Death to the Imperium (Imperium Cicernus) (10 page)

Doland
felt like arguing that the mission should be aborted, but he kept silent. He
was grateful for the absence of the enemy ship—he hadn’t much liked the idea of
being blown to pieces.

“Right,”
Alyce said. “I’m going to make the landing.”

She
operated the controls, piloting the ship with precision. As they passed into
the planet’s atmosphere, there was a strange disturbance on the flight deck.
The lights blinked, and some of the displays were disrupted. Strangely, the
chronometer suffered the most interference. The Date/Time stamp fluctuated
wildly for a few seconds, before settling along with the rest of the controls.
The members of the crew were a little troubled by the disruption, but said
nothing. A few minutes later, the
Wreck
had landed on Chaos. Alyce
stepped out first, after making sure that her ZK-88 blaster was safely in her
holster. The last thing she wanted was to meet some unfriendly life form and
realise that she was without a weapon.

Her
first overwhelming feeling was one of pure disgust. Glitz, Tekka and Doland
followed her out onto the planet, staring at the terrible world. Even their
weeks spent on Malus had not prepared them for such an ugly sight. Alyce was
not an overly sensitive woman—in fact, she prided herself on being logical and
hard-headed—but the sight of the atrocious planet almost brought her to tears.
It was nothing more than an expanse of grey mountains, broken occasionally by
lava streams. There was a bitter smell on the wind, and the trees were
blackened and charred. But the really saddening thing was the sight of the
animals. A few birds were flying unevenly through the sky on broken wings,
crying out as if in great pain. Far away, a large cat-like creature was being
attacked by a giant lizard; it was rolling around, bleeding from its stomach,
as the lizard made a slow kill.

Miserable-looking
quadrupeds trudged through a river of black slime, apparently searching for
food in the mud. As they searched, another giant lizard ran up behind them,
tearing the nearest two to pieces. Alyce felt a strong urge to blast the lizard
to pieces with her blaster, but she resisted the impulse. She went back inside
the ship, returning with three more blasters. She passed one to each of the
men.

“Listen,”
Alyce said. “We’ll get this over with quickly. I want to get off this horrible
planet as quickly as possible.” She looked at Tekka. “Does your neurochip
contain a navigation system?”

“Of
course.”

“Right.”
She pointed at Doland. “You and Tekka travel east, and we’ll travel south. After
three hours we will meet back at the
Wreck
and leave this forsaken
place.”

“What
are we looking for, exactly?” Tekka said.

“Anything.
Any possible clues as to why the ship was so interested in this place.” She
paused thoughtfully. “You mentioned that you detected advanced technology. Try
to find an example of it, and determine its function.”

Tekka
nodded, and Alyce went on, “But I can’t imagine why anyone would want to come
here. I’ve never seen such a horrible planet.” She shivered slightly. “Anyway,
see you in three hours.”

Glitz
nodded to Tekka and Doland and followed Alyce as she walked towards the faraway
mountains. The terrain was rocky and uneven, and Glitz fingered his blaster
uneasily. Several weird-looking creatures bared their teeth at him as they
passed them. There seemed to be no friendly life forms on the planet. He
glanced behind them; Tekka and Doland were now small shapes in the distance.

“You
sure it was a good idea to split up?” Glitz said. “You never heard of safety in
numbers?”

“That’s
quite an primitive phrase,” she retorted.

“Doesn’t
mean it’s not true,” Glitz muttered. “And what makes you think you always need
to disagree with me?”

Alyce
shrugged. “I tend to disagree with people when they are wrong.”

Glitz
scowled as they climbed over a large black rock. A tiny rat-like creature was
hiding beneath it; disturbed, it raced out from underneath the rock and
scurried away. They walked for almost half an hour without seeing anything of
interest. Everything around was bleak and featureless. Then Glitz noticed
something that seemed conspicuous. He pulled the object out of the ground,
brushing off some of the dirt.

“Is
that…?” Alyce examined the object that Glitz was holding. “Is that a skull?”

“Looks
like it.”

“But…
it looks like a human skull.”

Glitz
handed her the skull, and she turned it over in her hands, puzzled. “There are
tooth marks all over the bone. Some sort of creature has torn off the
flesh—maybe one of those long-toothed lizards.” She glanced around, looking for
the rest of the bones. Then she spotted a white shape sticking out of the mud.
Alyce uncovered several more bones and scrutinised them. She was no expert on
skeletons, but she was fairly confident that the bones were human. She took
several pictures of the discovery using her Spectrum arm band, a Navy-issued
tool that had many useful functions.

If
the bones
had
belonged to a man or woman, why had they visited Chaos in
the first place? And what had killed them?

Doland
and Tekka were heading south, towards a thick river of orange lava. Doland kept
trying to engage Tekka in conversation, but quickly realised that his companion
was not willing to provide more than one-word answers. Their whole presence on
the planet Chaos seemed pointless to him. The entire world was thoroughly
unpleasant, and seemed to have nothing of interest. But Tekka seemed to be
fascinated by the place. He stared intently at every mouldy rock, and carefully
examined several mud banks. Doland wasn’t sure why such dreary objects were
capturing his attention.

