by Dan Worth
Razortail peered down into the darkness of the tunnel through the hatch in the floor before him. His keen night vision picked out the smooth floor some metres below; it was too smooth to have been constructed by the wretches who now inhabited this place. Sounds of vandalism came from the chamber behind him; his guards were defiling the ancient remains of the Dendratha priests entombed here, smashing and crushing their delicate cadavers. Bone dust filled the air. Razortail drew in a deep draught of the deathly scent, he found it deeply satisfying.
His comm. device crackled into life. The team he had dispatched to the capital were reporting in. They had been unable to locate either the human ambassador or indeed their own representatives, finding both residences deserted. Razortail pondered this for a moment. He had seen the files of Ambassadors Sharptooth and Keeneye: hey were dangerously liberal. They would be found and he would enjoy interrogating them. He issued orders to his men instructing to find all three ambassadors and capture them alive if possible. There was no harm in mixing business with pleasure now was there?
The hatch was rather small, it would be a tight squeeze for him and his men, fully armoured, to pass through it. Once his guards had finished their fun he sent two of them down the hole. They wriggled their way enthusiastically through the rusted aperture and landed with heavy thuds and skittering claws on the smooth surface below. The other two Razortail ordered to remain up here, to guard the entrance and prevent anyone from sealing them down here, as well as helping them to climb out again once they had finished their search.
Razortail stuck his head down through the hatch. Then, clasping the rim with his clawed hands and feet, he lowered the rest of his scaly body through, hanging for a moment from the ceiling before dropping cat-like onto four splayed limbs. He composed himself, before offering up a prayer of fortitude to aid them as he led his men into the gloom ahead.
As they walked, Razortail couldn’t help but be impressed by the perfection of this place’s construction. He wondered who had built it. Perhaps it had been placed here by God for the K’Soth to find? He could scarcely wait until they controlled the portal. Potentially, it was the ultimate weapon.
He began to fantasise about the holy hordes of the Emperor appearing as if from nowhere in the skies above Earth, above Keros and a million other worlds. He, Razortail, would share the glory as they wiped the unbelievers from a galaxy given by divine providence to the Empire. They would take revenge upon the pitiful humans and especially upon the hundred-times-cursed Arkari. Their worlds would burn as the humiliation they had inflicted was repaid a thousand-fold. Razortail pictured himself in his mind’s-eye, presenting the Emperor himself with the Meritarch Council, bound alive upon gilded platters so that his glorious leader might feast upon their entrails.
Razortail was roused from his reverie by one of his guards drawing his attention to the strange mechanical form that lay beyond a great set of half open doors. Its silvery armoured body looked fearsome in the extreme. Fortunately it was inactive, having seemingly been badly damaged in combat. Some sort of defence mechanoid perhaps? Razortail didn’t know, though perhaps the thing might yield important secrets if handed over to the Guild of Weapon Smiths.
He decided to press on. There was brighter light ahead, the source of the tunnel’s dim illumination. As they approached he saw a large space opening up ahead of them. Another strange mechanoid lay at its entrance and banks of weird machines lined the terraces around its circumference. It looked like some sort of control room. Excellent, perhaps that meant that the device was now theirs? Yes, this looked very promising, a holographic projection showed a schematic of the planet’s interior, its core of strange devices plainly visible.
Something flitted at the periphery of Razortail’s vision, a humanoid figure wreathed in light. It cackled, mocking him. Razortail drew his weapon, his bodyguards did likewise.
‘Oh, I wouldn’t bother,’ said the figure in Razortail’s own language.
‘You can’t hurt a god with your nasty little toys.’
‘Though you are welcome to try.’
Two more identical figures had joined the first, they circled about one another, merging and re-dividing as they spoke. Razortail eyed them suspiciously.
‘Heresy!’ he cried. ‘You are no god, worthless wretches! Where are the two off-worlders who came here? A Human and an Arkari, where did they go?’
‘Oh, I’m not a god?’ replied Maran. ‘Is that so?’
