Pandora's Box

[Kazkin]

OOC Note: This story is a direct precursor story to a major update happening on August 19th, 2021. It is a pre-amble to explain some of the background lore on why a new development happened both oocly and icly, as well as reveal some of the details around it. However, be sure to reference the tag sticky, as this event is tagged with [Unknown] and should not be referenced ICly, this is strictly background lore to oocly read.

The elevator thrummed as the men descended deeper into the bowels of Soteria’s research labs. Of them, only one appeared to be at all outwardly even alive. He was taller, bronze skinned and caked in sweat. A greasy braided beard trailed down a porcine face that was as scarred and ugly as the warthogs once spliced into his ancestors, his hideous visage completed by a black mohawk as Jeremiah looked to his companion with a yellow toothed grin. His companion was the opposite, oiled leathery turquoise flesh with an almost rubbery texture as the mar’qua stared straight ahead with empty black eyes devoid of emotion, his thin lips pulled into a slight frown.

“Ya know Mick.” Hogg said, breaking the silence. “Ain’t common for ya tae just… call on my aid so suddenly.” His yellow toothed gaze remained, his visage almost menacing given his tusks, were it not for the director’s indifferent silence. “Just.. whats got ya in need o’ me?” He asked, a little more curious sounding. Hogg was, after all, much bigger than the spindly director in height, weight, and muscle. His form was girded in a flak vest, reinforced with Kevlar plates that came with arm pads, gauntlets, shin guards, and knee pads. From his belt hung his tools of trade, a high caliber pistol, assorted knives, and a few explosives in case a party needing starting.

Yet a counter to his mercenary appearance stood Nakharan, in his clean white labcoat and black utility jumpsuit. No weapons, no tool-belt, not even a holstered pistol. But Hogg knew the mar’qua was dangerous, perhaps more so by hiding his weapons from an easy glance. In truth, Hogg hated the director with the kind of loathing reserved for far worse enemies. To him the director represented the worst and best quality of a pencil pushing bureaucrat. Nakharan was a genius, sure, who would and has advanced this colony into the frontier power house that it was with his research. But he was also a sociopath who would do anything to advance his own goals. Hogg figured, if the director calculated it as the best option, killing him and his prospectors would be done with no more thought than one has when crushing a roach.

So naturally, Hogg liked to try and piss the little fucker off.

“Come on Mick, don’t be like that.” Hogg said when the director remained silent, layering on a jovial and sarcastic tone. “Tell ol’ boss Hogg what it is you got for him today, come on… ain’t we friiieeends?” The warthog man suppressing a laugh into just a chuckle that might have swayed another man with its rugged charisma, yet still the director stared straight ahead. “See, thas’ yer problem.” Hogg added in the silence that followed. “Yer always so damn serious, so damn rude. I’ve met robots you’ve built with better fuckin’ conversational skills than you. Every man got a hobby or a vice he wants to talk about, maybe I should discuss the nearest brick wall given how much you have in common with it.”

Hogg threw his hands about as he insulted Mkne, letting his seemingly random gestures sway close to the mar’qua who didn’t so much as flinch. Hogg knew he wouldn’t, he was fairly sure you could beat a pregnant mother to death with her own infant in front of Nakharan and he wouldn’t even raise an eyebrow. Still, he liked to see if he could needle the little psychopath for no other reason than his own amusement, but Hogg let his curiosity beat out his desire to be an asshole, trying a different approach now. “You wouldn’t ask fer me les’ this was a problem, trouble you expected that ya didn’t want anyone to know about. Else you’d have gone to Boris...”

A flicker, the smallest glance that broke the director’s stone-like composure, had Hogg not been staring at him he might have missed it. Now he was getting somewhere. “Which means you’ll be paying me and the boys a lot, like you always do when you need things kept secret.” He continued, his voice lowering into an almost conspiratorial tone. “Come on Mkne, lets hear it then. Not like I’m gonna beat the in’fer’mation out of you.”

Now the director’s head turned towards Hogg, the porcine man noting his body didn’t pivot, like a doll’s head it rotated in a mechanical manner. Yet Mkne still said nothing, he simply stared at Hogg indifferently. In that moment, the over boss wanted to punch the little shit. Hogg wasn’t stupid, he had a cunning that made him on equal footing with the director and let him maneuver through things through raw violence and an unnatural charisma and he could tell when someone was trying to rattle him. The director was trying to wrong foot him with his unsettling nature, so Hogg cut to the brunt of the matter, “If I peel your skin back is there gonna be flesh or machine under it you little freak?” He said casually, as if he wasn’t threatening to do that right now as his hand drifted to the large knife he kept in his belt.

