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First, there’s nothing. A dark void between worlds that has eaten away all life and light. It sleeps in this void, unaware of everything else. The void protects it and nurtures it, at least for a time. Though no love or light exists in this space, neither does the darkness. The darkness and its horrors can not reach it here. Here, it is all that exists.
An explosion pierces through the endless nothingness, dispelling it away completely.
It opens its eyes. It’s sitting in the cockpit of a mech now. A strange, unfamiliar sight. It has never seen the interior of a mech before, and yet somehow, it knew. It knew that this was somehow the interior of one of those titanic war machines. It wouldn’t know anything about any of the gauges and instruments in front of it, nor anything about the numbers on the various readouts. And yet…none of that mattered. It knew it belonged here somehow. The controls feel completely natural in its hands. Controlling the metal behemoth it was sitting in was the most perfectly natural thing in the world.
On the viewscreens in front of it, it sees the ruined streets of a city torn apart by war. Buildings cracked and torn asunder flank it on both sides. In the distance, explosions and gunfire pierce through the smoke and ash that clog the air. The city burns in front of it as does the fog in its head; filling in the blanks left by the void it once resided in.
It is C780, a mech pilot. Its past remains a mystery, but it knows that it’s on a mission. Why else would it be piloting here, in an active warzone? It was….
It was a part of a force sent in to… “purify” the city. There were dangerous elements hiding in the city, and they needed to be eliminated for the good of all. At least….that’s what it was told. While the others were elsewhere in the city, it was ordered to take a path down the streets to a different objective.
A beep from one of the control panels signaled that it was finally there. As C780 brought the metal giant to a stop within the intersection, a silence came over the area. The fighting seemed to have halted, at least for now. It turned to look around the location it found itself in. As this mission had progressed, nothing it had seen of this city had ever meant anything to it. C780 had never heard of this city. None of those places it had passed had brought forth even a spark of recognition. It was just another city, yet another one caught up in the fighting.
And yet, here at its objective, pangs of recollection came to it as it examined the buildings that were now surrounding it. Generic as they were, they reminded it of home. The home it once lived in a lifetime ago. Looking at a nearby building, it saw a restaurant on the ground floor. It reminded it of the diner it used to visit. It always visited there whenever it could to order its favorite meal…
Looking down the street, it saw apartment buildings, stores, a police station, and other municipal buildings. It had never been here before, and yet…it reminded C780 too much of home. Its head began to ache with recollection of a life that wasn’t its own anymore. A sickening pit formed in its stomach at the thought of its home being caught up in the war.
Suddenly, a crackle comes over the radio. From far away, a calm, firm, familiar, angelic voice begins to speak. Her.
“Have you reached the destination, C780?”
Despite the unease growing within, it was becoming soothed by Her wonderful voice. With its own heart calmed well enough, it quickly responded with its own gruff voice.
“Yes, Sir. I’ve just arrived.”
“Good. Lay waste to the surrounding area. Those dangerous animals are hiding within all those buildings. Leave nothing standing. Leave no survivors.”
“Yes Sir.”
The radio goes silent. With Her commandments ringing in its heart, C780’s hands automatically move to power up its weapons. On the viewscreen, it sees people begin to emerge from the buildings. Some are moving to run, while others were kneeling in front of it, pleading to C780’s metal titan for mercy. These tiny beings and their begging mean nothing to it. She had already decreed that they were dangerous animals that could not be allowed to live, and C780 couldn’t even imagine not following Her commands. Still, that sickening pit in its stomach continued to grow. It couldn’t help but see people from its past in these poor animals, people it once knew. Friends, neighbors, family. It didn’t want to pull the trigger.
The radio crackles to life once more.
“Go on, C780. Fire.”
What it wanted didn’t matter anymore. Without a second thought, it pulled the trigger. The dying screams of those animals echo in its ears, and it falls from consciousness once more…
C780 once again awakens from nothingness. It takes but a moment for it to recognize where it is. No longer within the cockpit of its mech, the pilot has found itself on its knees in a dark, dingy concrete hallway, one of many in the Kennels that it called home. Standing before it is a figure wearing a black leather outfit. The figure stomps on the ground with its boot; the click of the heel brings the pilot out of its stupor.
“C780. Are you even listening?!”
