[Onboard the Bastion of Law]

“This is impossible.” The commander of the core world forces was watching a replay of everything that Allan had been broadcasting, or at least what Hilx’Nit had sent him, and had just gotten to the point where Allan said he had met the Guillinar Goddess. The commander stopped the playback and focused his attention on the screen that was allowing him to talk with Hilx’Nit. “Hilx’Nit, you need to put an end to this and find out if the claims this Allan made are true.” 

“Sir,” Hilx’Nit was trying to dance around the topic of what Allan was and where he was from, “I happen to agree with the mission that Allan has taken upon himself, and he is one who I have given a mark of honor to. If you wish me to do this I will only do it in Allan’s aid.” 

The commander looked at him with a surprised look. “Well I won’t say that I understand why you gave him a mark, but I happen to agree with this as well. Honestly, we have been trying to figure out what has been going on with the Quillinar since they sent their new representative to the core worlds, and this explains a lot.” 

The commander thought for a moment, “Captain Hilx’Nit, I am giving you orders to help suppress this council of purity, I am aware that there is a group of mercenaries who this Allan has brought to the Quillinar homeworld, I think that they could use your assistance. After you deal with the impending battle between them and the council’s forces, retrieve this Allan and verify the claims that he made.”

“Understood Commander.” Hilx’Nit said and saluted, his arm across his chest. The commander ended the connection and then activated the shipwide channel. “Attention crew, bridge crew to battle stations, everyone else, prepare to de-ship and fight planetside.” 

The following few minutes, were a rush of activity as the hundreds upon hundreds of Gish rushed to get their gear and assemble in the large cargo hold that doubled as an invasion platform. As Hilx’Nit watched on the screens as his men assembled, his attention was caught by the intel technician who was looking in horror at his screen.

“Intel, on screen.” Hilx’Nit said, and the technician nodded, pressing a button. Hilx’Nit watched for a moment and felt bile rise up in his throat. “Oh Hemphrotet, have mercy on their enemies.” 

“We are supposed to help them?” The intel technician asked. “They don’t need our help, their enemies do.” 

—--------------------

[Landing Area] 

The humans were laughing, and that was all Yilkie could hear over the thunder of the devices that they were detonating. They laughed at a slaughter such as this. Truly his daughter had found some of the most violent beings in the galaxy. 

“Cheer up Yilkie.” Eddy said, slapping the Quillinar mad on the back. “Think of it as a new beginning.” He stepped away from Yilkie and watched the carnage unfold. Directly in front of him the large man who had been making them picked up a C4 coated bowl wrapped in cellophane, lit the fuse, and then coiled up in a practiced motion when the fuse was almost to the blasting cap the man snapped out, as if every muscle in his body was pulling in the same direction. The bowl shot out like a discus, the C4-coated side facing the ground, when the fuse detonates the C4 the bullets embedded in the soft explosive travel through any in its path, killing ten or twenty of the enemy with each bowl.

Mack was standing farther down the line with a box of throwing knives that had been made by the assembler. Each time he threw one it would sink up to the hilt and then explode sending the cut-up razorwire in the hilt to shred those around the target. 

Troy was by far the most lethal of the group, He was tossing frail glass vials amongst the enemy with the help of a homemade sling. When they shattered the chemicals inside would begin to melt through the poor unfortunate soul it had hit, and any that tried to assist soon found themselves without fingers or dead next to the original casualty.

“Alright, enough with the toys.” Eddy said, his tone growing dark, at this point the enemy was spread out among the three rows of ditches lined with explosives and gravel that had been laid in earlier. “Blow the ditches.” 

“Yes sir!” Brewster said with a maniacal laugh. He scooped a clacker from the ground where seven or eight of the things ran off to different traps he had lay. He slapped the clacker against his hand three times and a raucous explosion tore through the trenches, sending the gravel on top hurtling up frightening speeds and ripping apart those who were on top, and wounding those nearby. 

