be like because this shift began in exactly the same way as the previous two.  Jane and Tabitha left the lift, each was then equipped with a mining pick and canteen of ichor from a ready waiting guard by a rack of equipment.  The close pair was then taken along a nearby passage with a small group of inmates by a single guard.
    “Jane?” Tabitha whispered as they travelled down a narrow tunnel.  “Do you know anything about Eric Lancer?”
    “He’s the captain of the Tau-Block,” Jane said.  “How do you know his name?”
    “He talked to me,” Tabitha said.  “He said that he was impressed by my fight.  He tried to recruit me for something for the Arena.”
    “What?” Jane looked genuinely frightened.  “Ignore him.  He runs that theatre of death, don’t get involved with him, almost everyone who competes in it dies.”
    “I’ve already said yes,” Tabitha admitted.
    “Why would you do that you stupid woman?” this was the meanest Tabitha had ever seen Jane.  “I thought you wanted out, why are you trying to die?”
    “You can get favours,” Tabitha said.  “It might be useful.  Anyway, I’m a grown up, I’ll make my own decisions.”  
    “Fine,” Jane said.
    “Have you seen the Arena?” Tabitha asked
    “A couple of times,” Jane said.  “It’s a small pit that’s been dug down here where all the cameras are deactivated.  When’s your first fight?”
    “Tomorrow,” Tabitha said.
    “I’ll try and come,” Jane said.  “Moral support and all that.”
    “Thanks,” Tabitha said.
    They were ushered not that far from the centre of the Pit, just a down a few thinly winding passageways and into a small chamber where a medium sized group of prisoners were digging away at one end of the room.  They all looked heavily fatigued, like they were in the final hours of their shift, and Tabitha noted that they were all from the same block, they all had the symbol, ‘’, on their jumpsuits.  Tabitha wouldn’t have been surprised to discover that this group had dug this entire tunnel during their shift.
    Tabitha, Jane and a few others took up positions at the other wall of the chamber under the watch of two menacing cameras.  There was only one guard supervising them and he was resting by the entrance of the underground chamber.
    “Hey Tabitha,” Jane said while getting away with doing as little work as possible.  “You see that old woman behind us?”
    Tabitha looked, the oldest among the group behind them was a woman who looked like she was in her mid-sixties and had dishevelled grey hair with dirt covering her face.
    “That’s Elena Broda,” Jane said as if that meant something.
    “I’ve heard that name before,” Tabitha struggled to place it.  “Who is she?”
    “Elena Broda,” Jane repeated, not fully understanding what Tabitha had just said.  “She’s actively responsible for more deaths than anyone in history.  She’s the one who caused the Corporate Wars.”
    “Sorry,” Tabitha said.  “I never paid much attention to the news.  I grew up in England, the war never reached us so I never bothered to learn about it.”
    “My sister, Naomi, fought for Olympus in it,” Jane explained.  “I paid a lot of attention to it, believe me.  That’s why Alison Riley looks out for me, her and my sister are old war buddies.”
    “So what’s so important about Elena Broda?” Tabitha asked.
    “OK,” Jane prepared to elaborate.  “Elena Broda was born in the town of Lask in Poland and in the early thirties, she became an executive of Tersa Industries, a very powerful company based in Moscow.  When Jotnar was completed in the twenties, Olympus very rapidly became the most powerful company in the world.”
    “What does this have to do with the Corporate Wars?” Tabitha asked.
    “I’m getting to that,” Jane said.  “Now listen, the Olympus Corporation won the global prison contract with the help of allies within the European Parliament.  They had taken care of European prisons for many decades previously and this was a large factor in persuading the other Unions to do business with them.  When all continental Parliaments signed the contract with Olympus, this gave huge power to Olympus that the Unions didn’t realise at the time.  Normally, a company running a detention facility the size of Jotnar would lose a lot of money but Olympus used convicts as slave labour, used the Sun to power the place and did all sorts of things to save money, such as selling our organs.  This allowed them to roughly break even but what they got in profit was so much more powerful than money, they attained global influence.”
