[Inaius] From the Depths Below to the Darkness Above

[North Timistania]

Chapter one

Tame Sea
Thallasan border colony
Year of the Deep 9237

It seemed a strange choice for a military deployment, Tame Sea, even the planets name sounded soothing. The colony sat at the edge of Thallasan space, a little blue orb before the endless black of the outer reaches. The world had only been settled a few cycles ago, within recorded memory for some of the longer-lived species of the empire.

Bereft of sizeable mineral deposits or agrarian potential Tame Sea had been marketed as a pleasure world, the natural beauty of its oceans and many reefs being a draw for weary soldiers and bureaucrats alike. However now something was disturbing that promised tranquillity.

The world was home to many diverse species, dangerous if encroached upon but not any more aggressive then the fauna of any other world. The largest potential threat was the Nephro, towering crustacids that made even the Kraegar seem minuscule.in many ways, they were not hugely different from the pre-historic Kraeger that had scuttled across the surface of Thallasa in the time before uplift, heir dark Chitin exoskeletons marking them as unevolved kin to the empires war caste.

Once the Nephro had been content to keep to their feeding and mating grounds, the local colony left them well alone and in turn was granted the same courtesy, now something had changed. Once content to give the colonists wide berth the Nephro now raided the settlements and outposts of Tame Sea almost constantly.

Entire communities had been wiped out and the local militia had been ordered to defend the capital at the expense of everyone beyond. The governor had been loath to declare an emergency, in the end, he local militia commander, a Kraeger named Bazz, had arrested him and sent out a call for aid to the garrison on Bronze Shoals.

Now weeks later four Black scale submersibles stalked the darkness of Tame Sea's shallows, they were vast constructs of black plasteel and synth coral, they were silent as they glided in the deep, their size promising menacing in the unlit depths.

Gold Fin sat in the bowels of one of the vast craft, his pheromone communicator buzzed with activity as he reviewed the tactical data on his command console. The Nephro incursion had been tracked to a small cave network, it was above the in a rock archipelago.

Unlike the Kraeger whose crustacean physiology allowed them to survive on both land and sea Gold Fin's Sellach biology ensured that he would be forced to use a hydro respirator for the entirety of the operation, he did not relish operating above the ocean but the mission would be completed regardless.

'Thirty seconds to insertion' the pilot signalled in pheromone

Around Gold Fin the red shelled Kraeger scuttled to arming stations, they grabbed carbines with their evolved arms and attached lighting and missile rigs onto their carapace. Gold Fin eyed his comrades approvingly, they were an elite force, the finest war host on the frontier, it would be good to see them in action.

Punching in a combination on his keypad a shelf of weaponry slid out of a storage locker, rising he selected a long Synth Coral blade, the sort designed for brutal honor duels, and as a precaution, he also shouldered a flechette carbine, it never hurt to have options in combat.

'We have reached deployment zone, commencing surfacing' the pilot signaled

The black-scales rose out of the womb-like depths of the sea and into the blinding light of the surface. Gold Fins augmentations slid into place automatically and tinted the world in a semi brown haze, the light was always an oddity for the children of the deep but at least technology made it bearable, if only for a time.

There was a slight impact as the ships landed on the beach and the doors slid open to reveal the surface in all its blinding vastness. Krager scrambled out on the beach without a second thought, Gold Fin had trained them well. On tentative legs, he took his first steps into the world beyond the ocean.



​

 

[North Timistania]

A cool breeze flowed across the beach, if stung as it made contact with Gold Fin's unsubmerged skin, Gold Fin had foregone the standard enclosed helmet and opted instead to use only his hydro-respirator and eye protection, he didn't like being boxed in, during a fight and those domed helmets were little better than cages.

His forces moved towards the mouth of the islands cave system with a cautious pace, drones floated ahead of the party continuously scanning the area for hostile life signs. As they entered Gold Fin felt the familiar sensation of moisture cross his face, his eye coverings slid back as the darkness of the cave rendered them unnecessary. The tunnels were natural formations, but there were signs of Nephro inhabitation everywhere, claw marks and organic waste covered the cave walls.

