I will be reserved to those
whom I feel most inclined
prudently avoiding their
presence and conversations.
Kule Mine - Peligia
~~*~~
The jeep swung to a stop outside the craggy entrance to a cavern that had been carved by ancient hands an æon before. The engine purred as Darien sat behind the wheel, his eyes scanning over the carved marks that ran up and around the doors.
"It's a warning," Doctor Casey said sitting beside him her laptop open as she accessed the Peligian dictionary she was compiling. "It's not actually in Peligian, it's in…"
"Kule," Darien said as he slipped down to the hard packed ground. Noting that he was walking on broken paving stones as he stepped towards the entrance, sinking his hands into the pockets of the Dragoon jacket he wore against the strong wind that was whipping through the trees, sending leaves spinning around him.
"That's the fourth Kule reference I have found on Peligia," Doctor Murphy jumped down from the back of the jeep, adjusting his glasses as he fumbled through his bag, pulling out tools so that he could examine the carvings.
The small archaeologist flipped open an expedition case, selecting some brushes he dug a little into the rock, shaking his head.
Darien looked for the Marines that had discovered the mine shaft, a little uneasy that they hadn't reported in. He touched his earpiece, linking though to HQ. "Lauren, any word from the recon squad since they placed the call in?"
"Negative," Lauren answered. "Do you want me to send back up?"
Darien eyed the shadowy trees, watching the butterflies as they flitted from flower to flower. His uneasiness mounting as he felt the claustrophobic air of the tree canopy, of being trapped on such a hostile place with no way to escape. His instincts cried out for him to take her up on the offer. To bring as many troops as he could. But that wasn't possible, they just didn't have any to spare. Those that remained were guarding the HQ-camp and SH-1.
"Negative Commander," Darien replied. "We're armed, and there is always a Fida'i close on hand. And if we're lucky, the recon marines are just lost somewhere close by."
"You're sure you have a gun?" Lauren asked, clucking like a mother hen.
Darien rolled his eyes as he patted the shard weapon on his belt. "I'm heavily armed, and both Casey and Murphy are carrying pistols…"
"Take a rifle," Lauren urged. "I could join you in twenty minutes… it'd be safer than a pair of pistol wielding science geeks."
"No," Darien stated flatly. "Command officers shouldn't be in the same place at the same time. You stay at HQ, co-ordinate the defences, and get that primary road to SH-1 finished. I can take care of myself." He clicked off on the TAC, resting a hand on the hood of the jeep. "What are the hypotheses?" he asked his two companions as he gestured at the cavern opening.
"The Kule have reached Peligia," Casey said evenly.
"What do we know about the Kule?" Darien mused.
"Titan, last of the mighty war gods," Doctor Murphy suggested. "The Rock of Bra'al, the fact that the Kule used giant Propylons to transport their entire homeworld somewhere… except it didn't work and they all died."
"Where?" Darien asked, folding his arms. "Where would they need Propylons to go?"
He stood in the golden light that spilled through the wind stirred leaves, amongst the moss covered ruins of faded and crumbled glory. A land of hidden paths, of bridges and crystal partially shrouded by deep green mists. A place of bugs and of birds, a place that had, until they arrived, been at peace.
"They came here," Casey suggested, tying her hair back from her eyes. "Look, in all the references to Peligia there is no mention of a world, only a sanctuary. And we're on it… what's the planet we're drifting above?"
"This is nuts," Murphy said, shaking his head. "Why the hell would the Kule bring their entire world here? We don't even know where here is…"
"No stars," Darien stated. "have any of you actually seen the sun? We're somewhere… somewhere else. And if you were the Kule, a race hell bent on war. What would you want above all else?"
"A fortress," Casey said simply. "A place no one can get to unless they wanted them to. You're suggesting the Kule came here because they thought it was secure…"
"Something went wrong," Murphy said as he looked up from the rock carvings. He stood and gestured with his brushes. "Seems to be a warning about toxins, my Kule isn't exactly the best."
"That isn't quite right," Casey said, taking over from her partner as she went to work running her fingers over the words. Her mouth formed the syllables as she muttered them aloud. "It says to be careful and protect against toxic ghosts…"
"The Kule weren't a spiritual people," Murphy stated. "It has to be a mistake."
"The Kule vanished hundreds of years ago, we have no idea how long they were here, and we have no idea about Peligian technology…" Casey peered into the darkness. "My mum once had a religious experience, swears she saw Jesus in her back garden. Of course my father figured it was just another homeless wanderer looking for a free meal… but mum remains convinced to this day. God is a matter of perspective… hell Prince Edward is case and point on belief and faith."
Darien sighed as he drummed his fingers on the hood of the jeep. Peligia was rife with conjecture, of ideas and theories. So far there were no hard facts; they'd been tied down too long. Fighting the Polians, establishing base camps and plotting EVAC strategies, it was the first time that he'd allowed Murphy and Casey out of the protective custody of the camp, and if he had any hope of answers, then he needed to let them do what they did best.
