Slow Burn_Deep Darkness

by Stephen Landry

  ...the key to my salvation.

  Log - 35

  Earth, jungles in Menoa. A bullet flies past me inside the ruins of some bunker left unused since the resource war. I'm holding a sniper rifle just above the window. I look at the wall. The impact the size of my fist and I begin to laugh. Mizuki and Kal are laughing alongside me as I duck down. Another bullet flies inside hitting just above the first impact. My ears are ringing but I speak calmly,"Adjust accordingly." Mizuki sticks his rifle out of small hole on the floor he had been drilling out and fires. The target falls. I rise above the window. I'm still laughing, "Boogie down," I smile.

  "One more demon sent back to hell," he says taking a knife and cutting his arm. His arms are covered in scars to the point his skin looks like it's been burned. One cut for every kill. He has three fresh cuts from this day alone.

  Shear, Relay-13 in Athens Colony. Mizuki sits before me strapped to a chair. His arms, shoulders and chest are burned and bleeding. I can still smell the heat in the air as he stares up at me with tears falling in his eyes. Mizuki, the key to my salvation and all I have to do is set him free. One more demon sent back to hell. He tries to whisper something but I can't make it out. I can do this. I keep saying it over and over again to myself. I untie him. I'm not going to let him die in chains. I can do this. I say it again. I raised the Skrav sword into the air. I couldn't do it.

  "They are liars, all of them, Reynolds, Miguel, Abraham. Don't let them fool you," Mizuki said no longer whispering the words.

  "Have I ever lied to you?" said Miguel's voice in my ear.

  "You didn't kill me when you said you would," I said putting the sword down.

  There was silence. Then gunfire.

  Mizuki grabbed the rifle unhitching the sling around me and started firing at the door. It falls open. Abraham is standing there with a gun in his hand dead against the back wall of the relay. Two others are dead beside him. I lift Mizuki up and begin carrying him out. We make our way back to the mess area and I grab the EMP and cutting tool on the way. When we both collapse on on the benches near the table I use a piece of my shirt to wrap up his wound. "They are all going to be coming for us, use that now," he says. I turn the EMP on and nothing happens. "It's a fake," I shriek expecting my head to blow apart then and there.

  "Didn't think it would be that easy?" Miguel's voice, "glad the two of you could rid me of that too good Abraham though, what a waste, if he didn't have so many followers I would have done him in a long time ago, to truly believe all of this was to save humanity, to keep us pure and save the future. Section 17 is about rebuilding, together we are going to re-create the human race as something even the Skrav will fear," he finishes almost laughing before growing silent. We here something moving down the hall from us.

  "It's a scourge, a human weapon, they set it free, god dammit they set it free," Mizuki says. The creature that comes after us as I lift Mizuki up and begin carrying him through the tunnels that lead into Athens looks like a human without skin, with wires instead of veins, covered in red flesh and metal parts protruding from the top of it's wrists and bones like spikes from various places across it's body.

  I fire at it. The bullets rip through peeling it back like an onion only to reveal bones that look like pieces of a cockroach.

  "It's a prototype, a new weapon, a mutant human infected with Skrav tissue. A hybrid, a variant. They were experimenting with them on Earth. Bio-weapons created by Section 17. They continued to experiment with them on the Aelita. Miguel's forces shouldn't have access to them but their threads run deeper then even I thought. I'd been investigating them and Reynolds for awhile now. They have control of seven of the relays and have been blocking communication, they also have control of several turrets around the colony so its not like Reynolds or anyone can escape. We're tearing ourselves apart from within," Mizuki was rambling now going on and on about Miguel and Section 17, Reynolds, the corruption inside the Erebus, the Aelita, the Tritan. Talking about how we left several fleets behind that were trying to catch up to us. How humanity was endangered because we couldn't keep ourselves together. Even on the verge of extinction we still continue to find new ways to kill each other.

  We made our way into the Alpha corridor, we were heading towards an executive shaft when one of Miguel's men came around the corner. He was about to fire on us but then his head exploded. Behind him was another. Before I even got a shot the same thing happened. They were wearing collars. Miguel was watching every move still keeping me alive even after I tried to betray him. I was still his pet. We reached a large silver door that looked like a bank vault. It was all that stood between us and the colony. I tried to open it and I heard a female voice in a robotic tone say 'entry denied'. I tried again pressing my finger on it to scan hoping somehow I would magically be granted access. Three times and nothing. I tried once more before it finally opened. We could hear the scourge on the other side scraping its bone agains the door like nails on a chalkboard. "Sorry doll, that one took some time on my end," Miguel's voice, "I didn't mean to keep you waiting. Now listen to me, you really should let go of this fine fellow your holding up, he's slowing you down and wasting our valuable time. There are tunnels underground that will take you straight to the center. You may run into a few autos but ignore them they won't mess with you anyway. When you reach service tunnel 2-13 you'll be near enough the center of the city to come above ground," he finished.

  "You let that thing loose and now I'm suppose to trust you? Let you lead me into another fucking suicide mission," I screamed. Mizuki stared at me funny.

