Symbiote Knight Ch. 5

Chapter Five: The Rift

Cassian stared down at the rift as the airship sank lower and lower. A rippling vortex of greens, blues, and whites, steam rose in a column out of it. Soldiers clustered to the side rails of the ship, looking down at the rift now and then. None of them seemed concerned about the nature of the rift as they sank toward it. 

Hull and her squad were clustered around them like a wall of steel, bristling with hostile intent when the sailors and other soldiers came too close. Hull’s squad was comprised of nine other soldiers, each of them looking just as hard and dangerous as Hull. 

Veronica and Halston had disappeared for a few minutes before walking back to them as the ship began to descend. Both of them stood easily, not nervous as the ship got closer to the rift. Cassian wished he could have their nonchalance as the rift grew in size until it dominated their view. The other chosen were just as nervous, but failed to hide it. 

Veronica had put on armor, breastplate, greaves, and shinguards. A helm dangled from her hand as they prepared to drop down. Knotted ropes were tossed over the railing as soldiers got ready to descend. Hull looked them over and offered a toothy grin before she began to herd them to the rails. 

“You wait for that first wave to go, then you follow after. Nice and easy down the ropes and through the rift.” 

“And…and if we can’t go down a rope like that?” Tarly asked. Cassian looked over at the heavy boy and his trembling pudgy hands. Cassian had to agree with Tarly’s own assessment that he wouldn’t be able to scale the ropes on his own.

“You’ll fall,” Hull said, flashing a wide smile at Tarly. Tarly gulped, his wide throat bobbing up and down as he looked at the rope line and shuddered. 

“I’ll go first, follow after me,” Cassian whispered toward Henri. He had been paid to do a job after all and he would be damned if he didn’t get it done. He had sworn an oath and he would uphold it to his last breath. 

“Forester, you and Maris are on Veronica. The rest of you, loose circle around the symbiotes.” Veronica rolled her eyes at the woman’s overprotectiveness but didn’t countermand the order. Cassian was struggling to figure out where Veronica fit in. She clearly wasn’t in the military, lacking in both uniform and rank. At the same time she didn’t carry a title like a lordling did. 

“Relax, Cassian. You’re nearly vibrating from anxiety,” Henri muttered, nudging him with her elbow. Cassian gave her a short nod and looked back at the swirling vortex. He didn’t know how Henri could stand so relaxed next to the portal. They hadn’t even been given their weapons back. 

Major Leary, a short, thin, bespectacled man, strode out on the deck. His blue uniform was crisp and polished. Officer epaulets gleaming in the light of the sun as he began to bark orders. A saber hung on one hip and a pair of burly men with poleaxes and in heavy plate followed behind him as an honor guard. 

Leary stalked toward them as soldiers threw legs over the side and began to slide work their way down the ropes without hesitation. Cassian watched them, waiting for the moment a leather boot hit the swirling eddy of energies and disappeared. 

“Ma’am, it’s an honor to be leading this mission with you. I’m sure you will be pleased by the men’s performance.” Veronica gave him a political smile and bobbed her head.

“The finest soldiers in the Empire and led by the finest officers. I’m sure your men are exemplary.” 

“Ma’am. Hull, keep them alive.” The Major marched away, swinging his own leg over the sides and shimmying down a rope before anyone could say anything. His two steel mountain shadows following behind, their poleaxes clipping to their armor and sitting nicely on their backs. 

“What a pretentious prick,” Hull growled. Veronica offered her a real smile while Halston just nodded. 

“Alright, up and over the side, my pretties. We’ll be right behind you.” Hull’s men prodded the group and Cassian was forced along with the rest, his feet shuffling across the deck. Cassian and Felix were the first to grab ropes and swing their bodies over the railing. The other boy had fear etching his eyes, but he was offering Cassian a jaunty smile as he began to work his way down the rope. 

The distance wasn’t far, hardly ten feet before the bottom of Cassian’s oft repaired boot touched the edge of the rift. A tingle ran through his leg, a half million pinpricks that caused goosebumps to rise like a swarm along his body. His momentum was too great to stop and his leg sank through the vortex of energies and he had to bite off the gasp of ecstasy as energy raced through him. 

Something stirred in his sternum, a heat and tightness that pulsed in counter beat to his heart. His hip sank through the barrier and ice crept through his veins and that strangled gasp died in his lungs as he froze, his hands slipping off the rope. 

The fall was brief, no more than a split second, Cassian still felt his legs buckle as he collapsed to the grassy ground. He heard a thump and muttered curses as Felix landed right next to him. Strong hands grasped his arms and pulled him away from the dangling ropes as more legs and boots emerged from the violet slit in the sky six feet above him. 

Henri landed lightly but seemed to be winded, breathing hard and fast as a flush spread across her face, one hand gripping at her chest. Cassian struggled free of the hands holding him and went to his friend, offering her his hand which she took gratefully as he pulled her free of the landing zone. 

