Joorir had heard tales of frightening monsters growing up. They always had terrible features—massive fangs, talons larger than trees, soul piercing eyes. She had shared many of these stories with friends. Some had frightened her, but most only intrigued her. She had a fascination with incredible and unique creatures. She had wanted to be zoologist. These fiends always seemed to be based somewhat in reality. They had features similar to beasts found on her home world. Animals that she intended to study.
No creature was more captivating to her than the Great One. An animal that demonstrates extreme intelligence. The last of its kind. This was what brought her to Saxar IV. She had been drafted by council to fight in the Zotari army, just like everyone else she knew. They had gone around asking for volunteers. They chose to ask since the Saxans had been one of their longest and dearest allies. Many Zotari had lifelong friends here and therefore didn’t want to force anyone to fight. They enlisted the volunteers first, then filled the remainder of the necessary ranks using a lottery system.
Joorir had jumped at the opportunity. She had been saving up for years to make a trip to Saxar IV. If she even had the chance to see the Great One, it would all be worth it. She was young and didn’t have any friends here. She had nothing to lose and everything to gain.
The Great One always patrolled the sky. She saw it a few times during her station. She couldn’t do anything while on patrol, but when she got back to her bunk, she sketched and took note of everything she saw. This was the opportunity of a lifetime. It was a dream come true. That was, until the Great One had decimated her squad. She was one of the few who remained and she was terrified. Joorir questioned everything. Why had she volunteered? Why had she been so obsessed with the Great One? She felt naive. She had come here to fulfill a childish fantasy. She hadn’t even considered the obvious. The Great One was deadly. It would kill her without a thought. She had been lucky.
That’s what she thought at least. When her squad had been wiped out, she had been reassigned. They had decided to place her at a supply cache. The reasoning was simple—the chance of another encounter was slim. No one knew where the cache was located and it was well defended. It was the perfect place for a young soldier that had just gone through a traumatic experience. She wasn’t going to be stationed there for long, no one was. Every soldier was on a rotation. They would spend a few days there, then be reassigned, to keep them ‘sharp’.
It was Joorir’s first day there. She had just gotten the rundown of her duties. It seemed straightforward enough. She would follow a route around the encampment, surveilling the surroundings. She was relieved for the break.
It hadn’t lasted long. One single, enemy, entered the camp. He was death incarnate. In his wake, annihilation. She had just met most of these people, but in an instant, they were erased. Who was this person? He didn’t look like a Saxan. Was he a mercenary? He had probably been trained as an elite soldier for years. He moved through their ranks with such ease.
Joorir hid behind stacks of crates, clutching her staff. What good was a staff against this monster? She wished that she had spent her days studying martial arts instead of the countless hours she had wasted studying creatures. Knowledge was useless if you were dead, only the living could benefit from it.
To her left, another body fell lifeless. All that Joorir saw was a collapsed skull, leaking fluids and chunks of flesh everywhere. If she hadn’t seen the body attached to it, she wouldn’t have had any idea what she was looking at. It was unrecognizable. She pressed her back to the crates so tightly, she was surprised they didn’t topple over. Surprised, but intensely relieved. The fighting continued.
She could hear the demon moving near her, so she quietly moved away from her current hiding place. She didn’t take her eyes off of him for a second, which had been a mistake. She clattered into some trays which crashed together like cymbals in the orchestra. She froze, her heart felt like it had been grasped by the man’s hands, unable to beat. He turned his head quickly and immediately charged towards her. Joorir stood petrified. She hadn’t even registered fully that she was being attacked, her mind in a daze. Luckily, the warrior that had shown her around earlier was more cognizant. He saw the blitz and prepared an ambush. He swung his staff around with all the strength he could muster. It connected with the mercenary’s head, knocking him over.
Zoorir’s allies had been waiting for an opportunity like this one. A few of them pounced, landing blow after blow on their enemy. She did not move from her spot for a long moment. When she awoke from her stupor, instead of moving towards the fight, she moved away. From behind a stack of crates, she could hear a sickening crunch, followed by a wail of pain, then a sudden thud and the scream stopped. She sobbed. Zoorir wished she had been killed by the Great One. The thought surprised her and she realized she was more terrified now than she had been when facing up against the Sand Drake. She both wished for this entire debacle to be over and hoped to survive the encounter. She knew her chances of the former were much greater than the latter.
