Seeker Files: Beauty Corrupted
It was the jagged beauty of the Grimvault that struck him first, and stayed tucked away within him even through all that came after. One hand latched firmly to a strap on the ceiling of the transport, he peered out in silent wonder at the deep ravines gouged into the warm rock below, at the grass the colour of bingberry leaves that rippled in the ship’s shadow as it passed over. High, sheer walls of exanite cast a golden haze to the west, but here the air was impossibly clear, and cool on his tongue as he breathed it in. He watched as a small group of dawngrazers ambled along a windswept slope; he had never seen them with such arresting stripes. This was a wild, untouched place - or had been until a few months ago.
A movement to his right made him tear his gaze from the breathtaking view, and he saw that one of the young cadets had joined him. “Nearly there, sir,” she reported in a low voice. He nodded his acknowledgement, his attention more on her appearance than her words. She was like most of the soldiers on the transport - fervent, eager, determined to prove herself. He suspected that had she not been chosen to serve on perhaps the most dangerous front line on Nexus, she would have volunteered.
He turned his eyes back to the rushing landscape. Jutting rocks had given way to taller, more imposing slopes on either side as the transport dipped to follow the path of a wider gorge. A faint crease appeared between his brows. The colour seemed to be leeching from the rocks below as they pressed northward. Few trees, plants of any kind, in fact, could be seen now, only stone and sparse grass. The ground sloped suddenly downward, and as the ship turned, he felt the breath steal from his throat.
There was colour again here, a sickly purple that seemed to rise and clog the air, and the land itself gave way to it, flattened into narrow ridges that snaked in all directions like a web of veins. Ahead, the bleached ribs of some massive, long-exhausted beast towered over the plain, like mute pillars of warning. An unnerving sensation of dread fluttered around his chest, and he quickly looked back the way they had come, as though in appeal. But the beauty had slid away, beyond sight; and for him, though he didn’t yet know it, beyond existence.
He slowly glanced at the cadet again. There was apprehension on her face as well, though she was clearly struggling to master it. “All right there?” he murmured, wetting his lips.
She straightened under his gaze. “Yessir.” She gave a marginal salute, and retreated to join her fellows.
Reluctantly, he dragged his eyes up to stare beyond the ship again, and then went rigid when he realised that the outside was staring back. There were more huge rib-like protrusions here, only dozens this time, thick and purple and many-hollowed, set with clusters of eyes that seemed to follow him erratically. Scattered amongst them were smaller ones shaped like fishhooks, razor-edged with rows of fangs. They curled out of the diseased ground as far as he could see, and everywhere between them roamed horrible aberrations of life twisted and corrupted.
There was exanite here as well, but the clusters seemed feeble and hard-pressed, their glow muted by the haze that darkened the air. His eyes roved over these repulsive surroundings, unable to look away. Involuntarily, he pressed a hand to his stomach. He had known about the Strain, he had studied what little information there was about it, and yet finding himself in the midst of such horror - he had not been prepared for this. He truly doubted if anyone had.
A Legion outpost had been set up near one of the larger exanite outcroppings. The surrounding bulwarks looked as though they had been damaged many times over, but still, they held. The transport set down, quickly ejected its occupants, and lifted off again. He watched it speed away until it was out of sight. Another wouldn’t be arriving until the next supply dump - if it could get through.
Breathing out in an attempt to calm himself, he glanced around. The soldiers who had arrived with him were being shown to their posts. The remaining new arrivals were scientists with the Collegium, and he their ranking officer - for whatever that was worth. He turned as a woman in a medic’s uniform briskly approached. “Lieutenant Serapis?” she enquired shortly.
He nodded faintly. “Yes.”
“Good. We’ve been expecting you.” She gestured to two other medics, who began ushering the scientists into a rough formation and administering some sort of inoculation. She also withdrew a hypodermic needle from her medical kit and gestured brusquely. “Your arm, sir.”
He drew back a little. “I’ve already been -”
She cut him off brusquely. “The medics behind the lines are also behind the times. This was issued a week ago.” She seized his arm without further ado, and injected him with the serum. A low gasp left his lips as a burning sensation swept through his body, and he blinked rapidly, trying to breathe.
“Physical reactions will subside in a minute or two,” she informed him clinically. “Now if you’ll follow me -”
She was interrupted by a shout of warning from the edge of the outpost, where several sentries were rushing to converge on one of the bulwarks. He whirled around and felt the bottom drop out of his stomach.
Several creatures had scrabbled up to the fortifications as though out of a nightmare, spindly and sharp-limbed and as tall as a man when they rose up. He would always remember the sound they made, the skittering of thin flesh on metal as they crawled swiftly over the bulwark and launched themselves on the nearest guards. Shots and slashes rent the thick air, twining with a shrill scream from one of the sentries. Thirty seconds later, it was over.
He hurried over to where the twisted bodies lay as most of the guards dispersed to resume their posts, but a cautionary hand grabbed his arm. “Don’t touch them,” the medic warned him grimly. “They’ll be disposed of.”
He hadn’t the faintest notion of touching them, and with that assurance she released him. He turned again and looked down. The creatures were twisted even more unnaturally in death, and oozing something foul from their wounds. His eyes shifted over further, and he froze when he saw that a human body lay there as well. It was the young cadet who had briefly joined him on the transport. Huge chunks of her flesh had been torn off and half devoured, the gory remains strewn around her body.
His stomach heaved, and he pivoted abruptly, unable to bear the sight of her. Staggering over to lean on the bulwark, he retched violently onto the purple-tinged ground under the medic’s stoic gaze. She waited until he had finished before speaking levelly.
“I presume you were briefed on the Eldan installation just north of here. There is a patrol ready to escort you to it, with some of our scientists already waiting there.”
He wiped a shaking hand across his mouth as he straightened, trying to get control of his breathing and dispel the shock still clinging to his insides. He stood there for several moments, his eyes closed. Eventually, he looked up again. He swallowed hard, and nodded, and in that instant he felt something in his mind close down.
“Lead the way.”