“Machine guns, fire at will.” Eddy said, and six M60 machine guns, two in the hands of the large man who had been throwing the C4 frisbees, opened fire, slowing shifting from side to side filling the dusty air with a hair of lead. “Cease Fire! Let the dust settle, when it clears, we push to the ocean, Brewster, and Mack, you stay behind to deal with anything that comes after we leave.” 

Eddy and the others formed a line, and when the dust settled they started forward, when they came across a Quillinar who was still breathing, or simply injured, a quick stroke of a knife, or a single shot of a weapon ensured they would not rise again. The whole process was rather mechanical in Yilkies eyes, and he knew then that he should never cross a human, especially one of these humans.

—----------

[Shore area - Aly, Jalla, Tillia] 

They had encountered little resistance in their escape from the tower, Jalla and Tillia ranged farther from the group on either side, ensuring that any attackers were met with brutal, efficient force. The swim went faster than expected, with the natural abilities of the Quillinar, they found themselves waiting for the sisters more often than not, and when they reached the shoreline, Aly sent a message to Eddy telling them they were on land and headed their way.

“It’s going to be slow going from here on out.” Jalla said, gesturing to the slow pace that the women and children set. 

“That’s fine.” Aly said reading the response that Eddy had sent. “He said we should let Jalla and Tillia lead with their helmets off, so that they know we are not the enemy. Jalla and Tillia nodded, removed their helmets.

“Sidhesh?!” The Council member said anger in her tone as obediently followed Tillia, whose waist she was bound to. 

“Yes, we are.” Jalla said.

Tillia nodded, “And if you speak again without first being spoken to, I will cut your tongue from your head.” The venom that dripped from Tillia’s voice, further emphasized by the opening of her nasal passages replicating it in many notes, left the Council Woman shivering, and nodded. 

“Alright keep about forty feet in front of us, helmets off.” Aly said and then turned to address the group of women. “Okay make sure we stay in line behind Jalla and Tillia, move as fast as you can, but don’t hurt yourself. Let’s go.” 

They began moving forward slowly. In the distance, a sound akin to thunder could be heard. After twenty minutes or so, a translated voice echoed forth. “Jalla, Tillia, is that you?” 

“Yes.” The sisters said, and suddenly a line of humanoids in armor emerged from the underbrush silently.

“Eddy?” Aly said, and then one of the figures removed a helmet with a face coving and revealed a smiling face.

“Hey Aly, how’s it going?” Eddy asked and the other humans came forward. 

“Good, I just need Allan back and it will be a great day.” Aly said.

“You haven’t been watching the feed he is broadcasting then?” Eddy asked, and the three women shook their heads. “Well he is good, but he has reached the inner sanctum of the Council. Anyways let’s get you all back to the landing area and see what we can do about getting some intel on the rest of the planet.” 

Aly nodded and they began to roll out. “Did Doc get the message through to the Bastion of Law?” She asked as she scooped up one of the younger children, carrying the girl as she walked. She glanced around, the humans were surprising her, each of them had removed their face coverings, and were interacting with the refugees. The men were notably avoiding the female Quillinar, but interacting well with the children. The women were helping as much as they could with the pregnant and injured women. 

“He did, we had some issues happen, but it’s been dealt with.” Eddy said, taking them down a predefined path, every now and then they would come across a dead body, and the humans would ignore it, even walking right over it if it was in their path.

Aly sent a silent prayer up to the Goddess asking for Allan’s safe return.

—-------------

[Council Inner Chambers - Allan]

“Welcome to hell.” Allan said, and the council members laughed. Allan laughed too, but their laughter faded when they heard his. His laughter was evil, it filled them with a sense of dread. “Do you know what hell is in my culture?” Allan asked, and received a blank stare from those around him. “Hell is a place that the main religion of my home country believes harbors the source of all evil, it is a dimension filled with demons, flame, and torment for all those who commit sin.” 

