Rapid Fire Challenge: Crashing - May 2020

[his_light]

Hopefully its not too obvious that I just finished first heretic.....

 

Revelations 

The preacher tried to rise from the harsh, gravel strewn soil of this desolate planet, unstable on shaking legs that had so suddenly buckled. Through sheer force of will he managed it, gripping onto his gaudy staff for dear life. He looked around himself slowly, barely able to fathom what he was witnessing.

 

Five men desperately flailed on the ground to his right, frantically trying to extinguish the flames which engulfed their melting bodies. The guttural screams they emitted were a whisper in the deafening cacophony, yet they pierced him like a spear aimed straight at his heart. Seconds later the screaming stopped, silent bullets lodged in their skulls by one of their comrades.

 

To his left, a weapons team desperately attempted to reload their rocket launcher, their petrified hands fumbling around their equipment. Their sergeant screamed at them, although the preacher perceived that his anger betrayed the same fear that paralysed his men, even if his ears could not distinguish his voice. They disappeared in a red mist in an instant, a perfectly aimed grenade smashing them and their weapon to smithereens, leaving little more than a red paste

 

Yet, as he slowly took in the horror all around him, the preacher realised that these two tragedies, these two groups of martyrs, were simply an insignificant microcosm of the larger battle. They would go un-mourned and unremembered, their deaths as meaningless as their lives were fleeting.

 

Was this what he had preached about for all these long years? The glory of giving ones’ life for the God Emperor, who would protect his faithful servants and commend their souls? An officer crawled past him, his body beneath his stomach a mass of raw flesh. The preacher kicked him away frantically, almost falling over as he did so. The man expired seconds later, his face a picture of raw, unadulterated pain. Who had protected him? Was the holy scripture truly infallible?

 

A shadow engulfed the frail old man as he grasped his staff with such force that his knuckles, previously bright red, turned ghostly white. A warm trickle ran down his leg as he slumped, barely able to hold himself above the dirt. He tried to utter a prayer, but his lips refused to do so. The thing that towered above him, a solid block of stone hard red ceramite laden with rusty chains and bleached skulls, laughed at him as he struggled to meet its gaze, grasping a book close to its chest.

 

“See how the Emperor protects, you old wretch?”

 

The thing’s voice was perfectly clear to the old preacher, penetrating the cacophony with an ease that belied the age of the face that spoke the words. The words were lies, he knew they were lies, yet his heart told him otherwise. He slowly slid down to the dirt, his body finally giving way from the weight of his revelation.

 

The thing laughed uncontrollably. Seconds later, it brought down its blade upon the preacher’s skull.

Edited May 28, 2020 by his_light

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Your story is absolutely haunting. Excellent work, his_light.

[his_light]

Your story is absolutely haunting. Excellent work, his_light.

Thanks a lot Bjorn.