The director finally spoke, his unsettling black eyes locked on Hogg’s face before he said sternly, “Flesh.” A single word barked out that gave Hogg pause, mainly because he hadn’t expected Mkne to answer the question seriously. His hand drew away from his knife and the director continued. The over boss musing that this may have been the first time since the founding that Mkne had said anything to him that wasn’t strictly business.

“The other faction leaders are not to know about this event, nor are any details to be shared with your men. The usual rates and rules apply.” The director said coldly. “But, this is something that affects us all, your prospectors the most. These developments are beyond what I originally hypothesized.” A creeping emotion was entering his voice as he spoke, the director slowly seeming to finally come alive as he got to the point. “A whole new realm of possibilities to discover, Jeremiah, and you will be one of the few who will witness and remember it.”

Hogg wasn’t going to interrupt, not when the director was acting unusual. He can’t remember the time he ever saw Mkne express anything close to excitement, even as muted as this. Perhaps he wasn’t a robot, the porcine man pondered, but he had to ask the obvious question on his mind. “You been using synthetic researchers fer this, easier to wipe the memories of a robot than a person. But if its so secretive, why bring me in on it? Ain’t ya afraid I can blackmail you?”

The director’s thin lips pulled into a small faint smile that, had Hogg not been used to guarding his emotions and expression, would have made the titan sized man recoil. “There is a minuscule possibility that external factors may cause a violent confrontation. You will be useful in dealing with the problem, should it happen and I have relied on you in the past for such.” What a surprise, thought Hogg, and here he was hoping that the director just wanted his company for tea and crumpets.

The elevator doors finally opened, a sterilized clean hallway before them with airlocks lining each side that went on for quite some time before its paths diverged. The under labs, where Soteria did its most interesting and dangerous research. Jeremiah was reminded of the last time he had been down here, during an alien outbreak where he and two of his trusted foreman’s Pavel and Warren helped him slaughter some mutant bugs. Good times, he mused, his gaze drawn to the clean crisp walls where he knew laser turrets were embedded. He spoke as the director continued at a brisk pace, following behind with lumbering steps. “I don’t get you, Mick, never had.” His beady eyes drawing towards the mar’qua, waiting for a response he knew likely wouldn’t come. Yet he was surprised, “Is it because you’re afraid of me?” Mkne replied, his tone so serious that for a moment Hogg thought he was being truthful, at lest as Nakharan saw it. “Humor from the world’s most joyless cunt, damn, you must be really excited boy.” Hogg said in turn, unable to help an amused smile appearing on his tusked lips. “Nah, while I’m sure ya got some fancy implanted arm laser cannon or some stupid shit you could nuke a quadrant with, what I don’t get is how fuckin’ singular ya are.”

“Boris has his booze. Ayandi has his fancy ching chong fightin’ practice. Ryan’s got his ‘high quality’ tastes. Jea has her autistic obsession with huntin’. Hell even that big tiddied ex o’ yers has her prayers or whatever the fuck the church does fer its jollies.” Hogg snickered, though the director didn’t show it, the over boss knew he hit a sore spot. “Every man’s got his vice, how come you don’t, eh?”

“While I’d love to make vice copulating with effeminate men like you do in your spare time, Hogg, some of us have devoted ourselves to a pursuit beyond our genitals.” Mkne replied back coldly, the director turning down various halls as he lead Hogg deeper into the labs. “Yeah?” Hogg said back with a smirk, “Could always try women, ya know, mix it up. Best part o’ this colony Mick, ya got all types to use as a cock sleeve.” The porcine man chuckling at his own crude joke before the mar’qua spoke. “Noted, but cease your subhuman speech.” He said, drawing to a stop at a sealed airlock before reaching for his keycard.

“Got work eh?” Hogg said as the director opened the airlock to reveal a surgical room. Within was medical equipment to be expected. Surgery kits, iv stands, defib units, first aid kits. All the usual shit, except for an organ printer that Hogg could tell immediately has been recently heavily modified given a stasis chamber and strange console bolted into the side. Manning the room were two soteria synthetics, no badges and their ID serials missing. That was alarming, but more so was the man and woman laying naked on the two surgery tables under heavy restraints.