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After some silence, crates began flying all over their encampment. She knew her time was coming. She would die. Right now, her and one other Zotari remained. She did not like their chances. They flanked the behemoth of a man, hoping they could outmaneuver him, but his movements were swift, almost inhuman.
As if on cue with her thoughts, the man charged at her companion. He began to batter him senseless. He wasn’t even able to put up any kind of defenses. He was standing, ready to strike then, in the blink of an eye, he was being absolutely brutalized. Zoorir didn’t even wait to see the outcome, she already knew what the conclusion would be. She sprinted as fast as she could the other direction. She wanted to put as much distance as she could between her and this monster.
There were only three outcomes that she could imagine happening to her. She might make it out and back to camp where she would hopefully be safe. She had seen the Great One circling up above not too long ago, maybe, it would see a lone wanderer in the desert and decide she would be a good snack. Finally, the fiend would catch her and butcher her. One of these options was good, so she focused on that. If she had to choose between the two others, she would pick the Sand Drake. At least then it would be quick and relatively painless. If she never saw this monster again, she would be the luckiest person in the entire sector.
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Alex surveyed the carnage around him. A lot had changed for him. He had been a pretty easy going guy. He still was, but he also apparently had no problem killing other people. Everyone who had been at the supply camp was dead, except that lucky son of a gun that made it out. They all had lives, families, aspirations, and yet, Alex really didn’t feel any remorse for killing them. It was odd to him.
I should probably get checked out. I feel nearly as guilty about killing them as I would if I was playing a video game. I mean maybe a little more. They were real after all. I think it’s easier because they were trying to kill me. I hope all of this doesn’t catch up to me as soon as life isn’t as dangerous. That would be less than ideal.
He finished his cleanup of the supplies. By cleanup, obviously that meant disintegrating them with lasers, at least until he ran out of ammunition. Then it was just the standard smash and grab, except mostly just smashing. If he saw something that caught his eye for whatever reason, he would grab it. Mostly, that meant he would grab anything that looked like food.
Alex had noticed that whenever his energy stores increased above a certain threshold, his body seemed to burn calories at a somewhat alarming rate. After a battle, he was essentially starving. This was good if he was near camp as that meant he could get the good stuff. If he was not near camp, that meant field rations. Field rations were extremely nutritious. Just a bite was enough to feed a grown man. At least that’s what it said on the packaging. Alex had to eat four of them after a particularly difficult battle and they went down about as easily as if Alex was trying to drink a bucket of sand. It was not pleasant, so any food he could find here meant less field rations he would have to force feed himself.
He also needed to move quickly. Alex didn’t know if reinforcements were on their way though he imagined they were. He wasn’t going to be anywhere near the ruined camp when they did. He had accomplished his mission and he was going to head back to try and smooth things over with the Saxans. He didn’t necessarily need to be in their good graces. They couldn’t kill him and there was no guarantee he would ever have contact with them again. He was after all, conscripted to fight for the entire coalition and not for the Saxans. It just didn’t sit well with him. He hadn’t done anything outright terrible to them, but they hated him. Alex had never considered himself a people pleaser or one who needed approval from his peers, but he hadn’t ever had somebody despise him so blatantly before. The only thing he could do was help their plight. If he could offer more to them, they would certainly look past his sacrilege. Certainly.
He heard laughing in his mind and scoffed. This dude is the worst. Just trying to have a little optimism. Is that so bad?
Only silence followed. With no one to talk to, Alex made his way back to camp. He walked for hours with only his thoughts to keep him company, meaning he had no company at all. Alex’s mind was blank. Monks would envy his meditative prowess. Only the most diligent could become one with their surroundings, not even letting a stray observation deter their single minded focus. Not that Alex had difficulty with that task. He often found himself passing hours without his mind firing a single cylinder. His body went on autopilot and before long, he had arrived.
Arrived to see a war camp in complete disarray. Smoke was rising high in the sky, looking like pillars holding up the heavens. Familiar structures were torn down and in shambles. His favorite place on this entire planet, erased from existence.