Log 1 - A Vengeful Spring
“You’re brash, quick tempered, and have no regard for your own well-being. That is why I know you will survive the trials and this life, Aust.” - Lady H
I had not been expecting much of the minute half-forgotten moon of Golden Rye. The briefing had been quick, matter of fact with little regard for the lives lost. Something along the lines of them just being the lineage of crooks and criminals from the original penal colony formed back in the Bronze Age of man over 400 years ago. They were never meant to live this long. Nothing should have come from them. Yet, they endured – thrived even to an extent. Now, they were wiped off the map over night by some vile beast of myth or maybe a creature which no longer wanted to stay a legend. Either way, my time has been called. My name is Aust Starflower, and I am a Warwick of the Isles of Pyrenees. This is my log.
Throughout all the galaxy, the Scythe system has to be my least favorite. It is limited in beauty and stifles you like a cold embrace from a stranger you once considered a close friend. Still, it had a charm up its sleeve here and there. Purison is that charm. A sole habitable moon orbiting the centralized mining operation of the gas giant Golden Rye. Purison hosts millions of lives. It helps produce hydrogen-3 fueling the Empire’s endeavors. It is a place well under the Empire’s control. It is not the deep space that is typical of a Warwick mission. That is why I took it. I had to know myself what has the empire so scared they would outsource to the Warwicks?
My helmet buzzed to life as I entered the moon’s atmosphere through my drop pod. All the information gathered by our scouting party and outside reports flashed before my eyes in monotonous detail. I tried to skim the notes, but my reading prior to the launch was more than sufficient in my mind. If I was learning anything new at this exact moment, then it was already too late for me. I would fail. The outside thrusters began to slow my descent just before impact. Per usual, they left much to be desired. My pod burrowed into the ground and locked into place before shooting me out of the top into the potential hazardous surroundings.
We had been spot on with our calculations – I had landed in the middle of the main road to Edwards just outside the first ring of houses. I opened up my face guard to allow the natural light to form a perfect picture compared to the optics of the protected viewing my suit. It was quaint. The outer ring of stone houses were marbled with the natural discoloration of rock faces against grass roof backdrops and majestically complex wildflower yards. I gave myself a second to drink in the surroundings before reminding myself the reason for me being here. I am not some tourist pattering around looking for lost delicacies and the luxury of a new land. No, I am like one of those vultures of the old west. I do not arrive until death is near. Then, I provide the vengeance for those wronged. Now was not the time for my personal enjoyment.
“B.R.I.E., can you do a scan of the area?” I request of my faithful droid companion. She slithers out of the compartment on the back of my suit and starts to hum faintly as she gets to work. B.R.I.E. and I have been working together since my time back at the academy before the trials. She is a more preemptive model for a Warwick. Most my companions had chosen standalone or combat models as their companions. I had no taste for those. They were bound to slow my down with their clunky nature. While B.R.I.E. serves not militaristic advantage, she is 1000x times more intelligent than any of those combative models. I can handle the muscles if she can handle the puzzles.
“No signs of life within the range of my scan, Aust,” she announces turning her beady sole yellow eye to face my own. I give a slight nod of acceptance and she winds back into her canister for safe keeping. I start my pace to the center of Edwards knowing what is already about to unfold in front of me. Within a couple more strides into the town, they start to appear. The dismembered and tangled bodies of those which called this place home.
Making my way to a more complete one of the victims, I kneel down and try roll them over to reveal their chest and face to the light. As I force them over, their brittle flesh and bones break in my hands like rigid sand. I reattempt to roll them over with more finesse this time. It works and my face turns white as I see the t paper thin and boney face twisted into an image a mummified horror. “B.R.I.E., what is the moisture content of this specimen?” I ask and she runs a scan through the optics of my suit.
“The moisture content of this woman is within a range of 18 to 22 percent, Aust.” She chimes into my comm link as I stare into the gaping hole in this woman’s chest where her heart is supposed to lie.
“B.R.I.E., pull up the port manifests and mark any unusual logs of deaths with the victims missing key vital organs,” I request of her rising to my feet and letting her get to work as I pace around to the empty fountain in the center square of this town. It must have been a beauty when it was flowing on the spring days like today. I can imagine the kids and women gathering to this location to chat and play amongst themselves. “B.R.I.E.,” I chime in, “expedite the search by cross referencing only voyages from the Anicro system.”
