Reason for Motives
A short story written by Tom Foster
The world of Tengon used to be a glorious, worldwide stretch of snow and ice all beautifully carved and constructed to make a winter wonderland. Ice villages and ice cities dominated the landscape and the Tengonians all lived in harmony for a long time. Tengonians looked like people only they were dark blue in colour (presumably because of how cold it is on the planet) and they could thrive without problems in Tengon’s ice cold landscape and weather. They were a civil race, not once ever going to war with each other and were far more respectful of one another than even us humans. Unfortunately, their lives ended when an alien race invaded their planet and took everything away from them. That race was the devious, dastardly, demonic, devilish Devatron race. The Devatrons were a race of invulnerable robots originating from the planet Devaron, a worldwide robotic city. It was almost impossible to hurt them and even more difficult to so much as kill them due to their impenetrable armour. Most attacks would bounce off harmlessly or they would get stricken and just shrug the attack off as if it was nothing. The Devatrons were successful planet conquerors and Tengon was their very first planet they invaded. This story will show you an event that took place during the Devatron attack of Tengon. Traditional Devatrons looked like humanoid robots with a pair of horns on the side of their heads, muzzle-like structures in place of a mouth with sharp fangs protruding from the sides, twin cannons on their backs, spiked shoulders, three clawed hands with two clawed thumbs, a V-shaped visor with a singular holographic eye and reptilian pupil, three clawed feet and every Devatron was coated in an invulnerable chrome armour that shined like the stars in bright light. The Devatrons were led by a Devatron named Devion.
If you looked up the words “sadistic”, “heartless”, “devilish”, “evil” and “monstrous” you would find a picture of him under those words. Devion was different looking to the standard foot soldiers of the Devatron army. Devion had the same arms and visor and armour as a Devatron soldier but that’s where the similarities end. Devion’s head was vaguely emerald shaped with four horns, two on the top of his head and two from the side, a sharp pointed beak in place of a mouth, a backpack like structure with two bull-shaped horns protruding from the top and chicken-walker legs with spiked feet. He wore a ragged, navy blue shoulder cape on his right shoulder. The cape belonged to the leader of the Tengonians and Devion took it for himself after killing him as he thought it looked good in him. It was thanks to Devion’s keen intelligence, amazing strategic abilities, brutal ways and battle skills that the Devatrons excelled in anything. Devion was unmatched by any being in the universe and the poor Tengonians knew it whenever they tried to battle him. After the Devatrons first landed, the Tengonian leader was killed, the army was slaughtered and villages and cites were pillaged and destroyed, reduced to nothing but huge chunks of ice that the Devatrons took for themselves to mine into fuel. The flagship of Devion’s sinister fleet was a huge, monstrous, malevolent beast of a battleship named The DoomBringer.
The DoomBringer was armed to the teeth with weapons and it was made of chrome like the Devatrons themselves. Its jet engines were top class, its speed was unmatched, its firepower was unmatched and its size was enough to make anyone nervous. The ship was like a home to the Devatrons due to its facilities that matched those of their home planet and Devion was very proud of it. The DoomBringer had played a big part in their invasion and right now, it was containing a prisoner. Devion was going to pay this prisoner a visit so he went down to the prison chambers in the bottom floor of The DoomBringer. Devion pressed his hand against a device on the wall that was shaped like his hand and the prison door opened. There in the lonely little chamber, suspended off the floor by chains wrapped around her wrists was a female Tengonian.
She was a beautiful, slender bodied woman with light blue skin. She wore a long silk dress with no sleeves which had been torn around the midsection, revealing her slim belly. This was because Devatrons felt that prisoners with exposed skin were more fun to torture then a fully clothed victim. Devion knew this girl. It was the Duchess of Tengon and her name was Nyrrah. Nyrrah was the daughter of Tengon’s late ruler and it gave him great pleasure to have her in his possession. The helpless duchess struggled in her bonds but she had no hope for escape. She was stuck dangling off the floor by her arms and no one was here to help her. Devion entered the prison cell and walked up to the Duchess. Despite being raised off the floor by her arms, Devion was still taller then her. Devion was a tall creature and the Duchess was only a small woman. She was at about his eye height in her current position. Nyrrah gasped in fright and she stopped her pitiful struggling.
