Chapter 349

The sound of water dripping was loud, louder than the quiet whine of the Hellspace Screens depowering. One gave it up, a curl of smoke wafting up from it that suddenly twisted into a Maktanan woman in pain who gave a small scream of despair before wafting away.

Palgret swallowed thickly, looking around. The rest of the squad looked all right, looked intact, but he had a sudden fear that whatever was inside the armor was no longer his friends, comrades, battle buddies, but something dark and sinister.

--shields clear-- 030 ordered. --facial check--

One by one the face shields went clear. Culvit's eyes were wide and the fur around them was silver, Lieutenant Mu'ucru'u had a long scar down the front of his face that was held together with pieces of wire, Nanuft's eyes had changed color to a dark red with black pupils, Jagler had long fangs that extended out past his lower lip and were on each side of his nose. The sarcastic black mantid "Two" had a strange pattern between his antenna where Three had a red streak between his eyes and down to his mouth. 030 and 281 both had a metallic sheen to their green faces.

They all turned and looked at the human.

He was still large. Not as massive as he had been, but still much bigger than he had been.

He was also wearing some kind of heavy, ornate armor, thick ridged plates, bulky power armor with large shoulder pauldrons and streaked paint. There was purplish tacky fluid that glistened greasily on the spikes that stuck off of his armor. The datalink was completely wrapped around his head, engraved with strange sigils, the lights purple and blinking. Cables went from beneath his ears and into the armor. The skin had pulled away in spots on his neck to reveal warsteel cabling.

He was not wearing a helmet.

His skin was gray, a tube ran up his nose, his eyes were nothing but burning red fire set in empty sockets, and his mouth was full of sharp interlocked teeth. One each shoulder and on his chest was a cresent, the tips pointed upward, bisected by a sword, inside a wreath of leaves.

Three skittered back slightly, touching his fist to his forehead. "Protect us, oh Digital Father," he choked out.

Two flinched at the sight.

--sergeant report-- 030 said.

"All systems combat capable," the human said, black fluid oozing from his mouth.

What is it with humans and drool? Why is drooling like a teething poppet so menacing and fearsome? Palgret wondered, his mind strangely running on random thoughts.

--buzz drone maps lets see if our host has changed-- 030 ordered.

--roger roger-- The little mortar tube on 281's back lifted up and chugged a dozen times, launching pumpkin-seed sized drones that oriented for a moment then whisked away.

Nanuft looked at how all four of the mantids seemed slightly apprehensive about the Terran, where before they hadn't even been bothered by the sudden monstrous transformation. To Nanuft the heavy plated armor looked better than the monster version, even if the Terran's skin was a weird gray color with thick purple veins pulsing below the skin.

"What's wrong?" Nanuft asked, leaning toward Two.

Two jumped nearly a foot in the air, grabbing at his pistol, which was back even though it had turned into a huge spider at one point that the Lieutenant had crushed beneath one hoof.

"Don't sneak up on me," Two said, shifting around to keep an eye on Nanuft and the Terran at the same time. He opened his helmet, taking out his cigarettes. His hands were shaking hard enough he dropped one of the cigarettes, bending down and picking it up without taking his eyes off the Terran. He lit the cigarette and fumbled to put the pack and lighter away. "What? Why do you think something's wrong?"

Lieutenant Mu'ucru'u looked at Captain 030. "Is there some type of concern regarding the Terran's new form?"

--yes-- 030 answered.

Three moved slowly around the Terran, 281 on his back.

"By the Digital Omnimessiah's glittering ballsack, that's genuine Imperium combat armor," Three said. "Late generation, post Anthill armor."

--yes-- 030 said.

281 responded with a flood of data. Palgret saw it was armor schematics, weapon system types, data on the heavy armor the Terran was clad in.

"I feel... the same," the Terran said. He clenched a fist and lightning coursed up his arm. "I'm angry, still angry," the fire grew brighter in his eye sockets. "I don't feel any different. Warmer, maybe?"

--who angry at-- 030 asked.

"The Mar-gite," the human snarled. He suddenly slammed a fist against the wall, putting a deep dent in the black slick looking material that had replaced the brown battlesteel. "They took everything from me! My wife! My husband! My children! My parents! My siblings!"

