Castaway Planet

Calendar 259872/ 2000 [ Sol Year 4387/ Day 153 of 365. Sol standard year]

Days after of Crash landing/ 2

Uninhabited Island / Ruins / Scholar’s Rest/ Lowest Basement/ Outside Cult Doorwaay

Galactic Standard Time / 0900

Rogix kept one eye on Bryce as he stood before the doorway. The way that Bryce had been able to handle the Cultists with his weapon before they even knew, it was worrying. He knew that the Old Tales tech must have been real once he saw their weapons, but now? Now he was worried about just what was fighting at his side.

Some people just had an easy time killing. But the way Bryce had done it. The only people he knew that could do that were special forces. Just what had the young man gone through to gain such skills and experience? Part of him wanted to know, the other wanted to forget.

“The door is basic. No lock, and the way this is decorated….. I don’t know, this is….. very obvious. How has no one ever found this?” Bryce asked bluntly.

Rogix blinked and looked at him before frowning as he realized that Bryce was right. This was in the basement and it was in the open. They might have gone down the corridor and turned a few times, but no one had ever found this place? “Yeah, and what do you think is in there?”

“Only one way to know. I’ll clear right, you left?” Bryce asked and Rogix looked at him.

Rogix could only look at this off-worlder for a few moments before he realized what he meant. Looking at his soldiers, he saw that all of them had figured out what Bryce meant. Making a few signs at them, they nodded showing him they understood what he ‘told’ them. Then shaking himself he nodded at Bryce. “Do it!”

Bryce grabbed the door and pushed the door open. Then as the door swung open, Bryce shot forward and fired three shots before Rogix could come in.

He came into a wide room, at least a hundred-foot square. He saw three of the Cultists falling to the ground, holes in their heads. One near him started to change, their hands melting together as Rogix sliced through the being’s neck. As the Cultist's head fell off, he was already moving as his men flooded in behind him.

Calling up his Power, a Yellow Aura engulfed him as he reached a Cultist that was growing larger. Without a word, his axe swung, gaining a yellow glow moments before he used it to slice through its target.

The Cultist had gained a foot of height before Rogix’s axe hit. Rogix felt his blade cut through the being, this blow bisected the Cultist’s heart!

As his men attacked another Cultist together, Rogix looked around. He saw Bryce’s weapon kill another Cultist and for a moment he wondered. What did the arrival of these people mean for his own? The things they had started to lose faith in were real, their targets of vengeance were dead and had been for years. And to escape an ambush, his army had been taken through the Devil’s Realm, and found the Beast Cult alive! Even worse, they had infiltrated the Scholar’s Rest!

But as a Cultist wielding a sword comes at him, he slashes the man apart, right shoulder to left hip. He shakes his head and roars as he charges at a group of Cultists starting to change. For a second he watched them, and then something flashed before his eyes.

“NOT AGAIN!” He roared as he slammed his axe down. A slash of yellow energy shot towards them and it exploded, sending the Cultists flying. With a roar he was among them, slashing out with his blade.

As it maimed one of them that was bulking up, Rogix saw the savage glee in their eyes. As the maimed one pulled back their remaining arm, they went still. Rogix ignored that and roared as he slammed his axe down on one of them whose hands were merging into chitin claws. The Cultist dodged and struck at Rogix’s right arm, but hit only armor. Before the Cultist could recover Rogix had drawn a dagger and buried it into the Cultist’s neck.

Rogix kept moving and saw the last Cultist start to grow wings, and started to take flight. But before it could even make it a foot off the ground, one of Rogix’s soldiers was there! He jumped at the Cultist and drove his sword into the being’s heart.

Rogix looked around and saw that every one of the Cultists had been slain to the last. He laughed heartily as he reached down and picked his soldier up.

“Well done! Good effort! Still, next time maybe stay upright?” Rogix asked and the soldier only chuckled.

“We got everyone here sir, and we can’t lose you. Not now,” The man said and Rogix sighed. Looking around, he took in the room. There was a crystal on the ceiling about ten feet above him, and from there light came down. All over the chamber, more crystals were on the ceiling. Ahead of him by about forty feet was a large plan door. From the way it was made of heavy wood, that had to be where they had to go! It looked just like the Temple that these monsters had created before. And if this was created due to their religion, then that meant the main chamber was that way.

Before he could say anything to get everyone moving, he heard a sharp loud whistle.

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Bryce stopped whistling as he heard the sounds of the others coming towards him. Without turning, he looked at the wall and ran his hand over it. His senses told him everything he needed to know, there was a door hidden here. And the wall had a lot of pictograms, all of them the same giant creature from the door. If he was reading this right, then a lot of people had gone through here recently.