  "I didn't let the scourge loose. That was Abraham. It was a pet of his. When he died he fell back against a switch. Probably didn't see it with all the blood and chaos. He thought somehow going public with the creature would make others join our cause, I disagreed seeing the scourge as what it is, a weapon against the Skrav. Not even human, not enough to matter anyway, just another weapon for war. You have to see where this is going, if we don't recreate ourselves we won't survive, the Skrav have already entered our system. It's only a matter of time now before Shear fall and we leave on our great exodus again," Miguel was ranting. He was trying harder and harder to sway me to his side. Like I could trust someone that has said and done this to me.

  I continued to carry Mizuki all the way to 2-13. I carried the rifle in one arm while I focused on carrying his weight with the other. Together the two of us worked together to make our way through the dark tunnels lit only by small lights planted by the autons for future humans. We were still being chased. The scourge had managed to break through the door. It was stronger then we gave it credit for. We could hear it tearing apart the autons we passed on our way. The sound of metal on bone, the cries of the beast in agony. Mizuki and I were standing near the ladder that led to the surface when I began firing back. The creature dropped but began to regenerate quickly. It was healing itself. Twisting its body and mass as it did. Every injury created a new kind of mutation.

  Mizuki took the rifle and sword from me. With the sword he slit his left wrist in two places. "Two more to send to hell," he said handing the blade back to me. He was already firing at the scourge. Slowly I began climbing the ladder to the surface.

  Log - 36

  The Battle of Coalucha

  My first job as a freelancer. I had been free of Squad 13 and Reynolds control for three months and already I was growing bored. I had enough money to set myself up with a fairly nice place in the a bigger city on the coast off of what use to be Maine. I still had a couple of friends inside the Hegemony and they were already sending me leads I could look into. Finally after much deliberation I took one. Most freelance jobs were security or black ops. Some of the smaller jobs were case files passed along by the military or police chapters. The job I took was a small job investigating some stranger things happening in a small town in Dakota. Miles from the town of Coaclucha where a Skrav freighter had gone down. It wasn't your typical Skrav ship as most were destroyers, sma
ll fighters, and transports. This particular ship was unarmed with a small crew found dead inside. Parts of it were highly radiated so it had been left quarantined for a time. There had been fifteen missions inside with very little found. The Skrav ship was the same as the others. Partly organic, alien, filled with the dead.

  Since my time with Squad 13 I had developed a fascination with the Skrav. Almost an obsession. What were they? Why were they? All the usual existential questions and then some. Just the fact that we were no longer alone in the universe that our first encounter with alien life had been so violent. Why? Why did we attack? Why did they attack? There was so much mystery surrounding them even though we had their bodies, their technology. This particular case had involved several disappearances. People were investigating the ship on their own never to be seen again. The police put up signs but the ship was half buried and half a mile wide with forests in either direction. It was near impossible to keep anyone that really wanted in out and it wasn't worth the resources. The case was left to freelancers like myself to investigate. If we discovered the cause of the disappearances we would be paid a nice sum in full, if we found nothing we would be given nothing. That was how most of these jobs worked.

  I hired a tour guide. One of the locals. A superstitious man named Mayhew that had gone inside the Skrav ship several times before swearing never to venture in again when he said he saw a ghost. He believed that the area around the Skrav ship was haunted by the dead aliens. That their ghosts couldn't cross to the other side this far from their home world and that they were damned to try and carry out their mission for eternity. I stayed the night at Mayhew's home before interviewing several locals and hot spots. The city of Coalucha was growing. It wasn't a big city but it wasn't small by any means. It was new. Established by the Hegemony. They had several skyscrapers and a space port. They were even building a space elevator near the port. One day the goods transported here would be supplied into orbit for starships too big and broad, starships that would explore beyond our solar system. Already several new fleets were being built near stations at the Lagrange points of Earth. After a good nights rest Mayhew and I went out early in the morning and he led me to the ship and one of the openings in which I could venture by myself inside.

  I took a small rifle, battery operated with an bullets. Not the kind of thing I was used to but if there were any Skrav or wildlife living inside I would be ready. I had a flashlight attached to the gun and one around my waist. Another spare in my pack along with a days worth of food, water, and rope. I also had a radiation gauge clipped to my belt. I was wearing a white shirt, vest, and cargo pants. To be honest I felt more like an archeologist then a freelancer. I wasn't planning to spend more then a few hours at a time in the crashed ship but I was preparing myself for anything. I had gone inside Skrav ships before with Squad 13. Some of the off world ships were used by smugglers or hotbeds for terrorists. Skrav ships were still almost entirely in tact in orbit around Deimos and were nests for all kinds of insurrectionist activity. Skrav tech could sell for a million on the black market, the only channel you could buy or sell in since it was illegal everywhere else. Even the smallest bit of alien tech was considered property of the Hegemony. Not that they needed it. After the first invasion there were hundreds of Skrav vessels to pick from and the ones with the least amount of damage were taken to secret bases across the system. We owe more then half our modern world to the scientists that have reverse engineered their technologies and from what I had been told we were barely scratching the surface.

