Siren Song
Chapter 1: Visions
By: Dark-Elk
Hideous creatures ran screaming through the night, savagely slaying women and children that stood before them. Explosions rocked the city on all sides, and the nightmarish shapes continued to advance, unstopped by the artillery fire or the small arms fire coming from a small contingent of militia. A young girl ran out of her house after her mother, clutching a doll to her chest. As her mother skidded to a halt and wheeled around, the girl stopped in her tracks, absorbing the devastation that had befallen her home. A Dropship fluttered from the sky, and landed long enough to disgorge a small contingent of Firebats and load some of the civilians.
As the civilians crammed themselves into the Dropship, the mother cried out and grabbed her daughters hand. The doll slid from the girls hand as the mother dragged her towards the Dropship. The girl twisted her body back to look at the doll that had been her companion and confidante for most of her life. A tear slid down her dirty cheek, leaving a trail of wetness behind.
The mother reached the Dropship, and was yelled to by the people on board that there was room for only one person. The mother swung her daughter towards her, told her that she loved her, kissed her on the cheek and hurled her aboard the Dropship. The daughter barely had time to look upon her mother again before the doors closed and the Dropship began streaking across the sky. Sobs racked the mothers body as she watched her daughter leave, knowing full well the improbability of ever seeing her again.
A terrible screech tore through the night, and the mother turned to look. A twisted form shot through the air, vectoring towards the Dropship. The mother cried out once before the creature struck the Dropship. The hunk of flesh exploded upon contact, destroy one engine and crippling the other. The Dropship swung around drunkenly and began sliding from the sky towards the ground. The mother screamed, piercing the sounds of battle raging around her. She stared uncomprehendingly as the Dropship collided with the ground, and detonated in a massive fireball. She screamed again, and this time continued screaming, tearing through the darkness of the night. As her scream reached one of the higher pitches audible to the human ears, it suddenly cut off with only a strangled gasp. The woman slumped to the ground, and slowly keeled over. A massive spike protruded from her back, piercing her lungs. Her breathing was labored as she stared into the night. The nightmarish creatures came again, and surrounded the woman. She screamed one last time.
Major Mackenzie Surak bolted upwards in his bed with a startled yelp. He reached to his side for his canister rifle, but it took him only a moment to grasp the fact that it wasn't there. Sweat poured off of him as he remembered the terrified look in the mother's eyes, a reflection of the hideous creatures barely visible. This dream had been haunting him for weeks now, never exactly the same. Sometimes he would see more of the twisted abominations, sometimes less. Sometimes there would be different people doing different things, but always it was the innocent being horrifically slaughtered. The problem was that Mackenzie has no clue as to where the slaughters could be taking place. The planets that the UED controlled were peaceful, and nothing like the abominations he had seen had ever been sighted, much less decimated a colony.
Mackenzie knew what was happening. It wasn't the first time he had had visions of something occurring far distant. He had been having psychic dreams like this for years now, since he was a child. It was that trait that had automatically elected him to train to acquire the mantle of a Ghost, and had driven him through the ranks to his current position. Unlike most Ghosts, Mackenzie wasn't innately sadistic. He knew quite well what evil was and what it wasn't; it was one of the few things he remembered learning from his parents. Evil was brutally torturing a target before executing it. Mackenzie worked with professional compassion, eliminating targets painlessly and effortlessly. Called "The Noble Assassin" by the media, Mackenzie was known well throughout the world, more so than any other Ghost who had ever existed. He knew quite well, though, that his superiors shared few of his morals, and none of his compassion.
Mackenzie slowly lowered himself towards the bed, unwilling to go to sleep again. He knew full well that when he closed his eyes, a new definition of horror would be there to grace his mind, a horror that was unthinkable in magnitude and unmatchable in ferocity. He had yet to convince his superiors of his visions truth, and so was forced to receive less and less sleep each night, and more and more diabolical visions.
Mackenzie was ready for a change, ready to do something to stop his visions. He just didn't know what to do.
