Penguins of Anarchy IV: Endgame

Ten

Omniscion sat alone in the war room. TV screens depicting the feeds of cameras across the globe lined the walls. He watched the images of Alliance soldiers fighting resistance troops, relentlessly trying to destroy each other, desperately trying to achieve their goals by any means necessary.

And Omniscion grunted wryly, knowing that it would all be for nothing.

"Bloody icicle," Terasane moaned as the Alliance aircraft flew overhead. "They're back again."

"It's over," Sleeson said gravely. "They've come to wipe us out. They're finally bringing the hammer down on Antarctica."

But Fragnile and Ursynz were suspicious. "I didn't think they would attack us until every other nation had fallen," Fragnile said.

"There aren't enough of them," Ursynz stated. The others looked at him in confusion. "This is just a single fleet," he explained. "If they were coming in full force, they'd be stretched out as far as the eye can see. It's just one division of them."

Terasane nodded in agreement. "What could they be trying to accomplish?"

General Brazen dove behind cover as a missile impacted nearby. He was still shocked at what was happening. He had been completely taken off guard by this assault. Even the artillery guns were inactive because they were under maintenance. Why would the Alliance attack now of all times? Was it because he had sent troops into Russia? Somehow Brazen knew Omniscion wouldn't waste resources on a small-scale attack like this if he planned to annihilate Antarctica completely before long. So what was going on?

Brazen peered out from the tree he hid behind and saw a metal ball crash to the ground. Was that a bomb? Not unless the Alliance figured out how to make bombs out of steel. Was it a piece of debris? He couldn't be sure.

Then the metal ball unrolled into a metal penguin, and Brazen dove out of the way just as the steel soldier's arm morphed into a machine gun.

"What do we do?" Revnos asked in panic.

"We fight, of course," Sleeson replied without even thinking. He turned to the four escapees, who seemed unsure of how to proceed. "We do fight, right?"

"Why?" Larikos asked. "They betrayed us. They threw away our allegiance."

"But this is still our home."

"Not mine. I suggest we get out of here while they're all distracted with killing each other."

The other five penguins were still hesitant. This was their homeland. This was where they were born and raised. This was the country they had fought to protect their whole lives. Were they really going to just run away when it needed help?

Terasane reloaded his rifle. "I'm not letting the Alliance get away with coming to our land so easily." The others seemed to agree, even Larikos and Revnos to a lesser degree.

They all charged forward, toward the Alliance ground forces.

Omniscion sighed as he gripped the detonator in his flipper—a tiny device that could deliver a blow to the planet that it most likely would never recover from. Was even he capable of such destruction? Of course he was. He was still the greatest soldier who had ever lived, whether his followers still saw it or not.

He stared intently at the detonator, wondering if "too much destruction" was possible, wondering if this was really the right way to go about things. But then Omniscion remembered all he had been through—from being mistreated by his mentors, to losing the only penguins he cared about to war, to being so horribly mutilated by the vile Penguins of Anarchy. And he thought about how his plan to make this world a safer, happier place for his beloved son Vek to live in was no longer possible.