by Various
Below Hollett’s dangling feet, Sabu’ro raised his rifle to his helmet and fired a single, well aimed energy bolt into a nearby cluster of the creatures. The shot tore clean through one of the monstrosities and the thing fell, spasming and spewing. Shadowsun launched herself forwards to meet them, the thrusters of her suit sending up a plume of mud. She landed and brought the flat edge of the fusion blasters down on the nearest thing’s head. Its gelatinous skull caved in, coating her arms with fatty blobs of flesh and ruptured eyeballs. The remaining five surged ahead. Enormous mouths snapped. Claws scrabbled over the surface of her suit. She raised her arms to shield her face and locked her knees to prevent being bowled over. Unable to deliver any kick attacks, she felt as if she were fighting in a pool of glue, partially restrained and capable of moving only in slow motion. A claw missed her eye by the slimmest of margins, tearing a ragged slash down her cheek. She shoved the weight of the suit against the swarm and tried to hold on. When a pair of jaws swallowed her right forearm, she fired the fusion blaster down the attacker’s throat.
Hollett took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. He had tried to warn her. Diepr-3 was no death world, but it still possessed its share of dangers. The boggy lowlands in particular were a haven for several carnivorous life forms, with the fen skulks being some of the worst. The snake-like amphibians would lie beneath the muck for days at a time in a state resembling hibernation. They leeched some basic nutrients through their skin, enough to keep them alive, but not enough to truly satisfy. Whenever they detected large vibrations in the mud, they would come awake and attack the source. A small platoon of men on foot could travel through the swamps with only a slight risk of waking the monsters beneath, but the thudding of a sentinel walker or other heavy machines would send them into a feeding frenzy. In this case, it had been the bovids – stupid, flighty things – that had roused the skulks. The ursaloth had only made things worse, stomping around with its terrible bulk. For that matter, he wondered detachedly, what was the Highland King doing this far south, and so far out of his element?
As if responding to Hollett’s thoughts, the ursaloth roared and shook itself like a wet dog. Fen skulks flew off in all directions. Then, bellowing its dominion, it charged forward, head lowered, antlers plowing a massive furrow through the bog. Kou’to’s remaining warriors were buried beneath a tidal wave of loam and stomped flat by paws broader than their shoulders. The shas’ui himself was pushed along helplessly, his rifle lost and his hands desperately grasping for something to hold on to. At last, the ursaloth crashed into a particularly wide razor tree. Slime and water cascaded. The trunk snapped in half with a sound like thunder. Hollett caught a glimpse of Kou’to’s broken body as it sailed through the air and crashed into the underbrush. He swung his leg over the side of his perch, cut himself once more on the bark, and dropped to the ground.
Shadowsun continued to struggle against the fen skulks. Dimly, she realised that young Sabu’ro had joined her in the fray, sweeping the air with the butt of his rifle in an attempt to keep the monsters away from his commander. She clapped the fusion blasters together, crushing a fin between them, and then drove her knee into a mound of gelatinous flesh. The last of their attackers darted forward. Its tail wrapped around Shadowsun’s body. Its gaping face lurched to the side. Sabu’ro suddenly gave a sharp cry. His right arm had vanished at the elbow, swallowed by the frothing skulk. He held the spurting stump aloft and stammered incoherently. The front of his armour was stained dark blue.
Shadowsun risked dispatching the thing with a shot from one of the fusion blasters. The monster seemed to catch fire beneath the skin and erupted in a shower of goo. The heat melted a section of her suit’s frontal armour. She whirled around to catch Sabu’ro as he stumbled.
‘Vesa!’ she cried. ‘Vesa!’
She glanced up to see the ursaloth surrounded by a fresh mass of fen skulks, stomping and roaring. The bodies of her fire warriors lay scattered about the bog, broken and torn piecemeal. Not one of them moved or responded to her calls for help. Rather, it was the gue’la that grabbed Sabu’ro around the waist and hoisted him over his shoulder.
