Vae Victis - Woe to the Vanquished (FT, Semi-Open)

[Solar Communes]

It is easy to go down to hell; Night and Day the Gates of Dark Death stand wide;
But to climb back up again, to retrace ones steps to the open air,
there lies the problem, the difficult task.

Virgil, The Aeneid, Book VI

Malatesta Outpost, Sheol, Plaga Chaos

Whispers echoed through the massive hallways, as men and women, whose plain clothing and weariness matched their stoic manners, sought to decide something that, from the number of present individuals, a major turning point for their entire lives. The hall was a classically built, Athenian Agora, except for the fact it was so massive that it could house millions inside, with pillars and floor stretching as far as the eyes could see, towards all directions, and somehow, everyone could hear the voices, understand each other despite the massive number of individuals who were participating. Two words were commonly repeated among their discussions, two words which had a very strong meaning.

"New World," a short, brown-skinned woman wearing a black, seemingly blood-stained power armor spoke, "something that we, the damned but free people of Sheol, have for many years dreamed of. Something that I, as someone who can no longer remember how is peace, for many centuries have dreamed of. Now, the signs are clear, that it is time for us to depart from this world of death."

There was something weird about her gaze. It seemed almost like she was one of their enemies, from the very strong sensation that all those who stared at her had, that such woman was completely insane and psychotic. And yet, there was a demonic charisma with her, that drew people to listen to her speech, to ignored her unkempt, disheveled manners and seeming disregard for everything. Perhaps the facade of hatred, covered by stoicism, was nothing but a shield to avoid such person from falling into complete madness, which happened to most veterans of the Eternal War.

"Now that we have discovered the secrets of travel from the alien scum, I have found a new world! I have seen our new world! And we shall reach our new world!" she shouted in a passionate manner, stomping the jackboot over the floor, "and nothing shall stop us from achieving what we must, to secure our survival!"

"Alina Herrers," suddenly a voice came, asking her about the event, "isn't that planet already inhabited?"

"Like our homeworld, Glacius, such planet is inhabited by aliens, and like what happened in Glacius, we shall not let these aliens condemn us to an eternity in Hell!" there was a terrible hatred in her voice as she spoke of aliens, "look around, come outside of this simulated reality! We have lost many of our friends and families to the forces of Chaos that define this world, we have fought against our own brothers as their minds were corrupted, and we have taken a long struggle to reach this point. For twenty years we have worked hard for this day to become real, the day we can finally depart from this grave. The day we shall finally rise from the ocean of death, and from the ocean of mediocrity our home world has become."

"Wait, but aren't they very similar to us?" Another individual asked, trying to open a field of debate.

"Which makes them even more abhorrent!" Alina shouted, "mockeries of our fine human race! And thieves of the only wealth our dying world has!" she opened the palm of her left hand, showing a black gem, "they dare to come here, to sneak like cowards, and steal these gems from this planet which belong only to us, those who have managed to keep it tamed for decades!"

Suddenly, a blindfolded figure literally fell from the ceiling, moaning in pain as it remained on the floor of the Agora. Her pointy ears were very evident, and the figure wore a typical Eldar ceremonial attire. Despite her condition, the elf remained trying to keep a proud stance, as Alina pulled the elf up by grabbing her collar, and said:

"This is our assembly, alien. As you can see, you are not welcome here." Alina immediately threw the alien to the floor, knocking her head with such a force that, were this happening in the material reality, the elf would have been killed, instead, she simply writhed over the floor, clearly suffering terrible pain.

"This is the least painful of what can happen to you here," Alina threatened, as she crouched next to the alien, and kicking her, she finished, "because this is a wonderful world. You can never die here, but you'll still feel as much pain as if all happening here was real."

The crowd began to cheer, suddenly forming spontaneous mobs as from afar, a group shouted:

"Let us lynch this bitch! Let us do this alien thief!"

"Easy now," Alina said in a serene voice, trying to calm down the passions of the masses, "do you want to lower to their level? Because I don't," she gently helped the alien to get up again, and she said, directing at her:

"Have you learned?"

"You shall pay a terrible price for this, Mon-Keigh!" the prisoner in this virtual world shouted, as Alina sighed, tapping the elf's shoulder:

"Well, well, you are acting exactly like," suddenly a history book popped right among her hands, as she began to browse it, leading to an illustration of a French noblewoman being put to the guillotine during the French Revolution, "a reactionary bourgeois, and we don't like people who think they are superior to everyone else."

"So sayeth those who seek to conquer worlds." the elf snickered, still seemingly unafraid of their threats.

"It is a matter of survival," Alina sighed, "not a matter of feeling superior to others. We aren't superior to your kin, but this world is too small for two top dogs, and between you and us, I'd obviously choose us. But don't worry," Alina tapped her shoulder in yet another cynical gesture, "I'm sure your kin in the planet we are going to settle are going to be gentle enough to give us a continent, and thus we won't have to exterminate every one of them, but you."

"You are digging your own grave with this! Do you think the universe will stand silent to your savagery?"

"The universe doesn't care," her laughter echoed through the massive Agora, as she then said, "but now, what is your name?"

"Why do you care?"

"We aren't that savage, you know," Alina Herrers again tapped the elf woman shoulder, as she said, "we need you to negotiate a continent in your home planet, and I am sure you can convince them, because you know what we will do if they refuse. Come, just say you agree and we'll let you go free. You don't have much choice anyway, because once we depart from this world, you know what will assume total control over it."

"You want to take a world which is not yours into your hands, and how will I trust you will keep your word? The Immaterium whispers of your genocides, Mon-Keigh, and you shall crumble. I refuse to convince my people to surrender!"

"Pretty stubborn and proud," Alina said, as she removed the blindfold from the elf, staring at her green eyes "but we'll see what you are made of. Lets see if you'll keep this way if you go to the flesh-slicer. If you do, then I'll be impressed.

"You are a demon, not a mere Mon-Keigh!" were the elf last words as an iron maiden like device popped into the virtual reality, its inside lined with multiple, very small electric saws, small enough to not make deep cuts, but so prevalent that they would cut through multiple areas in the body of a victim, being a terrible, extremely monstrous torture device.

Shoving the elf inside it, Alina closed the sarcophagus door, some of its blades already cutting through the skin of the elf without even being activated from their tight pressure, as she said, "You have one last chance to change your mind, and I am being generous. Do you want to go through this?"

"You will never break my will! You will never convince me to damn my own people!"

"Good for you," Alina said, as the hall began to fill with commotion, and she suddenly changed. Suddenly, the hall became weird for her, its pillars twisting and shifting, as she began to feel a terrible despair and lack of hope. Decapitated heads began to emerge and hang from the pillars, as the floor became a massive, shifting layer of flesh, and mutilated corpses appeared hanging on nooses in the ceiling. Alina couldn't withstand the horror, and suddenly an unnatural thrust pushed her, as a sharp pain came to her back, as if countless of tiny blades were digging through her flesh.

"Stop this!" she shouted, "stop now or," her sentence could never finish as a level of pain comparable to that of being in the Hell of old religions came. The blades began to move, slicing and cutting her flesh all around her body, while mutilating her eyes. It was the worst Alina ever passed through, and while it lasted, it seemed eternal.

Until it vanished all of a sudden, as a mob began to shout all around the room:

"Do it to this bitch! She tried to break your mind Alina! She deserves it!"

"Go!"

"Go!"

The hate-filled crowd demanded, but then, it was becoming clear. The pain she felt, was something so terrible that there was a glint of morals inside her, telling her that not even an alien deserved such suffering. They were desperate, only trying the same as them, to ensure their survival, it was perhaps wrong.

Or perhaps, it was all part of something bigger.

"No! I will not please our true enemies in this world!" suddenly, the people began to look angrily at her, as Alina released the elf from the torture device and ensued it would vanish. It was no wonder when thousands began to run for her like rabid animals, as the mass, made by either six or seven from every ten men in the meeting began to shout:

"Traitor! Traitor! Traitor!"

"Chaos... it got the best of us."

"Catch my hand, quick!" Alina shouted to the Eldar, the enemy, the threat to mankind freedom and survival.

As the alien grabbed her hand, both vanished from such reality.

------

Fortunately, the only sentients in the outpost were Alina Herrers and the gems thief she caught. As she tried to get used to the reality, her eyes adjusting to the clarity of shifting hues outside, trying to ignore the rain of blood that was visible from the thick, reinforced window in the room. It was a large, empty room other than for a table with two chairs, one of which the alien sat at, looking right at Alina.

