"Graven activity is off the charts," Shar'koth monitored the inflow analysis from the network of survey drones hovering above the monastery and the surrounding area.

"Full or minion?" Merrik asked.

"Both," I answered. "I've never felt this many in one location since my final day in Thorngate."

The red planet was massive and pulsing with the stagnant stench of hate and rotten flesh.

Shar'koth and his science team were still working in tandem with the dreadnought in orbit to perform a comprehensive global sweep, but they had a lock on the distress signal's source.

Protocol dictated that a Forged squadron land first to secure a safe zone, but when the origin turned out to be the infested remnants of Darbek Monastery, Groon gave orders to take the offensive. My task was to lead a team of his finest warriors, with Shar'koth and Merrik, to make contact and retrieve our people.

"I'm reading ambiguous life signs," Shar'koth pointed to a military transport shuttle with its front end bashed in, lying ahead of us in the central courtyard.

The monastery was silent, but we knew we were being watched.

"Be ready for anything," I commanded my team. "Disregard nothing. They can strike from any direction."

Red clouds swirled overhead while death and decay ran rampant below. Noxious bogs littered the terrain like poisonous pockmarks boiling over from the planet's core. But the worst were the remains of our people strung up in effigy to the Graven.

We had no choice but to deny our first impulse. It was our duty to locate the living before tending the dead.

"Do not give our enemy the satisfaction of outrage," Merrik spoke up. He had his shield up with a military-grade heavy blazer, ready for action.

Squadrons of interceptors primed to offer air cover streaked through the sky.

We were far beyond the timely reach of our clan and sister clans, but the Joyful Tyrant had delivered an army.

"Elder," Shar'koth brought my attention to the claw marks indented on the shuttle's rear cargo doors.

I flicked my ears at the Forged warrior, signaling it was time to spread out and charge our blasters.

The scent of decay intensified as we approached the shuttle. It was the indignant sweet aroma of spoiled meat that clings to your gag reflex and stifles your appetite for three days straight.

We surrounded the shuttle, some with their weapons aimed at our target and a second line on the perimeter, taking a defensive stance to guard our backs.

I had this eerie déjà vu sensation prickling across my skin. It was like standing inside one of those pernicious nightmares that had been plaguing my sleep for months.

Let them be alive!

Merrik stood at my side as I stepped forward and swiped the panel to open the hatch.

I don't think Merrik approved of me taking point, but he and I had had a long chat before disembarking. Until others among our crew had faced off against at least one full Graven, I wasn't comfortable putting them in a direct line of potential contagion.

The shuttle door lifted open with a hiss and a viscous slurry of white and blue oozed out.

Many of the Forged warriors hissed in disgust.

I stepped back to avoid standing in the mess as a sluice of body parts tumbled onto the courtyard.

"Do I even need to ask if there are any survivors inside?" I glanced at Shar'koth.

The black and gold Zhaguai science officer frowned and shook his head.

Suddenly, a dismembered Zhaguai hand skittered from the pile.

Shar'koth impaled it with his scimitar, provoking a little unidentifiable insect to rip loose from the skin. He slammed down again, this time crushing the vermin onto sticky goo.

Indistinct whispering filled the air.

"Back!" I shouted.

Hundreds of tiny insects spewed out from the mound and the Forged warriors whirled into action, but it was Merrik who made the decisive blow.

The seasoned Elder wasn't fucking around!

He incinerated the minion wave with a single inferno beam of his heavy blazer and prompted the other Forged warriors to disable the safeties on their military-grade weaponry.

The courtyard went quiet again.

"Elder Mourning Crow," Shar'koth cleared his throat then glanced around at the empty courtyard before deciding to sheath his scimitar. "There's something you should see on the global scanner."

I brought up the latest images collected from the reconnaissance satellites on the viewscreen of my helm.

That skyline... the wind-stripped stone spires...

"It was discovered on the opposite side of the planet," Shar'koth explained. "Groon has already dispatched a few scout interceptors to make a flyby."

"No!" My words bubbled out on instinct. "Don't go near it. It's not safe."

"I will relay your advisement to the dreadnought," Shar'koth nodded with expediency.

There was no mistaking it. It was the crumbling ruins of Thorngate.

A subversive nerve at the base of my spine insisted that I abandon everything and charge headfirst into the abyss to disembowel every Graven in my path, but it was futile.

Misery charred every memory, and nothing could resurrect the dead.

"We will face them," Merrik turned his stoic copper helmet my way, as if attuned to the tears on my face and snarl amassing around my teeth. "Once the survivors are safe, the Graven will feel our might."

