Deicide the God Eater
The Twenty-Fourth Chapter

Long ago a man set out to replaceGod, but God was not in the church, nor any of the divine nooks of the universeone would expect.

Fawn stirredin her bed, and found Secant next to her, adrift in a coma like sleep. She sat up and flipped on the news, listenedto reports of a major personnel shortage on the Nazareth, a fact she already knew. With no ground forces to oppose theDeathless, the Aeolipile continued on its business of swallowing every particlein the universe for Deicide’s mad scheme. The strange vestige that had emerged from the dead umbilical plug on herback squirmed under the covers. NowFawn’s body and the parasite had grown accustomed to each other. In the beginning, Fawn had to consumeenormous amounts of food to appease this guest, though later a chemicalsubstitute had been developed to sate the creature’s intense hunger, but thisdid nothing to stop the strange cravings Fawn herself was feeling. She oddly found herself wondering about theconsequences surrounding cannibalism. Secantsquirmed and latched onto Fawn’s waist, rubbing his stubble against her back,moaning at the sound of the news report.

“What arethey going to do about this?” Fawn said.

“No oneknows. Genocide hasn’t been sober sinceit happened,” Secant said.

“I wouldn’tbe either if something ate my kin,” Fawn said. Secant rolled over and sat up in bed.

“Most peoplewant to give up,” Secant said.

“They can’t,not now. What home world would they haveto go back too?” Fawn said.

“Many havealready lost their homes, they’re just tired of fighting,” Secant said. “Besides if Deicide is right, it won’t matteranyway.”

“I hardlyknow what to believe anymore. I justcan’t let him win,” Fawn said.

“You reallydon’t want to spend your final moments in battle, do you?” Secant said

“Arbaroniansdon’t know what it’s like not to be in a war,” Fawn said.

“We can’tall be like you and Alpha. Homosoliums have some good ideas about some type of mediation. Perhaps he can be reasoned with,” Secantsaid.

“Homosoliums are only a few notches higherthan Deicide,” Fawn said.

“I’m Homosolium,” Secant said.

Fawn squeezed Secant’s cheekstogether. “I never said there weren’texceptions,” Fawn said.

Now when Fawn walked through the halls ofthe Nazareth she saw the looks of despair on the faces of the people, peoplewho looked to her for hope, sadly she could give them none. Ecocide had been the strongest person onboardand she had been swallowed up by the Abyss as if she were a pebble thrown intothe sun. Fawn had heard rumors that shewas to dethrone Genocide and take over as Captain; only part of it seemed likea good idea. Genocide was constantly ahair away from murderous rage, her assistants no longer bothered to wake her upfor Quarters. Even if she did show, shewas drunk, yet she was one of the few who had the courage to stand up againstDeicide, her last wish in this life was to pull the man’s heart out through histhroat.

Fawn popped her head in their usual meetingroom; already officials were here, crestfallen, spinning their mugs betweentheir nervous hands, shuffling useless notes. She wondered why she even bothered to show. As she slid to her seat she was joined by heraunt Cari, before Genocide barreled into the room. She sat down hard and cracked her knuckles,the woman stunk of booze, but so did a few others. When Secant and a few more had arrived, theybegan, tossing aside the usual motions and jumped straight into the main issueat hand.

“What the fuck are we gonna do?” Genocidesaid, so slouched in her chair, she looked as if she was about to slip off itsedge.

“R&D’s working on a cannon delivery fora sizable Negation shell,” someone said.

“We’ll never be able to fire it fastenough,” Cari said.

“She’s right. The Aeolipile’s increased itsefficiency. They’re in and out before wecould ever get ready to engage,” Secant said

“Not that we have anyone to engage with,” Carisaid.

“Maybe we should look for some kind oftruce,” someone said; everyone’s eyes found their way to the man that had saidit, his eyes promptly found the floor.

“Who would agree to it? I know I wouldn’t. I would kill the fucker the very first timehe popped his head up,” Genocide said.

“We could just focus on recruiting,” anothersaid.

“It’s no good if they won’t fight. Only a few, other than those in this room,are willing to pick up a gun. Besideswhen’s the last time we’ve found planets with anyone on them?” Fawn said.

The meeting broke off with thatrevelation. Fawn wandered about the shipuntil she came to the gun range. Flechette, a regular, was here with her new rifle, the Penny Red. Lechwe was lying next to her on the hill shewas sniping from. Fawn crept up behindthem both and lay on her side. Shewatched as Flechette went through her preliminary maintenance before firing,years of monotonous checks had done nothing to degrade her firearm responsibilities. As she assembled the weapon Fawn noticed thatthe zeros in the serial number were crossed, which told her the weapon was fromthe company her parents worked for. ThePenny Red had not been cleared for mass production before their lab had beendestroyed and this was one of the few that were sent off site for real worldtrials.

For some time she remained still, sayingnothing, desperately trying to think of a way to get at the Aeolipile, but hermind could grasp nothing. The Nazarethwas full of civilians, people they needed to protect; engineers, cooks,teachers, everyone was doing their part, but she was unable to do hers. She was unsure if she had it in her to leadagain, her aunt Cari had tried to goad her into taking the crown from Genocide,but Fawn did not want that fight just yet. She wondered why a ship that opposed Deicide and the culture he hadcreated would promote such an eater’s way of thinking. Fawn hardly ever agreed with her superiors,but they had rank for a reason, how could any army run if their leaders werekilled off every few months?

“What are we doing?” Fawn said; her armswere crossed behind her head as she lay on her back. Then she adjusted the volume of her antlers,just before Flechette fired a round. Thevibrations created from an E.P. Rifle rattled the women’s chest cavities. Fawn could never figure out physically whatit was about snipers which made them so apt to handle the large weapons. Like a machine the dark-haired women removeda casing from the weapon and replaced it with another shell.

“Huh?” Lechwe said.

“I mean what are we doing here? We’re useless now, we were uselessbefore. We might as well sit and waitfor them to come get us,” Fawn said.

“Don’t start talking like that again,” Lechwesaid. Flechette fired another round.

“I met the woman that killed Chital. They take lives on a whim,” Fawn said.

“So do we,” Flechette said.

“Yeah, because they’re taking our homes,our culture. They kill because theycan. They’re monsters,” Lechwesaid. Fawn nodded.

“You two hate your enemy, and youshouldn’t. Our enemies explain all of usto ourselves. They test our weapons,sharpen our skills, because of them, we ensure that the next generation isstronger,” Flechette said.

“What the fuck, Flech. You sound like you wanna to send them a loveletter,” Lechwe said.

“I do,” Flechette said. “With this,” she said, firing another shot.