Chapter
2 – Justice for a Mother
The Dogmatists do have a point in
saying that years of peace have made us soft. When this civil war started, I
viewed the Dogmatists as rebellious children who thought they knew better than their
superiors. They crowned their own pope and made their own little empire. Sure,
they have achieved a few victories here and there and even laid siege to Mars,
but I didn’t take them seriously until they came to my homeworld. What I once
called my home was burned to the ground and my neighbors killed or hung on
crosses for the supposed crime of not submitting to the true Church.
Above all that, they killed my son
and didn’t even bother to leave a body to bury. All that was left of him was
his arm and a pool of blood. As a commanding officer, I cannot let an attack
this personal get to me. I’ve only shown my anger in battle by taking no
prisoners and making sure that my enemies are thoroughly destroyed. When I hear
of the ships that destroyed my homeworld, I volunteer for the assignment to hunt
them down, and after years of war and searching, I finally have them cornered.
They are refueling on a world they
control. This is supposed to be an in and out battle. Destroy the ships and cripple
this refueling station is all we’re meant to do. I will savor every minute of
this battle and every kill. God and His Church will have justice for the blood
these people have shed and their many sins. I will finally have my revenge. My
husband died so I could have this moment. If this isn’t Divine Providence giving
me what I deserve, then I don’t know what is.
We take the refueling station by surprise
by using small transport ships to approach them from a distance then fly to
them in even smaller ships each meant for a singular person and infiltration.
Using these small ships, each ship is infiltrated by a squad. I join the squad
that’s going after the commanding ship. As we go through the ship, we make sure
to kill everyone aboard it while taking whatever we can that seems useful. The
commander should on the command deck, the one who ordered the deaths of my son,
husband, and homeworld, so I send my squad to clear the rest of the ship while I
take him for myself.
Quietly going into the room, I silently
take down the few Dogmatists in the room before saving the best for last. I
make sure that he notices that he’s in danger and afraid by making him see one
of his dead allies. He turns around and shocked to see the dead body.
“Who’s out there? Come out and face
me, coward!” he says with his pistol drawn.
That’s right. Be afraid. Make an
act of perfect contrition if you can because you’re going to pay for everything
you’ve done. As I get closer to the leader, I begin to see something in him
that I recognize. It…can’t be.
“Augustine?” I say softly as I exit
my hiding place.
The man turns around and appears to
be as shocked as I am before raising his gun at me. I raise my gun in return.
If I wasn’t shocked and if this man took the opportunity to take a shot, I
would’ve been dead, but he didn’t shoot me.
“M-mother?” he says.
It is him. He is my son. He looks a
bit grown up and he has cybernetic parts that make him look different, but it’s
him.
“I knew it was you when I looked at
your face.”
“How when it’s been so long since
you last saw me?”
“A mother’s heart always recognizes
her son, but what are you doing here?”
“I’m the leader of this squad of
ships, an admiral just like my parents.”
The fact that I’m facing the enemy
pops back into my head while my eyes want to reject what they’re seeing.
“Why? Why did you turn on us? Why
did you turn on God, the Church, and your family?”
“I have not turned against God and
His Church. You have!”
“What are you talking about? How
can you think that when we’ve given you the best teachers and personally taught
you the truth?”
“Your indoctrination could only
convince me so much until I heard the real truth when I listened to the
Dogmatists more. Eventually, they convinced me through their actions and reason,
and I joined their side. I was the reason why our homeworld was easily destroyed
with a group of fellow converts and the influence I had on the leadership.”
“I still don’t believe it.”
“But you know what you should do.
You’re a leader and soldier of God, aren’t you? Well, the enemy is in front of
you. Shoot first before I shoot you.”
“Don’t do it, Augustine! I’m your
mother!”
“No mother nor father of mine would
submit herself to a false Church and pope. I didn’t feel a thing when I killed him,
and I won’t when I kill you.”
I don’t know what to say to him anymore.
We stare at each other with our guns pointed at one another waiting for someone
to do something, so I do what I came here to do and shoot him in the chest. As I
stare at him, I’m almost expecting him to get up. Those cybernetics have to be
more than just cosmetic, right? I slowly approach him with my rifle still
pointed at him until I get to his body, and surely enough, he’s dead. I know I
shouldn’t have messed around with him before I killed him to not risk my life
or triggering the alarm, but I did. Now, I make another regrettable decision by
looking at his face.
My son…I’ve killed my own son…The
realization makes me hold my son and cry over him. I grip him tightly and tell
him how sorry I am in the hopes that he’ll forgive me. God forgive him for his
sins! I’ll do all his penance for him with my life just please don’t send him
to Hell for his rebellion! A patrol of Dogmatists notice me with the dead body
of their leader and seem like they’re about to grant my wish for death, but my
soldiers arrive to take it away by killing them.
“Admiral Helen. Are you okay?” a sergeant
says.
“Ye-yes,” I say as I try to compose
myself.
“Is…Is that Augustine? Your son? He
was the leader this entire time?”
“I don’t completely understand why,
but I know the Dogmatists have to pay. We have the opportunity to not only
cripple this fueling station. We can cripple the planet.”
“What are your orders, ma’am?”
“Have the ships destroy the fueling
stations so that they crash into the planet then have the ships themselves
crash into populated areas. We’re going to make these traitors pay for their sins.”
“Yes, ma’am!” my soldiers say.
My soldiers get to work getting
these ships to take down the fueling station while I carry the dead body of my
son back to my infiltration ship. I then take off with my ship with my soldiers
not too far behind me. From this distance, we watch as the fueling stations and
ships blow up on the planet and burn the cities and towns below it. We then go
back to our transport ships to watch the planet burn from orbit. Are you seeing
this, Augustine? I did this all for you. Even as we warp back home, I hold onto
my son while not completely realizing it. Holding him like this is somewhat
comforting to have him back in my arms while also causing me a numbing pain
that’s almost unbearable.
“Admiral Helen,” I hear someone say
behind me.
“Yes, soldier?”
“I don’t mean to seem insulting,
but you seem disturbed.”
“I’m fine. Better than I should be
feeling actually. Now, I have a body to put in my son’s grave. My family and homeworld
have been avenged, but it isn’t over yet. After my son’s true funeral, we will
be going back to war, no, we will be doubling our efforts so that the tragedy that
happened to me will not happen to other families. We will continue to fight
these defiant traitors until they either submit themselves to the true Church
or die in the destruction of their own making.”
“Yes, ma’am!” my soldiers say.
I hold my son’s head to mine and
whisper in his ear, “I will avenge you. The filth that did this to you will pay
until none are left standing.”
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