"Though thou exalt thyself as an eagle and though thou set thy nest among the stars, thence I will bring thee down, saith the Lord" -- Obadiah verse 4.
Jordan Hamilton[]
June 4 2067 Jordan Hamilton was sitting on his drop site, as the shuttle was taking them nearly to their destination, his hands were cold and trembling, his eyes reflected the fear of a horrible feeling of disobedience. His ears were listening to the powerful worship and singing of Hillsong United on his IPod, still this didn’t help either to seize his thoughts.
Hamilton was Christian since he was born, was raised as a Christian, and kept being a Christian. He was able to keep his beliefs in a world where the faith of Christ is not well seen, not since those robots appeared and the Artificial mines of Mercury appeared, though the Bible always had an answer to that, and Hamilton always found out that, he stayed loyal to his beliefs and to his faith. At his 18 he entered on military duty to complete his service to community, though then he was assigned as a special operative inside the special International forces, he was commended with lots of medals and was named among the best of the best in Worldwide military.
Though now, against his will, he was doing a mission he did not want to, he hated to though. When he first knew about the colonizing mission, he argued against it, saying that will be impossible for Humans to live in other planets, whenever this planet could be suitable enough, and then he realizes that people in that colony went missing, he reaffirmed his faith.
Now after a second attempt of making people comfortable at the idea of making a colony in other planet, and this also failed, he was sent with other troopers of all the world to check the failures, he did not wanted to, but still he went, he was "the best of the best" among many.
Now he was embraced in a fear that could not be healed, the fear of being part of an action against the will of God, he was a teacher in Sunday church school, a preacher among youth ministry, so he knew the bible of heart, even his parents, his pastor, his friends told him to not go, but still he had to, Christianity was not well seen among other people.
Arrival[]
The shuttle arrives to Armageddon
I was getting calmed before this whole situation, I didn't knew nobody, as well as they didn't knew me, I usually am a social guy that loves meeting new people, but this time, this time was different, I turned my IPod on and began listening to music, I choose my Album CD of Hillsong United and waited for the shuttle to arrive to that place, it would last just ten days to make it to Armageddon, Why they had to choose that name! I though, 'Armageddon'.
I was completely merged with my thoughts that I was ignoring everyone in the place, more than once somebody tried to talk to me, but they got bored and leaved me alone, we were ready after eating something, now we were at our dropping seats, ready to be deployed, I checked and double checked the instructions of Armaggedon, its atmosphere was similar to earth, deserted planet, in conclusion, an M-class planet twice the size of earth without fauna, just flora, and this one was poor.
"Hello!" said suddenly a guy that was walking towards me and sat in my immediate right, I did not listen to his salutation, I kept going in my thoughts, taking with one hand my IPod and with my left hand my rifle, that its right, I was left-handed, the guy sitting repeated his sentence, I did not listened, he saw that I was watching my IPod choosing the next song in the album, he hit me on the back, and I suddenly jumped in surprise.
"Hello?" I said a little bit angry.
"Hi there!" said the guy.
"Why did you do that?"
"You weren't listening to me"
"Oh sorry, for how much time"
"I said hello twice"
"Well well" I said a little ashamed by my attitude, "So how are you?"
"Little nervous, isn't this exciting?"
"Exciting in what way umm... sorry what was your name?"
"Greg, Gregor White" said the guy.
"Jordan Hamilton" I replied, "Nice to meet you"
"Aha" said almost whispering.
"So in what way you find this exciting"
"Ok, you really are weird, don't you see the fact that we are on space?"
"Yes"
"And that we are going to land on other planet"
"Yes"
"In what way isn't that exciting?!?"
"Well..." I was going to recite scripture, but that wouldn't help in this conversation, Greg looked at me waiting for an intelligent answer, enough to keep this conversation.
"I wouldn't be that exciting" said a voice incoming, it was another guy that sat next to my immediate left.
"How's that" said Greg.
"Thomas, Thomas Whitmore" What happened to America? why people now introduce themselves with their first name.
"Greg White" repeated Greg.
"Hamilton, Jordan" I repeated.