    “How do you mean?” Tabitha said.
    “The Olympus Corporation then gained whatever they wished,” Jane continued.  “Every continental government was forced to give in because Olympus kept threatening to cancel the contract, meaning decommissioning Jotnar.  This would lead to all of Earth’s refuse being returned home in bulk.  Even if the Unions could find another company to help them, it would take so long that irreparable damage would’ve already occurred.  This way, the continental Parliaments were persuaded by Olympus to grant them all the other government contracts they wanted.  This meant that Olympus was practically the first globally endorsed company by all the governments.  Just ten years after Jotnar opened, Olympus wasn’t just the most powerful company, but the greatest organisation that had ever been created.  It has more money than the Catholic Church had at its peak.  The Olympus Corporation became richer than God.”
    “What happened next?” Tabitha pressed.
    “The other companies became frightened,” Jane said.  “They all saw their imminent demise in the form of Olympus, but of course, they couldn’t do anything to stop them.  That’s when Elena Broda came along, she tried to convince the other Tersa executives to go to war with Olympus.  She claimed it was the only way for them to survive.  Olympus had the largest army in history by this point, so they of course refused.  But she didn’t stop there, Elena Broda was also the head of a secret organisation called the Outer Circle, which she formed without her fellow executive’s knowledge shortly after she attained power.  This was her own private army, a covert order of bodyguards and assassins.  They had a prominent part in the Corporate Wars, where they were called the Indigo Guardians because of the dark purple bandanna that they all wore.”
    “I’ve never heard this before,” Tabitha said.
    “You wouldn’t,” Jane said.  “I was told stories of her time during the war from my sister.  Anyway, in 2136, Elena Broda made her move.  She had her fiercely loyal Outer Circle assassinate all the other executives in the Tersa Corporation and claimed the position of Director of Tersa, ruling autocratically.  Now, she didn’t need anyone else’s permission.  She formed the Coalition of Resistance with three more of the world’s most powerful companies, not counting Olympus of course.  One of these companies was called Exact Sciences, a technology company based in Tokyo, they provided much military hardware for the war effort.  Another was called the Mulholland Group, which was based in Melbourne.  The final member of the Coalition was called Vanir Unlimited, an agricultural conglomerate with its headquarters situated in New York.  They made their money by growing huge fields of Genetically Modified crops all over the world to feed the population.  Vanir also did a lot of charity work in Africa, it was a good company, it gave free food and equipment, teaching modern farming techniques to some of the remotest places where people still lived in poverty.  It was a shame what happened to Vanir.”
    “How so?” Tabitha asked.
    “Later in the story,” Jane promised.  “Moving on, on the 15th August 2136, these four companies orchestrated a synchronised attack all over the world on Olympus installations.  This signified the start of the Corporate Wars.  There was even a terrorist plot to blow up Olympus headquarters by the Outer Circle but it was foiled.  From this day on, the world was wracked with battles, Olympus had to fight against four companies.  The Coalition thought that their combined forces, along with the element of surprise, would be enough to defeat Olympus.  Their plan was to stop Olympus monopolising the world so they could later divide the remains up between the four members and make the world a fairer place.  There was no front line of the war, the world was filled with meaningless battles wherever there was a point of strategic importance, which the companies interpreted as anyplace where one for their facilities was.  This meant most built up areas all over the world along with the spaces in between them.  Most of the fighting was concentrated in mainland Europe, that being the land in between the two main companies, Olympus and Tersa.  At the start of the war, Olympus was forced to reform its security force into something more efficient.  It was divided into two main bodies, they formed a fully operational offensive army for most conflicts, but they also needed to create a military organisation for defence.  This defensive body was divided even further into two more groups.  There was the Companion Guard whose duties were primarily guarding Olympus headquarters and all executives.”
    “What was the other one?” Tabitha asked.
