[Tower of Governance- Basement: Allan]

Allan was enraged beyond anything he had ever known. More than his father had ever made him. More than anything he had ever experienced. His vision narrowed, and his body seemed to move of its own volition in a cold, calculating manner, moving from one room to the next and killing all guilty.

Allan had never been a great example of humanity, but he had one rule he always stuck to: never harming children. To Allan, anyone breaking this rule was simply a dead man walking. He set his suit camera to broadcast on all available frequencies, hoping someone would pick it up. As he progressed deeper into the complex that the Council of Purity called home, he came across horrors that would have broken his mind had it not already been consumed by a fire of rage.

The last room was labeled as research and development according to the built-in translator of his suit. He opened the door and looked around. Allan had found hell. Brightly colored Quillinar lay strapped to tables, some children, others old, and each of them that still seemed alive was somehow altered. Parts of their bodies were replaced with parts of other animals. Some had the scaleless flesh of their stomachs peeled back. One young boy who was fully conscious seemed to be alive at a midway point of dissection.

"It's Glorious, isn't it?" A voice asked from further down the room. Allan tore his eyes from the boy, who seemed to have stains on his cheeks as tears constantly streamed down his eyes. The speaker was wearing the robes of the Council of Purity. "You should rejoice, human. Last we spoke, we only wanted to kill you, but now we will use your strength to make us stronger. Rejoice! For the dark Goddess, Elunitra has spoken, and you will be the greatest tool that the Council of Purity has ever attained."

Allan still needs to respond. He simply walked forward towards the man who was speaking. "You will soon have a place here next to these disgusting creatures, so enjoy your last few free breaths." The speaker tapped a wristband, and suddenly, Allan was slammed to the floor. "I see that five times your normal gravity is effective."

As the speaker watched, Allan pushed himself to his feet. The suit, nanites, and an unholy adrenaline level push his strength beyond herculean levels. "What, how is this happening." The Speaker sounded worried and tapped the bracelet again. Allan knew what to expect from the movement now, and though he had to grit his teeth, Allan kept pressing forward. The speaker backed away and continued hitting the wristband, and each time, Allan felt the suit constrict to keep his blood flowing.

"Do you know who I am?" the speaker shrieked. "I am H…" He was silenced as Allan lunged the last step out of the gravity field and grabbed the man by the throat with both hands.

"No one will know your name," Allan said. "And if I have my way, your body will be left to float in space alongside a monument condemning you and everyone who holds your beliefs." Allan tightened his grip as the Quillinar man began clawing at the armored arms of the suit. "And one more thing," Allan said, forgetting he was broadcasting, "I have met your Goddess, the one that you call the dark Goddess, and she is a beautiful golden color. I will pray every night to her that your soul is tormented for all eternity and that when I die, I can be put in charge of your punishment."

The speaker's eyes widened at this, and he attempted to gargle something out but stopped struggling when a final sickening crunch ended his life. Allan was surprised when he heard laughter from every corner of the room. "Please, kill us." The boy said.

"Before you do, please tell us, did you mean what you said, that you have met the Goddess?" An older man asked from next to the boy.

"I did, every word," Allan said, looking at the twenty or so Quillinar around the room. "Are you sure you don't want me to call for medical assistance?"

"Yes," the older man said, "We have all been here for at least a year. I have been here for almost fifteen years. If you press the red button at the end of the room, it will inject us all with an overdose of pain medication, and we will fall asleep and die. I overheard that one," he gestured to the dead quillinar with the crushed throat, "talking about it as a way to kill us all if they ever needed to hide the evidence of what they were doing."

Allan nodded. "I will do this for you if that is what you all wish, but first, I would like each of you to tell me your names and, if you can, what has been done to you so that when the core worlds get involved with an investigation, I can make sure that this is never repeated."

The old man smiled at Allan. "I will gladly start and speak for the ones who are unable to as well. My name is Kilnok Yushnaval, and I have been here for nearly fifteen years…" Kilnok continued speaking, telling his story and the stories of the five Quillinar who were incapacitated or unable to speak. The remaining Quillinar spoke their piece and told of the horrible things that had been done to them.

"Now, you're sure you want me to do this?" Allan asked, looking around the room.

"Yes," the dissected boy answered, "we have known nothing but pain since we got here, but thanks to you, we got to see our torturer die, and now we can finally rest."

"You will not be forgotten," Allan said, then pressed the button. And slowly, one by one, their eyes closed. Finally, it was just the old man. "Rest in peace," Allan said.

"Kill them all, don't let them get away with…" The elderly man's voice faded as his eyes closed, and Allan looked around the room at the bodies of the Quillinar.

"Don't you worry, Kilnok, I won't," Allan said and felt a rage boil up inside him. Earlier, his anger had been overwhelming and blinding. But now, it collected and focused, coming to a point and pushing Allan to do one thing: kill the Council.