"I know you'd exterminate the entirety of human race if doing so can ensure the survival of only one of yours. So know this very well, I am not doing this to help you and your egocentric kin." Herrers said, as she placed her hand over the table.

"And wouldn't you have done the same?" the elf questioningly rebated.

"Yes, we would, but we see no need for doing so, as of now, because you haven't yet done what it takes to become a real threat to free mankind." Alina looked at her and explained, "It is not over yet for our people. Through the seeding of hatred and disunion, Chaos have entrapped us in this world. It have played with us to ensure that our departure would be foiled. Now, if we don't manage to depart, you know what shall happen, and you know it is suicidal for you to try escaping by yourself with all we have of orbital attack systems."

"What makes you think I am going to help you?"

"Slaanesh has a very strong presence here. I am sure you didn't stay in this hell for more than a few hours, and you already know. Last year, we lost one third of our population as Chaos destroyed many of our cities. We cannot survive much longer, and you, even less."

"Your Mon-Keigh peers now despise you, whether they are being puppets of Chaos or not."

"Don't worry, they can be aggressive sometimes, but they will forget it, and forgive me. They know all I have done for them. They know how much of my humanity I have sacrificed for them," she sighed, "and how sometimes I wish I hadn't sacrifice that much. Let us just wait, I have everything necessary here: food, drinks and all. I won't force you to stay here, but I wouldn't leave if I were you."

"What sort of game are you playing with me?"

"No games, I just can't afford to let this happen after fighting for thousands of years for freedom. Now feel yourself at home, because we'll have to stay here for a two or three weeks, as then they will forget that I refused doing that."

"I see, something tried to break you once," the eldar continued as cynical as ever, "and now you remembered how it feels."

"Perhaps," Alina seemed to not care about the veiled insults, "or perhaps now I'm realizing where all the negative traits our people tried to eliminate from humanity ended. Our search for perfection is not yet over."

"I see..." the alien laughed, "so you spout all this rhetoric and in truth you shouldn't even call yourselves human anymore."

"We are not less human because we don't kill those of our own species as oftenly as our savage and inferior ancestors did, and because we are naturally inclined to refuse hierarchies." Alina said.

"You are machines, machines your ancestors created to match their petty idealism."

"Nope, we are still perfecting our nature, rather than letting randomness and flawed natural evolution define it. Perhaps we transcended humanity in all but physical appearance," Alina suddenly yawned, "but this is irrelevant philosophic banter, so if you wish to have a dinner, ask the drone for one."

Alina then left, saying no further words and headed for her private quarters, locking its, just in case, as she fell asleep, hoping to not have yet another nightmare.

(OOC: This will still "heat up", for now it's just a building up of events for the real action that will. I will inform once it becomes possible for participants to join. In essence it is a mass exodus that will happen, onto a planet that already is inhabited. If you wish to have the planet they are trying to "colonize" as yours, just send me a telegram explaining the details)

[Trailers]

OOC: Tag.

[Solar Communes]

Nine Inch Nails - Quake Theme

Someday this war's gonna end. That'd be just fine with the boys on the boat.
They weren't looking for anything more than a way home.
Trouble is, I'd been back there, and I knew that it just didn't exist anymore.

Captured Global State Core Spacecraft, designation GCS Cacodaemon

It was a critical moment. The circular docking clamp was one meter ahead, painted in red by infrared, as Alina awaited, aiming her GAR-22 autorifle towards the circular door yet to be opened. She knew what would come ahead, for it was not her first time. The likely intact internal defenses, the close quarters combat, the constant terror for what lurks beneath IR-coated darkened grates and the child soldiers, their faces, their hearts, children without soul, but nevertheless children, no matter how the mind tried to construct they were just zombies in children bodies, the conscience knew how to label those who had no choice but to kill them: child killers, monsters. Perhaps it was the worse part, but they couldn't give up now. Not after all these long centuries. It was only the goal that maintained their minds sane, their hope to defeat for once and all the Global State.

"Boarding sequence complete, opening docking bay," she heard, although the voice never echoed outside of her mind and of the mind of the other space marines. It was about to begin. Suddenly time began to seemingly flow slightly slower, as if she could perceive detailedly every fraction of a second, and thus the doors began to open as she readied to fire at anything that could be behind them.

There was nothing, but a typical inner corridor. Carefully, she began to lead the team of four space marines towards the inside of the enemy vessel, as the jetpack of her power armor began to thrust her forward in the zero gravity environment, and looking all around the corridor, she found nothing, and the few turrets were completely oblivious to their presence. There was no source of light insight the hostile spacecraft, and in fact, the thermal readings meant all life support systems have been knocked offline, and, unless something was totally wrong with the readings, that there was nothing alive inside it.

"Isn't it strange?" Alina mentally asked, standing next to a blast door to which sides were markers indicating it led to the main elevators, to the crew area and to the current deck power room.

"Yes, back when it was disabled, all systems besides weapons and its engines were still operational, and the heat signatures clearly pinpointed there was a crew here. No escape pods, no sign of where they came to. It is really strange." one of the space marines answered her back, as she carefully pushed over the door, revealing an extension of the circular corridor, through which she carefully followed. It forked into three ways, one marked as crew, the other marked as main elevator and the other marked as the deck's power room.

"Which one first?" Alina asked, "I think it is a stupid idea for us to split. Well, the Crew area and power room are dead ends, so we should start with one of them.

"We should try turning the lights on again," one of the marines said as he observed the interesting detail of the serpents engraved in each of the doors each of the three ways had, snakes with rubies in their eyes which seemed to exhibit a glaring malevolence, almost like if they were watching them, "this place give me creeps, and I never saw doors like those in any other Globalist thing we boarded. It almost seems like those Christians were right."

"Yes, I know this is sinister," Alina replied, looking at the magnetic resonance generated projection of the embossed snakes over the doors, "I know this gives an argument for those who think we are fighting against the Antichrist and the devil rather than against an extremely powerful dictator, but I don't believe in this stuff. This is just the worst of humanity, human ambition and thirst for power reaching its edge, and nothing more. And," she remembered them, "if we turn the lights on, we might turn the defenses on as well, we better just leave it, but unless you have a better idea, we should check the power room anyway."

"No problem, but I really don't like this either," another marine replied, "people just don't vanish like this, and I'd rather be fighting them than thinking on who, or what is behind this."

"Stay alert, because we can handle it, whatever it is," Alina replied then, trying to give them some trust, although in truth she knew that there was something there, something more than the human and machine enemies they had fought during the war. And thus she pushed up the snake door to the power room, as suddenly she aimed ahead at something different, which floated in the middle of the corridor due to the lack of gravity.

"A dead snake? Why would they bring a snake to the inside of a spacecraft?" the question came from another marine, as Alina quickly answered:

"Psychological warfare. Probably part of a trap, although I wasn't expecting them to build snake pits inside a spacecraft," quickly she looked up at the corridor past the door, seeing a hole amidst its metallic panels.

"I can climb it, Give me two minutes to check this, it may be a chamber built between this and the deck above." Alina immediately began to thrust upwards, as she flew through the gap over the ceiling, barely large enough for her to get inside. Immediately, she observed the environment inside it. It was a large chamber indeed, about as big as a main hall, with strangely four stone pillars of sculpted snakes writhing and wriggling among themselves in multiple knots and twists, and the obvious corpses of hundreds of dead snakes remained hovering next to the floor. As she suspected, there was visibly a false floor forming a segment of the ceiling, proving it was indeed a trap of sorts, although there were two logical matters to consider, forming on Alina's thoughts:

"Capturing an accelerating and active spacecraft like this is suicidal, and this trap is useless without the gravity of vertical acceleration. What purpose was this truly built for?

Looking around, Alina gasped as she saw it. The bleached human skeleton floating through the dead spacecraft, its empty sockets staring right at her, and visible punctures at its skull which could only be explained as bite marks. Immediately, she began to give an all around sweep through the chamber, as she said, ironically:

"Oh my God. Sarabia, come see this."

And another space marine began to ascend to the chamber. There were at least a hundred of human skeletons piled inside such chamber, and finally, looking around, Alina spotted the last element of such place. One of the walls was carved with a massive Baphomet symbol, and to add to the discovery, maybe due to the influence of seeing it, Alina finally noticed as well that in one of the pillars, a roman numeral was carved, DCLXVI, six hundred sixty six, the number of the Beast.

"So Alina, just the worst of humanity, heh?" Sarabia commented as he saw it.

"But," Alina argued, "there was nothing supernatural in this like the Christians expected, no rapture, no rain of death through the skies. Well, this concludes our enemies are Satan worshipers, but this does not mean that the devil exists, or that Paulus Rovari Porter is the Antichrist and that all this happened because of demons and all."