“P-p-please! Let me go!” she begged, breathing heavily and her heart pounding like mad “I can’t be of any use to you! I can’t help you with anything! I can’t…”
Devion grabbed the chained up woman’s face and silenced her pitiful begging. She continued breathing heavily. The Devatron leader clearly terrified her to the bone.
“Save your pleas for someone who knows what the word “sympathy” means.” purred Devion dryly.
His voice was deep, dark and chilling and it presented a haunting echo when in an empty room like this. Devion’s voice was enough to get anyone scared, let alone his frightening appearance.
“Now Duchess of Tengon, I have a simple request that’ll save your kind the pain of grieving.” he added with an emotionless tone to his voice.
“W-W-What r-r-request is th-that?” stammered Nyrrah.
“Order this planet to surrender itself to us and disband any resistance groups you foolish Tengonians have formed during our time on this planet.” said Devion “If you refuse then you shall never see the snow again.”
“Oh Devion please!” cried Nyrrah “I c-c-can’t do that! I’ll d-dishonour my father and all the hard work he put into ruling the planet and m-m-making it paradise for us! P-please try to understand this!”
“I do understand my child but what you don’t understand is that we harbour no care, compassion or sympathy for you blue-skinned cretins.” growled Devion “I could not care less about what your pathetic father put into this planet, it’s our world now and you will obey my orders. Now, swear to me that you’ll surrender the planet to us and disband the resistances or you will end up finding out what your own bleeding heart looks like when it ends up in my shiny metal claws!”
Nyrrah swallowed hard and she breathed even heavier. She shook her arms but again, her attempts were futile.
“I-I-I can’t! I-I simply can’t Devion!” wept Nyrrah “I can’t dishonour the people of Tengon! Please don’t make me d-d-do this!”
“Your refusal will only bring more harm then good Nyrrah.” said Devion coldly “Especially since I am beginning to lose my already short patience. Do as I command and you leave this room with your organs still inside your soft, fleshy body!”
“I can’t Devion! I won’t do it!” wailed Nyrrah “Since you don’t understand why I can’t do this, I won’t waste time explaining it to you! But one thing I don’t understand is why you are like this. Why are you planet conquering monsters? Why do you want to take away the freedom of extra-terrestrial beings everywhere? What harm have we ever done to you?”
Devion stared icily at Nyrrah, his V-shaped visor narrowing down to a very thin red slit of pure diabolical evil. He looked pretty annoyed to receive a question like this but since there was no reason why he shouldn’t answer, he answered her anyway.
“The reason we are like this, is because the galaxy brought it upon themselves.” Devion growled in a sinister, evil tone that heavily indicated his anger as past memories crept into his head “You see, hundreds of years ago, we used to be a peaceful race ourselves. We were invincible, invulnerable beings of pure strength and our purpose was to protect the galaxy. But it was quite clear that the galaxy didn’t want us because other races kept invading our planet and challenging us for strength, just to see if we were as invincible as we claimed. Foolish little heathens. At first, we saw it as fun but when more and more races began challenging us, it was not fun anymore, it was quite clear that nobody liked us and they wanted to replace us as the strongest race in the galaxy. When the Knights of Krococ came to our world that was when our peaceful lives ended. The leader before me, the great King Hardigm was killed by those savages and I vowed I would avenge him from this day forward. I took leadership as I was next line to the throne and I decided since the galaxy wants us dead, we will fight against the universe and see how they like it. I will not rest until every planet is conquered and remoulded into Devatron imagery. We Devatrons are the only ones worthy of life as we are strong, intelligent and we have more sense and logic then all the other fawns of the galaxy. Does this answer your question Duchess?”
“Yes it does.” said Nyrrah “But if you’re going to kill everybody else, that makes you no better than the ones who keep trying to kill you. You can’t just live a life of revenge and lust, that path will only lead you to death and destruction. Please Devion, reconsider your actions…”
“How dare you preach morality to me you vacuous little heathen?!” snarled Devion, slashing Nyrrah right across the stomach, leaving three nasty cuts across her tummy and making her grimace in pain “You Tengonians were one of the many races who challenged me and my race before Hardigm’s death so you cannot preach to me like this! Now Nyrrah, for the final time, order a worldwide surrender and swear fealty to me! I will not ask you again!”