After another moment, he smiled as he found what he was searching for. Looking at the pictogram, he just shook his head.

“What is it, what did you find?” Rogix asked from behind him.

“What I had to find. Something that we need to find out what’s happening here,” Bryce explained.

“I don’t understand. We find everything through that door!” Rogix exclaimed as he pointed away from the wall.

Bryce only shook his head. Sometimes he was shocked at how the unmodified saw the world. Everyone here couldn’t see what he could, but he was starting to wonder if the Cultists did. And that bothered him a lot more than he was comfortable with.

“No, not there. Here,” Bryce said as he turned, smirking before he pressed down on the pictogram’s eye. They all heard the sounds of a gear turning and then a door five feet away opened away from them.

“Behold, the right way to go!” Bryce said with a smirk.

“What do you mean, the right way to go!? What about that!?” Rogix demanded as he pointed at the large door on the far wall. “This place is just like the records of the last Grand Temple these monsters made. The records show that the ritual chamber is that way!”

“And that is why we need to go this way. Think about it!” Bryce said as he looked at Rogix and crossed his arms. “Doesn’t that door seem a little, I don’t know. I’m gonna say, obvious? It has to lead to a trap. Probably what’s it for really.”

Rogix looked at the door, then the one on the far wall before cupping his chin. With a scowl, he looked at the door before turning to look into the one Bryce opened. “That’s a little smarter than I’d expected of these monsters!”

Bryce only nodded, frowning as he let his eyes look at the corpses. Something about this whole situation was bothering him, and a lot more than he expected. From what he knew, this Cult was defeated a long time ago. But if this was the same Cult, did their doctrine change or was there something else? “Then let’s find out.”

Before anyone could say anything, Bryce walked into the open door, taking in what was before him. The corridor was long, at least ten feet wide, and went at least three hundred feet. He saw that the way wasn’t that dark, a few of the round crystals here gave the corridor light.

“How is this possible!?” Rogix exclaimed as he looked at the corridor, his voice showing he was completely shocked.

Bryce turned and looked back at him, a frown on his face. “What is it?”

“We should be against the Devil’s Realm by now! This doesn’t make sense!” Rogix said as he led his soldiers after Bryce.

“You’d think so,” Bryce muttered as he looked at the walls. For a moment he wondered about this place. But then something happened that made his heart stop.

Oh Stars!” Brycee exclaimed softly so only he could hear it. He just stared into space as he realized what he had overlooked. This made everything that he thought was true false! And he had to get back and talk to the others about this!

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As Rogix followed behind Bryce, he frowned. Something had shaken Bryce enough that he stopped for a split second. If not for Rogix’s skills and reflexes, he might have missed it. Something had the youth, and that bothered Rogix a lot. No matter how much it burned him, Bryce was the reason that this mission had been so easy so far. His skills and tech were beyond what he thought their ancestors could have been capable of. He knew that they had lost a bit of knowledge, but this wasn’t it. Plus there was the fact that the three of them called themselves, ‘kind of civilians’. And as much as he wanted not to, that single phase was preying upon his mind.

Bryce went still ahead and looked at Rogix. For a second Rogix wondered if Bryce had somehow felt him think about the deckhands.

“We’ve found something, and I smell blood. Fresh blood,” Bryce said softly.

Rogix blinked and then walked forward, trying to understand what this meant. Once he reached Bryce, he looked ahead and saw blood on the ground ahead of them at a corner. Moving towards it swiftly with Bryce behind him, they reached the blood and found the source. The blood had come from the dead body of a Cultist whose head had been sliced off. They found the male head a foot away, the eyes having turned into multifaceted insect eyes.

Rogix looked at the sliced head. Something about the way the wound was bothered him. He had done this before, and he had seen the results of battles where this had happened. But something was bothering him, something beyond everything here. This just seemed to be something specific, something he had seen.

Bryce meanwhile had looked over the dead body while Rogix looked at the head and said what he found. “The body is only partially changed. Only left hand, chitin going up arm. Whatever happened, happened fast. So he was in mid-change when he died. Wasn’t in combat, and probably didn’t even have time to scream. And recent, very recent, blood’s still in a liquid state. Whoever did this went down this corridor. But they came here from…. behind us.”

Bryce and Rogix turned, to look at a long corridor that didn’t have any light.

Rogix felt relief, no other signs of combat down there. But turning his head he saw that Bryce had frozen in place, his eyes wide.

“No! No, no no!” Bryce said as he ran towards the corridor.

Rogix looked at his soldiers as they caught up and then towards Bryce. “Stay here in that hallway, if anything comes fall back!”

Rogix ran after Bryce, knowing that this was going to be bad. He saw that Bryce had stopped ahead, and wondered why. But as he made it closer he found out.

