Krone stood at the entrance of an enormous manmade cavern, peering out as a cool breeze blew past his bruised and bloody brow. His once pallid face had turned a healthy shade of life. Behind him, his men stood in a semicircle staring out at the surreal vista above them. A single sun rose behind an impossibly distant horizon, illuminating a brilliant blue sky full of peaceful, billowing clouds. And for the first time since their conversions, Krone and his men felt free and alive.
Throughout the journey into the deep, the fractured, empty spirits had lost their gaunt, washed-out complexions. Unbeknownst to them, the deeper they went into the bowels of the moon, the closer they came to the source of the moon's power and the further it pulled them back in time.
Above the surface, the time stream remained the same. But in the bowels, the interlopers had returned to a time before conversion. But with the physical transformation also came the return of fear, weariness, hunger, and all the other long-forgotten emotions men carry in heavy hearts.
None of the interlopers knew how long they had been underground. Days, weeks, months — no one knew. Darkness has a way of distorting one's perception of time. But for the first time in countless years, they were free to do as they pleased. And what pleased them was forgetting it all. The surface; the time streams; the Necromonger faith.
Miles ahead of them, a narrow golden beam shot up from the dawning horizon. The line of color segmented the blue sky into a celestial golden grid that drew them forward. Its blinding brilliance revealed a hidden world of unimaginable beauty, lush and teeming with life. It was an impossibly beautiful world existing beneath an inhospitable cloak of arid death.
Without warning, the grid vanished, the cavern went pitch-black, and a giant countdown filled the dark sky.
5, 4, 3, 2, 1. The sky flashed white, and the dawn reset.
"It's a screen," one man said. "It's all fake."
The entire world was a carefully constructed fantasy of epic size and scope. As the rising star chased the darkness on the other side of the world away, he saw a pale moon and unfamiliar stars. These creatures, this place, and the facsimile above were not from M6-117.
As they stood in awe, peering out at the impossible, a massive shock wave spread outward, kicking up dust and flocks of screeching birds. Bolts of electricity snaked outward and faded. The frightened wildlife filling the massive cavern settled into the dense forests below. Every mouth fell agape at the wonder and awe before them.
During the early days of their journey, time had slowed to a grinding halt as weary soldiers stumbled through the absolute darkness filling the descending tunnels. Back then, they never imagined such a wondrous place existed. Back then, hungry, needful things beset them on all sides. Some cut off any hope of returning to the surface; others tried to prevent them from reaching their goal. Either way, forward or back, would end in a slow, bloody slog filled with the uncertainty of failure or death.
None of the men left in Krone's company dared to venture a guess how deep they had descended into the core of M6-117. They all suspected it was hundreds of kilometers. But no matter how far they descended, none of them would have ever believed it possible that they would long for the bleached-out hellscape high above. But they did.
A golden line traced down the tunnel's right wall, catching Krone's attention as it bisected the tunnel floor from the grassy cavern. His eyes traced its path as it surged along a vein of gold ore at his feet. The beam stopped beneath the tip of his right combat boot and pulsed like an angry red heartbeat, sensing his presence, and somewhere in the ancient world ahead an unseen eye opened.
He drew his foot back, and a blue glowing print pulsed and faded away, leaving nothing but an uneasy sense of dread. Whatever force governed this place knew it was no longer alone.
If Kone hadn't been on guard, he would have missed the flash. As it was, he looked around at the group and realized no one else had seen the strange light or the glowing footprint. They were all fixated on the miraculous view in front of them.
Krone had become suspicious after the chaotic journey into the planet's core had claimed many of his men and almost ended his life. The deep was a strange place filled with savage horrors and pitfalls the likes of which none of them had ever seen before.
During the early days of their journey, the party had eaten little other than what they had brought with them from the future, and that was sparse. A few things forgotten in pockets. The trip was not supposed to take long. What little water they had found along the way came from brackish pools tasting muddy and metallic. One of his men had died from a fever brought on by a tainted pool of water. A few days after the first death, their paltry flashlights had dimmed as much as their waning spirits. Then, the batteries in their lights became as empty as their aching bellies.