—------------

[Landing Area]

After seeing the video Aly sent back, Eddy and the other humans had grown somber, focused, and intense. Doc had been sending the message from Aly to his ship, and when Allan had started broadcasting, he had been busy relaying that to the Bastion of Law as well.

"Eddy," A tense and hesitant Yilkie said, stepping gingerly up to the human, "You all seem different. What is going on? What are you going to do?" he asked, watching Eddy use a multitool to pull bullets from their casings and pour the powder into a small metal tube.

"Yilkie," Eddy looked up, "we are about to become incredibly violent. If you don't want to be viewed as an enemy, stay behind us when it starts. And please, keep the updates on how long until they arrive."

"I understand." Yilkie said, "And I wanted to let you know that they are still massing at the point I told you last time."

"Thanks," Eddy said dismissively and then looked around the ship's cargo hold. Mack and Troy, after a quick description from Yilvar, began working the fabricator at the fastest speed they could get it to go, and a steady supply of all kinds of nefarious things had been flowing into the cargo hold.

Several other humans had left and begun digging long trenches that lined the bottoms with chunks of explosives and filled with loose gravel. One man, Kevin Brewster, a combat engineer, had quietly taken a cargo jack and loaded up four boxes of claymores and, as far as Eddy knew, was setting up a field of destruction that would kill anyone who got too close.

In the corner sat the large man who had been dual-wielding M-60s earlier. He was sitting in a corner with a box of C4 and the tub of bullets that had already been pulled by Eddy and the others taking the gunpowder out of some of the extra bullets. He had taken a hundred of the metal bowls from the machine that provided food, carefully flattening them slightly, coating the outside in a thin layer of C4, and then gently pressing the removed bullet heads into the clay-like explosive. Once that was done, he took a strip of cannon fuse with a small blasting cap on the end, pressed it into the center of the C4, and then wrapped the whole product in some of the packing cellophane wrapped around the ammo pallets. He had completed twenty of these.

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The rest of the crew, who were not helping with removing gunpowder or creating their own dastardly devices, were following the orders of Mack and Troy, taking the spools of razor wire and countless other things that were coming out of the fabricator and setting them up throughout the camp.

This went on for another hour, with Yilkie coming by every few minutes and telling Eddy what was happening with the Enemy. He got another message from Aly, a text this time that stated that they were making their way back with a large group of refugees, and almost simultaneously, Eddy came in with his latest update. "Eddy, they are heading this way."

Eddy nodded. "Alright, folks, listen up!" He shouted and then sent someone to get Mack and Troy. "I just got word that Aly, Jalla, and Tillia are heading this way with a group of refugees. Now we have a problem, their projected path has them coming up right behind the assholes who work for the Council. I think we should clear the way for them."

A raucous cheer went up from the humans. "Don't you worry, Eddy, we will roll out a carpet of blood to soothe their weary feet," Mack said, coming back into the room with Troy and the person Eddy had sent to get them.

"Good. I don't care how you do it but kill them all. Try and stay out of each other's way. And listen to Brewster where you should not go, as he has been busy laying in claymores and god knows what else." The people who knew Kevin and what a combat engineer could do laughed evilly. "Alright, head out and unleash hell. Five minutes to contact."

Eddy watched them all leave and then quietly sent up a prayer for Allan and Aly's group. When that was done, he scooped up his weapon and joined the line.

—-----------

[Tower of Governance- Basement: Aly, Jalla, Tillia]

Jalla and Tillia were busy opening doors to the cages holding the children and the women who had returned with Jalla. Aly and the women in better shape were corralling the older children and carrying the younger ones. It took them a long time to get all the cages open.

About halfway through, Allan had begun broadcasting from his camera the cold, calculated killing he performed and the horrible things he saw. As they made their way back up the hall, the women they had freed, each carrying a toddler or leading a child by their hand. When they reached the stairway they had descended to get into the tower's basement, Aly, Jalla, and Tillia watched the feed with nervous breaths as they saw Allan struggle through the gravity trap the Council Member had triggered.

Finally, they heard Allan say he had met the Goddess. "This could be very good or bad," Jalla said as they searched to trigger the hidden stair to open again.

"It doesn't surprise me, though. Remember, he said he had met a Goddess before when the Banker Clan asked him," Aly said.

"True." Tillia said, "Oh, here it is." She gestured to a button inset into the wall.

"Okay, Aly, you cover them," Jalla motioned to the women and children, "and leave any fighting to us. If the shit hits the fan, you run with them." Aly opened her mouth to protest, but Jalla had already pressed the button. Aly took a note from Allan's book and began broadcasting her helmet feed.

When Aly reached the top of the stairs after telling the others to wait for her to get them, she came up right behind Jalla and Tillia, surrounded by Quillinar with weapons and one Quillinar with black robes.

