Galactic Troopers

by Ian Woodhead

  “The visions are sacred, Danny. Only a select few are worthy of experiencing such a revered event. What you see here is a simulation. We have inserted your Chaplain into a simulated scenario to extrapolate the most likely outcome.”

  The view altered, and Trooper Cole saw exactly what was chasing the Chaplain.

  He gasped at the sight of three altered Gizanti racing along the corridor. “But, but I thought they were all dead.” Danny stared at Cladinus. “How can this be?”

  “My fellow Gizanti have been taken over by the alien invaders,” he answered mechanically.

  “Oh no, I’m so sorry about that.” Danny felt something inside his head give, and he received the uncomfortable feeling that he already knew about this. Trooper Cole took a deep breath and willed the feeling away after remembering Mr. Smith’s words about him getting close. “So this isn’t a vision. Okay, does this not mean that the aliens will attack the Imperial world?”

  The Gizanti sighed softly before turning around. “You need to follow me,” he said. “We still have much to do.”

  Reluctantly, Danny turned from the monitor and followed the alien. His mind was full of questions, but he stayed silent. He believed that the answer to even one of his questions had the possibility to confuse him even more that he was already.

  Cladinus led him into the hanger, and for the first time, Cole saw a large screen which displayed the environment outside the spacecraft. It didn’t surprise him to see that nothing out there was remotely recognisable. “Where are we, Cladinus?”

  “This is an ancient Gizanti colony world, my friend. Thankfully untouched by the alien invaders. It is also outside the Empire’s sphere of influence.” The alien pointed to a single combat suit already laid out. “I will leave so you can prepare. I shall return soon with sustenance.”

  As he started to climb into the combat suit, it didn’t surprise him to notice his voice of reason leaning against the hanger bay door scowling at him.

  “You are aware that your Gizanti pal is lying about the Chaplain. This ship could perform a million simulated scenarios without the human in the same amount of time that it takes you to put on that boot. Almost everything he says to you is either a lie or a distortion of the truth. You need to remember that.”

  He turned to Mr. Smith. “I’ve seen those altered Gizanti in a vision or dream.”

  “Didn’t think it would take long for some of the walls to show signs of crumbling. Yeah, you saw them alright, and so has the Chaplain.”

  Mr. Smith glanced behind him. “Listen to me. Most alien races would cherish seeing the human race being crushed beneath the boot of an advanced alien race. You need to ask yourself why the Gizanti seem to be so eager to help.”

  Cladinus walked back into the hanger and gave Cole some dry, brown food cubes. “The Battle Sister has created these just for you. I think you will find them adequate for your needs.”

  He nodded before dropping them into his pocket. “You still haven’t given me a good explanation as to why we’re here or why none of the others are awake.”

  “I simply do not trust the other humans,” he replied. “You are my friend. There is nothing else to say on the matter.”

  “Fine, so can you at least tell me why we’re here?”

  “All will be revealed, my friend.” He waved his arms across a grey panel. “Prepare yourself, human. There are many dangers in this world.”

  The hangers doors receded into the ship’s bulkhead and muted sunlight poured inside. Cole blinked before filling his lungs with the alien world’s air. It felt good, really good. His system detected none of the usual pollutants generally found on an inhabited world. He walked out of the ship and placed his boots down of the pale-yellow, sandy surface. It almost felt like they’d just landed on a virgin world. Cole quickly scanned the horizon. He saw no sign of any civilisation. No buildings, no vehicles, and definitely no people. This wasn’t a dead world; far from it.

  The surrounding landscape was mainly yellow rock with scattered islands of plants, their thin blue stalks reaching up into the azure sky. Some of them had to be ten times his height; truly amazing-looking organisms. Broad, red leaves with glossy black globes hung from the tips of those tall plants. He watched them for a moment and saw that he had got it completely wrong. They weren’t plants but the tendrils of some kind of carnivorous creature. He guessed that the bulk of the animal must lay under the earth.

  He realised his mistake when he noticed colonies of bird-like animals circling the tall stems. If any of the flying creatures got too close, those stems whipped forward and curled over the unfortunate creature before it pulled its prize towards the ground.

  The aerial creatures were the same colour as the Gizanti. Even from this distance, he could work out that they were at least three times larger than the creature stood next to him. He hoped they were carnivorous as well.

  He saw a single sun, and on the other side, two moons, one significantly larger than the other one. Cole still found it hard to believe that the God-Emperor had no clue that this planet existed. They must still be in the Galactic expanse. They hadn’t travelled far enough to have even reached the outer areas. What a beautiful and strange world. It could house millions of citizens with having plenty of land left over to help feed them as well as the rest of the Empire.

  “Come. What we seek is not on the surface.” The alien took off, moving at speed across the surface.

  “Wait for me,” he cried. Cole turned to see the ship lifting off.

  “Do not worry, Danny, She is just moving to a safe distance.”

  “Safe from what? Those birds?”

