Don wondered around the mountain looking for any sign of the marines. They must have been expecting him to look for them, because they had hidden their tracks to the point that Don could not trace them.
He decided to travel through the mountain pass that he had found before. He set the bike to hover higher than before to make sure that it did not collide with any rocks. The scouts must have retreated to another position, I cant find any trace of them.
the rocky outcropping turned into a wooded enclave. A road like space wound through the pass, probably carved by glaciers in the planet's earlier life. Some of the rocks had turned to gravel, and then to soil which sustained the trees.
Even though he felt a need to hurry he stopped and gazed for a moment at the trees. One of us might identify them as pine trees, but we'd be wrong. The trees were native to the planet. They resembled pine trees only. The entire tree had turned red in some weird process. Don stared at the branches. They must have been over 100 years old, but they were probably older. He could tell their age by their immense size. One tree alone was easily three time the size of Don. They reached into the sky with their fantastic height.
In a couple of days all of these trees will be dead Don thought morbidly. I wonder what turned the trees red? The trees had obviously not started red. One could see that they were normally green because the roots were still their regular color. Everything else was imbued with a red tinge. It can't be the Tyranids, they are new arrivals. Whatever did this has been here for a long time.
Don checked the power level on the bike. The readout placed the heat at 9045 units; well within normal range. Don realized as he approached the pass that he would have to abandon his bike. Even though he had made many adjustments to its flight system, there were too many rocks and obstacles that blocked the path.
Don unloaded his supplies and repacked them. The rest of his journey would now be on foot.
As he was about to enter the mountain he noticed that the trees further down the ridge were green. What is going on here? I want answers, but those marines aren't going to give me any help apparently. And the only help that the Tyranids would give would be assisted suicide. Hmm. There must be a local factor that is influencing the trees. Don was reminded of his situation as he stared one last time over the plains. A mass of Tyranids was approaching. Its time to leave.
Don ventured into the mountains.
The rocks and trees loomed over Don as he traveled further and further into the pass. The odd red trees clouded over the already filtered light making it almost hard to see. A tree had fallen over and Don circumnavigated the log brushing up against the rock in the process. He shivered, the rock was painfully cold. In fact, the entire pass was significantly colder than the surrounding area because of the shade that the mountains gave and the filter that the towering trees provided.
An eerie mist clouded over the pass as he went further in. The pass narrowed significantly to a mere couple of feet. Fallen branches and hanging twigs rotted where they fell, undisturbed by man or beast. The silence was unsettling, and Don found himself checking his back at more then one time.
The ground grew steadily more and more marshy at the condensation in the mountains collected into a large depression in the pass. He was now more than 5 miles into the pass. How long does this thing go on for? Suddenly a beeping split the silence like a power-sword through flesh. What is that? Where is it coming from? Don rapidly spun around looking for anyone or anything. There was nothing but the damned mist. Wait, that almost sounds like its coming from my backpack. He backed up against the rock cliff and opened his bag. He rummaged through several objects before he found the source of the noise.
The noise came from a small rectangular object. It was a environmental health checker, a instrument that almost all guard carried for fear of biological attack. He wrenched out the readout and flicked the screen open. As he did so it started to rain slightly. The screen told him that the radioactivity of the surrounding area was approaching detrimental levels. What the hell is radioactive around here? What's going on? Don bolted for cover as the rain began to pour down with increased vigor, not for fear of getting wet himself, but for the sake of the many carefully calibrated electronic instruments that he carried. They would perform if they were exposed to rain for a prolonged duration)
He found a crevice in the rock cliff, a split triangle shaped gash in the other wise unblemished rock. The stone around it was scarred black. Nevertheless he went inside in order to find shelter. As soon as he entered the opening his environmental health checker started to resound louder. He glanced at the screen and wiped the rain away from the delicate tough pad. The environmental health checker (EHC) told him that the radioactivity has approached an gone into detrimental levels. I should not stay here any longer than I need to if I want to survive. How ironic if I died here… I would not die from Tyranids or exploding plasma reactors but from simple radiation .. How amusing.
Although the regular guard did sometimes issue hazmat suits of different sorts to fight on unsafe planets, Lars Minor was not one of these planets. Don did not have a haz-mat suit either. Not that it mattered it he did. According to the readout, the radiation was plasma fallout. The byproduct of an overload in a reactor. Not surprising if you consider the unreliability of the technology. I'm surprised the entire population of some planets hasn't died of plasma induced cancer from the frequent overloads. What the hell were those tech-priests thinking when they released plasma technology into the imperium.
The crevice seemed to lead deeper and deeper into the mountain, burrowed it seemed, by some sort of explosion. Is this what the commissar was talking about? Is this what is so important? I wonder what lies in here… Is it worth it? I could probably withstand increased levels for a day but no more. Plus the Tyranids will begin to devour organic resources from the planet in a couple of days. I have no time to waste. But if this thing is worth the death of several guardsmen in the commissars eyes it must be important.
Don weighed the pro's and con's of preceding into the gash and made his decision. The sunlight collapsed into a tiny point as he went further into the mountain.
