From the explosion a figure cloaked in ash and fire leaped out of the ruined structure. Slamming into ground below, the figure, a man, lay motionless. Embers rained down from the sky above reflecting the darkness of the night and of the stars above. The cloud of dust and sand surrounding his body slowly returned to the planet’s barren soil. Silence fell upon the arid landscape once more. In the emptiness the man could hear his breathing become shallow and weaken. Death’s grasp was closing around the man and for the first time in this life he was afraid.
"Get up!" The voice was distant, strained. The man’s mind was trying to will his body to movement, giving his body the commands it needed in order to survive a few moments longer. The solitary figure, an operative, a soldier in service of the Missive, alone on the edge of known space encased in cracked and broken armor thrust his arm into the earth clutching the dirt between his fingers and finally opened his eyes. The visual display of his helmet was cracked and the readouts were distorted. Metal and glass shards from the visor were now embedded in his face. As he rose from the ground, he ripped the fractured helmet from its connectors. Electric discharges and sparks bled from the armor. Their on the visual display the last image sputtering in and out of illumination was a warning, ’Anomalous Spatial Event Imminent’.
A shriek rang out in the darkness beyond the outer edges of the ruin structure above him. The soldier’s heartbeat quickened. He reached behind his waist and pulled out a rifle and flung his injured body towards the fire. He steadied his hand and focused on the shadows dancing around the flames. His silver eyes widened as he shot a volley into the shifting darkness. Tortured cries pierced through the sky and ran shivers down the man’s spine. He was fighting off the paralysis of fear when another shriek rang out. This cry was different. Not a sound of a wounded animal would make, but a vicious call to arms. He didn’t have time to think what these creatures were. All he knew is that they were intelligent, savage…alien. A species not known to the galaxy. And they were going to be his death. "No! Not here! You cannot let it end here without warning someone, anyone. The whole of the Missive could be at stake! Run! Get back to your ship!”
"A.N.D.I., open a link to the Plexus!" The soldier was escaping away from the structure, back to his ship near two kilometers away.
The auditory implant within his ear switched on. A woman’s voice spoke to him. "Unable to establish a communications link with the Missive Network."
"Why?!"
A pause, "Unknown."
The man uttered a curse beneath his breath, frantically thinking what he was going to do. “Start the upload of the Neuroglyph and transmit once a network connection can be established." Each breath he took in was agony. Each step he took slowed.
"Warning! Once neural upload has begun memory engrams will be locked. No additional neural connections may be created. Do you wish to continue?"
"Yes!"
"Please specify a recipient."
"Anyone! Post it to the Pale if you have to!" A blast rang through the sky echoing closer. The operative’s neural kinetic implants activated, alerting the Preventative Reflex System in his suit to evade imminent danger, but with the damage already sustained to the armor the sensors were unable to trigger the suit’s PRS. A blinding flash of light below the man’s eyes appeared and the energy blast slammed through the side of his abdomen. Blood and metal flew through the air. A section of his armor was ripped off his body, and with it flesh and bone was exposed from his ribs. The smell of melting skin filled the man’s nostrils.
A flow of narcotic painkillers was flooding his body, being triggered by the automated sensors within his suit’s life support system. The pain soon started to recede from his side, but the rush of adrenaline from the battle mixing with the medicine felt like a tidal wave crashing against the man’s mind. He turned, trying to see the monster that shot him, hoping to return the favor.. The darkness of the night being away from the structure interfered with his search. He couldn’t make out that anything was following behind.
The agent made it to a small outcropping of vegetation consisting of decaying grass, shrubs, and a scattering of trees that resembled an inverted palm tree. Leaning against one of the palms for support he took deep breaths trying to excise the pain building up in his abdomen, his arm instinctively braced against himself as he breathed to help ease the strain. With his helmet off, the man squinted into the distance searching for those shadowy figures dancing off the light of the now dying flame of the alien structure. "A.N.D.I., status?"
Once again the sweet voice of the computer implant spoke to him. "Neural engram coding at fifty-eight percent. Communication relay cannot be established with any known interface."