    “The Enforcers,” Jane said.  “You must’ve met them in England.  Olympus requested permission from the EU to enact martial law in London in order to protect their headquarters.  This was only a formality and they were allowed to replace the London police with Olympus Enforcers.  These days, Olympus Enforcers have taken the place of Union police in every settlement with a building owned by Olympus, which is virtually all of them.  Olympus claimed that they needed this to ensure that they were protected against possible terrorist attacks from Tersa supporters that remained after the war.  Do you want to know how Olympus defeated the Coalition?”
    “Why?” Tabitha needed to know.
    “It’s all due to Olympus’ investments in aerospace technology over the years,” Jane explained.  “As far back as the 21st century, Olympus was strongly involved with extra-Terran experiments.”
    “Why would that help?” Tabitha asked.
    “Soon after the new European Union was formed in 2032, the Olympus Corporation was granted the pharmaceutical contract for the NHS of the former United Kingdom,” Jane said.  “Olympus wasn’t well known before this and no one knows why they were given the monopoly on providing drugs to the National Health Service.  This developed into the Continental Health Service round about the same time the European Parliament legalised all the previously banned narcotics.  Both due to selling medicinal and the recreational drugs that Olympus were now permitted to synthesise, they became incredibly wealthy as a result.  In the mid 21st century, Olympus used their money from the CHS contract to buy the failing European Space Agency off the European Parliament.  The ESA was dying and Olympus offered to invest heavily in it for overall control.  Olympus pooled most of their profits into their new space exploration department and, because of this; they invented artificial gravity before NASA.  The first gravitone plates only had a microscopic range but they soon developed practical applications and used them to break the old 803-day record for continuous time spent in space.  After this, Olympus then absorbed all companies who were involved in space technology, including NASA, to remove all competition and create a monopoly on space.”
    “I still don’t understand why this would be useful,” Tabitha said.  “I know that’s how Olympus built this place but why would they want this technology for a war?”
    “Operation Deep Strike,” Jane stated.  “Do you know what deep strikes are?”
    “No,” Tabitha admitted.
    “In the autumn of 2136, Olympus developed a special fireteam of ships called the Olympus Grenadiers,” Jane said.  “They were nicknamed the ‘Enders’ by their enemies. It consisted of four medium sized stealth bombers who were completely invisible to radar and could leave Earth’s atmosphere; this wouldn’t be possible with Olympus’ highly advanced aerospace technology.  They were the first vehicles capable of space flight that were armed.  The flagship was called the Carrion; it was captained by a man named Benjamin Hall-Thomas.  He now captains the main transport ship for Jotnar, the Caduceus.  He also led Operation Deep Strike, this entailed a synchronised attack on the headquarters of all four companies who opposed the Olympus Corporation.  When the war began, all executives of the Coalition spent most of their time hiding in their respective company headquarters, as they were the most secure places available to them.  All company headquarters contain, on some level, apartments for their executives in addition to whatever other homes they owned.  So each ship was assigned to target one of the companies.”
    “Why would they need the ability of space flight?” Tabitha asked.
    “Because it meant that they could go into orbit before approaching their targets,” Jane explained.  “It’s so they would be impossible to detect visually as well as instrumentally, meaning they couldn’t be shot down by any defences.  Then, from orbit, they would launch their missiles.  Each Grenadier was equipped with Incubus Rockets, a very advanced form of laser guided missile, which could be launched from space and descend upon their targets with near perfect precision.  Operation Deep Strike was a partial success.”
    “What does that mean?” Tabitha asked.
    “The headquarters of Vanir Unlimited were completely destroyed, as were those of the Mulholland Group’s,” Jane said.  “All the executives and almost every single person of importance of Vanir were killed in the attack, effectively wiping out the company altogether.  Don’t worry though, Olympus took over all their farms and food contracts, minus the charity.  I was living in Melbourne at the time the headquarters of the Mulholland Group was destroyed.”
    “I forgot about that,” Tabitha said.  “What was it like?”
    “The Mulholland Group controlled most of the businesses within the city,” Jane said.  “My dad even worked for them.”
    “Was he hurt in the attack?” Tabitha asked.
