by Tex Leiko
It was viral, and though nothing had changed yet, many admitted to being happier already. In their minds and in their hearts, they were already free. They already knew what they would do with themselves when the chaos had ended. When the Crimson Crusade had finished cleansing the earth.
—From the tome of Demicles 4001 C.E.
Chapter Fourteen
Tombstone Territory
“I am so glad to have you back,” Zarfa said over his shoulder.
Sarah was trailing behind him at a close distance; it wasn’t hard because he was moving slowly. He was in a great deal of pain from all the events earlier. He looked forward to finalizing this evening by taking down Ghast.
He had never dreamt it would be so easy. For years, this evil figure, this name that ran the Faraza, had been an apparition. Nobody could grab hold of him, but now he was within Zarfa’s grasp. The feelings of joy overwhelmed him.
“I’m not going to lie,” he continued. “I really did plan to kill you… That sounds bad, it’s just that I figured you had been brainwashed and tortured. Never did I dream that—”
“You’d have your sister back?” she asked. Her voice was nasally from the swelling in her nostrils.
“I didn’t think it possible.”
“Well, I am here. Furthermore, I am proud of you. I know Faraza is evil. I know Dad is evil, but I still couldn’t…”
“It needs to be done.”
“I couldn’t agree more, but you have to be the one who does it.”
Zarfa didn’t say a word more. He just quickened the pace. His body was stiff and didn’t want to move faster than he was already going. The faster he moved, the more pain riddled him, but he was determined to reach the ambush location.
Sarah matched her pace to his and trailed him like the younger sister. Zarfa couldn’t help but let his mind drift to when they had been children. Not innocent, but pure. They knew pain and loss, but they had never known atrocities like this before.
Now was a time of undisputable chaos. Zarfa, for his part, would have taken all of the pain, horror, tragedy, and sadness from his sister if he could have. He knew even though she was resilient, she was hurting deep down. All those years in the Faraza, she had been forced to do terrible things to innocent people.
It was all for the sake of fitting in. All for the sake of keeping a cover. All for the sake of reuniting with her brother and hopefully, someday, destroying the evil organization that had taken her life from her. On the outside, she acted as if nothing bothered her, but he knew her deeper than that. Something was amiss inside of her and he didn’t know how long it would be until she couldn’t carry the weight any longer.
“Well, we’re here. From what you told us, he should be passing this way this evening. He and his raiding party. Now we go into the tower and wait,” Zarfa said, motioning to a spire that stuck out of the residence.
“I thought you preferred to fight with your hands? What are we going to do up there?”
“I do prefer to, but not after I’ve been nearly killed multiple times in the same day. We go up there, we wait. I contact Zajifa when he comes into sight, and more than a hundred men will descend upon him. I come down to interrogate after it’s all over.”
“I see. Well, you always were so smart, big brother,” Sarah said with tears welling up in her soft eyes.
“Hey, a warrior never cries in battle. Try to hold yourself together, sis.”
The two of them entered the huge residence they were standing outside of. It belonged to a member of Legion Nine and the family had cleared out of it in case the fighting spilled over into the home.
As they reached the top of the spire that loomed twenty-five feet into the sky, Zarfa pulled out a box about the size of a coffin from underneath a shelf. He cracked it open and revealed an MK-341 Gauss assault rifle complete with a military grade sniper scope.
“No movement,” he commed over to Zajifa.
“Noted,” he heard back in his ear.
* * * *
Ghast was terrified as he realized his men were dropping to the ground dead like poisoned flies around him. Zarfa could see it on his face from his scope. It started so quickly he barely had time to respond. He didn’t hear a single shot fired, only the bell that was ringing to signal the attack. All according to plan
As his men were thinned out by the sniper fire, they tried running and taking cover. Those that made it to the alleyways or behind cover were cut down by the melee support troops. In less than two minutes, the perfectly executed ambush had killed his entire raiding party of thirty-eight.
Ghast stood by himself with a plasma katana in his hand. He was still taking a defensive stance as members of Legion Nine surrounded him. The bell stopped ringing and there was dead silence in the night’s air.
“I’ll kill anyone who gets too close!” he shouted, trying to act tough still.
“As if a support sniper couldn’t drop one between your eyes at any given moment?” Zajifa asked, stepping out in front of him.
“So then why hasn’t it?”
“Don’t worry.”
The timing was immaculate as the shot rang out. The bullet flew from Zarfa’s gun into Ghast’s right arm. Ghast dropped the plasma sword and screamed in tempestuous agony. A second shot fired and hit his left knee. Blood sprayed onto the sand as he fell to the ground crying like newborn.
“Being the victim isn’t any fun, is it?” Zajifa questioned as he stood next to the writhing Ghast.
“What do you want? If you’re going to kill me, do it already!”
“And spoil the fun?”
“You’re sick.”
“Understood,” Zajifa said, clearly not responding to Ghast but rather some command that came over his com-link.
Zajifa began kicking Ghast in the ribs with all the strength he could muster. With each kick, Ghast rolled over more and more. Zajifa could hear the ribs cracking and finally, when he had rolled Ghast over one complete revolution, he stepped back.