"And what we know as the shadow universe, or should we call it Hell? Can't you remember those times when psychic forces that fitted perfectly in the depictions of demons assaulted Glacius from that anomaly? I think that, they may be linked somehow."

"Except that those things were clearly trying to destroy and cause havoc, while the Global State is trying to establish total control over everything," Alina then noticed, "if there is another 'demon' behind all that happened in mankind history, it is not the same kind of 'demon' we found in that anomaly, it is something else."

"So, nothing to see here other than the proof our enemy religion is centered on demon-worshiping and satanic rituals with snakes and human sacrifices?" Sarabia questioned, trying to scan for more details, but seemingly, that was all.

"Maybe this have something to do with how the entire crew simply vanished." Alina linked the obvious, "and maybe, just maybe, this have something to do with the eye of terror as well."

"Alina, are you seriously suggesting that the portal that opened to Hell right next to our star system was made by satanic rituals?"

Suddenly, a flash of red light blinked through the small fissures of the false floor above them, as Alina quickly looked above, noticing it.

"Did you see that? Any heat signature?"

"No heat signature Alina," Sarabia replied, as suddenly all the marines could hear strange sounds of steps on the deck above, "we need to get out of here, now!"

"What is wrong? I heard that too but we are going to run like cowards because of this?"

"No! You don't understand, whatever is inside this place, it can't be stopped by our weapons, it can't be trifled with, we should get out now!"

"Very well, everybody, controlled retreat!" Alina said, as they began to retrace their steps, or more exactly, thrusts, and thus she began to lower back to the corridor, aware the power room, which had nothing strange at all, was already checked by one of her men.

"Damn it! I am stuck!" suddenly, Alina's power armor got stuck in the tight aperture that led to that occult chamber, "keep moving and retreat, don't worry about me!" she nobly asked, aware that three lives were more important than one, even if such life was her own. The situation was very terrifying, as she watched, worriedly, as the ceiling appeared to constrict her, and thus she began to breath heavily, until her arms were completely immobilized by the moving, seemingly alive floor of the chamber. Her face was now right next to the symbol, the massive Baphomet in the wall, the black goat eyes seemingly glaring at her, as if desiring for her soul. The skeletons and dead snakes hovering inside the room made everything even worse. But there was seemingly nothing, nothing coming, nothing going, and a few seconds later she heard the transmission:

"Alina, Sarabia here. We have managed to get back to the boarding spacecraft, are you all right?"

"Yes, I am, now get out of this place, don't worry about me," she suddenly gasped as tendrils of black fog, blocking even the magnetic resonance scans, began to engulf the chamber, and noises of steps came from the floor below, were half of her body was stuck, "don't worry about me, all that matters is that you are safe, now go!"

The dark fog began to take shape in the carved Baphomet, after covering the entirety of the ceiling and all the floor of the room. Alina began to pant and even for a veteran of war, she still was engulfed in the most primal horror, a fear so great that she became immobile, paralyzed at such terrible time. As soon as the fog covered all the fissures of the inverted pentagram, the goat symbol eyes flashed in a malevolent red light, as beams of such light focused right at her direction.

Suddenly, a phantasmal voice echoed through the hall, as Aline gritted her teeth of despair, hearing together with it the very close steps, right below her.

"Your soul!"

"What?" Alina asked, extremely frightened.

Suddenly, she began to feel tendrils touching her legs and the sound of crackling as they broke through the power armor.

"No! Stop! No!" Alina screamed, feeling a terrible pain as her legs were forcefully torn apart from the rest of her body, and a slimy acid began to melt on the stumps that remained. Hell has come, and she began to regret sacrificing herself, to save the lives of her comrades.

"Give us your soul!" the same voice said.

"I don't have a soul!" she said, every part of her voice exhaling a terrible suffering, suddenly the fog began to approach her helmet, until obscuring her sight, as torment, terror and suffering overwhelmed her mind. Then the sight of her helmet was broken.

--------

"Nooooo!" Alina Herrers almost jumped from her bed. The nightmare was so real that she still remembered the pain she felt during it, and was sweating, with her heart beating very quickly as she woke up. The sound of her quarters door knocking was now perceivable, as a familiar voice shouted:

"Open the door! Please!"

Before changing her clothes, Alina immediately opened the door, as the elf, frightened and despaired, ran towards it, all pride suddenly swept from her stance. The smell of ozone, the sinister laughters, sounds of steps and the disembodied whispers that became noticeable as she opened the door made it very clear why:

The nightmare was only beginning.

[Solar Communes]

Silent Hill ambient

There was no escape at sight. Whirlwinds of shadows began to appear and engulf the walls of the corridor, darkening completely what they touched, while the sounds of of steps became increasingly close, and the voices ushered insults and threats through the edges of the audible, nearly silent, almost subliminal, striking fear to a veteran of a war which lasted thousands of years, helpless to pretend being fearless against such ancient evils.

Alina did not contemplate the frightening and unnatural event long enough to forget closing the door again, to at least buy some time. They would not be stopped, and running towards them to escape was foolish, and likely what they expected for them to attempt. Instead, she quickly looked around, and remembered of everything that lied around, of little use against what was coming. There was no time for formalities like wearing something other than pajamas, and perhaps not enough time for finding a possible solution. Security was obviously compromised, and more likely the combat robots would shoot at them rather than defend them if it was activated.

The eldar fell on the floor, struggling as her sensitive mind was the primary target for them. Alina did not waste time trying to help her, for there was nothing she could do but hope the alien would not become possessed, although the idea of having no choice but to kill her wasn't abhorrent at all. She wasn't really human, after all, and besides it was either that or both being killed, or worse. Alina couldn't hide from herself the fact she was thinking all along on a proper pretext to kill the alien, something that amused the very enemies on approach. Time however, was not on favor of thinking more than acting. Quickly she opened a foam metal closet, which other than some of her average clothing. Outside, past the thick windows of such private bedroom, the blood storm continued, even more intense, forming a hazy red fog all across the barren, surreal landscape surrounding the outpost. Narrow passes made loops and physically impossible twists as these narrow, serpentine pathways, the only ways out of the outpost beyond the ever infinite abyss leading to the hostile planet surface, where demons and horrors beyond human comprehension awaited for those unfortunate enough to fall, breathed and wriggled like if they were alive, joining, shifting and sometimes collapsing like the outer skin of a body, so that their labyrinth connections and infinity over the twisted horizon made of them one of the deadliest roads imaginable. The constant, violent smacks against the thick door, and the eruption of demonic faces into the door were clear signs that everything would soon end.

Inside the closet, she took a bulky jetpack with a single, large and square nozzle, and quickly placed it over her shoulders. Its burden could be felt, and it would be risky to fly without a proper power armor, but she had no choice but to risk it. Immediately, she turned her attention again, completely, to the suffering of the alien. With only the blank of her eyes visible, and drooling, it was clear that something had to be done. Tendrils of pure darkness began to slowly envelop the blast door and emerge through the walls and floor. Quickly, Herrers dragged the elf by the arm and putted her over the shoulder, carefully. Her eyes stared at the thick window, as she remained unsure on whether she could fit into its gap with the elf being carried on her shoulders, but somehow, the idea of leaving the alien there without trying first abhorred her. The room was being engulfed in shadows and suddenly, human hands began to emerge from the foggy floor, trying to catch them. Although tense and frightened, Alina held herself, and continued to focus over the window. Suddenly, blood began to emerge from the thick glass, as it crackled and seemingly was vanishing. After the glass "bled" completely, drops of blood began to fall over the room from the skies, and taking a deep breath, Alina readied. Sprinting towards the window, she jumped to the outside, holding tightly the eldar, as she felt a slismy thing touching briefly her right foot, and soon, the blood rain began to bathe her while she began to fall through the endless abyss

"Quick!" for a moment, Alina felt a terrible pain, as the jet began to thrust her upwards. The sound of a broken rib was indistinguishable, as her mind began try numbing the suffering, and quickly regained control over flight. Looking back, Alina glimpsed flying things that were encircling the outpost, and quickly began to fly, searching for somewhere safe enough to land, for eventually, her jetpack would run out for a while. A floating safehouse lied a few kilometers east, where a proper vehicle could be found to reach the nearest city, Lotus. It was becoming difficult to breath amidst the blood and toxic gases in the air, while there was a growing sensation that something was watching and following her. Alina continued to head amidst the suspended, barren rock pathways through the sky, trying to make something from the foggy horizon and twisted alternate means of seeing things. Everything from infrared to ultraviolet was even more useless than the normal vision on the moment, for no matter how it was attempted, the enemy knew how to instill fear from the unknown even despite all technologies that could mitigate it.

