Call it what you want this was a bad day to be on Deimos. Chev and I manually took control of our EXOs and continued tearing a path ahead of us for a secondary squad to follow. The Skrav forces were trying to set up turrets inside the ruined buildings but they meant nothing after we took out the structure’s support beams. It took us three hours to make our way to Scar. He saw us coming from a mile away. He didn’t run. He didn’t fight either. When we were close enough to see him he pointed his arm out towards us holding a long sharp sword like weapon. Thirty, maybe forty Skrav ran at us. We let it rip! Bullets tore through them like confetti. Shell casings littered the ground beneath our feet. We formed our line and gunned them down. When we were done we looked back and saw Scar standing before us dead on his knees, impaled by his own blade. He had killed himself. It was the kind of sacrifice you use to see in feudal Japan. Seppuku. Every moment they seemed more like us then we gave them credit.
The sky was still just as black as it ever was. A mushroom cloud formed above us; the ground was littered and stained with the blood and bodies of our enemies. This was our first contact with alien life and we murdered them all. Humanity had declared its place in the universe. We hunted any surviving Skrav down, any left anywhere in the system were tracked and killed on site. Deimos had become a graveyard and in years to come it would become a memorial dedicated to our fallen brothers and sisters.
We quickly learned that even though we had indirectly murdered Scar that we were really just cutting off the head of a hydra. Scar was no leader; there was no Skrav leader. The few that had escaped their ships fled and went into hiding, feral monsters caught in the sewers. Others attacked in smaller and smaller waves. After ten years they were written off as nothing more than childhood nightmares. We had become legends, historical figures from a great crusade. The largest and most important war humanity had ever fought and it only lasted a little more than a day.
“Did you know that Deimos is the Greek word for terror?” I could not make out who was speaking. Someone in the shadows sat monitoring my vitals. He was telling me more of our history and I was too eager to listen. “The Battle of Memoria that was what they called it.” I had known this part of our history. Terror had scarred humanity and changed our species forever. The Deimos would become a word synonymous with mankind. No longer alone in the universe. We had enemies, and the Skrav we fought that day were only a small fraction of their force. The blood that was spilled was insignificant compared to the day we let them destroy the sun, the day the Erebus and two other ships left billions to die.
Hand that Feeds
- Sev -
“Sev? Sev?” At first I thought it was Aira. It wasn't. I was in a daze. A soft gentle hand removed the visor that was covering my eyes. Her arms were scared and she was thin. Then I saw her. A scar ran from the top of her forehead down across the entire left side of her face. Balkava was a woman. She was a few years older than me. The person I had seen before was a doctor and nothing more. She leaned over and was sitting right in front of me. For a moment she looked so beautiful but if only for a moment…
“Sev... what do you know about the Skrav?” It was a simple question. I should have given it a simple answer. I should have said they are the enemy. Instead I leapt from my chair and attacked her. My arm was around her neck. The doctor grabbed me and as quickly as I had jumped up I was forced down on the ground with a needle plunged into the left side of my arm. I felt tears roll down my eyes as images of what I had just seen flashed before my eyes.
“For hundreds of years the human race has been waging war across the galaxy across hundreds of worlds.” I balked. I was rabid. “It was the Skrav that destroyed the Earth’s sun and ended the billions of lives within the Sol System. The Skrav destroy and enslave! That is their way! They have no leaders aside from their own tormented pride. If we kill the ones in charge a second immediately reacts and comes to take its place. There are no elections, no kings and no queens! The Skrav are not a monarchy or a republic! Instead they act fueled by a hive mind! They have bred the fear of death out of themselves. Savages. Monsters. Four armed beasts. They are a collective consciousness that communicate to each other through various means such as body language, smell, and hate!”
“Some even say they are telepathic.” I hear someone say. I feel the tranquilizer take hold.
“Get off me! Get...” “Ok...he’s sedated, at least enough to cooperate. Let’s get him back and the examination bench.” I felt my body rise. I could talk and my sensor nerves were prime, but I could do nothing more.
