Nova War

The truck moved forward again, following a narrow trail leading around the outer curve of the giant ring, metal gleaming dully here and there through the all-enveloping mud and soil. Leaf-grenades still came sailing out of the greenery all around them, and Corso spotted a couple of Bandati gliding between the massive tree trunks, apparently trailing them. As the truck's pulse-ca

'Who are they?' Corso screamed at Honeydew. 'They're your own people! Why are they trying to kill us?'

Honeydew paused from clicking and muttering into his interpreter. 'They have diverged from the path of their true Queen,' he responded, glancing momentarily towards Corso. 'They have engaged in a perversion.'

'A what?'

'They are attempting to breed their own Queen,' Honeydew replied, as if that explained everything.

They were now heading for a hill that rose considerably higher than the rest, with a dome-shaped building perched on its summit. Corso momentarily caught sight of the gas giant wheeling past. The trail climbed steeply up the hill and the truck headed straight on without stopping. Corso scrambled to maintain his foothold as the incline grew steeper and steeper.

Finally, there was sight of someone waiting for them, for several Bandati, presumably native to the station, were gathered on the paved plaza surrounding the domed building Corso had glimpsed earlier. As the truck crunched to a halt, the Darkening Skies warriors drew their weapons and approached these natives. Clicks and screeches soon filled the air.

Corso crawled carefully down from the truck bed, his legs feeling like rubber. He staggered over to one side of the plaza, taking in the superior view afforded by the hilltop.

He noticed that the local Bandati's wings were covered with coloured rags, like gaudy streamers, and Corso watched apprehensively as Honeydew began an intense discussion with one of them. He had a strong sense the locals didn't want these newcomers anywhere near the domed building itself.

Honeydew had mentioned something earlier about maul-worms, whatever the hell they were. But a stony-cold feeling in Corso's gut told him he didn't want to find out.

The dome was made from carefully shaped blocks of curving stone, with a variety of glyphs worked into the surface. A winch mechanism stood at the very apex of the dome, with a cable extending downwards through a slit in the roof.

He flattened himself on the ground as Honeydew and the rest of his warriors suddenly opened fire on the local Bandati. In an instant, broken and bleeding bodies were scattered far and wide across the plaza.

Corso glanced towards the jungle all around, and wondered how far he would get if he made a break. But that only brought with it the question of precisely where he could go then, alone here on a remote space station filled with a bunch of extremely hostile aliens.

Honeydew gestured to his troops and two of them moved towards Corso. His survival instinct then asserted itself and he made a run for it. As he fled down the hillside, a dark shape flew over him and he was felled to the ground. Two Bandati landed on either side of him and began dragging him back up the hill and towards the dome-shaped building.

He saw now that the dome had a narrow, slit-like entrance. They led him inside, and the sounds of their footsteps echoed loudly in the enclosed space. Inside it was dark and cool. A heavy circular grating was embedded in the stone floor, while just above it hung the cable he'd seen extending through the ceiling, a heavy hook attached to its lower extremity. Heavy chains also hung loose from a peg set into the curving wall.

Honeydew was the last to enter, and he stepped over to Corso.

'Will you now tell us exactly how you sabotaged the protocols?'

Corso glanced at the hook-tipped cable and the grating below it. 'I was telling you the truth. I swear I didn't do what you think. I don't know why the Emissaries reacted the way they did, but I swear on my life it's nothing to do with me.'

'Ah.' Honeydew flexed his wings. 'A pity, then. Nonetheless, I am bound by my duty.'

Honeydew gestured and clicked briefly to the troops who had also entered the dome. They fetched several chains from the wall peg and used them to bind Corso, after first forcing him to his knees. He struggled at first, till a harsh blow to the back of his neck nearly knocked him unconscious. He slumped forward, coughing and moaning, as the heavy links were secured around his arms, chest and legs. Another of Honeydew's warriors then came forward, and proceeded to attach a number of small, thumb-sized devices to the chains wrapped around Corso's body.

One of them went over to an electronic panel set into the wall and tapped on it. The cable dropped in response, until the hook clanged against the metal grating. Corso was then dragged forward and the hook inserted under the chains binding his feet.

Then the grating beneath him was pulled over to one side and Corso shrieked in terror as he was lowered upside-down into the pit that had been hidden beneath it. Its sides were slippery with greenish-brown algae, and from it emerged a rich variety of unidentifiable yet undeniably unpleasant odours. He continued to yell and scream as Honeydew and the others quickly exited the dome, leaving him alone in the darkness.

The chains were tight enough to have him struggling to breathe, and he could feel blood filling his head with a muted, pulsing roar.

The only light now came through the narrow slit providing the dome's entrance and the aperture in the ceiling through which the cable passed. Corso's own panicked breathing now echoed back at him from the narrow fu

Then he heard muted roaring and slithering sounds from the black depths below him. At almost the same time, Honeydew's amplified voice came seemingly out of nowhere.

'Please look up, Lucas. Can you see the devices we attached to your chains?' The words boomed through the empty darkness.

'What?' Corso twisted his head up. 'It's too dark. I can't-' And then he spied the faint points of dim red light dotted all around the chains binding him. Machines of some kind, each secured to a different metal link.

The roaring and slithering seemed to be getting closer.

'Listen. I can get the protocols working right really, really soon. I can-'

'The truth or nothing, Lucas.'

The roaring from below had become deafeningly loud. 'You were right! I sabotaged them, but I can fix them! Just get me out of here!'

He froze and stared down into the empty darkness below him.

Something was moving down there.

Something big.

'So you did in fact alter the fragments in such a way as to make them unworkable?'

'Yes!' Corso screamed. 'I was lying to you earlier! I just… I wanted to buy myself some time!'

'Ah, very clever,' came the answer. 'But perhaps that also is a lie.'

And then a hideous monster came roaring up out of the darkness and ate Corso.

Except it wasn't quite like that.

The miniature devices attached to his chains turned out to be portable field generators of a type that, in sufficient numbers, could surround a user with a personal field-bubble. Hanging upside-down as he was, Corso didn't notice them suddenly snap on and surround him with a protective field that revealed its presence only through a dim sparkle. But he certainly did see the great wormy shape that came lunging out of the pit's inky depths; he did see its pale lips spreading wide, and he could just make out the soft, palpitating flesh of its throat as it swallowed him whole, those powerful peristaltic movements attempting to suck him deep down into its gullet.