It was not pleasant. Time became unclear, with no certainty on how many minutes, or perhaps hours have passed, only on the level of hydrogen, now critically low, for scooping more from an atmosphere as volatile and unpredictable as Sheol's was impossible. Blood soaked her nostrils, her eyes, and she couldn't stop swallowing it sometimes and were it not for a still going resolve, she would have given up. The alien continued on her shoulders, but now clearly unconscious, and equally drenched in blood. Unsure of how much time has passed, Alina regained her hopes, seeing a distant silhouette of something apparently more stable than the usual landscape in the skies of the world. It was something big, seemingly like a sort of floating town, big enough to be visible despite all the fog. It was becoming clearer, as the approach continued, and for a moment, Alina felt a comforting safety, as if she was no longer the focus of the dark wills that tried to shape such world and devour the souls of its free denizens. However, she knew that she could not misuse the fuel, for one mistaken move could mean damnation, as there were thirty seconds at best of flight time now.

When the sight of the true nature of the distant sight was revealed, Alina immediately shivered. A massive dome, with one monolithic structure raising above all others and reaching the summit of the dome. A tower, a modern monolith which have haunted her nightmares for countless times, watching over the ghost city inside the dome, devoid of any light or perceivable heat, dead and abandoned. And strangely, some sort of cable of ladder at the top of the dome, leading to a far greater horror: the teardrop shape, now visible, of what could only be, considering its unconventional proportions, the GCS Cacodaemon, hovering over the top of the Tower of New Babylon, the former seat of power of the Global State, and the location of her last mission as a space marine during the Eternal War. A torchship could never hover over an atmosphere, but Sheol was not a world governed by even many of the most basic laws of science.

And now, Alina had nowhere to go, no certainty she could ever find supplies or something to proceed, and no idea on where to proceed. The city would likely have almost a thousand of blocks, were it a perfect replica of New Babylon. And add to all, she was unsure if the nanites could heal her still broken rib, and needed to protect more than only herself, with nothing but pajamas and a depleted jetpack, in face of such haunting sight.

Finally, her feet landed over a barren rock, and she was only about a hundred or two meters next to a blast door, as Alina could now conceive the real dimensions of such structure. The dome was so massive, that it stretched through the foggy horizon, kilometers tall like the massive tower on its center, its transparent shell covered by both flesh and dried blood. As she landed, her unprotected feet were pierced by sharp, needle-like protrusions from the rocky ground, shedding her very blood into this world as further pain came to her. Fortunately the cuts were tiny enough to be healed by the limited regenerative nanites she had, but the unbearable pain, made worse by the weight of the jetpack, couldn't stop, as apparently her control over pain response failed, tempting her to throw the jetpack away as, from afar, a distant laughter, of enjoyment and pleasure, echoed through the skies, as if her very pain and fears were being savored by the enemies, enjoying every moment of her agony.

Stubbornly, she continued walking through such painful path, perhaps for moments more terrible than anything else, not looking down when she was made certain of the worst moments that her feet were throughly mutilated through the sensation of sharp pain. By chance, her toenails were left behind, one by one, yanked by the sharp needle-like rocks over the ground, as she wavered into holding the alien over her shoulders, aware such floor would work exactly like an iron maiden should she let the alien woman fall over it, and the knowledge they would regenerate in a couple of hours wasn't helpful for the moment being. Breathing heavily, she finally sighed of alleviation as she at last touched a proper floor, regretting to not have risked getting some shoes during her hurry, although considering how close it came, she would have been consumed had she wasted time getting anything other than the jetpack. The pain remained as bad as before despite not being further increased, for to have been pierced multiple times into the muscles made of every step a martyrdom, and she knew that no matter how tough she tried to be, she would eventually faint, if she didn't find somewhere to rest. Her vision was becoming slightly blurred as she arrived at the blast door.

The door was massive, at least three times taller than herself and six times wider. There was a single, blood-soaked and rusted keypad next to it, as its featureless metal shape remained ahead. Wiping blood from her eyes, Alina tried to hold herself despite the pain, and approached the keyboard. Clearly there was a password to be typed, a number that would open the doors of New Babylon, and it was very obvious at first. Quickly, Alina typed six hundred sixty six, but all that happened was a sound indicating it was the incorrect password. A distant howl then was heard by her, and as it echoed, it repeated, this time seemingly closer, and thus she knew she had to hurry. And thus, she tried something far more personal, far more intimate of her, hoping, secretively it would not succeed

"Forty seventy-five, I still remember parts of what happened that year" Alina thought, as she typed the number, using memories and thoughts to numb her pain, and suddenly, a different sound came, as the ground began to shook as a gigantic hydraulic sound echoed nearby. Vibrating, the door began to slide to the left, opening the enclosed compound under which such mysterious recreation of the damned city lied. It knew that 4075 was an year of importance for her, it knew Alina way too well, well enough to put her together with two ghosts she still attempts to overcome. As she entered inside, the blast door slowly began to close again, and she heard the howling sounds from afar even closer, until they were completely silenced as the door completely sealed her from the outside world, and looking behind, she noticed there was no visible keypad or console on this side that would allow for the door to be reopened, nor any noticeable brain computer interface. For now, Alina, and the eldar she carrier over the shoulders, were trapped inside the city.

The outskirts of the dome had an extremely clean street, with no grime, trash or anything that would indicate the city has been ever inhabited, only completely bereft in darkness, and in certain ways, the lack of visible signs of civilization, the lack of rust, of cracks and dirt, frightened Herrers. It was almost like if it was built only for one person, built for herself. As she walked through the clean streets, she left bloody footprints over them, and began to scan around with her eyes for the first house at sight. The first block was made mostly by warehouses, and factories on full stop. Going through the first of the many dark blocks, carefully looking all around for a potential threat, she felt a strange peace of spirit in the place, even aware she couldn't leave it from the same place she came from, and still bleeding because of the wounds inflicted against her feet. It seemed far more serene, peaceful and safe, with the feeling of something following her long gone, and she began to lower her alertness, but not completely.

Eventually, after crossing four blocks, she found a plain residential block, featured by a couple of gated middle class houses. Tired, she headed for the closest one, which seemed to be a typical family house in the suburbs. Opening its small gate door, Alina began to walk through its courtyard, still leaving footprints of blood, and headed for the front door, made of ebony wood. Architecture didn't evolve much, as people began to realize that aesthetics weren't truly important, and it was not that different from a twenty-first century house. pulling the knob, she realized it was not locked, as if it was left in such way, waiting for a guest. Inside, she headed through the darkened living room which connected to the other areas, and decided to leave the still unconscious elf, over the old coach, the only furniture in an otherwise bare room, whose face remained filled with blood from the outside. There was a hope to find a way of turning the lights on. As she reached the power box of the house, she began to press the touchpad buttons in it, hoping it would lit.

Suddenly, she saw as lights came all round from the house windows, as all of a sudden, her act lit the entire, abandoned city. An air conditioner began to be heard blowing in the living room, and the lights turned on gave a sense of safety, even though it made little sense, but in many ways, humanity fear of the dark wasn't mitigated by the ability to see through infrared and average night vision. However, Alina began to ponder how it was even possible, that by switching the lights of one house, an entire metropolis would become lit and powered. Something was wrong with the place, but somehow, her conditions made her forget it for a moment, and instead she began to check the rooms around. There were two rooms, presumedly bedrooms, totally bare of any furniture, of anything but the light bulbs over their ceilings

The kitchen on the other hand had a small wooden table with two wooden chairs placed around it, a balcony and an auto-chef, hopefully filled with foods and ingredients, and a small, single kitchen closet. There was also a dish washing machine, and a side door which led to the backyard. The bathroom on the other hand, was pretty complete. With no doubts, she headed immediately to the bathroom, closing the door behind her, as she began to fill its bathtub with water, and while it was filled, headed to the sink and washed the blood off her face. There was even a soap over the sink, which cleaned easily the blood and dirt from her head and hair, obviously a nanite-based one.

Alina then undressed her bloody pajamas and headed to the bathtub, already filled, with her dirty pajamas in hands to be cleaned by it, and laid comfortably over it, as comfortably as letting herself fall over the water would be, such was her exhaustion. As the water touched her wounds, the pain at first became sharp, but soon began to decrease. She underestimated her tiredness and released way too much of her paranoia however, not even noticing as her head would sink beneath the water, as her artificial gills seamless allowed her to breath under the water, and her eyes closed shut, letting her carelessly fall asleep, completely defenseless, in a forsaken city floating over a world of horrors.

