by Will Wallner
"Jet, give me some water?" Larvos rose to his feet, careful not to lose his balance. He wore a set of snakeskin cowboy boots, which looked impressive, and fit his rockstar appearance, but they weren't exactly easy to balance on inside the shaking cabin of the truck.
"Umm…sure." She was surprised at Larvos' request. Jet removed a container attached to a strap, which wrapped around her body armor. "Here you go, didn’t think you drank anything other than hard liquor?" She handed him the water container.
"It's not for me. Our guest is thirsty." Larvos unscrewed the cannister and poured a small amount of water into the cap. He walked slowly towards Moja and held it out. She was so excited, she jumped to her feet and her tail started wagging uncontrollably. Jet watched this scene in amazement. She had spent the most time with Hunter and Moja after rescuing them, and never thought Moja might need some water. This act of kindness and awareness from Larvos, legitimately impressed her. Even though she looked up to him as the leader, she knew him well enough to know a lot of his persona was an act. This genuine act of compassion, was a reminder of why everyone in their group, looked up to Larvos as a leader, and why he had their unconditional trust. Underneath his flashy showmanship was a kind man who showed empathy for those around him.
Jet watched him slowly approach Moja and place the cap of water on the floor. Moja immediately slurped up the small portion of water, then prodded the empty cap with her snout back towards Larvos.
"Hahaha! Please Sir, Can I have some more?! Yes baby, you can!" He refilled the cap with water, then slid it back to her, carefully, with his boot. She drank the portion of water again, and pushed the empty cap back towards Larvos, just like before. "You're a thirsty girl, aren't you?" They continued this game of back and forth, until finally, Moja's thirst was quenched. She looked up into Larvos' eyes and he knew she was giving him permission to stroke her. He gently rubbed the fur on her back, and she let out a little sigh of relief, as some of the tension within her body released. She was still cautious, but could relax, just a little bit.
"You like to act tough, but you're not such a scary beast." He looked at the name tag on her collar. "Moja? That’s a strange name for girl."
"How do you know it's a girl?" Jet asked.
"I don’t need to lift her leg, just look at her pink collar. There's no way someone would buy something so ridiculous and put it on a boy. Also, you can tell just by looking at her face. Her snout is too small to be a male." Larvos moved his hand from her back and started rubbing her cheeks. This was Moja's favorite part of her body to be petted. She stretched her neck out so Larvos could really reach into the sensitive areas.
"Wow, Larvos, I think you made a new friend. Didn’t think you were such a softie." Jet teased him in a sarcastic manner. They were a closely bonded group, who liked to joke around with each other.
"Come on Jet, cut me some slack. There weren't many dogs in Sector 13, as least none that you would want to keep as a pet. It's not every day we have the opportunity to play with a cute animal. I know you want to pet her as well." Larvos laughed at her with his signature cackle. "Stop acting so tough and get over here!"
Jet smiled, then rose to her feet. Of course, she couldn't resist the offer. She had wanted to pet Moja the moment she had found her in the desert. Now she was being given permission by her commander. Larvos and Jet knelt down by Moja, and both took turns rubbing her back, and massaging her cheeks. Moja certainly loved the attention. All three of them dropped their guard and allowed their natural instincts to guide their actions. It was a brief moment of purity. While this playful scene took place, Hunter lay unconscious.
3. ALONE
Space
Day ?? Month ?? Year ????
"Somebody, help me!"
The man stumbled through the empty halls of the space craft, deliriously bumping into bulkheads. He was frantically looking for a way out, but there was none. He was trapped on an alien ship, floating through space, without any means of escape. This man was the only passenger onboard. The only human who existed in this cruel universe. Alone within the confines of this galactic tomb, he pounded his bloody fists against the cold, unforgiving, metallic walls.
"Just let me die!" He screamed, as his desperate voice echoed down the empty corridor.
The man had been marooned in space for months. Trapped, not only within the confines of the spacecraft, but within the isolation of his own mind. He hazily dragged his body to an area where numerous empty ration containers were sprawled across the floor. He slumped down in a corner and hung his head in defeat. It was over. There was no other way out. He removed a tattered drawing from his pocket and fixated on the subject; a woman holding a small fluffy creature. She was smiling, or rather, she was laughing. Something must have made her laugh as she was being drawn. Tears filled his eyes. Whoever it was in this picture, must have meant a great deal to him. He looked at the drawing just for a brief moment, then crumpled it in his fist. It was the last time he would ever look at the image. He was saying goodbye to the women who no longer existed. It was his way of signaling he was ready to perform the final act.
