Brielle interrupted her brother. 'That's not the point' She visibly shivered as she looked out across the windblown expanses. Lucian felt the same chill, and it wasn't caused by the temperature.
Lucian addressed his daughter. 'What is it then, Brielle?
'I can't tell, Father, but something isn't right. There's something in the wind: echoes of something old.
Lucian held his daughter's gaze until she looked away, her dark eyes cast down. A thought formed in his mind, and fled before he could grasp it, as Korvane interjected. Well, nothing's showing up on the auspex, so I think it's safe to move off'
Brielle looked askance at Lucian before turning and stalking off. Lucian clapped his son on the shoulder. 'Let's go son, and keep a weather eye out' Korvane raised his auspex, but Lucian pushed it down again. 'An eye' He pointed at his own. Trust your own senses, son' As Brielle clearly trusted hers, Lucian thought.
Lucian and his offspring trudged across a barren, lifeless landscape, the wind steadily increasing until the dust it carried became so dense that visibility was reduced to ten metres and less. Twisted rock structures loomed from the dust, silhouetted as angry lightning illuminated the surroundings, and reminding Lucian of rearing slasher beasts. His feeling of discomfort had steadily increased as they had marched towards the site at which they would meet Luneberg's contact. He wondered about his daughter's reaction to her surroundings. Where he perceived the nature of the world as a spiritual chill, Brielle clearly interpreted it in an entirely different manner, speaking of voices whispering at the edge of hearing. Korvane, on the other hand, apparently felt nothing. He was either commendably steady of nerve, or stunningly insensate — Lucian could not, as yet, tell which. Either way, the boy was fated to inherit the mantle of the Arcadius, and Lucian would ensure that he did.
Lightning strobed, and thunder crashed an instant later. Korvane turned and shouted over the rising storm. 'Half a kilometre to go, Father, the meeting point is-
Before Lucian's son could finish the sentence, a dark shape detached itself from a nearby rock formation, dropping the three metres or so in the blink of an eye. Lucian saw this, but had no time to shout a warning before Korvane was bowled to the ground amidst a blur of thrashing alien appendages. Lucian drew his plasma pistol and charged forwards, reaching Korvane as his son thrust out his legs with enough force to propel the beast from him, its many-legged form crashing into the rock spire from which it had attacked. Having hit the rock, the creature dropped to the ground and tensed, ready to leap once more.
Lucian had never seen its like, for it appeared unnatural in physiology. A lumpy and misshaped body, a metre in diameter, sat at the centre of at least a dozen long, multi-jointed legs, each ending in a cluster of razor-sharp talons. A clutch of eyes scanned the scene before it, each focusing on a different target. In an instant, the beast focused its attentions on Brielle, who had arrived at the scene a moment after her father. It leapt through the air, propelling itself with a force that would surely decapitate anyone standing before it.
Brielle sidestepped the beast, allowing it to pass scant inches from her face. She raised her right hand and dropped to a kneeling position in one fluid motion. The beast hit the ground at the base of another rock spire and made to scuttle up it. A jet of blinding fame spouted from a miniature weapon on Brielle's wrist, leaping through the air to strike the rock. The flame splashed across the spot that the beast occupied at the instant it launched itself clear, yet it howled with ultrasonic rage as the jet caught it a glancing blow across its torso. A screaming, flaming comet of flailing claws, the creature arced through the air once more. It landed beside Korvane, who rolled aside as Lucian was finally able to draw a bead on it with his plasma pistol.
'Korvane, roll left! Lucian yelled, seeing that the beast would be upon his son in an instant if he did not intervene.
Korvane's armour had taken the brunt of the beast's attack on him, but he was stunned nonetheless. Despite this, he obeyed his father's order without question, flinging himself bodily against the rock spire.
Lucian fired, a ball of blinding plasma erupting from his pistol, to strike the flaming, squealing beast. The plasma bolt struck the creature's torso, causing it to explode in an eruption of smoking gore and razor-sharp limbs. One such limb, tipped with diamond-hard chitin, was propelled through the air to score a deep scar across Lucian's shoulder armour, causing him to give brief, but heartfelt thanks to the suit's war spirit.
Lucian lowered his smoking weapon, its vents shedding excess heat in hazy waves. He looked to Korvane, only to see that his son's eyes had focused upon something behind his shoulder.
Slowly, Lucian turned. Behind him stood a tall figure, features entirely concealed amidst long, flowing robes. How long had it stood there, he thought — had it been waiting the whole time, to see whether or not they would win out against the beast's attack?
A whispery voice emanated from the depths of the figure's hood. 'You are, I take it, the servants of the esteemed Lord Culpepper?
Wind howling outside, Lucian stood at the centre of a large cavern of obviously artificial construction, beside him Korvane, his wounds hastily dressed, and Brielle. Before him stood Luneberg's contact, and behind the tall, spindly figure, a pile of crates stacked to the cavern's roof.
Having appeared at the site of the alien beast's attack, the tall figure had spoken only to confirm Lucian's identity, apparently caring little for the fact that, as Lucian had explained, the rogue traders were not servants, but partners of Luneberg. Lucian had discerned what he took for a chuckle at this information, and the contact had merely stalked off into the storm with a gesture indicating that Lucian and his offspring should follow.
As Lucian had followed the figure, his feeling of discomfort had increased. The storm had closed in, until visibility was reduced to scant metres, they had nearly lost the contact several times, but always found him waiting patiently just around the next turn. They had been led along twisting pathways of rock spires, down which the wind echoed and wailed, only serving to increase Lucian's unease.
A glance at Brielle told Lucian that his daughter felt likewise, for her brow was furrowed and her eyes steely. Korvane, by contrast, appeared well at ease. Lucian knew that he took the situation for a formal contact between trading parties, and would proceed along such lines until fate determined otherwise. At moments like this, Lucian thought, Korvane had the right idea.
In short order, they had arrived at the entrance to the cave in which they now stood. Entering, Lucian had been greeted by the sight of the crates piled high. The contact now crossed to the nearest and activated a control set in its side. The crate floated up half a metre, to hover at waist height. Lucian concealed his surprise, for anti-gravitic technology was rare within the Imperium, and generally confined to small applications such as those generators found within servo-skulls or to far larger uses in starship construction. Lucian had never seen it manifested in such a utilitarian manner as to raise a simple cargo crate.
The robed figure activated a second control stud, and the crate's top lifted open with a slight hiss of escaping, pressurised air. A wisp of vapour rose and dissipated, as the contact reached into the crate to withdraw a metallic cylinder, which he proffered to Lucian as he bowed. Lucian took the object, his gaze lingering on the tall figure for a moment before he examined it.