    “No,” Jane said.  “Just unemployed, which isn’t much better.  The war ended in Melbourne that day, but the depression that followed was just as devastating.  Most of the executives were killed, the few that remained issued a surrender and fled, afraid for their lives.  That left the city in a miserable state; it wasn’t like England where the war had no effect.  Olympus protected that island, there was no one to protect where my family lived.”
    “So your sister fought for Olympus but your father worked for Mulholland?” Tabitha questioned.
    “It’s not uncommon,” Jane pointed out.  “Corporate allegiances have nothing to do with family; it’s to do with wealth and ideologies.  I was going to work for Mulholland, but then it wasn’t there anymore.”
    “So you didn’t fight in the war?” Tabitha said.  “You would have been old enough, just about.”
    “I didn’t do any fighting,” Jane said.  “It all ended in my home town before I had a chance to, not that I would, I didn’t want to be a soldier.”
    “What happened to the other two companies?” Tabitha asked.  “Tersa and Exact Sciences?”
    “Exact Sciences was destroyed but its executives were smarter than Mulholland or Vanir’s,” Jane said.  
    “How so?” Tabitha said.
    “They abandoned their headquarters and spent the rest of the war in hiding,” Jane said.  “They supported Tersa from the shadows but they didn’t have a prominent effect in the war after that point, they had already provided the Tersa Corporation with all the war equipment.”
    “What happened at Tersa headquarters?” Tabitha said.
    “The Carrion, the Grenadier flag ship, was sent to demolish Tersa headquarters,” Jane said.  “Well, obviously they failed because Tersa spent the next five years fighting Olympus.  Tersa headquarters were extremely well defended.  Exact Sciences provided them with the same technology that Olympus uses to protect its headquarters.  Heavy robotic laser gun emplacements controlled by next-gen Cerberus computers.  They were about the size of modern day ship lasers.  These machines could act much faster than any human and so could detonate missiles long before they reached their target.  Olympus had them placed all around their tower and on the roofs of various buildings throughout London to provide protection, but Tersa had the same, so it was a stalemate.  Do you remember that guy I told you about, the Pink Lotus?  The one who was born in Jotnar and became an operative for Olympus?  When the attack failed, Olympus sent in the Pink Lotus to infiltrate Tersa headquarters and deactivate the Cerberus defence grid so the Grenadiers could demolish it, killing Broda and crippling the coordination of their war effort.  This was called Operation Carousel, and as it was put into motion, Olympus equipped the Grenadiers with machine guns so they could destroy enemy satellites in orbit, which would damage Tersa’s communications and try to give Olympus soldiers an edge during ground combat.  The Lotus succeeded and the defence grid was offline, but Tersa detected his communication announcing the completion of his task and soon intercepted him.  The Carrion, believing that everything was happening as planned, prepared to launch the second bombardment.  On the surface, the Lotus was captured attempting to escape Tersa headquarters, but he had already crippled the control unit of the Cerberus defence grid to such an extent during his sabotage, that Tersa wouldn’t have been able to repair it in time for the impending assault.  The Carrion positioned itself above Moscow, if they succeeded the war would have been over on that autumn day in 2136, but they still didn’t.  What Olympus didn’t know was that Tersa could hack into Olympus satellites so when they tried sending the Carrion again to make a second attempt at destroying Tersa headquarters, they ran into some difficulty.  Tersa hacked into the ship’s control system and transmitted a virus into their onboard computer, causing all systems to fail.  It came down all the way from space and collided with Earth.  After the Carrion was downed and contact was lost with the Lotus, Olympus assumed that Lotus had been forced to divulge Olympus’ communication access codes before being executed, when really he was taken to the Maiden for further interrogation.  Olympus couldn’t have known this, they weren’t even aware of that facility’s existence until after the war and the Lotus returned from it.  The operation was a disaster, their best agent was eliminated and the Grenadier flagship was destroyed.  When it crashed back down to Earth, only the captain survived, Benjamin Hall-Thomas.  He was rescued by the Nyx squad, you know?”
    “What’s the Nyx squad?” Tabitha asked.
    “The Nyx squad,” Jane said.  “The famous group of Olympus soldiers who fought in countless battles against the Tersan Legion during the five year stalemate.  They were the ones who brought an end to the war.”
