“Here we are, live from Buffalo. Jim, it’s been the better part of a year since the attack and things are still looking bleak. We tried to call for UHR support, but it seems like they have abandoned us. If you’re here on Earth and alone, come to the Tifft Nature Preserve. We have food and clothing, not much, but we have it.” – From Chuck, Channel 4 news, August 3, 3265

The cliffs overlooking a once-great human city sat forgotten by the planet’s new masters. They saw no reason to set a watch upon an empty cliff and had no evidence to believe the former inhabitants could climb that high without being noticed from below. Unfortunately, it was very possible. Especially if the people in question had access to a personal Gate.

The outcropping warped as the air shattered, breaking into millions of shards before coalescing into two distinct forms.

They’d visited this place many times throughout their long lives. In the past, its proximity to a star made it a tropical paradise. Now, a thick black smog filled the skies, darkening the landscape and turning it into a wasteland.

“This has to end,” Tobias said, tearing his gaze from the tortured world below to look at his oldest friend. “First Earth, now they come here? Why are they trying so hard to destroy us?”

“It’s odd to see the shoe on the other foot for once, isn’t it?” Benjamin said. Even without looking, Tobias could see the pain in those eyes. “For so many years, we’ve been the aggressor. And now, for the first time since Mars, we find ourselves threatened by a people who can fight on our level.”

These creatures made themselves known to the UHR a little over a year ago. On that visit, they’d kidnapped nearly two-thirds of Earth’s population in a matter of hours. They would’ve taken more if not for the efforts of an elite group of soldiers led by an even more elite group of commanders. However, the die was cast, and the decimation rang across human controlled worlds like church bells across a city.

The people were terrified. If the AHF couldn’t protect a single planet from the most devastating attack in human history, how could they possibly protect the rest of mankind’s holdings? Truthfully, those fears were more than a little justified. In the short time since that first attack, humanity had lost ten of its fifty worlds to the ink-black creatures that the media simply called ‘the scourge.’

“I don’t think being able to ignore our attacks truly equals fighting on our level. Even without that strange advantage, they are very skilled in battle.” Tobias replied, “Although, both Albert and Theresa believe we can create something to overcome their defenses. As the engineer of our little band of adventurers, do you think it’s possible?”

The creatures remained shrouded in mystery even after a year since their first encounter, but a few things were becoming well known. Thousands upon thousands of tentacle-like strands formed their bodies, which could easily separate and reform to take the shape of any species they liked. It was also understood that extreme heat was necessary to kill these aliens. Otherwise, the pieces would eventually reassemble and return to the battlefield with nothing gained for their efforts.

“Is that why we’re here? To kill one and study its corpse?”

“More like interrogate it, then study its corpse.” Tobias clarified.

“I won’t take part in those kinds of experiments again. Toby, last time we tried to harness the power of an unknown race, we cursed ourselves with immortality.”

“Quit being melodramatic. It wasn’t the act of studying the creature that gave us this power and you know it. We won’t be creating the gene-splicing serum from these, and we wouldn’t test it on ourselves if we did. That’s a lesson you only need to learn once. We are strictly trying to understand them so that we can kill them more efficiently.” He said, nodding toward what had once been city hall, “They are murdering our people Ben, we cannot allow that to continue.”

Silently, Benjamin came to terms with the fact that another weight would burden his soul, deepening his madness worse. Unfortunately, his other self—his darker self—reveled in this kind of work.

Hargrave’s metallic face broke into a mad grin as the more stable persona deactivated the inhibitor circuit in his mind. Without it, a thousand years of memory came crashing back, drowning him in the screams of those he’d killed. Most of the time, Benjamin found the circuit to be a mercy. On days like this, though, Hargrave only found mercy in the blissful arms of destruction.

Of the seven Unranked Officers, Hargrave was the strongest and most skilled in single combat. While the others could hold their own very well, they were useless without the gear that supported them.

Hargrave did not have such pitiful limits.

Threads of crimson Light became visible as he pulled massive amounts of power into existence. As they thickened, they twisted into a thick cloth known by all members of the AHF. Within moments, the glow faded and left a blood-red cloak hanging from the madman’s shoulders. With a minor exertion of will, more lines of Light converged, solidifying into a pair of floating greatswords that functioned as extensions of his body.

