Jessica13 shook her head. "I wouldn't have thought humans were capable of that, but yes, I suppose I can’t really ignore the fact that we have been guilty of such a thing in the past. I merely don't understand how."
"Do you think there would be anything that could cause you to set fire to an entire town?" Mini asked, still running his updating subroutines on the AI core.
"I…don't think so," she responded. "It would take some kind of trigger to elicit this kind of reaction from me, I think, but even then, something that draws out an extremely violent response would be limited to the person or persons responsible for that. Not an entire town."
"I do not think you are capable of this kind of mass destruction," he replied. "Which is interesting as it would suggest there is a psychological discrepancy between those who can and those who can’t, which cannot be identified until the action is perpetuated. In every case in history I have been able to find, the perpetrator always felt his or her actions were warranted in some way. Forms of zealotry, religious or otherwise, appear to manifest in actions that are believed to save more lives in what is ambiguously termed ‘for the greater good.’ In the end, however, the assumption is that such actions would never be considered by those who are incapable of them, while those who are regard themselves as willing to make the 'difficult choices.’"
It was an interesting thought and one Jessica13 both loathed and yet felt drawn to somehow. It was because of those types of people that the world had ended all those years before. Humans and invaders alike saw mass killing as a viable option for some reason, and that reasoning had been perpetuated in the world that survived.
Hammerhand appeared to think Athena was a threat to humanity as a whole and she could now see why he thought that. If she was willing to burn an entire town for no reason other than to lure her enemies into a trap, what would stop her from destroying something larger and killing even more people? How much of a reason would she need for that?
As they approached the source of the flames, things oddly became a little clearer around them as the heat from the fire forced the smoke upward so everything at ground level was more visible. The heat could be felt in her mech already and beads of sweat trickled down the ridge of her spine.
Her growing discomfort, however, lost relevance like a nagging noise she pushed to the back of her mind. It all felt so unimportant compared to the sight in front of her.
The town they looked at was almost as large as Auburn. It might have been a little smaller but the fire made it seem much larger, especially as the trees and the underbrush on the outskirts burned as well and contributed to the blaze.
Almost all the buildings were alight and the wind pushed the flames rapidly beyond to the outer reaches. It would soon reach the hills behind it, driven to consume anything in its path if the wind picked up or the blaze wasn’t extinguished.
"Fucking hellion bitch," Windchime muttered under his breath and sounded cold and angry at what he saw.
Jessica13 realized that she shared his rage. It was hard not to as they stared at the kind of destruction they confronted.
There were a few indicators in Mini's AI core that suggested he might be dealing with something similar. For a brief moment, she was impressed as she hadn't thought he was capable of that kind of emotion.
It was short-lived, however, as her mind was otherwise occupied. She would bring it up with the AI another time.
"It is a message," Hammerhand said through their comms. "Athena has found out what we've done for Auburn and she doesn't like it. More importantly, she cannot bear that kind of challenge to her authority. She wants to make sure the other people in her little domain know that any rebellion against her power will be thoroughly punished. The flames will be seen for hundreds of klicks, a clear warning sign to all who would dare to challenge her authority."
"And an effective one as well," Windchime pointed out. "It is also one she has used before. It would seem she enjoys the act of killing these people and destroying them but manages to contain herself until she finds a reason to unleash the beast she keeps so poorly hidden inside."
"We could contemplate the darkness Athena has inside her from now until the heavens collapse and the Invaders return, but I feel our efforts would be better focused on scouring the town below and finding any who might need our help," their leader said. It was disguised as a suggestion, but she knew better than to assume it was anything but an order. The group seemed to share her opinion and headed into the settlement.
The priority had been made very clear—find any survivors and get them clear of the burning buildings. The unspoken idea was to find any useful salvage to take back to the Beast, but that held a very distant second priority in her mind. It seemed that for the present, the enemy forces had retreated beyond the burning town. There was certainly no indication of their presence and no resistance was offered, but the Knights moved warily with
