[ WP ] Our cause is righteous and just . We will not falter

“ Our cause is righteous and just, we will not falter. ” The words did not seem so reassuring as the dropship shuddered its way free of the atmosphere. Galen looked around at the bleeding and broken men with whom he shared the passenger bay. There were about half as many of them as there had been the day before. He wondered if the other ships had suffered the same fate, or worse. It had taken the Paladins almost an hour of fighting to secure these few dropships, which had been in for repairs and barely flew. They also had to find people to fly them. There were a few civilian pilots in the group so that wasn ’ t too hard. They may have gotten this far in their plans but that meant little as to their success overall. The assault on the repair base had taken a heavier toll on the Paladins than most were willing to admit. Morale was at a low and Galen wondered if he was the only one having doubts. 
 
 Galen retreated into his thoughts if only to spare himself the sight of his wounded friends and the pain of those lost. He wondered if he himself would last much longer. Might there one day be a tombstone somewhere that read “ Here Lies Galen McKray – Friend, Brother, Insane Cultist and Extremist. ” Doubtful, he hadn ’ t exactly made an official announcement that he was off to join the Paladins of Cleansing Flame. He was not so blind as to think they weren ’ t crazy but no one else seemed concerned with all that was wrong in the small, corrupted, godless, near-lawless colony of Radom. The nickname “ Sodom ” was not without merit. Most of the decent people had already left to find a place where they could worry less about being robbed or killed ( or worse ) in the street in broad daylight. Knowing that made Galen feel less guilty about what they set out to do. 
 
 The dropship slowed as it made its final approach to its destination. All of those months of planning had finally paid off. Some people were paid, some were “ coerced, ” some convinced, and some simply disappeared. All of this added up to a rash of hardware problems with the communications equipment on the repair base. As far as the ships in orbit and planetary defenses were concerned, the dropships had left the base for some training flights and to test the repairs. Oh, how they were wrong. They never suspected what might actually be going on inside those small craft, or how large their impact would be. They would soon find out. Everyone would hear the news. 
 
 Every possible variable had been planned out. Hundreds of people were involved, even if they didn ’ t know it. Arguably most important was the work of a graduate student from the Inner Colonies who wrote a thesis on the geological instability of Radom ’ s moon. The Paladins now planned to make the most of this information, and hope the kid was as good a cartographer as he was a student. The Cleansing Flame the Paladins spoke so highly of would come in the form of a shower of shrapnel from the shattered moon burning up on reentry and destroying all below. All of the crime, corruption, and general vileness of Radom would be turned to ash, a monument showing the consequences of evil. A gleaming warning to others who would stray from their path. 
 
 The surface of the moon suddenly went from being an uninhabited waste to a waste with a population of about 80. The plan went into motion. The dropships were not the only things that had gone missing from Radom lately. There was also an almost noticeable lack of mining equipment, spaceworthy food containers, O2 tanks, cutting and welding equipment, firearms, and computers capable of accessing the guidance systems of the planetary defenses. Galen wondered if someday someone would appreciate the irony of “ making the villainous fall upon their own swords ” as the more devout liked to describe it. 
 
 One by one the teams called in that their “ passengers ” had arrived safely. Everyone piled back into the ships and sped off toward their next objective. Gaining control of a military ship with which to fan the flames in other systems was a secondary objective, but it was all they could do with their lives once the Spark was struck. In the next thousand years, there wouldn ’ t be a single soul who didn ’ t know who they were or what they had done. Most would not understand that it was necessary for the betterment of Humanity as a whole, much like how Galen doubted it now. Setting tens of millions of people aflame did not seem like a righteous act, even if they were evil, but he didn ’ t make the rules. Concerns over the morality of the plan or doubts that it were possible were always met with the same response, “ Our cause is righteous and just, we will not falter. ” 
 
 The plan for taking a ship was simple…if you were completely insane. Galen thought it relied a bit too much on the enemy ’ s skepticism, but that wasn ’ t his problem either. He was just there to shoot people who tried to resist their taking the ship. Galen had never shot anyone before, but some of the “ reformed ” who had joined the Paladins told him it was easy after you got over the nervousness the first time. He had mixed feelings about that advice. He tried to reassure himself that these people were just as bad as those on the surface and they would kill him just as easily as look at him. He was determined to shoot them first. They landed in the bay of the cruiser just as the orbital guns began to light up… 
 
 Galen couldn ’ t help but stare in awe, involuntarily mimicking the sound he imagined the guns making even though there was no sound in the vacuum. The streaks from the guns tore across the void and into the pale ball around the planet, setting in motion a set of events that could never be undone and would go down in history as either the best or worst thing they had ever done. The moon shattered into several large shards surrounded by dust. In a few hours, days maybe, that dust would circle the planet like water in a drain until finally crashing into the planet itself. The days of “ Sodom Colony ” would be done. 
 
 The shock tactics must have worked because it took several minutes for the soldiers aboard the ship to notice that a large group of armed and uniformed individuals had been running through the ship tying people up, locking doors, and disarming people while their eyes remained glued to the displays showing live reports of the events. When they finally did notice it was too late to put up any meaningful resistance. Those few who did were quickly put down. The entire crew and garrison were soon thrown into escape pods and jettisoned for the other ships to deal with. They would surely notice them when their ships systems came back online. 
 
 Letting the crew go had been Galen ’ s idea. The original plan was to either kill them all or use them as hostages. Galen convinced enough people that mindless killing of the families aboard would be needless bloodshed and there weren ’ t enough supplies aboard to support everyone for a long period of time, so they let them go. He felt slightly better knowing that he had saved a few lives, in spite of all that he had been involved in. “ Our cause is righteous and just, we will not falter. ” Galen had grown tired of that excuse. He had never felt less righteous or just in his life. He would have to find a way to live with what he had done, the Paladins would n't let him live any other way.