“Proceed,” he said as another shot rang out.
This shot aimed true for Ghast’s left arm. It struck exactly where the humerus attached to the radius and ulna and blew his arm apart from the elbow. His forearm and hand lay next to his face and Ghast continued to scream and whimper.
“Understood,” Zajifa said as he raised his hand into the air, forming a signal with his index and ring fingers.
A member from the crowd threw Zajifa a can of medifoam and he caught it. Zajifa stepped back over to Ghast, who was screaming every form of obscenity but not saying any real words. Zajifa sprayed the foam into each of the gunshots on Ghast’s body then eventually on his severed arm.
He had lost a lot of blood and was beginning to lose consciousness as Zajifa knelt next to his face and greeted him with a big smile. He slowly stroked his hand across Ghast’s face in a gentle manner.
“There, there, little guy. You aren’t going to die…yet,” he said as he drew back his hand and slapped Ghast as hard as he could. “You’re going to die later. As for you calling us sick… Think of those experiments you’ve been helping with and you still dare call us the sick ones?”
“I thought you were brave, fearless defenders? I thought you were above this.”
“Oh, we are brave and fearless and it is our duty to defend, but part of that is making an example. Raising morale, building an army off of a victory… I hope you understand this has a purpose,” Zajifa said as he struck Ghast in the jaw with his fist hard enough to knock him out.
* * * *
When Ghast awoke, it was daybreak. He had been tied to an obelisk that typically served as a grave marker in the middle of the city. He couldn’t break free even if he had his full strength. His missing arm saw to it that he couldn’t untie his bonds. He didn’t say a word as he stared Zarfa in the face.
Zarfa had been waiting for hours for him to rouse. He and about thirty thousand who came to see him executed in public. The crowd stood behind Zarfa all chanting, “Kill him! Kill
the leader of Faraza. Kill the one who took our loved ones.”
Zarfa realized that he was nothing more than a puppet in his father’s scheme, but that was a secret he could keep between himself and Sarah for the time being. Zarfa approached Ghast and stared at him silently for several minutes until the crowd finally grew silent and still.
“You’ve caused us a great deal of heartache, you know?” Zarfa asked calmly.
“And? So?”
“So I feel sorry for you.”
“You feel sorry for me?” Ghast scoffed.
“Yes, you. I feel sorry for whatever it was that made you the way that you are. I feel sorry that you had no issue leading bands of raiders to rape, pillage, steal, murder, kidnap, and all sorts of other grotesque crimes, all in the sake of making those pathetic mutants that I slaughtered like mere defenseless sheep. I feel sorry that you placed hope in a false one. I feel sorry that you angered me. I feel sorry that you were ever born. I feel sorry…that we never had the opportunity to be friends. You know that I don’t enjoy killing at all? I’m just damn good at it. I wish we could all get along. Someday, I hope that is possible, yet over seven thousand years of human history seems to be against us. There are only two strongholds left in human society, and in both of them lies an organization seeking to conquer what is left of this pathetic planet. I’m going to do my part in destroying them and I hope that something finally changes.
“I hope that the countries that have nothing, no technology to synthesize food or no means to grow it because we raped the earth too hard for it to grow, are healed and given the technology to sustain themselves. I hope that we work together to heal the earth. And I wish that instead of this being your demise, you were there to see it.”
“How touching, you weak, idealistic, hypocrite. You talk about how we are so different? We are the same. Why do you think Faraza did what it did? Why do you think we want to conquer what is left of this earth?”
“It really is a valiant attempt in such a bleak circumstance to try to get me to see things your way. To convince me that you too thought you were being noble. Yet I fail to see the nobility in any of it and I assure you that you are wasting your breath in doing so. You know what I pity you for the most though?”
“I don’t care. My only wish is that I could live long enough to see your own father slit your throat, asshole.”
“I pity you most for the fact that the ones you afflicted will be your final executioners,” Zarfa said as he stepped away and disappeared into the crowd behind him.
The crowd rushed forward the second Zarfa stepped away. Nobody knew how long it took for Ghast to be killed by the ones he had stolen from and caused tragedy to. All that anybody knew was that his body didn’t exist when they were done. They tore him into literal shreds with their bare hands and not a single one felt anything but justified.
Chapter Fifteen
Alliance
“Zarfa called again. Seems that he sees things our way now,” Crimson said as she sat at a terminal near Max in the lab.
“Oh really?”
“Really,” she said, sounding a bit annoyed.
Two weeks had passed since Zarfa had left Alexarien. Two weeks ago, Crimson labeled him as a low priority enemy that she was willing to sacrifice with her plague of nanobots. Max had insisted on figuring out a way to save Zarfa and she easily dismissed him saying that there was no chance Zarfa would see the light. Now, he had.
“So it is probably a good thing that I was working on the development of an antibody bot to prevent Zarfa from being killed along with the rest of the Synaptix Psyker Scream army, huh?” Max questioned smugly.
“Yeah, good thing. Look, do you always have to rub it in when you’re right?”
“You’d do the same thing.”
Stifled, Crimson let out a sigh. “You know me all too well.”
