Unholy Star, Beyond Faith

Bloody sermon

Terminate anything that moves was the order given to the Churchman, Sam, who had assumed a half-kneeling position with her wrist mounted knife-thrower braced over her left knee. To her right the offender, Lynx Lynx stood with a failing confidence before the raised twin pistols of the Dean Eiko, the Deadly Dean, she thought with fondness recalling the the title assigned to him by his fan base. Flashes of lightning lit the dark, rainy scene with booming drums of thunder tightening the tension of the situation.

Sam thought to the footage that would be streamed across the galaxy. The package of this execution was sure to be a bestseller for the Church. She redoubled her efforts to look mean and focused; but the holy assassin didn't need to try hard to look convincing;  the holographic skull mask coupled with the feared uniform was a hard double act to beat when it came to galactic bad-assedness.

As well as cover the entrance, Sam was tasked with monitoring the group that huddled beyond the interior entry corridor to the platform's docking bay. By engaging external sensors that were linked directly to her visual cortex implant, she could make out about twenty individuals; out of this number, only a few were now armed. Sam guessed that they saw the negotiations degenerate and recruited arms. Bring it on, she thought.

She listened in on the offender's attempt to entreat with the Dean, she suppressed a chuckle, if he only knew what was next, she thought, the sermon of the ending day was about to begin, it would be over soon.

She sent a status glyph to her team members to confirm her readiness and received the same from Honi, who had mirrored her position at the Dean's opposite, right flank. The Dean sent a series of quick glyphs in return, indicating an abnormal situation; kill anything that moves; and let the show begin.

Sam could clearly hear the raised preaching of her Dean over the rain, his voice distorted by the mask to be louder, deeper and darker than usual, "Do you Lynx Lynx Patriarch of the Atripliceae Platform and subject of the Skyean Kingdom believe that you are more than a man!?"

Lynx's eyes widened, shocked by the sudden realisation that he was the subject of this death squad's attention, he shook his head and pushed his palms forward to make his point, "No, please, No! There has been some mistake!" The wrongly targeted man stumbled backward and fell to the ground.

"On your feet!" Commanded the Dean.

Lynx obeyed regaining his feet, "But--"

"Silence! You who disobey the universal laws; the ancient and holy laws of the terminatio die that have served us age after age -- the ending day -- the long life. You have no right of reply other than the eternal annuity you will pay in hell for your sins! Do you understand me, offender!?"

Lynx nodded meekly under fear of death.

"Answer me!"

"Yes, I understand."

"Good. It is a shame, however, that you do not understand something else that is so simple. That which protects us against the languishing despair plaguing mankind since the day that Adam ate  of the forbidden fruit in the garden of paradise. Living in the shadow disappointment our ancestors have understood and accepted over the Ages. And yet, the simple idea, that life ends, is something that you choose selfishly to disregard--"

"No--"

"I said, SILENCE!!

Thus it hath happened there here so close to the heart of galactic civilisation with the great doctrine of his beloved Church; He, whose word is indeed not only in Scripture, but was a term of art dug into our hearts and minds since an earlier time when life was simple and expressed by the doctrine of a single word, God. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, are each of them God, and yet there is but One God. For as to the word Person. Well, there are many. "