»You’re right, Maya. This is not a gas-bubble gurgling swamp,« Paafnas agreed.
»Everybody has his own imaginings about Paradise,« Pi chuckled and wondered about the personal defense shields which let him touch objects through field, while still protecting him from the deadly environment.
»You won’t believe it, but before you arrived, I encountered lots of vegetation and grass meadows,« Arkroid explained frustrated.
»Yeah right,« Maya smirked with disbelief.
»We determined with our sensors that the planet has a diameter of about eleven thousand kilometers,« Tranos announced, looking at the inside of his Progonaut shield, which contained mind-boggling technologies. »The planet is just a bit smaller than Earth. We have a gravity of 0.92 G, but we won’t feel it due to our mission suits. It seems that the planet has about the same density than Earth. The planet’s spin impulse is relatively low. A rotation is almost non-existent or very slow. I can’t tell at this point how long a night will last. Maybe weeks …«
»We need a name for this world,« Voit said.
»… there’s something else,« Tranos interrupted. »Not far from here are some strange objects in the plain. They appear to be like a huge wall; they’re all the same height and are forming a fence that reaches all the way to the horizon.«
»I already noticed this formation,« Arkroid acknowledged. »This must be a geological phenomenon on this planet.«
»Sorry, but the wall is artificial,« Tranos rebutted. »The wall is composed of almost identical, single objects and made from rock.«
Again, reddish sheet-lightning flashed across the sky. The formation became visible for the team members, if only for a couple of seconds.
Maya squinted.
»I should know better, but I’s say that this formation reminds me of the Easter Islands on Earth. The objects look like huge heads or skulls, all looking in the same direction,« she remarked.
Pi swallowed hard.
»How did you get that idea?«
Maya shrugged.
»I don’t know. This was my first impression when I saw the objects. They are not like Human heads, but almost the same.«
»Skulls of the aboriginals of this world,« Pi replied with a shudder.
»The Skull World!« Voit announced in an eerie voice.
»Voit just gave this world a name,« Herimos gnarled impressed.
He’ll kill you
The red sky had turned into a huge thunderstorm cloud; thick lightning bolts hit the ground around the portal.
Pi though at first that this was a coincidence, but moments later, he had to revise his thoughts.
The team ducked and kept a low profile as the lightning bolts hit the ground at two to three seconds intervals.
»We need to get out of here!« Arkroid yelled through the thunder.
»That’s unbelievable!« Voit yelled back and held his hands before his eyes. Arkroid moaned as his eyesight was much more sensitive to sudden changes of brightness.
»We need to get out of here!« Herimos repeated Arkroid’s words. »The portal acts as a lightning arrestor!«
He grabbed the replication and ran into the plain. Not a second too late because a light-blue, leg-thick, lightning ball hit the ground where he had been seconds ago.
Other bolts hammered into the portal, hitting the pillars. The energy field between the pillars showed some strong flickering discharges as a result, creating weird looking shadows on the ground.
»How is it possible that such a catastrophic weather can occur almost out of nowhere?« Voit wanted to know while quickly moving away from the platform. »Tranos, didn’t you detect this weather front with your shield?«
Irritated, Tranos looked at the portal and the sky. The clouds began to move much faster than before.
Vasina pointed at the wall of skulls, which were now better visible due to the lightning flashes.
»We should pull back. The lightning bolts are mostly concentrated on the portal,« she suggested sternly.
The team gathered on the plain and gained some distance from the portal.
Minutes later, a barrage of lightning bolts came down on the tachyon pulse generator. It was difficult to see for Arkroid if the device was still intact. The barrage didn’t end and kept pounding the platform.
»Something is really wrong with this planet,« Arkroid assumed. »Voit, can you detect a body aura in the near vicinity, other than ours?«
Voit twitched with each and every lightning strike, but he tried to use his senses.
»I can’t taste anything unfamiliar, Toiber!« he yelled back through the clatter.