A few more seconds pass before B.R.I.E launches her finding on my data screen for my review on my left wrist. “There is only one instance of the circumstances you described, Aust. However, the date is too old for me to deem it relevant to our mission.” She says as I skim the notes from the captain’s log and police report. I finish piecing together the information. The gruesome injuries matched the signature of one creature. My stomach turns in knots as I realize the entire reason the Empire outsourced this job to the Warwicks. They were bloody damn scared, and I can not fault them for such. If this moon was not the sole habitable location for the mining operation, then I would argue we should nuke the entire damn surface.
“B.R.I.E., pull up the map of the surrounding area and reference in location with high moisture content,” I start but she cuts me off as if she knew the request was coming and applied herself to discover it first.
“The springs of Edifier are the most likely source and hiding hole in the area. Shall I chart a route to them?” She asks me then loads the data to my optics before I have to answer.
“Always one step ahead of me, aren’t you,” I laugh and begin to follow the guide path she has set for us. The road through the heart of Edwards is beyond beauty. The pride these people took into their homes and greenery could not be denied. Then again, it was all they had to their names. The reports of Edwards were short and simple. They lived for two things: the mines and each other. Everyone was family in a town like this one. It was not uncommon for the mining colonies to band together and form family like structures – it is what made this so damn resilient. It is how they survived the gas mines on Golden Rye, with each other watching their backs day in and day out. This is always where these beasts were found. They had a habit of finding the joyous and hopeful corners of space and tearing and burning them down until they were a mound of ashes.
As we broke through the outermost outskirts of the town and into the mountains, I had B.R.I.E. prime my armaments for me. The soft buzz of my holstered pistol and whip vibrated across each thigh as I pulled my rifle from the back compartment of my suit.
The way into the mountaintop valley was a well traversed hike. Still, I did my best to keep my wits about me and not gain distraction from the blooming moonwick flowers blossoming their sparkling silver flowers as the pollinators desperately danced their ballet against the backdrop of the high noon suns. If not for the grave circumstances bring me to this apparent paradise, then I would have found some of that inner peace everyone is telling me to find.
As we reached the near zenith of the mountain range, the rock face gave way to a series of caves carved into the sides with a mouth for an apparent waterfall that was dry despite the season. B.R.I.E. slithered out of her compartment to gain a better view above my head and perform a full scan of our surroundings. “How old were those logs from that ship from the Anicro system?” I request walking closer to the barren mouth of the waterfall.
“Two years, seven months, and thirteen days,” she rattled off without missing a beat.
“Fuck,” I mutter reaching down to pick one of the moonwick flowers frying on its stem from the lack of water in this once lush retreat.
“Aust, are you suggesting that the kletzo to has been wandering these mountains for nearly three years? I would have to advise we retreat. A fully mature keltzo is beyond the scope of our resources. The manual suggests a tactical retreat and the eradication of the planet surface. We must inform the handler of the situation,” she suggests in her tactful tone.
“It wouldn’t work. We need to at least now how far down this beast is held up before trying any form of orbital strike,” I say kneeling down to check my weaponry and to pull out some further material for the upcoming search. I adhere a flashlight to the bottom of my laser rifle then tighten the power coil from my hip to it ensuring all systems are ready for action.
“The Empire must be made aware of this,” B.R.I.E. says.
“The Empire knows. That is why we are here. If they wanted to nuke the surface, then they would have already done it. They will not risk losing the millions of homes and lives on this planet when they can solely risk ours. I know what we must do.”
“I do not advise this.”
“Just watch my six and start the tape,” I order of her.
I stand up to my feet and B.R.I.E. begins the tape. The hardened voice of Lady H plays through my left comm leaving my right open for B.R.I.E. and outside sources. “Kletzos are not a beasts one takes lightly. In a fight with a full-grown specimen, you will die. The best course of action is to gain as much information you can and report back to your handler for the properly disposal of the planet’s surface.” The tape begins and I scoff knowing that is not an option this time.
“B.R.I.E., fast forward the recording to the section regarding if one must fight a juvenile kletzo,” I request and the voice scrambles in my comm until it stops continuing.
“The weakest spot of a kletzo is the unarmored area below the neck in juvenile and female specimens. A full-grown male has no known weakest at this location. A sharp volley of blast in a tender spot then a slice at the neck is the best bet when facing off against one of these foul creatures,” the recording advises before I signal for B.R.I.E. to stop it. I lower my blast shield visor and prime the optics to give me full protection.
A series of dead torches lined the wall of the once live cave. Despite being fully encase in my suit, I can feel the charge in the air. It holds a pulse of dread to it like it knows the horror which is about to unfold for one side of the party. The sole click of my boots echo down the corridor of the cave as we come to and empty cavern where the ceiling rapidly disappears into a void of darkness. “B.R.I.E., can you do an echo location in an attempt to map out the construct of the cave?” I request scanning the cavern with the flashlight of my laser rifle. We are alone for now.