"Ah, there she is, the woman Allan started all this over." The Council member said, his tone slimy. "You know, I really must thank you, Aly. Had you not gone and found such a monster as you did with Allan, we never would have had an excuse to accelerate our plans, and getting to the point we are now would have taken several more generations."

"I…" Aly started to speak, but Jalla touched her shoulder, silencing her.

"You seem to be under the delusion that this is enough force to stop us," Jalla said, looking around the room at the fifty or so Quillinar.

"You threaten harm to our Alpha, threaten our friend, point weapons at us, and torture children and women," Tillia's tone could have turned water to ice, "and think that we will just let this happen?"

"The odds are not in your favor. And," the council member tapped a wristband, and suddenly Aly was having difficulty breathing, "this whole room is three times the gravity that we estimate is the norm for your friend Allan and does not affect us thanks to some marvelous genetic engineering."

Jalla gently pushed Aly back down the stairs, and as soon as she got below the room floor, she breathed easy again. "It feels good, doesn't it, sister," Tillia said, stretching in the increased gravity.

"Yes, it does." Jalla said, "So what do you say Tillia, save him for last?" She gestured to the Council member.

"That sounds like a plan," Tillia said, and then the two sisters moved, their suits lending them greater speed than they already possessed. Their hands worked at a swift pace. When they reached an opponent, they would grasp their head and twist before firing off a couple of shots into those not in their direct line of travel.

All in all, it took them only two minutes to kill everyone. "Now, what to do with you." Tillia smiled at the council member, panicking around the room. Jalla reached over to the Quillinar woman, took the bracelet, and smashed it, disabling the gravity-changing effect.

"I think we will take him with us," Aly said as she helped everyone up the stairs.

"Ohh, good idea. I can think of a few people who would love to get their hands on her." Tillia said, then pulled some synthetic rope from a compartment on her armor and pounded the woman's hands, tying off the other end to her belt.

"Aly, send a message that we are coming to Eddy," Jalla said, then turned to the room of scared women and children, "Okay folks, listen up. When these doors open, Tillia and I will go out first and deal with anyone who thinks to try and stop you. When Aly gives you the signal, you follow her with as much speed as possible."

"If you can carry a child, please do," Aly said, turning to the older children, "it might be scary, but you just keep looking at me and follow as fast as you can, help each other, and swim fast." The children nodded. "Good." Aly smiled at them, gently placed her hand on a young girl's face, and stood. "Okay, let's do this."

"What about me? I can't go out first." The council member said, almost frantic.

"Yes, you can." Jalla and Tillia said in unison.

"Yes, I think you can," Aly said, smiling at Tillia, "if she dies, just cut her loose and put a shot into her head to make sure she isn't faking."

"Okay," Tillia said and turned to look at the Quillinar woman tied to her belt, "slow me down intentionally, and I will kill you." The woman nodded frantically.

Aly sent the message to Eddy and quickly sent one to Allan. "Okay, everyone ready?" She asked, and most everyone nodded. “Jalla, Tillia, after you.” They took up positions on either side of the door, and Aly hit the hidden button in the floor mosaic, causing the stairway to close and the front door to open.

Jalla and Tillia burst out, with the Council member dragging behind, and a few minutes later, Aly received the all-clear. "Okay, let's go, move fast and stick together, call out if you see anyone." She then led the group out into the water of her homeworld.

—----------------

[Landing Area]

As Eddy and the others watched, Brewster was laughing. Apparently, the Quillinar, and the Council of Purities troops specifically, had never encountered anything like a combat engineer before and needed clarification as to why, when they tried to flank the camp lines, their troops would suddenly fall dead after a loud sound.

"Ohh, here we go," Mack said as the main force of the Council's troops began moving up the road. "Lock and load, let's kill some bastards!" Mack yelled, and a cacophony of weapon slides being racked back and slamming forward was accompanied by hoots and hollers from every human present.

"Stand by to engage," Eddy said and then watched as the enemy strode forward into hell.

—----------------

[Tower of Governance- Basement: Allan]

It had been quiet since Allan had left the research chambers. He guessed that only some members of the Council had permission to be this deep into the complex. And on top of that, the massive onyx-looking door in front of him made him think that he had found the Council's meeting room, at least for its upper-level members.

Allan took a moment to compose himself, taking a breath after the emotional ride that the research room had been. His rage was still roiling inside him, but he knew he needed to be focused and smart when he walked into this room. Just then, he received a message from Aly. "Fight well, stay strong, and come home safe." That was all it said.

Allan smiled and then turned his attention to the door. As he stepped up to it, the door opened to reveal a room filled with figures in black robes. All of them stood as if waiting for him. When he entered, the door closed.

"Welcome to the inner chambers of the Council of Purity." They all said in unison.

Allan ignored this and activated the auto-targeting system of his suit. He looked up once. Every face appeared with a targeting marker in his H.U.D. Then he opened his faceplate and showed them a smile that made several of them shrink back. "Thank you for welcoming me now. I must welcome you to hell."