OUTWORLD: Dark Planet

OUTWORLD: Dark Planet Part 12

Doreen couldn't have imagined it in her worst dreams.

Stumbling through a scene of unutterable devastation, her boots kicking up scrap, ash and bodies, while four enormous beings strode the rubble killing everyone in front of her... it was beyond anything a dream could conjure.

The beings from Ilarik, wielding large khopesh-like swords, were advancing on a group of Sedalia Station guards. Doreen would be forced to watch as the figures slaughtered them, as whatever entity had invaded her body laughed and gave them orders.

Never had she felt so helpless. Another shuddering explosion announced the detonation of a grenade; this one had landed among the four figures, bathing them in flame. They folded against the blast – then resumed their advance when it had petered out.

One of the guards, a Cat, roared and charged the nearest Ilarik soldier, brandishing a shock handle at full power. The sparking weapon travelled further than he did; a khopesh caught him in the middle and pulled him from the ground. As he thrashed, the soldier on the other side of the blade swung him back and forth before throwing him to the ground; he landed in a messy heap and was still.

The remaining guards resumed their barrage of gunfire, hosing the Ilarik beings with high-impact rounds ejected at impossible speeds from their rifles. Doreen could only wonder why they weren't breaking and running; if a grenade wouldn't do the trick, why would guns fare any better?

Another guard, this one a male Red Panda, was falling to a blade, sliced like a Milk Maid Mary's CuppaCake. Landers, the guard from the landing platform and apparent leader of the detachment, was finally signalling his troops to retreat, and they did.

Doreen barked another order to her soldiers; her own mind translated the directive as 'follow'. The figures turned and shadowed the fleeing guards, and Doreen stalked after them, still in the grip of a hostile force.

A sudden clamour built from the end of the street, and another platoon of those militia types were cannoning around the corner. It looked to Doreen as if they had been planning a pincer manoeuvre in concert with the first bunch to envelop Landers's group. It didn't matter now, Doreen thought. They were all dead already.

The militia leader, a scruffy Golden Retriever, bellowed instructions to attack, bringing his gun to bear, but visibly faltered when he saw no sign of the other side of the pincer attack. "Where's Rogers?" he cried, so taken aback by the situation that he took more than three seconds to notice what had replaced Rogers. "Oh, my gawd," he murmured, his fur rippling nervously.

Caught between the Ilarik soldiers and the militia, the Sedalia guards scattered under the direction of Landers, who took two of his own behind an overturned street stall.

The action turned out to be entirely unnecessary in relation to Doreen's soldiers, who merely advanced on the militia. Doreen sobbed inside; this would just go on and on. WHY? she shrieked. WHY?

Because you freed me, the entity replied. Thank you, Doreen Mundie.

Momentarily surprised, Doreen snarled in concert with the entity as it directed the battle against the outmatched militia. Who are you?

That is not important.

It was like talking to a stubborn synthetic, Doreen thought. Why are you killing everyone? she asked it.

That is what I do, the presence said. I am war. I am carnage. I am death.

You are a coward, Doreen retorted. You're using me to kill. Why not show everyone who you are?