Dragon (A Histories of Purga Novel)

Wilhelm stood with his hands behind his back. He was on a balcony on one of the Citadel’s highest floors, watching as dozens of smoke columns drifted into the sky. Things were proceeding nicely. The Blak Army had complete control of Roanoke. The Outposts were next on the list and then, the Terraquois. He was saving them for last. He wanted to bask in the glory of exterminating their savage species off the face of Purga. It would be a just punishment for what they did to him.

He remembered the invasion of Ledun perfectly. He had told King Rowan that going into the forest without prior intelligence was foolish. They had no idea what they would be facing. The King overruled him and commanded his men to go in anyways. Despite his reservations, he’d fought valiantly, side-by-side with his King. They breached the forest and promptly burned out the Terraquois. But something went wrong. Up in the leafy branches, he’d come to a large hut. Before he knew what was happening, a tiger attacked from out of nowhere. One second, the bridge he’d been on was empty and the next it was there.

It roared so fiercely and loudly that Wilhelm stumbled. He lost his footing and tripped.

The tiger didn’t hesitate. As soon as he fell, it mauled him. It’s huge, sharp teeth sank into the flesh of his arm while its claws ripped at his chest. He’d been in so much pain. More pain than he’d ever experienced before.

He managed to keep it away from his throat with one arm and pull his blaster out with the other. He fired as soon as he could and the tiger howled in anger and pain. It backed away from him and shimmered into the form of a Terra girl that didn’t look any older than a teenager. There was an ugly burn in her side from where he shot her but she didn’t look like she even felt it. She had wild hair and even wilder eyes.

He got up, shakily, and leaned against the post of the suspension bridge that connected the tree houses. He remembered her yelling furiously and then she rushed him. Before he could react, he felt himself being pushed. He couldn’t even get another shot off. He tried to reach out while his body flooded with adrenaline, but his grasping hands closed on nothing but empty air. Time seemed to slow as he fell. Thick branches slammed into him, over and over again. He could feel the bones in his rib cage splinter and crack. Another branch punctured his side and held him there, impaled for a moment, before it snapped and he fell the hundred or so feet to the ground. A raging inferno engulfed him then, the fires that his own people had started, and all he knew was pain.

The last emotion roaring through him at the time was rage. Blinding anger against the Terraquois, but an equal amount of anger against King Rowan, the foolish glory-monger that had gotten him killed.

But he hadn’t died. He had survived. Against all odds. He had spent a long time recovering and in that time he created his plan. To make this world a better place, he had to destroy it. He would see to it that it all burned and then he would recreate it from the ground up.

After all those years spent planning, it was finally coming together.

Yes. Soon we will rule this pathetic land, a voice whispered through his mind. It was a sinister, evil thing but he shook his head and pushed the voice away for now. He couldn’t let himself be distracted.

“Master,” Lord Guilder said.

Wilhelm turned to look at the fat lord, his hood masking his disgust. He had never liked him personally. Lord Guilder had always been an ignorant, self-absorbed little lunatic, but he was useful. He had gladly accepted the job of murdering the Crown Prince. In fact, he’d done it with an almost maniacal glee. That kind of insanity was hard to predict, Wilhelm admitted, but it was also easily directed.

“Report,” he answered. The mechanical tone to his voice rang out oddly in the nearly empty room. His vocal cords had been almost completely burned away in the fire as he screamed and screamed in pain. He had used his nanos to create a synthetic substitute. It worked, but the quality was imperfect. It was why his voice held that oddly metallic tone to it.

“The Upper Tier have all been captured,” he responded quickly. “Some of them chose to fight us, however.”

“And?”

“They did not survive,” he answered.

“What of the civilian population?” Wilhelm asked.

“There were more casualties there. It is currently estimated at roughly two-hundred thousand. We are still waiting on a more accurate number. We’ve detained a number of the rest, along with the captured Upper Tier, in Detention Sector 1,” Lord Guilder stated. Then he started growing nervous and anxious.

“What is the matter?” Wilhelm asked, whirling to face Lord Guilder, who gulped loudly.

“It’s the military, sir,” he answered.

“What about them? Have they been secured, or not?”

“Not. It seems that the Royal Infantry and the Imperial Guards managed to band together and escape Roanoke. Our soldiers are hunting them, but the Guards and Infantry are highly-skilled. They keep killing the companies we send. Also, it seems they were able to get some civilians out with them.”

“And what of the Navy?” Wilhelm asked, his voice dangerous. He was clearly not pleased.

“No word yet on how effective the underwater mines were. At last count, several hundred vessels had been destroyed,” Lord Guilder stated. “What would you have us do about the Guards and Infantry that escaped?”

“Speak with Dr. Taren. She will know what to do,” Wilhelm responded. “If she does not comply, remind her of the consequences of disobedience.”

He flipped a small object through the air. Lord Guilder caught it in a fist and stared at it. It was a small disk, about the size of a coin, and completely clear. He didn’t know what was on it, but if it could coerce Dr. Liza Taren, Roanoke’s leading scientist in genetics, to do what Wilhelm Coran demanded, then it had to be big.

“See that it’s done. The military has to be neutralized sooner, rather than later. The longer they survive, the more chance there is that they will re-group and organize a resistance to my regime.”

Lord Guilder bowed and then left the Master’s presence.

****

Dr. Liza Taren stared at the glowing green, cylindrical chamber in front of her. It was filled nearly to the brim with a pale green liquid. Bubbles continually traveled from the bottom of the tank to the top.

She shuddered in slight fear. The figure inside that tank was the most hideous thing she’d ever seen and part of her heart withered at the realization that she had created it. It was an abomination. A monster.