Finally, he drew a pair of worn Li-Tech hilts. Crimson blades extended from their base to form the sabers he’d mastered centuries ago. Their comfortable weight brought back the screams of the damned. In the corner of his eyes, the stone outcropping twisted into the screaming faces of the dead, resurrecting the memory of how much blood was on his hands.

But he was past caring what pitiful, weak Benjamin thought of his life.

He giggled madly, wrapping himself in the bloody aura of his power. The unrepentant laugh banished the screams to the void where they couldn’t bother him.

Leaping forward, Unranked Officer Hargrave plummeted off the cliff and into the realm of his enemies.

~~**~~

Falling.

Hargrave learned to love it centuries ago. Sometimes it was good to let go, sometimes it was good to fall. It was the illusion of freedom interrupted by the jarring impact of reality.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Both sides of his mind warred with each other constantly. One always remained trapped while the other was free. Hargrave hated the other seven, but he knew that if he tried to act against them, the weakling would take over.

Benjamin’s strength could be so unpredictable.

In his third century of life, the seven finally discovered a way to “turn off” the memories that were such a deep-seated part of his Hargrave’s identity. They designed a chip to be implanted directly into Benjamin’s brain, suppressing any traumatic memory and remove the effects entirely.

They didn’t count on those memories becoming their own entity. While the chip was disabled, the person inhabiting Benjamin Hargrave’s body was the best killer in the UHR. But the killer didn’t vanish just because the circuit was active.

The chip was a magnificent invention, hands down one of the most effective pieces of equipment humans ever built for mental health. It wasn’t their fault they didn’t know the darkness that lurked beneath the surface. They didn’t need to know that it was the madman who fought in countless battles, not the scientist.

It was Hargrave who’d learned the arts of war and became a master of the blade. After all, Benjamin had never taken the time to learn anything more than what he needed to defend himself. It was Hargrave that destroyed cities and burned monuments to the ground, not Benjamin…

No, not his brother, never his brother.

His feet slammed into the compacted soil with a jolt, violently jerking him into the here and now. It was time to let the beast free.

With an explosion of movement, he ran toward the town hall like a bullet fired from a rifle. Ahead, the two greatswords flew and speared a pair of guards before either could register his presence.

Slowing his perception of time, he watched the guards melt into piles of black, writhing tentacles. Before they could fully extricate themselves from the weapon and reform their bodies, the Unranked Officer released the Light binding the weapons together. In a flash, the heat stored in their tightly woven threads ripped into the creatures’ bodies, turning both into piles of ash.

They didn’t even have time to scream.

Pity.

Forming another pair of weapons—these shaped like war hammers—he sent them through the wooden doors like they were paper. As he crossed the threshold, a voice in the back of his mind noted the charred edges of the debris from the door. Not only had he broken them down, but he’d allowed his rage to burn them into nothingness.

Be careful, humans still need to return here one day. I would prefer it if we left them a place to live.

“Silence,” he muttered, impaling a gray shelled Scalador that stood sentry in the atrium. He remembered these. It had been a long time since the AHF conquered their planet. They made a great crunching sound when their shells cracked under. Hargrave was an artist of death, a chef who’d mastered the blade long ago. As he systematically severed the limbs, thorax, and head of the thing, he wished he had the time to enjoy crushing the shells.

Butcher.

The condemnation coming from his other self was sickening, but it was true.

He pulled a thermal disk from his shoulder and activated the weapon, throwing it onto the twitching body that lay at his feet. While the flames licked at his kill, he watched, mesmerized by the beautiful destruction. The Scalador were not the ones who invaded Earth, but they were guilty of working with that enemy.

Hargrave couldn’t leave such a transgression unpunished.

“Ben,” Tobias said, walking past the Breaker with no less than a dozen drones encircling him, “Not the time to admire your work. Keep moving.”

Grudgingly, the madman stood. He wanted to rip the spine from Tobias and watch him bleed, but now wasn’t the time.

