Though his battle harness limited his mobility, Taldageron Devdan managed to peek forward into the command deck and occasionally catch a glimpse out a window. He had wanted to be a pilot his whole life, and this was the first time he had ever got to fly. He tried to enjoy the moment, especially since it might be one of his last. The assault shuttle buffeted around, coming in hot and expecting to take fire. Very soon Taldageron would be expected to charge out of the shuttle and into the incoming fire. A rebel base had been discovered that was believed to have been aiding the pretend-emperor who came on the starship, the monster who had nuked Nuevo.
Taldageron was tall and broad-shouldered, working a farm on the edge of the Vastedad Morada chiseled the body before it eventually broke it, but he felt like a child next to all the Royal Marines around him decked out in camouflage battle gear. It didn't help that he had never done anything like this before, while the Marines acted like this was old hat, chatting and cracking jokes.
Nobody chatted with him, though. They didn't know him. And they thought he was an officer. He had the look. The look of a noble. He had the right features, hair so dark it was nearly black, high cheekbones, a slightly dark complexion, but his granny had always said it was his eyes that sealed the deal. Many of the Niyatian nobles, descended from old families on Niyati itself, had either gray eyes or green eyes, but blue-green was rare. It had a certain cachet.
The thing was, he could even pass for a hildago with his eyes. Ages ago, long before the Colonistas came to Nuevo, the hildagos had genetically modified their eyes to be dark blue, to set them apart from the peasants.
The truth was, though, he was far from noble-blooded on either side of his family. His color was just a freak of nature. His father actually was a Colonista, but definitely not a hildago. His father was the one though that had insisted that Taldageron uses his mother's surname, Devdan. Discrimination still existed against the Colonistas, even those whose families long ago swore fealty to House Ashoka.
His lack of noble blood didn’t stop him from impersonating a noble on occasion. Particularly since nobility was a de facto requirement for flight school. Only a few dozen flying craft still operated on Nuevo before the arrival of the Menelaus, and only the nobles were allowed to fly them. Impersonating a noble is what landed him in this particular predicament, getting ready to storm a rebel base with a shuttle full of Marines.
He had paid the right people to be rather lack-a-daisical about looking into his background at the flight school. Various noble families fell on hard times over the centuries, so it wasn't so rare to encounter a less-than-wealthy nobleman not so eager to bring scrutiny to his family's financial affairs and other matters. But once the starship came, everything changed. Lax security was no longer tolerated.
“Thirty seconds!” shouted Captain Avangar as the shuttle began to maneuver defensively, zigging and zagging. The captain stood at the entry to the command deck and watched their descent with his own eyes. The open hatch enabled Taldageron to catch some peeks out the window too. It was probably a breach of protocol for the command deck not to be sealed, but Captain Avangar wasn't one of the Marines either. He was a captain in the Suraskar. The secret police. And for the foreseeable future, he was Taldageron’s lord and master.
Like Taldageron, Captain Avangar was dressed like a Marine in full camouflaged battle garb, but he played the role much better. The big, burly man with grey eyes and dark brown hair had a big, square jaw and just looked like he had led many assaults in his time.
In the brief peeks out the forward window, Taldageron caught glimpses of their destination, one of the mystical Phulavana forests, an incredible sight from the air. From above, it did look something like a flower garden, though some of the “flowers” were over a hundred feet in diameter atop stem or stalk structures, some close to a hundred yards tall. This Phulavana draped over the rugged foothills of the Montanas Nubladas, and Taldageron saw in its midst a large waterfall pouring over a bare cliff several hundred yards tall.
The lights dimmed in the assault shuttle and changed from white to red. They would encounter low light conditions as soon as the doors opened. It was approaching dusk outside, and they would be setting down in the shadow of the Phulavana.
Adrenaline flowed through Taldageron as he checked his pulse rifle one last time. There was no way he would have ever dreamed of ending up where he was at this moment, but things had changed so much when the starship had come. The Suraskar had forced him to become an operative after they discovered him impersonating a noble at flight school. He was leery of what would be asked of him, but today, his first mission, he didn't have any qualms. The invaders had used nuclear weapons against fellow humans, and whoever aided these invaders deserved to be punished.
