Chapter 3 – Vindicated Extremists
The universe is a sinful place that must be purified by flame so that nothing will defy the Holy Will of God. We are His flames. We are His Cleansers that burn away every trace of sin outside of the Church, within the Church, and within ourselves. The known universe may be at peace, for now, but evil lurks in the unknown regions of space. New intel suggests that an empire is forming to destroy the Church that is made of her past enemies. Even though this rumor has been going on for a while, it was thought that this unified empire of false faiths would never come together because it is rumored and somewhat confirmed that they fight amongst themselves from time to time. Now it seems like they’ve actually put aside their differences especially since we’ve pushed all other empires out of the known universe.
Hearing about a tank-like cathedral fortress sparked the interests of all of us who haven’t been burning many things since the last pope’s Infinitus Anathema decree, so we’ve been itching to get back to cleansing. This news is a call from God back to action as upon hearing it, we gather our forces, weapons, and say goodbye to our loved ones before heading out to investigate possible planets in the unknown regions that this new empire could be hiding on. This first planet that we’re investigating is a strange one since it appeared and was going to crash into another planet only for that other planet to disappear. The unknown regions are a strange place so it’s possible that our readings were affected by it since it sometimes reads duplicates of the same planet. Still, the original and new are different in appearance and general reading that was made of them.
We think that pagans may be hiding on this planet that may be connected to the empire. If not, then we will be attempting to convert them or burn them for their rejection. As we land on the planet near a settlement, we send out scouting squads and drones to inspect the strange planet while others go to convert its inhabitants. While that is happening, I feel the ground since it looks strangely brownish-pink. It kind of feels like…
“What are you doing, Mark?” my friend, Amandi, asks.
“Hm? Nothing. I’m curious about this place is all. Have the conversion squads convinced the pagans to consider converting yet?”
“No, not yet. These people are convinced that this planet is a god for whatever reason. They said it provides for their daily needs as long as they give it a proper sacrifice.”
“Human sacrifice?”
“It seems like it. There is no vegetation or animals on this planet that they could be feeding on so we’re probably dealing with cannibals or people fine with eating dirt or whatever grows on these strange trees.”
The trees around us have these weird red fruits that are growing on them that pulsate as if they were hearts. When our researchers picked from these trees, the trees themselves shuttered and made strange noises as if it was in pain.
“What’s with these unknown regions and cannibal cults? It’s like those horror movies where cannibals live in the middle of nowhere.”
“It’s because a majority of the vegetation and animals in the unknown regions are deadly for people to eat no matter how you cook it.”
“I’ve read that article before. I wonder if God even wants us to be so far outside the known universe because of how dangerous it is out here.”
“My guess is that He probably doesn’t. How many people live in the known universe already? Hundreds of trillions?”
“It’s a number that’s too large for me to count or care about.”
We then hear over the comms that the natives are going to be showing us the power of their god. Going to see their display with prayers and rosaries already being said to nullify the possible “god’s” power, two squads that include Amandi and I join the conversion squad in seeing this display. We watch as a pregnant woman throws herself into a pit and look at each other in concern. Some even ready their weapons to burn these people before a gush of red fruit comes out from the pit that the pagans feed on. Unimpressed and offended by their display the conversion squads try to convince these people of their immoral practices while we investigate the hole the woman threw herself into.
Looking into it and scanning it reveals a cavern of crystals that look like teeth with bodies put together in morbid positions on the walls, floors, and ceilings as they appear to be used as the source of the red fruit as flesh and blood is taken from them by the area around them. What kind of planet is this?
“Don’t enter the holes and caves!” we hear over the comms.
“It’s alive! The planet!” another one says before being cut off.
Reports of the planet coming to life, attacking, and taking people are coming in as what sounds like to be the screams of the damned come from the hole and all around us. The trees come to life along with tendrils and the mouth beneath us extends out like a hand that sways around looking for someone to crush and eat. With our flames, we fight against the abominations that come out of the ground. Amandi uses the flames from his hands powered by the gas and sparks from his suit to burn everything that he touches and everything that touches him while I use my flamethrower that also launches grenade-like flames that burst on impact.
“Attention all cleansers! This planet is truly alive! We cannot hope to face it on the ground so we must retreat to space. Make haste and retreat back to your ships!” the commander says over the comms.
As we retreat to our ships, more tendrils and mouths come out from the surface and we suffer some losses. I have to switch my flamethrower out for my flame sword to cut through the tendrils around me since there are so many. We make it back to our ship and quickly take off. Unfortunately, a few ships are caught by the mouths and tendrils of the planet and sucked into it. Back on our ship, people are praying, talking, and causing a ruckus as we decide on what we should be doing.
“Attention! Attention! ATTENTION!” the commander screams before we finally get quiet, “Thank you. Now tell me, what is wrong with you?! We are God’s Cleansers that fight against false gods and traitors. This is our purpose. This is the reason we exist, and yet, we are cowering and panicked about this false god given form. Hold your heads up and look forward for our enemy is in front of us! We will not be running from this so-called god. We will be doing what we do best. It will be burned to ashes this day and this instant!”
My comrades around me cheer as their spirits are reinvigorated.
“All ships prepare to fire your weapons at full power. Hell itself will shake at our righteous fury! Begin to fire at the start of our prayer.”
We all bow and kneel in prayer as everyone else prepares our weapons. The commander starts the prayer, and the weapons begin to fire.
“The time of our holy work has come, my brothers and sisters!”
“Praise be to God!”
“We shall cleanse the universe of the stain of sin!”
“We shall burn it all to ash!”
“We shall burn the heretic, the heathen, and the traitors alike!”
“For their reward is eternal damnation.”
“Hope to God that they see the error of their ways.”
“Let our flames cleanse them of their sins.”
“Beyond the flames of Purgatory lies Heaven.”
“Purify us of our sins and make us worthy of your love, Oh Lord.”
“The Lord cleansed the Earth with water and will cleanse it with Holy Fire.”
“Let us be your instruments of justice.”
“We are sinners yet not slaves. We are clean yet not yet saved. We are unworthy yet made acceptable by the Blood of the Lamb.”
“Have mercy on us, Oh Lord.”
“Have mercy on us and our enemies, Oh Lord, as we battle and give our lives to you. Our work is put before us and we burn it all to ash!”
“Amen!”
“Amen.”
We watch as the planet burns and is destroyed by our weapons. In one last effort to kill us, it opens its giant mouth that’s almost as big as the entire planet. Within its mouth is a glowing red core that shines like the sun along with more tendrils that reach out to us while some tendrils try to protect its core.
“It’s presenting itself for the final blow! Blow its heart to pieces!” the commander says as our guns focus on the core.
The tendrils only slow its death as we tear them apart and destroy the core. With its destruction, it writhes in pain before lifelessly floating in space. We all cheer and praise God because of our victory. Even though we didn’t find what we were looking for, we destroyed what we were supposed to. Thank you, God, for bringing our attention to something more urgent. We will go back on the hunt for this elusive empire, but first, we must recover because of all the losses we have suffered. The fires of our ambition and spirit burn brighter today than they ever have and will continue to burn for all eternity while our enemies turn to ash in the presence of it.
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