Book One - Chapter Five
When good men are unable to know wrong from right,
Darkness fills their souls and quenches their inner light,
And so in this way another demon is born,
An evil slave to join the army of hellspawn.
- Cillian O’Tuathail - Book of Collected Poems - Volume III, 2609
Local Time: Unknown
Date: Day 127 of the Year 2623 according to the Galactic Calendar
Location: Unknown Planet - High Risk Zone - Galia
Six and half light years away from the planet Bohemia lay a small, unassuming planet. Possessing a thin atmosphere, frigid temperatures, no apparent flora or fauna, no surface level water sources and virtually no mineable resources of any value, it was quite possibly one of the least appealing planets in all of Galia. Over the centuries, it had been scanned on countless occasions by passing ships, and each time, the results had been the same. Both surface level scans and deeper penetrating scans had consistently not detected anything of interest. As a result, it had not been visited by any sentient life forms for several millennia.
That being said, some thirteen years ago, the planet had been struck by an asteroid. An asteroid that had recently travelled through the cataclysm zone. The asteroid itself had been obliterated on impact with the planet, but it had been carrying something on it. Something living. Something that had spread and grown across the planet over the past thirteen years.
“Captain Rivik,” said a junior Jorvik Pirate, her heels snapping together as she saluted.
Captain Rivik ignored the interruption. His gaze was fixed on the planet that was visible through the front viewing glass of the VZUS ballad ship, his expression unreadable. Captain Rivik was a giant of a man, measuring a towering seven feet tall with a chest circumference of fifty-eight inches. He was, in truth, a massive beast of a human. His heavily muscled body was augmented by a multitude of cybernetic implants and augmentations. Whilst his cybernetic titanium hands were the most obvious modification, what was not immediately apparent were all the changes that had occurred beneath his skin.
Ten years prior Captain Rivik had undergone an illegal and highly controversial procedure known as Tempering whereby he had been injected with a serum filled with nanobots and trace elements of titanium. The nanobots had then spread throughout his body, concentrating on and within his skeletal system, where they exerted an influence over the activity of the various bone cells responsible for the natural processes of bone synthesis, resorption and mineralisation. As a result of this nano-bot influence, instead of calcium hydroxyapatite being deposited in the osteoid matrix of the bone, as it normally would, titanium was deposited. The end result was that over the following years, his entire skeletal system had been gradually replaced with titanium, transforming him into an incredibly powerful cyborg. The only ongoing maintenance requirement was the daily consumption of a serum containing trace elements of titanium.
Without turning, Captain Rivik spoke up and said, “Have we located the Verudium yet? You better be bringing me some bloody good news.”
Verudium was a very rare and valuable metal and was the sole reason that he and his crew had stopped at the planet. Two days prior, their long range scanners had picked up a faint trace of Verudium in this region of space, which was unexpected as the cartography data they had access to indicated that no Verudium should have been present. They had investigated further and had tracked the source of the Verudium readings back to this planet. The readings from their scanning equipment were, however, quite anomalous. One moment the readings showed only the faintest trace of Verudium and then the next there would be a massive spike on the charts which, if accurate, would suggest the presence of incredibly vast quantities of Verudium.
The Science Officer aboard the ship suspected that the Scanner Array was faulty, which was the most logical explanation for the erratic readings, but greed got the better of Captain Rivik. Despite how improbable it was that an enormous node of Verudium existed on the planet, the remote possibility that it might exist, was sufficient justification for him to send an exploratory landing party down to the planet’s surface with the goal of mining directly for the Verudium.
The junior pirate stopped saluting and ducked her head in an unconscious display of subservience.
“Uh… well actually, Captain…” said the junior pirate, her nervousness clearly showing as she fumbled her way through the report. “You see, Lieutenant Beol asked me to tell you that, uh… it’s… not good news, Captain. You see, our chief botanist was… uh… just killed. We don’t know —“ but she got no further than that, for at that moment Captain Rivik had pivoted around on his heels and with an unbelievably fast speed that belied his massive form, he grabbed the pirate by the throat. The surprised pirate was lifted up off the ground, the toes of her boots clearing the floor as she ascended.
“What did you fucking say? I didn’t quite hear you, you pathetic worm. Did you say the news was not good? Speak up, would you!”
But the pirate could not respond, as she was choking. Unable to draw in breath or respond, she simply squirmed in the air, futilely pawing at the Captain’s iron grip.
The Captain held on for a few moments longer, staring into the pirate’s bulging eyes, a look of wicked glee on his face, before he let her go and turned away. The pirate fell to the ground in a heap, ragged breaths being drawn in to her lungs.
Captain Rivik flicked a switch on his helmet and spoke into the mic.