Without wasting any more of his time, he stood up and hastily went to another part of the ship. It was an empty compartment with a higher ceiling, where a rope hung from a large pillar. It had been prepared weeks ago. He wanted to complete this final task, while he still had the courage, and before his determination faded. A small crate placed beneath the rope served as a stepping stone to his demise. He'd known since the moment the plan failed; it would end like this. He tried for months, but nothing worked. The price for failure wasn't death. He expected to die. Even if he had succeeded, his life would have ended, but at least he could have died with some sense of peace and fulfillment. Now it was all in vain. His death was simply the acceptance of defeat. He had failed his mission.
The man stepped onto the crate and placed the rope around his neck. There was a small porthole directly ahead of him. It would be the last thing he would ever see. He'd planned it that way. He wanted his last vision to be something other than the cold metallic surface of the space craft's interior, which tormented him for what seemed like an eternity. He stood on the crate and placed the noose around his neck. All that was left, was to take a small step into oblivion. He swallowed at the thought of what comes after life ends. His mind, which has descended into a state of madness, became crystal clear. All of his confusion vanished. The fog, which clouded his thoughts drifted away, until all that was left, was the certain reality of what came next. Death.
"Stop pretending, you know you can't do this."
He lifted his foot from the crate, but he already knew this was all just an act. He could never take the final step, not while it still existed.
"Please, put me out of my misery. I just want it to be over. I can't be here any longer. Existing on this ship alone is pure torture."
As much as he wanted to end his life. It was simply impossible for him to go through with this cowardly act. It wasn't that he didn’t have the courage or conviction to kill himself, but rather, that he knew that if he ended his life before completing his mission, his soul would burn in the deepest fires of hell.
"If you quit now, his sacrifice will have been for nothing. You must finish this, for both of them."
He had to keep trying. Even if it was impossible for him succeed, he had to die trying, rather than give up. No matter how long it would take. The only acceptable death would be for his body to die naturally. That was the only way he could ever hope to gain any sense of peace with his conscience after failing. A lifetime of solitude, floating through space, was a small price to pay for betraying humanity. He let out a short sigh, then removed the rope, and stepped off the crate. If he could have cried, he would, but he'd already used up all of his tears a long time ago. In a rage, he hurled the crate as hard as he could against the wall. Unsatisfied with the small dent it made, he threw the crate again, this time with even more aggression. Again unsatisfied, he repeatedly smashed it agai
nst the wall, determined to repeat this act of madness until it was destroyed. He lost count of how many times he smashed the crate into the wall, but eventually, it had shattered to pieces. When he'd released enough of his anger, he decided to return to the control room, for one last attempt at putting an end to this nightmare the right way.
The control room was dimly lit to conserve power. There were various futuristic control panels, which would have been operated by various crew members. Now there was only one. A single man on board who barely understood how anything worked. He'd learned through trial and error how to operate a few basic functions within the control room, but the one operation he desperately needed, just didn’t seem to work. He stood in front of one of the control panels, swiping the screen in every direction, trying all the possible combinations.
System Error
There was no explanation of why the command couldn’t be executed. It simply showed the same error message every time he tried to initiate the sequence.
System Error
He'd made thousands of attempts, but every time the result was the same.
System Error
Maybe if he just tried one more time, he might get lucky?
System Error
The glass control screen was covered in traces of dried blood, from when the man had beaten his bloody fists against the nearby wall, and then tried again to execute the command over and over again.
System Error
It had taken all of his will power to resist smashing the screen in a fit of rage. Even with his fragile temperament, knew he couldn’t risk damaging the control panel.
System Error
He had spent countless days sitting at the control panel, continuously pushing the execute button until he fell asleep. Only to awake and repeat the monotonous routine, over and over again. This had gone on for weeks.
System Error, System Error, System Error, System Error, System Error, System Error, System Error, System Error, System Error, System Error, System Error, System Error, System Error, System Error, System Error, System Error, System Error, System Error, System Error, System Error, System Error, System Error, System Error, System Error...
"What is the system error? Everything else seems to be working normally. Why won't it self-destruct?!?"
All the man needed to do was blow up the ship. That way, he could ensure that its cargo would be destroyed forever. The one thing he couldn’t allow, was to ever let that thing come into contact with humanity ever again. It was the sole purpose behind the man's existence, to destroy what was on board this ship. Now the man was faced with a scenario he never thought was a possibility. He had boarded the ship with the knowledge that one way or another, he would die. Either that thing would kill him, or he would destroy it, along with himself and the ship. It never occurred to him that he might be triumphant in battle, only to then fail at self-destructing the ship afterwards. Now he was faced with the cruelest dilemma. He saw no alternative. While that thing exists, he must remain on board, alive.
Either he would eventually succeed in blowing up the ship, or he would at least be able to warn any other human who might be unluckily enough to find them drifting through space. If he was to die from old age before self-destructing the ship, and then at some point the ship was discovered with that thing still on board, then mankind's fate would truly be sealed in tragedy. The man's pathetic existence would have meant nothing.