'Weapons free, check corners' Gold Fin signaled via pheromones

As they came upon the first hollowed out chamber a dull clicking filled the air 'Contact!' a Kraeger signaled as something very large charged into view

The Nephro drone was enormous, a horrific chitinous mass that towered over the largest Kraegar warrior by several feet, Its claws were large enough to rip a full-grown warrior in half and it made a terrible screech as it charged forward on countless skittering legs.

'Open Fire! Aim for the gaps!' Gold Fin yelled as superheated flechettes hurtled past and detonated on the beasts shell

The Nephro may have been enormous but the Thallasan's had the power of technology on their side, each Flechette was combustible organic matter and they exploded on impact with the force of a hand grenade, even Chitin could not long withstand such a beating. A well-aimed shot caught the beast square in the face and its head exploded like an overripe sea melon, it fell and became a match of twitching limbs as death set it.

'Advance! staggered formation' Gold Fin signalled

They moved deeper into the caves, Kraegar armed with plasma throwers sterilized the eggs as they moved, Gold Fin could make out the amused click conversation of the Kraegar grunts as they moved.

'These things stink when they get blasted open' one warrior clicked in disgust

'You think anything smells gut after its guts are hanging out?' another soldier clicked back

'yeah i guess...' The soldier didn't finish his sentence, he looked up to see the horrors lurking above

The low hisses of countless Nephro could be heard, carbine flashlights and ion torches revealed the source, they looked as though their numbers were without end, they hung from the ceiling menacingly before dropping like a terrible chitinous rain.

'FIRE! OPEN FIRE!' Gold Fin roared before drawing his blade

​

 

[North Timistania]

The slaughter was horrendous, the cave floor was strewn with torn about carcasses and severed limbs. A Kraegar warrior was scooped up by the claws of a Nephro drone and rip in half, blue ichor sprayed across the soldiers below like gore-filled rainfall.

'Keep Firing! Hold your ground!' Gold Fin signaled

The units pheromone traces were elevated but discipline held, this was the moment that each warrior trained his entire life for, shot by well-timed shot the Kraeger pushed the monsters back. Warriors died horrendous deaths, but the line held regardless.

With the element of surprise now lost attrition set in and that was a game, the Thallasan forces were far better equipped to win. Heavy weapons specialists strafed the cave with rocket and plasma torch fire, the Nephro were reduced to pulp and ash by waves of lethal fire. The Nephro horde that had tormented the people of Tame Sea was soon little more than piles of charred gore littering the ground.

'Regroup!' Gold Fin signaled and took stock of the situation

'Report' he signaled to his Kraeger lieutenants

'50 casualties, it was bloody but it looks like we got them' a Kraeger alpha signaled with a series of clicks

Gold Fin was about to nod when he felt the ground shake, a terrible screech pierced the air as something enormous stomped towards the waiting soldiers.

'More of them?' A soldier clicked in confusion and fear

'No' Gold Fin replied 'The last one'

The queen towered over them, her tooth-filled maw spraying saliva as she roared at them, without a word Gold Fin began sprinting towards her, she lashed out with a claw-like appendage, Gold Fin slid out of its way and kept moving towards her, his men were already firing frantically at the queen. He dodged more of her flailing attacks and in one reflexive movement leaped onto her back, he dug his claws in deep and began to climb.

She smashed her tail against the cave wall sending debris flying as she attempted to shake him off but Gold Fin would not be deterred, he dug his claws in deeper and continued to climb, reaching her head he drew his sword and thrust deep into the nervous cluster. The queen suddenly grew limp and began to weaken, then the beast collapsed in a crash that sends soldiers flying.

Gold Fin rose and sheathed his blade before motioning to his lieutenants 'Behead that thing and have its claws removed as well for good measure, a trophy for me and proof of a task completed for the colony' he said with a tooth filled grin

The lieutenants clicked their claws and skittered in a flurry of deference, confusion, and amazement, one word was repeated 'How?'

Gold Fin grinned even more at that 'Cephan bio reports on Nephro physiology, not just light reading, the Nephro have a highly sensitive nerve cluster at the base of their skull, hard to hit normally, unless you get close' he said relishing the kill as he regarded the behemoth twitching in front of them

The Kraegar raised their claws and clicked in jubilation and respect, Gold Fin gave them a nod in return and moved towards the queen's corpse, staring down at such a primitive creature he wondered why it had become so aggressive.