Several things about the pair were immediately obvious to the over boss. The man was an outsider, given how rough and under fed he looked. He had gone under recent surgery judging from the fresh cuts on his head and likely wasn’t even aware why as he looked confused. The woman however, almost made Hogg turn angry because he recognized her as one of his prospectors, though he couldn’t recall her name. She normally had a synthetic arm and it was missing right now, which was never a good sign. At least she seemed more aware than the other. Both were strapped to the table via mag-locked buckles, things meant to restrain even people as strong as the over boss.

“Great, you turned my prospector into a god damn lab rat. Really glad ya brought me down to show me, Mick.” He said sarcastically as they both stepped into the room and the airlock sealed shut behind them. His beady eyes were scanning the room, trying to figure out the… wrong feeling that was sinking into him now, his eyes kept being drawn back to the outsider. The man was naked, looked damn near half dead, but there was an almost feverish intensity in his vacant eyes that left Hogg instinctively placing a hand on his pistol. “Hey tits, what’d this freak do to you?” He added, turning his eyes to his prospector.

“What I did, over boss.” Nakharan cut in, stepping up to the surgical tables as one of his synthetics handed him a clipboard. “Was progress this colony into the next stage of evolution.” He spoke so clinically, so calmly, that it was reasonable to think he was grandstanding, the director’s eyes scanning the print outs before he turned to Hogg. “Observe.” He murmured with a thin lipped smile before gesturing to the naked abhuman. “This one has remarkably high drug tolerance and is quite sturdy. She was perfect for a clinical trial and easy enough to bribe. Remove her restraints.”

The robot obeyed, carefully unbuckling the prospector before guiding her stiffly into a sitting position. Her gaze was rather vacant, but unlike the outsider she seemed focused enough to give a dopey smile. “Heeey bossss.” She slurred, raising her hand in a wave before the surgical instruments on the table next to her scattered with a clang to the floor. Jeremiah frowned, looking to the tools that hit the ground, she wasn’t nearly close enough to knock them over, nor did the hand she raised even get near. How did she..?

The prospector chuckled, interrupting his focus before she yelled, “Woops!” through her laughter before she waved a hand at the scalpel on the ground and it rose into the air. “Lemme just...” She murmured, the blade suddenly flying towards her before the robot closest to her snatched it out of the air before it could embed itself in her hand. The director looked on with a broad smile now, his rubbery flesh pulled into a grin so foreign to his muscles it looked like his face was being stretched by invisible hooks. “What do you think, Jeremiah?” He said, pride swelling in his tone.

Hogg was, a bit caught off guard. He had for nearly half a decade seen the rather unusual effects this planet displayed. He had seen the effects of the churches cruciforms, the way anomalies could change a man to make him run faster, take hits better, or even make him dexterous enough to fire a pistol like it was automatic and had no recoil. He had taken it all in stride, more so, he was good at seeing something new or strange and rolling with it. Why he was caught off guard wasn’t the sudden display of telekinetic powers from one of his own prospectors, nor the simple fact the director had bribed and drugged one of his boot lickers before turning her into a psychic. It was this feeling of … wrongness, building in his gut that wasn’t the shitty food he ate earlier. There was a sense of unease only he seemed to feel. Nakharan had his emotions and instinct suppressed, the two on the table were drugged, and the pair of synthetics hardly could empathize. No, something was wrong, he just couldn’t put his finger on it yet.

“What else can they do?” He asked, filling the void with an open ended question that would keep the director talking so he could focus on chasing this gut feeling. “So glad you asked.” The director replied, looking at his clipboard as he spoke. “So far, we’ve reports of thought projection, telekinesis as you saw, and unusual interactions with oddities. The next test is to see what cerebral enhancing drugs shall yield.” The director motioned with his other hand, not looking up from his reading as his synthetics obeyed. The pair withdrew pink colored syringes that Hogg immediately recognized as party drops, powerful stimulants often used by his salvagers to enhance their cognitive abilities.

Speaking of salvagers, the one sitting on the table was currently pointing at a surgery kit, making it rise and fall with her mind and giggling oafishly. Though when she spied the syringe the kit clattered to the table and she bounced in her seat, eager for whatever she thought it was. The outsider on the other table didn’t seem to register the robot with its own syringe, he was staring around the room blankly while the robot undid his restraints. “Why you taking his restraints off?” Hogg asked, apprehension in his tone as he carefully undid the strap on his belt holster with his thumb in case the silent man decided to get loud. “People do not like being restrained, it makes the subject more volatile.” Nakharan responded as the robots began injecting the pair.