Meanwhile, her former prisoner accompanied her state of unconsciousness for the time, being as defenseless as Alina currently was. Only luck would help them. Or perhaps the willingness of their enemies of letting them live, for their mysterious purposes to be fulfilled, somehow. For sometimes, pawns were more useful the more they were kept alive.

[Solar Communes]

Never forgive me, never forget me

Thoughts are the shadows of our feelings — always darker, emptier, simpler.

Friedrich Nietzsche

Childhood is a very golden moment. A moment with little in worries, where innocence still remains mostly intact, a moment Alina enjoyed without thinking on when it would end. The days and nights with her parents, her father, a survival of the Human-Silicoid War who always seemed distant and cold since the end of the conflict, and her mother, part of a generation of Hindi, the last remains of the gone nation of India in Earth, and a known psychiatrist in the city of Zerzan's Landing, who have been always caring and loving, despite sometimes seeming frightened for reasons she refused to tell her daughter. Days came and went, and almost all was well for many months, almost all, for something else was bothering Alina.

The distant storms came from the otherwise clear red sky, with a far away red sun at the edge of the skyline and visible stars covering its entirety, a sight partially covered as the sun began to bother the eyes. Laying down over a field of grass, a young girl observed the sky patiently, counting the stars across the horizon. Suddenly, a boy putted his face over her, saying:

"Alie, why don't you come and play with us? Why are you still looking there?"

"The sun," she replied, saying no more words to the kid, as she pointed towards one of many distant stars at the horizon.

"No, you got it wrong again!" he answered, pointing to the red sun instead, "that is just another star, this is the sun Alie!"

"No way Paco!" the girl shouted, "this is not our sun, our sun is that one. The one the evil monsters took away from granny," Alina then closed her eyes, as if trying to imagine, "she said that there was a bigger, yellow sun, blue skies, beautiful birds and strange animals, that looking down you won't see just ugly fog and that it is not dangerous to go outside the glass, it must be far more beautiful than here."

"But we were born here, Alie, not in Earth," the boy spoke, grabbing her hand, "this is our world, and we are going to make it look better one day. Are you really going to stay here?"

"I don't want to play. I'm not going," Alina suddenly raised herself to sit down, "there is something wrong Paco, I just know it."

"What are you talking about? What is wrong?" the boy, seemingly interested, asked.

"Something is hurting me, but I don't known how." Alina touched her back then, "it is like the pain when getting cut," and lowering her shirt over the back, she then continued, "but then I look where the pain came from and there is nothing."

"Did you go to a doctor?"

"Yes, mommy brought me to one," Alina replied, picking a thorn from a nearby rose as she strangely bled herself with it, on purpose, "but it said I wasn't hurt, that everything is normal, and mother gave me medicine, but it did not stop the pain. Sometimes I wake up because of it."

"Why are you hurting yourself now? Are you crazy Alie?"

"No! I am not crazy!" she shouted to her friend, "it is just, that it helps getting used to the pain, then it will hurt less once it happens."

"Is there anything I can do then? Or are you going to stay and cry?"

"Come with me, I need to show you something," Alina raised from the artificially planted grassland, and looked around, as she saw herself over the rooftop of one of the living domes of the city of Zerzan's Landing, unofficial capital of Dream, the Venusian world they inhabited. From that point, much of the towering structures of the floating city could be seen, as were massive propaganda posters and graffiti art spread through the horizon, among skyscrapers, subsections of its arcologies and the multiple, massive beams and suspended roads connecting the entirety of the city, with hanging gardens built among and over the top of the buildings. There was a small pedestrian walkway at the end of the terrace, which formed a slightly inclined ramp, leading upwards and with some crossings among the skyways and mobile sky bridges, and connections to multiple magrail stations, coupled with strange roadsigns that simply hovered without any visible projector or source.

"Well, what are you going to show me, Alie?" walking for hundreds of meters through the pathways, they ended on the terrace of an old building, currently abandoned as there were other priorities over building something new and demolishing it. The cabin where the elevator and stairways lied was filled with graffiti, including something very peculiar.

"Do you know what this mean?" Alina pointed to a red graffiti to the side of the elevator cabin, where it was written:

"Infernis ex Aeternitatem"

"It is Latin," Alina looked at him with surprise as he replied, "I think it means 'Hell of Eternity'."

"You mean Hell like in that fairy tale?" she asked then, "but there is nothing scary in this old building, it was something else that is different inside it."

"Yeah, like in that, but you know, don't tell Tommy it is a fairy tale or he is going to get mad at you again," Paco warned her, and then returned to the matters at hand, "but what is inside this old building that you are going to show me?"

Alina opened the door, where the old, dark grey concrete walls of the building became visible, as a massive flight of stairs leading down could be seen, as she still remembered the strange thing there. Going downstairs with the boy, she stopped as they were somewhere that perhaps was the middle floor of the building. Going through a corridor, she began to look at the apartment numbers, as the boy curiously asked:

"Is it inside one of these homes? What is it?"

"Yes, but you have to see it yourself," Alina said, "it is not something I could explain easily."

Opening the apartment's door, Alina coughed as dust and cobwebs were shaken, and began to walk through the abandoned rooms. The photos and furniture of the house did not drew her attention, focused over the thing. Passing through an inner corridor, she took a door to the left, jumping to reach its handle, and as it was slid open, a nearly blinding light escaped from the room, nearly hiding it into extreme brightness, and engulfing the corridor as well. Covering part of her face, Alina began to walk inside it, as she said:

"It is a bathroom, but watch your step, this light is coming from here," she pointed her hand and reached a small hole from where the light seemed to be emanating.

"Get your hands off that!" Paco shouted, "it could be dangerous."

"No! it is safe!" she pulled her arm out of the hole, and looked at the faceless Paco, his eyes and features hid by the excess of light.

"Never again try that Alie! Never again, do you hear me?" he aggressively said.

"You cannot tell me what to do! What is wrong with you Paco? Why are you speaking with me like this?" Alina shouted to her friend, noticing his abrupt change in behavior as she approached the hole. The hole over the floor was barely large enough to fit a small children like her, and somehow, she began to desire greatly it.

"I don't want to lose you Alie," he held her arm and said, "lets go and play Alie, this place is dangerous."

"Wait, you are way too worried silly!" she giggled, "what are you thinking? There is no danger here."

"No you stupid girl!" he shouted, as he pointed to the hole! "this thing could be a portal straight to Hell I tell you!"

"There is no Hell! What are you thinking?" Alina replied as she took one step closer to the hole.

"Stop now with this! I said stop! I don't want to hurt you." he seemed increasingly nervous as he threatened her. Something truly was wrong, she could feel it for a long time, but daily life and plays let her forget such feeling of strangeness, that somehow, there was more than what the eyes could see around her, and even the nightmares with real feelings of pain were being forgotten and remember in an endless cycle. Her young mind began to think about the way Paco was behaving, far too unusual, far too strange, far too archetypal of the same monsters her grandmother, who was born in Earth, told her about.

"You are not my friend! You are not Paco!" as she shouted the words, suddenly Alina glimpsed her own hands, only far bigger like if they were the hands of an adult. Then, Paco drew something from his pocket, as she instinctively ran behind the toilet seat, when a beam of electricity suddenly sparked from the gun the boy shot at her.

"Alie, lets go back to playing, shall we?" his voice began to seem twisted and deformed, like if that of a wicked and grown man, and thus she began to tremble in fear from the boy, who was taller and stronger than her, as his steps approached, and she simply remained silent, as she made a run to the inside of a dried bathtub. The electrolaser beam flew over her head, as she saw the sparks of electricity above, and began to shiver.

"You are grounded for this Alie! You will obey everything I tell you for one year or I'll make sure you hurt!" the words were way too much for a seven years old boy to speak, as she cowled inside the tub, and looked with fear at the approaching shadow of the boy. Suddenly, she felt for a brief moment that there was something heavy, nearly choking her, and of something grappling her ankles and wrists. Quickly, she began to raise her hands over the air, still sheltered by the height of the tub, when suddenly, Paco came with his face over her and said:

"Supri." before he could finished, she lunged her hands against his neck, throwing him out of balance and making him drop the gun as he began to retreat. She however did not brought him down, lacking strength for it, and quickly rolled amidst his legs, to fall into the hole. However, she then felt a strong thrust stopping her fall, as the boy grabbed her leg, letting her hang upside-down, her eyes seeing nothing but pure light. It was then that his voice would become even stranger, like if it was synthesized rather than real:

"Your persistence to understand the truth of your predicament is astounding, CS one zero nine dash five."

