Chapter 10: Negotiations.

"I don't think I got a good night's sleep."

"I doubt that any one of us did. We are in foreign lands."

Osmaer was double checking his equipment, sitting on a box of spare water canteens. Sand had gotten into his stubber, and he had spent most of the morning scrubbing it down. Above him stood Aervonix, a fellow soldier from the second platoon. He was a bit of a religious nut even before the bombs and the red rain, but recently his faith was all that kept him alive. They had been ordered to properly parade through the city, and stand guard as the most senior representatives of the Imperium began talks with the planetary governorship.

As Osmaer was preparing, he was very much aware of the local inhabitants gawking at them all. "We aren't that interesting." He had said, before continuing his cleaning. The civilians had been ordered to stay away from the camp for the time being. A few people were warned during the night for straying into the Imperial territory unannounced. One of them only disappeared after a warning shot was announced, and fired. Relations were already off to a bad start.

"Osmaer! Companion!" Jeshuas called, as his servo skull floated aimlessly around him. Osmaer flinched. He hated those things.

"What?" Osmaer said, trying to ignore the floating skull. Jeshuas made a brushing motion, as if to say his concern was irrelevant.

"You are to march with me." Jeshuas said, absent-mindedly disassembling and reassembling his laspistol.

"I am? Of course." Osmaer chuckled at his misfortune.

"May the tide favour you." Aervonix said in his hollow voice, making the Aquila before moving away to a different matter. Osmaer nodded, satisfied that he had gotten the sand out of the stubber, and stood to attention.

"Ready for orders, Jesh." Osmaer saluted, and Jesh nodded in a smug way.

"We shall shortly be meeting with some of the highest standing leaders of this planet. I have been instructed to stay on my best behaviour by Magos Elagabulus, and I shall tell you the same."

"Why us?" Osmaer asked, puzzled by what Jesh had said. "I'm not that important."

"No," Jesh admitted gleefully, "But I am. So come! We have many-many things to see and say. Well, I do. Not you."


"Vonme Gova! They are happy to see us." Osmaer exclaimed, as throngs of jubilant natives cheered at the procession. It had happened yesterday, true, but then they had had to act formal and professional. Now, they could act a bit more friendly. "I could get used to this kind of treatment."

Just ahead of him, Jesh drank in the scene greedily, and Osmaer's fears were confirmed when he heard him mutter something about "Thorough examination."

"Please don't cut them up. They're being nice to us." Osmaer said in an undertone, grinning at a man who had thrown a bunch of yellow-flowered plants at the column of troopers.

"Hm? Oh, do not worry about that. I was simply admiring the headquarters of the planetary governor." Jesh said, pointing up at the vast building at the top of the city. "I sent the servo-skull ahead to examine it. It is quite fascinating."

Osmaer couldn't deny it. The building was, for a start, impressively large for a planet that was for all intents and purposes cut off from the galaxy. Second, there were several enormous candles that burned continuously, sticking out the sides. Yet they did not melt or collapse, nor did they seem to throw off any heat. The building was perfectly symmetrical, yet spikes jutted out harshly. It was unlike anything Osmaer had ever seen. Yet it reminded him of something.

"A fortress." He mumbled, thoughts racing through his mind all the way to the entrance of the place. He felt a familiar sense of dread as they marched past the local security forces, and continued to feel it even as Jesh pulled him along with Captain Ryyken into the building itself.

Into the belly of the beast, he found himself thinking, and couldn't quite place why. The inhabitants had been friendly, and the land itself was not all too alien- but now that they were here, a fear he had not felt since "then" was forming.

"Osmaer! Focus." Hissed Jesh, and Osmaer slipped back into the world. They had been marched up to a large metal door by local forces, and once it had been knocked by one of them, it had slowly creaked open.


(I've recently been very busy with personal issues. I'm sorry for not sticking to schedule.)