Story 8 – Death to Evil
After we sing the Apostles' Creed, Our Father, Three Hail Marys, and a Glory Be, I command my squads to sing the prayer of St. George’s Hunting Party as I lead them in prayer.
“Let us pray. Oh God, who crushes evil and saves the repentant, we humbly ask You to help us imitate your example in every way. We pray,”
“Protect our family and friends while we are away clearing the path ahead for them.”
“Let us be your instruments of cleansing and protection.”
“So that thy will shall be done as it is in Heaven.”
“Help us to tame the beasts of the universe.”
“As you have tamed every being in existence.”
“Covert the heathen before we arrive to save his soul.”
“Or else he will suffer eternal hellfire.”
“Convert the heretic before we arrive to save his soul.”
“Or else he will suffer eternal hellfire.”
“Death to those who oppose God the Father, Source of Authority.”
“For the wages of sin is death.”
“Death to those who oppose God the Son, who died for us sinners.”
“For the wages of sin is death.”
“Death to those who oppose God the Holy Spirit, who is the source of truth in the Church.”
“For the wages of sin is death.”
“Repent all ye sinners because death is certain to come soon.”
“And God will forgive your sins, but cast you into Purgatory till thou repay the last farthing.”
“Always be in our hearts, Oh Lord, who is truth and love itself.”
“Always and forever we shall love you.”
“St. George, Slayer of the Dragon.”
“Pray for us.”
“St. Joseph, Protector of the Church.”
“Pray for us.”
“St. Michael the Archangel, Slayer of Satan.”
“Pray for us.”
“Morning Star, Blessed Mother Mary, Crusher of the Serpent's head.”
“Pray for us.”
“Our Lady of the Rosary, Blessed Mother Mary, who's rosary is the weapon of our times.”
“Pray for us.”
“Our Lady of Victory, Blessed Mother Mary.”
“Pray for us.”
“Jesus Christ, Savior of all.”
“Pray for us.”
“Jesus Christ, Ruler of the Universe.”
“Pray for us.”
“Jesus Christ, Conqueror of Death.”
“Pray for us.”
“Use your tools of cleansing to separate the wheat and from the chaff as we enter into the wild fields.”
“Amen.”
“I’m sure most of you know what to do, but since we have a few new bloods, I thought I’d be charitable and give them a heads up. When the mission briefing said to kill everything and everyone that isn’t one of our soldiers, we meant everything and everyone that is alive or looks alive. Don’t even think about being merciful to the people there nor the wildlife that appears friendly at first. They will kill you or worse if you give them the opportunity. Once that is done, we will torch certain areas of the planet to make way for the Church to set up outposts, buildings, houses, and more for the glory of God. Any questions?”
“What kind of people are we dealing with?” a new blood asks.
“Heathens and heretics. If you want specifics, the heathens are native pagans and the heretics are Protestants though I’m not sure which denomination. They say they’re a united empire, but they’re far from it. They’ve gone from about ninety-five hundred thousand groups to about ninety-five hundred million groups within a century. This may be a splintered faction or a small part of a larger force. Whatever the case is, you are to kill them even if they’re begging for mercy. Any more questions?”
“How much of the spoils are we taking?” a corporal asks.
“Whatever isn’t a heretic text, idol, or cursed object. The Church only cares about taking the planet and its resources, so if you want something pretty that you find or if you kill a rare animal and want to use its skin for armor or decoration, then you can.”
The squads around me start getting excited. That’s good since the sun is about to rise and it’s about time to attack.
“Ready yourselves. Remember to take no survivors and that you serve the God of righteousness and goodness, so dedicate your lives to this task.”
The squads start dispersing to the areas I’ve told them to attack. There are certain areas that we need to clear out today to give the Church the foothold she needs on this planet. We’ve already been here a couple of days to set up and scout our targets. They shouldn’t be aware of our presence. We’ve prayed our rosaries along with our other prayers, so victory should be ours.
The squad I’m tagging along with is attacking a village made of heathens and heretics who think they can live together in harmony, which they obviously can’t. They endless bicker back and forth about their beliefs without gaining any significant ground to convince the opposing party. The arguments could easily fall into violence. I’ve been thinking about sending down soldiers in disguise to spread rumors among them to give them the little push they need to destroy themselves, but I don’t like it. Battles fought using dishonesty and lies is what Satan does. The Church fights honestly. The way we planned to execute these heathens and heretics is faster and less painful anyway. Once we’re set, the three that are with me unleash a payload of rockets on the village. It utterly demolishes everything and leaves barely anything standing. We go into the village just to make sure no one survived and sure enough, no one did.
“This is Captain Daniel. The first village is taken care of. Moving to the next target,” I say on the radio.
“Roger. Several squads have also reported back with their targets eliminated as well with no causalities. Everything is going smoothly, so far, captain,” a communicator at the communications center says.
“That’s good news. Let’s hope that it stays that way.”
My squad and I move to our next target, which is deep in the forests.
“Keep your eyes open. We’re dealing with a rare animal that blends in with the environment, so put on your heat sensors.”
We carefully make our way through the forest while paying close attention to our surroundings. Every noise and crackle could be the sound of our prey moving. One of my soldiers shoots something.
“I think I got one,” he says as he goes to investigate it.
Looking over it, we find a tree branch.
“Hm. Guess it was nothing.”
My soldiers turn to keep walking, but I keep an eye on the tree branch then start shooting it to pieces.
“What is it, captain?”
“Look.”
The tree branch morphs into one of the animals were after. It’s an insect-like monster that looks more like a demon than one of God’s creations.
“Good shot, recruit. The only mistake you made was forgetting that these things can change form.”
“I’m sorry, captain.”
“Just be sure to be careful. Speaking about that, there should be more coming in. That’s another thing about them. They converge on their attackers when one of them dies.”
