by Isaac Hooke
He got nothing.
He couldn’t even sense the merest hint of the pleasure that awaited inside. Nor the pain.
“This isn’t working,” Tane said. He looped his beam hilt back into his belt, removed both gloves, and hastily shoved the spacesuit pieces inside his storage belt. Then he retrieved the beam hilt once again and touched the rib with his bare left hand.
That was better. Not only could he feel the rough texture of the alien skeleton, he could sense the pain, and the pleasure that awaited beyond. He attempted to part the veil of those barbed beads, but once more couldn’t penetrate. He realized the grazer that once had those bones inside of its living body was fighting him.
He shoved with all his being.
The veil abruptly yielded and his hand slid inside. Something bit him. Hard.
“Ouch!”
He pulled his hand back to examine his bare fingers. There was no sign of any physical trauma. And he felt no lingering pain.
“What is it?” Jed asked.
“Nothing,” Tane said.
The osseous surface remained intact in front of him, so he replaced his hand. Before he could even attempt to part the veil, however, a giant, disembodied reptilian head lurched at him from the side with its mouth open. He gasped and instinctively ducked, releasing the bone.
The maw and its flat teeth passed right through him, vanishing.
“Tane,” Lyra said. She made to leave her position.
“I’m all right,” he said, raising a halting hand. She kept her place underneath the ribcage.
He glanced around himself, searching for the disembodied head, but it was completely gone.
An illusion.
From his memories, he knew the archaeoceti were masters of them. And so were the grazers, apparently.
But the former point made him wonder: had he really met S’Wraathar?
No. I met him. Gia and Nebb wouldn’t have been shot down by actual alien ships, otherwise.
Unless the archaeoceti had done it.
Except they didn’t exist in this universe.
He calmed his mind, dismissing his aberrant thoughts. He realized he was merely trying to avoid what was coming. He came here to save Sinive.
It was time to do it.
Tane forced himself to touch the bone again. He waited for some other illusion to strike, but none came. He pressed down hard with his will, delving into the veil. He imagined himself seated atop the huge grazer, with a bridle fashioned of fire and ice clasped around its neck, and a bit of Dark and White Essence rammed into its mouth. He pulled hard on that bit, making that head rear, and he jabbed ankles equipped with fiery spurs into its flanks. The grazer howled, but refused to budge. It bucked him off.
Tane fell backwards, splashing into the marsh.
“Tane!” Lyra said.
Tane scrambled to his feet. “I’m fine!” He spat out some of the disgusting swamp water that had flowed into his open faceplate. It tasted like a mixture of mold and vomit. He spat a few more times trying to get the taste out of his mouth.
He took a deep breath, stood to his full height, and placed his hand onto the uneven gray surface again.
Come on, I’ve done this before.
Though in his memories, he had only ever broken in a new grazer skeleton once. It had taken him a week of trying.
I don’t have a week.
He took a deep breath and pressed against the veil with his psyche. This time, in his mind’s eye, he found himself underneath the grazer. It was running in full flight across a plain, and dragging Tane along underneath, pounding him with those giant hooves every step. He wasn’t harmed physically, of course, but his spirit was being beaten right out of him.
Must... turn... the tables!
Somehow he swung himself up and onto the grazer’s flanks, and then crawled onto its neck. Once more the bit and bridle of fire and ice appeared, and Tane pulled hard on the reins, drawing up the creature. Then he decided to try a different approach, easing off on the pressure. He banished the reins entirely, so that he was alone on the back of the grazer. Before it could buck him off, he visualized himself on the ground in front of it. The surprised creature took a step back. Tane materialized a huge tree in his grasp, its leaves coated in sugar, and he offered it to the grazer. The huge animal sniffed the tree suspiciously and then began to munch.
Tane planted the sugar tree in the ground, and walked to the grazer’s right front leg. He wrapped his arms around it, and when the animal didn’t respond, Tane began to climb. He found footholds in the folds of its flesh; it was like climbing a thick tree trunk covered in wrinkles.
