The Furnace

When the first Advisor had mysteriously dropped out of the sky, dead, it was a much needed morale boost for the Resistance fighters fighting beside "Sarah".

She had turned her part of the battlefield into hell on earth, and called forth monsters, one of which called forth what unmistakably were demons. Though the planet was now overrun with creatures from Xen, though the twisted and deformed victims of the headcrabs looked and sounded like tortured souls that had crawled out hell, though the flesh of the half-synthetic lifeforms looked half-dead and riveted to their life-sustaining and death-dealing machines, none of those were demons. The monstrous gorilla, the one who heard every whisper, pulled true demons, if there ever were such a thing, from behind their hiding places behind the veil that separates worlds.

"Sarah" was a leader, but not a benevolent leader, not a protector. Not by a longshot. Such conditions made people desert, and those who caught her attention or the attention of the green eyed monster serving her were incinerated. There were still many who fled. There was battle everywhere, they could not escape that. But they could escape the furnace Sarah had created and the scorched earth she left behind.

But those that stayed with were forged into weapons, hardened against the efforts of the Combine, and given the sharpest of edges. She had her fireballs which homed in on the Combine forces and never missed their mark, she had those odd exploding backwards-flying combots which glowed white-hot and harried the enemy. The three monstrous gorillas all had great strength and rapidly moving walls of force which came from their masks. The one wearing the red mask that evoked either lips or teeth had the gift of tongues and a loud voice that could inspire courage, inspire fear, induce confusion, and taunt into overconfidence and blind rage. It also had a voracious appetite for skin and an immense hatred for the gasmasks the combine soldiers wore. The one wearing an unblinking envious green eye as a mask had a gift of sight so great that the Combine couldn't surprise Sarah and the Resistance still remaining with her. The one wearing the blue mask evoking an ear had the ear of the demons it summoned and intercepted the Combine's communications, giving Sarah and those who remained fighting along with her an even greater advantage.

The Resistance had their guns, guns that aimed true for the weak spots of every half-synthetic monstrosity and machine the Combine threw at them and coax the grand flying beasts into flailing and falling and crashing into the ground troops they were supposed to support. And soon they had the Combine's weapons as well. They were learning, memorizing, studying, experimenting. They were becoming slayers.

Then came a brief pain that washed over everyone, but then it halted, followed by a loud THUD.

There, on the ground before Sarah lay an Advisor. Silent, still. With naught a battle scar.

Sarah screamed in frustration. She pointed her strange staff weapon at the Advisor's body, and yelled, "You stupid, weak, overfed SLUG! You couldn't stay alive, could you? How many of you will have to die before I get to even ask a question?" Her staff then hummed loudly, and the Advisor burst into flames.

Oh, what a great morale boost. A funeral pyre. For the Combine.

Distraction

Inch by inch, foot by foot, the Furnace crept closer toward the Gene Worm facility, spitting out angry sparks at the Combine in its way.

In the sky where the Combine's combots but also a growing number of the Furnace's sparks, the white hot Jemr'h, looking for targets. Similar in profile but not in anything else.

In the sky too was a dragon, the flying beasts of the Combine, the Advisors, and the Black Lion, helpfully keeping out of sight of the Furnace. But there was a green eyed monster staring out of its place inside the Furnace, keeping an eye on the Black Lion.

The green eye kept silent about the lion for the sake of the Resistance.

But it wasn't the Furnace's duty to immolate the Geneworm though it desired, it yearned to consume this artificial life-form the Combine so fiercely protected. It was a distraction from what was happening elsewhere.

Another Advisor fell from the sky. Dead. Otherwise uninjured.

"AYUNI! I told you to keep an eye out for any approaching Advisors!" Sarah yelled as the dead Advisor burst into flames.

"My apologies, Mistress, I was monitoring how the battle was proceeding elsewhere. It won't happen ag-"

The Combine combots start falling out of the sky. There still are jemr'h in the sky, but combots do not glow white hot. The one remaining combot gets shot down.

"Mistress, something has change on the Combine communications channels," informs the blue masked gorilla, Eruni. "The same message, across all of them."

"I hear the heretic!" hisses Leeuni, the gorilla with the red, bloody, lips. She brings the facemask of an Elite to Sarah. "You should hear, too."

Sarah brings the facemask up to her ear.