“Now, Mr. Colona...let us begins again. Tell us more about the skarv.” “Their ships are very human by design. They need oxygen to survive, just like we do. They use a cross between metal alloys and organics for their hulls and electronics. When they go to war they wear battle armor that covers their entire body, including two smaller arms that they have on their stomachs or what we think could be their stomachs. Their faces are split at the front and instead of teeth they use acid to dissolve their food into nutrients. The Skrav do, however have teeth. Behind the skin covers what would be their lips. They run up the bottom of their face from their chin to where their nasal passageway is. There is a set of sharp shark like teeth that they can use to break through rock. They have two eyes that are usually either solid black or solid white. Those that study the Skrav believe that this is a difference in gender though no one is really sure if they have a gender at all...
....No one knows why the Skrav are at war with the humans. It is possible that the Skrav were once a Tier III civilization that eventually collapsed, turning savage and brutal. It is believed that they were fighting wars amongst themselves until they found mankind to fight against. It could be the Skrav see other races as inferior or they don’t even acknowledge them at all.” I paused, then continued.
“Skrav technology is easy to reverse. Their starship uses an immersion core to create a rift in the universe, allowing the ship to physically enter the immer. This is where we got our technology. It also eliminates the need for time dilation as time in the immer moves at a different pace than time outside the immer. Imagine being able to walk through walls. I guess it’s safe to assume you know this already. We are traveling in the immer now... Their weapons are also very earthlike. They use rifles that resemble carbines and blades that resemble Persian swords. Their rifles shoot an assortment of ammo types such as projectile, laser, even sound. The Skrav seem to experiment with different types of strategies. They never use the same tactics twice.” I felt like I couldn't control my tongue. I spat out everything I knew about the Skrav and our war without hesitation.
"I’ve seen this for myself," Balkava said. “This could be seen when the first invasion against humanity involved them sending a platoon of warships that resembled daggers across our star system.”
“Yes.” I cut in. “But when that failed, they used stealth to turn our sun against us. They have also been seen dropping asteroids, even crashing entire planets together to create world-ending results. The Skrav are responsible for more than half of the deaths in the Milky Way Galaxy. It is possible that their empire has even set up colonies in the M33 Galaxy and the outer rim of the Andromeda Galaxy but we have no way to prove this. The Skrav have a reproductive system similar to humans. When cut open, the Skrav’s body is filled with tiny bones that are stronger and denser than human bones. It is believed that the Skrav home world would have gravitational pulls two or three times stronger than Earth’s. Their skin is similar to human skin too except that it is ten times as thick and almost constantly, wet creating a slimy residue. This information leads us to believe," I paused, "we believe Skrav’s came from a super Earth, or a planet similar to Earth but much larger.” Just then I felt my body lift again from the table and shift. I was tied to a chair now and bleeding from the nose. I was getting a lesson I had already had back on Errikus. I had seen the destruction of their fleet and I had seen a battle few users ever witness. They had been listening to me while I used th
e nexus, watching me and taking notes as I performed for the first time.
“Why do they hate us.” The Doctor asked. “We don’t know.” My wrist was aching and the rope felt like it was biting deeper into my skin. Why do we hate anyone we don’t like. We’re all human; we’re all made from the same small pieces of matter existing in one place and then the next. We all live, sleep, die yet we always found a way to fight each other.” I didn’t move or speak. I hated her for putting me through this. I was fantasizing about the idea Skrav eating her heart. I even imagined Scar bursting through the door and slamming his sword into her chest. We are violent. We are both monsters. “We do know that they have the ability to use the Nexus as well, “ I said.
“Ok. We’re going to untie your body now and you’re going to come with me. There is something I want you to see,” Balkava said. She took out a knife and cut the small ties that bonded me to the chair. Immediately I felt release.
When the sedative finally wore off, we walked out of the white room and past several human guards holding carbines. Balkava said something to them each time she passed by.