  Cladinus didn’t answer, he just carried on moving. The alien didn’t stop until he reached the mouth of a cave. Cole caught up with him. His question as to why the ship had left them stayed unsaid when he realised that this world wasn’t quite as virgin as he initially believed. He knew from past experience that this cave was no natural formation. He lightly brushed his fingers down the smooth exterior. There was no doubt about it. Sometime in the past, this cave had been opened up using a plasma weapon. It had fused the rock, turning it into a material smoother than glass.

  The alien reached into one of many folds distributed around his armour-plating and pulled out an Imperial blaster.

  He gently turned the weapon around, wondering if there was any point in asking how the alien was able to acquire an SS80. Only the Empire’s elite combat troops were issued with these. Cole pushed it into the empty holster and tried to stop himself from touching it.

  “Try to stay quiet, human. The creatures that inhabit this system of caverns are sensitive to sound.”

  The blackness enveloped them. He kept his hand on the butt of his new weapon and the other on the smooth wall. He couldn’t see or hear anything. For a creature three times Danny’s size, Cladinus could move with remarkable grace. After a few moments, his eyes started to adjust to the change, and he began to make out rough shapes in the darkness.

  They looked a little like strange rock formations. He counted over a dozen of them until the alien’s bulk obscured what little vision he had, rendering him almost blind again. Cole spun around and faced the mouth of the cave and used what little light there was to search through his pockets, looking for a flashlight. He was losing it. Why didn’t he do this before entering this stupid cave? To lose even one of his senses in a potentially hazardous mission was just asking for trouble.

  The contents of the jacket yielded a host of devices some familiar, others not so. Until now, it hadn’t occurred to Cole that the alien would have difficulty in distinguishing the difference between a compass and a Terran fusion heater.

  He sighed to himself. Why should it be any different? After all, to him, every device in the alien ship looked like the inside of some dead animal.

  Cole placed the items back in their respective pockets then brought out the few items that he didn’t recognise, namely the ones which fitted into the “inside of a dead animal” category
. It did occur to him that all he had to do was to ask Cladinus which one was a flashlight, but the alien told him to quiet. Also, Cole had no intention of asking anyone for help. After a few attempts, he managed to find one of these repulsive objects to do something other than cover his fingers in a thin film of sticky goo.

  He almost dropped it when a pencil-thin green light shot out from one of the devices. He squeezed the cylinder’s soft flesh-like surface and twisted it. The beam opened out, illuminating the inside of the cavern, casting everything in a dull green light. Cole turned back around and shone the beam over the walls, intending to examine those rock formations in greater detail.

  Those seven rock formations were crawling all over the Gizanti! He pulled out the blaster and fired at the only creature not attacking Cladinus, hoping that the noise would scare the others away. The pulse of superheated plasma melted the creature’s left arm. It screamed in agony, fell to the floor, and rolled around in the dust. Cole ran to Cladinus and booted the closest animal, not daring to fire again for fear of hitting the Gizanti.

  The creature turned and snarled at him. Cole responded by reaching down, grabbing its ear, and dragging it off. Its long, hairy arms swept around, and Cole had to jerk his head back to avoid the long claws on its paws from leaving five deep lacerations across his face.

  Cole pressed the muzzle of his SS80 against its stomach and fired once. Despite the gaping hole in its body, the creature still tried to slice open Cole’s face.

  “Push it against the wall.”

  Cole grabbed its throat and slammed the thing into the cavern wall, hoping the shock of the impact would at least stop it from trying to mutilate him. He didn’t have to worry. As soon as its body touched the wall, fine strands of root-like material whipped out from the rock and pushed up through the melted hole in its body and spread out across its body. Cole jumped back when a couple of strands reached for his hand.

  The stuff quickly covered its torso, arms, and legs. Cole had never seen anything like it before. He almost pitied the creature. He turned away when the fine strands expanded into its open mouth, grew up into its nostrils, and pushed hard points between its eyeballs and sockets.

  “Thank you, Danny,” said the alien.

  He was back on his feet. There was no sign of the other creatures. Cole guessed that they must have run off into the darkness.

  “They caught me by surprise. They had become more aggressive since I last visited here. It appears they had grown too. I do not remember them being so large.” Cladinus brushed himself down. “Thank you for your assistance, Danny. I’m at your service.” It was no longer moving; he guessed it must have died from loss of blood. It did not look alien at all. If anything, the dead creature reminded him of the great apes which once lived on old Earth, except, none of the holo images showed them with curved claws. He shivered at the thought of how close he’d been to dying. Come to think of it, if Cladinus wasn’t covered in those thick-armoured plates, it could have been him lying on this cavern floor.

  He got to his feet. If that had happened, what would have become of him? The alien’s ship had taken off, presumably now in orbit around the planet. Would it have returned for him and the Gizanti body?

  Cladinus picked up the ape-creature corpse and pressed it against the wall. Like before, strands of fibre started to grow over the dead creature.

  “Feed and grow,” he murmured. Cladinus turned to Cole. “I am sorry. I should have given you some warning of the dangers beforehand. I suppose it is redundant to advise you not to touch the walls, Danny.” The alien gave a close approximation of a grin. “The plant that grows on the cavern walls secretes a digestive acid; it will not do your flesh any good at all.”

  “Are you going to tell me why a bunch of apes from my home-world just attacked us?”

