Steel, Soul, and Spirit: Falling Darkness
By
Gregory P. Wong
Prologue: Hunter's Call
Fifteen-year old Kaythan Wong smiled goofily. Pretty Raquel Townsend sat next to him on the green hill, looking over the lush grassland of Esperanza. Her thick blond hair seemed to glimmer in the sun, and her brilliant blue eyes flashed. Her mouth arched into a grin equally goofy as his. He and Raquel were close friends, almost to the point of boyfriend-girlfriend close.
She and her family were new to the fringe world of Esperanza. The lush world had been seen as a haven for those seeking to escape the Confederacy's oppression. Nowadays many more immigrants sought to escape the new Terran government, the Dominion.
One thousand people had landed here, years ago, and their modest town had sprung up. Fertile soil provided plenty of nutrients for the various crops, and the bountiful—but not too bountiful—rain nourished the crops of wheat and corn. The town was modest, but he was happy with it. It was all he had ever known, after all.
She smiled back it him. She liked this town, truly.
He had a strange talent at guessing people's thoughts.
"You know, I never thought that I could get used to this place. It's so different seeing actual ground. Back on Tarsonis, all you could ever see was concrete and neosteel."
Before coming here, Raquel and her family had lived on Tarsonis. Somehow—Raquel never said how—her dad had gotten a way for them to get off the capital world and get passage to a fringe world. He was lucky that the Townsend family had come here, instead of other planets.
The Townsend family had come here when he was six. He had not paid too much attention to the then five-year old girl. But, as years passed and adolescence set in, he began to notice the Raquel was starting to look very pretty. Apparently, she had not thought of him much either. Thought.
"And what helped you get used to it?" he asked the girl. He knew the answer, from her mind, but he still wanted to hear it.
"You," she said, completely serious. "I'm not kidding. When I first got here, I knew nothing about farm life. Now I do... 'cause of you."
"Uh... thanks." He smiled his goofy smile again. Raquel broke out into giggles.
"Stop that! I'll have a heart attack if I see that too many times!"
"How 'bout if I do this?" He asked, and proceeded to tickle her. She was twisting on the ground trying to escape his fingers when he heard an alarm coming from the town. That alarm was only triggered in extreme emergencies...
Come on. We better check up on the town."
When he and Raquel entered the town gates, his parents beckoned at him to get into the house.
"What's wrong? What's going on?" he asked his mom. Raquel's house was on the other side of town, and he wanted to see her off safely.
"Our radar facility detected some incoming starships of some type. We don't know what they are... But we know they don't match anything we've seen..."
"Mom! Can Raquel stay here with us until... whatever..."
"I guess that would be fine. But she had better contact her parents. They'll be very worried if she doesn't come home without their knowing." She motioned to Raquel and handed her a communicator. "Here, use this and call your parents."
As Raquel contacted her parents, he noticed his older brother, Lee, and his dad loading some old hunting rifles with bullets. His eyes widened.
"What's with the guns? You're not expecting trouble, are you?"
"Well, I'll say this Kay," said Lee. "Those falling ships didn't respond to the governor's hails. I think we had better prepare for the worst." Frowning, his older brother reached behind him and fished out two small pistols from a cardboard box. He handed one to him, and another to Raquel, who had finished talking. Her eyes went wide.
"I hope you won't need to use those, but just in case..." Kaythan took the gun, grabbed a handful of bullets from a box, and gave half to Raquel. She looked lost.
"I've... I've never had to fire a gun. I don't know what to do."
"I'll show you how to work it."
The next ten minutes was used to explaining the art of firing to the Tarsonis girl. Then he heard a shot from outside. Then two more. Then someone began to scream.
Kaythan saw his father rushed towards the window. He could swear that all the color left his father's face. Pale, his dad turned to him and screamed.
"Get out of here! Head towards the storm cellar on the plain! GO!"
His father rushed out the front door, Lee right behind him. His father began firing at something in the street. Kaythan saw Lee freeze up for a second, and then he begin to fire his weapon, too. His father and brother's reports were mixed with the shots of other colonists firing their weapons.
He dashed towards the door, wanting to catch a glimpse of the targets. He took a look at the direction where his brother and brother were firing. He took one look and cried out in horror.
He, his mother, and Raquel dashed out the back and began running at top speed towards the storm cellar. He was horrified at what he had seen on the street. Then, suddenly, his head began to hurt. Grasping his skull, he stopped. His mother beckoned for him to follow. Shaking his head, he continued on.
Just as they got to the end of the dirt road, something hopped in front of them.
It looked like a dog-sized lizard. A crest rose from the back of its pointy-snouted head. Its front claws were large scythes, and two two-clawed appendages rose from the creature's shoulders. It seemed all spines and muscle and death. Without thinking, he whipped out his pistol and began unloading on the lizard-thing. His first couple of shots went wide. With a screech, the lizard-thing began to hop towards him. At this range he could not miss. His last four shots struck the lizard-thing.
It didn't even slow down.