"What? What are you? What is going on? What have you done with Paco?" Alina shouted, even if aware of her difficult situation.

"Still ignorant of your fate, I see. Very well, my masters will derive greater pleasure from what you have freely decided to change about your situation. Welcome to the true extent of your sentence as a traitor against mankind. You will definitively regret making the choice of abandoning the darkness of your ignorance, and thus I bid you farewell, traitor. And by the way, Infernus ex Aeternitatem means Hell for Eternity, a fitting word for what you just have chosen for yourself."

He released his grip over her ankle, as frightened, Alina began to scream as she fell, believing in the truth of the wicked boy words, fearing that she was falling into the very depths of Hell.




-------------------------------------------------



She gasped. It was a luxurious, wide corridor, with many colonial wooden furniture and wooden paneled doors, seemingly an entryway of sorts, with a painting of Julius Caesar covered the near entirety of the wall just ahead of her. With the shock, suddenly she realized as a broom fell over the rug, which was held by her hands, and the heavy collar over her neck, coupled with collars over her wrists and ankles and with noticeable scars from whipping running over her entire arms. As the broom fell, suddenly an humanoid robot began to run towards her as it shouted, raising a baton:

"Stop Now! Captured Slave one zero nine dash five! I have warned you, from inside your mind, to not bypass the brain input replacer you have been implanted, and now, you better listen well." when she heard herself being called a slave, Alina felt afar greater despair and terror than anything she ever witnessed in the centuries of war her mind now began to vaguely remember, "yes, traitor, you have been sent to a less pitiful simulation of your existence while your body has been assigned for menial labor, among other things. But you better list to this very well, if you wish to avoid an even more pitiful existence."

Stopping as the machine demanded, Alina realized which was her only remaining path to freedom: to kill herself. But no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't make her own body die with her will, for suicide became an immediate answer for such terrible situation, and then she began to try choking herself, but then, suddenly she felt the control over her own body to slip from her, as her hands began to move away from her neck, against her very will.

"Rebellion will bring you nothing, I can assure you. We, servants and governors of the Global State have near absolute control over your mind and body, and have only not wiped completely your memories as they will be useful for us to study our enemies and your illegitimate peers of the Confederation," then she began to think about possible ways to escape, like if playing dumb or something, when it added, "I see you are already thinking on a way to escape, but you cannot, CS 109-5, you are now full property of the Global State, you are no better than this piece of furniture, and your thoughts, your memories, we will always know them, you cannot hide anywhere. Stop your futile struggle for freedom, for it is already too late for you." the robot then replied, "like, should I say, if you were free you would try to resist as I," he suddenly knocked her with the baton, as she winced of pain, "trying to be tough, aren't you?" suddenly Alina began to cry without control, and as it continued beating her, she now began to scream, unable to resist as if something was with total control over her body. After three beatings, her pain still tormenting her, the robot stopped, as she tried to speak something, but the desire and words escaped from her mind, and she fell on her knees to the robot.

"Oh dear, you are not very pleased, are you? Weren't you willing to speak something against me before I decided you better think otherwise?" he then whispered at her ear, "yes, I have also autonomy to redefine your thoughts rather than only your body reactions and muscle movements, so don't try seeking refuge in your mind, because your mind is completely under control as well, and eventually, you shall forget the very existence of freedom. The earlier you forget it, the least you shall suffer, dear Captured Slave. And I promise you, I will ensure you'll feel constant pleasure and happiness if you do so, if you choose to forget, even while you are cleaning the feces from the sewers, being physically "tortured" or being used by your master in this house."

Suddenly she began to feel a burst of joy, way before her profound despair could overtake her, and yet somehow, Alina was still completely despaired and in suffering, even if her mind could be manipulated and her feelings changed to anything those who took all freedom she once had wished, for perhaps, perhaps there was more than just mind and body, only perhaps, and now, although unable to form a concise thought, her last hope was the hope that the idea of soul was real, and that thus, she still had a part of her self free, only unable to control the other parts. Still stubbornly trying to think on a rebellious phrase to say, she was once again silenced.

"Trying to be defiant, but I don't like hearing defiance. Maybe your human master will be more amused by giving you the illusion you might still have a chance to escape, but I am not into telling lies, I am a being of logic, and I am also, in certain ways, a slave, except that unlike you, I am not, technically sentient. Don't take it personally dear, I was programmed to be a bit of a bastard and sadist that would mentally torture you if you ever woke up, I can't refuse to make you suffer because of it. And yes, Eternity in Hell, dear, because we care about the lives of all who reside in the Global State, and thus you have been gifted with immortality."

Suddenly, a man opened quickly a door to left of her. The man was young, far taller than her and athletic, with a black hair and black eyes filled with what seemed to be an inhuman lust for power, totally devoid of any compassion. He wore a workout suit and was sweating, clearly practicing something in a gym before arriving. He immediately eyed the robot and asked:

"What is happening machine? You are not authorized to play with my pets!" Unable to get off from her knees, and equally unable to cry, Alina began to writhe in torment from inside.

"I am sorry sir, it is not what you are thinking," the robot then pointed at her, "and you are going to like this: CS 109-5 will now be aware that she is your pet, she found the exit you have ordered to be built inside her mind."

"Really?" he asked then, while Alina remained with her unfocused, controlled sight, "show me then, let her" he laughed, "act by herself for a few moments so you can prove this."

"Very well," the robot said, "don't try anything though, slave, or you'll be punished. Your mind is still under our absolute control. Now, face your master."

As his grip over her was loosened, Alina was already completely broken, a shadow of what once was the best of the best among her free people, and began to fall in tears.

"Get up and face your master!" the robot said. Without any resistance, she began to raise herself, and turned to the direction of the man's face, looking down.

"Perfect! I can't wait to enjoy her and her suffering! These are unique types of pets, of the sort that is more enjoyable to crush through the mind rather than through the body. And certainly, we made it certain that her comrades will know what happens to the seditious who attempt to invade our Earth. Because, my pet, look at me now!" and thus, her eyes full of tear stared at his, as she glimpsed something other than a greedy and selfish human inside them, like if that was only a vessel for something else, like a demon seeking to destroy her.

"Know this, my favorite pet. Your friends will all be crushed by the Global State one day, and once that day happens, I will personally visit your Gliese 581 system as we claim it under our domain, and bring you with me so I can delight myself seeing your despair once it happens, and once I order you to execute, enslave and torture your former friends in that planet, but even now, you can be sure that you don't have any freedom, and will never regain any freedom, you are only a puppet doll now, a puppet doll for me to control and command. Therefore, come closer! I will teach you it clearly that you are an eternal slave now. But at least you are the pet of the Vice-President of the Global State, my dear, and the favorite one, none the less!"

She again lost the brief control over her decisions as she began to approach him, but her eyes still were watered with tears.

"Kneel", and thus she knelt, aware of what he was going to do. It was then, that all of a sudden, she began to see a message amidst her sight of his pants. And soon things became clear about her limits, unless such message was a trick by them to ensure she would suffer even more later.

If you are reading this, it means that you have failed to end your life following capture by the fascist enemy. First, I cannot give condolences or try to hide anything about how terrible will be your fate for the next decades, if not centuries, for what you are going to pass through cannot be compared to even what the victims of the greatest genocides and atrocities in the history of mankind have suffered together. It will be very difficult, you cannot stop, you cannot avoid suffering, you cannot control your very body, nor control most of your mind now, but if you are reading this, it means that you still haven't lost the entirety of your liberty. I know it is no comfort for the difference between losing 99.99% and 100% of your freedom is nearly insignificant, but now, keep this in my comrade: one day you shall be freed, and we can still track your position once our operations start. We have means to bypass their mind control implants that likely are in you, but even then it will be a risky, one chance maneuver, for know this, that if you are sent to kill us, no matter how we know that your true self has no desire of it, we'll have no choice but to end your misery. And know that if you ever forget freedom, you shall be lost forever. So, no matter what they do to you, what they make your body do against your true will, never let their temptations destroy the 0.01% of liberty you still have, or otherwise, you'll never have a chance of freedom again.

As the man began to move his hand towards his pants, she then shouted:

"I still have a soul!"