“Aust, I must advise an echo location blast would give away our location. Are you confident in this action?” She asks of me out of protocol. She knows my plan. She knows the entire reason that I asked her to scan with echo location and not a probe.
“This is a better spot than any,” I confirm her synthetic assumption. “Pull up a list of injectables, I want to build and enhancement before this all unfolds,” I say looking down at the data pad on my wrist. “Give me a unit of cactpie and half a unit of aloe wood then some drogade,” I order waiting a second for it to be administered into my system. I wince as the fire burns through my arteries and into the deep corners of my veins. You would think pain negators would not hurt so much going into to you. I always could understand the aloe wood and drogade burning as they are stamina and mental enhancers, but cactpie hurting makes no sense to me. I shake the fire from my hands and tighten the laser rifle stock into my shoulder.
“Are you ready?” B.R.I.E. asks while hovering over my left shoulder.
“Do it,” I say and a high pitch sound almost unnoticeable to human ears blares from the canister B.R.I.E. is located. The echo of the blast reverberates down the deep reserves of the cavern system. Finally, it stops. Silence overtakes us again. Yet, this time it is eerier than before. I tense my hearing and try to dial into any potential scattering of legs, but I do not hear a damn thing. “B.R.I.E., did you locate anything?”
“99% of the cavern system was mapped with the echo location,” she responds.
“‘What portion wasn’t?”
“The top of this chamber was not fully scanned due to the . . .” she is cut off by the splatter of something off to our left hitting the cavern floor. Without thinking, I roll off to the right giving in to my heightened instincts and paranoia. I was right. Had I not then it would have landed right on top of us. I release a quick three-shot volley at the back of the hideous beast. As if it was a nimble cat, the kletzo flips over itself to face me. Three slitted eyes glow in my optics through the darkness as I dial in the fine tunes to gain a better picture of the creature. I release another three-shot volley at its abdomen attempting to keep it at a distance, but I might as well be throwing pebbles into the ocean as it takes no notice and continues to push forward. I overcharge my flashlight not the bottom of my rifle hoping to blind the beast with a sudden burst it works. It staggers back a couple feet rearing its ugly head behind its claws.
B.R.I.E. takes over fine tuning my optics giving me a clear picture of the creature within the dark cavern. The three eyed leather faced creature finishes shaking its head to clear its view, then roars to display endless rows of jagged discolored fangs and teeth. A series of eight legs on each side of the main abdomen cling to the cavern floor with a set of pincers acting as the front limbs – its left one being smaller than its right. It is vile to look at as the face is nearly human. The three vertical slit eyes are dwarfed by the behemoth of a mouth and loose skin flaps acting as a nose. I kill the flashlight as it serves no purpose for me now, and I charge it up for other flash bang for when the moment presents itself.
I fire another volley of shots at the kletzo, but it has grown wise to my lack of fire power. It shuffles forward shielding itself with its claws before raising them in an attempt to appear more menacing. It damn well works. My heart is beating out of my chest, and I damn near shit myself as I comprehend the size of it. Fifteen meters longs and at least a quarter as wide. B.R.I.E. had been right, I was out of my league. B.R.I.E. knows something is wrong and chimes in my ear, “Aust I would like to remind you the longer this goes on, the more likely we are to die. At most, your enhancements will last fifteen-minutes with your current heart rate and level of adrenaline in your bloodstream. I would highly advise centering yourself and trusting your training.”
A grotesque moist flapping noise fills the cavern as the kletzo smells the moisture in the air and within my blood. As if driven mad by my mere presence, the kletzo lurches forward jolting the smaller left pincer at me. I whip away from the first strike, but it brings the second one across its body in tandem, and I am thrown across the cavern into the wall with great force. My back cracks and crinkles even with the protective coating of my suit, and I realize my hands betrayed me by releasing my rifle as I was flung across the room. I try to gather myself but all I hear is B.R.I.E. blare, “Get down!” I duck without a second to lose. The finer and sharper smaller pincer of the kletzo snaps above my head. Before I can comprehend the moment, the large pincer pins me against the wall within its clutches. Methodically, as if playing with its food, it begins to tighten around me.
“Warning, I am reading structural damage to the main exoskeleton of the suit. Aust, if this continues then the suit will be beyond repair, and you will be compromised,” B.R.I.E. wails into the comm link. The warning panels within my visor lit up showing the red fucking mess of my suit as I am crushed inside it. I desperately reach for any source of salvation.