"...OW YOU caN Hear mE. iT's BEen a loNG tIme, hAsN'T iT, SinCE wE LASt spOKe? YOUr liTTLe rUSE wAs QUIte cLEVeR, bUT YOU shoulD kNOw By NOw thAT dECOyS woN'T deCEIvE us," the voice continues. "wE HaVE eYES AND eaRS eVERywhERE, aS weLL aS a HOST Of seNSEs thAT a mERE HUmAN CoULdN'T pOSSiblY coMPREheNd, LeT aLoNE uSe. YOUr pLAn wAs DOOMeD fRoM tHe stARt. iT'S alMOST tOUCHing, rEalLY, tHe WaY YOU keeP fiGHTing eVEn WHen iT'S uTTerLY fuTILE. YOUr fATHeR dId tHe SAME THing. YOU THinK he'S gONe, doN'T YOU? gONe to heaVEN OR Hell OR sOme otHeR ethEREal plANE HUmANs iNVEnteD to mAKe DEatH sEEM liKe AnyTHing buT obLIVioN? weLL, YOU're alMOST riGHT, AlyX. wE HaVE hiM."

This message was intended for Alyx. Sarah nearly decides to drop and ignore it, but...

These fools.

They think that there is a chance at oblivion. Oblivion without her. Through death.

"His PERsonAliTY. His MEMOry. eVERyTHing Eli VaNCe eVER wAs, aLL coPIed AND pRESERVeD, reaDY to BE acCESSed aT any tiMe. he'S reMARKabLY fORtunATe, rEalLy. he'S beeN GraNTed imMORtaliTY, IN spiTe oF His best efFORts to preVEnt HUmANiTY frOm aCHieving thAT dREAM."

IMMORTALITY

IN spiTe oF His best efFORts to preVEnt HUmANiTY frOm aCHieving thAT dREAM.
thAT dREAM.

IMMORTALITY

"he'D beG YOU to jOin hiM. iT'S juST toO Bad YOUr SpeCIes iS nO lonGER ELigiBLe FoR THaT. Of couRSe YOU HaVE onLY YOUrselVes to BLame FoR THaT, doN'T YOU?"

"HUMANITY IS MINE! MY SPECIES! HOW DARE YOU TEMPT THEM WITH IMMORTALITY! YOU DO NOT OFFER THEM ETERNAL PLEASURE, YOU OFFER ETERNAL SUFFERING!" Sarah bellows at the sky. "YOU DO NOT KNOW THE MEANING OF IMMORTALITY!"

"They choose well. They choose salvation. They choose oblivion."

Those humans still at Amascut's side have only a brief moment to stare agape at her before they hear the call from Alyx. They run. Away from the GeneWorm. Away from the Combine. Away from the madwoman. And they empty the furnace.

"The Resistance leader is ordering everyone to fall back," Eruni reports.

"I WILL NOT LEAVE WITHOUT MY ANSWER!

If thou openest not the gate to let me enter,

I WILL DESTROY THE COMBINE MYSELF!

I will break the door, I will wrench the lock,

I WILL BRING DOWN THE WALLS THAT HIDE THE WORM!

I will smash the door-posts, I will force the doors.

I WILL FIND THE HIDING PLACE OF THESE OVERFED SEASLUGS

I will bring up the dead to eat the living.

AND I SHALL SHOW THEM THE TRUE HORRORS OF IMMORTALITY!"

And the dead will outnumber the living.

Answer

The Resistance's retreat did not go unnoticed by the Combine. The voice of the Administrator had broken the Resistance's spirits.

The great machinery of the Combine pressed it's advantage, now uninhibited.

The work of the Scourge of the Kharidian Desert, (and apparently the Mongolian Desert) began in earnest.

She raised her staff to the sky, as if trying to scratch the bellies of the airships overhead. The staff roared. The sky roared. And columns of light tore through the clouds, tore through the smoke, tore through the airships, tore through the ground. The earth roared in response, and out of it came columns of fire and twisting winds rise to meet and envelop the columns of light.

The columns began moving around freely.

She was about to begin another spell when exhaustion hit. She looked into the sky and sees that reality near the firey column was twisting, tearing. "How much power did I put into that?" Then remembered. This world already had problems with reality bleed. The walls are paper thin. Having the power of the columns bleed back into the elemental planes of fire and wind prematurely would be bad.

Well, there was also the problem of tearing a hole big enough for reinforcements from the Universal Union to come to the rescue. Or refugees from infernal or abyssal planes or Xen or who knows where. Or invaders.