“Devion, for the last time! I can’t!” screamed Nyrrah “Please, for the love of god, why can’t you get this in your head?!”
“There is no god my child.” snarled Devion “And you need to understand that we don’t care about what you want, you will surrender to us or perish like a planet that’s been stricken by a meteor!”
Nyrrah didn’t answer back this time. Instead she just remained silent and kept her lips sealed shut. Devion scowled at her and he turned his back on the chained up duchess.
“Very well, you’ve sealed your fate scum pile.” muttered Devion, pressing a button on the wall as he left the prison cell.
The button activated an electrical surge that was wired up to Nyrrah’s chains and the poor duchess was electrocuted. The door closed behind her, drowning out her pained screams of anguish. The electrical surge would keep up until either someone shut it off or when Nyrrah was finally dead and since no one was around to save her, her death was certain. As Devion stormed away from the prison chambers, he began to mutter to himself.
“Such a waste of valuable time, trying to get a foolish woman like her to crack.” he growled “Well, if I want someone to surrender the planet to me, I shall have to get a weaker royal to succumb to me. The duchess was too strong willed but her brother, the Duke of Tengon, is a whimpering coward of a ruler. He’ll crack like a spinal cord once I get my hands on him. And then Tengon will become my first ever planet I’ve conquered. The rest of the universe better look out because once I’m finished with this wasted iceberg of a world, I will be coming for them…”
He began to laugh hauntingly to himself as he walked down the corridors and headed for the bridge of The DoomBringer to give his next order. Devion may not have gotten what he wanted, but he was going to get what he wanted when he captured the Duke of Tengon and made him squeal to him…
The End
The Capture
A short story written by Tom Foster
After his failure to get Nyrrah, the Duchess of Tengon to succumb to him, Devion (pronounced dee-vee-on) the Devatron Leader decided to take another approach to his victory. He was going to capture the Duke of Tengon, Nyrrah’s brother and get him to crack instead. The Duke of Tengon was nowhere near as brave as his sister was so he would easily surrender the planet to him in a millisecond. Devion was standing in front of the cockpit window inside his ship The DoomBringer and gazing out into the horizon which was full of snow and ice, much like the planet itself. His evil mind was imagining the very scenery around him being full of Devatrons and snow was replaced by chrome and the ice villages were replaced by Devatron cities that stretched around the planet much like they did on the Devatron’s homer planet Deaveron.
“This planet is so close to forfeit and yet I still feel like I’ve got a long way to go before I can claim it as my first conquered planet.” Devion droned to himself in his deep, chilling voice “I have a duke to capture and the resistance is likely to be heavy. Not that it will matter to me as my armies are stronger and more intelligent than they are. But I do not want to just waltz in there and seize that stupid duke myself. Oh no, that would be too predictable. I will take the subtle approach, send someone they won’t expect to capture the duke and have that someone sneak into the palace, grab the duke and then be out before anyone can notice. But who shall I summon for this imperative task? Who has the skills to take on this mission?”
“I do!” growled a gravelly voice that Devion knew too well from behind him.
Devion turned around and saw that the voice came from another Devatron leader. He had been here the whole time and due to how silent he had been, Devion had forgotten he was there until now. This Devatron was named Raicor (pronounced rye-core) and he was the Devatron second in command.
Raicor was a formidable looking monster of a Devatron, even more so then Devion himself. He had horns that grew down the sides of his head and curved inwards and pointed at his torso, chicken walked legs, two sharp claws on each foot, a differently built torso with different details to Devion, spikes on the top of his head and a fierce looking mouth. His most distinguishing feature was that he was the ONLY Devatron in the entire fleet with wings. His wings were metallic silver and razor sharp around all edges and he could use them beautifully in flight and he could fly silently and stealthily. When not in flight, his wings drooped down and clipped together to make some kind of metallic cape that made him look more eerie in appearance. Raicor was one dangerous Devatron, so dangerous even Devion had to keep an eye on him at times. Devion’s visor narrowed at Raicor and the Devatron second in command spoke to him.