Tekka
noticed a large excavated hole in the ground, and approached it with interest.
Doland stared at the gaping chasm.

“I
wonder who dug this,” Tekka said, gesturing to some nearby lizard creatures.
“Somehow, I cannot imagine any of those lizards being capable of such a feat.”

Doland
shrugged. “Maybe the people who owned those ships.”

“Yes,
possibly…”

Tekka
scrambled down into the chasm, picking up some of the dirt and running it
through his fingers. His hand brushed against an object. He pulled it out of
the ground, wiping off the black soil with the sleeve his jacket. He could
hardly believe what he had found.

***

“Look,”
Glitz said, pointing to a charred crater in the ground.

Alyce
stepped back to inspect the hole. It was clearly a burn mark of some kind—most
likely caused by the landing or take-off of some kind of craft. But it was odd
that they could only see one mark. Usually, a ship would create anything
between two and ten landing marks, depending on the number of rockets.

“A
ship was here,” Alyce said.

They
walked for another five hundred metres or so, and then discovered another
similar black mark. Alyce touched the cold ash. It was the same size as the
other mark.

“Must
be the same ship,” she muttered. “The thing must have been pretty big.”

“Do
you reckon it was
the
ship—the one that destroyed the scout ship?”

She
shrugged. “Quite possibly.”

They
were both perplexed by the discovery of the landing marks. The ship must have
visited the planet quite recently, because it wouldn’t be long until the marks
were covered by the shifting dust. But why had the ship landed on Chaos in the
first place? Glitz hadn’t seen anything that would justify a visit.

“Look
out!” Alyce shouted suddenly, pulling out her blaster.

Glitz
swivelled. While they had been checking out the landing scar, one of the
lizard-like creatures had sneaked up on them. Its eyes were pale and yellow,
and Glitz could smell its foul breath.

Before
Glitz pulled out his own blaster, the creature pounced on him, sinking its
jagged teeth into his flesh.

***

Tekka
held up the object that he had found, and Doland stared at it wonderingly. It
was some kind of large gem. It was uncut and rather rough, but it still gleamed
in the light from the dull sun. Tekka scanned the gem with his neurochip. It
was a diamond—an improbably large one. It had to weigh almost 150g.

“It’s
a diamond,” Tekka informed Doland.

“You’re
joking.”

“I
don’t make a habit of telling jokes.”

Doland
could hardly believe it. General Blaize had told them that Dorian Night had not
discovered any precious minerals when he came to scan the planet.

Tekka
dug his hands into the dirt, sliding them through the black soil. He felt
several more hard objects, and pulled them out one by one. Unbelievably, there
were even more precious stones—rubies, sapphires, emeralds, and more diamonds. They
were all at least as big as roanfruit. Without wasting another second, Doland
began to rummage through the dirt himself, retrieving several large precious
stones. He stuffed them into his pockets, his face lighting up with glee.

“This
is amazing,” he said. “I’m glad we came to this planet, after all. I never
thought I’d say that. Just think how much these things are worth! But I wonder
how they got here…”

Tekka
nodded. “Intriguing, isn’t it?”

The
whole situation was strange. The excavation was large, but there was no sign of
the dirt that had been lifted from the hole. Of course, it might have been
taken away, but why would anyone want to do that? And there was more—he could
sense the advanced technology that he had previously detected. It was somewhere
very close.

But
his train of thought was interrupted by a white flash. He looked up; the sky
had become filled with dark clouds. A second later, there was a dull rumble.

“The
lightning was close,” Tekka said quietly. He looked around; there was no
shelter nearby. “Let us return to the ship.”

Doland
shuddered, glancing at the storm clouds. He wasn’t about to argue with Tekka.
He had already collected enough gems to retire on, and he didn’t like the look
of the clouds. He remembered General Blaize mentioning something about chemical
storms…

They
clambered out of the dark pit, and began to run in the direction of the ship.
Tekka pulled his communicator from his jacket pocket. “A storm has come upon us.
Return to the ship right away.” He didn’t seem to think twice about giving
orders to Captain Wickham.

As
they ran, several bolts of lightning lashed out from the sky, narrowly missing
them, and creating smoking holes in the ground. Doland felt nervous sweat
dripping from every pore of his body, and his limbs were trembling as he ran. Tekka
seemed more focussed than scared. Doland could see the ship in the distance,
and he ran more quickly, motivated by the visible destination.

But
before they could reach the ship, the heavens opened, and hot rain began to
pour down on them. As the liquid touched his leather jacket, Doland heard a
hissing sound—the rain was eating through his jacket. He felt a sudden surging
pain—it was burning his face, his neck, his hands. Doland screamed out in pain.
Tekka felt it too, but he just carried on running.

Fighting
through the pain, Doland continued to run, even though he was in agony. To
think of the damage the chemical rain must be doing… Finally, they reached the
Wreck
,
and Tekka unlocked the door with his neurochip and pulled it open. They climbed
into the ship and slammed the hatch behind them.

Doland
stared out of the window at the horrific rain. “I hope the other two are all
right…”

Then
he looked down at his hands, and cried out in horror.