“B.R.I.E., full power to the visor lights. I want a quick flash, and I want it damn well blinding,” I order before yelling, “NOW!” A burst of light emits from the sides of my helmet directly into the three slitted eyes of the kletzo. The shock of the event forces the creature to release its grip on me and stagger back dazed. I try to move my body, but the cracked and broken ribs limit my ability to twist myself up or breathe a complete breath. This is how I am going to die. This beast will strip my body from this suit then release my innards of their moisture and finally rip my half beating heart from my chest. I should have let B.R.I.E. talk me into nuking the entire fucking surface. I get up on all fours and hear the beast sharpening its pincers and talons against each other as its stalks near me. I have one last hope and that is to take this foul thing with me. “B.R.I.E., administrate enhancement mixture instinct, now!”
“Due to the health hazards associated with instinct, my programming requires me to ensure that you are certain of this choice. Instinct is for emergency use only, Aust,” B.R.I.E. explains, but I am having damn near none of it. I will not let this beast take me down as if it is a cat toying with a ball of yarn. I will die on my feet. No, I will have it die at my feet!
“NOW!” I bellow into the comm. A burning gas of teal and violet fills my suit. I drink in the hazard intoxicating cocktail into the far reaches of my lungs. I feel them collapse from the strain. My field of view begins to pinpoint as I am starting to black out. Was I wrong? Was my body no strong enough for this level of torture? I fight to remain conscious as long as I human can.
Then, the tide turns. My lungs begin to expand as my heart pumps a chilling blue flame throughout my veins opening up my field of view in all directions. My muscles feel revived and the pain previously jolting across my abdomen is gone. I jerk myself to my feet and roll just in time out of the way of the stampeding kletzo. I hurry to my feet and draw my pistol from my holster. I do not hesitate. I fire two shots at the back of the beast to tempt it into turning towards me. It does. The snap of it necks ends exactly where I was hoping, and I fire a shot directly into its central eyes. The kletzo roars and rears up in pain, and I act. With all the strength left in my legs, I jolt towards the beast. Stride by stride, I can feel my muscle fiber tearing itself apart from the strain of the ungodly strength pumping through my bones.
The kletzo finally notices my advance and jabs its quicker pincer at me. I dodge with ease then drop and roll to avoid its second predictable attack with the larger of the two pincers. I continue my roll under the beast and find its weak spot – the unprotected under neck of the beast. I unleash my full clip into it as blood begins to pour down on me. It riles and withers in pain before trying to crush me under its weight. I roll back from beneath it in one agile movement before drawing my laser whip from my right thigh. I strike it on the nose again and again until it rears its ugly head back revealing the tender neck for one final strike. I slash it across the stern of the spot and its head gives way from its body. The kletzo’s head drops to the cavern floor lifeless.
“B.R.I.E.,” I start to order but the synthetic adrenaline in my system turns over my stomach, and I fall to my knees fighting for every ounce of oxygen in my now cramped helmet. I undo the latches on the sides in the nick of time, as the fresh stench of blood forces vomit out of my throat and into the now bucket which was my former helmet. I toss the red, gold, and vomit-stained green helmet to the side.
“Aust, you are suffering the side effects of instinct.” B.R.I.E. says to me as I continue to puke until I feel my testicles retreat deep inside of my groin as they are replaced with pressure and pain.
“Your current heart rate is exceeding 197 bpm, Aust. Should I administration medication to assist you?” B.R.I.E. asks.
“No,”
“You need medical assistance. Shall I route a map to the nearest medical facility?”
“Yeah, get me out of here,” I say stumbling to my feet and laying on the floor for a bit. After the moment has past, I work my way gingerly to my feet attempting to avoid puncturing a lung upon on of my broken ribs. A navigation map depicts on my cracked wrist data pad, and I follow it through the way we came down into the cave system. As we make it to the end of the main tunnel, I feel an uneasiness in my stomach. At first, I consider it is only the sensation of the synthetic adrenaline coursing through my body, but I know this feeling better than I am willing to admit. Something is wrong. The weak spot on the kletzo was there, so it was either a juvenile or a female. “B.R.I.E., what is the gestation period for a keltzo?” I ask turning back to face the tunnel leading to the cavern.
“The estimated gestation period for a keltzo is around a year time. A full grown female keltzo can start producing after a year itself with a litter size of up to twenty,” she explains to me, and the fear in my temples pounds deep into the corners of my mind. This is not over; this is far from over for any of us. This has damn well just begun. Squeals echo down this main corridor. They are mournful and angry ripe with the desire for primal vengeance.
“B.R.I.E., prime my pistol and open a channel to the handler. Tell her that we need immediate evact,” I order quickening my stride to the main source of light dwindling from the mouth of the corridor as the chilling groan of beastly revenge nip at my heels.