In that exact moment, the man considered if there was a third possibility. It was a revelation. After several more attempts at self-destructing the ship, he left the control room, seemingly having thought of an alternative solution to his dilemma. He quickly ran down one of the deserted corridors, towards a compartment, which was labelled 'Stasis'. Inside were several tubes, large enough for a human body to lay inside, and be put to sleep indefinitely. They were all empty, except for one. This was the one area of the ship the man didn't like to visit. He didn't like to be reminded of the contents of that one tube and would only return when absolutely necessary, to check the stasis tube was still operating correctly. The man stood over the tube, looking at what lay inside through the clear glass stasis panel.
"I'd rather condemn myself to suffer for all eternity, than allow you to destroy another world."
He climbed inside the adjacent stasis tube and closed the cover, sealing him inside.
"With any luck, we'll vanish into a black hole, or collide with a star, and disappear forever from this cruel universe. Good night."
4. THE PUPPET & THE GENERAL
Tiberia
Day 4 Month 5 Year 2035
Ryuu stood in a large metallic container carriage, which was being pulled by a juggernaut freight train through the desert of Tiberia. These railways were operated by the industrial power plants, which provided Tiberia with an abundance of energy. Normally, these freight trains would transport gigantic amounts of raw materials used in the energy refining process, but Ryuu had secretly commandeered them as his own mobile command center. From this train carriage, he could command the entire Crimson Blade army. Thanks to a secret deal with the company who ran the power plants, Ryuu and Crimson Blade were able to avoid detection throughout the 'War of Tiberia'. They were in constant motion, never staying in the same location, travelling along the vast expanse of the railway network, which circled the region of Tiberia. They were ready to strike instantly at Ryuu's command. These juggernaut freight trains would pull thousands of mining carriages each day. It was impossible to know if one of them was full of Crimson Blade soldiers or filled with mining materials.
The Tiberian military leaders never considered that the industrial freight trains were being used to transport enemy soldiers deep within their territory. Why would they? The trains were operated by AW Corp, an ally and business partner of Tiberia, who were given the highly lucrative energy contract to operate the Tiberian refinery power plants. Furthermore, the entire military force Tiberia relied upon, was being provided by Capitol City's most powerful corporation; IronCorp. IronCorp also happened to own AW Corp. Little did anyone know, that the person put in charge of AW Corp, Max Wolfhhart, had betrayed IronCorp, and most importantly, it's owner, Ernst Ironchild. Max had made an unholy alliance with Ryuu. With Max Wolfhart on the inside, providing Ryuu with all of IronCorp's strategic plans, Crimson Blade had an overwhelming advantage on the battle field against IronCorps soldiers, who fought to defend the city of Tiberia. Ryuu was given a tactical advantage like no other.
Still, it wasn't a forgone conclusion that Crimson Blade would triumph. They were heavily outnumbered and less well armed than IronCorp's soldiers. Ryuu's victory was far from certain. He would need to devote every ounce of energy he had into fighting this war. Luckily for him, he wasn't alone. He shared the responsibility of commanding the Crimson Blade army with another man; Larvos. Together, Ryuu and Larvos commanded Crimson Blade in their effort to conquer Tiberia. How these two unlikely allies came to join forces is a very long and complicated story. For now, these two alpha males had found a way to coexist and share in the responsibility of leading Crimson Blade.
"How much longer are you going to stare at that screen?" Larvos had grown tired of Ryuu's constant posturing.
Larvos understood his rockstar persona was nothing more than a performance or illusion, but Ryuu's act was on another level. Ryuu actually believed he was his peoples savior, the chosen one, who would lead them to freedom. Larvos saw right through Ryuu's god complex, and realized he was a man lost in delusion. It troubled him deeply. He'd known Ryuu for decades, but not on such an intimate level. Larvos started to realize, perhaps Ryuu was even more dangerous as an ally, than as a foe on the battlefield. He tried his best to analyze Ryuu's intentions, but he always returned to the unescapable conclusion, that this man was a danger to everyone under his command.
Ryuu's unwavering belief, that his military genius would lead them to victory, terrified Larvos. Even more frightening, were the countless soldiers under Ryuu's command who blindly followed his eve
ry word and partook in the belief it was their destiny to conquer Tiberia. On the contrary, Ryuu was no great leader. He was the fraud Larvos always believed him to be. For now, Larvos had to live with his decision to join forces and fight alongside his arch rival, but Larvos knew when the war was over, win or lose, Ryuu would always be his enemy. This constant mental game of analyzing Ryuu's every decision, continued to wear heavily on Larvos. He had very little patience left.