***

Glitz
and Alyce, after seeing the gathering storm and hearing Tekka’s message, had
quickly climbed into the shelter of a nearby cave, which was carved out of the
mountain. They sat at the cave entrance as the first bolts of lightning began
to strike, and watched the rain pour down.

“I
don’t like the look of that rain,” Glitz said.

As
it fell, it seemed to be striking down the animals that had not managed to find
shelter in time. Even the rocks were hissing and dissolving.

“I
hope to space they got to the ship,” Alyce said.

They
stared out of the cave entrance, powerless to stop the awful storm, helpless in
the face of the terrible thunder. After a few minutes, the rain gradually
stopped. The clouds had dissipated; clearly the storm had run its course.

The
landscape, if possible, had become even more barren. Glitz watched as a
mountain, weakened by the assault, crumbled and collapsed, the towering
structure turning to ruins. If the rain could do that to a mountain, Glitz
dreaded to think what had become of Tekka and Doland. Was it possible that they
had reached the ship in time?

Suddenly,
Glitz became aware of a warm sensation on the back of his neck. He turned
around, and came face-to-face with the most terrible thing that he had ever
seen.

***

Doland
stared at his hands. The skin had peeled away, revealing blood and bone.
Touching his face gingerly, he realised that the flesh was cracking off there
too. He almost felt like crying, although he would be too embarrassed to cry in
front of Tekka.

Tekka
examined the damage to his own body with a detached air, as if he was a doctor
performing a check-up on another person.

“Chemical
burns to 25% of the body,” he muttered. “It seems to be a form of hydrozine. The
poisonous compound has penetrated the skin, and poisoned the blood. I would
estimate less than an hour before the vital systems are impaired, and then
death will shortly follow.”

Doland
almost choked. “We’re going to die? How—how can you be so calm about it?”

He
felt a crushing, annihilating sensation. So this was it? This was the end? Of
course, he knew that soldiers could die on missions for the Imperium—that was a
necessary risk of the job. But he wasn’t a soldier, or a sailor. He was just an
ordinary man. A man that had made all the wrong choices.

“Oh,
we are not going to die,” Tekka said, after a pause.

“We’re…
we’re not?”

“No.”

Doland
was furious. “Then why did you make me think that!”

Tekka
ignored him, and slid a gold ring off his thumb. Doland vaguely remembered that
he had seen Tekka wearing it inside the prison ship on the way to Malus. He
twisted the blue stone on the ring, and a cloud of tiny yellow dots flowed from
it.

“These
are nanobots,” Tekka said. “I built them myself when I was ten years old—it was
a hobby of mine.”

Doland
didn’t respond. Tekka activated his neurochip, and sent two commands to the
nanobots. The first command: clean up all the chemicals from the interior of
the ship. The second command: repair the damage to their bodies and clothes. Fixing
tissue damage was just as easy as fixing torn clothing to a nanobot.

The
nanobots glowed and flowed from the entrance of the ship to the spot where they
were sitting. Then they swarmed around them. Doland felt a pleasant warm
sensation as the tiny robots covered his skin. After a few seconds, the robots
began to flow back towards Tekka’s finger, and returned into his ring.

Doland
touched his face gently. His skin felt soft and pure, like a baby’s skin. He
pulled up his sleeves; all of his skin had been repaired. Even the damage to
his leather clothes had been undone.

“All
traces of the chemical have been removed,” Tekka explained, “and all of the
damage has been reversed.”

Despite
his irritation with Tekka, Doland couldn’t help but feel a surge of gratitude.
He shook hands with Tekka, feeling cool relief spreading through his body.

“Guess
I owe you my life,” Doland said.

***

The
creature was monstrous. It was roughly humanoid in shape, but the skin was
tough and scaled. Its eyes were evil black slits, and it had claws attached to
every limb.

Instinctively,
Glitz pulled out his blaster and fired several shots at the creature. Each shot
knocked it back, but it climbed back towards them, with no visible damage. It shouldn’t
have been possible… nothing should be able to survive a direct hit from a ZK-88
at such close range.

The
creature lunged at Glitz, slicing towards his throat with a dagger-like foreclaw.
Alyce acted on instinct. She lifted up her own blaster, pressed it right into
the creature’s eye, and fired. The laser blast shot through the eye and fried
the creature’s brain; it fell back, dead.

“Space,
are you OK?” Alyce said, rushing to Glitz.

Glitz
grinned. “Just Glitz will do.”

Alyce
smiled, relieved that he was unharmed. Those claws looked lethal. She peered at
the stinking carcass, and realised that the skeleton they had found outside was
probably from one of the creatures. The First Naval Lord might have given her a
warning that such things existed on Chaos—he had given them the impression that
the only predators were low and primitive creatures. But this creature had a large
skull with a pronounced brow, which suggested a developed brain. And its eyes
had contained a wicked hint of malevolence…

“Ah,
hello there.”

Alyce
raised her blaster again. A man was approaching the cave. He was dressed in a
grey robe, and he was carrying a golden staff, which had a sapphire in the
handle.

“Name
yourself,” Alyce said, shocked to see another human.

“My
name is Ozytan,” the man said, smiling. “We have lots to discuss.”