Each time he said what was taken from him, he swung his fist out to the side, slamming it into the wall.

"My mother! My father! My puffies! My matrons! My hatchlings! My broodcarriers! Everything! They ate everything!" the human's hand went to his waist and he pulled free what Palgret had learned was a cutting bar Mark 2 but something everyone called a chainsword.

"THEY TOOK EVERYTHING FROM US!" the human roared. The chainsword clattered to life, the teeth burning white and arcs of electricty snarling up and down the ornately decorated blade. "ATE EVERYTHING! I HATE! HATE FOR ALL MAR-GITE! HATE UNTIL THE END OF TIME!"

Palgret swallowed, feeling the heat pound against him like soft pillows. He could taste tinfoil and berries in his mouth and his gums ached. The Lieutenant gave a low moan of pain, but his knees didn't buckle.

The human turned and began swinging the chainsword with both hands, slamming it against the inert body of a destroyed Precursor combat robot. Sparks and shards of metal flew out, the barbed chain howling and spraying sparks out as the human bellowed in rage and hacked at the downed robot.

After a long moment the human stepped back. The cutting bar's motor wound down and the teeth came to a stop. The Terran turned, a smooth exaggerated motion that Palgret knew every power armor troop learned.

The Terran put the heel of one hand between his eyebrows, pushing. "I can feel them all, sir. Feel them all dying. Screaming to me," the Terran looked up, blood running from his mouth. "I can feel them dying all around me."

The small helmet unfolded and the mantid officer looked up. "Steady, soldier," 030 grated out. "Maintain discipline."

The Terran put the cutting bar back on his hip and covered the flaming pits masquerading as eyes with his palms. "I can see them, sir, see them all. I am them and they are me."

"Reach past the rage, Sergeant," the little green mantid grated out. "It is a weapon, nothing more. It does not control you. You are Terran. You are the master of rage and wrath not its puppet."

The Terran went down on one knee, putting one fist against his forehead, and began mumbling out a prayer.

Palgret couldn't blame him. The whole thing made him want to run away screaming.

"They call it Hellspace for a reason, kid," Two said, moving up next to Palgret. "He went through it unshielded, we're lucky he isn't a big blob covered in eyes, mouths, and tentacles."

The Mantid exhaled smoke and gave a chittering laugh. "Although, this is much much more dangerous."

"Why?" Nanuft asked.

The mantid waved at the praying human. "That's Imperium armor. He probably has the body mods to go with it. Hell, he's probably fused to it."

The mantid gave a slight shudder. "One of those big fists was the last thing a couple billion of my people saw a few thousand years ago."

"But why turn him into that?" Culvit asked.

"All of our worst nightmares, not counting all of you," Three said softly. "The Imperium is one of the darkest chapters in post-diaspora Terran history. Even worse than the Combine."

"I DIDN'T DO IT!" the Terran suddenly yelled, looking up. He looked back down. "Please, please, I can't save you. I can't. Oh, Digital Omnimessiah, please give me strength."

The little seeds starting coming back, pulling Palgret's attention back to something aside from the agony ridden Terran.

--layout changed-- 281 said. --new rooms new corridors--

"So our previous maps are useless," Two snarled. "Stupid Hellspace."

The Lieutenant clattered around, setting down a holo-emitter and activating it, stepping back.

Palgret stared at the map. Gone was the clean geometry of the Precursor's mathematically precise internal spaces. The corridors now twisted and turned, changed width randomly, looped back and around one another. The rooms were irregular shaped, some of them reporting multiple sizes and dimensions to the mapping seeds.

"It looks like a scan of the insides of a living being," the Lieutenant mused. "This is indeed a dark place we have found ourselves in."

"I think I liked it better fighting against the machines," Jagler said. "This makes my fur stand on end."

--we need to move-- 030 said. --think too long you wrong--

"I agree," the Lieutenant said. "Make for one of the launch bays? The central intelligence housing? The engines?"

--strategic intelligence array housing-- 030 said. --kill the brain the body dies-- the green mantid closed his helmet. --i hope--

Palgret reached back, forgetting for a second that his rifle had turned into a bunch of venomous snakes, and was startled to feel the handgrip. He pulled his rifle around and looked at it.

