The Battlefield, End of Kali Yuga
Egged on by the Hand of God, the Raks reacted in rage against the Avatar’s forces. Kalki Avatar and his army found themselves in a dire situation, pushed half-way down the pass. Where once his army numbered in the millions, now only a few hundred remained monkeys, bears, the rest, human. Exhaustion became as big an enemy as the Raks.
“Oh Lord,” shouted Hanuman. “How long can we keep fighting?” The situation turned desperate. The enemy, though decimated, outnumbered them heavily and at this rate, they would be overwhelmed at any moment.
“We will keep fighting until the last man,” roared the Avatar.
* * * * *
“How can we stay here on the grand vimana?” asked Vishnuyasha. The airborne island’s pavilions were destroyed, the trees and gardens uprooted, the courtyards scorched black, the great pyramid’s sides blasted through, and the red fish floated belly up in the waters. The entire vimana, unsettled by the bombing, started to shake.
“We will have to get off,” cried Parvata Rishi.
“Where can we go?” questioned Vishnuyasha.
“There is only one place to go; Shambala.”
“What? Didn’t we leave Shambala because it was too dangerous?”
“This vimana has suffered great damage. If we stay here, we will surely be crushed by the falling temple or, if the vimana breaks apart, fall to the ground. If we return to Shambala, we will be protected by Kalki Avatar, for however long that may be.” The rishi raised his eyes. “Our real delivery will come only when the brothers destroy the moon-base. That is, if they are still alive.”
Another ominous rumble shook the floating island. “Come, let’s leave this place,” he yelled. They all rushed together and held hands. The old man chanted the mantras and instantly, they found themselves back in Shambala.
* * * * *
“Those people on the station in the sky made our job easier,” yelled the Hand of God. “They have returned to the valley. We got them exactly where we want them!”
Indeed, not much hope remained for Kalki Avatar’s army. In the space of a few days, they went from what they thought was certain victory to facing overwhelming odds. Pressed up against the pass, the only access to Shambala, their numbers were decimated. Kallin brought in over a million men; the Avatar had just a few hundred left.
“I can taste victory! And when I occupy the valley, the power of time travel will be mine! All mine!” Kallin looked at his troops below. “Time to get these dogs off their asses. Time for the final push.”
* * * * *
Hanuman gasped. The battle raged for days and the enemy, though decimated, came at them inordinately. He saw the silver orb rising in the west as dusk fell. If the brothers did not destroy the moon-base shortly, Kallin’s army would be unbeatable. Pushed back to the narrowest part of the path close to Shambala, only two hundred soldiers remained of Kalki’s once million man army. The enemy would break through at any moment, gain free passage to the valley and their mission would fail. His body was bloody, shot at many times, cut by shrapnel. He barely stood. “Oh, Lord, I can barely fight. I am about to fall!”
The Avatar heard his desperate cry. “Great warriors, we need to bear the unbearable, fight to the finish. Though battered and bruised, victory is certainly ours. Please keep struggling. Do not lose hope!” Hanuman raised high his bloody head.
“This is it!” continued the Avatar. “Now is the final test!” He turned his horse around to face his soldiers. “If we die, let us perish with weapons in our hands. For warriors, there is no greater glory than to die on the battlefield. We cannot wait for the moon to rise. At night, our foes are practically unbeatable. Let us all gather, prime our weapons and for one last time, push the enemy back.”
A great cheer went up. The soldiers girded themselves and held their weapons high. Every last one of them prepared himself for the hereafter. They prayed to their ancestors and made ready to meet them in the other world. Kalki Avatar, on his horse’s back, rose to the air in front of his soldiers, his luminous body glowing in the dark like an avenging angel, reflecting on the somber cliffs on either side.
“Charge!” he commanded, holding his sword high.
With smiles on their faces, lightness in their hearts and mouths chanting victory, the brave two hundred rushed forth from their lair with weapons blazing and headed into the gaping maw of the enemy. Their foes came at them from every direction and dozens of valiant warriors dropped at the charge. Hanuman’s eyes brightened. There is everlasting glory for those who die fighting for a just cause.
* * * * *
“Stop!”
“Stop,” came the voice again.
“Shanti! Is that you?” Steve looked at the console questioningly. It showed two objects a large cylindrical one and a small bubble-shaped craft. His heart jumped into his mouth. She had entered a dangerous situation—much more perilous than she may have realized.
She stopped next to him in her bubble-shaped craft. “I’m guiding the obelisk vimana right into the installation,” she said. The brothers immediately stopped, not more than fifty miles from their target. As they did, the obelisk shot by with enormous speed, sparkling with the energy of the sun, glowing brightly like a pillar of fire. Several rockets immediately shot off the structures at the entrance to the cave. Steve and Jack rushed down, intercepted the missiles and destroyed them with bolts of white lightning. The obelisk proceeded at enormous speed, heading straight for Kallin’s moon installation.
“Let’s get out of here!” screamed Jack. They turned around and flew away as fast as they could. The obelisk, its lasers blazing, drove itself through the installation, crashing right into the cave at enormous speed, disappearing like a needle into the moon’s body.
An enormous explosion shook the lunar surface. The shockwave reached the escaping vehicles and they wobbled, picked up by the blast and thrown forward for fifty miles. A huge, roiling fountain of fire, over ten miles wide and a hundred miles high, escaped out of the target and shot straight out into space, nipping at the heels of the desperately fleeing vimanas.
Steve gasped. It was a near escape. They turned around and looked. The whole east rim of the crater had been pulverized and huge explosions rattled all along its bottom. Enormous chunks of stone flew off in different directions, dropping miles away, creating new craters on the moon’s already pocked surface. A large cloud of black dust and balls of red fire collected over the point of impact and flew out into space, trailing from the site of the impact like dark blood streaming out of an open wound.