“Lieutenant Beol, please come back to the ship to provide me with an update in person. Your messenger has been deemed unworthy. Also,” said Captain Rivik as he turned back towards the prostrate pirate. “We have some dead weight on board that will need to be jettisoned out to space.”
On hearing this final statement, the pirate began to crawl away from the Captain, pleading for her life between sobbing gasps. Captain Rivik advanced on the pirate until he stood right above her, his left hand on his hip, his right hand raised before him, and a diabolical smile on his face. His hands were a cybernetic addition to his body, formed of an extremely strong titanium alloy and controlled by numerous micro-controllers and actuators. Suddenly, Captain Rivik snapped his right hand into a fist shape and bent forward to bring his face down to just above the pirate. Even in the midst of her anguish, a disassociated part of her mind reflected on how acrid the Captain’s breath was. But the thought did not last long because the next moment the pirate felt the Captain’s oversized cybernetic right hand cupping the back and side of her head, the thumb pushing up painfully beneath the jaw as the other metallic fingers gripped the back of her skull. The pirate began to scream out of pure, unadulterated fear at what she knew was about to happen, the piercing sound echoing off the walls of the bridge.
“I warned you, didn’t I? I said it better be bloody good news. But it fucking wasn’t. Was it?” yelled Captain Rivik over the sound of the pirate’s screaming. “And now you have forced me to give you the bloody good news, emphasis on the bloody!”
A thousand micro-actuators within the cybernetic hand activated simultaneously and suddenly the air was filled with an explosion of blood as the pirate’s skull imploded beneath the Captain’s crushing grip.
Captain Rivik stood up slowly, a mist of blood surrounding him, his weaponised hand dripping with gore. He took one last look of satisfaction at his handiwork and then turned away. He clicked on the helmet mic.
“Lieutenant Beol.”
“Yes, Captain.”
“Waylay my last order, as I don’t want you to come back to the ship any longer. Instead, have someone prepare my VZUS ambwe. I am coming down to the planet. I need to see for myself what is actually going on down there. Oh, and I still need someone to get rid of the dead weight. Send a cleaning crew to the bridge.”
One hour later, Captain Rivik’s VZUS ambwe landed on the planet at the temporary landing area that had been set. The pirates that had formed the exploratory mining party were all presently huddled together on the entrance platform of an Armstrong IMP Tap. They were suited up with their helmets on, but appeared to be too scared to set foot off the ship. Several Armstrong IMP Tips stood around, idle and pilotless.
Captain Rivik growled at the sight. He clicked on his mic.
“Lieutenant Beol. What the fuck is going on here?”
“It’s the ground, Captain.”
“What about it? I’m standing on it. It’s just goddamn dirt. What’s got everyone scared shitless?”
“Well, our chief botanist said that they don’t think it’s actually dirt. They said that there may be soil deeper down, but what we are standing on right now is not actually dirt.”
“Then what the fuck is it?” yelled Captain Rivik, becoming exasperated by the exchange.
“We don’t know exactly. The chief botanist went to get a sample and… well…”
The Lieutenant’s words trailed off. He raised an arm and pointed it towards something that was sticking up out of the ground. The Captain set off towards the object. It was less than twenty metres away, so he quickly closed the distance. However, as he got closer, his steps began to slow as comprehension dawned on him of what he was looking at. The protruding object was an outstretched arm. An arm belonging to one of his pirate raiders. His chief botanist, to be precise. All that was visible were the forearm and hand. No other portion of the body was visible.
“How long has it been like this?”
“The body has been slowly disappearing over the past hour, almost like it is sinking, or being swallowed by the ground. Before she collapsed, the botanist mentioned something about a mycelial network, whatever that is. Then she started screaming. But the screaming didn’t last long, though. Pretty soon she went quiet and just collapsed over where you are standing. None of the boys were game enough to venture out to get her.”
“And what about you, Lieutenant Beol? Were you also not game enough?”
“Safety protocol demanded that at least one ranking officer should remain back in case of an emergency.”
“Of course,” growled Captain Rivik as he knelt down to examine the hand. He had a custom-made space suit that allowed for his cybernetic hands to extend out of his suit. Instead of extending down to form gloves like most space suits did, his suit stopped at the wrists and attached to sealing attachments that were permanently fitted to his cybernetic hands. This allowed him the freedom to use his hands without the impediment of gloves, even in environments requiring a space suit.
He reached down with his right hand and brushed the ground. It felt solid enough.
“Mycelial network, you said?” asked the Captain.
“Yes, Captain.”
Whilst the Captain was undoubtedly a bloodthirsty tyrant and a nefarious criminal, he was not uneducated, nor was he stupid. He knew what a mycelial network was.
