Act 1: The Death of a God

Prologue

by Emmanuel Ordway

The cadet pilot sat silently in his ship as his squad began their preparations to jump back to base. He looked at the garden planet of Mars before him and questioned his reality, trying to test the confines of his world as his mind searched for any answer as to why his visions were leading him there, or why he was even having visions at all. Seeing the future was not a power ever documented in the books at the Martian Eonvym Academy, and he had no desire to become a test subject by running his mouth to one of his Eonvym bosses. Of course going back to the Academy was off the table as he had just graduated and was now at secondary piloting school on Phobos, his presence at the Academy would surely raise a few eyebrows. 

He shrugged the doubt off his shoulders and gripped the control stick of his ship, beginning to ignite his engines and prepared to jump down to the planet, away from where the base was orbiting Mars. 

“What the hell are you doing, Kilegros?” A voice sounded through the headset of the cadet pilot in one of the thin silver spaceships floating above Mars, jolting him back to reality.

“Don’t worry about it, continue on route and I’ll meet you at the dock.” The cadet pilot responded as he steered his ship towards the planet, pressing button combinations on the control panel next to him, the ship’s engines roaring through his cabin as he pictured the blue crystal sea his visions played in his dreams.

“Oh shit- He’s jumping!” The voice called through the headset, a message not for the disturbed cadet pilot but for his fellow classmates. “Get back to base! I don’t care if your ship isn’t ready! Jump anyways!”

Kilegros’ engines began to grow louder as the thrusters would glow a brighter red than before, the vessel having now rocketed forward into the planet’s atmosphere while a wave of energy was released behind him, surely knocking the furthest other cadets out of commission and potentially fatally injuring any others that were too close to himself. 

‘Damn them. I’m in too deep now, I’m tired of being controlled.’ Kilegros’ heart hardened enough to feel no remorse for his Eonvym brethren he potentially just murdered, most of their suffering under the crown equal or greater to his own.

Following his strange visions, which he was careful not to disclose to anyone else besides his most trusted comrades, the cadet’s ship slowed down steadily before gently diving into the oceans along the surface of Mars, diving as deep as the ship could carry him. His visions began to become useless now, most of them fractured and twisted until they ended here in the depths. The cadet steered his ship towards the gravesite of an old and massive starship that had its metal hull mostly damaged and corroded. He turned the outer lights of his ship on to see the vessel better, but a blinding light from the ship erupted around him and covered his sight as the cadet and his ship were sucked into the cargo bay of the star ship. 

The cadet reached up to the top of his cockpit and pulled on a yellow handle, the roof snapping open for him to climb out of the ship and leap onto the rusted floor of the starship, his bronze colored boots clacking against the ground. He groaned as he reached up to his temple, a sharp pain surging through his mind as something or someone seemed to lure him deeper into the ship, closer and closer to his destiny.

He came back to reality as he stood before the thick red rusting doors that blocked off the ship’s bridge, or at least the cadet believed it was rust till he swiped his hand across the door and discovered the red material was thick dried blood. He looked down at the liquid now smeared across his hand from the still wet blood under the dried form, his mind racing for answers.

He recoiled in disgust for a moment before wiping his hand off on his suit’s bronze thigh, extending his hands forward to the door as thin bolts of electricity connected his fingertips to the door, powering the locking mechanism up again after an unknown amount of centuries, or maybe longer. The door slammed open suddenly and unleashed a wave of horrid smells that even the cadet could sense through his thick mask on his space suit.

The cadet waved his hand around to get rid of the dim smoke as the lights turned on inside the bridge, revealing a grizzly scene. That bloody mess on the door seemed to run over the walls and the opposite side of the door and break off from each other, spewing blood all over the floor as a large pile of skeletons laid in the middle of the room, surrounded by primitive stasis pods he’d seen from old history books back at the Academy.

The bloody mess wrapped around them and was pulsing like a heart, like it was alive.

Kilegros took a few steps forward to the heart, his boots sinking further into the blood with soft squelches as he reached out to the pulsing organ, his gloved fingers merely inches away before a voice from behind himself distracted him.