He pulled himself onto the top flank, and once more settled behind the head. He wasn’t fooling himself that he had actually broken the animal, but hopefully he had at least earned some respect, or trust. It seemed to tolerate him there, in any case. Or perhaps it worried that if it bucked him off, he would banish the sugar-coated tree.
While this scene filled his vision, he was aware that he was still standing in the swamp with his bare hand touching the long dead grazer’s rib bone. He could still feel the rough osseous underneath his palm, and decided to attempt the parting of the veil once more.
This time he got through. The Synthate sparked into his nervous system, and he felt a sheer agony that was entirely unlike any of his previous partings. It was like a billion pinpricks stabbing into his ganglia all at the same time, body-wide. He had memories of Siphoning through larger skeletons, but he couldn’t remember it ever being this bad. He suspected the archaeoceti had toned down the experience. Or perhaps they hadn’t been able to simulate pain with the proper intensities in memory, despite all the human guinea pigs they had gone through. Or maybe the grazer was causing it. Whatever the case, he certainly felt that pain now.
It faded as quickly as it had come, replaced by an intense pleasure that was also new to him, stronger than anything he had ever experienced, even in memory. It was so intoxicating in fact that he simply wanted to give up on reality and reside in that state forever. Forget Sinive, forget the rest of the universe, all that mattered to him was this all-encompassing bliss.
But the bolts of green lightning that sparked all around him reminded him of his peril. They were ominous, those bolts, and he forced himself to concentrate upon them.
It’s fake. All of this is fake. The pleasure is an illusion. The archaeoceti are masters of illusion.
Yes, the pleasure was fake, and if he succumbed to it he would die. The Emerald Essence was killing him at this very moment, as all Essence did when Siphoned.
He began to join the ends of the lightning, and each interconnected piece shrunk down to take its place at the center of his vision. Time slowed down, or his mind sped up, and he completed thousand upon thousands of connections in the span of a second. Finally he had a small, sparking structure before him. A structure that looked like a living brain made of pure energy.
He floated the work over the stasis pod and lowered it onto Sinive’s head, then let it set in this reality.
When it vanished inside of her skull, he turned toward his companions and said: “It’s done.”
“What now?” Nebb asked.
“Now they come...” Tane replied.
Sinive didn’t exhibit any signs of life. She wouldn’t for at least the next several minutes anyway, which was the most crucial period of time in the process. The feeders would be here well before then.
He remained in contact with the rib bone and continued to Siphon the Emerald. Though he felt great, with waves of pleasure flowing up and down his body, he had no doubt he had already exhausted himself. But if he released the Synthate now he’d collapse. He’d be useless to his friends. No, he couldn’t let go. If Lyra knew how much he was risking his life by hanging onto the Emerald like this, she would have stopped him. But he had withheld that tiny tidbit of information from her. He couldn’t let go now, not when they needed him most.
Not when Sinive needed him.
It d
idn’t take long before the first of the creatures came. A small glowing object floated over the swamp about half a meter above the water. It was a red, translucent sphere, like a will-o’-the-wisp.
Tane activated his Essence ax, and the gale of White scraped across his bones while the Emerald sparked through his neurons. He also touched the Dark, hoping to mitigate the draining effects of the Emerald and the White, though with all those dark flames appearing around him that he had to quench, he worried the act would only worsen his exhaustion. But he held on nonetheless, and fed the Dark into his Finger of Malevolence ring.
Around them, the swamp grew dim, though the sky remained clear overhead. It was as if something had blotted out the sun, and in moments the equivalent of night had descended upon the marsh. There were no stars overhead. The only light came from that approaching, phosphorescent object: a dim, weak affair. The translucent lightning that surrounded Tane thanks to his Siphoning of the Emerald didn’t provide any illumination, seeing as how the bolts were visible to his eyes alone.
Lyra or Chase must have created works of Star Light, because multiple globes of light appeared above the swamp a moment later to properly illuminate the area.
