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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