We hear more rustling in the trees and bushes around us. Our heat sensors should slight amounts of heat so there’s really only one thing to do.
“Light them up!” I command.
We open fire into the wilderness and shoot everything around us. Our targets start falling and becoming more aggressive as a result.
“Start lighting up the forest!”
“Yes, sir!”
With our flame guns and incendiary explosives, we light up the forest. This helps to get rid of the hordes of monsters heading this way while clearing out the forest. These things like to hide in caves, so I bring my squad to the nearest one to find a horrifying sight. We find the bodies of people being used as nests for the monsters in this forest along with the other animals of the forest. These people were wildlife ecologists who wanted to preserve this species of animal that was going extinct.
“I was hoping to find these people alive, but I guess it was a farfetched hope, especially with how these things treat both animals and people.”
“Captain…what are your orders?”
“Burn this entire place to the ground.”
“Yes, sir!”
“Do you copy that, communications?”
“Loud and clear captain. I’ll be sending in a firebird to purify that entire forest. Get out of there asap.”
The destruction of one of their nests has made the monsters even more aggressive. They leap at us without any care for their lives. I cover my squadmates as best as possible while guiding them to the closest edge of the forest.
“Watch out, captain!” one of them says before shooting a monster that’s about to protect me.
“Thank you.”
I guess I still have room for improvement. We keep hurrying until we make it out of the forest with a couple seconds to spare. The forest is then lit up with fire from our firebird ships. My squadmates cheer in victory.
“It’s not over yet. We still have more hunting to do.”
“Yes, sir.”
Our next targets are a group of heathens that fractured from the group we bombed. We find them near on the cliffside of a mountain conducting their degenerate activities with their slaves.
“What’s the plan, captain? Are we going to blow them to smithereens like the previous group?”
“Nope. The Church respects the dignity that God has given her so we’re going to do this more personally.”
“What about the other pieces of nature we destroyed?”
“That was artificially planted by the heathens and heretics. It was destroying the natural ecosystem around it with its presence and allowed for the existence of those monsters we wiped out. They think they have power over nature with their fake science and worship of their idols, but they’re sorely mistaken.”
“You’re right. I really need to brush up on my knowledge of nature and Church rules of engagement.”
“You’ll have plenty of time to after this. Since this isn’t a big crowd of targets, you three can go together while I go by myself. Remember. No survivors.”
“Yes, sir. May God protect you, captain.”
“May He protect you as well.”
I take the cliffside of the mountains where the houses are. Everyone here is unsuspecting of our presence so it’s easy to put them down, however, a child sees me with his dead parents. He takes out a knife and is about to rush me before I shoot him. This happens more times than I’d like, but I don’t have a choice. This is why I chose to go through the houses, so I don’t make the others go through this. Thankfully, I’m able to spare the lives of some of the other children who are sleeping in their beds. Once I’m done, I go down to the town area where my three soldiers have cleared it out.
“Good work, soldiers. You did the Good Lord’s Will today,” I tell them.
“Captain?” one of them says.
“Yes, what is it?”
“There were a couple of young boys and girls we had to kill down here. We weren’t supposed to take them alive, were we?”
“No. Young adults and teenagers are valid targets because they’re passed the age of reason. Children and infants are a different story. I’ve actually left them alive since they’re still sleeping, but if a child is aiming to kill you, do not be afraid to kill them. They don’t know what they’re doing, and God will surely not harshly penalize them for sins.”
“Thank you, sir.”
I call in a ship to extract us and we get back to the base with the children who will be cared for in the Church. While my soldiers celebrate another job well done, I pray in my tent for the souls of those we killed who could’ve possibly repented before their deaths and to thank God for our victory.
“Captain-oh,” a soldier says who enters my tent.
After finishing a prayer and making the sign of the cross, I turn around and say, “Don’t be if you have something urgent to report.”
“I do. We found that one of our soldiers, Corporal Delilah, captured a heathen and has been using him as her personal play toy.”
“What?! Lead me to her.”
My soldier leads me to Delilah and her slave. It’s as the man said. The heathen is badly hurt while Delilah calmly looks at us.
“Delilah. Is what I heard true?”
“Yes, and I’m not sorry. These sinners are trash and deserved to be treated as such.”
“You forget that you’re a sinner yourself and you’re no better than them! You might be even worse because you know what you did was wrong!”
“I didn’t do anything wrong. I’m a member of God’s Holy Church. I can do no wrong. All of my sins past, present, and future are already forgiven.”
“Heresy! I didn’t know you were a Protestant. You better repent before I get back.”
I send in a priest to hear her confession. Once that’s done, I have her and her slave brought out with a sack hood over their heads and their hands and feet chained. Everyone gathers around to mock them, but I quiet them down to make them hear what I need to say.
“Attention! St. George’s Hunting Party is the Church’s colonization military division. We make the universe safer by destroying anything that may get in her way. Our destructive nature gives a bad reputation back home with a lot of people, but don’t let that get to you. We deliver God’s justice to those who refuse to submit to Him. The Church tries to make peace with those she meets first before we’re sent out. Remember that mercy comes before justice just like how God is merciful to us despite our sins. Pity your enemies, but don’t hate them nor should you think less of them because you could be the next one that God chooses to bring His justice upon. Above all you must remember that we are St. George’s Hunting Party. God’s justice made manifest to the universe and His weapon. We will serve our Lord well. We will serve Him until our dying day. Death to all who oppose God and His Holy Church!”
“Death to all who oppose God and His Holy Church!” my soldiers respond in a loud voice with their weapons raised in the air.
I then shoot both Delilah and the heathen. I hope they both repented of their sins before they died. Otherwise, they will suffer the second death in Hell.
The End
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