Raicor was a formidable looking monster of a Devatron, even more so then Devion himself. He had horns that grew down the sides of his head and curved inwards and pointed at his torso, chicken walked legs, two sharp claws on each foot, a differently built torso with different details to Devion, spikes on the top of his head and a fierce looking mouth. His most distinguishing feature was that he was the ONLY Devatron in the entire fleet with wings. His wings were metallic silver and razor sharp around all edges and he could use them beautifully in flight and he could fly silently and stealthily. When not in flight, his wings drooped down and clipped together to make some kind of metallic cape that made him look more eerie in appearance. Raicor was one dangerous Devatron, so dangerous even Devion had to keep an eye on him at times. Devion’s visor narrowed at Raicor and the Devatron second in command spoke to him.
“Allow me the honour of reliving the Tengonians of their duke and delivering him to you my lord.” said Raicor with a loyal bow down to his leader “I have the skills to carry out the task and no one will suspect my arrival as they’ve hardly been in contact with me.”
“I know that you are an excellent Devatron Raicor.” purred Devion “But are you really this well suited for a mission that relies heavily on subtlety? You aren’t exactly the most subtle Devatron in my army and your flying makes you rather conspicuous to unsuspecting victims as you’re the only Devatron who flies.”
“Devion my lord, I will accomplish this task of yours.” said Raicor “I can fly silently and I will fly behind the ice villages so no one will see me coming. I’ll then break into the palace, snatch the duke and be out of there before anyone can come in and stop me.”
Devion put a claw to his beak and thought for a moment. Raicor was little known amongst the Tengonians so he’d be the last Devatron they’d expect to kidnap the duke and Raicor was a quiet flier so maybe he could do this mission after all. Devion made his mind up and decided to grant Raicor’s wish.
“Very well Raicor, you will carry out the task of bringing me the Duke of Tengon.” said Devion darkly “But come back empty handed and you’ll end up finding out what you look like on the inside.”
“Yes Devion.” said Raicor “I shall not return until the duke is in my grasp. Thank you for granting me this task.”
With that said, Devion opened the cockpit window and Raicor jumped out of it. He fell down to the ground but before he could hit it, he deployed his wings and flew gracefully through the sky like a beautiful white swan. As Raicor silently flew through the sky and headed to the ice villages of Tengon, Devion closed the cockpit window and he headed back down to the prison chambers.
“Now let’s get rid of the Duchess’s electrified corpse and make room for the Duke.” he said to himself as he left the cockpit.
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In the ice palace, the biggest and most important political landmark in all of Tengon, the Duke of Tengon, real name Polar, was sitting in his throne and twitching nervously.
Polar was a fit bodied man with dark blue skin and black markings on his face. He wore robes of state and a wealthy looking hat on his head like all the other dukes wore. He was the ruler of Tengon along with Nyrrah and right now, he was hoping to rescue her. It had been a while since his sister Nyrrah had been kidnapped and he was losing his mind with worry. What were those vile Devatrons doing to her? Were they torturing her? Were they going to kill her? Or were they blackmailing her in some way or another? He had sent forces to rescue the Duchess but they had returned empty handed due to the Devatrons being stronger then they were and now he was beginning to worry again.
“Oh god, oh god, oh god!” fretted Polar “What could possibly be happening to my poor sister on that ghastly Devatron ship?! I do hope they’re not hurting her! Oh I wish I was brave enough to take on those Devatrons myself but I’m just too cowardly! What kind of Duke am I? I should just relinquish the title and let someone else be ruler. Anyone will be better than me!”
Then suddenly, something crashed straight through the stained glass ice windows of the palace and landed straight in front of him, making the duke leap out of his throne in fright and scream loud enough to make icicles in a cave ceiling fall down on him. It was Raicor. Polar had no idea who he was though as he hadn’t met Raicor before but he instantly guessed he was a Devatron given his V-shaped visor, spiked shoulders, two thumbed hands and chrome body. Polar drew a sword out of a scabbard on his belt and he pointed it at Raicor feebly, his hands trembling furiously.
St-st-st-stay back! I-I-I’m armed!” gibbered Polar “D-D-Don’t m-m-make me use this!”
Raicor just smacked the sword straight out of his hand due to how weak his grip on it was and the sword skidded across the icy floors of the palace. Raicor was able to walk perfectly on the ice due to his clawed feet giving him traction on the slippery ice and he advanced on Polar menacingly. He grabbed the duke by his throat and hoisted him up to his height.
Polar trembled so furiously he looked like he was going to shake his robes off.
