“No, please! No!” Flash screamed and woke up, startled. He's breathing was heavy, as much as how he was sweating.
He dreamed of a bunch of strange ponies and other creatures with no eyes and nose, with just a creepy grin on their face, chasing him down a dark hall which looked like it had no end. Just when a black griffon tries to reach him with its claw, the nightmare ends.
That terrible dream has happened for 4 days straight.
“Awe man! What's happening to ya?”, his roommate complained. “Can't ya give me a good rest?”
“Sorry, just a little nightmare…” he sighed. “This is the fourth time I have had it. Not sure why…”
“Our base has a therapist. Why don't ya just ask her?”
…
After breakfast, he and the other mobile suit pilot of the base come to the mission room to discuss a secret mission.
Flash, now using another name called Brandon Cultrich, was an officer at the Federation`s Antarctica base. At the age of 24, having a rank of Ensign was quite late to him. He lives in the base all of the time. In fact, he doesn't have any home here on Earth.
He was used to being mocked or even bullied by some of his comrades just because of how his fake name was shortened: Brad. They say his name sounded like a douchebag’s name, but he never mind that most of the time.
He was saved by a few personnel of the base just outside of it`s main gate about a few kilometers away. He was considered to have a coma, after a little study and everyone in the base really has no idea how he can survive such a harsh condition, especially that he doesn't have any special kind of clothes to keep him alive.
“Maybe Antarctica itself creates a perfect condition to make him hibernated?”, an officer said. He himself was stunned as much as his soldier
“What's your name?” another officer asked.
Suddenly his head comes up with an idea that he shouldn't give them his real name, so he just simply answer:
- Brandon. Brandon Cultrich
…
He was brought into the base. It took just for a week to make him wake up again by the base`s doctor, and another two months for him to fully recover. But just when the base going to let him out, the commander has another plan: he decide that the base should kept him as a part of the base since his impressive survivability to stay out of the Antarctica snow for a very long time (they found him just lied inside an ice cage for up to 20 years).
Actually, he had nowhere to go, so when the commander offered to let him stay, he simply just nodded. The time when he stayed at the base proves that his decision is both wrong… and right.
They torture him for several experiments to find out what inside his body that help him bearing the cold climate of Antarctica. The commander really wanted to find out one factor to enhance human ability to stay in very cold conditions. He even thinks Flash was a Newtype, a type of human that they described as “the next stage of human evolution” with superior physical strait (stronger resistance, ability to telepathy or even talk to the dead is how they saw it). His blood was extracted, being left starving, a few times nearly drowned in a frozen tank where the scientist can test his ability to survive. Flash does try to escape a few times, but fails.
But tortures only last for a few months. The base`s commander was fired after he was seen drunk while doing some paperwork. So the base, as well as Flash Sentry was left with a new commander. He ordered the scientist to end the experiment and Flash became a part of the base crew. Flash was even offered to be an MS pilot, due to his incredible story the commander has heard. He successfully passes the test and eventually has the ability to be a pilot.
“Man! I hate to say it but that guy does have some skills!” the commander said.
…
“Okay pilots, listen up!” Lieutenant John, his team`s commander, speaks to his subordinate. “As you have known, the military will conduct a mission to find a missing MS that might be still somewhere here in Antarctica. 4 years ago there was a report stating that the Titans had made a psycho frame test. They pulled a full psycho frame unit, as far as I am concerned, to find out it's reaction with psycho waves. The unit somehow went crazy and just messed up their base. The military doubt that the unit is somewhere in a radius of just 30 km with our base in the center. I guarantee it's not outside this circle.”
He then stopped for a while, looked at the screen and then continued:
“The reason we are here is for me to give a job to y`all: Nguyen and Robson will take the Jeagan. Era and Joshua will take the Zeta Plus. And finally you, Barnum, take the Strike Zeta. That's the special offer from the commander himself for you. Y`all got it?”
“Yes Sir!” the whole room saluted all together.
“Ok, now come to the hangar. Those suits really need your care.”
Suddenly, Flash`s mind linked to a strange discovery he made just 3 months prior
...
He was walking with a comrade that day, trying to look into the snow if there are anything suspicious. The wind was not very strong that day so the vision is very good, compared to the weather during most of the year in Antarctica. Actually, the forecast said that there will be a snow storm the night after his shift.
His eyes suddenly landed on a strange cave-like structure with a curved roof, rising above the snow. He slowly walked toward the thing, carefully inspected with his eyes. Finally, he looked inside. In the middle of the cave is a chair-like object. Then, he decided to touch it.
After that, in front of his eyes is a site to behold and a place that, to him, is impossible to exist: a giant hall, filled with golds, diamonds and other gems.