Allan was smiling as his words and tone drove the blood from the faces of the council. “I am the demon whose mission it is to torment you.” Allan activated his faceplate again and activated the environmental seals. “Now all I need is the flames to punish the sinners.” Allan began laughing as flames poured from his hands and just as they were about to reach the panicked Quillinar, time froze and his broadcast stopped.

“Allan.” The goddess was standing next to him. “This is not what is needed.” 

“You would spare them?” Allan asked, his adrenaline coursing, wanting to finish what he started. “You would ask me to help the people you claim to love. Yet you would spare these horrible beings, who use a dark twisted idea of what you even are to commit terrible acts against their own kin.” 

“I would.” Elunitra, said looking at Allan. “I may not agree with them but they are still my children.” 

“So then what do you want to do? Slap them on the wrist, and send them on their way?” Allan demanded he had an overwhelming urge to ignore the Goddess and kill every single member of the council just to spite her. 

“I would have them punished and forced to watch as the world prospers in spite of them.” The goddess said. 

“I fucking hate religion. Did you know that?” Allan said, deactivating the flame throwers, and tearing his attention away from the Council, and focusing on the goddess. “I hate religion and the idea of Gods and Goddesses because even in our myths, Gods and Goddesses all have the flaw, the same thing that I despise. And you are proving it true.” 

“What am I proving true.” The Goddess said, her tone somewhat indignant.

“That whenever things go wrong, you will never admit your culpability!” Allan yelled in the Goddess’s face, and surprisingly she seemed to shrink back. “You could have stepped in at any time, told these bastards they are wrong, and fixed the issue, you could have left them be and made an appearance to everyone else telling them what you really thought and that the council was composed of heretics. You could have done anything!” 

The goddess was looking down, she seemed that she could not bring herself to make eye contact with him. “You are right.” 

“And now that things are getting solved, you have the nerve to come from wherever you reside and tell me how to clean up your mess?!” Allan shouted again. “Un-fucking-believable!” Allan began pacing.

“Please, Allan, there is so much that I can’t explain about how we operate.” Elunitra said, pleading with him. “Do not do it this way.” 

“You want them to live?” Allan said, his tone cold and icy now, and the Goddess looked up and met his eyes, even as angry as he was she still had an arousing effect on him. “Fine, they will live. You owe me.” She nodded, and Allan continued. “But they will live as I let them. And if they resist in any way. I will kill them.”

“What do you mean as you let them.” The Goddess asked. 

“Nope, no negotiation.” Allan said. “I will let them live, but as I see it. Either you agree that you owe me, and I can do this as I see fit or they die here and now.” 

The goddess looked frustrated, but her shoulders slumped, and she nodded. “Thank you, Allan. You have my word that I agree.” 

A moment later the Goddess was gone and the screams that had been interrupted resumed, and then stopped in confusion. Allan smiled viciously, “Rejoice you insignificant scum.” Allan said, opening his faceplate again. “Your Goddess has pleaded with me for your lives, on the condition that I get to determine how you live.” 

“We are right!” one of the Council said, falling to his knees. “The Dark Goddess has smiled upon us.” 

“Congratulations, you just volunteered to be first.” Allan said and pulled a small charge from a compartment in his suit. “This is an explosive device that is perfectly capable of ripping everyone in this room to shreds.” Allan tapped a few buttons. “It is now set to explode if it gets further than twenty yards from me, or if I die. You will swallow it.” 

“Why? The goddess granted us clemency.” The man said.

“Let me rephrase,” Allan grabbed the Quillinar man and lifted him from his feet, and then slammed him into the nearest wall, “Your goddess made me promise not to kill you outright, but I told her that any resistance would lead to death. If you do not swallow this right now I will beat you to death.” 

The eyes of the man went wide and he took the small charge and swallowed it. “Good boy.” Allan said, and slapped him gently on the face before setting him down. “Each of you will swallow one of these, and then follow me back to the ship I arrived on. When we get there you will admit to everything you have done, you condemn your own actions, you will urge people to lead lives of acceptance. And you will then accept the conditions that I will dictate for you to live by.” 

“Why would we do that?” A woman said “As soon as you leave we will simply begin again.” 