"There are flashlights in the jeep," he said reaching his decision. If his missing Recon Marines were anywhere, then they'd be inside.
He moved to the equipment locker of the jeep, flipping its lid open as he began to open pockets of the versatile dragoon jacket, slipping a couple of spare Pulse Rifle clips in, as he checked the heavy rifle with an expert eye.
Casey eyed him as she picked out and checked the flashlights. "I'm rated on Pulse Rifles," she offered.
Darien glanced up and frowned at the wiry Chinese woman, and then he glanced down to see what she was staring at. Painfully aware that the rifle in his hands was shaking badly, he hadn't even noticed the twitches. He looked back at her as she extended her hands to accept the rifle from him. A concerned look on her face.
She dropped her voice so that Murphy, intent on studying the cavern doorway couldn't hear her, "Sir, my father had Parkinson's… I know the signs. Are you okay? Murphy and I can do this alone…"
Darien set his jaw, shaking his head tightly, "It's not Parkinson's," he sighed as he gave her the clips to the rifle. "Doctor Kyr tells me that my body is misreading sleep as dying and it's sending a pulse through my body to keep it alive…"
"Except you're not asleep," Casey surmised. "My father used to say that it was like being in someone else's body, watching helpless as…"
Darien held up two fingers, "I don't want to discuss it, Doctor, we need answers and as you can see," he motioned to himself. "I don't exactly have time to waste. We need to go."
"Of course, sir," Casey stated, drawing professional as she turned on the Pulse Rifle's light and crossed to the cavern doors, casting a worried look as she did so, back at the Warlord.
Darien moved heavily, wrestling the shaking back under control as he walked behind the two doctors, entering the cavern cautiously.
Main Plaza - Peligia
~~*~~
Wojciech knelt in the shadow of a broad plaza at the edge of the city. His Maser Rifle up and sweeping the darkened buildings as he stared at the alien ruins, looking for any sign of movement, anything that would indicated that they were being hunted.
He didn't like it, being forced to divert his men due to broken bridges in the jungle, he had no choice but to lead them through the city, and that meant bringing his men out into the open.
Tilting his eyes upwards he spotted one of his snipers running across a rooftop to take up a good vantage point to offer them cover. As behind him, the men of his squad tightened up their ranks, breathing as they readied themselves to run across the large open area.
The city was oddly laid out. Massive plazas that sank in concentric circles of buildings into the ground rather than rising above it. Carved into the ground and using only natural materials instead of prefabricated or artificial building materials. There was no sign of concrete or glass, merely rock and stone.
Every so often a crystalline structure would jut out of the ground, towering like a skyscraper towards the sky, empty and dark. Like they had been abandoned millennia ago. The openings were scarred and dark, a technology far beyond the builders of the recessed plazas. So far the Spetsnaz had been unable to open any of the crystalline structures, and Wojciech wasn't about to allow breeching charges just to satisfy his curiosity, let the crystal buildings hold onto their secrets, he had more important things to worry about.
Like the groves of giant mushrooms, one of which he was going to have to lead his men through. Twisted roots had cracked through the stones, as some of the massive fungi had grown wild in the city proper, though their concentration seemed to be a sub-urban area.
He lifted his hand and gestured for the first squad to move out, sending them running across the plaza, using the roots for cover as the young men jumped and bounded through the rubble. They kept low, highly trained men covering each other as they searched for any sign of a threat.
It didn't take them long to cross the Plaza and take up covering positions to await the next squad that had to cross. Wojciech lifted his hand, as the TAC crackled twice, the warning from the snipers that something was moving in the city.
Wojciech lifted his rifle, using the scope to sweep the buildings, sighting down the plaza towards the great maw that led to the deep jungle. Stopping when he spotted the ATV sitting there with a two man Marine team wearing the tell-tale jackets of Darien's Dragoons.
Light recon team.
Wojciech held his breath as his snipers took careful aim, any sign that they had been spotted would result in a fire fight, and there was nothing Wojciech could do to stop it. Not without revealing his position.
"Go away," he murmured thinly, keeping his scope trained, the digital readout projected onto the scope detailed their range, as the red reticule floated over the chest of the first scout that was using binoculars to survey the city.
"Get back on your bike and go," Wojciech pleaded. "Don't make them shoot you."
He breathed in relief as the two scouts climbed back aboard the ATV, whizzing back into the tree line in a roar of the engine.
Wojciech muttered a prayer of thanks, turning and motioning for the next squad to get moving. Glad that he didn't have to fight.
Kule Mine - Peligia
~~*~~
Darien reached out a shaking finger, tapping the reddish crystal that floated before him, sending it spinning away from him, through the cloud of them that levitated in the centre of the rock chamber.