“A few years ago we had a shifter on board. It looked human, talked human, even smelled human but it was a Skrav inside. They started experimenting with shape shifting techniques. They would graft limbs from dead humans to their own torsos and cover their faces with human skin. They were made up of cybernetic parts mostly so they could make the mouth move. They were more machine then Skrav or human.” She leaned in close. ‘Now we have a code that we say to each other and,” I listened while a part of me didn’t really care. I was so angry. “There is more at stake then you will ever know Sev. We are at war and that means we can’t always do what we want to do or be with the ones we want to be with.” Her words cut me like a knife straight into to the heart. I’m sure by now they had every piece of information about my life they could scavenge from Errikus. I think the leviathan had left the library in tact so there was, at the very least a public record full of any and all records of everything in my life, celebrations and funerals. That list must have included Dom’s passing. That meant she would know how close Aira, Hayden, Dom, and I were. I began to wonder how everyone was doing. She had said we were already in the immer before I could even ask…
“How long have I been out,” I asked. “Three weeks,” she said. I couldn’t believe it. I was three weeks under. They must have been keeping me alive with fluids, pumping them straight into my body.
“And before you ask, all your friends are fine.” Balkava exclaimed. How did she know that’s what I was thinking? Her answer made me feel like she could read my mind or was I just that transparent? We continued to walk down the corridor and ended up in a part of the ship I didn't recognized - not that it took much. We must have walked for nearly an hour. It was dark. The air was even more stale then it had been before. This was my grand tour of the ship. First the hangar, then the Nexus, and now the prison cells.
Balkava motioned for me to stand back while she spoke with a few guards. They talked briefly. Finally they opened up a large bulkhead door and Balkava and I walked inside. There on a chair sat the Trepp, one of the few alien races the Skrav kept alive. They were slaves of course but to some that was better than extinction. “His name is Malekai’Ryn. We have been interrogating him since before we left Errikus. He is a part of a group of Trepp that engaged in a skirmish with the Tritan. They were also the ones responsible for getting the attention of the leviathan that destroyed Errikus. It wasn’t an accident. We just have no idea how they did it.” I looked at the Trepp and felt more pity then disgust. Wasn’t he only doing what his species is forced to do, much like we are? It’s not like we stayed on Errikus to help any of the Eek, Pok, Myra, or Arr7 survivors out.
“Just give me one more day.” A voice cried out from behind us. It was a soldier named Bloch. He was the head of interrogation. It wasn’t very often we captured a Trepp alive and it was even more rare that we would ever caught a Skrav.
“We’ve given you all the time we can spare. All we have is nothing,” Two men in admiral suits shouted. Balkava intervened. She eased the enforcers down and began speaking some low, inaudible words. I didn’t realize it before but the room we were in was actually an airlock. I began to feel sick. The idea of being sucked out into space gave me nightmares. It was one of my biggest fears. As a small child I would dream we were being attacked. Hulls above and below me blowing apart until finally a Mi-Go would appear. I sometimes wonder where I learned of such beasts. I was never sure if it was a monster from an old folktale or something more but it would wrap it’s arms around me and with its pink crab like claws, it would rip open the wall sucking both of us into the blackness of space. I would wake up screaming. Now I would never be certain if my dreams were real or something I saw in the Nexus. I wasn’t even sure if that was my dream anymore or something else. Reality seemed to make little sense anymore.
“It’s all yours Balkava,” The top interrogator said. “We do it your way but don’t forget to clean up when you’re done.” Bloch said. Balkava come back in the room and handed me her service weapon. A small rifle with a fully loaded clip. She then turned and left the two of us alone in the room.
“What do your eyes see when they see me,” I asked the Trepp. The Trepp spoke the human language perfectly. Unlike the Skrav their species had mouths and looked humanoid. Their bodies were bulky and their bones protruded from various points of their bodies. It was sick to look at, especially their skulls. The bones in their foreheads seem to twist in an asymmetrical design. I looked on in horror at its black lips and sharpened teeth. It began to speak.
“I see a creature unable to think for itself, a parasite, a parasite that will be destroyed by gods.” I listened to his words and assumed that the gods were the Skrav. The Trepp must all be brought up to hate humans. There was no way there would be peace between our species. There was no way he was going to get out of here alive. I shot the Trepp dead. We could have tortured it. Believe me I wanted to, simply made its life a living hell until it broke and told us everything. By that point it might not have any useful information left. Malekai’Ryn, why had we even bothered to get your name? I wonder if he had expected his gods, the Skrav to storm our ship while he watched, his hands behind his back patiently waiting for them to save him. “Malekai’Ryn... may you rest peacefully with your kind. Now you are free.”