‘We need to go. Now!’ he yelled. He jerked his head towards the rampaging giant. ‘While he keeps them busy!’
‘The others…’ Shadowsun began weakly.
Hollett was already pushing through the swamp with wide strides. ‘They’re all dead. Even Kou’to. I checked.’
Shadowsun followed Hollett through a growth of dusty yellow-coloured shrubs and past a thick copse of razor trees. The Guardsman seemed to know exactly where he was going, and he made great strides through the mud. Sabu’ro’s blood left a spreading swath of aquamarine down the back of Hollett’s greatcoat. He groaned weakly as he was jostled about. Shadowsun tried to offer encouragement.
‘Remain strong,’ she told him, ‘you still have much to contribute to the mission.’
After some minutes, they began to climb up and out of the swamp. The mud was replaced by drier ground, scattered with rocks. A creek rushed along nearby. The water was thick with ash and dust. The ursaloth’s rampaging could still be heard on a wind that reeked of carbon. Hollett dropped to his knees in the midst of the stream, and put Sabu’ro down against the bank. He plunged his hands into the filthy water, and splashed his face. His breathing was laboured. Sweat ran freely down his face and left dark stains under his arms.
‘Little guy’s heavy,’ he muttered.
Shadowsun had stopped a few steps away. Her face was contorted. ‘The air,’ she said, ‘it’s getting very bad.’
‘Because we’re close to fires,’ he panted. He stood and began to remove the yellow sash he wore around his waist.
Shadowsun opened her palms and made a shrugging motion. The fusion blasters dropped into the grey water. She knelt down next to Sabu’ro and removed his helmet. The young tau’s face was pale. His eyes rolled about. ‘I need something to staunch the wound,’ she said.
Hollett thrust the golden cloth at her. ‘Here.’
She grabbed it without comment and clamped it with both hands over the stump below Sabu’ro’s shoulder. ‘Hollett-la, on my hip there is a small compartment. Get the cylinder inside, remove the cap, and hand it to me.’
As the Guardsman began to do so, Sabu’ro shook violently, looked up at his commander and said, ‘I’m so sorry… so sorry.’
Shadowsun shook her head. ‘There are no personal setbacks,’ she quoted, ‘only steps forward for the Greater Good.’
Sabu’ro managed to smile weakly. ‘Aun’va’s words.’
Hollett passed the tiny silver tube to Shadowsun, who pressed it into the side of Sabu’ro’s neck. She did not notice as Hollett then took several steps backward, opened his coat, and slowly pulled a cumbersome object from the small of his back.
‘I’ve given you a tissue rebuilder,’ Shadowsun told Sabu’ro. ‘It will help to seal the wound, and rejuvenate your blood supply.’
‘The commander should… leave me behind. I will… only… slow you down.’
‘Too many lives have been cut short already. Yours will not be one of them. Besides, I will need your expertise at the gue’la communications array to contact the fleet. We have to keep going.’
Sabu’ro closed his eyes. Shadowsun cupped some water in her hand and tenderly drizzled it over the young tau’s face.
‘Will he live?’ Hollett asked quietly.
‘I believe he will,’ she said as she examined the makeshift compress. Sabu’ro’s blood had turned the sash a bright green.
‘Good. Then get up slowly, and turn around.’
Shadowsun scowled and whipped her head around in fury. ‘I do not take orders from–’
Her eyes widened. Hollett was standing astride her discarded fusion blasters, leveling a massive pistol at her. It glowed from within and wispy tendrils of steam escaped from exhaust ports near the muzzle.
‘This f
ires plasma,’ he said flatly.
Shadowsun swallowed in a dry throat. She knew the term. One shot from Hollett’s sidearm would likely puncture her battlesuit, and annihilate her within it. She lay Sabu’ro’s head down on the bank, and slowly rose to face the major.
‘Where did you get that?’ she asked dumbly.
‘Took it from Kou’to,’ Hollett replied. He did not blink. His hands were rock steady.