'Burn every egg clutch you find' he signaled 'oh and send for the science team, the Cephan might be able to tell us why they started attacking' Gold Fin ordered with a command pheromone

Kraegar skittered to action as they went forth to carry out his commands, behind him the acrid stink of burning plasma filled the air as the troopers incinerated the egg clusters

 

[North Timistania]

The soldiers had found it as they searched for the source of the Nephro aggression, a long metallic cylinder torn open at the middle, It occupied a full section of the cave and seemed to have burrowed down into the earth. it was an eerie sight, its immense size coupled with a silence that was entirely unnerving. The Awakeners, the enigmatic creators who had uplifted Thallasan society, they had been on Tame-sea, their craft buried in this cave for who knew how long.

It lay on its side like a vast animal carcass, algae and barnacles had enveloped the ancient metal and yet the strange markings on the side of the downed vessel were still visible. The Thallasans kept a respectful distance from the craft, several Kraegar tapped their exoskeletons with their claws in superstitious fear, only the Cephan scientists in their tentacled exo-suits dared to draw closer, they studied and catalogued every insight and theory as they poured across the surface of the craft.

Gold Fin resisted the urge to look away from the Awakener craft, he had to set an example for his warriors, but the glyphs that flowed across the synth metal body seemed to shift and move the longer one stared at them, his eyes felt like they were burning if he focused on one symbol for too long. The chief scientist of the expedition, an elder Cephan named Shuggoth scuttled towards Gold Fin on his metal-sheathed tendrils.

'My Lord' the scientist signalled with a deferential pheromone

'What have you discovered?' Gold Fin replied relieved to not have to look at the craft for a moment

Every free tentacle not given over to locomotion was carrying an instrument, pheromone recorders, data stylus's and scanning pens were clasped in each tendril, Shuggoth held out a glowing pheromone recorder and offered it to Gold Fin. The Sellach lord took the recorder and keyed in the code, the device secreted a pheromone sequence filled with data. Entire star systems, names and images that Gold Fin had never imagined flowed through his mind.

'A scout craft?!' he said when the transfer had ceased

'Indeed my lord' Shuggoth replied with a wave of a tentacle 'The Awakeners were here millennia ago, evidently, their technology interfaced with our own upon contact' the scientist said excitedly

'What do you mean interfaced?' Gold Fin asked

'When we drew close to the ship it downloaded every bit of data on our system, then it spat out thousands of star co-ordinates, this is possibly the most significant find in our history!' Shuggoth replied, it was rare for the logic-based Cephan to get excited, this was one such occasion

'And the Nephro? why did they become aggressive?' Gold Fin asked still unsure what to report to command

'The ship appears to be trying to communicate with anything organic, it secretes pheromones constantly in an effort to draw living beings to its location, perhaps a distress call?' Shuggoth speculated

'A distress call? that's what drove these things to attack?' Gold Fin replied sceptically

'You must remember my lord, the Nephro are a primitive species that lack our ability to read pheromones, the chemicals secreted from the ship appear to have driven them into a frenzy' shuggoth said motioning to the countless corpses around them

Gold Fin nodded, satisfied by what he had heard 'Very well' he signalled 'keep studying the craft, we will lock this area down and contact command for further orders' he said turning to leave, Shuggoth bowed his head deferentially as the Sellach lord departed

'All this because that thing wanted to communicate? And what in the depths were those star charts!?' Gold Fin thought finally allowing the enormity of their discovery to set in

'The sector Governor is going to have a field day' He thought still unsure what to make of the strange craft behind him, the light of day awaited as he reached the cave exit, he walked out into the sunlight and felt palpable relief to be away from that thing.

 

[North Timistania]

Chapter Two
Thallasa
High Shoal Military Station
Year of the Deep 9237

High Shoal was the largest orbital station in United Depths and a veritable nerve centre for all operations occurring in Thallasan space. It hovered above Thallasa like a giant coral growth, thousands of branching towers flowing out from its base as it stood watch over the sickly green planet below.