Balkava entered the prison chamber. “Did I pass your test?” I asked. “You didn’t have to kill him Sev, this wasn’t a test. We just wanted you to see the enemy. Talk to the enemy,” she said. I struggled for a moment. My hand was shaking as she took the gun away from my side. No, this was war; killing Malekai’Ryn was just like killing those ticks – it was just like killing the infected ones on Errikus. No matter what Balkava said this was a test to see if I could kill the enemy and I passed. Had I not shown enough commitment already? There would be no mercy. First they put me through hell giving me a crash course on the Nexus and now this. I wasn't going to fall for their mind games. I did exactly what they wanted.
The Trepp was beginning to smell. It had only been dead a few minutes but it was already beginning to decay. “What’s next?” I asked. “Nothing. As you said, you passed., or rather thought, you passed. You’re a full fledge member of the Erebus now. Your orders are to spend a few hours in the nexus every few days. When you are not in the nexus I will train you. Everything will be ok now,” she said.
“Did Aira have to go through this same thing?” I asked.
“No. The Aelita have their own ways of doing things."
“Will I ever be able to speak to her?” She gave me a hard, long look.
“We only communicate with each other when absolutely necessary. I’m sorry Sev. You won’t be able to talk to her or anyone onboard the Aelita.” That was it then. I was now a fullfledged prisoner. My life, my daily routine would be planned out for me. I was to be a prisoner to the nexus, to the Erebus. I was nothing more than a tool. A slave just like the
Trepp.
Depths
10 YEARS LATER.
“Hayden you stupid bastard, what do you think you are doing!” “GET YOUR HELMET ON NOW!” We were inside a small two-man dropship. A piece of space debris had ripped a hole in our hull. Our space suits were meant to take a punch but this was unlike anything either of the two of us had ever experienced outside a simulation. The under armor was cushioning but the outside armor of our suit was meant for battle so we could take a couple of hits as our backs flew against the wall. Why had I volunteered for a stupid mission? The Aelita had detected a strange alloy floating just ahead of the Erebus outside the immer. We were going to investigate. The Erebus would come to a near stop inside the immer while we went ahead. We would catch up in less than a day. The elders had insisted and since Balkava had become an elder now it meant that I had gone from being a pawn to a knight. I was Sev, the orphan from Errikus, Balkava’s best.
“You stupid Drok, you’re going to get me killed,” I yelled. “You’re fine Sev, I knew you would be quick about it,” Hayden always had an answer for everything. "Maybe it should have been me piloting,"I said. "Not on your life, I'm the best pilot the Erebus has and you know it," Hayden responded. He wasn't but that didn't stop him from running his mouth and I had to agree, he was a better pilot then me. Anytime I wasn’t using the nexus I was with him training or in the simulation room playing in some virtual reality world. Other times I would just sit alone in my room writing music. One of the few escapes I had since becoming a part of the crew. Aira was always on my mind. I didn’t even know if she was still alive. I had grown up since Errikus. I was no longer a scrawny scared little child. I was a hundred and eighty pounds of muscle. I started growing my hair and shaved it on the sides. It was a look I had seen in the nexus and enjoyed. I wonder if she would even recognize me now. I was no longer afraid of fighting or killing. I was a human soldier fighting a war. I still resented Balkava for the mental conditioning but I understood. Throwing me inside the nexus like they did was a necessary evil. Day in and day out there was little to do so when we volunteered for this mission we looked at it as an escape from our daily routine. Hayden was a genius now. The time I spent in the nexus he spent studying astronomy, physics, fringe science, even genetics. He was a part of the research team working on trying to figure out the location of Eden and what we were actually getting ourselves into. We were close now. The Erebus autopilot was beginning it’s decent. We were closer then we had ever been and yet we still had no idea where we were going. The descent would take years as our computer scanned for habitable worlds but it still meant we were closer and closer to our endgame. I knew a lot more now then I had when I was younger. I had seen through the eyes of over a thousand different people. I had seen people make mistakes, make love, make war. I had a much better understanding of where I, we had come from. I could make sense of why certain things were the way they were.
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