‘I walked as a mortal being when your pathetic race of base savages hadn’t even been called into existence.’
‘I am older than the very benighted star that sheltered your bastardised birth.’
‘And I will still be here once your kind is mercifully gone.’
‘Wiped like a stain from the galaxy.’
‘So if I am not a god compared to you, worm, then what am I?’ The three conjoined figures swooped down till they hovered just above the ground in front of Razortail. Merging fully into one, their light burned bright in his eyes as Maran’s avatars fixed the inquisitor with their gaze.
‘You are an abomination!’ cried Razortail. ‘Hell spawned devilry, nothing more!’
‘Oh, really? Well perhaps this morsel of information might change your mind.’
‘You believe your race was created by God, placed upon your world by him to do his bidding?’
‘You believe that your God resides in the centre of the star around which your home world of Sothon orbits?’
‘Yes, that is so,’ affirmed Razortail.
Maran grinned. ‘My race was first to rise to prominence in this galaxy and we reached a level of scientific expertise that you can scarcely comprehend. This portal for example: Even if you do take it for your own you have no hope of deciphering its secrets.’
‘For your information, your home system was created by us. We ignited the fires of the very star that you cretins base your entire belief system around.’
‘So get on your knees and pray to me you worthless savage.’
Razortail exploded. ‘Heresy! You are not my God and I shall kneel before no other!’ He swiped at the figures with his blade, which passed straight through the insubstantial trio. Maran cackled with glee. ‘Where are the Human and the Arkari!?’ cried Razortail. ‘Answer me wretch!’
‘The Human and Arkari you seek have headed for the core.’
‘The lifts are over there,’ Maran said, gesturing toward the far wall.
‘It’s quite a way down,’ he added. ‘But at least you have something to think about during the journey, eh?’ The figures pirouetted in mid-air and vanished, leaving nothing but the continued sound of their mirth.
The dust was beginning to settle in the defiled tomb. It drifted in the shaft of torch light that spilled in from the entrance, settling slowly on the armour of the two K’Soth warriors who now lay dead in the chamber. Their blood had flowed onto the dirt floor, darkening the ruddy earth until it appeared almost black save for the bright assortment of mangled entrails that spilled from the rents in their armour. One lay with his clawed hand clutched to his stomach, in death still desperately trying to hold his guts within his body cavity. The other had been shot in the back and also lacked a portion of its skull. It had been burned away by plasma fire, cooking the brains within. A light thud signalled the sound of armoured human feet landing on the floor of the tunnel below.
Chapter 30
Katherine and Rekkid still lay on the reclining seats within the lift as it continued its supersonic plummet towards the centre of the world. There was little to do in the meantime and they were fearful of talking lest the entity that called itself Maran were listening in.
Both were lost in thought. Katherine stared blankly at the smooth walls, whilst Rekkid tinkered with his computer, replaying over and over the footage of Marantis being pummelled by the K’Soth warship. It held a horrid fascination for him.
‘Hello again.’
Katherine jumped, startled by the sudden intrusion.
‘It is I, Maran, your gracious host.’
‘I just thought I’d inform you that three of those delightful K’Soth warriors are following you down in one of the other lifts. Their leader seems to be some kind of religious zealot.’
‘I think you’ll find that applies to most K’Soth,’ replied Katherine dryly.
‘Yes I am aware of that,’ Maran continued. ‘But I’d say that this particular one is an inquisitor of some sort. He appears to have tortured several Dendratha to death, demanding that they tell him the location of this place… and he seems very interested in you two.’
‘He made quite a mess of the temple.’
‘Especially after he crucified Makallis. Nailed the old goat to the front door he did. Even I could hear the screams….’
‘How can you be so callous?’ said Katherine. ‘Those are your people, or so you claim. Makallis and the others worshipped you, doesn’t that mean anything?’
‘Of course it does.’
‘But tell me, do you shed a tear when an ant dies?’