Once the syringes were emptied the bots withdrew, carefully scanning them and monitoring whatever information the director was concerned with. Nakharan moved closer, pulling out a whirring scanner with which he began to record various read outs. Hogg, however, was finally getting to where his gut feeling was leading him to. The sense of unease was a collection of minor details, things he noticed yet didn’t realize that built more and more on his thoughts. All of it was coming to a head just as he pieced it together. The outsider wasn’t blissfully drugged, he was very much aware, whatever survival skills kept him alive outside the colony on full display that even the director missed. What gave him away was intensity of the act, first taken for fear, but that was just a mask to hide his desperation.

In the split second Nakharan leaned forward to scan him, Hogg had to make a choice, he sensed more than saw the outsiders muscles tense in preparation. He could draw his pistol and attempt to land a clean head-shot, but that would take too long to line up a shot. Damn it all, he didn’t have enough time, he moved forward with the speed and disturbing agility unfitting for a man his size. His meaty hands raised just as the outsider lurched forward and seized Nakharan by the arm. “Get your hands off of..” Hogg began as he seized the spindly psychic, ready to snap his neck before suddenly everything went black.

For a moment, Hogg thought he was either dead, unconscious, or had just woken up from some nightmare, or more commonly, from being black out drunk. But his hand was still around the outsider’s neck, at least before he suddenly jerked from his surprise-loosened grip. He heard something scrambling in the dark, a clatter of metal, then a bright light that blinded him as Nakharan switched on a flashlight. Hogg recovered quick, drawing his pistol, his eyes attracted to the fading movement down a darkened hall as the outsider fled in silence. He didn’t bother lining up a shot, the bastard was around a corner too fast, instead of looked about for any other threats.

The room they presently resided in wasn’t the surgical lab, it was some form of storage closet tinged with rust, dust, and old equipment long since worn down. Only a singular hallway, dark and yawning, provided any sort of escape. Nakharan seemed alright at least, the mar’qua frowning gently, looking about with the same careful eye that Hogg did. For a moment the over boss felt an amusing sort of fraternity with the little shit, two powerful men now stuck someplace they didn’t know, alone, and without back up. “How romantic.” The over boss mused to himself, almost laughing before he saw Nakharan withdraw an auretian from his pocket.

“Your gun, Jeremiah, hand it to me.” The director spoke, his own auretian placed in a shoulder holster under his lab-coat so he could draw it more readily. “I had hoped to avoid this scenario, we will need to make haste and execute the subject before he escapes, lest he go on to wreak havoc.” The mar’qua withdrew more and more from his pockets, stooping to the dusty floor as he laid out his equipment. Hogg recognized a laptop and that was it, the rest of it beyond him and his concern for that matter. “You need what?” Hogg asked innocently.

“Your gun, Hogg, hand it to me so I can modify it. I brought tools for this scenario.”

“My what? Sorry, ya have to be more specific.”

The director glared at the over boss, the porcine man smiling at him with an almost malicious grin.

Nakharan sighed. “Give me the whole hog, Jeremiah.”

“Oh, that, well why didn’t ya say so!” Hogg boasted, removing the mag and chambered round from his signature weapon before offering it butt first to the mar’qua. He never missed a chance to fuck with Nakharan, even if the situation was possibly dire. After all, he’d been through similar before, shooting some magic chanting twat was hardly a life changing experience.

Nakharan set to work with a scowl, modifying Hogg’s gun with the precision of a machine. First replacing the barrel, the firing pin, adding what looked to be a small battery pack, a high powered flashlight, and what Hogg was fairly sure was an AI chip to control it all. In seconds, the director passed his newly modified weapon back to Hogg, the over boss feeling the new weight and heft as the light turned on to his touch. “Right, any idea where we’re at?” The over boss added as he loaded a mag and chambered a round.

“Deep maintenance, I believe, this place is tied to our research into this evolution. I am not surprised we were brought here of all places.”

“Why’s that?” Hogg asked as he made his way to the hallway, the director picking up his many scattered tools and loading them into his pockets while the over boss peered into the darkness ahead, his flashlight revealing a fork in the halls.

