Here's Overlook. In it's completed state. I'd like some feedback, a review would be nice as well. I hopefully wrote something that lives up to the hype. I completely re-wrote the ending an hour ago. I didn't feel it was good enough to post in that state.

Also, this is a stand-alone story; it's not part of any series. By the way, anyone want to speculate about what Project Alpha is?

They’re here...but no one else is. Everything’s gone, even the almighty saviors. Their deaths, everything’s death, were as slow and agonizing as time itself. On this day, life takes one last breath, and becomes nothing more than what used to be.

Sirens rage, waking only the dust surrounding them. Voices echo in the distance, but they’re nothing more than the harsh memories of what used to be. The dead walk; Heaven and Hell overpopulated. Blood drips from the ceiling, glimmering in the glow of death and destruction.

Many took themselves to another realm, only to be dragged back along this horrid road. Everything surrendered to them, violently and involuntarily. Little is left to represent the past.

Gazing around, nothing is perceptible. Only the eerie, glowing lanterns of darkness can be seen through the equinox.

Frenzied movement lurched near an open, unlit doorway. A ledge full of novels fell, blocking the bottom half of the entrance. Beasts converged upon the scene, mindlessly and uncontrollably; arms forcefully held, legs dragging behind.

A single warrior rose from the mass, cannon elevated. Exploding from the arm, marbles ripped through the encroaching alien creatures. He clung to his only barrier, and slipped the cannon into his mouth. Holding his head down, his eyes opened to see where an ally had once been laid to rest.

Infections stared him down, popping with the release of spores. Mouth covered and head down, he dashed into the now open room. Never looking back, he raced to the dock, unaware of his surroundings. A sharp pain ripped through his back, knocking him to the floor.

Looking over his shoulder, a combatant was hovering over him. Enraged, the soldier swung the butt of his rifle into the chest of the threat. Ripping through flesh and organs, liquids spewed everywhere.

He stood and ran, leaving his weapon still at rest inside the infection. Racing past windows, he never even glanced at had once been.

Finally he reached his destination. Typing in a code, his hand hovered above the button that was to end his life. A huff came from behind him, advancing quickly on his location. The soldier stared down and repeated his prayer.

One hand pulled his away from the panel. Breathing in his face was a Sangheili warrior. With no other choice, bowing his head, he prepared to surrender his soul. But the creature just looked him in the eyes, and walked away. He then climbed into the back of a lone bird. The human quickly followed, exchanging with the alien, before climbing into the pit.

Before climbing in, he grabbed a device from the platform near where he was to die. Getting in, he pressed a button on the rear cover, sealing the pelican off from the rest of the universe.

Slowly opening, air rushed through the structure. When the end came to this fiasco, nothing was left in the brown corridors of an inanimate sibling. Flying away, she could be seen floating into the abyss, shattered and unyielding.

The alien sat in the bay, glaring at the ground. Both pondered about what had occurred in that hell. Again with little else, they were forced to land on the dead planet.

Slowly coming to view was light in a world of dark. Shadowed by the sun’s rays, a large isle came in to view. And as they made their approach, signs of life became viewable. Jubilation crept into their demeanor. Before long, two ships had joined in their flight. Just as the lights were below them, both wings started to make an approach.

Suddenly, explosions arose all around them. Artillery had turned their sites upon them, the two Pelicans fired on them, and rounds erupted from below. The lights started to flicker, sector-by-sector. Fires blazed from the darkness, firefights became less frequent, and then there was no resistance at all.

The metropolis was dead within seconds. Glaring at the city, smoke could even be smelled inside the ship. Another explosion rocked it, sending them in a downward spiral. They were doomed to crash inside the dead city. Before crashing the human climbed into the bay, hoping at least for a chance to escape the clutches of a horrible infection.

Seconds later, the ship impacted an empty street. Quickly recovering, he ran blindly in the direction he thought would save them. Looking to his left, the Sangheili wasn’t there now, nor had he ever been.

Running across a narrow foot bridge, a waterfall of blood and bodies were washing over a cliff face. Ignoring it, he kept running. Eventually crossing another bridge, he viewed an ocean full of real water.