What would a network of fungal hyphae be doing out here? This planet is supposed to be barren and lifeless, he thought to himself.
“What was the botanist doing when she collapsed?”
“She had been digging with a shovel to try to get a sample. She had complained that it was very tough ground and had been hacking away at the ground. It was not long after this that she screamed and collapsed.”
“Interesting. And now to test my theory,” said Captain Rivik.
He let his fingers of both hands slowly slide into the ground. There was very little resistance to this motion. Once his hands were almost fully submerged in the soft ground, he slowly began to curl his fingers until they were in a claw position beneath the surface. He braced himself, straddling his legs wide, and then activated the micro-actuators in his hands and made to tear his clawed hands as fast and as hard as he could up through the ground. But instead of effortlessly pulling up and out of the ground like one would expect, there was incredible resistance, overwhelming resistance. So much so that several hundred micro-actuators automatically switched off, because of the triggering of neural circuit breakers, which triggered whenever the actuators were at a critical breakpoint.
Captain Rivik was staggered by the resistance and only just caught his balance as his hands finally broke free from the ground. He was also peripherally aware of a high pitched buzzing sound that lasted a few moments and then vanished. This was a sound that he was familiar with. It was the sound generated by the Anti-Psyche device within his brain. This device was designed to prevent over the air hacking of his neural brain implants. It also prevented psychic manipulation, hypnosis, and hallucinations. And it had just activated.
“Are you okay, Captain?” asked Lieutenant Beol.
Captain Rivik ignored the question, busy as he was on regaining his footing once again.
Just as I suspected. It only reacts defensively to perceived threats such as sudden, violent motions, thought Captain Rivik to himself.
“What is it Captain? What is this planet?”
“Lieutenant Beol. We have ourselves here, the galaxy’s largest mushroom.”
“What?”
“The botanist was correct. Somehow, this planet has been consumed by an entire mycelial network, a fungal network. Where it came from, I don’t know. Where did the scans indicate that the Verudium readings were originating from?”
“It is hard to say. The readings were so inconsistent, but the Science Officer seemed to think that the Verudium was located in the core of the planet itself. But that can’t be right because Verudium has never been found in a planetary core.”
“Hmm,” said the Captain as he set back for the ship. “It’s not inconceivable that the mycelial network has extended right into the core of the planet and is somehow feeding off it. I suspect it may be the source of the Verudium, somehow synthesising it. Possibly as a waste by-product.”
“I don’t follow you, Captain.”
“Don’t worry about it. This planet has been taken over by some alien life form that appears to be related to a fungus, except that it is sentient, and it is most definitely hostile towards us. It will resist any efforts to mine the planet’s core. There is no way we will be able to mine the Verudium in the normal way. Instead, we can destroy the planet from the safety of space. Prime the nuclear warheads on the VZUS ballad. I want to blow this fucker of a planet to pieces. We can collect the Verudium from the debris field that will be created in the aftermath of the explosion. Best we get off the planet’s surface and back —“. But Captain Rivik got no further in his sentence, for suddenly his head was filled with the loudest and most intense high frequency buzzing sound that he had ever heard. A moment later, the thunderous clap of a sonic blast shook the ground.
Screams filled the air as the other pirates who did not have the protection of the Anti-Psyche implant devices were blasted by an immensely powerful psychic wave that had risen up from the planet itself. It swept outwards in an ever-expanding sphere in all directions at the speed of light. So tremendously fast and powerful was the force generated by the blast that it actually distorted the fabric of space itself, generating countless tiny wormholes in its wake. Portions of the psychic blast slipped in through these briefly existing wormholes, to then randomly reappear all across the universe in the next instant.
The entire landing crew, save for Captain Rivik, were rendered immediately and permanently brain dead, and they collectively collapsed to the ground. As the buzzing subsided, Captain Rivik surveyed the scene before him. A quarter of his entire crew, including his second in command, had been taken from him. And most of his best mining ships, which were still here, would have to be abandoned. There was no way he would risk the lives of any more of the crew still aboard the VZUS ballad. Assuming anyone was still alive aboard the VZUS ballad.
He began to growl, a deep burning anger growing within him. He set off towards his VZUS ambwe.
Once aboard his ship, he keyed his mic and hailed the crew aboard the VZUS ballad.
“Is anyone still alive?”
There was half a minute’s silence before someone finally replied. “Yes, Captain. We are alive but pretty shaken. And we all have splitting headaches. What the hell was that?”
Ignoring the question, Captain Rivik lifted off the planet in his VZUS ambwe and said, “Prep the nuclear warheads. We have a planet to destroy!”