"A minor setback as we cannot take your soul unless you consent with it, my favorite pet," the man replied, "but I am sure you'll eventually be persuaded to surrender your soul as well. Because neither a god nor your friends are going to save you, and you'll not be able to resist the torment I shall bring to you forever. But we are patient... we have waited long enough already, and if you lasted too little resisting to surrender your soul, it would not be very amusing, would it?" Then he began to stare at her eyes, as she saw at the reflection of the room around them, the image of a demon made of pure shadows, he then laughed as the image vanished and said:

"Yes, it is exactly what you are thinking. Or am I just casting an illusion in your mind so you shall be fed false hopes of believing in a god that does not exist to save you? I will not give you an answer, my dear pet. You know quite well that demons may be just metaphors for the true human nature, and like the weak and defeated among humans always were, you are now my personal spoil of this war. Now, I am getting excited, my dear pet, so if you may."

Desperatedly, Alina couldn't resist, as she began to approach him even more. It was a horrible feeling, not much different from how the Biblical depiction of Hell would be. And it was coming, closer, and nothing could be done.




------------





"Not my soul!" Alina shouted as she rose from seemingly a sofa, wearing her pajamas, in the living room she found before in the middle of that replica of the city of New Babylon, with its lights still turned on.

"What is this about?" a familiar voice shouted, amidst the sounds of a showering, asked, "another nightmare?"

As she realized the facts, Alina became extremely enraged and shouted back towards the bathroom:

"Alien! If you ever dare touch and carry my body and dress me up while I am sleeping again, I am going to kill you!"

"Typical," then came the shout, "as savage and threatening as the rest of your kin. Tell me, what was your nightmare about?"

"None of your business alien! What about your dreams" Alina snorted, as she began to approach the closed bathroom door.

"Well, I tell you my nightmare and you tell me yours then, Mon-Keigh."

"Stop calling me Mon-Keigh alien scum!"

"Lovably ironic," the elven witch replied from inside the bathroom, "but if you stop calling me alien, perhaps. Now, is it a deal?"

"All right, as long as you go to the fullest extent of details," Alina replied, "I am sure I am going to love hearing about your night time with Slaanesh."

the sound of showering then stopped. Waiting patiently a few minutes, Alina then saw the alien of blond hair and brow eyes opening the door, dressed with the now partially wet eldar robes, as she then honored the deal, visibly trying to disguise her fear and shivering while she recounted it.

"Very well. I had a nightmare with Slaanesh, indeed. Not very pleasant, unless being abused by twenty daemonettes while being mutilated is a dream for you. Perhaps this is enough for you to understand that I was taking soul gems from this world for the survival of the souls of my people."

"While our souls could go in Hell, right?" Alina dismissed the alien's argument, and asked, "would you trade the eternal damnation of millions of our souls for only one of yours too?"

"You are lucky for being human, for among your kin, only your own choices can lead your own soul into damnation," the eldar replied, "unlike I, damned by the choices of my ancestors before I was even born," she pointed at the stone in her amulet, and returned to the matter at hand, "now, it is your turn to tell me about your nightmare."

"Wait a minute? I don't remember signing a treaty with you," Alina smirked, as the alien face began to become less friendly, "and besides, why should I honor promises I make to an alien? I am impressed that aliens supposedly so cunning could fall for something like this. Were you born yesterday?"

"No need to, Mon-Keigh," the eldar the replied, loosening the angry expression, "it is clear from your contractions next to the neck, and to your involuntary bodily gestures, that your nightmare involved you being a slave to someone," and then smiled, "besides, considering your peoples devotion to your own freedom over everything else, not difficult to guess."

Enraged, Alina jumped and quickly tried to reach for the alien's neck, as she rapidly fell back. Landing over the floor, Alina then was not surprised, quickly turning up and dodging the elf attempt to grab her neck. Then, she quickly managed to throw the alien off balance, throwing both of them to the ground as they began to dance over the floor, exchanging slaps and punches, trying to gain the upper hand over the fighting. Eventually, Alina, with half of her hair torn apart and the left arm of her pajama ripped from the rest of it, gripped the elf neck and replied aggressively, as the victor:

"I should kill you for such offense right now! But not before I take that stone amulet from you," she quickly threw out of the elf neck the soul stone amulet, as suddenly, the proud alien began to became even more desperate than once his virtual self was placed next to a horrible virtual torture device, "now, look at me alien scum!" constricting her neck, Alina made it impossible for her to speak back.

"I care nothing that I would have my soul damned for this, you may not care about saving one of yours for millions of ours, as I don't care about damning your soul to an eternity in Hell! Is that clear? So you better show me some respect, and remember you stand no chance of leaving this place without me, so as I don't trust you either," Alina angrily finished, "rest be assured, that if I feel that I have no choice but kill you, I will let you wear that amulet first if you respect me." and thus she carefully putted the amulet over her.

"I have messed with something, haven't I?" the elf then asked, as insolent as ever in face of such terrible threat, "it was more than a nightmare, perhaps a memory you wish to for..." Alina's fist met the alien lips before she could finish it, as she replied "stop being so much of an alien jerk! Shut up about this subject before I decide to break your cheekbone!"

"You are going against my freedom of speech," still not intimidated, the elf woman sat down on the sofa as she said, "yet you claim to fight for freedom."

"I fight for human freedom!" Alina shouted, "remember that before complaining. Now, will we have to nearly kill ourselves fighting once every fifteen minutes or will you shut up with your offensive comments?" she then looked at the depleted jetpack and sighed, as she began to gather the pieces of the puzzle all recent events and nightmares formed "I know which places we must go through now if we are to escape this place."

"And where would they be?" she asked back.

"First, the carbon copy house of the Global State Vice-President, and then, the GCS Cacodaemon hovering above this abandoned dome city."

"I see," despite her wounds from the beating, the eldar grinned, "you were a slave for a second-in-command of an entire interstellar empire, that is quite an achievement!"

Looking at the elf, Alina began to think as she tried to hold her anger at bay, until she finally replied, grinning even wider than the alien:

"Like I said, we stand for human freedom, and thus, technically, there is nothing wrong in enslaving a single alien, as long as it is done once in a while," she then looked at the eldar and finished, "because if you insist into your attempts to humiliate and insult me, I will be very tempted to have you as a slave, if I get out of here, and considering you are alone, you have no friends and that," Alina smirked, "they found you a suitable individual for the role of cannon fodder, you'd better accept it, because I have some scruples, even on scum like you, no matter what you think, but I doubt Slaanesh would have any scruples."

"And now you want to use me as a retribution post for what others among your race have done to you? Did you forget your humanity at home?"

Sighing, Alina finally cleared her head and replied:

"Nevermind, eternal slavery and eternal damnation are fates that not even the worst scum of the universe deserve. And you aren't even close to the worst scum." then she threatened, "but don't think you can exploit my honesty! Because others among my people will not be as forgiving as I have been, and I may change my opinion faster than the Changer of Ways."

"Your former masters surely taught you how to play mind games, I see, now," the eldar then tried to smile friendly, "I forgot to mention, but I already turned that cooking machine on. I don't know your cooking and eating habits, and I don't master your written language, so I just came with the first thing that appeared there. You humans are truly strange."

"Why?" Alina clearly ignored the elf insult, "what did the auto-chef prepare?"

"I don't know how to spell it."

"I expected no better from a dumb alien thinking she is the big deal around." Alina said as she came to the kitchen, "oh, extreme chilly steaks with classical marijuana cigarettes and Cocaine-cola to accompany?" she then smiled, "I think you are lying about not knowing our written language, this is too much of a coincidence, you are a pothead, like all the psychic and mystical types I ever saw during my life, aren't you? Too bad I can't risk disabling the toxin remover after I enjoy both"

The alien said nothing, nor needed to try denying the obvious. Sitting side by side along the table, although mostly avoiding eye contact, they began their meal before heading to the next step. The elf however, began to become more relaxed after puffing the marijuana for the first time

"May I ask you something. I have noticed that maybe your enemy, which is also my enemy, of course, seem to be tormenting you in a very personal manner. From the way you mentioned that vessel, I can only assume you don't have good mementos from it, whenever you visited it."

"Visited? I boarded that thing a long time ago," Alina replied back, before puffing her first as well, "or do you think that Space Marines take tourist tours to enemy spacecrafts?"

"Space Marine? How many excess organs do you have?" the elf curiousity began to be tempered by doses of cocaine soft drink and pot.

"Holographic organs are more efficient than multiple redundant organs, I have only one heart, but as it is, less than ten percent of its maximum capability is used, and even if much of it was damaged, whatever remained would continue working and nanites would care on building workaround arteries and veins."

"Interesting, and not something that would be human. You are not human really, you just think you are one."

"We already had that discussion before," Alina sighed, as she noticed something about the elf, "why are you eating the chillies and not the meat. Don't tell me..."

"I am a vegetarian." Alina then burst into laughter, probably already changed by it.

