Foreboding

by Chris000

Once, the Earth felt fire and was transformed, but now that another world in another time has crossed over to the dead world made anew, there are those who feel that old sins are still fresh and seek to punish, unaware of their misunderstanding or uncaring for the well-being of others. The Xorda stalk the stars once more, and Humanity is still in the cross-hair. But where are they?

Foreboding

CRV

"What is it?"

"It is disgusting. It's pink and tiny!"

"I don't know why you picked it up! You should have killed it when you first had the chance!"

"No. We must know what it was doing here."

"We waste our time, Garul! We have matters of importance!"

"No! This pink thing was scattered about the wreckage of his ship! Its mind was the least broken, and I will speak to it! Awaken tiny maggot! You will speak to us, for I command it!"

"What... oh head... my lungs... wha... what is this? Where am I?! Oh God! Oh God in Heaven, what ARE you?!"

"I can barely hear it, Garul! I strain my ears trying anyway! Touch its mind and be done with it!"

"Very well! I touch your mind, pitiful creature. You feel the embrace of my own. Speak, and know I will listen, and understand."

"I want to go home!"

"It babbles, Garul! Kill him!"

"NO! I want to know from where he comes!"

"Fine! Enjoy your plaything!"

"Why do you come to our home?"

"I... I... home? I... don't... oh God, I can hear... voice!"

"Hark to me! What are you?"

"I... I... Bastion, Frederic, Sergeant First Class, Service Number 18053-83154-FB."

"That is not what it is! You have meaning?"

"Yes, and no! I charge you again! What are you!"

"Squeeze his pitiful brain; the pain should encourage him."

"Aaaaaaagh! Aaaaaaagh! Oh God, Oh Jesus, Oh fucking hell! I'm Human! Human you son of a bitch! Oh fucking Christ..."

"Human. You heard that, correctly?"

"Yes, indeed I did, Garul. I have heard that word spoken before. Elders and Executors of the past have spoken of them quite unfavorably. All of the pods have spoken of them little in the past. Among that I do not know."

"What is a Human doing in our space, above our world? Where do you come from?"

"I... we... we... were on a long range exploratory deployment! Three years long!"

"Are your kind looking for something, worm?"

"To learn!"

"To learn, it says! Oh it is funny! There is nothing to learn! We have already found everything!"

"Shush, Imrak."

"My ship... my men..."

"Gone. Dead and destroyed like dust that they are. The gods have favor upon you for you live because of us. Now where do you come from?"

"Ha! Look at its face, Garul! Look at it! It is defeated and it knows it! You hear us? Nobody will come for you! We destroyed one ship, we can do it again, and in greater numbers!"

"I... Bastion, Frederic, Service Number 18053-83154-FB!"

"Ooh, look at it now! I think it's finally grown a spine!"

"Bravery is commendable upon our species, but your spirit is wasted on us."

"NO! GET OUT OF MY HEAD! Aaaaaaaaaugh! No! Please! Please! Stop it! Stop it! STOP IT!"

"Will you speak, worm, or will we have to drown you?! FROM WHERE DO YOU COME?!"

"Earth! Earth! We come from the planet Earth! Please, just stop!"

"Stop, Garul."

"Yes. I know."

"How did the worm say it? Earf?"

"He spoke Earth."

"How do you make that noise? I cannot produce it."

"Only those who have been on its desolate surface and slaughtered its people can recall the name with such accuracy."

"What... you were there? That was over ten thousand years ago!"

"Yes, and I have just forgotten its filth. The trees, the mountains, and its horrid clear skies. Only in its oceans did I find some beauty of our own world."

"But... but I thought we exterminated all life on its surface! They sinned against our empire and killed our Great Emissary, only to dissect him like a common animal!"

"Yes! And I ordered the bombardment myself! I watched their cities crumble, and I watched their women and children burn in the fires that followed! Worm, I speak to you! Hear me and respond!"

"Just kill me. Please, stay out of my head."

"In due time, you pitiful creature. I will kill you, but not yet. Your Earth has burned in the past. Its cities and people died in our great attack of honor! It barely lasted a week in the blaze that followed."

"Wh... what the hell are you talking about?! I was there three months ago!"

"It disrespects you, Garul! It mocks our intelligence! Our attack was truth! Let me speak to it and I will make it see fact!"

"Leave us Imrak! You shame me with your arrogance and rage! We are better than lesser species! We do not have explosions of anger!"

"But... it needs to suffer for its disrespect and its species sins against us!"

"Out!"

"I... will do as you command, Executor."

"Wh... where did he go? What are you doing?"

"Now only I will speak to your pitiful animal. No trash will cloud our... conversation."

"Oh... that's... kind of you."

"A kindness I do not wish to impose upon you, and rest assured, I will not give you any more. You are my prisoner, my tool, my repository, and my plaything. You will stay for years, until you grow old and weak even. You will die in the end, but your day shall be my choosing. You will tell me of Earth, and those that survived our holy purge. The Xorda's fire has never been survived before, and we are enraged that your kind still lives to spit on our magnificence."

"This can't be right! We were never attacked by you! You're making a mistake! Mobius? Oh God no, it was Mobius! It was never Earth!"

"The name matters not. The planet is the same, and it shall remain as our kind has declared. You will prepare yourself, you disgusting waste of star dust! Today is the first day of your long death, and by the time your sight fails and your heart barely beats you will be begging for the annihilation that will extinguish you and all of your kind which still draws breath, and know this: we will be blinded no more. The Xorda watch its enemies once more."

"Oh God help me."

"Now. We begin."