That's when bad became worse, and without light to warn them of approaching raptors, the only thing they had was a single tracker, and that was a sad substitute for sight. So, darkness took them into its icy embrace, cloaking the slimy howling things scurrying in the musty, stall air. It grated on their wills to go on as day after day, creatures hungry and unkind attacked from all sides. And day after day, they made less headway. Time was not the only thing slowing their slog into the unknown.
Then, as the surface rose further above, the steep tunnels became an unpredictable network of crisscrossed crevices and crumbling sinkholes that swallowed the unwary without warning. The team wandered through a world where every step could be their last. But they forced themselves onward, not knowing where they would end up.
Screaming things dragged blind men away as the helpless comrades fired at ghosts in a black void. In those bleak times, life and death became a game of chance. And chance seemed determined to keep the Necromongers from the prize buried somewhere deep beneath their feet.
When all seemed hopeless, they turned back, but the snaking tunnels obscured the way out. Instead, forcing them deeper. Until they were alone in a galaxy that did not remember them or want them. They were half-dead shells walking through the bowels of hell.
As they pushed deeper into the core, pale blue lights rose out of the mile-deep fissures, surrounding their every move. Some believed they had gone mad. Others fell on their knees and gave thanks. Krone remembered what the traitor had said from his cell. M6-117 holds many secrets. One is that life prospers in the depths. Krone stared down into the lights. He meant to find that life. He meant to survive.
As the narrow rocky walls opened into giant caverns filled with stalagmites and stalactites, a thin layer of bioluminescent moss spread across every surface. The dull glow chased away the darkness, giving rise to sight. And with the sunless glow also came a blessed end to the raptor attacks. But hunger, fatigue and exhaustion remained. Each of them had lost weight. They were shadows of the giants they had been.
The weary men trudged through vast caves filled with glowing vegetation and ankle-deep grasses. Clouds of insects buzzed around their heads as the air became cool and moist, and soon, meandering streams divided the growing fields. Bubbling waters teemed with an abundance of aquatic life. They caught their fill with weary hands and feasted with cracked and sore lips. No one considered the fish poisonous. The hunger gnawing at their bellies saw to that. They lay on muddy banks, eating their fill and slumbering on soft beds made of green grass. And time passed as thoughts of Necromongers and dark missions drifted away.
Further on, the vegetation grew taller until lush forests rose around them. Enormous trees thousands of years old teemed with chattering monkey-like creatures, bizarre birds, and strange creatures of all kinds. And all of it added to the growing light. All of it emitting its own light.
Deeper still, a series of large chasms, mile-high cracks torn through the mantle of the inner planet, stretched forward for miles. Giant grasses shot up shoulder high and spread over rolling savannas that were surrounded by jagged mountains and old-growth forests. Thousand-foot high waterfalls churned up roiling fog banks, and billowing clouds floated in a pale glow. The top of the caverns rose so high it disappeared.
Many days passed before the Necromongers arrived at a small opening in a mile-high granite wall. An endless valley rolled out behind them. Their path narrowed to two choices. Through the man-sized opening or return to the surface. They moved through the narrow opening and came to a small opening, revealing a massive expanse too big to estimate. The sound of crashing waves drifted out, carrying with it the fragrance of the salty, primordial sea.
Krone stood in the opening, 10 yards from the edge of a sheer cliff that dropped miles into the enormous sea below. For the first time in a long while, he felt small. Its beauty made him remember the warning.
"What was it he said?" Krone said to himself. He sat there in his prison cell. An infuriating grin plastered on his withered face. "You will know I speak the truth when you enter the realm of light and gold." He looked at the line of glittering ore inches from the tip of his boot and then up at the sky. "Crazy bastard was telling the truth."