“Ten seconds!” shouted Captain Avangar. The Marines were quiet now, focused and ready.
“With me, Shvank,” said Captain Avangar as he stepped to Taldageron’s side. ‘Shvank’ had become Taldageron’s cover name in the Suraskar. Taldageron thought it might have derogatory meaning in one of the old tongues, but most Niyatians had forgotten the old tongues long before they even came to Nuevo. The Colonistas, even those loyal to Ashoka, tended to remain bilingual. That was one of the reasons the Suraskar had made him an offer he couldn’t refuse — they thought they could use a pretend noble who was also fluent in the Colonistas’ old tongue.
The shuttle bumped down, and the three exits sprang open, one in the back and one on either side. The Marines poured out, their pulse rifles ready at their shoulders.
His heart pounding in his ears, Taldageron imitated the Marines’ form the best he could as he exited the shuttle. He had very little training at this sort of thing. That was probably the main reason he was here. To ‘season’ him.
He trotted down the gangplank with his rifle ready and scoured his surroundings, forcing himself to take regular breaths. The sun was well on the edge of the Phulavana canopy, casting long shadows. A large wooden structure, maybe some kind of processing facility, backed up to the forest near the waterfall. Pockets of gray smoke seemed to hang in the air near the structure. Quite a few bodies littered the ground, some smoldering.
The air was filled with various scents from the gray smoke and the smoldering bodies and possibly even the flowering structures way above, certain whiffs kind of pleasant while others repulsive. The air also had a chill to it. They were much further north than Taldageron had ever gone, up where other plants and trees had a fighting chance against the purple grass. The purple grass’s dominance tended to falter at the edges of the continent.
The Marines had fanned out in all directions, glancing down at the bodies as they passed by to make sure no threat remained. The bodies had fallen before the Marines had even arrived.
Taldageron glanced up at the canopy high above. Rumor had it that religious cults lived up in the canopy of massive flowers, breathing in the spores and gases and having mind-altering visions. He wasn't sure who they worshiped, though. He thought somebody once said it was flower spirits, while somebody else claimed it was the spirits of ancient flying insects, the mega-aerodons, giant blimp-like creatures that used to inhabit the planet hundreds of thousands of years ago. As he took in the perspective from the ground a hundred yards below, he couldn't image climbing up there. The cultists would have to be pretty dedicated.
Pulses of blue light flashed near the tree line as soft booms rang through the air. Pulse rifle fire. The Marines were firing on somebody.
Many of the Marines converged on the area, and with a huge blast of adrenaline, Taldageron started to join them.
“With me, Shvank,” came Captain Avangar’s voice over the comm system in his ear.
Taldageron glanced back to see the captain heading towards a fallen body. Taldageron looked towards the point where many of the Marines were converging. He felt a strong compulsion to charge over and engage too. There was so much adrenaline surging through his system, his heart pounding in his ears, and it just seemed like the right thing to d
o. He would defend his homeworld against people that would destroy it.
“Double time!” Captain Avangar shouted through the comm.
Taldageron glared at the captain for a brief moment before trotting over. He had been nervous before, but now he wanted to do something. What was the point of giving him a pulse rifle and having him charge out of an assault shuttle if he was just going to hang back and let the Marines do all the work?
He was shocked though when he glanced down at the body. The man had mocha colored skin with short, thick violet hair. One of the Lake People. The Miangaza.
Taldageron had never seen one before in person. They hadn’t come to Nuevo from Niyati like most of the refugees during the Fall of Man, and over the centuries they had maintained an isolated, separate society. Pretty much the only refugee group that achieved such isolation. The Cosaks and the Boltamen maintained mostly self-contained societies but tended to involve themselves in outside affairs and politics to varying degrees. The Lake People had signed a pact recognizing the full sovereignty and authority of House Ashoka, and then pretty much kept to themselves for five centuries, avoiding getting drawn into any of the rebellions or other wars.
“What’s he doing here?” Taldageron asked. The Miangaza lived on islands and boats on the Gran Lago Salado, a very large salt-lake a few hundred miles to the west of their current location.
“Curiouser and curiouser,” mused Captain Avangar.