»Because of our defense fields we can’t feel it, but the temperature around us has risen by about twenty degrees within the last twenty minutes!« Pi announced. »The lightning phenomenon in the upper atmosphere is increasing, caused by strong movements of the atmospheric layers. I wonder what’s causing this heavy dynamic?«
A bundle of lightning bolts hit the tachyon signal generator again. Moments later, the egg-shaped device exploded, leaving a puddle of mercury-like substance behind on the platform.
Arkroid cursed about the dreadful environment surrounding the portal and also because the nanopods, necessary for creating the generator had been lost and destroyed.
He looked over to Nood and Naad and noticed that the remaining nanopods on their chests where moving like waves, reproducing themselves to replenish the lost particles.
»Look up!« Voit shouted and pointed at the red glowing clouds above them.
The clouds had become faster and began to rotate above the portal, slowly forming a funnel.
»We’re leaving this area at once!« Arkroid commanded.
Tranos manipulated the inside of his shield and seconds later, a beam of light emitted from the front, illuminating the ground.
»The Dark Brotherhood agent has lured us into a trap!« Kuster~Laap announced with a very deep and loud voice. »This planet is Hell!«
Kuster~Laap had lost control over his voice. A glass-hard rock plate beside Arkroid disintegrated into thousands of pieces a second later. His voice had shattered it!
»Kuster~Laap, get a hold of yourself! You put us all in danger!« Pi shouted and made sure that Paafnas was secured on his shoulder.
The Pleunatan was shivering and kept his hold on Pi’s neck by means of his suction cup fingers.
The team swiftly walked into the plain, away from the portal while the funnel cloud touched down! Rock debris and dust was thrown about. Already quite a distance away from the portal, Pi’s defense shield flared up a couple of times, hit by small debris. Several times, the tornado-like funnel cloud made contact with the portal’s transport field, making it react with bright bursts of white light. The storm was circling around the portal and seemed to center on the object.
»We need to find cover!« Arkroid yelled. Without looking back, he walked faster while Tranos illuminated the way before him.
»Now, there’s a hundred degrees!« Maya remarked nervously. »The atmosphere is heating up rapidly. What’s going on here?«
Herimos pulled the replication closer to him and harshly said, »You know this planet! Tell us what you know! What’s this bad weather all about?«
»I’ve never been here!« she shouted with a devilish grin. »You’ve chosen to come here – not me!«
»The skull wall is not far from here! We’ll take cover there and wait until the storm is over,« Vasina suggested.
Scorched earth all over, melted rocks and ground. The increase in temperature is not a good sign. Something is heating up the atmosphere, causing these heavy storms, Arkroid pondered nervously. It’s not going to end soon. I think it’s getting worse!
»Morgotradon foresaw that we’d follow the probe! He sent it from here – intentionally!« Vasina assumed.
After a tough march, they arrived at the skull wall while the portal was still pounded by lightning bolts. Now, they were standing before a wall of rock statues, which looked like oversize
d heads. The objects measured ten by ten meters at the base and were about the same height. In the objects’ center were hollowed out areas which looked a lot like large eye sockets. With a little bit of fantasy the heads could resemble alien skulls.
»If these head abstracts are real, then the aboriginal people of this world must have been really big eyes!« Voit wondered.
»Do you know these people?« Kuster~Laap asked surprised, swirling his ears.
»No,« he replied and twitched as the portal was hit by a ten meter thick lightning bolt. A heavy thunderclap and a strong pressure wave went across the plain, creating a huge cloud of dust.
No longer hesitating, the team quickly took cover behind the statues by squeezing themselves through gaps between the objects.
»At least, the people must have had immense muscle power to chisel away on these huge rocks and then align them accordingly,« Herimos murmured. »Tranos … how long is this wall?«
The shield-bearer raised his arm and made a far reaching gesture.
»All the way to the horizon, my friend. Possibly farther!«
»You talk about the makers of these objects as if they’re extinct,« Paafnas butted in. He was still sitting on Pi’s shoulder. Small, blue, hickey-like suction marks on Pi’s bald head indicated where he had held on before. Arkroid regarded Pi highly for enduring Paafnas, who used him as his carrier.