A pristine line of gold lay at Krone's feet as if someone had used a ruler and paintbrush to separate rock from grass. How long it had lain there or who had placed it there, he couldn't say. He imagined it had been there forever, since the beginning of time. And not a single blade of grass had ever spread to the tunnel side.
"Is that gold?" Billings asked, bending down to get a closer look at the line.
Krone laughed at him. "What's a Necromonger going to do with gold?"
"In case you haven't noticed the obvious." Billings replied, turning to face him. He gestured at his lack of round neck scars left by the conversion process and then to his non-pallid complexion. "We're not Necromongers anymore. We're free to be whoever we want to be." Billings pushed past him, stepping onto the gold line. He walked out onto the green grass and breathed in the cool, moist salt air wafting up from the shoreline. The angry red flash passed by again, Billings' blue footprint wafted smoke, and Krone stepped back.
"It'll come back when we go home." Krone said, not considering going back to the Lord Marshal or his armada. He was done with that life. But first, he had one last task to complete before he left this place for good. He needed to see it himself. He needed to know whether the traitor was telling the truth. If it were a lie. If such power existed. And he needed to make sure the Lord Marshal never got his hands on it.
"Yours might," Billings snapped, and spat on the grass at Krone's feet. It spattered the ore, and a giant blue arc of electricity whipped the air. Billings missed it. They all missed it. Except Krone.
Billings turned to the others, gestured to the ore and added, "Save me some, boys. I think I'll need some cash when we get off this rock." He turned to Krone with a smug sneer and said, "As for me, I won't be going back with you. Ever." He strolled over to the edge of the cliff to get a better view of a world no human eye had ever gazed upon. Its beauty stole his greed.
"I wouldn't do that," Krone warned, shaking his head at Billings. He threw up a barrier of outstretched arms, preventing any of the others from crossing the line of gold, and shook his head. "Don't," he whispered and gestured down at the unnatural gold line. It glowed, and his men took a wary step back.
In the distance, the clouds parted, and the sound of pounding waves crashing against rocky breakers reached their ears. A deep blue sea stretched out for untold leagues. It flattened the horizon, and at its center, a large green volcanic island rose out of a swirling bank of fog. Krone thought that with its cut-off shores and dangerous mountain terrain, it would make the perfect hiding spot. There, he thought, that's where we need to go.
"What is this place?" Billings asked, mouth agape with awe and wonder.
Krone gestured for Billings to come back behind the ore and said, "Come back and I'll tell you."
"I don't take orders from you anymore," Billings said, turning with a scowl of hatred. "So, you can either tell me now or take a fucking flying leap."
"Have it your way," Krone replied in a blithe tone. "But don't say I didn't warn you."
Billings shot him with a frown weighed down by years of unspoken insults and expletives and turned back to the view. He was his own man again. He would never listen to Krone again.
"It's the Garden of Eden," Levens said, stepping around Krone and over the line. Krone grabbed his arm and stopped him from moving any further.
Something reptilian screamed in the near distance, and the sound seemed to surround them on all sides. Everyone looked around and threw up their weapons. Billings held up the tracker. He saw nothing out there.
Krone's right eyebrow went up, and he said, "It's not. It's the seventh level of Hell disguised to look like Eden." He pulled his right toe back from the gold ore a second time and saw the same blue tinge fade away. He drew Levens behind the line, searching the cloudy sky for some all-seeing eye.
"Last chance, asshole. Come back now, and you may live long enough to spend some gold, after all."
"And you can go-" Billings began, turning around as something large and black swooped down, snatching him up with enough force to tear him out of his boots. A bloody boot landed on the line of ore as the beast flew away with Billings' wriggling, gushing corpse flopping in the breeze.
Krone looked over his shoulder at the remaining men and asked, "Anyone else want to go out and look over the edge? Or take what isn't yours." No one moved. No one said anything. They just watched the creature fly over the horizon with Billings' body in tow. "No?" Krone added, turning to each man.
