Grim Fortunes

[Von Richter]

The Grim Fortune hovered over the snow-encrusted peaks, somewhere among Micras’ great mountains. As battleships go, this was an older unit of Mar Saran design. A remnant of Space Marine technology but so old that it hardly had the sleek look of the original ship it had once been. Repaired and appended with a dizzying assortment of accoutrements, the ship was ghastly enough to send a shiver down the spine of children unlucky enough to catch a glimpse of her crossing the horizon. Like a black winter storm it hovered over the frozen and desolate landscape, it’s hover-jets pulsing just enough to disturb the scraggly weeds poking through the ice like a soft wind. And nearby two dark figures made their way between the rocks and ice.

“This isn’t what we signed up for, Jim” said one of the men.

“You’re saying that now? Here? Von Richter’s up there at the helm watching us. Duke, you’re nuts!” replied the other man.

“Oh he can’t hear us, you know it. He’s so damn absorbed in his thoughts that us, this mission, they don’t mean shit in the long run.”

“Just stay focused on what we need to do, Duke. We’ve only been out here an hour but my balls are already frozen,” mocked Jim.

“You’ve always been a sissy when it comes to the cold,” said Duke tauntingly. “C’mon, let’s head down here, it looks like a path of sorts.”

They followed a relatively clear area in the ice. The snow underfoot was packed – as packed as a mountaintop could be – and appeared as a very rough path across the rocky terrain. It sloped down and behind taller boulders, quickly obscuring them from the battleship and vice-versa. The pattern was to pace ahead a few hundred feet, scout the area for any signs of life, and then move ahead again. Pretty soon they had distanced themselves from the Grim Fortune by several miles.

“Just what the hell are we supposed to find here?” asked Jim.

“Von Richter said we’d know when we found it. But supposedly there’s a major cell here,” replied Duke.

Jim kept walking, now ahead of Duke. “Why the hell would a cell set up shop here?” he asked.

“Well, if they’re anything like some of those other fanatics, this is probably the best place to keep them,” replied Duke.

Jim turned abruptly. “If Von Richter catches wind of you he’ll execute you himself!” With his attention focused on Duke, Jim didn’t see the metal hatch protruding from the ground just enough to catch the heel of his boot. The soldier fell backwards over the dome of metal with a yelp, landing with a thud and cloud of fine snow on the other side.

“I’d say we found them,” said Duke, helping Jim to his feet. Taking the butt of his rifle he rapped loudly on the hatch several times.

Several minutes passed without any response. “Maybe it’s abandoned,” said Jim speculatively. Just then the corkscrew wheel on the top of the hatch began to turn and both men backed away into defensive positions. The dome slowly tilted upward, eventually flopping over on its hinge, leaving a hooded figure clothed in heavy wools standing there.

Duke stepped forward, gun aimed squarely at the hooded figure’s chest. “Identify yourself,” he snapped.

The figure threw back their hood, revealing a long tussle of fiery red hair and a young woman’s smiling face beneath. She grinned and looked at Duke squarely. “Welcome to Cell 9,” she said, “You’re late. Now please put that away and follow me.”

Both men looked at her, then each other, shrugged and followed her down into the dark recesses of the earth.

[Kaiser Raynor XII]

A better-kept, but obviously smaller airship landed near the hatch cover. They had been shadowing "Grim Fortune", at first with orders to find its base and call in airstrikes to blow this troublesome machine, and of course von Richter, and his friends to Balgurd.

However, with the Heavenly Light of Jingdao having ascended to the beyond in fireballs of its own making, orders had changed. Competence -and survival - were now more important than a few bombings and instantly obsolete political ploys.