    “How did they do that?” Tabitha said.
    “On the 20th of April 2141,” Jane said.  “The Nyx squad captured Elena Broda and ended the war.  When it was finished, over hundred million lives had perished due to the Corporate Wars.  At the beginning of the war, the continental governments had all been neutral; they considered it a matter for the companies to settle.  But when Tersa started losing its allies, it grew desperate and began using chemical and biological weapons.  The most infamous of which was called M-731, the Mercy virus, it was a weaponised form of the Castan virus.  Mercy was part nanomachine, part virus, it was like a cyborg on a microscopic level.  This was so it could be programmable, a computerised virus that can be ordered where to go and how to strike.  Broda used it numerous times against Olympus troops and collateral civilians.  After this, the Parliaments labelled her a war criminal and supported Olympus.”
    “How exactly did they support Olympus?” Tabitha asked.
    “Not in any practical sense,” Jane said.  “They just gave official support, they wouldn’t help the military, they weren’t able to.  Olympus has more power than all the Parliaments of Earth combined, except for one important factor.  To this day, the Parliaments still have control of all the nuclear weapons. That is the only way in which they are more powerful than Olympus and they still wouldn’t allow Olympus to use them during the war because that would only increase the massive damage that had already been caused.  M-731 had killed enough people already; it was named after Unit 731, a disreputable Japanese research team during the Second World War who experimented on prisoners of war with biological weapons.”
    “Is that why she’s here?” Tabitha asked.  “War crimes?”
    “That’s the official crime,” Jane said.  “She wasn’t sentenced to life though, they gave a special sentence of 1000 years.  Can you imagine that?  I think it was to send a message.  Have you seriously never heard of the Nyx squad?  They’re pretty famous.”
    “I’ve heard people talk about them,” Tabitha said.  “I just don’t know many details.”
    “They were five hand-picked elite soldiers who single-handedly destroyed Tersa headquarters over four years after the failed attempt by Lotus and the Carrion,” Jane said.  “Their ranks and names were removed and replaced with codenames when the group was created.  Nyx was their leader, and the pilot of their personal ship, the Rasputin.  The other four were known as Icelus, Phantasos, Morpheus and Thanatos.  Olympus never released their true names to the public for security reasons, because there still are Tersan supporters out there, along with the remnant of the Outer Circle.  But I know their real names.”
    “How?” Tabitha said.
    “Morpheus was the medic of the squad,” Jane ignored her.  “His name was Dr. Sebastian Brooks.  Thanatos is a man named Zil Henman, he was the sniper.  Before you say it, yes, that is his real name.  Icelus was the communications and computer expert, whose name was really Alison Riley.”
    “The Governor?” Tabitha said.  “She was in the Nyx squad?  Does that mean…?”
    “Yep,” Jane said.  “The true name of Phantasos is Naomi Williams, my sister, the technical and mechanical specialist.  That’s how I know so much about the Corporate Wars and it’s also why Alison looks out for me; it’s a favour for Naomi because they were so close during the war.”
    “Wow,” Tabitha said.  “I’m not related to anyone famous.  What’s your sister up to now?”
    “Naomi trained as an engineer before she joined the Nyx squad,” Jane said.  “After the war, she took over an old shipyard in the middle of the North Sea called Lethe.  She spends her days repairing and building ships like the ones that brought us here.  I’m sure there’s some ironic undertones hidden somewhere in that job.”
    “So that’s how you know so much?” Tabitha said.  “You sister is really high up.  Do you know what the other members of the Nyx squad are doing now?”
    “Have you ever heard of the Eros Institute?” Jane said.  “It’s a top secret Olympus scientific research team.  Sebastian Brooks founded it after the war and all of Olympus’ high priority science projects are in their hands.  I’ve heard rumours that it’s on Venus because no one else has the technology to land on the planet.  It’s to keep it safe.  Of course, you know what Alison did after Nyx but Naomi told me that Zil Henman stayed in the military.  Apparently, he founded his own military unit; it was a daughter cell of the Nyx Squad called the Capon Unit.  It was comprised of Corporate veterans and its sole purpose was to root out any remaining resistance that was left over in the Tersan aftermath, such as Broda’s supporters like the Outer Circle and the scientists who helped create Broda’s illegal weapons.  Even some of Exact Sciences’ hidden executives were captured; all people found guilty of war crimes were sent here, along with Broda.”