She was stunned to realise that she had absolutely no idea what to do. Never had she so quickly and easily lost control of a situation. All her life, it was she who was the one in control. ‘What now, then?’
Hollett raised his chin. ‘“You have squandered the lives of your men, and been defeated.” Isn’t that what you said to me?’
All the strength seemed to drain out of her. ‘Yes.’
‘“And as an officer, you will doubtless wish to now die with honour.” Something to that effect.’
‘Yes.’ She was thankful for the rigidity of her battlesuit. Its reinforced joints would ensure that she was standing when she died.
For a moment, neither of them spoke. The creek gurgled around their ankles. The air was hot and heavy.
‘I’m not going to kill you,’ Hollett announced. ‘Emperor knows I’d love to. Emperor knows that I should. But I can’t.’
Shadowsun didn’t move. ‘I am to be your prisoner then?’
‘Tempting, but also no. Doing either of those things will have only one effect that I can see, and that is, to back your people up there,’ he gestured to the sooty sky above, ‘into a corner. If you’re captured, they will try to rescue you. If you are killed, they will feel compelled to avenge you. In either case, they will bring that armada into low orbit and dump on us with everything they have. Oh, sure, they’ll take a few losses. Maybe a lot. But in the end, they will destroy the defence laser and the colony around it with… I don’t know… whatever doomsday weapons you people employ. The seas will boil, the forests will be incinerated, and everything I care about will just be dust on the wind.
‘So, I’m going to take the only option left to me. I will get you to the comms array. I will take the planetary targeters off-line, and I will let your friends in space come down here and collect you. But for this, there is a price.’
Shadowsun sneered. Here it was revealed at last: the self-serving greed that was the cornerstone of every gue’la life. ‘You are hoping for some kind of clemency, Hollett-la? You think that by co-operating with us, you will gain favour when we annex this planet into the Empire?’
Hollett shrugged. ‘I won’t be around,’ he said. ‘You’re going to relocate me off-world.’
She was physically taken aback. ‘What?’
‘It doesn’t matter where, so long as it’s sparsely populated and far away from here.’
‘I don’t care what you say, you are a traitor to your kind, Hollett-la. A spineless, snivelling coward.’
‘I should just leave then? You and your one-armed sidekick can wander the burning countryside and hope that you find what it is you’re looking for? Maybe while you’re at it, you’ll stumble across another Imperial officer willing to get you inside.’
Shadowsun’s eyes narrowed.
‘That’s what I thought.’ He lowered the pistol to his waist. ‘Make no mistake. You’re no better than I am in this mess. We’re both equally guilty of collusion with the enemy. So, do we have a deal?’
Shadowsun was reluctantly impressed. She had taken Hollett for a simple turncoat, a man too weak to accept death before dishonour. But she had sorely underestimated him, she saw that now. There was something driving his actions, something far more than simple self-preservation.
‘Why are you doing this?’ she asked earnestly.
‘Do we have a deal?’ he repeated.
Her mouth worked as if she tasted something sour. ‘Dao,’ she replied at last. ‘H’ai mesme ‘hee vash.’
Hollett waited.
‘Yes,’ she hissed in translation. ‘We are joined in a purpose.’
He stepped back so that he was no longer directly over the top of her weapons. ‘A bit long-winded, but good enough for me.’
Shadowsun cautiously walked forwards and reattached the fusion blasters to her battlesuit. They hummed softly as the power couplings clicked into place. She and Hollett regarded one another for a moment, each half expecting the other to squeeze a trigger or depress an activation stud.
‘We’d better get him up,’ Hollett said, indicating the place where Sabu’ro lay. He splashed his way down the creek, picked up the helmet, and then hoisted the young tau up on to his hooves. Sabu’ro stood wobbling midstream. Hollett pressed the helmet into his hand.
‘Nuni,’ he slurred.
‘You’re welcome,’ Hollett grunted. With a glance to Shadowsun, he began sloshing down the creek once more. ‘It’ll be better if we stick to the water now,’ he called.
