The Fall: Crimson Worlds IX by Jay Allan Read Free Book Online

manifests.  His paranoid mind was virtually incapable of trusting anyone, and he micromanaged every aspect of the massive campaign now underway.
    Stark was a true genius, his brilliant mind an accident of genetics, an unlikely mutation that gave him analytical ability far in excess of most humans.  He was different in other ways as well, a man with few true emotions.  He could feel rage, certainly, but even that was only a manifestation of his singular focus, a direction of frustration toward those who interfered with his plans.  But emotions like love, loyalty, friendship – they were mostly beyond his ability to feel and understand.  He’d only ever had one friend.  Jack Dutton had been his mentor and confidante, and the old man’s death had severed the only connection Stark had to his humanity.
    For all his evil, for the millions of deaths he’d caused and the countless more who would die as his plans progressed, Stark wasn’t really a sadist.  He would torture a captive without hesitation or pity, but only to gain information he needed or to instill useful fear in those who witnessed such brutality.  He rarely tormented enemies simply to gain satisfaction from their suffering, and he rapidly lost interest in those who had opposed him once they were no longer a threat.  He was cold, determined, almost robotic in his actions, and he rarely allowed himself to pursue pointless vendettas that did nothing to further his plans.
    Only a few adversaries, those who had truly and repeatedly interfered with his efforts, those who had thwarted him and stood in his way again and again, earned his lasting enmity.  At the top of this list, two men stood above all others, and they were both the target of Stark’s eternal wrath.  He hated Augustus Garret and Erik Cain with a passion utterly inconsistent with his normal cold-blooded demeanor, and his temper flared when he even thought of his greatest enemies.
    He’d taken an unacceptable personal risk to attempt an assassination of Cain on Armstrong.  He had missed his nemesis but ended up killing Elias Holm instead.  He’d been frustrated that Cain escaped him, but Holm was another enemy, and Stark knew the Marine Commandant’s death would shatter Erik Cain.  He reveled in the hurt he had caused, even as he scolded himself for taking such a terrible risk.  It was unlike him, and he was beginning to realize that his enmity for the Marines and their allies was affecting his normal calm and rational demeanor.  He struggled against the hatred he felt and forced himself to remember his priorities.  Power was what Stark truly craved, the total domination of all those around him.  He knew he had been born to rule mankind, and now his plans were in their final stages.  He was resolved to remain focused, to execute his plan meticulously, to follow through until humanity was his forever.  Men would bow to him and beg his favor, and he would be their overlord.
    He was using every facet of his malevolent intelligence, carefully analyzing his plans, reviewing the reports coming in from all across occupied space, trying to decide what to do next.  Many of his schemes were progressing nicely, but he’d suffered setbacks as well, mostly at the hands of his old nemeses, the cursed Marines and Augustus Garret and his navy.
    He leaned back in his chair and allowed himself a smile.  Garret and his Marine allies were about to invade Columbia.  Indeed, he thought, they are probably beginning their attack even now.  It would be a brutal fight, he knew, one that might very well end in the defeat of his occupation forces.  He’d managed to get significant reinforcements to his Shadow Legions there, and they controlled most of the planet’s inhabited areas.  The population had fled to the swamps and wilderness areas, continuing the fight with a futile, but annoying, partisan struggle.
    Still, despite the strength of his defenders, he’d seen the Marines in action too many times