To his shock and horror, the corridor emptied into a galley made by the Builders. He looked around, seeing it was a hundred feet long and wide. Everything he saw in it caused bile to rise in his throat. All around them were signs of the Beast Cult, from banners on the walls to paintings between them. But what shocked him the most were the bodies of Beast Cult members on the ground. Some of them were in med-change, and others were still fully human. And each one was thrown about, showing that they had been fighting something. But how had it been kept from the others in the complex behind him. How could the Cultist have died back where men were if this had happened nearby!?

He couldn’t understand this, what did this mean? How far had these mutant monsters infiltrated the Builder’s Realm?! Some places used the Realm as their back defensive wall, built right against the Realm. If this cult could attack from there millions of people would be in danger!

“How could they have done this?!” Rogix asked in a horrified whisper. Then realizing Bryce wasn’t there, he looked around. He found Bryce at a wall to his right, looking out a door. “What now!?”

He dashed over, and once at the door, he felt his heart stop. They were looking out at a long metal corridor, and Rogix could see other doors. Looking around, he saw nothing that told him anything about what the Builders used this place for. But then he saw a metallic device on the ground near them. But as he looked at it more, he saw that it was nothing but the remains of a device.

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Bryce stared at the destroyed robot with horror. He knew enough about the Ruins to know that to the Federation, the Ruins Guards were near godlike. What could have destroyed them within this Ruin? And was whatever it was hostile to them?

“We need to move, now,” Bryce was able to choke out the words. He turned and looked around the galley, trying to figure out how to blockade the door. But when he saw the Cult’s decorations he knew that they couldn’t waste time here. They had to move, and now.

“Wait, what is that thing!?” Rogix demanded as he grabbed Bryce’s arm.

Bryce looked at Rogix and swallowed. “As strong as we are compared to you Rogix? That thing is just as strong with my friends in your place.”

Rogix blinked and then paled in horror.

Without a word, the two men ran through the galley towards the others. Dashing down the corridor, Bryce knew what he had to do. He let loose all the locks he had put on his senses and tried to find anything that could help them as he closed his eyes.

Holding his ears against the pain, he heard the beating of the hearts of the people around him. Farther away, he heard screeches and then he heard chanting somewhere else. But then he went still, as he heard it. There it was, a large rhythmic beating. The longer he heard this, the more the sounds seemed familiar. For a second he thought he was hearing the sounds of something walking, something large. But then he realized just what he was hearing and what it meant.

He stopped and leaned against the wall, slowly chaining down his senses again. Slowly he felt his own heart start to beat again.

“Bryce…… BRYCE!” Rogix cried out as he shook Bryce’s shoulder.

Swallowing, he looked at Bryce and the other soldiers before taking a deep breath. To tell the others that the ‘god’ of the Cult was real would be hard. But that animal had to be something this Cult found. It must have been so alien that those old fools didn’t even know what it was.

“What was that!?” Rogix demanded.

He opened his eyes and saw Rogix had stopped and come back for him. For a second all he could do was look at him as he slowly took back control of his senses.

“Look, my not a civilian thing? It increases my senses, all of them. And I just heard the sounds of something battling down there. Down the corridor with the corpse. And chanting over there,” Bryce said as he pointed up the corridor that didn’t have a body by it.

Rogix looked at him and then at the path that had the body.

Bryce knew what he was thinking. Whoever was fighting might be people who could help them against the Cult. It might even be some of the true Lost ones from their Ancestor's ship. But with everything, just what they should do was something that Bryce couldn’t see. And part of him didn’t want to make the choice.

“Rogix,” Bryce said suddenly.

When Rogix turned to look at him, the only thing Bryce did was nod.

“This place is your home. You know the history of this place, who this Cult is the local politics. Whatever you think is best, I’m there helping,” Bryce said and nodded.

Rogix looked around and saw nodes from his soldiers. He took a deep breath and sighed before he looked up.

“Thanks. These bastards are worse than they ever were when they were first destroyed. I can’t say that we’ll get them all with our numbers. So let’s go see just who else is fighting against them and if we can join them!” Rogix said as he pointed towards the corpse. “And remember, we’re in enemy territory!”

Without a word, Rogix led the way. Bryce took a minute to look up the corridor towards where the chanting had taken place. He had seen many shows, plays, and movies where a ‘Shipwrecked Cult’ was the enemy. But this, this was different. He had heard some people had crashed on worlds with creatures so alien, that they were broken seeing them. But with this strange Power, something was different. He hoped beyond everything that the god they had wasn’t able to use that power. If it could, then they might be in trouble.

With that last thought, he ran after the others. Clenching his rifle, he readied himself for what was about to happen.