Polar trembled so furiously he looked like he was going to shake his robes off.
“Hurk! Urk! Please…let me…go!” he choked.
“You will come with me quietly otherwise the blood of your rescuers will be on YOUR hands duke!” growled Raicor in his menacing, gravel voice.
Polar struggled in the Devatron second in command’s tough grasp but he couldn’t get free. He had no choice but to come along with him. The duke gave up his pitiful struggling and Raicor opened up his wings. Before he left though, he whipped out a detonator he’d brought with him and he activated it. The duke looked like he was about to have a heart-attack at that.
“WHY ARE YOU BLOWING MY PALACE UP?!?! he squealed.
“Because I feel like it.” said Raicor gruffly “And to get it out of the way so we can build OUR palace in its place.”
With that said, Raicor flew out of the palace with Polar in tow. The moment he flew out of the broken window though, the detonator went off and the palace exploded into a million icicle shards. Anyone unlucky to be near the palace at the time was likely to get a shower of ice on them and it was going to be very painful when the icicles hit them. Raicor bellowed with laughter to himself as he flew away from the exploding palace with the duke in his hands. Devion was going to be very pleased with him when he arrived back at The DoomBringer with his prize…
___________________________________________________________________________
Later that day, Polar had been taken to the Devatron prison chambers. He had been stripped of his robes and shirt, revealing his bare torso underneath and he was suspended off the floor by chains around his arms much like his sister had been earlier when she had been captured. Polar could do nothing more than dangle off the floor by his arms and gibber like a terrified idiot to himself. After a minute or two, Devion and Raicor arrived into his cell and Devion stood before the chained up duke. Polar almost screamed in terror at the mere sight of him.
“No…not you! Anything but you!” he whimpered.
“Unfortunately for you my feeble-hearted Tengonian it is me, Devion the Dreaded, leader of the Devatron race.” purred Devion evilly “And you are in my clutches now.”
He turned to Raicor who stood beside him silently, waiting to be spoken to before speaking.
“Well done Raicor.” said Devion “Your success in apprehending the duke is to be commended. You have done a fine job. And blowing up the palace after kidnapping him was an excellent way of dampening the Tengonians spirits and keeping the resistances at bay.”
“I am honoured to receive such comments.” said Raicor loyally “Thank you for your praise Devion.”
Devion turned back to Polar and he advanced up to the duke. The duke was up to Devion’s eye height now he was hanging off the floor by his arms.
“Now Polar, the Duke of Tengon, you will relinquish this planet to me and disband the resistance groups or you will end up suffering the same fate as your obstinate sister.” said Devion darkly.
“W-w-what ha-ha-happened to m-m-my sister?” asked Polar nervously.
“She refused to give in and as a result, was electrocuted to death because of it.” said Devion dryly “And you shall suffer the same fate if you do not cede to my demands.”
Polar gulped nervously. As willing as he was not to surrender to Devion and keep fighting for freedom, he was a snivelling coward and he was extremely agliophobic, meaning he was deathly afraid of pain and he didn’t want to be tortured or killed so he decided to give in to the Devatron leader. Polar sighed sadly and he spoke.
“OK Devion. I’ll answer your calls.” he said “I will give up the villages, the lands, the cities, everything to you and the planet is yours. I’ll stop the war and disband the armies and resistance groups. But promise me no harm will come to my people or you will get nothing.”
“I assure you, you blue-skinned heathens will be well kept.” lied Devion “Thank you for making the right choice Polar. Raicor, release him and then return his items of clothing to him. We want him to look his best when he gives us the planet don’t we?”
“Yes Devion.” said Raicor, walking over to Polar to get him down and unchain him.
As Raicor did that, Devion laughed to himself and he thought in his head.
Promises indeed! he purred in his mind as Raicor unchained Polar and gave him his shirt and robes back We Devatrons do not make promises. We break them. What use does a promise have to anybody? Words can be said but that doesn’t always mean the speaker means them and we Devatrons are just the same. Tengon is finally mine and now I can move onto another planet and conquer that! Then I’ll move onto the next and the next until the universe is full of Devatrons and nothing more!
Devion was looking forward to when the duke announced to his people that he was going to relinquish the planet to him. What a successful first conquer this had been! And what he wouldn’t give to see Nyrrah’s face if she could see this now…
The End