The dead man had severe burns over much of his body, but not the impact damage that came with pulse fire. But perhaps that was because of the armor. The areas that were still intact looked like hard plastic plates, painted a very dark purple, affixed to his black under-suit. Probably thermal tiles. He had worn a long black coat over the top, but it was mostly burned away.
“Have the Lake People sided with the rebels?” asked Taldageron. His father’s people, the Colonistas, had always seemed to get caught in the middle and suffered the most whenever there was a rebellion. He couldn’t believe the Lake People would finally break their isolation to come down on the side of those that had nuked humans.
“Actually, it looks like they were assaulting this location. They beat us here," said Captain Avangar. “Not sure why. Still a treaty violation, though.” He stood up and looked around, pondering the scene. “Shit!” he said suddenly and started running towards the tree line. The Marines had mostly swarmed into the forest by now, flashes of blue light dancing among the trees.
Taldageron felt another surge of adrenaline as he ran after him. He wished he could hear the comm traffic to find out what was going on, but Avangar had him on a short leash, only allowing certain channels through.
He followed Avangar, running hard to keep up, and felt himself almost unconsciously hold his breath as plunged past the “tree” line into the dark forest. Even regular trees were sparse back home, never this large, it was like entering an alien world to suddenly be surrounded by these towering things of the Phulavana, especially with the weird lighting effects. Somehow some of the sunlight still hitting the flowering structures up top was being channeled through, sort of like stained glass. It did give a somewhat mystical, eerie glow to the place, especially up high. It was still fairly dark down on the ground, but Taldageron could still kind of see a few feet in front of him.
Avangar didn’t seem too fazed by it all, and he did a pretty good job of picking a path through the trunks.
Taldageron tried to follow his lead, but he stumbled a few times, though never falling all the way to the ground. They seemed to be getting closer to the action, the booms growing louder and flashes of blue light becoming more intense.
Suddenly Taldageron tripped and fell hard to the ground. He glanced up to see that Avangar wasn’t waiting for him, not even pausing as he pushed forward towards the battle.
As Taldageron picked himself up off the ground, he jolted as he suddenly realized what had tripped him. A body. A dead Marine. The body wasn't burned but had several gaping wounds.
Taldageron looked around, trying to orientate himself and find the path that Captain Avangar had followed. He could still hear the battle and see the flashing lights, but the battle seemed to be moving away. There were also so many trees between him and there. He just wasn’t as adept at picking a path through the trees, but he started heading in the direction of the moving battle.
His pulse rifle had a light on the end, but he wasn't sure if he was supposed to use it or not. It would make it a lot easier to see where he was going and avoid tripping, but it might make him a target. Avangar had not used his light, so that kind of made up his mind. He would risk tripping to avoid being shot at. Though to be honest, he hadn't seen anybody returning fire. Just the blue pulses fired by the Marines.
Just then, out of the corner of his eye, he spotted something bright off to his side. He spun and brought his pulse rifle up, scanning the darkness. A red light shone, maybe a few dozen yards away. At first, he thought it might have been the light source from a pulse rifle, a Marine deciding that not tripping was worth the danger, but then he realized there was two light sources side by side. Like red, glowing eyes.
Taldageron started working his way in the opposite direction, keeping a close watch on those red lights. He was ready to charge at the enemy, but for some reason, the thought of running into a predator at home in this alien world of the Phulavana made him nervous. Panteras, giant six-legged felines, supposedly prowled what forests existed on Nuevo. There were stories of other creatures that preyed in the deep Phulavana, so deadly that no human had ever lived to recount their description.
They were all like fairy tales to him, never actually having been in a forest, but the Phulavana spawned stories even more fantastic, not just “like” fairy tales but actual fairy tales. Tales of all kinds of strange beings and phantoms and ghosts. Even granny would tell stories of the duendes that lived in the Phulavanas, but as far as he knew nobody in his family had ever even seen one of the Phulavana forests with their own eyes.
Mythical ghosts and duendes didn't bother him, but he didn't want to run into any wild animal out here, completely out of his element. He had heard of animals at night seeming to have glowing eyes, but it was very unnerving to see it in person. Especially when you didn't know what was behind those eyes.