C780 looks up at the figure’s face, and immediately recognized them. It knew that it had made a grave error. It was Her. Her name was once known to it, once upon a time, but after so long, it has forgotten it completely. Even Her face was unrecognizable to it now; much of Her face and features were replaced by the swirling cosmic sea. A shining beacon of starlight looking down upon a stupid mutt. C780 fell to the ground, prostrating itself before its Goddess, a simple act to demonstrate its plea for forgiveness for not listening to Her. It expected Her wrath, unleashing divine punishment upon it for its mistake. Instead, the stars smiled down upon it.
“Oh, my pet…there’s no need for that. Sit up. Look at me.”
Following Her commands, it jolts up from the ground. The now-upright C780 looks upon Her face once more. Looking upon that smiling face stirs some semblance of recollection of Her. It knew Her once before, a lifetime ago. It knew Her as a truly cruel, vile woman. It knew what She had done, and yet, it couldn’t do anything. It hated Her. It wants to rip Her throat out, but such a thing would be difficult with the muzzle strapped tightly on its face. It could only bring itself to attempt to stare daggers at Her. She laughs softly to Herself before placing Her hand on C780’s head, knocking it out of all previous thoughts with a single pat.
“There’s no need for that, my dear. You’ve done such a good job with your mission. I’m pleased. You’re such a good dog, C780.”
With a few words, all of its hatred fades away. She loved C780, and it loved Her. Reality seemed to have reasserted itself, and it finally remembered the truth: C780 was Her most treasured pet, an animal that She had generously graced with Her favor, above all the other animals. It would do anything for Her. After all, She was Handler. There was nothing and no one greater than Her. It smiled stupidly. Nothing else mattered. Nothing else was greater than this. Except for…
“I do believe you’re deserving of a reward, but before that, I have one last task for you. It’s a simple one. Complete this last thing for me, and I’ll give you the reward you crave so very much. Now come, follow me.”
A reward! Something much greater than a treat! Eagerly, C780 nods and stands up. Handler turns and begins walking down the hallway, with C780 following close behind Her. The walk seems to last forever, the hallway twisting and turning in impossible ways, as if Handler’s mere presence was affecting reality. It felt like an eternity; it only lasted a minute.
Handler stops before a door leading into one of the many cells that the Kennels contained. C780 stops beside Her. She turns to Her pet.
“Within this cell is a vile, evil, dangerous rebel animal. I’ve tried so very hard to help it, but there’s no hope for this one. So instead, I want you to perform one last mercy for it. Put it out of its misery.”
From Her black leather coat, She takes out a gun. A revolver. She hands it to C780, who looks at it in fear and awe. The gun is heavy in its hands. It’s a terrifying responsibility that She has given it, and yet, it accepts it eagerly. It’s a good dog for Her, and it wants its reward. Handler smiles.
“Good dog. You’re my favorite, you know that? That’s why I’ll be helping you with this. Just a little bit. C780, off the leash.”
In an instant, C780 feels death. Its mind cracks and crumbles. It feels itself falling into a state of oblivion that only Handler could create. It’s a nothingness that feels much more comforting than anything else it had ever experienced before. It falls into the darkness, and Hound comes out to take its place. Handler opens the door, and without a word, Hound steps into the cell to face the rabid beast within.
Inside, the dim light of the hallway behind Hound allows it to see its occupant: a lone, terrified woman, chained to the wall.
In an instant, Hound stops, and C780 awakens from the dark oblivion she was sent to rest in. Terror grips her as, in an instant, she recognizes exactly who this woman was. It was her wife, from so long ago. From before all of this. From before Handler. She freezes. No. No no no no. Not her. Anyone but her. She stands frozen in terror as the woman speaks up, pleading to her former lover to help her, to set her free. C780 begins to turn around and shouts to Handler.
“Please, no, Sir! I…I can’t do it! Anyone but her! Please!”
As soon as she finishes turning around, C780 is struck with another new horror. Behind her is herself: a shabby, hairy woman in a very worn-in, disheveled suit covered by a tattered tan raincoat. Covering the five o’clock shadow on her face and dead-eyed expression is a metal wire muzzle. Behind the doppelganger, Handler simply smiles as She stands back and watches the scene play out. Neither of them had seemed to have heard C780’s pleas. The pilot rushes her dead-eyed duplicate, but as she goes to grab it, she finds no purchase: her hands simply go right through it. She tries again and again, trying to fight back, to protect her captive wife from her copy.