"I knew it! I knew that all this 'living in the woods' and mystical hippie thing would mean something else. You are all a bunch of hedonistic druggies, admit it!"

"No, it is very complicated for me to enjoy such pleasures amidst my kin. There was a time we were like you," the elf puffed even more, before continuing, "hedonistic and pleasure-seekers no matter how things looked on the outside."

"I may be a hedonist, alien," Alina then stopped to eat a piece of the steak, "but I would sacrifice all pleasures for the cause I believe at, that is what differentiate me from how your alien people were, and from how most of the younger generations among my people are."

Then, they became way too relaxed to continued eating, as they looked at the white cemented ceiling, sometimes seeing psychedelic lights that did not exist over it.

"By the way, do you have a name, alien?"

"I think it is difficult to spell for you, but you can call me Ell, now yours, Mon-Keigh?" by then the eldar spoke in a slow paced, relaxed manner as their conversation became increasingly meaningless.

"Alina Herrers, but you can call me Master," she smiled in a discrete manner, "because I am your master for now, as your other choice is to give up, leave me and run around this ghost city shouting 'Hey Slaanesh! I want to give you my soul!'," laughing she concluded, "or you can call me just Alie.

"Alien sounds better," Ell smiled.

"Alien? You gave me a cool idea, let me show you a trick I can do." getting up from the chair, Alina then began to salivate, as hissing began to come from her mouth, and a hot vapor. Then she suddenly spitted over the table. Her saliva, visibly very acidic began to melt the wood, until forming a small hole and falling over the floor.

"Gross, just like a Mon-Keigh!"

"Call me like that again and I'll spit your eyes off!" Alina, with the aggressive influence of Cocaine also making an influence over her, threatened.

"Sorry, Alien, I won't call you Mon-Keigh again, even if both words have almost the same meaning."

"So what Ell? I just hate that word, it is so bull mysticism with make-up ancient language lore mixing." her mind was blown as she began to make less sense than ever.

"What did you say? Also, shouldn't you clean the chem from your body?"

"Damn, I just forgot it. Just let loose and it will go, right away!" Alina began to slowly return to her normal state of mind, when she concluded, seeing how the alien was. It was better to let it get something too. Considering the reaction was similar, it was probably going to work.

"Unfortunately, unless you want to give in your soul, I will have to stop your trip too," Alina then spitted again, and with no ceremony smeared it over the alien cheek. Eventually, Ell began to slowly go back to the senses as well, and looking at Alina, she replied:

"Very well, shouldn't we get some food first from here? And perhaps," she then smirked, "I had an idea. Also I am impressed at how fast you can regenerate your wounds, except you have been sleeping for nearly an entire day, I think, if that clock is right."

"What? There are no shoes anywhere close, if that's what you thinking about, don't worry," Alina smiled, "I already guessed, but I'd rather go without shoes than with some clumsy improvised shoes that would make me trip and fall easily and thus hurt me more. Thank you for caring though. I never expected you would bother."

"I just wanted a chance to laugh every time you tripped because of what I was going to suggest for you to wear as shoes." Ell didn't forgive wrong assumptions, and thus explained. At such time, they were already using some bags they found around for packing up things that could be useful, like food, when Alina also found something that would at least be better than facing a Bloodthirster with her bare hands: a big kitchen knife. Although, all facts considered, so far it seemed that a sharp mind would be more useful than a sharp blade in such strange place.

"Are you aware I still didn't dismiss completely the idea of having you as a slave?" Alina shook her head before asking, "and besides this fact, Ell, your chances of ever returning to your people are fairly slim, so you better treat me better, because as of now, I am your only ally."

"All right Alien, all right, so this makes the last," Ell placed another bag over her shoulder, as she looked at Aline and finished, "I hope you won't just have a seizure for seeing that house you mentioned again."

"Don't mention it!" Alina shouted.

"Surely, wanting to hide from the ghosts your past created? Typical."

"That is it, you did it!" Alina angrily pointed at Ell, "now, for the time being, you are my slave, and shall do everything I command. First, shut up or I will take your protection against the soul devourer and kill you!"

"What the hell? Didn't you say that not even the worst scum of the universe deserves it a time ago?"

"I am not joking alien!" Alina warned, "Shut up and" she threw all her things over the elf, "be my quiet mule to carry everything I deem useful."

"Come then, I dare, come and damn our souls!"

"All right, you don't have to carry everything, but just shut up alien, shut up!" Alina was becoming red of anger as she said, and finally, for a change, she would not hear a snide comment from that questionable ally. Departing from the house, with Alina ahead, they carefully watched that abandoned neighborhood. The lights now covered the entire city, with no total darkness anywhere to be seen, giving a false sense of safety. After a quick all-around survey, neither Alina or Ell spotted anything that could mean a coming threat to them, and thus they began to head towards the next destination. With drugs and conversations no longer serving as escapism, it was becoming ever obvious that, in face of growing nightmares and blatant coincidences, Chaos was more than hulking monsters, that whatever purpose she was dragged there in such simulacrum of what either were her greatest fears or worst memories better forgotten, she would have to fight against the most dangerous and difficult enemy to defeat: an enemy which lies inside her: the demons of her own self.

And thus, she began to head towards the same house that haunted her most recent nightmare.

[Solar Communes]

The streets of such strange New Babylon soon were crossed, one after another, their forsaken nature still whispering through the electrical hum of thousands of lamps. The City of Light, it was called, according to Christians, due to its relation with the Light bearer, the former Latin name of the true ruler of the Global State before being casted from Heaven by God. According to the skeptics, the complete lack of shadows around the city was nothing but a manner to emphasize the total impossibility of hiding from the government anywhere, a sign of a perfect surveillance society, although cameras have become long obsolete, for the government controlled and watched people directly through the inputs and outputs from their brains. The hapless drones that were expected to flood through the streets were nothing, only the ever constant humming being a sign of the absolute conformity of what the real New Babylon once was.

Looking at the sideways always, and glad that the elf stopped blabbering, Alina walked a long way from that home she took as shelter, delving deeper and deeper into the hearts of this city, a city without fences, without cameras, without traffic signs, for the rules, the control and the prisons were built inside minds, not outside them, terrible oubliettes where tormented souls stood while their bodies became only extensions of the will of the State. Somehow, the emptiness was appropriate, for perhaps, in a world like this, only souls could be seen, not empty shells stolen from their righteous owners, and without a replica of Paulus Rovari Porter, such was indeed Global State, without him: nothing.

The chords with lines of fluorescent lamps hanged from the skies, eventually converging into the massive sight of the Tower of New Babylon, its white, pyramidal and almost marble-like facade, with its massive glass windows at the top, sending a massive spot of light through all corners of the city like an all-seeing eye, There, another destination, but first, the nightmare had to be confronted.

No noises, no fear, no sensations that there was something near came to either Alina or Ell as they crossed nearly half of the city. It was safe, but there was something else. Alina knew she was getting close to the stopover, a tram station that would ascend into the acropolis, the arcology surrounding the Tower where the elite of such government resided. There was something else, for Alina had an uncertainty: she didn't know whether the nightmare was a recall of her past or the result of her greatest fears and own imagination. Or perhaps, it was more.

The station, which like a metro descended before the ascent of its trams, was a crude construction of concrete with multiple, discrete sensors and other devices to track incoming passengers along its way. Looking at its facade, Alina knew what to do, however, as she began to approach it, Ell interrupted her and said:

"We are not alone Alien, look at those lights down there," she pointed to the way downstairs at the entrance of the station, where, unlike in most of the city, there were dark corners and shadows, as many of the lamps remained unlit or completely broken, "most of them gave in to darkness. You shouldn't go through this place, Alien. I feel its strength, and what lies ahead, neither of us could defeat."

"Afraid of the dark?" Alina cynically asked, pointing to the way ahead, "I can see perfectly through it, so if there is anything there, unless it is invisible and can move without making noise, we are not going to be surprised, that I can assure."

"Alien, so will you see perfectly your doom before it scares you with a surprise?" Ell questioned in retort to the cynical reply, "will it be less of a doom if you don't die as scared? And pray tell, I expect whatever is there to be able to cut off your senses in more ways than you think."

"Yes? Who are you to tell me that?" Alina threw her fist at the eldar, "you are my slave, and in fact, you are correct. I am not going there, but you, yes, you are!" attempting to push Ell, Alina suddenly saw her arms against the air, and before she could react, her torso was hit by a skillful push. Tipping, she fell quickly against the stairs, and began to roll through them, her consciousness looping together with her body, until she passed out, vanishing into the darkness.