Shadowsun extended an arm for Sabu’ro to lean on, and together, the two of them moved after Hollett. To the west, the sun set on a burning world.
The air grew worse as they travelled. The creek was joined by others until they were traversing down a narrow river. On either side of them the forest was a tangled wall of silhouettes shot through with flecks of orange. After an hour of staggering along, they passed their first flaming tree. Hollett double-checked his refractor field and surveyed Shadowsun. ‘How insulated is that suit?’
‘Less so without a helmet,’ she conceded, ‘but the shield generator is still intact. It will do.’
‘And Sabu’ro?’
‘His armour is fully environmental.’
‘Good, because we’re about to walk right through it.’ He dug into one of the deep pockets of his greatcoat and produced a large handkerchief. He dunked it into the water, and began to tie it around the lower half of his face.
‘I see now why you warned me against travelling directly south,’ Shadowsun said. ‘Surely though, you must agree that taking the road way would have been just as perilous.’
‘It’s all on fire now, so it doesn’t much matter. They were going to die no matter which way you chose. This is a lose-lose situation.’
‘Damned if you do, and damned if you don’t. Isn’t that a proverbial saying among you gue’la?’
‘Pretty much.’
She shook her head in disgust. ‘What a negative species you are. Everything is bleak and dismal. You have no sense of optimism or hope.’
‘So you say.’
‘Oh? Something gives you a reason to go on, does it?’
Hollett said nothing, refusing to take the bait. He resumed moving.
Shadowsun followed while trying a different tactic. ‘With lives so grim, I can see why il’Wolaho would be considered a treasure.’
‘Eel-walla-what?’ Hollett frowned.
‘Il’Wolaho. Our name for this planet. It means “the place of bright colours”.’
‘This planet already has a name.’
‘It will be changed shortly. When we pacify it, make it a proper, civilised world and remove any unwanted or disruptive elements. First thing I will tell the engineers to do is to drain that swamp and exterminate those snake creatures.’
Hollett smiled behind his impromptu mask. ‘The fen skulks? Yeah, have fun with that.’
‘Or that other monstrosity, the one that killed my warriors.’
‘The ursaloth?’
‘Whatever you call it.’
‘They aren’t monsters,’ Hollett said.
‘They are from what I’ve seen.’
‘No, no,’ Hollett waved his pistol in the air. ‘That one’s just been driven out of his natural habitat by the wildfires. He’s scared and confused and lashing out blindly. You know, you should feel lucky to have even seen one, especially one that old.’
‘Perhaps a zoo then.
We could capture and transfer them to the Central Menagerie on T’au for all the people to come and wonder at.’ She surveyed him coldly.
‘Do whatever you want. Like I said before, I won’t be here.’
Before long, there were burning trees on both sides of the river. The flames grew thicker until it was nearly as bright as noon. All that could be heard was a crackling rushing sound as the air was heated and sucked upwards. Orange light filled every empty space. It played across the surface of the water and stained the sky above. The temperature was oppressive. It wormed its way through armour and energy shields alike. They stumbled often and it seemed that their progress was slow. Time and direction seemed to have vanished. There were only fires and heat and the river which they blindly followed.
When they at last came to a strip of rocky, open ground where there was no forest and nothing to burn, the three of them collapsed. They could hear the roar of a waterfall, and for a dizzying moment, Shadowsun was convinced that she had simply come full circle, that her survival pod was lying nearby, still thought-locked and filled with water.
‘We’re near the Drop’, Hollett finally managed to say. He peeled off his handkerchief revealing a red and blistered face. ‘There should be a cliff not too far off, and a bridge.’
Shadowsun left Sabu’ro and managed to claw her way atop a nearby boulder. Behind them, the wall of fire cast more than enough light to see by. They were very close to the edge of a wide chasm, just as Hollett had said. To the west, a single bridge reached across the gap. The far side was quiet and dark.
‘Nothing’s burning,’ she panted. ‘On the far side of this canyon, there’s nothing burning.’