»I’ve got a strange feeling, Paaf,« Pi said to him. »These heads are all facing in the same direction, as if they’re expecting a danger of some sort. It seems like a warning to me.«
Arkroid briefly looked at Pi, but didn’t say anything. The entire team had found cover behind one of these massive objects.
Herimos secured the perimeter and always kept a keen eye on the prisoner.
Tranos illuminated the backs of the objects and said surprised, »There’re large symbols carved into the backside – an alien language?«
The symbols stretched from one sculpture to the other.
»A message?« Pi wondered.
Vasina suspiciously looked at the symbol writing.
»We don’t have time to decipher the symbols. We should prepare ourselves for an attack by Morgotradon. I’m certain, he’s here and waits for us!« she warned and groped for the Jamal-Combs in her pocket. She knew that this mission was very dangerous.
Arkroid had accepted her wish to take care of the combs, this way she continued the Progonaut tradition as comb guardians.
»The former fleet leader is a good tactician! He lured us to this world to ambush us,« Vasina continued. »The Genorantan portal has existed for ages. Maybe it was employed to evacuate the people of this world. Morgotradon knows this planet and the prevailing conditions and can use them against us.«
Arkroid gnawed on his lower lip while he listened to her.
»Vasina is right!« Arkroid agreed. »He’s here, lying in waiting. I expected that. He wants the Jamal-Combs. It doesn’t make sense to lure us here to just make us struggle with the environment until we die of exhaustion.«
Arkroid had hardly finished his sentence when a bright energy beam cut through the air, hitting Voit in the chest.
Herimos reacted instantly. His heavy plasma weapon slipped from his shoulders into his arms and discharged in the direction the energy beam had been fired from – all with one swift move!
The attacker had been located on top of one of the statues nearby and had had a free line of fire. However, by firing at the team, he had also revealed his position!
With a gruesome battle cry, Herimos fired one salvo after another. He covered the entire top of the head until the rock began blistering.
Pi and Arkroid reacted quickly and pulled Voit out of the line of fire. The team scattered not to provide easy targets for Morgotradon.
»I’m not sure, if I hit that bastard,« he gnarled aloud. »He has no honor! He’s a coward!«
Arkroid and Pi attended Voit and noticed the wound, which like a channel, went through his body. His personal defense field had failed him, not been able to withstand Morgotradon’s powerful weapon.
If Morgotradon has a weapon like this then we’re all in great danger of getting killed! Arkroid worried.
Voit was in great pain, but still conscious.
»You’ll mend that again, Voit,« Arkroid said to him, while Tranos established a strong defense shield. His semi-spherical shield enclosed the entire team.
Maya crouched at the edge of the line of heads and secured the area also. A small display had activated before her eyes, enabling her to see in the dark.
»He’s lurking around, protected by his camouflage-field. I know it from the Treugolan world. He moved around there in the same manner. We cannot see him!« she warned.
Voit was coughing and grimacing in pain.
»Concentrate on your self-healing powers, Voit,« Pi supported him. »We need your help!«
Voit’s eyes were heavy as he replied, »He took me out first on purpose. I’m too dangerous for him … I failed you. I … should’ve … tasted his … degenerated aura … this planet (coughing) … the energy discharges (coughing and wheezing) … to many different energy types … (wheezing) «
»It’s okay, Voit. Don’t over-exert yourself,« Pi cautiously lifted Voit’s forehead and put his bag with emergency rations under his head to make it easier for him. »We’ll solve this problem! Just concentrate on your injury.«
Voit smiled faintly. His face had become pale.
»Not … on ourselves …«
Suddenly, he jerked up while a stream of blood gushing from his mouth onto his injured chest. A moment later, his head rolled to the side, his eyes lifeless. Within seconds, the golden shine in his eyes had turned to a dull gray.
»What …? No …!« Arkroid shouted and looked at Voit.
Suddenly, an explosion occurred, shaking the shield bearer’s defense shield.
»The shield’s capacity is diminishing rapidly!« Tranos warned.