It had flourishes and decorations on it with a heavy skull motif. Barbed wire was etched into it along with strange eye-watering symbols and runes.

It powered up and went through a function check.

BATTERY: 99.9%

AMMUNITION - .70 Cal: 150

AMMUNITION - 40mm: 25

STATUS: 96%

"Uh, my rifle's different," Culvit said, raising his hand.

The Lieutenant and 281 moved over to look at it.

"That is not your issued rifle, trooper," the Lieutenant. He gave Culvit a sly look. "I'm afraid I will have to bill you for the rifle, the replacement, which phase of the moon it is, and whether or not the System Most High is wearing his sash to the gala tonight or not."

That made the Maktanan all snicker as Culvit whined "Oh, please no, sir, not my horrible credit score."

The mantid looked at it, then flashed rapid holos between his armored antenna. The Lieutenant nodded slowly, then looked back at Culvit.

"Congratulations, trooper," he said. "You have your very own Imperium of Wrath main battle rifle, a variable munition weapon with customizable stock, forward grip, and accessories, with its very own underslung cutting bar," the Lieutenant gave a wheezing laugh. "Manufactured, for the enemy's pleasure, on the Wrath Forges of Mercury and the Hate Anvils of Mars."

"Oh," Culvit said, looking warily at his rifle. "Why are there those short round spikes on the buttplate?"

More icons and the Lieutenant laughed. "Why, to poke you when you fire it. It's a gun, soldier, it's supposed to hurt when its fired."

"But why?" Jagler asked.

"Because humans," Two said. "By the Unholy Chocolate Rave Mouse, you'd think you'd never seen a human before."

"Uhhh," Culvit said.

"Look, kid, it's like the old joke," Two said.

"Which joke?" Culvit asked.

"There's this guy, right? His son is this bright kid, and on the first day of the first year of school, he promises his kid anything the kid wants if he gets good grades," Two said, checking his rifle and acting as if the foregrip didn't have a cracked mantid skull done in crimson metal inlaid into the material. "So the kid gets the highest marks ever and the dad goes 'son, as I promised, you may have whatever you want."

Two lit another cigarette, expressing pleasure. "The kid says: dad, I want a pink golfball."

"The dad goes: what, my son? Why a pink golfball. You can have the latest VR gaming rig! I'll take you to House-Mouse Planet! What do you want?" Two said. He exhaled smoke. "The kid says: Dad, all I want is a pink golf ball. So the dad gets it for him, wondering what the hell its all about and..."

--form up-- 030 said. --we're moving out--

"Roger that, sir," Two said, flicking his cigarette away. "Keep Artcarik beautiful, litter a Precursor."

Palgret got the joke and chuckled, slapping his face shield shut. When he wrapped his hand around the rifle it came online, showing him where it was aiming through a window in upper right of his vision. He put his finger on the trigger and the window went from square to round and moved to the middle of his vision, going slightly transparent. When he let his finger off the trigger the window returned to being square and slid back up into the corner. His ammunition status and heat status for his weapon was one the upper right of his vision, under the window. The status of his armor was down the left hand side of his vision.

There was a lot more data than their had been.

030 climbed up on Palgret's shoulder and a blue line appeared.

The Terran slowly got to his feet, a massive submachine gun in one hand that was covered in decoration and dripped black fluid.

"Rangers lead the way, sir," the Terran rumbled, and began following the blue line that Palgret could see.

The corridor was narrow feeling, dark, and full of mist. The walls were covered in twisted black cables with red nodules here and there. The roof dripped clear liquid, sometimes clear slime. Their boots thudded against the floor, which felt oddly soft to them.

"Yeah, this is fun," Two murmured.

They moved slowly through the corridor, trying not to touch the walls. 281 climbed up on the Lieutenant's back, scrambling up out of the fog, which seemed to clutch at him.

--not alone down there-- 281 said, flashing a shivering emoji with wide frightened eyes.

"Watch my rump, trooper," Lieutenant Mu'ucru'u said.

The squad marched into the belly of the beast.