Levens stepped up beside him and said, "Please tell me that's not the only way down." Levens sidestepped to the right, taking great care not to step on the grass as he checked for a way forward. He needed a reason to forget what he'd just seen.
"Stupid bastard," Hodge said, kicking Billings' boots over the edge. "What a waste. Just to make it all this way and…" He sighed, shaking his head. "Just stupid."
"At least he was right about one thing," Krone said, turning back to the view with a shrug. "He won't be going back to the armada."
"Ever," Hodge added with a disgusted sneer.
"And neither will any of you if you don't get your heads out of your asses. Whatever is operating this place either wants us gone, or dead. And if we're not careful, it'll get its way."
"Pity. We could have used his help," Hodge said, turning his attention to the rocky side of the cave mouth. He knelt down, dropped to his hands and knees and crawled along the outside of the golden line.
"You warned him," Levens said, looking squint-eyed at Krone. "And since when do you give two ripe shits about anyone but yourself?"
"Harsh," Krone said in a distracted voice. He had his nose a few inches above the gold, inspecting it.
"But true," Hodge called out with an out-of-place air of playfulness in his voice. There was something about the light down there that just wanted to make you think things were going to turn out all right. Or maybe it was because he could feel something other than anger and hatred.
Levens worked his way about 75 feet down the line in the opposite direction. He stood with his back to them, looking at something. "There's a passage leading down over here," he said, turning to them. "I think it might be safe. It doesn't cross the line. These steps look new."
"Steps," Hodge said, looking to Krone for confirmation he heard right. "Did he say steps?"
"I think from here on out, it's safe to assume that everything we encounter down here is most likely a threat, a trap or designed to keep us out."
"Agreed?" Levens said.
Everyone nodded as he gestured for them to huddle up. "Someone or something doesn't want us here."
"Before we go any further, I have a few questions." Levens said, looking to Hodge to back him up. "Because you know way more about what's going on down here than you're sharing."
Hodge nodded in agreement and said, "Like how you knew this place was here. Because none of us wants to complete this mission. Not even you. We could have taken their ship and gone anywhere."
"No. We can't. If the Lord Marshal gets his hands on that device, there will be nowhere we can run that they can't find us. He'll hunt us down and kill us all."
"You went to see the traitor before we came. To cut a deal behind the Lord Marshal's back You let him out, didn't you?" Hodge asked. "It was the only way you could know this place was here. What did the traitor really tell you?"
"He sent us to protect the queen."
What queen? "Did you drink some bad water?" Levens asked. "Since when have we taken orders from him?"
"And that's what I said when he offered me the deal." Krone replied.
Krone turned to them and said, "Before we came, Lord Marshal Vakko sent me to speak with him. He knew much of the plan. He told me it was a lie. That Vaako was planning to sacrifice us all. The machine works only in one direction. We were to be left behind. Food for the beasts."
"That bastard," Hodges said.
"My thoughts exactly. So, I took the deal, knowing there would be a price if we wanted his intervention."
"Didn't we already establish that none of us wants to go back there?"
"Not there. Back to the ones that were taken from us. He'll send us to our families. Into our pasts, before they came, allowing us to take them and leave before the Necros attack."
"And our payment. What does he want?" Leven asked?
"Why didn't you tell us any of this earlier?" Hodge demanded.
"Like I said, I believed he was full of shit and I was a loyal servant of the one true master."
"And why believe him now?" Hodge went on. "Why trust him to follow through? Even if we succeed, they'll keep him locked in his cell."
"It's unlikely any of us will ever see the surface again." Leven said. "Not without help. As for the locks that bind him, I saw to their removal myself. A well-placed shape charge and a timer."
"You let him out."
"I took the deal," Krone said, nodding. "And now, your immediate future comes down to one question. What are you all willing to do for a chance to see your families again? To erase the sin of abandoning your loved ones to save yourselves?"