Not that he believed he could truly kill him, even if the time was right. If he acted too much like Hargrave and not enough like Benjamin, the jig would be up. Tobias would invade his mind and shut down the body until they could dispel the demon that was Hargrave.

Butcher.

Yes, a butcher.

Falling in line beside the Possessor, the two men strolled through the building. Hargrave shattered each door as they passed with a war hammer, allowing Tobias to send in a drone and clear the room of enemy combatants. Theirs was a constant river of death, destroying anyone and anything that stood in their way.

“Albert says we’re almost there,” Tobias announced as they neared what was once the Governor’s office. “Apparently, the beast wanted to appear human. It is inside, waiting for you.”

“What, you don’t want in on the action?”

“Don’t worry about me. I have a veritable hoard of drones searching through every building in this city. So far, they’ve only reclaimed about half of the city, but they will finish soon.”

“Are you reaching limits in your old age?”

“Nonsense. I just know that Benjamin rarely lets his… other side free. I figured you would like to spend as much time out as possible before I turned the circuit back on.”

How? How did this little shit know that he existed? He’d been so careful over the years, there was no way he could’ve known.

“I know, because your mind is a machine. All machines are open to me, Hargrave. I’ve known for a very long time, but I’ve kept your secret for the good of the many. Only a few can be as ruthless as you are while still accomplishing the mission.” Tobias said with a sigh, “If you truly want to talk about it, we can do so later. After the mission.”

Hargrave growled like a predator and walked towards the door. With a thought, another pair of hammers slammed into the wood, turning them into replicas of the front entrance. Stepping through, he dismissed the extra weapons. The tips of his sabers dragged against the ground, carving a groove in the floor that would need to be repaired before civilians could return to this place.

Inside the room stood a man-shaped mass of ink-black tentacles that constantly twisted around themselves like snakes in a pit. As Hargrave drew nearer, it rose to its full nine feet of height as it struck, destroying the pitiful human that dared attack his fortification.

Except he wasn’t there.

Still not completely formed after his use of the Faster the Light Gate module in his chest, Hargrave swung his sabers up and through what would have been muscle and bone on a human. Instead, two lumps of tentacles fell to the ground and immediately began inching their way back to their host.

It was over in a single strike.

No, Stop! He mentally screamed. It wasn’t fair. This wasn’t long enough of a release. The creature hadn’t even challenged the ancient warrior. Nevertheless, Hargrave felt his control slipping.

“Ben, get control of yourself,” Tobias yelled, cutting through the fog of battle and forcing the engineer to return.

After the screams had quieted enough for him to understand his surroundings, Benjamin looked up to see the enemy soldier locked inside a special containment drone specifically designed to hold gaseous entities. It wasn’t a perfect prison, but it was something.

“Did we win?” he asked, fear of his own actions clear in his tone.

“Yes. We won, my friend.”

Every second that passed was one that buried Hargrave deeper inside his prison. All signs of him, from the bloody aura of Light to the mad smile, faded into nothingness. Benjamin suppressed the demon, the Butcher, again, and like every other time he released his mind fully, he prayed that he never had to do so again.

The prayer would remain unanswered forever.

“Thank you for the assist,” Benjamin said with a genuine grin. Sometimes he feared that one day he would never regain his true self, and that his smile would disappear forever.

“Of course. You know, sometimes I wonder how any of us keep up with you, but then I remember what you trade for that power. You don’t have to endure these pains alone. Let us help.”

“I might have to take you up on that one. It’s getting a little too hard.” He said, a ghostly pain etched onto his face.

“Shall we go, before the entire city comes looking for us?”

Benjamin laughed, “I thought you took care of them already?”

“Most, not all. But it would still be easier just to leave.” Tobias said, waving at Benjamin’s chest, “Are you going to Gate us away or not?”

“One of these days, you’re going to need to get your own Gate.” He replied, grabbing both the containment unit and Tobias.

“Why? I have a taxi willing to ferry me from one side of the universe to the other with almost no effort. Why would I need one?”

With a weary sigh, Benjamin activated the device. A split second later, the only evidence that either man had been on the planet at all was a trail of bodies and fire.