I raised my head with a smile and dug my clawed toes into the dirt to feel the forsaken earth shred beneath my weight.

If the Graven want me, they can have me! All the way to the end!

"Elder Mourning Crow," Shar'koth released a small survey drone into the shuttle and displayed a hologram of the interior for us all to inspect. "There's a booster, but according to the shuttle's internal comm logs, this wasn't the vessel that produced the signal."

"A trap," I narrowed my eyes on the long winding whip marks etched into the hull of the ship. "Or a distraction. Bold Step had a knack for luring Slayers and Guardians away from their masters."

"These shuttles were equipped with an encrypted tracking network," Shar'koth linked the drone to the shuttle's secure mainframe. "It's detecting two other vessels that are still intact."

"We must assume Bold Step has access to this information as well," I responded. "Where are they?"

"One..." Shar'koth crooked his head, perplexed. "Is a few miles south of us but partially underground. The other is to the east, further away, stuck on the side of a mountain."

"Can you see exactly what condition each of them is in or if there's anyone alive inside?"

"Negative."

I brought up the two locations on the holomap displayed from my wristcomm.

It wasn't luck or happenstance that Bold Step had survived Thorngate for as long as he did. On Menthla, he was studying to become a pilot. He understood patience, tactics, and timing.

A foreboding inkling squirmed in my mind on how best to determine which direction was the correct path.

"Groon," I opened a direct link to the Joyful Tyrant.

"I am here," the council member's gravelly voice clicked in my ear.

"I need interceptors to buzz two locations," I opened the comm to the Forged warriors around me so they could hear. "The two fastest lunatics you've got in the air. "

"Happy to oblige," Groon chittered.

"We don't need heroics," I expounded. "Get in and scan but they need to get their asses out of there at the first sign of danger."

"They'll be disappointed," Groon thrummed. "But they'll get it done."

We watched the sky and waited as the nearest interceptor zoomed over the partially buried shuttle. A small pack of long-fanged dogs ran out and leaped at the ship.

A readout of the shuttle uploaded to my comm.

Minions were detected, conjoined with additional ambiguous life signs.

The other flyover was too far to see or hear, but we monitored a virtual hologram of the interceptor's blip closing in on the mountain.

SHAA-RASH!!

A massive flock of those damned giant space bats rose and filled the sky, cutting the pilot off halfway between her destination.

A heartbeat later, the dead trees on the ground quivered and then shot out thick thorny vines aimed at the single brave pilot and her streamlined craft.

"Guess that answers that," I huffed a resentful breath.

All eyes were on the pilot as she spun and narrowly dodged the churning snarl.

"Tell your pilot to abort and stay alive," I spoke to Groon once more.

"She's working on it," Groon responded. "We're repositioning to a lower orbit to offer cover fire. Don't worry, we'll mind not to hit the mountains."

"Appreciated," I smirked. "We'll need transport. How close can you get us?"

The second the pilot was clear, the Joyful Tyrant's shadow engulfed the valley and drowned the bats and vine in a deluge of brilliant white vengeance.

"A transport shuttle is incoming," Groon updated. "We'll need to regroup and assess the terrain. At the moment, we can't get your team anywhere near those mountains and we're taking heavy resistance up here."

"Understood," my ears twitched in irritation

Shit... for all we know, someone's bleeding out or in desperate need of a stasis recovery pod.

My fists trembled, and then I realized my feet were shaking as well.

No, not me! The ground!

Long razor-edged crystal spikes erupted from around the courtyard.

"Graven!" I shouted. "Not a minion!"

The carcasses of our brethren were knotted to the creature's spikes.

It had the spindly legs of a spider, but it's segmented angular body was long like a house centipede spiraling throughout the dead garden.

"Watch for Guardians!" I charged my anti-Graven hand blaster and let out my chain sickle.

Oru and the ruling councils of the Nexus had tasked me with forging a new rank of Vigil warriors proficient at combating Graven. If any of the Zhaguai standing at my side managed to survive this battle, they could consider it a formal promotion.

A disgruntled howl cut through the chaos. It was a large axe-wielding warrior with bloody horns protruding from the sockets that should have held his eyes.

"Slay the Guardian first!" I pointed to the horned man. "I will keep the Graven busy, then join me to take the beast down!"

The Forged warriors charged without question while Merrik remained at my side.

My bodyguard knelt to one knee and lowered his shield to a slant. "Need a boost?"

"Stay close and try to keep all of your limbs!" I laughed, then sprinted at him and bounded off his shield to take hold of the Graven's spines.

...

🔥Spicy Chapter coming soon!

...

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~A. E. Shelly (a.k.a. Oloo)