The Withered Land, THE EMPIRE FALLS: HELL'S AVATAR

HELL'S AVATAR -- PART SIX

Neither of them had any familial relations of which they were aware. Pylott was a career soldier. Mune'stahr was a mercenary consultant. Yet their differences and personal histories had never interfered with their professional comradeship nor colored their personal connection.

"Where in the Five Hells else would I be?" Mune'stahr groused.

"The bar at Downbelow Quadrant gambling at Kee'quai's Sunnum Wheel table," she said, ignoring his dark mood.

Mune'stahr harrumphed. "The Sunnum Wheel table is rigged and Kee'quai is a thief. Besides, given the current political climate, Downbelow Quadrant is an unwise place for us Expanse SpecOps soldiers to be."

"Is this how it is going to be today, my friend? Bitterness wastes a lot of energy."

"I'm not being bitter. I just think the Star Legion deserves more credit than it gets from the penny-pinching and short-sighted Ruling Powers," Mune'stahr said. "This vessel and this crew shouldn't be undergoing decommission and reassignment. We should be exempt from the Great Revocation. We are the only remaining guardians against the further encroachment of alien incursion into the Homeworld Solar System through the Veil. The advent of The Wound in this quadrant of space has terribly weakened the quantum division between Realities, the door between Here and There, what the common man calls 'dimensions'. And it threatens to open that door wide and we of the Star Legion's Territorial Expanse serve a necessary purpose protecting Teshiwahur."

"The Ruling Powers think differently. Environmental catastrophes, potential industrial collapse, internecine warfare, domestic and transnational land-grabs, a rise in the occurrences of biogenetic and neurocognitive disorders across tribal divisions, political coups and the rise of territorial feudal warlords have taken priority over whether or not semi-mythical alien creatures are sneaking into our Space-Time envelope," Pylott said with a shrug of her shoulders.

"But we've proved that they are doing exactly that," Mune'stahr said stubbornly.

"No one denies that. But that is not what truly concerns people who are living on a world that is slowly dying. There isn't much of a budget to support a space-born war across multicosmic dimensions."

Mune'stahr lowered his head, nodding, before saying, "I suppose what really angers me is that, ultimately, this Great Revocation, this abandonment of the extended empire we fought so hard to forge across other worlds, will have rendered the terrible sacrifices of so many men and women in this service to be meaningless."

"Such is a soldier's lot," Pylott said simply. "In one way or another, it has ever been so."

"It's wrong."

"It's policy and statesmanship. It is the province of history. Besides, I would think that it shouldn't matter so much to someone who calls themselves a 'mercenary'. You're still getting paid regardless. Who would've thought you were such a romanticist?"

Mune'stahr couldn't suppress a wry smile. "Point made," he said.

"Amazing. You must be depressed. Normally, there's no way you'd ever admit I was right."

"Stop it, Py," he warned, his tone adopting a lighter, more playful register.

She smiled. "Good. Now let me tell you about our new assignment before we make planetfall..."

"I'm listening."

"The Planetary Defense Network's Security Reconnaissance Services have observe and tracked the incursion of an alien bio-energy phylotype. The incursion terminates on the planetary surface, in a restricted non-militarized dead zone, likely an abandoned cityzone. The Defense Network scanned the bio-energy against its database of extraplanetary species and have identified it as something flagged by a Code Evergray categorization. A classification of Code Evergray is privileged information, Star Legion operational secrecy clearance-only."

"We have an unofficial, unexpected offworld Visitor planetside," Mune'stahr quickly concluded.

Pylott nodded. "We've been tasked to investigate. The ship will continue on to make planetfall at Dre'Zaresch Spaceport outside the militia outpost of Annet Galjeshir, southeast of Koombari City. We're expected to rendezvous with the crew for general debriefing and battalion decommission ceremonies immediately afterwards."

"Then that puts the alien incursion somewhere at the edges of The Wastes," Mune'stahr said distastefully. "I hate anything to do with traveling through that territory. These days the Wastes have come to serve as a repository for all the dark, vile things that roam the world."

Pylott kept her opinion to herself and stared down at the toes of her shining metal boots.

"There's more?" Mune'stahr asked as he noticed her stance.

"Looks like the alien isn't alone. Recent records show we had a chronometric vibratory disturbance in the same area, apparent after-image evidence that there's been a cross-spatial transit, likely from Upworld," she said.

"Upworld? They're sure?""Upworld."

"By Sereth's Claws, that can't be...," he said, growling his disbelief past a sudden flare of anger. "There hasn't been one of those in nearly nine perihelic solar orbital rotations. You know what that could mean, don't you?"

"Yes, I do," Pylott said simply. "It is beginning to look like what we may have a rare visit from a Pilgrim. And an outlaw alien resource may have illegally arrived to meet with him."

"This can't be a good thing."

"Well that, my dear friend, is pretty much guaran-damn-teed," Pylott remarked pessimistically.

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