The phosphorescent object moved casually, slowly approaching the ribcage. It elongated as Tane watched, becoming slithering, snakelike. A maw appeared, widening, and horns grew from it. Legs appeared.
It continued growing as it approached, and sank, as if becoming too heavy to maintain its position above the murky water. It dropped into the marsh, vanishing.
The liquid boiled above the spot, with bubbles and steam issuing forth.
And then a horned head appeared, followed by a powerful neck and shoulders, thick chest, huge arms, and finally two thick, corded legs. It towered over the party members, easily as tall as the dual ribcages. Its eyes glowed red.
Behind it, on either side, two more similarly sized creatures emerged from the swamp.
“Uh,” Gia said.
The lead creature roared, drowning her out.
Jed dashed forward, disappearing. He reappeared a moment later, swinging his Chrysalium sword toward the base of the creature. He cut a gash just below the knee, and black and red light shone forth from the wound.
The creature batted the Volur away in anger.
Lyra launched an Essence Missile, and carved a gaping hole into the lead life feeder. Like the previous wound, it emitted black and red light.
Chase released a Missile as well, far smaller than Lyra’s, but it was enough to enlarge the original wound. G’allanthamas unleashed Fingers of Ruin, concentrating on the head. Tane also launched one of the Fingers of Ruin works he had prepared in reserve and targeted the same area.
Cracks appeared in that muscular face, and red and black light issued forth. Then the head exploded, and the creature toppled, vanishing into the marsh.
Tane felt a glow of pleasure at the victory, no doubt amplified by the Synthate sparking through his nerves. The emerald lighting bolts around him seemed to dance in approval.
The remaining two life feeders glowed with a sudden halo of red and black light.
The urgency Tane felt in that moment cut right through the pleasure.
“They’re using their Essence!” Tane said.
Purple and black swirls of unreality warped into existence in front of the creatures. From those swirls came a swarm of tiny black insects. Tane wasn’t sure if the insects were born of the purple and black swirls, or already existed in the swamp and were simply attracted and controlled by the strange Essencework. Either way, the horde swerved toward the ribcage and the prize it contained.
The insects abruptly flowed away from the base of the ribcage, only half a meter away, scattering in a circular direction in the same plane as if contacting an invisible shield. No doubt Chase and Lyra had placed works of Deflect.
The insects crawled around the ribcage, searching for a point of entry, but Chase and Lyra had managed to envelop the entire ribcage in their defensive work.
Jed winked into view, his sword plunging into the nape of one of the giant feeders in the swamp beyond. That one collapsed, dying, and the Volur vanished once more.
G’allanthamas released another work of Fingers of Ruin at the remaining creature, striking the head region. Tane also used his last Dark Reserve, and dispatched black smears to join that of the dweller’s, and the multiple smears hit the horned head. Lyra launched an Essence Missile at the same time, striking the creature in the chest. The combined damage toppled the final giant, and it fell forward dead, sinking into the swamp.
The insects that swarmed around the ribcage dissipated.
Nearby, Chase slumped slightly, and leaned heavily against the ribcage beside him. Maintaining a Deflect field that big couldn’t have been gentle on the stamina.
Tane glanced at Sinive. She exhibited no signs of life. And the remote interface of the stasis pod confirmed that she was just as dead as she was a few moments ago.
Jed appeared, wading toward the ribcage.
“That was only the first wave, I assume?” Jed said as he took his assigned place between two large ribs.
“Unfortunately,” Tane said.
15
By that point, Tane had been hanging on to the Emerald Essence for too long. He was beginning to like the feeling of pleasure that permeated his being. He didn’t want to give it up. He wasn’t sure he’d be able to let go when the time came.
Maybe I should let go now?
No. Then he’d be useless.
A little longer.
He didn’t have long to wait for the next attack.
Maybe ten seconds later, on the far side of the swamp, the water began to bubble all along the shore line.
“Something’s coming,” Nebb announced.
“We can see that,” Gia said.