Chapter 1: Visions
By: Dark-Elk
Hideous creatures ran screaming through the night, savagely slaying women and children that stood before them. Explosions rocked the city on all sides, and the nightmarish shapes continued to advance, unstopped by the artillery fire or the small arms fire coming from a small contingent of militia. A young girl ran out of her house after her mother, clutching a doll to her chest. As her mother skidded to a halt and wheeled around, the girl stopped in her tracks, absorbing the devastation that had befallen her home. A Dropship fluttered from the sky, and landed long enough to disgorge a small contingent of Firebats and load some of the civilians.
As the civilians crammed themselves into the Dropship, the mother cried out and grabbed her daughters hand. The doll slid from the girls hand as the mother dragged her towards the Dropship. The girl twisted her body back to look at the doll that had been her companion and confidante for most of her life. A tear slid down her dirty cheek, leaving a trail of wetness behind.
The mother reached the Dropship, and was yelled to by the people on board that there was room for only one person. The mother swung her daughter towards her, told her that she loved her, kissed her on the cheek and hurled her aboard the Dropship. The daughter barely had time to look upon her mother again before the doors closed and the Dropship began streaking across the sky. Sobs racked the mothers body as she watched her daughter leave, knowing full well the improbability of ever seeing her again.
A terrible screech tore through the night, and the mother turned to look. A twisted form shot through the air, vectoring towards the Dropship. The mother cried out once before the creature struck the Dropship. The hunk of flesh exploded upon contact, destroy one engine and crippling the other. The Dropship swung around drunkenly and began sliding from the sky towards the ground. The mother screamed, piercing the sounds of battle raging around her. She stared uncomprehendingly as the Dropship collided with the ground, and detonated in a massive fireball. She screamed again, and this time continued screaming, tearing through the darkness of the night. As her scream reached one of the higher pitches audible to the human ears, it suddenly cut off with only a strangled gasp. The woman slumped to the ground, and slowly keeled over. A massive spike protruded from her back, piercing her lungs. Her breathing was labored as she stared into the night. The nightmarish creatures came again, and surrounded the woman. She screamed one last time.
Major Mackenzie Surak bolted upwards in his bed with a startled yelp. He reached to his side for his canister rifle, but it took him only a moment to grasp the fact that it wasn't there. Sweat poured off of him as he remembered the terrified look in the mother's eyes, a reflection of the hideous creatures barely visible. This dream had been haunting him for weeks now, never exactly the same. Sometimes he would see more of the twisted abominations, sometimes less. Sometimes there would be different people doing different things, but always it was the innocent being horrifically slaughtered. The problem was that Mackenzie has no clue as to where the slaughters could be taking place. The planets that the UED controlled were peaceful, and nothing like the abominations he had seen had ever been sighted, much less decimated a colony.
Mackenzie knew what was happening. It wasn't the first time he had had visions of something occurring far distant. He had been having psychic dreams like this for years now, since he was a child. It was that trait that had automatically elected him to train to acquire the mantle of a Ghost, and had driven him through the ranks to his current position. Unlike most Ghosts, Mackenzie wasn't innately sadistic. He knew quite well what evil was and what it wasn't; it was one of the few things he remembered learning from his parents. Evil was brutally torturing a target before executing it. Mackenzie worked with professional compassion, eliminating targets painlessly and effortlessly. Called "The Noble Assassin" by the media, Mackenzie was known well throughout the world, more so than any other Ghost who had ever existed. He knew quite well, though, that his superiors shared few of his morals, and none of his compassion.
Mackenzie slowly lowered himself towards the bed, unwilling to go to sleep again. He knew full well that when he closed his eyes, a new definition of horror would be there to grace his mind, a horror that was unthinkable in magnitude and unmatchable in ferocity. He had yet to convince his superiors of his visions truth, and so was forced to receive less and less sleep each night, and more and more diabolical visions.
Mackenzie was ready for a change, ready to do something to stop his visions. He just didn't know what to do.