    “You never told me who Nyx was,” Tabitha pointed out.  “What was his real name?”
    “You know what I like about the Pit?” Jane said, not really listening.  “Don’t get me wrong, the list is short, but when I first came here I was really skinny and unfit.  After just a few months I started to get in better shape and now look at me, I’ve never had muscles this big before.  If you ever need to get fit, just come to Jotnar, they should hire this place out as a holiday camp.  What do you think?”
    “Jane?” Tabitha said.  “Are you listening to me?  Who was Nyx?”
    “What?” Jane said.  “Naomi never talked about Nyx much, I only ever got Nyx’s true name out of her once and even that was after a lot of asking.”
    “So who was he?” Tabitha asked.
    “I did find out something even more interesting though,” Jane said.  “Did you know that the Nyx Squad wouldn’t have ever even existed if the Pink Lotus hadn’t been taken prisoner?  The Lotus was originally meant to fill the role of the Nyx Squad, but then he was captured, presumed dead at the time, during Operation Carousel and so he needed to be replaced.  Olympus still required someone to carry out special missions and so created the Nyx Squad.  The first member of this new squad to be recruited was Zil, who was originally the second-in-command of the First Chance Platoon.  This was the Olympus unit that the Lotus had previously commanded before his capture, at which point it was disbanded.  Then, after some research into the Lotus’ genealogy, Olympus discovered that his father had another son with a different woman a long time before he was born.  Lotus' half-brother turned out to be already employed by them, he was a doctor called Sebastian Brooks.  So they brought him in next as the medic of the squad with my sister and the Governor soon following and their leader last of all.  Each of the other three members was designated with their own specific roles too.”
    “So who was the leader of this squad?” Tabitha asked.
    “You know what always makes me smile when I think of the war?” Jane said, still not listening properly to Tabitha.  “The Coalition of Resistance was founded to stop Olympus taking over the world but when the war was finished and done with, these four companies were all obliterated and do you know who took over all their contracts?  The Olympus Corporation.  That’s why Olympus is now really the only company left.  It gained even more wealth and power from the aftermath of the war and used it to buy up all remaining competitors.  Now it effectively controls all of the major Earth companies in some way or another.  I even feel slightly sorry for Elena Broda; she ended up accelerating the process she had been once been so passionate to resist.  Now she has to live out the rest of her life here, things couldn’t really have turned out worse for her.  I suppose she deserves it, a lot of people did die because of her.  She killed a lot more than Hitler did, but he’s still considered the most evil person who ever lived.  Do you think that’s fair?  It’s probably because of all the hate and genocide.  At least Broda actually wanted to help people from coming under the control of one company, or maybe she was just disappointed that the company wasn’t going to be hers.  I suppose we could ask, but she looks busy.  She did do some weird things towards the end of the war to try when she got desperate to win, like performing bizarre genetic experiments on Prisoners of War and her own men to try and create super soldiers.  I think the best she accomplished was infusing chlorophyll into her soldiers’ skin so they required less food when they fight in remote places.  When you think about it, the Second World War wasn’t that bad, all the people who died in it would’ve been dead by now anyway.  At least we got some films out of it.  If there was no war, then the people would still be dead and we would have nothing in the way of the bonuses of the war.  I think culturally, we’re in the black.  I wonder if Olympus will ever allow films to be made of the Corporate Wars.”
    “Why won’t you tell me who Nyx is?” Tabitha said, feeling frustrated.
    “Hmm?” Jane said.  “I’m sorry, I wasn’t paying attention.  I’m not trying to keep Nyx’s name from you, she was an old veteran of the Olympus Security Force.  Her name was Angelica Ash.”