And she had birthed it.

Granted, it had been against her will, but that did nothing to change the way her heart felt. All her life, the only thing she wanted to do was help people. To make lives better and to heal birth defects and hereditary illnesses. The thing in front of her was a perversion of that. It was the complete opposite of her goal. That thing was meant to destroy anything and everyone in its path. That was all.

The door to her lab suddenly slid open. She turned and found Lord Guilder strutting toward her.

Liza didn’t bother hiding her disgust as she watched him walk through her lab in his loud, brightly colored clothing. He reminded her of a peacock and that would usually make her giggle.

Not today.

Today, she didn’t feel like laughing.

“Liza,” he said, smiling at her.

She didn’t like his smile. Or his eyes. He looked like a glutton staring at a giant feast.

“It’s been too long, wouldn’t you say?”

“Reginald,” she returned, nearly hissing his name. “I thought Wilhelm would’ve murdered you with the rest when he took control.”

She’d been cooped up in her lab during the assault on the city, but the sounds of battle had drifted into her nonetheless. It was all she could do to continue her work and ignore it. The screams were the hardest to deal with though. She didn’t think she’d be able to hear those. When she did, she found herself constantly wiping tears from her eyes.

“He saw fit to use me instead.” He walked closer to her.

Her eyes narrowed in anger and her body became rigid. She always hated the man. He was a vile, repulsive, evil little twit that liked to abuse his wife and torment the people he reigned over. It hurt to think that a lot of good people had died and this disgusting piece of human filth was still alive.

“I was told to give you this.” He handed her the clear disk. She took it, feeling panic well up inside her. “The Royal Infantry and the Imperial Guards have escaped. They have, thus far, proven able in hiding from us and maintaining their freedom.”

“They’ve killed everyone you sent against them, in other words,” Liza said, a bead of hope blooming inside her.

“That about covers it,” he responded. “Wilhelm seems to think you have the solution.”

Her faint hope died instantly at Lord Guilder’s words. Fear replaced it. A deep, pervasive fear that invaded her mind like cancer.

“No,” she said, her voice wavering slightly. “No. The project isn’t ready. It’s too unstable.”

“I don’t care, and I assure you, Wilhelm cares less than me,” he returned. “Do what he has asked, or there will be consequences. Play the disk.”

Liza shook her head, her tears falling uncontrollably now.

“Play the disk!” Lord Guilder yelled, his face strained and red.

She flinched from the noise and walked stiffly over to the vid-player. She put the disk in and a small-sized vid-screen suddenly appeared. She cried out sharply after she saw what was on it and her tears flowed even harder.

On the screen were two little girls, and a slim man. The girls’ cheeks were rosy red from crying, their eyes were puffy, and she could see their tears glistening on their cheeks. The man sat calmly, stone-faced. The girls were her children, Melda and Chrisany, and the man was her husband Sean. One of Wilhelm’s agents had broken into her home nearly eight months ago and abducted them. She had received these disks once a month in exchange for her cooperation.

Her cooperation meant creating that monstrous creature.

The Behemoth.

And now the man that has her husband…has her babies, is making her let it loose.

“How many of those things are there?” Lord Guilder asked. He moved closer to the cylindrical chamber and was tapping one of his fingers against the glass. He peered up at the thing’s twisted face out of pure curiosity.

Liza paid no attention to him. With a dread-filled heart she went to the control panel mounted next to the green tube.

“What exactly does Wilhelm want?” she asked.

“He wants the Infantry and Guards found and destroyed,” he replied. “To a man.”

Liza listened to the command, tears rolling down her cheeks and feeling a cloud of depression hang over her at the thought of all those lives being extinguished. Then she thought about her children and her husband.

She loved them so much.

She programmed the codes into the screen in front of her and then pressed the command key.

As soon as she inputted the last number and hit enter, she dived out of the way.

Lord Guilder watched her with a stupid, shocked look on his face. Then his wits flooded back and he dove behind one of Liza’s sterile metal tables, hiding under it like a quivering child.

There was a loud cracking sound followed by water rushing over the white floor. Then something huge stepped out of the damaged tube. The ground literally shook each time the monster took a step.

Lord Guilder’s heart fluttered madly with fear. He could hear it breathing. It sounded like a gigantic bellows pumping air in and out. He chanced a look and quickly wished he hadn’t.

The thing was a giant. It was easily nine feet tall and the rest of it was equally freakish. Its body was huge and deformed. Giant slabs of pure muscle lined its chests, shoulders, stomach, legs, and everywhere else. A cable went from the nape of its neck and into the muscles of both arms. Lord Guilder could see a clear, viscous liquid flowing through the tubes continuously. He didn’t know what the liquid was, and he was sure he didn’t want to know. The absolute scariest part, however, was its left arm. Half of it was gone and was replaced by massive blaster cannon, bigger than anything he’d ever seen before. A sword-like protuberance jutted off the side of the thing’s cannon, its point ending a couple of inches above the line of its shoulder.

It stood there on massive, gnarled feet, its ugly head cocked to one side. Its black hair hung in clumps and tendrils across its broad face. Beads of greenish liquid clung to its bare skin and it wore featureless, black shorts as its only clothing. Its real human fist (although ten times the normal size of a regular fist) clenched and unclenched.

Lord Guilder gasped.

The monster’s head turned quickly, his sharp ears picking up the sound and targeting it with unnatural speed. He looked in Lord Guilder’s direction for a couple more seconds before he started walking. Then, there was a huge crash as he busted completely through the wall.

The directive Dr. Taren gave it rang in its rudimentary mind, over and over again.

It was supposed to destroy them.

Destroy them all.