  “Who knows, my friend. Perhaps they got here during the first human expansion? Your species did not really care about species contamination all those thousands of years ago.” The alien gave that grin approximation again before setting off once more, moving deeper into the cave system. “Remember not to touch the walls.”

  So the alien didn’t tell him about the walls or the killer apes. In a way, he could understand that. Cladinus was an alien, and having different ideas about what consisted of danger came with the baggage. It’s Mr. Smith’s actions that annoyed Cole. Why did his voice of reason not give him prior warning instead of filling his head with hidden agendas?

  Cole stopped walking and tried to keep a bubble of hysterical laughter from leaving his mouth. Did he just accuse his imaginary voice of withholding information? He needed to focus on the real and not dwell on the imaginary. He lifted his blaster and ran his finger across the barrel. This was real. Cole looked in disgust at the alien flashlight which still leaked out the sticky fluid. That was real too.

  “We are here,” said a distant voice.

  He jerked his head towards the direction of the alien’s announcement. He was real as well and so was this situation. Cole chided himself once again for allowing his mind to wander before hurrying through the caverns.

  Cole discovered that he did not need the green beam from the organic flashlight in this new chamber. Several rectangular blocks embedded in the cavern ceiling flooded the area with harsh, white light.

  “Where are we?” he demanded. Cole dropped the flashlight and approached the alien, his eyes roaming around this cavern. Unlike the rest of the cave system, this cavern almost felt like home. There was no way that the artefacts pushed to the edge of the walls were alien. He stopped in front of a metal box the same height as him and ran his fingers along the surface. He had no idea to its purpose.

  “It was called a filing cabinet,” said Cladinus. “Your species used them to store sheets of thin white material called paper.”

  “I thought you said it was a Gizanti colony?”

  “It is, but it didn’t always belong to us.” The alien walked up to him, put his huge paws on Cole’s shoulders, and gently turned him around. “Come, it is time to finish this and return to the ship.”

  The Gizanti took Cole over to another piece of equipment. Cole didn’t need Cladinus to provide a description. He recognised the sleep-pods immediately, although these things were nothing like the models he had seen before. They were ancient, possibly thousands of years old. There were three of them, all arranged around a central pillar made of what looked like a primitive metal.

  Cole looked inside one of the pods and grimaced at the blackened interior. Plastic had fused with bone and metal. “Somebody had died in here,” he murmured. He gazed into the other two pods. The local wildlife had made short work the interior, but he saw no evidence of human occupation. “What happened here?” Cole looked straight at the alien. “Cladinus, tell me what happened here.”

  The Gizanti pointed to the central pillar. “Can you pass me that cube, Danny?”

  He’d noticed it earlier but just assumed that it was one of the lights which no longer worked. Cole placed his fingers around the cube and pulled it out away from the surface. “There, now can you tell me what all this is about?”

  “This is about a task that should have ended three thousand years ago.” He gazed at the cube before returning his attention to Cole. “It remained unfinished because we changed, Danny.” The alien abruptly turned around and left the chamber.

  “Wait!” he cried, running after him. Cole scooped up the flashlight. “What is that supposed to mean?”

  Chapter Ten

  They had politely asked Walish Din to retire to a sleep-pod before the ship began to cut through the black-weave. He had absolutely no idea what that was. Thankfully, his voice of reason had not left him. She explained that it was how these vehicles traversed the vast distances between the star systems, that they were able to fold spacetime and… At that point, he found his own mind folding spacetime as her explanation was as confusing as the ship captain’s original question.

  It was only when she told the Diannin that if they p
ut him into a sleep-pod, then his influence on the staff would cease and they were likely to throw him out of the airlock. She also told him that most sentient species who did not have the adaptive treatment generally went insane.

  Walish Din had not panicked or cried when his voice of reason had relinquished the news. Perhaps he was getting used to being given options which generally ended with either him dying in some gruesome fashion or losing his mind, sometimes even losing a limb. Instead, he stayed where he was, silently ordering his legs to stop shaking before refusing the ship captain’s offer of a sleep-pod.

  The human captain stayed with him and explained that as captain, the company took charge of the debt he’d incurred when he’d first had the treatment. He also expressed concern over his future career, considering the mess he’d just escaped from. The captain’s voice trailed off. Walish Din guessed that the human realised that he had only lost his position whereas he had just lost his world. The silence only lasted a few seconds. The talkative human then said that he’d never heard of any Diannin leaving their world before.

  The other voice in his ear echoed the captain’s statement, saying that he was the first of his species to travel into space, and as she had no available data on how their bodies would react to the stresses caused when the ship left normal space, it was impossible for her to say whether he would survive the change.

  Walish Din just wished that they would both stop talking to him, at least for a few moments. If his mind was about to be turned into mush, he would prefer to spend his last moments grieving over the friends and spawn donors that he had lost since this nightmare landed on his head.

  The captain actually did stop talking but only to leave his side to inform those still awake that they were about to leave normal space. His voice of reason wished him good luck before she too left his side. Walish Din took a deep breath when the slight vibrations coming from the ship suddenly stopped. He felt his stomach turning in on itself before his ears popped.