But power bleed is the important thing. She pushed herself to add extra flattening spells to the columns, then ducked behind a wall to collapse. The columns were carving their way Combine ranks, but it wasn't enough. She was supposed to had enough power to mow down the Combine forces that were advancing on her.

"Split your souls in twain, I will split your souls in twain, until you live no more -- Advoco insaniam haereticorum in pectus meus et animam meam."

The destruction wrought by the wandering columns began to feed her, but she was not fully recovered when Ayuni apparated by her side, panicked. "Mistress! An Advisor approache---AAAUUURRRGHHH!" There is blinding pain, knee buckling pain. "What is happening?! Why isn't this one dying like the rest??"

The Advisor drifted down from the sky and over Sarah's prone form. It turned its attention to the green eyed Ayuni, and lifted her up, and threw the gorilla away like a crumpled piece of paper.

(what? dying like the rest?)

(a little too much confidence in you)

(you are impressive though)

(you believe you almost caused a portal storm?)

(ha)

(ha)

(ha)

Some fool worm had stuck its head into her mouth. And it took all she had not to bite down, to crush, to rip, to tear the alien mind apart.

Inwardly, she was letting the Advisor root around in her mind. But she couldn't hide her hunger. She was salivating.

(hunger?)

(what are you?)

(human)

(what are you?)

(HUMAN)

(what are you?)

(I Am Humanity)

(hunger.)

The Advisor digs deeper and finds lives. Thousands of them.

(how?)

One life, thousands of years

(how???)

It watches how one human learns how to survive. How one human learns to thrive. How one human doesn't die, how one human learns to manipulate the forces of nature, how one human learns to manipulate people, beasts, nations, religions, GODS. How one human learns to kill. How one human learns to set the whole world ablaze with WAR.

A shadow in her mind, a dark shape that crawls, slithers out of the abyssal depths. Hunger.

(your mind will be a great gift to the Universal Union)

Sarah's body levitated off the ground

(and we shall study your physiology)

and toward the Advisor

(and you shall teach us true immortality)

Immortalityhorrors

The dark shape turns, the fat worm, the overfed slug. HUNGER.

(and you shall teach us true power!)

The Advisor's proboscis emerges.

Leeuni, Ayuni, and Eruni apparate before the Advisor, who held Sarah aloft, her upper robes drenched in drool. Leeuni could sense her Mistress's hunger, could see it. But made no move. Instead it was Eruni. "Mistress! Why aren't you fighting? Demons! Your ears are mine! Come to my -" Sarah's arm rose and she showed her palm to the three gorillas. The gorillas were lifted by a mighty wind and carried away.

(WE SHALL BE GODS!)

The Advisor's proboscis struck the back of Sarah's neck and rooted up and down her spine.

The dark shape slid out of the recesses of her mind and was illuminated! It waved its multiple proboscii at the Advisor, it was a monster, it was deformed, it had vestigial teeth and a non-vestigial dorsal mantle.

I WILL FIND THE HIDING PLACE OF THESE OVERFED SEASLUGS
AND I SHALL SHOW THEM THE TRUE HORRORS OF IMMORTALITY!

{I Claim This World And Its Resources For The Universal Union. Join Us And Free This World From This Endless War!}

It did not float in the air, it slid on the ground, on a trail of its secretions.

{I Will Be your Queen. I Will Be Your Mother.
Come Child, Forsake Anger And Hate.
You will Only Know My Love,
FOREVER.}

(MUTANTEXILEFAILUREIMMORTALITYFAILURECRIMINALMUTANTEXPERIMENTEXILE)ATAVISMMONSTEREXILE

..., though suffering several mutations that made her and her spawn severely atavistic, eluded capture and destruction by purification agents. Her faulty genetic material was the greatest threat the young Empire faced, a threat that mater...

The Advisor rose into the air, still holding Sarah's body. It was no longer limp. It raised its arms, palms outward, and the firey columns ceased to be. It grinned, as it faced the gathered Combine army below. "How have I longed for this day. The day when I would soar high above the plains of battle!"

What is this? Has the Advisor acquired a sense of humor? Is it engaging in puppetry?

Waves of pain washed over the whoever was in earshot. "When every knee would bend in my presence again. When my name could be shouted on high!"

(what are you?)

You know what I am. You know my name.

███████
And with that, a large swath of the Combine forces was crushed. The Advisor and Sarah fell to the ground.

Ironically the fallen goddess of death had saved the lives of most of her deserters that day. And they didn't even have to strip her of most of her godhood to get her to do it.