After one last scan of the landscape, the soldier closed his eyes, breathed in a tortured gasp of air, turned and ran further into the darkness. He passed out of the protection of the foliage, and back onto an expanse of dirt and sand. Forty-two percent and a miracle is what he needed now. As he ran through the desert a trail of dust lingered in the air behind him. A harsh wind swept across the plain, swirling the dirt high into the air and pushing it in all directions. Out of the corner of his eye he saw the outline of a figure chasing after him in the dust winds. A chameleon. The thought pierced like a dagger into his mind. Whipping around on his heals rifle in hand, he unloaded the last rounds in the chamber. Two shots made their target. The figure flew backwards, inadvertently firing a green discharge from his weapon high into the sky. The soldier didn’t move an inch as he watched for the figure to move. He dared to inch his way closer to his predator, but before he was able to move three more figures silhouetted against the swirling dust emerged into sight. His finger twitched against the trigger of his weapon. Click. The sound of metal hitting against the hollow chamber was the only sound that penetrated his fear. This was it, out of time and ammunition. This was going to be how it ends. He let out a shallow breath, and readied himself. The creatures stopped in front of their fallen brethren. One of them, maybe their leader, crouched down next to the figure and touched its head. The body of the creature lying prone on the ground turned to ash. Black powder sunk into the dirt and a second later was picked up and carried through the air on the wind. Turning towards the soldier, the chameleon grabbed its weapon and readied it to avenge his loss. The weapon glowed with the same energy that had ripped apart the soldier’s armor. As he saw the light of the weapon intensify, the soldier narrowed his eyes and awaited the next life.
The computer implant erupted with warning sirens in the soldier’s mind. Annoyed at the redundancy of what he already knew, he unconsciously and bitterly yelled out, “I know!” But it wasn’t the alien threat in front of him that the computer was responding to. Rather to a message that it had been trying to relay through the visual display of his helmet minutes prior.
“Spatial Anomaly Detected! Proximity Alert!”
“By the Gods-“, the whole world started to shake as the night sky began to burn with blue and white flame. The outer atmosphere was igniting from the shock wave of the planet’s exploding star. The creatures began scrambling back to the ruins that now began emitting a brilliantly bright verdant light.
All of the creatures, save one.
The operative dropped his rifle and instinctively grabbed a pistol from his side and began bombarding the area around the creature with plasma bullets as he turned and sprinted as fast as he could to his ship. Turning his head back, he could now see the creature clearly against the backdrop of an entire night sky turning to flame. Bright energy discharges were narrowly missing the soldier and creating small explosions against the rock and sand beside him. The soldier jumped over a rock face and found himself sliding uncontrollably down a steep crevasse. With tremendous pain, he rolled out of his descent and seamlessly continued his escape.
His ship was finally in sight and for a moment he actually thought he might survive. If he could only make it to his ship, he could fire the engines and escape before the planet itself explodes.
Above him, a blur came flying past and crashed only meters in front of the soldier. Not being able to stop his momentum, he could do nothing as the creature flung around and grabbed the man by the neck lifting him off the ground throwing him like a small stone against the side of the canyon wall twenty meters away. All of the air was forced out of his lungs as he gasped for a breath and at the same time grasping for his gun just outside of his reach.
The alien was already on top of him before he knew what was happening. The talons of the alien’s appendage cracked the soldier’s armor and dug into his flesh. Picking him up once again the creature thrust the soldier against the wall. Once the initial jolt subsided, he opened his eyes and finally saw the being that was standing in front of him. A meter taller and twice as wide as the human, the creature’s skin was luminescent and shifted colors. Its arms and legs seemed more bestial than the rest of his body which resembled that of a normal bipedal figure. The alien lifted him higher off the ground so that their faces were aligned. Instead of seeing the horridly disfigured gaze of a monstrous beast, the bloodied human saw a visage void of features. It had no eyes, no mouth, nothing but an empty canvas of contorting muscles as it studied the man’s own eyes. Slowly the muscles of the alien began arranging themselves into a copy of the soldier. The alien tilted his head and a voice from inside the man’s mind echoed as loud as a thousand screaming souls, “I-I feel your fear.”
There was something beyond the voice he felt within his own head. He felt the emotions and thoughts of the creature. It was absolute, the animus that emanated from it, and it wasn’t just meant for him specifically. It was humanity itself that the creature despised. Oblivion would follow in its wake.
