S3E18: Final Trap

The mass migration back to Nibiru had begun. It was hard to believe that after eons upon this world, shaping and guiding humanity, our time on Earth had neared its end.

Though diplomacy and reason had won over the majority, not all had heeded the exodus call. My cunning brother, Enlil, had remained defiantly entrenched deep within Puma Punku’s subterranean labyrinth. Less than a hundred of his most fanatical acolytes stood with him. They had clung to this planet like a babe to its mother’s breast, refusing to release their grasp upon the realm we had built.

I found myself torn. Part of me had yearned to cast off the mantle of responsibility, to let Enlil’s zealots wallow in their obstinacy as we ascended to the stars. And yet… I knew that unfinished business had a way of metastasizing – of festering into future calamity. No. It must have ended there.

I had come too far to allow Enlil’s bitterness to poison our people’s future on Nibiru. Though it had pained me, I had known force must have answered force. The time for words had passed. Now, the spear and the shield had spoken for our cause. May the blood spilled have paved a path to lasting peace…

But how to crack a fortress designed to withstand the apocalypse itself?

Night’s shroud cloaks the land beyond my viewport. In the distance, the obsidian mountains of Puma Punku drank in the light of a pregnant moon. Its secrets taunted me – sibilant murmurs in the dark, promising violence and suffering.

But a soft chiming had drawn my attention. A flickering holo-display had materialized, revealing a fierce woman with eyes like chips of arctic ice – Neferkaptah, my Ninki’s most cunning tactician. She spoke, her voice clipped with the harshness of the Lyran tongue.

“My lord Enki, I have studied the blueprints of Enlil’s fastness, his hubris will be his downfall.

Though Puma Punku’s defenses are formidable, they were built to withstand a frontal siege – not a precision strike. I’ve identified a vulnerability…”

A slow smile spread across her feline features as she laid out her audacious plan. It was a gambit fraught with peril, but aren’t they all in war? Her strategy, if successful, would allow my whole squadron to pierce the outer defenses and infiltrate the very heart of Enlil’s sanctum.

When her briefing concluded, I nodded pensively, my thoughts swirling like storm clouds. “You’ve given me much to consider, Neferkaptah. You have my thanks. I must confer with my squad…”

As her visage dissipated into motes of light, I stared into the abyss of night for a long moment. Then, squaring my shoulders with newfound resolve, I strode forth to gather my most elite warriors. We had a fortress to breach.

Shadows flit beneath us as our stealth ship glided through the night. Below, the forbidding ramparts of Puma Punku loomed like the jaws of some great monstrosity. In the dim light of the hold, I saw the stoic faces of my handpicked team, each checking and re-checking weapons and gear with a meditative focus.

As we neared the LZ, I addressed my soldiers through the helmet comms. “Remember your training. Trust your instincts. And above all, watch each other’s backs. We’re brothers and sisters in arms tonight.”

Silent nods of acknowledgement – no one there needed a rousing speech. They were the best of the best, each one worth a hundred of Enlil’s zealots, of that I am sure!

As the ship flared and settled onto the rocky ground in deathly silence, we flew out into the night like lethal shadows.

Overwatch reported hostiles patrolling the outer wall. I flashed a series of precise hand signals and small team split into pairs, fanning out to neutralize the sentries with ruthless efficiency. The bark of silenced weapons was lost in the mountain winds. Crimson blood steamed on frosted stone.

Converging on a side gate, we made swift work of the locks with breaching charges that boomed with muffled thunder. As one, we slipped inside the enemy stronghold, swallowed by looming darkness. The hunt begun…

Puma Punku’s depths were a treacherous maze, each shadowed corridor concealing untold dangers. As we pushed deeper into Enlil’s domain, the very walls seemed to press in around us, as if the stone itself was an extension of my brother’s implacable will.

Rounding a corner, we came face to face with a pair of sentries. Before they could raise the alarm, my lieutenants cut them down with ruthless precision, the hiss-crack of our pulse rifles echoing through the confines. 

But our swift strike proved a fleeting victory. Ahead, the passageway split into a bewildering warren of intersections, each one a potential ambush waiting to happen. I signaled a halt, my mind racing to decipher this deadly puzzle.

They were waiting for us. I could feel Enlil’s trap closing around us like a falcon’s talons. But we would not be easy prey…

With hand signs, I split our force into three units, each one tasked with securing a different route. If we could pincer Enlil’s defenders, we might yet-

[A thunderous explosion drowns out Enki’s words, followed by urgent shouts]

“Contact left! Suppressing fire, now! – You, pull out the shield… GO!”

All around us, Puma Punku had transformed into a raging inferno of light and sound. Enlil’s loyalists pour fire into us from every darkened portal and hidden murder hole, the air shimmering with the blistering hail of plasma bolts.

—

Enlil’s loyalists poured fire into us from every darkened portal and hidden murder hole. The stench of ozone and burnt rock seared my nostrils.

