The small Orokin transport shuddered as it entered Mercury’s solar rail, the violent turbulence of the punch causing several crew members of the ship to brace themselves in their seats.
Only the lone woman seated in a window seat of the passenger section did not flinch, calmly reading a report off of the holopad in her hands. The digital display floated above the small tablet, showing files, dossiers and pictures. The graphics were so crisp, she could almost feel the texture of paper as she swiped through the pages. The report at the top of the pile was centered around a still of a standard troop transport ship, docked at a hangar and loading cadets, freshly-trained additions to the Orokin Legions. The Zariman, read the description of the image.
The shuddering stopped, and from the windows, the ship was bathed in an ethereal light. Outside, a pearl white had replaced the pitch black of regular space. Massive clouds tinged with erratic emerald sparks drifted like distant storms on the horizon of an astral ocean.
The woman didn’t even stop to look out at the view, continuing to scroll through the holopad. But a fresh-faced crewman, gaze transfixed on the nebulous swirls beyond, drifted to the viewport until his nose was almost pressed against the glass. “By the Empire,” he breathed.
“Never seen the Void before, eh sonny?” the captain chuckled, looking at the awed boy.
The crewman shook his head. “This is my first deployment out of Mercury, sir,” he mumbled.
The captain sighed and got up from his seat, approaching the window. “Well, feast your eyes on the space between spaces. It’s quite a sight to see, and it gets us from planet to planet in seconds. But don’t be fooled,” the captain said, putting a hand on the crewman’s shoulder. “You’ll never see a more dangerous force in the galaxy.”
“Dangerous?” The crewman tore his gaze away at the captain’s words. “Even more than the Sentients?”
The captain hesitated. “Well, they’d be a close second. But one of the good things of being at war with someone is that you start to get an idea of what they are; we know a thing or two about those clankers. But with the Void, we don’t even know the first thing about it; what it’s made of, how it works. It’s not the usual vacuum of space out there. Some say it’s even made of magic.”
The crewman’s eyes widened. “Magic? That can’t be.”
“Perhaps, but perhaps not,” the captain chuckled. “Reason and logic don’t work in the Void, they say. But that’s where it’s useful, I suppose. The Sentients can make no more sense of it than us. In here, the Sentients won’t, or maybe can’t, touch you.” He leaned and whispered in the boy’s ear, “Rumor has it that the Void is poison to them.”
The woman briefly looked up at the captain and gave a smirk at the superstitious words. The captain’s grin faded away, and he quickly bowed his head and returned to his seat.
The ship started to shudder again as it came out of the punch, the white vistas melting into the normal black of space. They had arrived at the Martian solar rail. Ahead, a massive capital ship loomed before them, undergoing maintenance at one of the docks orbiting the planet. The transport cut through the traffic of repair ships and supply vessels and entered the main hangar of the massive warship. A security detail was waiting at an empty landing bay, already lining the walkway, rifles straight and backs straighter.
The woman looked out the window distastefully at the display. Mere shows of ceremony were meaningless, but she knew that the crew of the capital ship was merely following protocol. As the ship eased to the floor of the hangar, she unbuckled her harness and stood up, walking to the door while still looking through the holopad.
Behind her, the crewman said, “If they say it’s magic, then what happens to someone who goes out there?”
The captain laughed. “You don’t want to know, sonny. None who have breathed that hellspace have lived to tell the tale.”
Until now, the woman thought. She closed the Zariman dossier and opened up new files. These contained reports on cadets who had just graduated from the academy. The final passengers of the ill-fated transport, their destination to the frontlines never reached. She swiped through the files, giving the pictures and main sections cursory glances. Her fingers paused at one. The boy in the picture was straight backed, black hair cut in the standard crew cut of the Legions, not a single strand out of order. His brown eyes were resolute and sharp, staring seemingly past the camera and into something beyond.