It leaped at him, missed, and landed on his mother. She screamed. The lizard-thing's scythe-arms were moving at blinding speeds.
He aimed a kick at the lizard-thing and smacked it off her. The lizard-thing flew in an arc, descended, and landed on its feet. It screeched again. Bleeding, the monster leapt at him, its claws reaching.
There was a series of shots. The leaping creature halted in midair, and tumbled backwards, motionless. Raquel, her hands shaking, lowered her pistol.
"Are... are you okay?" she stammered out.
"Yeah, I'm..." He trailed off as he saw his mother's body. It was covered in blood. Her throat had been slashed open by the lizard-thing.
Dead.
He felt like screaming, but his throat couldn't produce any sound. Raquel just stared.
She moved first. She grabbed his shoulder and shook him.
"C'mon. We have to get out of here. Those things could be anywhere."
"She's dead. She's dead," he babbled. She was dead. His mother was dead. His. Mother. Was. Dead.
"Kaythan! I'm sorry. But we have to move. Otherwise..." She averted her eyes. She tugged on his shirtsleeve again. "C'mon!"
Wordlessly, he turned away and hugged Raquel as hard as he could. He let go, then began to run towards the fields. Raquel was right behind him. His. Mother. Was. Dead.
He was getting tired, but they had reached the town gates. He looked behind him. Raquel was huffing beside him. He saw behind him...
Grabbing Raquel's arm, he began to run again. He exited the town, and was greeted with the sight of three young men brandishing various firearms.
"Kaythan! What happened?"
"Run!" he bawled at the three men. They looked puzzled. A sound like arrows flying through the air reached his ears. Then two of the men pitched over, a dozen spines sticking from their bodies. The third man stared down at the corpses, then looked back the way he and Raquel had come. Kaythan looked back too. Snaky, two-armed creatures were slithering towards him. He grabbed Raquel's arm and began to run again as the third survivor opened fire on whatever had launched the needles. After a few seconds of running, he looked back. The one surviving youth was dead, his body riddled with those horrible spikes. As he ran on with Raquel, the ground exploded in front of him. His headache returned in a painful flash.
The snake-monster hissed. Crying out, he dodged to the left. Raquel dodged right. He spun right, and met up with Raquel as she ran off to the right. The snake-monster howled, and began to slither with frightening speed towards them. They screamed.
As they ran through the fields, he suddenly tripped on a rock. He yelled at Raquel to keep on running. After moving a few meters, she stopped and turned around, beckoning to him. She couldn't see the snake-creature begin to open its chest from behind her. His mouth dry, he aimed his pistol. He had only one more shot. It would have to count. He aimed the sights right between the snake-creature's eyes. Letting out his breath, he squeezed the trigger. There was a loud crack.
The snake-creature's jaw blew off. It hissed in rage from the painful but non-lethal wound.
The spines launched. He stared in horror.
With a scream, Raquel pitched forward onto her knees. Then she keeled over backwards.
"NO! BY GOD, NO!" he shrieked. He sank to his knees behind her. There was so much blood...
"RAQUEL! RAQUEL!" he cried. She looked pale, but she was still alive.
"I'm sorry. I'm sorry," he cried, supporting her head.
"It's okay... Ka... Kaythan," Raquel gasped.
"Oh my God. Oh my God!" He could barely see through his tears. "Raquel..."
"Wait... There's one thing before..." She trailed off, and grasped his shirtfront. She pulled him down and kissed him... on the lips. He could taste coppery blood.
"Bye... Kaythan..." said Raquel, and died. She looked so peaceful...
He screamed. And screamed. And screamed some more. His mother, now Raquel, were gone. The agony of loss rose up within him, and the pain threatened to overwhelm his senses.
Then he lost consciousness as something struck him in the back of the head.
He screamed at the darkness. At the all-consuming shadow. At the evil.
He could not move his body. He had no body. All he could feel were his thoughts and his memories. The beautiful, smiling visage of Raquel entered his mind. The bloody corpse of his mother followed. His kiss...
Then something invaded his mind. There was buzzing, like that of mad insects, as something began to probe his mind. He screamed at the violation of his psyche. Memories from long ago were beginning to play in his head, unbidden. Suddenly the memory of eating his first rhynadon steak was blacked out. Then the memory of him playing catch with Lee was served in like manner.
He screamed anew.
Layers of bestial instinct were beginning to cover up his feelings, his memories. The unclean thoughts began to replace his.
The buzzing increased, and his memories began to be transposed at a terrifying rate. The thing in his head attempted to cover up his memory of Raquel.
He screamed out again, and clutched Raquel's memory to himself savagely. The bestial intelligence sharing his brain guffawed and began to pull at Raquel's face with intangible hands. He pulled back harder, struggling. Then, perhaps growing bored of the game, the monster sharing his psyche ripped the face of Raquel away from his mind. The unclean thoughts, the savage instincts, the inhuman desires again began to penetrate his mind. Then, it all stopped. He was no longer there. He had no idea what had happened.
But he did know one thing though... he lived to serve the Swarm.