As he slowly worked his way away from the two red lights, he noticed that they were moving towards him. They definitely looked like eyes the way they moved in unison. He just couldn’t help but imagine a pantera out there, just under six feet tall at the shoulder. Stalking him.
Taldageron realized that even if he headed back out towards the tree line, he wouldn't make it out of the forest before his stalker caught up with him. Instead, he started looking for a good spot to make his stand. He crouched behind a thick tree trunk and brought his pulse rifle around the side to aim at the red, glowing eyes.
The eyes kept coming.
His heart was pounding away again. He could feel his pulse in his trigger finger.
"Delta," he shouted the ‘friend-or-foe' code word. ‘Omicron' was the correct reply.
No reply came.
The eyes continued to come, though.
Taldageron brought his thumb up and rested it on the button to activate the light at the end of his rifle. He would flash on the light before he fired, giving him a chance to identify his target at the last instant. And maybe suddenly having a light in its face would stun whatever it was that was out there.
The eyes edged closer. Maybe thirty feet now.
Taldageron pressed himself closer to the tree trunk and held his breath.
The eyes came another few feet closer.
Taldageron pressed the light button.
The creature was much, much worse than he imagined. A huge pantera’s body, but with a nightmarish insect head, and beneath its red glowing eyes its mandibles gnashing laterally instead of vertically, large enough to bite him in half.
He pulled the trigger again and again. Blue energy pulses shot out,
but they seemed to glance of the creature’s body while causing minimal damage.
The creature leaped forward, its large mandibles reaching out to snap up Taldageron.
At the last instant, Taldageron thrust his rifle forward to block the mandibles, but the creature snapped shut on the rifle and instantly jerked its head sideways, ripping the gun from Taldageron’s hands and flinging it away.
Then the creature turned its head back to Taldageron, its glowing red eyes just a few feet away.
Taldageron looked into its eyes, desperately trying to come up with some idea.
Then the creature shot forward.
Taldageron stumbled backward and fell onto his back.
The red eyes shot towards him, but then suddenly stopped just a few feet from his own eyes.
As Taldageron laid on his back, holding his breath as he stared into those glowing red eyes, he abruptly noticed a glowing purple light behind him. That must have caught the creature’s attention too, must have been what had caused it to pause in its attack.
Then the purple light darted off through the woods.
The creature with the glowing red eyes did not hesitate and leaped after it, one of its pantera legs pushing off of Taldageron’s left shoulder and forcing him to muffle a yell. Not only did the creature weigh a lot, but its claws punched into his flesh like knives. He did his best not to react until the creature had run off after the purple light, not wanting the creature to change its mind to pursue easier prey.
“Crap,” said Taldageron as he tested his wounded shoulder. He struggled to get to his feet, and just as he got upright, a purple glow suddenly erupted in front of him. This time, it was more than just light, though -- a figure stood there wrapped in the glow. A duende. A phantom of the Phulavana.
After the Second Dispersion, humankind had discovered evidence of several apparently extinct or long-vanished alien races, but as far as Taldageron knew, contact had been made with only a handful of intelligent species. And now Taldageron wondered if he encountered another.
The glowing being appeared humanoid, in many ways appearing like that of a teenage girl, short and lithe, but her eyes were too large and too black to be human. And Taldageron wasn't aware of any humans that glowed in the dark. And yet, other than the eyes and the purple glow, she could pass as human. She had long wispy hair and wore some kind of simple fabric dress. And five toes on each bare foot. Taldageron wondered what the odds were that an alien would so resemble humans.
“Taldageron Ramon Devdan,” whispered the duende in a musical voice, though her expression was sad.
He recognized his name, but either her accent was odd or the musicality of her speech made it seem odd.
“The Darkness has come,” she said in Universal, but speaking in the same oddly-accented, musical voice. “The gardens are in jeopardy. All is in jeopardy.”
Taldageron felt mesmerized staring into those big, black eyes while she gave off a purple glow in the middle of the dark Phulavana forest.
“Your path takes you further into the Darkness,” said the duende. “I see the possibilities.”
Then the purple light winked out, and Taldageron stood alone in the forest.