The Furnace
Apr. 2nd, 2012 08:50 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
death_gone_madWhen 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.
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.