  Three hours in and I'm lost. Somewhere deep in the heart of the skrav ship I feel like I'm wandering through a maze. I was marking my way with red tape but now there was nothing. Like something had hid behind me tearing the pieces away. I had a small map, a print drawn by scavengers that claimed to have been through the entire Skrav ship but now it felt more like a fake. Something a gift shop would sell never guessing anyone would ever venture inside. The deeper I went the colder it grew. I was freezing by the time I came upon a heat source. A small ventilation shaft still covered in some kind of weird ooze. I crawled through it and found myself more then a thousand feet below the surface. I was no longer inside the Skrav ship. I was in some kind of cave. I could feel the air was thinner but I was still able to breath fine. The radiation was a little worst but not lethal levels. Not like I was worried about going sterile. I continued my way hoping to find some kind of cave opening when I came across a waterfall.

  High in magnesium I tested the waters for radiation. I didn't dare drink any of it. I felt very proud of myself for having brought along plenty of supplies. Mayhew knew if I didn't return in twenty four hours that he was to alert the authorities. They probably wouldn't do much but maybe they would at least send a rescue dog in after me. Given all the superstitious bullshit surrounding this place I knew I was on my own. I climbed upward beside the falls. It wasn't ideal but better to move forward I thought. The water was flowing from an old sewer. Finally I had an escape route.

  After the first invasion the Skrav that survived infested caves, forests, jungles, and sewers. Hiding themselves from humans, using what guerrilla tactics they could to survive. They were lost on an alien world hunted down until there were none left. It seemed that information was wrong. We knew there were a few cells even back in Squad 13. Occasionally teams were put together to deal with them when they became a problem but none of them were a threat. In the sewers below Coalucha there was an infestation. As I wandered the sewers I found several dead Skrav husks. They were barely decomposed. Lost in the maze probably moving equipment from their ship. In another tunnel I found what looked like a laboratory. Human and Skrav equipment rigged to several generators. Equipment looted from hospitals. I also found the missing bodies. Several husks of human flesh ripped apart. Bodies skinned. Faces barely visible BUT still recognizable as human strapped to tables. Some of them looked like they had been dissected. Others were missing skin, eyes, teeth. Bits and pieces chopped up here and there scattered across the floor. The smell was worst then anything. I gaged several times before putting on a small mask I had in my pack. I took out a camera I had taken with me. I took photos. I had everything I needed. Mystery solved.

  The Skrav were still alive and well kidnapping humans and mutilating them. Experimenting on their bodies. I guess it was only natural. We were doing the same thing to the dead Skrav. Curious animals being animals. Inside the Skrav lab there was something else. Something strange I had never seen in any of the information available I had. It looked like a red flower but made of some kind of exotic metal. Several wires ran out of it to several bodies laid against the back of the cave. The bodies were breathing. I wasn't alone. At first I thought maybe they were survivors. People that had been recently captured but the closer I came the more abstract they began to look. Their flesh was sewn. They were wearing layers of clothing but two of them were shirtless wearing only black sweatshirts. They were human but around their stomach were two Skrav arms.

  Skrav had been mutilating themselves to blend in. Their faces mistaken for hideously scared. Right now they were sleeping. I continued down the corridor counting ten pods total. Each tied to the red flower. Then I turned the corner. Another red flower, another ten pods. Then another. Soon I was running. The Skrav in the pods were less and less human. It was a stasis chamber. The red flower was some kind of life support system. The freighter had been a seed ship. That was the difference the reason it was unlike any other. The Skrav were ready to colonize our world should they have won, had we not been ready. Now they were desperately trying to adapt.

  I see something move in the dark. I hold my rifle against my shoulder ready to fire. Chances are if this IS a stasis chamber then they won't wake up. If I'm wrong then I'm screwed. I take the chance. I hear the creature shriek. I moves towards me. It looks like an old man, a burn victim with half his face hanging off with a hunchback and tumors across his bowel. I can see the Skrav arms on his / its stomach as it crawls across the ground
. It's screaming moving it's mouth like a man as if it is trying to say something.

  Almost like it's asking for help.

  I fire my rifle again before it can. Fuck if I'm going to be the first person in history to actually talk to one of these things.

  I was in the dark for seventeen hours before I made my way to the surface. Stopping only to eat and replenish my energy. I had taken three adreno shots while in wonderland just to keep myself from passing out because of exhaustion. When I crawled out of the rabbit hole I was covered in dirt, blood, and bruises. I made my way back to the road where a stranger picked me up and took me to the closest E.R. Soon after I was hooked to an I.V. And I made the call. I let Reynold's know everything I had seen and I uploaded the pictures to the Hegemony and my client. Several million moved into my account and the next week Coalucha was wiped off the map. The entire city was nuked from orbit. 'The only way to be sure'. News reports said it was something with the space elevator gone wrong but I knew better. Several million innocent lives lost because of fear.