“All in good time, Jeremiah, first we must find and kill our subject. Once we’ve accomplished our task, we need only escape. You and your men are here often, I’m sure we’ll be back at the colony before anyone notices we’re gone given your… expertise.” The spindly scientist withdrawing his auretian once more, falling in line with Hogg as they began to move into the tunnels ahead.

“We got experience, yeah, roaches, spiders, couple of them mutated bugs. Your pally-pal Hogg’ll handle that. How many bandages ya got?” Hogg murmured, his voice dropping as they advanced ahead.

The path to follow their prey was an easy one, the dusty floors marked his passage step by step. Hogg was an old hand at tracking down men, his days as a bounty hunter taught him well. More so, he was almost over confident with Nakharan behind him, as it was in the director’s best interest to keep him alive and if the director saw this outcome as possible, he planned accordingly. The powerful flashlight on his gun certainly helped, as did the other tech which made his trusted firearm thrum with power.

“Enough.” Nakharan replied, the director was oddly at ease, he was after all a man of letters. Yet the plasma pistol he held was wielded with ease, an almost clinical precision that mirrored how he worked with his tools. It seemed he was no stranger to violence, Hogg noted. But he had more pressing concerns, sparing Nakharan only a single glance before he put his full focus on the path ahead. The winding tunnels forked, curved, doorways opened to old abandoned rooms that remained unsettling oppressive. Every step almost seemed an affront, that they both would disturb the serenity of this forgotten place with their life and noise, yet Hogg was more worried about something else.

He finally voiced his thoughts as they skirted around another rigged foot-trap, worn to near rust and placed long ago to kill the unwary, “Ya notice whats wrong here, Mick?” He asked quietly, even the boisterous titan feeling as though he should remain quiet. “Yes, the usual fauna isn’t here.” The mar’qua said back in an equal whisper. The tunnels they now progressed through usually teemed with hostile life, creatures large and small made of teeth, claws, and acid. Yet right now, they were alone, the only sign of life the dusty foot prints they followed. Both remained silent, eyes and ears alert for any ambush they both felt was coming. Yet they finally drew to a stop when they saw a bear trap, recently sprung, dripping with a reddish gore.

“Barely clotted, we’re close then… you want’em dead, yeah?” Hogg said, carefully checking ahead with his flashlight as he spoke. The outsider had a bad start to begin with, having to tread the trap laden halls in pure darkness, his going was slow to avoid stepping into pain or death. Yet even at his careful pace, he failed to evade the halls malice forever. Meanwhile, Hogg and Nakharan, aided by flashlights, had gained on him fast enough to put this matter to rest pretty damn soon by Hogg’s reckon. “Yes, we shall torch the body afterwards. Don’t given him the chance to think, Jeremiah.” The director said curtly, the confidence seeming to come back into the scientist now that victory seemed far more plausible and less daunting in the eerie silence of those dark tunnels.

“Will do.” Hogg said, almost cheerfully as he stepped past the bloodied trap, following the crimson trail that seemed almost erratic now. A few more twists down a singular tunnel finally led them to their quarry. The over boss was fairly sure, given the blood he saw, that this was going to be a mercy killing. He wasn’t disappointed either, the tunnel ended in a dead end that opened into a room that might have been a hydroponics lab at one point. The floor was dirt, old unused trays long since molded over dotted the walls, the only furniture a few empty racks and metal tables littered with garbage. The outsider was there, back against the wall, facing them, his leg mangled and drenched in blood. He was blushed, reddish and waxy skinned that glistened as Hogg’s flashlight went over him. He almost looked sick, Hogg thought, as he lined up a clean head-shot. He wasn’t the type to pause, nor consider his actions, nor let another pull some sleight of hand shit. His signature pistol reported an echoing blast that was explosive in the confined space, the glaring hateful eyes of the outsider vaporized under a fifty caliber bullet that exploded his head like a pumpkin shot from a cannon. The corpse slumped to the ground, hitting the dirt floor with a sickened splat that was the final sound besides the small hiss of the whole hog’s over heated barrel.

“Too easy.” The over boss said, instantly regretting the words the moment they left his tusked lips. What manifested in the room was as immediate as his speech, though it took a moment to realize the shadows that began to solidify was some form of creature. Hogg was quick, his reactions were muscle memory at this point, his thoughts working just as quickly. The shadows were not light, per say, but a creature who was revealed by the glare of his flashlight. At first he thought it was a nightmare stalker, a fact compounded by the whispering murmurs that filled the room before it was drowned out in the hail of gunfire. But as he riddled the thing with heavy caliber bullets, its shape was decidedly more human.