As far as his concern, there's no need for him to take them all. In the base, despite his exceptionally bad condition, it is enough for him to live. And it also opens a wound that takes a very long time to heal in him…
But there is a mysterious urge that he has taken, at least, some of them. His hand started to take the gold and gems. He put them as much as he could into his jacket, as if he could use it when he somehow escaped the base successfully.
“They will make me rich in no time!”, he mumbled. “Diamonds, rubies, pearls… even sapphire! They're all in perfect shape!”
Suddenly, the lights all turned off all at once, and there are winds that blow harshly into the hall. He stopped, looked around in fear.
“What… What just happened?”
A voice from the darkness then said:
“Hello there!”, the voice blows towards him like a wind. “I heard you are stealing something from us, right?”
“Wh… Wh… What?”. Flash was terrified, he immediately dropped all the gems and gold he had. “You… You… say I`m…”
“Don`t lie!”, at this point, Flash could hear distant hoofsteps that seemed to walk nearer and nearer. “We saw you took some stuff from our precious treasure. It's just a very small portion of it, but it says a lot about yourself!”
“What do you mean?”
“Listen up shameless thieves: tonight you will start to face our punishment. These gems contained a terrible curse that we have cast on. From now on, you will have a forever lasting nightmare!”
“But… But just… just…”
“Happen to take some piece of our treasure intentionally?”, she said with full of doubt - “Anyway, the only way to free yourself from this is… to free us!”
“Free? Free who?”
“Brad, Brad! What are ya doing there bro?” his comrade yells to bring him back to reality - “Why do you take the ice and put it in your jacket?”
“Huh?”, Flash confused
“I said why do you take the ice and put it in your jacket?”
“Oh… I did that?” Flash said while looking at his pocket nervously.
But at that moment, all he saw was just ice and snow.
“But… But… Those are precious…” , Flash gibbering.
“I see ya just took those useless things. I have called you a few times but you just don't answer back! But, what's in there?”
“The whole little cave was covered in snow.”, Flash mumbled. “Something has forced someone else to leave this place. I don't know… These things make me feel like I`m in an MS cockpit.”
The pal then just carry on there jobs
He left it without any concern. He really doesn't know why those things happen, and what she means about the nightmare.
“I may have just... gone crazy after all.”
But in the night after the mission, the nightmare that he has been warned about, began.
…
“Suspension system, check. Monitor A, check. Monitor B, check…”, Flash mumbled when he climbed down. He and other personnel of the base have spent more than 2 hours making a final check before they will carry out the mission on the next day. He just walked to the cafeteria alone, scanning through his MS profile and mumbled.
“Looks like everything is fine!” he slowly closes the profile.
The cafeteria is where he frequently comes. He was described by his comrades as “a weird guy who has trouble with calculation”. He actually has spectacular skill piloting, even Lt. John (he kind of hates Flash) has to admit “How can he gain much skill? Look at how he dodges shots and missiles!” when he and several other officers inspect him for their first time in the base`s simulator. But he has some difficulty in calculating some difficult physics calculations. He simply leaves the difficult task for his engineer before fighting and just following orders.
He mostly used his lunch time and some others free time to eat and enhance his calculating ability by doing math and struggling with formulas and equations.
“Hey blue hair!” Jarvis, his roommate, came to his table. “What`s up man? Doing math?
He gave a slight nod and answered:
“Yup… Just some casual free time activity…”
“Well… about the nightmares that you have these nights… - Jarvis scratched his ears – “I guess you the therapist gave ya some sleeping pills, right?”
“‘They’ prevent me from using it!”
“What do you mean by 'them'? Those creatures from the nightmares?”
“Yeah. I ignored them and just got used to them. The nightmare is worse than before.”
Both signed.
Suddenly, the siren goes off. Both of them looked at each other for a while and quickly ran to their position.
“Alright! A few minutes ago there were reports of a green light flash outside of our base!”, the base commander said to Lieutenant John while he checked out the map. “We estimated that the flash is about 40 km from Gate No.1 of the base. Whatever happens we should deploy now! I also allowed our search team for this mission because I really want to see your friend's performance. Do you get that, Lieutenant?”
“Yes Sir!”, replied the Lieutenant.
…
“Alright y`all, listen up!”
After a little stretching and checking, the whole team – called Company J – was ready. Lt. John now tries to boost up his soldier`s morale and give them details about their mission.
“According to the most recent report, the green flash is about 40 km from here. The flash is reported to happen continuously for 3 minutes before dying out. Our job is to investigate what that thing is. The flash could be something that could threaten our base.”
The suits carefully rolled out of their cage and entered the launch pad. Lt. John continued his speech:
“Okay, here is the deal: Nguyen and Robson will stay close to me, you guys are guard units that will make sure our team is safe. Era and Joshua, you guys and your Zeta C1 will be searching the area, along with Flash`s Strike Zeta, alright?”
“Yes, Sir!”
“Lieutenant John Mitchell, Jesta, coming out!”, the commander shouted.