Around him, Casey was staring in wonder as she stared at a collection of blue ones that seemed to hover and dance on their own. While Murphy was busy examining packaging crates that bore Kule markings, laying in a hap-hazard manner, like they had been hurriedly abandoned.
"These crystals," Murphy said as he looked up from his crate. "They're similar to what compose the firing crystals in Polian weaponry."
Darien drew his shard weapon, turning the silvered plated piece of wood that bound the pale blue crystal, glancing at the crystals around him as he examined his weapon. "You're saying these are weapons?"
"They are attuned to Zero-point energy," Murphy answered. "The Kule must have thought they'd hit the mother lode. I mean, the Kule always had issues with the Polians, much like we did. But their weapons tech was always dragging behind the Polians, if you think about it; this must have been a Kule weapon-smiths wet dream…"
"Are they stable?" Darien asked as he slid his shard weapon back onto his belt.
"Don't know," Murphy answered getting up and dusting off his knees. "I wouldn't recommend shooting at them though, shatter the crystal and you'd detonate the energy inside. Don't ask me to explain the physics of crystalline zero-point batteries, I'm no physicist, just… shooty-explodey-death."
Darien nodded using his hand to sweep the red crystals out of his way as he walked towards the centre of the chamber. Stepping up and over the rails of a maglev system, he considered the cavern and the many tunnels that led off of it.
"Do you think they're what keep the island aloft?" Casey asked Murphy as they followed Darien.
"Probably," Murphy answered. "We know so little about Peligian technology, just that it was crystal based… and it seems that the Polians used a bastardized form of Peligian technology as the basis for their own. But I'm at a loss as to how it all works."
Darien hissed for quiet, as his hand flew for his shard weapon, drawing it fluidly and levelling it at the entrance to one of the tunnels. Casey fumbled a little as her rifle snapped up, startling Murphy, who drew his pistol a moment later, holding it in shaking hands and peering at the shadowy humanoid form in the darkness.
"Taine!" the voice echoed around the chamber. "Darien Taine, Lord of War, Stormbreaker!"
Darien frowned through the darkness, as Casey brought the rifle light up to shine it on the young Recon Marine, who was standing, his fatigues undone, as sweat rolled off of him.
"Private Cole?" Darien called cautiously.
"You have brought your war here, Stormbreaker, and for that you will pay…" The private raised a quivering hand, the look in his eyes was abject terror. "You're hunted, and haunted… and we will have our revenge…"
With that, Cole turned and sprinted back down the tunnel, cackling as he went.
"He'd demented," Murphy rolled his eyes.
Darien lowered his shard weapon, looking at the other two, "demented or not, we have to follow him. He probably knows where the other marines are."
"Oh sure," Murphy stated following after Darien's lead. "Let's chase the bug nut marine down the dark tunnel and into the trap…"
Darien ignored Murphy's complaining as he ran down the tunnel, Casey a few steps behind him, the light swaying too and fro casting the tunnel in dancing shadows. Dark corners and crevices flickered, as Darien took a couple more steps, sliding to a halt.
His hand snaked out to catch Casey before she could run past him, pulling her back from the edge of a broad chasm as the tunnel gave way to a massive chamber. Lights floated in the darkness, large veins of crystal running through them. Like lanterns in the dark overtop of a sheer drop that fell away to the planet far below.
Murphy's footsteps slowed as he joined them at the edge, looking up at the craggy underside of the Island, whistling as he looked down.
"Whoa," his statement woefully inadequate for the awe inspiring sight before them.
A sound of falling rocks had Darien turn his head, looking down the narrow path that wound its way down the wall of the cavern. Private Cole was clinging to the rock face as he edged his way along, desperate to escape.
"Oh no," Murphy frantically shook his head as Darien took a step towards the ledge. "You can't expect us to follow him…"
"He's leading us somewhere," Darien said testing the ledge with his boot. "We can't just…"
"Sir," Casey caught his arm. "You can't follow him over that, it's too dangerous."
"I need that man," Darien said simply turning to the shadows.
They melted into a humanoid form, as the Fida'i that had been shadowing them obeyed without question. She took the ledge at a run, perfectly balanced as she sprinted along it leaping up and off of the rock face to tackle Private Cole as he cleared the far edge of the ledge. The pair crashing to the ground in a heap.
The Fida'i warrior sprang up, flailing out with her legs as she knocked the recon marine from his feet, slamming her foot onto his chest to pin him down.
"Where the hell did she come from?" Murphy asked wide eyed.
"They're always around," Darien remarked as he walked to the edge, looking down at where the Fida'i restrained her prisoner. "I don't think you can make it back along the ledge with him. I'll find another way down to you…"
The roar echoed through the cavern, a shriek of frustration intermixed with ravenous ferocity, blood curdling and terrifying. Murphy jumped back from the edge as he looked around him.
"What was that?" He demanded.
"That was a Gorean," Darien replied, a look of worry on his face. "We're in trouble…"