“Hayden Tenno,” the woman said softly, reading the name next to the picture. The ship’s door slid open and a ramp folded out. A field officer broke from one of the lines, giving a Legionnaire salute. “Greetings, Colonel. Welcome aboard the Taurus.”
She closed the file and walked out to meet the detail. “Yes, a welcome is in order. Isn’t it, Tenno?” she said to herself.
“Cadets,” Hayden Tenno said from the center of the stage, looking at the ranks of his class seated in the courtyard of the academy. “Today marks the beginning of a new stage in our lives. We have trained hard, shared sufferings and victories, all for this moment. From today and ever onwards, we serve the Empire in its Legions.” He couldn’t help smiling in anticipation of what was coming next. His hands, shaking with excitement, moved towards the ceremonial curved sword at his hip, wrapping around the scabbard and hilt.
“Remember the dreams you had, entering these hallowed gates not too long ago. Remember your friends whom you’ve trained with, that you will together find glory and victory. And remember above all, our oath to win this war.” He closed his eyes, preparing himself.Keep your grip loose. Swing effortlessly. You’ve practiced too much to fail.
He opened his eyes. “Protect the Empire,” he said, “destroy the Sentients!” In a fluid motion, he drew the sword and effortlessly swung it aloft, blade pointing towards the gates of the academy, steel ringing in the air.
But strangely, the voices of his fellow cadets did not rise to join him. He blinked, and suddenly the rows of smiling and excited soon-to-be legionnaires warped into a scene of death. Bodies, grotesque and malformed, were strewn across the space, once neat uniforms torn to pieces and stained with blood.
The windows of the courtyard suddenly exploded, and the toxic air of the Void sucked in, white clouds flooding the space and entering his lungs before he even had a chance to cry out.
The sword flickered and vanished, only to be replaced by another, new sword, formed of twisted blue energy. A sharp pain shot through his chest, and suddenly more swords burst from his body, each one feeling like javelins piercing him from the inside out. He dropped to his knees in pain, gasping, but his arm was stuck in place, still raising the sword.
The gates exploded, bringing in more hellspace. But even more terrifying was a massive blue sword that burst through, spinning towards him. It split the hall in half as ground and ceiling crumbled beneath the giant blade. Time seemed to slow down as it loomed above him just before swinging down with gleaming finality.
Hayden woke up alone to his own screams and a blinding flash of light, hand raised to the ceiling and grasping at the stale air.
He rolled off of the cot and onto his feet, motion activated lights flickering on. The images were burned into his head, the brilliant hellspace, his dying friends, and those shimmering swords.
It was the fourth night since…that. The fourth time he had that nightmare. The fourth night in this “containment cell,” as the medics had called it. He knew what it really was. It was the jail of the ship that had rescued them, hastily converted to quarantine them so that their illness, if it could be called that, would not spread. When they had been found in the wreckage of the troop transport, he remembered the fear in the eyes of their rescuers, afraid to go near those who had been kissed by the mysterious air of the Void. They threw them in here because they did not know where else to put them. Wait here for further orders, were the hesitant instructions.
And so wait here he did. He contemplated trying escape, but to someone like Hayden, orders were orders. Someone will come, he thought. Surely they won’t leave me here.
He examined his body. His clothes were ripped to shreds again. There were cuts all over the material, from small incisions to large gashes. Largest of them all was a massive slash from his neck to his navel, as if a sword had tried to cleave him in two while he slept.
Except his own body wasn’t cut. Beneath the shreds he could see his untouched skin, no gashes to speak of.
Because he was not cut by a sword. He was the sword.
What am I now? Hayden Tenno, Legionnaire of the Empire? No. Not anymore. He had breathed in the Void, and it had changed him, infected him with…what, exactly?
Hayden lifted his arm and inspected his hand. The same sword from his dream glimmered into existence, an ethereal curved blade. It was elegant in its simplicity, idle flares of energy spilling from it like flares on the surface of the sun. Tentatively, he closed his hand around the hilt.