»He’s still up there!« Herimos roared.
Swiftly, Paafnas left Pi’s shoulder, took Voit’s weapon and quickly climbed up the nearest statue like a lizard,
»No Paaf!« Herimos yelled after him. »He’ll kill you!«
Bad news
Paafnas moved upward like a shadow along the vertical side of the statue. Maya held her breath. Nobody could stop him. Seconds later, he had become invisible due to his ability to change his skin pigments, almost like a chameleon. Nautilus had considered his abilities upon designing Paaf’s spacesuit. This way, the color adaptation, Paaf created, transferred also to his suit.
Maya was fascinated but also very worried. She hadn’t expected such determined actions from the usually shy Pleunatan. Somewhere up there on top of one of the statues was Morgotradon – and Paafnas wanted to attack him!
»Watch yourself, Paaf,« Maya whispered to herself, knowing that he could hear her via the comm-link. The replication grimaced as she heard her.
»Your little friend will be next! My master will kill and skin him,« she hissed, receiving a hard jolt from Herimos as an answer.
Herimos also tried to make out Paafnas but couldn’t see him either.
Another explosion above their heads occurred, causing the defense shield to flicker. The bright discharges flashed and flowed alongside the defense shield to the ground and into nearby statues, indicating the size of the field. Herimos cursed in a strange dialect while Arkroid shielded his burning eyes.
»We’re losing more and more energy!« Tranos warned aloud. »Morgotradon knows how to overload the shield or extract its energy. He’s using compensation bombs!«
Vasina looked angry. Softly, she placed her hand over Masgur’s eyes and closed them.
»He was able to heal anybody except himself. His injuries were too severe. He didn’t deserve to be killed – by this coward! I want revenge!« she demanded.
»Revenge and hate are bad companions, Vasina,« Herimos gnarled. »Sometimes, I’m also tempted to disregard this wisdom. My teacher taught
me to always remain calm when confronted with danger, but emotions are sometimes also helpful, because they can lend you unknown powers to overwhelm an enemy.«
An energy blast illuminated the surroundings and found its intended target. Morgotradon who, like a revenging angel, was standing on top of a statue was briefly visible as the energy blast hit his defense shield. Paafnas must have detected him, despite Morgotradon’s camo-field. Seconds later, Paaf stopped shooting just to fire again but from a different location.
»Paaf! Paaf!« Herimos yelled excited. »He’s changing positions on the fly, he’s a bright boy!«
Before Morgotradon could get a fix on Paafnas, Herimos went outside the defense shield and openly aimed his plasma weapon at the despot. Since Paafnas illuminated Morgotradon with his energy blasts, Herimos was now able to see where he had to aim – and Herimos was a damn good shooter!
He had selected the highest possible charge setting for his plasma spheres. Morgotradon’s defense shield was fully engulfed in bright flashes. The kinetic energy unleashed, made him jerk around. Accompanied by loud battle cries, Herimos launched a barrage of plasma charges until Morgotradon fled due to the flickering of his shield. Tranos had hoped to revenge the death of Voit Masgur, beating Vasina to the target, but suddenly his weapon overheated and shut down. The projection nozzle was glowing white. A quick glance convinced Herimos that the weapon’s accumulator was almost depleted.
A moment later, a shock wave raced up the statue on which Morgotradon had been standing. The wave destroyed the upper section completely!
Tranos had rushed over to Herimos and used his shield, generating a huge blast wave. It had taken him a couple of seconds as he didn’t want to weaken the defense shield while blasting at Morgotradon. The shield parameters had to be adjusted to accommodate both actions at the same time. Tranos tried to locate Morgotradon with his shield scanners, but had no success.
»He survived and escaped,« Tranos admitted grudgingly.
»This time … yes,« Herimos replied and checked his weapon. »I just hope we taught him some respect. He’ll be more careful next time! The next attack will be even sneakier. We need to keep our eyes and ears peeled!«
NEBULAR Collection 6 - The Great Tremor: Episodes 27 - 30 Page 15