Turning to face the other direction gave him a view of another cliff. So he kept on running, until the human happened to glance to his side. What he saw was a city floating on water, guarded by colossal architecture, reaching high into the day light.

At this same time, he heard a sound like nothing else. It was a creaking of metal and steel, which seemed to come from the structure. It opened up, forming a level ground elevated above the ground. A sudden blue light flew from the structure, meeting countless others in the center of the brightest star. An explosion ripped through the system. He would only be protected for a short time before the planet could no longer defend itself.

Seeing an object out of the corner of the eye, he turned his body away from the platform. Heading mightily towards him, his mother ship glided over the landscape presenting the stern. He was not to die in a blaze of glory, but in an accident of colossal proportions.

I can barely hold it in, so this is a snippet from the possibly cancelled surprise project: A Minor Bird. The following dialogue was heavily influenced by the chapter openings in Orson Scott Card's masterpiece, Ender's Game.

I like this line thingy.

1025, October 19, 2552 (Military Calendar)

New York City, Central Province, North America

“It looks like something’s about to go down.”

“Thinking those rumors coming down the chain were true?”

“If they were, we’re going to lose half our fleet.”

“Half? You know the Covenant have recon drones all over this system. Hell, they’ve probably got one floating on the other side of the moon.”

“Even with all the damn intelligence, it would take a while for the information to be sent. Our ships could beat them.”

“You’re not a PR officer anymore, Jay; you don’t have to make this war seem like it’s in our favor.

I mean, we only acquired the ability to make people fly through the air a few hundred years ago; we’re still working out the bugs. Covenant flyboys have been in the air far longer than that.”

“That’s only a theory. They may not have gotten the ability until the 21st Century for all we know.”

“Either way, you’ve seen what they can do to our ships, our planets, and our space.”

The small apartment grew quiet. Neither man had anything more to say. Lieutenant Carr knew he had lost the debate.

Lieutenant Zadwie knew the same, only he also knew why he had so easily, so quickly won. Jacob Carr was a conceded ex-PR Dummy, he never saw the big picture the way everyone else had. Most people in his position would realize that there was no longer any reason to sway the news.

Carr seemingly read Mane’s mind. Following was another argument.

“We still need to withhold the status from the public.”

“Why? So that more people will be caught off-guard when the Covenant come kicking down our door?”

“No, of course not. If they knew, there would be an uprising. Don’t you remember what happened in the Sigma Sector?”

“What? That “incident” in Ariase back in 2543? That was nothing more than an isolated accident.”

“An accident that managed to wipe out the capital!”

“Garber was a radical, a crazy man; nothing could have changed that. The fact alone that he was carrying so much firepower proves as much.”

“I guess it was just a coincidence this happened in the middle of a coup.”

“An entire fleet was bearing down on the planet...”

“...and nobody was told. What’s the difference now?”

“I wish you would just make up your mind, Jay. It makes this crap a lot easier.”

With that, Mane Zadwie was gone. There was no telling when, or even if, that day he would return. But Carr just sat their, swiveling in his chair to pass the time; just as he did every other day. This also made him think, as if there wasn’t a moment an imperative wasn’t being processed, worked out, and solved.

But he would return at some point. Zadwie and Carr had been good, if not quarreling, friends since they first met at one of the many military academies based on earth.

Carr was interrupted by a sudden buzzing in his ear. I hate these damn things. “Hello?”

Mane was on the other end of the line: “Hey...uhh, Jay?”

“What is it? I’m in the middle of something,” he seemed aggravated, but he was also doing something.

“Yeah...I’ve been called back up to the Cairo. Apparently Lord Hood wants to rally his troops.”

Question One: Yeah, it's delayed indefinitely. So you don't need to post it.

Question Two: Well, that's what happens with experiments. Some times they fail, some times they're a success. That is Overlook in it's finished state, but I have no clue how it got that far. That's just not the way I, or anyone else, talk, and it's really hard to write in that manner.

Hold off on posting it until next Friday. And (with no offense to your opinion) I'd kind of like to know what everyone else thinks about it as well.

If you could, would you tell me what about it turned you away?