Within the dark heart of the station the command centre was a hive of activity, green-scaled deep folk in specialised exo-suits scurried back and forth checking on equipment and systems, Cephan in heavy exoskeletons kept ever-vigilant watch over their pheromone terminals, sending and receiving data across light-years with the mere wave of armoured tendrils.

High Shoal was the brain which commanded the body of the empire's military, thus it was also the primus seat of the Kraegar. The red shelled warriors alone could endure being away from water without the need for breathing apparatus, they towered over all others aboard the station without the need for bulky suits or respirators. On High Shoal the ultimate authority fell to the Praetor and he watched over everything from the command centre, eye stalks scanning a thousand communications with their every movement.

Praetor Drazzick was an imposing creature, his armoured form was larger than that of any other Kraegar in existence, a peculiar quirk of the species evolution. His ten legs knelt upon the command platform in the centre of the command suite as he gazed at dozens of different pheromone screens all secreting data from across the empire.

'Kayzar reach is requesting an increase in their garrison size' one message read

'Approved, re-deploy troops from the home sector' Drazzick signalled, the Cephan obediently keyed in the coded message as he did

Drazzick was proud of his position as Praetor, not only because it made him lord of all Kraegar but more importantly because of what the rank represented. The emperor trusted him to keep order within the wider realm and he took this responsibility very seriously. His servants were the finest trained and most talented personnel available, he vetted everything personally and took pride in running an efficient command.

The Cephan were invaluable to daily operations, their advanced brains could calculate and deal with vast amounts of data and while their obsession with logic was occasionally irritating their performance was entirely pleasing.

He noticed a surge of pheromone codes coming from a distant star sector as he scanned his data screens. The encoded secretions coming from the sector terminal were growing so numerous as to be unreadable, something was very wrong.

'Isolate source of signal' he said with a priority signal to his operators

'Tame-Sea Praetor...the colony has send over four thousand...' before the Cephan could finish signalling a terrible stress pheromone filled the air

Everyone close to the main terminals began emitting distress pheromones, several Cephan collapsed as their sensory organs overloaded with the immense amount of data, even the Kraegar in the room began to double over in pain, Drazzick felt a wave of pain fill his body

'SHUT IT DOWN!!!' he signalled with an urgent pheromone

The surviving Cephan complied and disabled the terminal before it could transmit anything else, other terminals began to flicker and shut down as well, something was overloading the entire network. Several Cephan who had been closest to the terminals began to flail and emit crazed pheromone signals that made no sense, it was just a mad spray of indecipherable signals.

'Restrain those operators and send for the medical teams' he signalled authoritatively

Kraegar veterans scuttled forward and held down the flailing Cephan with claws and hands. Several deep folk in blue medical livery scurried into the room with sedative pheromones and wrist-mounted injectors. The subdued Cephan were then carried out of the room on stretchers.

After moments of silence, the network suddenly began transmitting again as terminals reactivated without being commanded to, new data filled the air as thousands of co-ordinates and probe locations began transmitting and filling up the formerly dark spaces on Thallasan star charts.

'What in the deep is going on!?' Drazzick signalled incredulously

'Praetor, something on Tame-Sea appears to have breached our pheromone network, it has uploaded untold millions of new data pheromones into our system' A Cephan signalled back, traces of excitement present in the secretion

The Cephan was not wrong, Drazzick could see countless new chemical signals on the data terminals, systems that had never been explored, probes that had not been active since the first epoch and even code transmitted images of creatures that should not have been able to exist at all. Whatever had hijacked the network had also increased its archives a thousandfold.

'Send a signal to Tame-Sea, I want to know where that overload came from' he signalled to the operators as he rose from his throne

'Do you have any other commands Praetor?' A Cephan station chief asked as he moved to exit

'Open a secure two-way pheromone channel in my private apartments, the emperor must be informed!' he said before leaving









​

 

[North Timistania]

Skaalafax the 'Black Scaled' slept a dreamless slumber, the emperor of the deep rested on a slab of solid synth coral, machines hissed and buzzed as he lay motionless, countless needles and probing instruments attended the sickly burnt flesh of his ravaged body. Bio-gel sprayed incessantly, soothing and shielding his mutilated tissues and countless inbuilt syringes pumped his gigantic form with cloudy elixirs that numbed him to the agony that eternally screamed from his nerve endings.