“Enki! We must break this stalemate!”

I nodded grimly, my eyes desperately seeking some advantage amidst the ancient stones trapping us. There! A hairline fracture in the wall, perhaps from some long-ago seismic upheaval… It was a gamble, but certain death awaited if we stayed pinned down. I primed a breach charge and hurled it at the fissure. The shaped blast ripped open a jagged wound in Enlil’s perfect defense.

“With me!” I roared, hurling myself through the breach. “For Nibiru and freedom!”

My soldiers surged forward like a relentless tide, energy weapons spitting blue-white annihilation. Enlil’s forces recoiled in surprise, their interlocking fields of fire disrupted by our audacious charge. But they recovered swiftly, fanaticism overriding their momentary shock. And so, hell itself was unleashed within the halls of Puma Punku.

There was no artistry to the combat that followed, no poetry in motion. In those gore-slicked corridors, pure, primal savagery reigned supreme. Anunnaki clashed with Anunnaki in a whirlwind of flashing blades and crackling energy, the air rent by war cries and the screams of the dying.

As the final defender fell, I looked upon the carnage with a soul leaden by sorrow and regret. The blood of my people, Anunnaki blood, splattered the walls and collected in glistening, viscous pools. Our numbers, already stretched perilously thin by our great exodus, further culled by the cruel demands of internecine strife…all due to the obstinate fanaticism of my own kin.

So much death and suffering, and still Enlil waited somewhere ahead, the specter of fratricidal conflict looming over our future. Would this cycle of violence and discord ever end? Suddenly, our impending return to Nibiru felt less like a homecoming and more akin to a retreat – an escape from the sins we had authored upon the Earth.

I shook my head, the movement leaden and weary. No. I could not – would not – allow my spirit to falter now.

Taking a shuddering breath, I rallied my surviving warriors with a battle-ready nod. Onward, to the very crucible of my brother’s hatred. One way or another, it would all end here, beneath the uncaring stone of this monument to our arrogance.

–

The breaching charges shattered the final sealed chamber door with a deafening bang, sending twisted shards of metal flying in all directions. I strode through the acrid smoke, my pulse pounding in my ears, adrenaline surging through my veins. This was it. The final confrontation.

Enlil awaited me, a fell light gleaming in his eyes, ringed by his last surviving elite guards. The air crackled with tension as we faced each other, two titans locked in an ancient struggle. My brother, my nemesis. It had all led to this.

“Enlil!” I called out, my voice calm but hard as steel. “Enough of this madness. It’s over. Lay down your arms and return to Nibiru in peace. There’s been enough bloodshed.”

Enlil snarled in defiance, his face contorted with rage and hatred.

“Peace? You dare speak to me of peace, traitor? You, who turned your back on our people, on our very purpose here? I will never abandon my ambitions on this planet!”

I shook my head sadly. “You have grown twisted in exile, brother. Blinded by your own fear and hate. The Anunnaki who would stand with you are already fallen. This fruitless crusade will only lead to more death.”

“You wish that to be true, right brother? Prepare to DIE!” Enlil roared. In a flash, he raised his plasma lance, the air shimmering around its crackling power field. His guards tensed, readying their weapons.

I saw there would be no further words. No hope for reason. With a heavy heart, I signaled the attack.  “Take them down! NOW!”

I made straight for Enlil. Discarding my spent rifle, I lunged at my brother, hammering aside his lance with a sweeping parry. We crashed together, a tangle of straining limbs, our superhuman strength pulverizing stone and denting metal as we traded crushing blows with reckless abandon.

“You cannot win, Enki!

I have planned for every contingency!”

I punched him savagely, feeling his nose crunch. “Not for this, you haven’t!”

I hooked his ankle and heaved, hurling him across the chamber to smash through a crystalline data web. But Enlil was up again in an instant, that unhinged grin still plastered across his bloody face. 

 My Anunnaki were pushing Enlil’s forces back, but the cost was heavy.

Suddenly, Enlil began to laugh, a crazed, unsettling sound even amidst the cacophony of combat. I felt a chill down my spine. He knew something I didn’t.

“You’re too late, dear brother!” Enlil crowed. “Far, far too late!”

Quick as a snake, he darted sideways, vanishing through a previously concealed door that irised open at his approach. The laughter continued, echoing tauntingly down the hidden passage.

“After him!” I barked to my fighters. “Don’t let him esca–“

A cold, implacable voice cut across my own, emanating from everywhere and nowhere, chilling me to the bone.

“Terminus Protocol activated. Subterranean purge commencing. This facility will self-destruct in T-minus 3 minutes.”

An ominous countdown began, blood-red digits materializing in flickering holographic displays.

At once, everything became clear – the secondary explosions, the collapsing levels, the too-light resistance…it had all been a ruse. A delaying tactic while Enlil set his trap, escaping to gods-knew-where.

“EVERYBODY OUT! CLEAR THE AREA! MOVE!”