It looked like a man, stretched and animalistic, like a mutated mongrel fused with some unspeakable creature. Muscles were exposed, torn and bloodied that stretched across a thin frame that was growing in size as Hogg emptied his entire mag into its torso. The whispers, the voices that began to rise in chorus only got louder as the thing grew into a more nightmarish shape. “Fascinating.” Hogg heard, barely listening to the director’s voice. “So a psion’s death feeds them.” Hogg had bigger concerns as the huge shape-shifting creature lumbered forward, nearly two feet taller than the over boss now. The director’s plasma pistol began to fire as Hogg’s pistol ejected its mag and he slammed a new one in place. The room wasn’t big, the thing was slow but it was closing the gap now. Hogg withdraw his blade, a knife that was a machete to anyone smaller as he managed two more shots before he lunged forward to meet his foe in melee.

The clash of two titanic bodies echoed as a meaty slap as the over bosses far more experienced shoulder tackle bowled the creature into stumbling backwards, yet a pincer like arm lashed out, claws raking across the over bosses armored chest before catching his bicep and slicing through his bronzed flesh. What a pathetic cut, Hogg thought, it wasn’t his first time battling some monster as his huge knife whistled through the air and sliced that offended pincer off at the wrist. In the small gap that was made as the creature recoiled, he fired three more rounds into its chest. Hell of a tough one, his second thought followed, the creature shifting out of the flashlight’s beams for a moment. He reflexively shown his light where it should be yet nothing was there. “Where’d it-Agh!” He began before he felt claws slashing through his face, rough skin parting like wet paper as his mouth filled with blood. It missed his eyes, but he sensed rather than saw where the attack came from, his light shining upon the area before its beams revealed the creature. Now they were both bleeding, but before Hogg could ready himself Nakharan finally made his presence known, his auretian firing off two precise laser shots that hit the faintly human shaped thing in each leg at the knee.

It didn’t crumble, but it nearly buckled under the pain and the now pissed off over boss blew a few new holes into the things head before heaving forward with his blade. His voice a breathy angry rasp as he began to hack the thing apart limb from limb with his blade while it struggled to fight the raging over boss off. With each part that sloughed off from his knife, Hogg stomped it into a meaty bloodied pulp with his steel toed boots. It screamed as it died, the whispering replaced with howling agonized yells that echoed louder than the gunshots through the darkened room. He continued until the thing was long dead, making sure it wasn’t going to get up or move the moment he stopped, turning it into a pile of gore and broken bones before he finally wearily ceased, wiping blood from his own mutilated face.

“Feel better?” Nakharan asked laconically, sarcasm faintly in his tone as Hogg stepped away from his handy work and the director immediately came forward, motioning for the over boss to lean down so he could bandage his wounds. “Little bit, yeah.” Hogg said, a bit too exhausted from his flurry of violence to voice a proper reply. “The hell is that thing anyways?” He added before loosing a low grunt while the mar’qua smeared biogel into his cuts. “I hypothesize its what sent the local fauna away, or killed them, it and its kind that is, Jeremiah.”

Hogg looked at the corpse of the headless outsider, then to the pile of gore. He made the obvious connection, but instead of voicing it he asked something else. “Right, well, lets get the fuck out of here. You think more of them things are gonna show up?” The director finished his triage work, stowing what remained on his medical supplies in his oddly deep pockets. “Undoubtedly.” The director replied. “I speculate we wont survive a full group, but thankfully I planned for such an egress. In particular given we shall have company soon.”

True to his words, the sound of dirt being clawed and torn could be faintly heard, long bone pincers slashing through the floor as things called by the howls of the dying creature began to tunnel upwards towards them. Hogg was already slamming a new magazine into the whole hog, assuming he’d have to fight whatever was coming, but his glance to the director showed the scientist arming an incendiary grenade. Hogg was about to ask what the hell he was doing before the mar’qua tossed it atop the corpses and grabbed onto his bronzed arm. The sudden flash of blue triggering the snare that Nakharan had in his coat this entire time, the pair disappearing through the pull of bluespace just before flames and light filled the room, the things below bursting from the crusts of dirt into hellfire, screams echoing in the crackling embers before the pair saw and heard no more.