The emperor of the deep was a sight both terrible and imposing in equal measure, his extensive burns gave him a ghoulish air and the countless bionic implants, typically so rare in Thallasan society but here on full display afforded him an alien presence that left most deeply uneasy. The lord of the clades and master of the depths slumbered in a drug-induced sleep, monitors secreted status pheromones as they kept watch over his brain waves, the steady hum of undreaming became less so as something surge in the monarchs subconscious like a typhoon.

Skaalafax gazed across a black horizon only occasionally broken by the menacing orange glow of deep-sea volcanoes, he knew this place, he still bore its marks upon his flesh. It had been in this nightmarish plane that he had crushed his rivals and ended there would-be coup, he had cast them into the flames only to be burned hideously when those same pyres overflowed. The emperor of the deep had earned more than just his throne that day, he had become a fearful legend 'black scale' the burnt emperor.

"Why am I here' he hissed loudly in Selach

Something vast loomed in the black smoke clouds, a great mass of tentacles and bloated flesh that stretched across the horizon like a gruesome organic carpet that blanketed everything in its visceral grip. The supreme logic of the Cephan race, guardian of the sciences and oracle of Thallasa had summoned Skaalafax from the dreamless sleep.

'Black scale....' A gurgling voice whispered

'I would tear a lesser being to bloody mist for invading my mind! Though with you I think I would struggle to find anything vital in that sea of wasted gristle, why have you summoned me!?' Skaalafax roared angrily

'Visions, warnings, portents, this flesh has seen, this flesh must recount' The disembodied voice replied with a sickly wet tone

'You intruded into my mind...because you had a bad dream' Skaalafax snarled irritably

'No dreams, visions most terrible, worlds aflame, hairless bipeds with arms raised angrily to the stars, stinging terrors in the dark, beasts of cold eternity and a world black with the stink of decay' The logic replied in an erratic tone

'What world?' Skaalafax asked curiously

The logic was a vast conglomeration of organic matter, each new logic fusing into the super mass of the old, its visions were cryptic and difficult to follow, but they were the result of a powerful synapse that seemed capable of peering into the very heart of probability. Skaalafax never understood what the logic said, on the rare occasions it spoke at all, but he knew that what the vast organism said was more than just dreams and riddles, psychic visions were seldom wrong.

'Our cradle, once blue now sickly green and soon blackened with death, withered, unsustainable' the logic said in a tone that almost passed for sorrow

That was no great secret, Thallasa had been slowly dying ever since the end of the Kraegar war, the abyssal virus had infected every organic thing it had touched, even the coral had sickened and died en masse. The algae bloom that had followed had tainted the seas with a sickly green hue, the world was a sick patient propped up by supplies from the colonies alone. This was not news though, why mention it?

'Thallasa has been dying for millennia! why bring this up now!?' Skaalafax asked demandingly

'Salvation or death, risk or comfort, a choice, an offer, one chance' The logic said its voice almost silent as though it feared something might hear it

'Salvation? are you suggesting there is a means to heal our world?' Skaalafax asked

'In distant stars, they wait, Awakeners slumbering in light, they call their children to their side, they offer salvation to the worthy' The Logic replied its tone almost excitably

Before Skaalafax could ask anything else the world began to blur and fade, white light spread across all things and then a sickly feeling spread across his body as he was ripped from the dream and dragged painfully back into the agony of waking existence.

The medical thralls stepped back as he awoke and gazed into the sterile light of the palace chambers, machines pumped luminous fluids into his veins that steadied his vision and banished cruel nausea and vertigo that always accompanied an involuntary waking.

Deferential pheromones were thick in the air as the medical team secreted them, they were afraid, this bothered Skaalafax immensely, he had never harmed any being that had not first crossed him, now they feared he might simply because he bore the scars of battle. He groaned in pain as he rose from the slab.

'Summon my council' he said as he ripped leads and needles free from himself

Salvation had been promised to Thallasa and Skaalafax would see it delivered, he would prove his worthiness to all.