The rest of the candidates landed in a sprawl, then the two soldiers Forester and Maris stalked down their ropes without fear. The two of them glanced around, hands on sword pommels, before tugging on the rope. A moment later Veronica and Halston finished their descent, both of them staying on their feet. Hull was a moment behind them, her squad quickly encompassing them. 

Cassian couldn’t lie that he felt better when the squad of soldiers surrounded them. They looked bored but alert, none of them stressed like the rest of the teens were. 

“So, this is a rift,” Henri whispered, looking about with wide eyes filled with wonder. Cassian mirrored her, now comfortable enough to pull his attention away from his immediate surroundings.

The had landed in a field of blue grass, lush and thick it rose to their knees and swayed even without a breeze. Great carved stones lay in tumbled ruins around them, dotting the hillscape. Soldiers were forming a perimeter as more and more of the company came down the ropes. Major Leary was standing still, turning to offer half whispered orders to a subordinate who barked them out so all could hear.

“I thought these were filled with monsters?” Tarly asked. His fall had been a bit more painful than the others, but it looked like nothing was bruised aside from his ego. 

“Oh, they are. Just this rift is F-Tier,” Forester replied. He and Maris were the only soldiers close enough to hear the quiet boy’s words.

“F-Tier? I thought a rift was a rift?” Felix cut in.

“No, each rift is different depending on how much mana has suffused it. F is the smallest of them,” the blonde girl said. 

“Eliza Harper, right?” Veronica said. 

“Yes, ma’am.” 

“Oh,no need for that. We’ll be equals soon enough.”

“I somehow doubt that,” Eliza muttered. Halston snorted softly and that was the first noise he had made at all. 

“F is for Fuck-All. As there is Fuck-All here,” Forester continued as if he hadn’t been interrupted. 

“Terrible loot, easy fights, no reward for clearing. They do have a decent amount of mana rock, so the merchants like ‘em,” Forester said, his gray eyes swept the area around them, but he was clearly bored.

“So, there are monsters here?” Tarly asked. 

“Little ones. Not our worry today. Time to feed your own monsters.” Forester gave them all a sly smile just as Hull motioned for them to follow, the entire group shuffling forward. 

Cassian watched the leading element of soldiers, catching a man slashing with a short saber. Something gray and wiggling split apart and landed in pieces, the soldiers never slowing as they pushed forward. They were a wave of sharpened steel and the further they went more and more of the small gray creatures leapt out of the grass at them, only to fall apart in pieces around them. 

“There’s a nice little outcropping up here.” Hull led them up a gentle hill behind the leading line of soldiers. Cassian looked down at the split open monsters and had to hold back a gag. They were muscular tubes with a half hundred small legs and circular jaws full of serrated teeth. 

“Oh, those are just nasty,” Maris said as she kicked one of them with an armored boot. The thing wiggled splashing ruby blood over her boot but went still again a second later. 

“They remind me of those slugs from last year,” one of the guards at the front said. A general groan of dismay rose up from the rest as Hull rounded on the unfortunate man. 

“We all swore not to talk about it! Why are you talking about it!” 

“Sorry, Sergeant,” the man shrank in on himself, tucking his head down as the Sergeant turned and kept marching up the hill. Cassian looked about the hills of blue grass and the aquamarine sky and let himself marvel for a second. 

The Empire had been built on those who had the courage to go toward the rifts, to enter and conquer them and take for themselves the glory and riches of them. Most of the greatest houses could trace their lineage back to the First Conquerors. The Imperial Line were direct descendants of the First Conquerors. 

And here he was, a gutter rat from a distant, half forgotten island, trudging in the footsteps of legends. That heat in his chest increased, burning him from the inside as they crested the hill and looked down upon an outcropping of crystal. 

Muddy crystals lined the underside of a stone table, a pulsing light emanating from them, thin and fragile they hung without thought pointing toward the ground. Tarly was the first to react outloud, a growl of hunger rippling from his wide belly as he staggered toward it. 

“Get out of their way, the first times the hardest!” Veronica ordered, her and Halston moving off to the side with the others as Tarly collapsed. His mouth gaped open, hanging like a door with a busted hinge as a thin tendril of green, liquid, metal emerged. 

Cassian watched in horror as the others staggered toward the table, their own mouths open wide as they gagged up multi-hued metal. The tendrils stretched out, touching the hanging crystals.The moment the metal touched the crystal, the thin and reedy light faded away from them, but it wasn’t enough for the five. Abandoning whatever pretenses of propriety they crawled on their hands and knees, desperate for more. 

Cassian felt his own stomach twist and growl, but a sense of disappointment filled him instead. A deep rumble of hunger consumed him, but the muddy crystals held no appeal to him, they were nearly repugnant. 

“Your symbiote isn’t reacting?” Veronica asked suddenly, a curious look on her face as she got closer to him.

“I…I’m hungry, but the crystal doesn’t seem to be what it wants. It’s…it’s like seeing broth when one wants a steak.” 

“Hull, we have a problem!” Veronica said over her shoulder at the Sergeant.