Multiple lumps appeared in the swamp near shore. These lumps expanded upward and outward, growing like branchless trees. As heads began to form at the tops, he realized those tall structures were necks. Multiple heads formed upon each one, three per neck, with a pair of pincers, insectile eyes, and antennae upon each. The necks were connected to a thorax that arose from the water on six segmented legs. A large abdomen pulsed at the rear, covered in plate-like scales.
“What the hell is that?” Gia said.
“Some kind of insect,” Nebb said.
“What insect do you know of that has three heads per stalk?” Gia said. “Let alone grows to the size of a small house?”
“Not a friendly one.” Lyra released an Essence Missile. As did Chase.
The Missiles struck an invisible shield.
“It seems we’re not the only ones who have Deflect,” Chase said.
The multi-headed insect’s abdomen pulsed, and four squirming white larva dropped into the water. The large insect otherwise didn’t move.
Tane and the others focused their attention on the swamp before them, searching for the larvae that were no doubt approaching at that very moment.
“Jed, anything on the LIDAR?” Tane asked.
“Negative,” Jed said. “But that doesn’t mean—”
The Volur was abruptly pulled into the water, vanishing entirely.
“Jed!” Tane said.
A moment later Lyra joined Jed as she too was sucked under, leaving only ripples on the surface.
“Lyra!” Tane said.
Their blue dots still showed up on the overhead map, indicating they were still alive.
“Help them!” Tane ordered. He couldn’t let go of the rib bone to aid Lyra or Jed, not unless he wanted to lose the Emerald Essence and allow exhaustion to overtake him, thus taking himself out of the fight.
G’allanthamas raced from underneath the ribcage toward Lyra’s position as marked upon the map, while Chase and Gia hurried toward Jed.
Bubbles appeared on the surface of the murky water above Lyra’s location.
Tane heard a pained grunt over the comm. His HUD indicated Lyra had made the sound.
Before Chase and Gia reached Jed, the Volur emerged from the water. He had two big white larva attached to him—one at his waist, the other around his right arm assembly. His sword and power armor glowed a bright blue as he beat the creatures away.
Chase unleashed a small Essence Missile, striking the larva attached to Jed’s arm.
G’allanthamas reached Lyra’s position and delved his legs underneath the water. In moments he had pulled the Volur to the surface. She had two larvae attached as well—one clung to her leg, the other had wrapped both arms to her sides, forcing her to deactivate her beam hilt. Now that she could properly see, she unleashed an Essence Missile, breaking through the large white worm that clung to her waist.
“Damn thing squeezed all the air out of my lungs,” Lyra commented.
Tane didn’t see what happened next to the Volurs, because the multi-headed insect attacked.
All of its necks darted forward at the same time, the heads lurching toward the ribcage and their prize inside. One of those heads came directly at him.
Tane, keeping his hand touching the rib bone, sidestepped and chopped down with his Essence ax. He scored a hit, and red and black light issued from the wound.
Jed chopped at another head with his Chrysalium sword, while Chase unleashed an Essence missile at a third. Nebb and Gia ducked behind the thick rib bones for cover as other heads lurched toward them.
Dark lines of unreality emerged from Tane’s body of their own accord, thanks to the Finger of Malevolence ring, and streaked toward another head. Cracks erupted in the surface after the impact, and the creature howled.
Other heads slammed into the gaps between ribcages, attempting to penetrate—anyone still in position dodged out of the way. The insect’s heads proved too big to fit between the spaces in the ribcage, and instead struck the neighboring bones. The entire structure shook, and Tane nearly lost his hold on it.
The attack continued like that, with the giant multi-headed insect repeatedly pummeling the ribcage, while Tane and the others struggled to keep the beast at bay and stay alive in the process. At one point, Jed appeared on one of the necks, and cut down hard with his sword, but he only sliced part way through; the head from another neck bit down on him and threw him away into the jungle. Lyra continued to release Essence Missiles now and then, wearing away at the creature’s flesh, as did Chase. Nebb and Gia struck out with their spears whenever they had a chance.