“You know the day I was tasked in retrieving you, I knew you were going to be special. I mean we all are,” A voice sounded behind the cadet and he spun around quickly, coming face to face with Sir Izan, the Shaikyn who had been tasked with collecting him at such an early age for the Academy, Izan's visor slowly turning black and hiding his face from the cadet. “But I didn’t expect this, Kilegros.”

“What are you talking about?” Kilegros reached down to his waist and put his hand on the handle of his dagger, the only weapon he had actually aced the proficiency test on and subsequently, the only weapon the Empire permitted his Eonvym hands of wielding as of now.

“Do not act like you are meant to see this, Kilegros. I am sorry, but out of respect for you being my first collected Eonvym child, I will duel you rather than execute you.” Sir Izan spoke as his voice changed from friendly to that of a sinister origin, his lips curling into a scowl under his visor.

“Duel? Why?” The Cadet spoke back in confidence, not knowing the strength of this Knight. 

Izan reached down to behind his waist and pulled out from behind him a rectangular object made of shiny silver and pressed a button on the back side of it. The brick shot out into a long silver sword in Izan’s hands, the Knight bending his knees into a more combative stance before Kilegros.

“I take my role to our Emperor very seriously.” His voice curved into daggers as he ran forward to the cadet. 

Kilegros jumped back immediately and in a bright flash of white light, teleported up behind some railing on a catwalk, blood and meat squelching as his feet landed on the ground. Izan looked up at him before scaling a pillar quickly and jumping onto the catwalk as well, blood and tissue covering his hands as his back-arms hurried and worked on something behind him, out of my sight.

“The visions didn’t tell me this!” Kilegros yelled at Izan as he grabbed his dagger and held it up, lunging at Izan. Izan his free arm up and a light blue shield appeared in front of him, tanking the blow of Kilegros’ dagger as he pressed a button on his sword, a holographic display of himself appearing out of him and blinding the cadet for a second.

“What the hell is that?” The cadet wondered aloud as he stuck the dagger back to his waist and raised his hands, them crackling with energy and blue light.

“A fun new toy.” Izan joked crudely as his hologram dashed forward to attack Kilegros again, the real Izan slashing and cutting at the metal rods that held the catwalk up. 

Kilegors almost lost his footing as the catwalk began to shake and rumble from the lack of stability. He concentrated his mind and clasped his hands together to shoot a beam of electricity into the chest of the hologram. It disappeared almost immediately and the beam shot past it towards Izan.

It connected with Izan’s chest and shot him back, off the catwalk and against a pillar, making a loud cracking sound.

The cadet ran to the railing and jumped over, landing his feet on the bloody ground below, looking at Izan, who was propped up against the pillar and groaning in pain.

“I want answers.” Kilegros demanded as he stepped up to Izan, the cadet’s boots pushing blood up against his suit and staining it.

“To what?” Izan laughed softly as he set a hand against the part of his chest that had thick black smoke coming off it.

“Why can I. . see the future? Or some version of the future?” Kilegros growled in annoyance and confusion, picking up the silver sword from the blood and pointing the blade down at the Knight.

“Well, it’s not too rare, Kilegros. I’ve heard of a few Eonvym who had that power.” Izan shrugged softly as he hissed in pain.

“Why isn’t it in the academies’ books?”

“They want you to ask about it, so they can whisk you away and make you a part of the Emperor’s witches, but you were right for not telling them. I mean you were always a clever one-” Izan looked up at Kilegros as the cadet growled and sliced the man’s throat open cleanly, his rage taking over his actions and the next moment he stepped back and instantly was filled with regret.

Kilegros sighed as he looked away from the scene of the freshly dead man and to the strange and bloody room, before making his way to the exit, only stopping as he heard the heartbeat of the stasis pods grow louder. He turned around to look at the pods, studying them closely before they lurched forward and shot out a meaty tentacle through Kilegros’ chest, stunning the cadet as his own blood seeped down his suit and mixed with the blood below.

He looked down slowly at the rope of flesh as more shot out from the heart, piercing his body quickly until he looked up, in too much shock to notice the pain. Another bone white spike began to emerge from the heart, pointed at Kilegros before it shot at his face and the world went dark. 

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Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed.

If you haven't already, I suggest reading Preliminary to get a quick rundown on the 7th Millennium world.