"I wouldn't be that exciting, 'cause that colony failed twice"
"Well... let's be optimistic, we are going to land on another planet"
"So..." I interrupted, "What do you guys think failed in the space colony?"
The two looked at me thinking.
"Man, really don't know" said Greg.
"Aliens!" said suddenly Thomas.
The two looked at him, and then started to laugh, "Come on Thomas!" said Greg, "You don't believe Aliens did that to us do you?"
"Why not?"
"Well," I started, "In our briefing they explained to us the geography of the planet, saying that according to pictures and videos taken by colonists, it was a deserted planet, empty of wild life, just few variety of small plants, like Southern United States desert, just a little greenish on the ground that's all."
"Weren't you listening?" asked Greg.
"Well, the truth is that I ran asleep" said a little ashamed, and this was the best of the best? I asked myself on my head.
Greg could not avoid the laughing out loud, making a funny noise that resembled a broken machinery, I almost laughed, not with him, but of him.
"So, what do you think failed in there Jordan?" asked Greg, I wanted to die in that moment, I probably knew the answer, but I feared the possibility of loosing two new friends, because Christianity wasn't appreciated in this days!
"Well... ehem I..."
The two looked at me like two moron guys, and retarded.
"I think it was the will of God to that colony to fail, nothing less" I said, and waiting for an awful reply.
"What makes you think that?" said Thomas a little bit interested.
"Well just simply that, it was God's will"
"What do you mean?"
"Do I have to repeat the same thing always?!" I asked, and so Greg changed the question.
"Are you saying that God did not wanted us to colonize a planet?"
"Yes..."
"Why God would not allow that to us?" asked Thomas.
"Because its written, on the bible" I said.
The two looked themselves, a little bit surprised.
"You Christian Jordan?"
"I am"
Silence.
I almost laughed at the common response of a non-believer at the fact that I am Christian, the two recovered from the impression.
"You really are a Christian?" Asked again Thomas.
"I am, want proofs?"
"Ok"
I grabbed my bag and showed to them my Gideon Bible, with its red portrait and golden titles.
"Ok, ok I believe you, just don't get too religious"
"Never!" I said, and put it back again in my bag.
"Sorry for our surprised faces" said Greg, "Its just that I never saw a Christian in my life... and alive!"
"Me neither" said Thomas, and I felt like if I were of another species.
The time we spent together sit down in those uncomfortable seats of military deployment, the two acted like they were speaking to an Alien, saying sorry for the bad words, and bad corporal language, if the seats were uncomfortable, this was bigger.
Fortunately, more people came into the deployment area, and began filling the empty seats, making our conversation to stop, or better say paused, I knew that in the future more questions about my beliefs were going to be made, Greg's head suddenly came closer to mine, "Don't worry, we won't say you are christian"
"Why?" I whispered.
"Because like 4 more guys on your left there is a muslim, and I think that someone here is a cultist"
Oh my God.
How I envied the Christians on 2000-2030, they were loved and even respected, people met them for counseling, for comfort, but not in this time.
After 2030 the Christian community diminish a lot, since in 2032 occurred the most big christian-jew massacre ever in hands of Muslims in Europe, and so the Christians began having problems with raged communities, supported and leaded by cultists, christians were rather killed or disappeared, assuming that they were also killed, fortunately, Christian community was protected by Governments and were allowed in counter strike to preach everywhere they wanted to. Though this last thing outraged more muslims and cultists, and they lifted up a prayer for Governments involved to chase down the remaining Christians, they were not listened. And so the Cultists and muslims (which grew a lot in numbers between 2023-2030) started to hammer Christians under water, illegally, this could only mean one thing for me, the last times were close.
A speaker started then to come out of the wall's corner, a weird thing I have never seen, but hey, weren't we in the last times?
The Ship started to tremble, though this shuttle was still experimental, a little updated from the first two, it still had several things that made him real uncomfortable for the entry in Armageddon's atmosphere.
A red flash back began to flood the whole compartment, Jordan grabbed strongly his seat belt that covered his arms, his space suit designed for combat was working well, he did not felt anything unusual, but still the pain of an entry was there.