‘For Makallis… and your good selves… are little more than insects compared to me. Makallis was a fool. He only got into religion for the power and the politicking. He had no understanding of my true nature, what I could do for this planet had they only sought me out and set me free…’
‘And now you are free, what will you do?’ Katherine asked, with trepidation.
‘Wait and see…’ came the cryptic answer, and the sounds of distant chuckling.
‘You could start by taking your head out of your godlike arse,’ said Rekkid. ‘All this cryptic crap and manic laughter… frankly I think you’re insane. We ought to lock you up again.’
‘Not possible I’m afraid,’ replied Maran. ‘I’ve disabled the security systems.’
‘You realise the irony of this situation: an Arkari accusing me of delusions of grandeur.’
‘Your people like to think that they are the appointed stewards of the other races, invulnerable and unchallengeable. Believe me; there are things abroad in this galaxy that are far more terrible than you can contemplate, things that would crush your glorious civilisation beneath their heel without a second thought.’ The last sentence echoed hollowly in the silent cabin.
‘Anyway!’ exclaimed Maran suddenly. ‘What I came to tell you was that it seems that some more of your human friends have arrived, lots and lots of them. So maybe you will have a chance of surviving, or maybe not… we’ll have to wait and see won’t we? All part of the fun!’
The crew of the Mark Antony watched as the two carrier groups converged on the K’Soth fleet around Maranos. The Commonwealth relief force had split in two, the Gustavus Adolphus taking its group above the ecliptic, the Leonides swooping below in gigantic pincer movement. It seemed a strange tactic to Chen, as she studied her own display. The allied ships were already outnumbered over two to one and by splitting their forces they ran the risk of the K’Soth engaging one group and then the other and outnumbering them by twice as much again. She would commit her forces as and when she received clear orders to do, and not before.
The Commonwealth ships were terminating their jumps, bringing themselves to a halt around a million kilometres above and below the enemy fleet. The two gigantic Jupiter class carriers hung silently in the vacuum, surrounded by their attendant flotillas of destroyers, frigates and cruisers, goading the K’Soth to attack them.
‘Captain?’ said Singh.
‘Yes Lieutenant?’
‘There’s something odd about the frigates accompanying our carriers.’
‘Show me.’
He did so. An image of one of the ships flashed up in Chen’s field of vision. Instead of the normal gun batteries, its aft decks were adorned with large instrument radomes and panels. Further smaller blisters adorned the centre and fore section. The ship appeared virtually unarmed.
‘There are ten of these ships, Captain,’ Singh informed her. ‘I don’t know what the hell they are. I’ve never seen anything like these before.’
‘I have,’ said Ramirez. ‘I mean, I’ve heard rumours of these.’ He added, hurriedly correcting himself.
‘Please Commander, enlighten us.’ Chen prompted.
‘They’re the new Nereid class: electronic warfare frigates. They’re used to scramble the systems of an enemy ship. Once it locks on it virtually shuts down all its weapons and engines leaving it dead in space.’
‘I thought that was impossible without EMPs?’ said Singh. ‘Surely the shields would prevent electronic interference?’
‘No not these,’ replied Ramirez. ‘I hear it actually uses the frequencies of the target’s shields to amplify the signal. It uses them to batter the ship with interference. Some sort of hyperspatial effect coupled with standard jamming procedures.’
‘Well, well perhaps Haines did have something up his sleeve after all,’ Chen mused. ‘This could be interesting.’
The comm. flickered into life, the middle-aged, hispanic features of a female starship captain appeared in Chen’s vision.
‘Mark Antony, this is Captain Diaz of the Leonides, what’s your status?’
‘Good to see you Leonides, we were wondering when you’d join us,’ Chen responded. ‘I regret to report the loss of the destroyer Rameses. My own ship has suffered considerable damage to its fore gun decks and we have suffered over fifty casualties amongst our crew. However, we have made repairs and are combat ready. The other ships in my group have suffered minor damage but all are fit for action, though our crews are intensely fatigued.’
‘I’m sorry for your loss Mark Antony. Captain Lehman was a fine man. What is the status of our forces on the planet?’