Allan smiled and then shot her in the head. “I came here this time with forty, only forty, of the men and women. If this problem ever springs up again, I will bring thousands of warriors, with weapons that you don’t want to imagine. I will drain the oceans with nuclear blasts, and after evacuating those who are willing to live an acceptable life, I will gather every other person on the planet and bury them alive. I will be the reason that the Core Worlds implement rules to war. I will commit atrocities that will make the Gods and Goddesses hate me. And I will do it all with a smile. So,” Allan tapped some buttons and held forth his hands now filled with proximity detonating explosives, “Swallow and follow me silently.” 

The council members all took an explosive and swallowed it. Fear in their eyes. “Good, now follow me, we are going to make a proclamation.” Allan said, and began to lead them out of the dark underbelly of the tower of governance. On his way out, he made them take him to where they kept their records and plugged in a device that Doc had given him that would allow remote access. Then he sent a message to Aly, and Eddy.

—--------------

[Outside the landing Area]

Aly, Jalla,Tillia, Eddy, and the others were about a quarter-mile outside of the perimeter when Eddy and Aly’s comms indicated a text message. “What is it?” Jalla asked.

“Allan is coming back, he placed the access device, and…” Eddy’s tone faded. “Oh, Wow.” 

“He has the entire council’s upper leadership in tow.” Aly said, her voice somewhat horse.

“Well let’s get back and set up a welcome wagon.” Eddy said, and they continued on. When they got back to the landing area, they were greeted by the sight of another ship beside Aly’s. “What the hell.” Eddy said, and then gave a few hand motions, immediately, the humans set down what children or women they had been helping and spread out. Some disappearing into the underbrush, others dropping down to sight the encampment.

A Gish came strolling out with a scaled being. “It’s Hilx’Nit.” Aly said and placed an arm on Eddy’s shoulder. “He is a friend.”

Eddy nodded. “Hold your fire, suspected friendlies.” 

“Aly, Jalla, Tillia. It is good to see you again.” Hilx’Nit said then turned to Eddy. “You must be Eddy, Yilvar here has nothing but praise for you.” 

“Hello, and hey Doc.” Eddy said, “I am assuming that you are not here to try and suppress me and my men.” 

“No, not at all. We have orders to assist, I have dispatched units to places that we have knowledge of sympathizers as well as refugees, they are flowing in as we speak.” Hilx’Nit said. “If you accept I will provide these women and children medical help.”

Eddy nodded, then shouted over his shoulder. “Stand down. 

Hilx’Nit’s eyes widened. He knew that they were roughly forty strong, but he had not detected the fifteen in the brush. “Please let’s get inside. Tell me, Aly, where is Allan?” 

“He is on his way back, with the council’s upper levels of command.” Aly said.

“How did he manage that?” Doc asked.

“I have no idea.” Aly responded.

“Ohh, I think that they will find it in their best interests to do as Allan says.” Eddy said with a chuckle, “When he gets angry, Allan is, a creature of sheer will, he will find a way no matter what.”

When they got back into the camp, everything seemed to be going smoothly, Eddy had his people work with the Gish to go out and quell resistance pockets, and bring in refugees. Much of the population had hidden away to avoid the fighting and thus far it was working well. Two hours went by and suddenly an uproar echoed through the air. 

Aly, Hilx’Nit, Doc, and Eddy ran out from where they were monitoring everything and found Allan leading roughly twenty Quillinar through the crowd that was raving at them. “Hey Hilx’Nit, Doc, Everybody.” Allan said with a smile, “Meet the Assholes. Assholes meet everybody.” 

“We will take them into custody.” Hilx’Nit said and Allan stopped him.

“Currently they are all bound to stay within twenty yards of me or they will explode, thanks to the miracle of modern technology.” Allan said. “That and their own Goddess has given their lives to me, to determine how they live. But before that, Hilx’Nit, I need you to broadcast something across the planet, and send it to the core worlds please.” 