“Well, I will have you know, the good news is that it is easier than we had thought. In another two days, the machines in the lab will begin mass production of the flying anti-Psyker bots. In one day, I will have an ampoule of the antibodies ready. We just need a way to deliver it to Zarfa. I’m not going to mass produce it… There is no need to.”
“Good, he also decided to go ahead with the Psyker treatments. He doesn’t want to lose his hearing and he believes we should be able to take down Synaptix within the next two months… Before they will be able to control him on the frequency.”
“What gave him that idea?”
“I did.”
Max, shocked, dropped what he was doing and glared up at Crimson. She had to know what he was thinking by now.
“What?” She questioned him like he was a little boy begging his mother for something.
“Two months? Really?”
“Maybe sooner. Look, Max, you’ve already proven one thing, that you work very fast. You are beyond intelligent; almost nothing is out of your reach. Look at how fast you made these bots for us. All you have left to do is make the bot that will let me be unharmed by massive amounts of electricity. If you can do that, great; if not, we will do our best without it.
“The government is taking notice of our actions and Synaptix has been stewing about the blow we struck against them. Not to mention the blow Zarfa struck to them. They’re angry and it is only a matter of time before they strike. We need to be the first to move this time.
“Three days from now, Zarfa is going to lead what he thinks will be the final assault against Faraza. They are crippled. He killed their main leader, Ghast, and Polyhelix has no immediate backup to send except for Zarfa’s father.”
“Zarfa’s what?” Max exclaimed.
“Yeah, some other news… His sister is back and informed them that their father was the true founder of Faraza. Also, he sits at the head of Polyhelix. He could come and lead Faraza to a potential victory, but it is too risky. It is almost certain that he will remain in Alexarien at the Polyhelix headquarters. To send him to Ilyeion to fight along with the cultish army of theirs would be a poor strategy. Zarfa promised if I lent him a hand, he would march Legion Nine to Alexarien where we will crush Polyhelix and Synaptix together. I agreed. In three days from now, I will be taking a huge risk with potential collateral damages to Legion Nine. Zarfa understood and agreed he still wanted what I could offer.
“I will be revealing that I managed to hack the Pilvikones and that I have ultimate control over the weather. I really hope they don’t notice because I believe it will help our victory on our home turf. Anyhow, now is zero hour; things are going to happen fast.”
“So we have Legion Nine helping, but they have, what, maybe two thousand soldiers, tops? None of whom have really been trained. That won’t be much of a help, will it? Look, I like Zarfa and I don’t want him dead, but is revealing your ace this early worth the risk for his army?”
“Max, when he killed Ghast, he made it a public execution. He allowed many families that fell victim to Faraza to take part in exacting what they felt was justice. The mob relentlessly tore Ghast to pieces. People felt great and felt that a hope of putting this to an end permanently wasn’t a dream anymore. He now has over fifty thousand willing to fight for him and the numbers are growing each day. Not all will come with him here, but a good amount will.”
“Okay, I can see where that would be an advantage. How many do you think we have?”
“You’ve seen it yourself, Max. Just step outside and look around. You can’t go anywhere without seeing people with the mark on their hand. We have a lot of support. Like I said, the government has taken notice of us. In fact, they are beginning to arrest people with the “C” on their hand, but this is only making us more popular. It seems for every arrest, ten more are fueled to join the cause. If even half of these people take arms when we send out the final call, there is no stopping us. So do you think you will be able to finish my final project that I asked of you?”
“Maybe, give me about a week. I have an idea for your little conductor bots. This is all so surreal. How long
do you think it will be until the military gets involved?”
“Probably not until we destroy the other competition. As of right now, to them, we are still a small, worthless rebel faction with many obstacles in our way. As soon as they see those fall, they’ll mobilize. You can be sure of that.”
“So you think they’ll plan to crush us as we cheer in victory?”
“Exactly.”
They sat in silence for a moment longer, then Crimson began to smirk and giggle like an insidious little school child planning something mischievous.
“What now?” Max asked.
“Oh, the plan that Zarfa had. His whole reason for coming here was to get the ability to hear where the raiders were coming from. They ride giant wasps that come out of the ground and he figured by being able to strike at their heart underground, they’d be at a disadvantage without their air support.”
“Why’s that so funny?”
“Because I convinced him to make their battle as public as possible and to wait outside, let the Faraza counter their assault and fight out in the open of the desert.”
“And lose their advantage? Why?”
“Oh, you’ll see. In fact, Legion Nine is strong, but the forces of nature can be stronger. We will virtually be there for the battle on a live feed, seeing it from multiple points of view. I agreed to help, right? It shall be glorious!” Crimson chuckled as she went back to entering data into the terminal she was sitting at. She had nearly as much work to do as Max and she knew the seriousness of it.
* * * *
“This is Thomas Cudrow, president of Polyhelix. This is the correct communicator number to reach Badger, correct?”
Badger had been sleeping when he heard the jingle for his voice communicator ring in his head. It woke him out of a sleep and he felt uneasy. If it was anyone from Synaptix, they would have directly communicated via his dreams or telepathic conversation. He hadn’t received a call on his voice communicator for almost ten years.
