Inevitable Ascension

Chapter 14 - To Erase Blood with Fire

The girls sprinted their mechs toward the mob. "This is your final warning!" declared Violina. "Continue to kill each other and I will put an end to every last one of you and take back Eden myself!"

The riot continued in full-force as the masses ignored her threat. Violina closed her eyes and gritted her teeth. She did not want to do this, but with every passing minute hundreds were dying. How else could she regain control of the senseless and bloodthirsty masses? She stared at a particularly violent portion of the swarm of refugees.

"Target locked."

Beads of sweat trickled down her forehead as she fought with herself over whether to pull the trigger.

"Don't do it!" cried Lux.

Violina relaxed her grip and shut off her voice amp. "Please tell me you have a better idea."

"Well, not that much better, but yes. Let's just wait for them to kill themselves off, and then we'll see who's left—our supporters or our enemies."

"And we just sit here and watch?"

"I'd rather we waited somewhere out of sight. Perhaps in the Rothom Compound?"

"Agreed." Violina exhaled with a small sense of relief. "I've witnessed enough butchery for one day, and there's still much more ahead of us." She flipped the voice amplification switch back on. "Listen up! We've decided to abstain from participating in your demise. We'll be around the cliffs in the now vacant Rothom Compound. Whoever wishes to live can meet us there."

With that, the girls began marching their mechs back toward the cliffs. Violina looked behind her occasionally to see if anyone had broken away from the carnage, but as people attempted to escape, some were shot in their backs while others were pursued and dragged back into the fray. It was no different from the barbarism she had witnessed earlier in the Rothom Compound. Violina was so full of indignation she could hardly contain herself.

Lux however, looked more heartbroken than angry. "Remember how I said I'd love to start the world over fresh? This isn't what I had in mind. The earth is dead, our enemies are beyond insane, and even if we manage to remove them, our allies don't seem to be much better. This is no way to rebuild the world."

Violina could only nod, but she had not given up hope. "It's as if there's some sort of disease or infection that's pushed everyone beyond the borders of psychotic. I think it can be healed; it's just that healing in this case happens to be a horrifically violent process."

"Yeah, and we are the placebo!" said Lux with exaggerated drama.

"I think you mean 'cure'?" Violina raised one eyebrow.

"Yeah, probably."

The girls entered Rothom. Decimated ruins and carcasses lay deathly still across it, yet Violina preferred its silence to the screaming of the refugee-mob. Shutting down her mech, she climbed down the steps. "Stand watch for anyone who approaches the compound, Lux. If any of them are armed, order them to drop their weapons where they stand. Then group them up near the wall until we can sort them out."

"Okay, and what are you going to do?"

"I'm going to search the compound for weapons, working vehicles and supplies." Violina drew her pistol for the sake of caution. "It'll be interesting to see whether we have more survivors or equipment."

While much of the compound was torched, she still counted twenty-five Taloc-Mechs in decent shape and twelve artillery units. The very idea of artillery appealed to her. The death they wrought was from a distance large enough to feel impersonal. She also salvaged several crates with the familiar "SUSTENANCE" stamp from the remains of a barracks. Tossing a pack up to Lux, they complied with their stomachs' demands.