The talons sunk deeper into his flesh. He could hear his ribs starting to spread apart and crack. His eyes were starting to roll back behind his head as the pain was too much for him to bear. When his gaze reached the sky, he didn’t see the bright fires of the supernova any longer. Instead, he saw the stars of the cosmos dancing across his pupils. It was truly a wonder, as if he was speeding through all of space on a planet for his vessel. The earth beneath him shook with a tremendous fury. When the euphoria of the experience subsided and the talons started constricting once again, he realized that it was not his imagination. The planet stopped moving suddenly, the seismic disturbances settled, and the sky was split in half. Distant stars, his home covered half of the sky, the other half was pure darkness. As the soldier looked back at the alien, he saw it twitch its muscles into a crooked smile.
Suddenly, the alien eased his grip on the man and sharply turned its head back towards the alien structure as if he were communicating something. Breaking through the pain radiating through the soldier’s body, his computer spoke to him, “Unidentified communication link detected, starting electronic viral hacking measures ... Connection established … Commencing upload of the Neuroglyph. Neural engram coding at eighty nine percent.”
Hope.
A small smirk showed itself upon the man’s face, and from the depths of human determination the operative coughed out a hand full of blood and laughed. "Fear is meant to be conquered." As the creature turned back to the soldier, two hypodermic needles sprung out of their compartment within the his suit. He grabbed one and shoved it into the creature’s arm. Reeling back in horror the alien clutched at his arm as it started to spasm. With all the strength that the soldier had left he took the other needle and leaped forward plunging it deep into the creature’s leg. He rolled away from the alien as it thrashed around shrieking its horrid cry.
Inside the syringe, a deadly bacterium was transmitted to the alien. Its effect on humans was instant and painless, essential for operative on the edge of known space when there is no hope for return. Its effect on any foreign DNA had never been tested. The operative watched as the alien’s arm and leg began to dissolve. Half of its body was already engulfed in a luminous mist.
“A.N.D.I. Lock on my location and fire!” The ship’s forward laser array flashed with angry retribution. With a volley of excited energy particles, the laser beam pierced through the canyon narrowly missing the crouching soldier and exploded against the alien. A final shriek from the creature rang out and then silence fell on the valley. The soldier laid back against the coarse dirt ground and look into the void of dead space above him.
“Error. Unidentified neural engrams detected. Corruption of the Neuroglyph possible.”
The Missive. The Union Republics, the very galaxy itself was in danger. If these creatures have crawled out of some distant rock in the galaxy, surely they would damn all of the human civilizations to death. The thoughts of the creature seared into his mind.
“A.N.D.I., what’s the status of the glyph’s upload?”
“Neuroglyph upload to unknown network at fifty-three percent.”
“Attach a self-replicating virus onto the targeting command pathway of the Neuroglyph to release the data package once the sequence code has been verified.” What did she mean by unidentified engrams? Could however the creature communicated with him somehow disrupt the neural coding process?
These thoughts began to permeate through the operative’s mind. He managed to hobble himself to his feet and was making his way back to his ship as fast as his broken body could take him. The pain, the fear of not knowing if the Neuroglyph would reach the Missive, or anyone in Homage for that matter kept him standing. Humanity needed to know what happened here, and this new threat. He needed to escape and tell the Missive what he had seen himself. There would be gaps in the memory engrams at the very least. The memories could be too damaged to decypher. Would this be the end of his existence? But for the hope of a miracle was once again what the operative had to hang on to.
He looked up into the sky, and for the first time since the moon had escaped the destruction of its star the realization of the operative’s situation became all too devastatingly clear. The stars he saw in the sky weren’t just part of the great spiral arms of his home galaxy of Homage. He could see the entirety of his galaxy hanging there in the sky as if it were the size of a nearby satellite.
The soldier’s spine stiffened, his heart stopped, and a fear that blotted out all light of hope engulfed his existence. Behind the soldier stood the same alien that he thought obliterated moments before. Re-birthed out of the depths of depravity and destruction. He felt a presence deep within his mind. It was pervasive and sickening as he felt it search his soul. A solitary hand reached out and grasped his neck. The talons of its hand cutting into his skin, blood was trickling down his body. The creature twisted the soldier’s body around to have him look at the deformed depravity of its visage.
“You will always be afraid, Joseph Wahl.”