It all started with Reden.
No one's entirely sure anymore how World War III began. There are theories concerning terrorism, but what was more likely was a battle between secretive government agencies from assorted countries that just happened to, unfortunately, spill out into the world of the military. But, like, I said, no one's sure. For all we know, it may have been a coffee accidentally spilled on a nuclear warhead's remote control panel. It's possible.
It was a full-fledged nuclear war, and the casualties were many. In the end, the governments of the world fell and the militaries of all those forsaken countries, exhausted, gave up.
In a mere ten years, the world had fallen into complete chaos.
Before the war began, Xenophon Reden and—in later years leading up to the conflict—Cathal Fordon had been revered. Reden had exposed the existence of aliens among us and, with the assistance of Fordon, he had formed friendly relations between the peoples of Earth and the denizens of outer space. Reden and Fordon were gifted with an amazing ability to mold reality to fit their expectations. But even the powers of these two were not enough to stop the war.
After the war ended, Reden and Fordon, as well as other individuals calling themselves the "Omega Agency," stepped forth from the rubble and proposed a new, utopian society. A new world order. They were assisted in building this new society by a benevolent alien organization known by humans as the Men in Black. These MiB had been watching over humanity for millennia, and were glad to see humans finally learning the consequences of violence and hatred. They helped rebuild the cities of the world, and did their best to remove what radiation remained in the areas affected by the mighty atom bomb. There still lingered in the hearts of some humans, however, the very traits that had nearly destroyed the world in the first place: Hatred, violence, and greed. Simple crimes were dealt with easily. The MiB had no problems using their psychic powers to find guilty parties and the OA then punished these people harshly and quickly. But as the years passed and crime reached an amazing low, other problems prevailed; namely, the resistance movements that were gaining momentum among those humans who did not take kindly to a government that relied upon help from extraterrestrials. For the most part, these resistance movements never took action; knowing full well that they would be caught and punished severely. But there was one instance in which a suicide bomber attacked the capitol building.
I was eight years old when that happened. My father, an agent of the OA, was in the explosion.
He died.
An experience like that leaves a mark on a kid. My brother, who was five at the time, immediately changed from an energetic, social kid to a quiet, introverted individual. He never quite got over it. As for myself, I spent a good portion of my childhood bitter about the whole thing. Even after I matured and let go of all that anger, I was still determined to prevent anything like that from happening again.
So I followed in my father's footsteps.
I joined the Omega Agency.
It was September, in the year 2109, when I was accepted into the OA. It was standard procedure for a new recruit to, on his first day, meet with the leader of the OA (Who was also, effectively, the president of the planet Earth). The president at that point in time was the young Tynan Fordon—the great- grandson of the great Cathal Fordon. I walked into his office, feeling a little nervous. President Fordon stood up from his desk and held his hand out. "Good morning, Mister Adamina," He said.
I shook his hand. "Good morning, President."
He smiled. "Please, just call me Tynan." He motioned for me to sit down in a chair across from his desk, and I did. He sat back down, and looked over my file. "Your performance during your training was nothing short of spectacular, Osias."
"Is that so?"
He nodded. "Hell yes."
I was taken aback by such a crass phrase coming from the president's mouth. "Th-thank you."
"You did so well, I think I'm going to boost you up a rank or two," He scribbled something onto the file, "You can handle that, right?"
I nodded. "Of course."
Tynan opened his mouth to speak again, but a red phone on his desk rang before he could say anything. Tynan looked at the phone, clearly puzzled as to why it was ringing during the time he set aside to speak with new recruits, and picked it up. "Fordon here. What's going on?"
He paused, listening to something on the other end. His eyes widened, and he spoke. "Did they say why? Or did they… oh… I see… yes, right. I'll be right over."
And he hung up. He sat there for a moment, taking in whatever it was that he had just heard.
"… You're going to have a lot more work on your hands now, Osias. You sure you want that higher rank?"
I nodded. "What's going on, sir?"
"The MiB are leaving us," He stood up. "I'm sorry, I have to go."
And so he left.
And that day, the very day I became an officer of the Omega Agency, was the day that everything began to fall apart.
Review