Instantly power surged through his body, coursing through his veins like blood, raw and unbearable. The sensation of dozens of blades ripping from his body gripped him once again, and his clothing was shredded even more. He screamed and, raising his arm, hurled the blade across the room. It sank into the door of the cell, flickering briefly before vanishing, leaving a jagged hole where it had pierced the metal.
He sank to the ground, contemplating what he had become. What am I now? I’m…a monster, he thought, a twisted form of the Void. His head felt dizzy. He had been the top of his class at the academy, graduating with full honors as a squad leader, meant to serve the Empire and lead its Legions to victory. This was never supposed to happen.
Why? By the love of the Empire, why?
“Why?” He roared at the walls, and another sword appeared in his hand. He threw it once again at the door, where like the first, it impaled itself. “I swore an oath! Protect the Orokin,” A third appeared, and he threw that too. “Destroy the Sentients!” He hurled a fourth sword. “I would have served you, if not for this!” Sword after sword appeared in his hand, all sent flying across the cell into the cell door. “I would have died for you! And yet I’ve been reduced to a leper, a leper with…this affliction,” he said, the last words coming as a sob. The swords shattered and scattered into nothingness, and he dropped to the ground again, crying softly.
He looked down at his hands. A sword flickered in and out of existence in his open palm.
That’s right. This is all because of the Void. The Hellspace had poisoned his body, turned him into an uncontrollable disease, a ticking time bomb. I’m…dangerous.
Hayden gripped the sword tightly with both hands, blade facing down. Once again the power flooded his body, but he gritted his teeth and ignored it. He got into a kneeling position and held the blade pointed at his stomach. Hands shaking from both the power and the fear raised the blade, preparing to plunge it into his body.
But he hesitated. End it all now? Is there nothing else left? The sword shimmered as it shook violently.
Is it not too late…to uphold that oath?
Before he could decide, a gash ripped across his hand, the power cutting his body for the first time. He yelled and dropped the sword, which clattered to the floor. Hayden keeled forward, head hitting the cold cell floor, feeling the tears slide down his face and onto the ground. The wound stung, and he gripped it with his other hand, squeezing his eyes closed.
He knew he was dangerous. The power was too strong, too much to contain. And if he couldn’t even control these powers, then who else could? And yet…I can’t. I can’t just die here. I swore an oath.
A light flashed across his face, and he opened his eyes. The sword had not vanished yet. It was pulsing gently. He moved his head sideways, inspecting it. How strange that something so beautiful could be so deadly. Like the Void.
He reached out with his bleeding hand and grasped it. The power surged again, but he continued to hold on to it. You have taken everything from me. The power rippled across his body. So I will take from you all that you can give.
The energy within threatened him to rip himself apart, but he willed himself to not let go. Cuts and gashes sliced through his clothing once again, making more shallow incisions in his skin. Through the sharp pain, he gripped the sword. Shakily, he got to his feet and held the blade at his hip, hands holding the hilt and an imaginary scabbard. He closed his eyes. His grip was too tight, and he softened it just enough. Swing effortlessly. You’ve practiced too much to fail.
“You won’t control me, Curse of the Void.” More gashes, deeper this time, rent themselves into his flesh, and he opened his eyes. “It will be I who will control you!”
He swung the sword forward, blade slicing through the air.
As he swung, the energy wrapped around him. The blade glowed even brighter, and from it shot out a crescent of energy spinning towards the door. Weakened by the repeated barrage of thrown blades, the door could not hold against the flying slash, obliterating into pieces. As he followed his stroke through, the sword exploded in a blinding flash, shattering the bulbs above. He stumbled backwards and collapsed onto the floor of the now darkened room. The cuts along his body stung, but numbly. He turned his head to see the extent of the damage. The hallway beckoned, the hole casting him in a pool of light.
But there was no particular urge to escape. Someone will come. If someone wasn’t coming before, they sure as hell will be coming now.
He raised his bloody fist in the air, blood running down his hand. What am I now?
“Hayden Tenno,” he whispered. “Monster of the Void.”
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