Interlude: Going Home

“Take that suckers!” was the last thing that the poor soul in front of me heard before a storm of razor sharp shrapnel tore him to shreds. “Take that suckers!”, the final release of my pent up anger after countless days of hunger and torture by the very people now dashing for cover right in front of me. But to no avail, they where within my reach, my rifle spewing death wherever I pointed it, vengeance wherever one of them hit the floor screaming in agony before screamig no more.

Somehow I had made it, I escaped where so many of my friends before me had failed and paid the prize, so horrible even the thought of it made me almost vomit, but there was nothing to vomit left inside of me, only rage, and so I pressed the trigger again, and again…

They had ripped me out of my home, out of my wive’s arms, away from my child’s bed, my terrified daughters screams echo in me ears even louder than the sound of my rifle, even now, as I make them pay, as I’m on my way back home….

Enemy of the state they had said, sentenced for penal duty their verdict, torture is what it was, nothing more, no duty, only suffering, stuck in a machine for days. My arms bent backwards, my head inside of the machine, force feed, both propaganda and proteine, both equally foul and intolerable.

But they had been sloppy, thinking me broken after all those days of torture, weakened and about to collapse they had left me in that room, went for lunch or to do whatever those vile creatures did whenever they grew tired of torturing innocent citizens like me. I broke free, my head bleeding as I pulled it out of the machine, the needles stuck in my skull breaking with every pull to freedom, the pain too much to stay sane, but not enough to stay.

One of my wrists almost snapped as I wrung it out through the metal shackle, and I ducked, fearing for the noise to call my tormentors back, just like the poor creature in front of me now ducks in hope of escaping my justice, but only one of us got lucky, and so I ran, out of the room, hid in one of their supply trucks, behind the big crates inside of it.

I don’t know how long I waited, in pain, covered in blood, shaking all over, with nothing but home and my family in my mind to keep me sane, or what was left of it. And then, the noise of an engine starting, a gate opening, and the fresh breeze of freedom coming through the cracks, of the town I grew up in for so long, greeting me back into its arms with the noise of the streets, and the noise of an Imperial Service Patrole.

Confused and enraged I reached for the gun in front of me, quickly covering the entrance of the transporter’s cargo area, of my sanctuary, where had the noise come from? Where had the gun come from? Had it always been there? It didn’t matter. The noise stopped and so did the Transporter, and no sooner did it, than the ramp of the Transporter suddenly opened up, and I could hear footsteps running away from it.

Had the bearer of those feet seen me? Was he calling for his friends to torture me again? No! Not again! I dashed out of the Transporter, through the dark street in front of me, crusted blood and tears making me almost blind, until I reached the corner, and there they where, the monsters that had tortured me, all of them, just as surprised to see me, as I was to see them all. They didn’t have time to aim their weapons.

And so here I am, on my way home, once I’m done with those that tormented me, on my way to my wives arms, once I take out the one that’s aiming his pistol at me, does he think he can stop me? A bullet to my arm, laughable, soon they will hold my daughter again, what is a little pain compared to that? One in my chest, it burns, but not as hot as the rage inside of me, as the longing for my loved ones. I scream, as I fall to my knees, as I release all the emotions in my heart to burn those monsters away, I scream the names of the loved ones I’ll hopefully meet again soon…..I scream…“Yu Jing!” and then I meet them again…..


A loud Explosion marked the end of the Kuang Shi that had just stumbled around the corner in front of us, clearing the way for our advance. In awe and terror I mutter to myself “Damn, sometimes I wonder what they see as they march to pay for their crimes…this one almost seemed eager to die…”

“Maybe one day you’ll find out for yourself…” came the unexpected answer of Sheng Ji, the Kuang Shi Controller of my Force, as she commanded yet another one of those poor souls around the corner, a smirk on her face. I turn my head away as a cold shiver runs down my spine….