‘Unknown. One of the War Temples bombarded the objective with its main gun and kinetic weapons before we could take it out. We lost contact with Colonel Simonov and his troops almost immediately and we haven’t heard from them since. K’Soth forces have also landed on the planet, though we managed to destroy a good number of them during the attempt. I will be recommending Captain Akbar and his crew for commendation in this respect.’
‘I see.’
‘Be advised also that we have patched into the monitoring relays in this system and we have detected huge numbers of enemy reinforcements massing on the Imperial side of the border. How long until the main fleet arrives?’
‘Haines will wait until the bulk of the enemy fleet commits to its jump and hence is out of sensor or hypercom contact. His forces should arrive shortly after they do. My orders are take command of the field and to capitalise upon the progress made by your forces, Captain Chen. We are preparing to engage the K’Soth fleet around the planet and lure the enemy into making this fatal tactical mistake. We would appreciate your support.’
‘You shall have it,’ Chen answered firmly.
The lift was finally decelerating. It braked steadily from its supersonic velocity without so much as a whisper. Neither did it induce the usual feelings of heaviness among its occupants. It came to rest a few moments later at the centre of world. The doors slid open revealing a brightly lit lobby and a passageway that curved away oddly into the distance.
Rekkid and Katherine stepped out of the lift, their footsteps echoing on the smooth metallic floor. There was a background of sound, a dull throbbing they felt in their insides rather than heard. Katherine pressed her ear to one of the walls. It was slightly warm against her cheek. The noise was slightly louder, a dull bass roar, like that of an underground river transmitted through the walls of a cave. It was the sound of the great engines at the heart of Maranos.
‘Come on,’ Rekkid urged her. ‘We have to hurry.’ He started down the passageway, his footsteps echoing in the hallway. Katherine followed in his wake.
As they walked, the weird geometry of the passage began to reveal itself. It twisted unusually, so that looking back toward the lifts it now seemed to the two archaeologists that they were walking on the ceiling. The passage twisted again, looping downwards in a further defiance of no
rmal gravity. It ended in a small series of chambers that housed additional machines resembling those in the control room under the temple. But there were precious few places within which to hide. It would be folly to remain here. A single opening in the far wall of the final room admitted a pale blue light into the chamber. Katherine and Rekkid stepped toward it. They passed through and gazed in sheer wonderment at what greeted them beyond.
The fleets had not moved. The K’Soth had not responded to either the deployment of the Leonides or the Gustavus Adolphus groups. Chen had signalled her remaining ships, but she was waiting for the battle to unfold before making here move. Captain Diaz now took the initiative.
The Leonides was now aligned with the K’Soth command ship, the Incinerator. Like the K’Soth vessels, the Jupiter class carriers also carried a gigantic plasma weapon. The unwieldy armament was slung along the belly of the carrier requiring the whole vessel to be re-orientated in order to fire it, just like its K’Soth counterpart. In fact, the design had been inspired by K’Soth War Temples captured during the last war. However, the Commonwealth had not merely copied the design, it had improved and greatly modified the weapon, making it more efficient, increasing its rate of fire and almost doubling its range by improving the coherency of the plasma bolt. Even so at such extreme range, around a million kilometres, the potency of the weapon was greatly reduced.
The Mark Antony’s crew watched in fascination as the Leonides began to fire on the Incinerator. It took just over three seconds for the blazing bolt of plasma to cross the distance between the two massive vessels. As it travelled, the coherency of the bolt began to break down, so that the plasma spread into a widening wave of energised particles which broke upon the top shields of the Incinerator.
The War Temple was in trouble. Though the power of the Leonides’ weapon was greatly reduced at this range, it had still succeeded in totally collapsing the dorsal shielding of the enemy vessel and the hull was now exposed. Worms of dissipating energies played across the ship’s super-structure. A further shot might not physically damage the hull of the ship a great deal, but the electro-magnetic pulse unleashed by another torrent of plasma would ravage its electronic systems, leaving it helpless. The K’Soth would have to respond or risk their vessels being rendered useless.