Hilx’Nit nodded, hearing something in Allan’s voice that told him that Allan had something far more devious than anything the core worlds would do in mind. A gish soldier ran up with a small spherical camera and held it in place pointing at the Quillinar. 

“Now as we talked about on the way here.” Allan said. The Quillinar said their names and condemned everything the council had done. They talked at length about the things that they had done in the name of their goals, recounting with detail the abhorrent actions that the council had condoned. They apologized profusely and begged the Quillinar people to live accepting lives and treat each other with respect.

“How did you do this?” Eddy asked, quietly as they continued their diatribe and apologies. 

“There were nearly forty when I first found them.” Allan said, and Eddy nodded, not pressing further details.

When they had finished. Allan stepped up. “Elunitra, the Goddess of the Quillinar people, stopped me from killing these…things, outright. In return, I get to choose how they live out the rest of their lives. So I will now dictate these terms. Firstly be it by the removal of their tongues or surgery they will have their ability to speak removed so that they may not espouse any more of their hateful ideologies. They will not be permitted jobs, so that they must live only due to the goodwill of others, just as the Quillinar they persecuted had to do for so long. They will be given a task, to build a monument, promoting the ideas and ideologies that they have lived to oppose. And lastly, they will be rendered sterile.”

Allan paused and let what he had said sink in. “The purpose of all of this is to do one thing, to ensure that they watch the world that they tried to change grow and prosper without their influence into something beautiful, that maybe. Just maybe, they will see what it is that was wrong with what they believed. If these terms are unacceptable I can just execute you now.” Allan looked at the council members who had all fallen to their knees, and not a single one raised a voice in protest. 

Allan looked back into the camera. “I understand that there will always be those who think differently and want things to change. My own race has been through this, and we fought wars the likes of which I get the feeling that the Galaxy has never seen, it still exists. That is where the rest of the Quillinar comes in. If you see something that you disagree with, it is up to you, as a people, as a society, to put a stop to it. The Council of Purity,” he spat the name out as if he had just put feces into his mouth, “should never have become the problem that it is. It is only because good people, good Quillinar, let evil flourish.” 

He stepped away and the Gish stopped recording. “Now the choice is yours,” he turned back to the council members, “surgery to remove your vocal cords, of I will cut your tongue from your head.” 

“You can’t do this!” One of the council members said.

“Yes, he can.” Eddy said stepping up, and Mack and several others stepped up. 

Eleven of the nineteen volunteered for surgery. Allan, Eddy, Mack, and the others who had stepped up made short work of seven others, the last one ran, and when he reached the twenty-yard mark, exploded violently. “Well, that is that.” 

“Would you like me to perform the surgery for the others?” Doc asked.

“Only if you want to Doc.” Allan said.

“I despise what they represent, and frankly I am surprised they are not all dead, so I will happily do this.” Yilvar said, and lead the remaining council members onto the Bastion of Law after Allan deactivated the bombs.

“Yilkie!” Allan shouted looking for the man, who stepped out of the crowd. “Ah, there you are, I’m glad to see you are okay. I need you to find an artist and have them design a statue like I just described.” Yilkie said that he would do it as soon as everything returned to normal, and Allan nodded.

—--------

They ended up spending another two weeks on the Quillinar homeworld. The council members were taken into custody by the Bastion of Law prior to their surgery, and they questioned them at length, that and the data they retrieved from the remote access tool Allan had placed, were enough to warrant a full force search for the remaining sects of the Council of Purity. 

Allan, Aly, Jalla, Tillia, and the other humans spent the two weeks helping the locals where they could, and relaxing when they werent removing the traps they had laid in, or burying the bodies of the dead they had slaughtered. When it was over the council members were released, sans vocal cords, and the local population took in the women and children that had been in confinement. 

“Alright,” Allan said after watching the Bastion of Law lift off with some prisoners in their hold, “it’s our turn, let’s get everyone home.” They lifted off, entered orbit, and made their way to the Jumpgate to wait for it to charge enough to jump them back to Earth.