Start - Chasing Monsters

An Anubis Multi-Role Fighter drifted through space among dead asteroids, a distant green sun casting its cold light into the blacked-out cockpit. On the side of the ship could be seen the word “Perez” in scratchy dark paint. The pilot watched his custom modified instruments intently in the dark. He was a short man with features so distinctly Hispanic that it made it hard for the casual observer to notice his Order uniform. As he studied the readouts on his displays his attention was caught by a particular screen. On it appeared and disappeared countless alien symbols that seemed to posses no semblance of order or design. The cacophony of shapes continued as the pilot looked on with a furrowed brow. He drew his gaze away from the display long enough to check a panel showing some rather human looking readouts.

“Thirteen thousand metres from Nomad installation, power output still minimal, no signs I’ve been detected... yet,” he said entirely to himself.

After a few more minutes of watching his displays of alien characters a buzzing noise scared him more than such a small noise should have. At a glance out of his cockpit he could see in the distance small, intermittent flares of light. Three kilometres away a small party of five ships was slowly patrolling the asteroid field and randomly blowing up asteroids.

“Fuck! Cultists!” the pilot’s hands flailed around his cockpit as primary systems began to sputter to life. The party of ships began to loom ominously close, their pace quickening toward the Perez. Exhaust began spewing from the rear of the fighter as the engines were brought up to full output. The pilot placed his hands firmly on his controls. Green flashes appeared in his peripheral vision. He gunned his thrusters and the first layer of armour on the port wing vaporised and fell away. “SHIT!” Perez activated some nanobots, “I hate guns,” he said as he slung himself around and got a targeting lock on the lead Cultist ship.

Perez walked along the corridors of the Battleship Isis toward his lab carrying a pad showing a damage report. As he entered his lab he placed the damage report down and pulled another hand held device from his pocket and placed it in a socket on his main work desk. Scattered throughout the room were large numbers of Nomad and Daam-K'Vosh artefacts in boxes, on shelves and inside special cases designed to shield the outside from the contents. Against the far wall stood two large glass panels. In each was an original Daam-K’Vosh text. These two texts, part of those discovered by Doctors Quintaine and Sinclair, had been assigned to Perez five years ago after the Nomad incident had reached its conclusion. As a leading expert on the Nomads and the Daam-K’Vosh Perez was constantly searching for anything in their technology and history that might give humanity an advantage against them.

Perez watched as the handheld device downloaded its contents into his computer. An automatic decryption program began to unscramble the transmission he had been monitoring earlier coming from the Nomad installation. Characters began to slowly assemble into grids just like those seen on the panels in the back of the room. Perez left the lab to get a meal while the message was analysed and decrypted.

When he returned he found a large block of alien text waiting for him with even larger sections that were unable to be decrypted. He began the long slow process of translation. Even though it had been five years human understanding of the Nomad and Daam-K’Vosh languages was still less than perfect and it took a trained mind to understand it. As the translation unfolded Perez became more and more apprehensive. Words like “infiltrate” and “destroy” started appearing disturbingly often even for the Nomads who lived and breathed their hatred for humanity. Even more worrying for Perez was the theme of transportation of something deep into the major houses.

Whatever it was, it was of Nomad design and it would soon be in the place where it could do the most damage. Perez quickly began preparing a report on the message for his superiors, his concern and curiosity driving him on through the night.