Nothing happens. It’s as if she’s an incorporeal ghost, watching helplessly as Handler’s puppet begins moving towards her wife with a blissful smile on its face. It moves up close to her crying wife, and sticks the revolver in its hands in her mouth. C780 screams, unable to stop anything as Handler takes a few steps forward, places Her hand on the Hound’s shoulder, and gives it a firm squeeze.
BANG!
The gun in Hound’s hand fires, and the back of her wife’s head explodes in blood and gore. Her body falls limp and crumbles to the ground, her fear frozen for all time on her blood covered face. C780 falls to the floor, horrified. The blood from her wife’s head flows out, creating a massive pool that engulfs the floor of the cell. Handler leans down and takes the gun away from her Hound, and removes its muzzle.
“Well done, Hound. Now, I give you your reward: eat up. Enjoy yourself!”
Without wasting a single moment, Hound sinks its teeth into the wife’s corpse, and begins biting. It tears out large chunks of flesh, and eats them.
C780 can only scream at this sight, as Handler’s cruel laughter fills the cell…
She jolts upright, screaming. Something else grabs her, trying to steady her. Her heart is beating a million miles an hour, and the panic of what she just saw is fresh in her mind. She frantically looks around and tries to remember where she is, who she is. After a minute, the detective finally calms herself enough to return to her senses.
Her name is Columbo. She’s a homicide detective from the Imperial Capital City, and she’s been happily married for many years. Due to some strange twist of fate, she’s found herself visiting the military base Fort Arvon as part of a government exchange program. And now she’s been coming face to face with some of the worst horrors she’s ever seen in her life.
She rubs her aching head. After a long, horrible, terrifying night, she tried to catch a short nap, and instead got some of the most horrific, vivid nightmares ever. Maybe there was something bad about the coffee she drank earlier? Then again…
“Miss Columbo? Are you alright? You were screaming a lot.”
Ah. Way too late, Columbo finally recognizes the worried figure standing next to her: Dog. One of those rebel pilots that Cassidy had held prisoner here and subjected to horrific torture and brainwashing. For some godforsaken reason, Cassidy had assigned Dog to her.
“Yeah…yeah. I’m alright. Sorry about that. I just…had a pretty bad nightmare. I’m fine now though. Sorry to worry you.”
Dog smiles at her, now without a single care in the world. God. It saddened Columbo to think of what’s been happening to Dog and all the others down in that dungeon. For a moment, She thinks of that handler, Cassidy, and her “pet”, rebel hero Jenna Colby, and shudders. The detective looks at Dog. She was a prisoner, sure. Captured for being a rebel, most likely. But this? All this? She didn’t deserve any of this horror show. None of these “hounds” did.
Columbo leans over and grabs Dog in a great big hug. The brainwashed rebel is surprised for a moment, then returns the hug.
In that moment, the detective makes a promise to herself: she’ll try her damnedest to save Dog from this nightmare, somehow. She wanted to save all of them, all those lost and damned under Cassidy’s program, but really, she was just one lone detective, in way over her head. The best she could hope to do, the absolute most she could hope to do, was to do whatever she could for Dog. Maybe, just maybe, she can save her somehow. She had to.
“Miss Columbo? It’s almost time for the service. You need to get properly dressed.”
Columbo checks her watch. 9:30.
“Shoot, is that the time? You’re right. I need to get some nicer clothes on. You’re already cleaned up, right?”
“Yes ma’am. All clean.”
The detective nods, gets up off the couch she was using as her bed, and heads to the dresser. After a few minutes of sorting through her clothes, she’s left disappointed.
“Damn. I really thought I packed something a bit nicer than my usual work outfits, but I guess not. My wife kept telling me I had to take something a bit nicer for this visit. I didn't think it was necessary. Should’ve listened to her.”
“Miss Columbo, what about your uniform?”
Dog pointed a finger to the haphazard pile of black leather clothing that the detective had discarded there from the night before. Columbo sighs. She really didn’t want to have to wear any of that wretched outfit ever again, but it seemed like she didn’t have any choice if she wanted to give a good impression to the current base commander in her time of grief.
Well, time to get this over with, she supposes.