A Day on the Job - A House Cenwulf Short Story

 

A Day On the Job

A House Cenwulf Short Story 

 

Aivar dreamed of water. Cool, refreshing, clean, the feel of it running down his throat, quenching his thirst without leaving a bitter or metallic aftertaste. He felt a cool glass in his hand and swirled its liquid contents around, watching mesmerized as droplets of condensation gathered on the outer surface of the container. He lifted the glass back to his lips and began to tip it back, ready to drink and then...

Bang, bang, bang.

Aivar woke with a jolt as the door to his small cabin was hammered repeatedly by something heavy and metallic on the other side. Dirty fists balled up and smashed into his eye sockets, rubbing back and forth as he tried to clear the sleep from his eyes and wake up. It was only as he sat up and looked around that he saw the duty rotation light in the corner of the room strobbing but from the small vox-box underneath there was nothing but a dull buzzing, it was busted, again.

“Damned thing is broken again, Osvald's going to have my hide,” Aivar grunted to himself as he quickly leaped out of his bunk and began to pull the rest of his work suit on.

He had never fully taken it off from the previous shift, only removing the neck seal, gloves, boots and armored surcoat from the rest of the padded and insulated undersuit. It took too long to fully remove or don the hazardous environment work rig during the limited down-time between shifts so most of the workers on the mega-crawler went months without completely changing their clothes, which tended to give the shared work spaces a particularly distinct smell.

Within moments Aivar had redressed and he yanked open the door only to be nearly smacked in the face by the pneumatic wrench that was about to bang on the door again. Rurik pulled the blow at the last second and looked Aivar up and down with alarm.

“Come on dear comrade, your going to be late to your shift,” Rurik said, unnecessarily as he slipped the wrench back onto his belt and stepped back to give Aivar enough room to enter the narrow barracks-block corridor.

“What's your excuse Rurik?” Aivar asked as he immediately headed off up the passage at a trot. “Nobody's paying you to keep tabs on me.”

“Oh that's a great way to thank your friend for trying to keep you out of trouble,” Rurik shot back. “We crewmen have to look out for each other, nobody else is likely to.”

Aivar just snorted in response to that and the two moved off at a jog until they reached the intersection of the barracks block and the main crew access-way of the crawler.

“Good luck out there,” Rurik shouted over his shoulder as he turned right and headed towards work section B, which housed crew B-14 on which Rurik served.

“Same to you comrade,” Aivar shouted after him as he turned left and headed into work section C, home to his own crew C-16.

Hatches lead off from the access-way at regular intervals each leading to one of the pair of crew-bays housed along either side of section C. The first were the bays of crews C-11 and C-21. The first number indicated the side of the crawler, starboard for crews 1 and port for crews 2. The second indicated which number from prow to stern, the forward most were crews 11 and 21, then 12 and 22 after that going all the way to 16 and 26 respectively. Each work section housed twelve crews, six to a side and there were four work sections on this particular crawler, A, B, C, and D respectively. That made forty-eight crews, each composed of around ten crewman each, so around four hundred and eighty crew just for the work crews alone. Combined with the maintenance crews, tech-priests, servitors, overseers, riggers, gunners, comms operators and the rest the crawler housed upwards of eight-hundred souls on board and it was, admittedly, far from the largest of its kind wending through the lowlands of the world of Andlang at any given time. Still Aivar never failed to feel a slight surge of pride at the thought of so many hands all working together to carve their meager existence from the bleak and ruined landscape of their world. 

 

Finally Aivar came to the doors to Crew-bay C-16, yanked open the hatch and took the stairs on the other side two at a time as he climbed from the crew-deck to the work-deck above. Throwing open the hatch at the top of the stairs Aivar stepped out into a world of noise and industry. Several dozen workers and servitors were jostling around in the expansive bay working on last minute preparations for the departure of the work crew. The bay was large and housed a number of industrial vehicles. The largest was the goliath-rockgrinder that filled the center of the bay. The transport-bay at the back of the vehicle had been converted into a large ore-hopper and its swivel-mounted turret was fitted with a large mining laser. The goliath was one of the few wheeled vehicles regularly used on Andlang, the harsh environment and broken terrain of the planet's lowlands made using most wheeled or tracked vehicles almost impossible. Only the presence of the enormous rock-grinder on the front of the vehicle made its use really possible as it could simply smash through most minor obstacles in its path from the mega-crawler to whatever deposit of ore or wreckage the crew was being sent after today.

The rest of the vehicles for the crew were industrial-grade sentinels. Six in total. Three were loader sentinels, their main chassis sporting a pair of powerful hydraulic claws and a back-mounted set of counter-weights that could allow them to lift heavy objects with ease. Two more were mounted with rock-grinders, smaller versions of the same equipment fitted to the front of the goliath, and the last was fitted with a powerful mining laser, also a slightly downsized variant of the same tool mounted on the goliath's turret. Together the goliath and the sentinels made up the equipment for work crew C-16 and were roughly identical to the standard equipment of every other work crew on the crawler.

Aivar hurried over to his sentinel, the last one in line and the one mounting the mining laser, and began pr-debarkation rituals immediately, hoping without hope that his late arrival would go unnoticed by the crew's boss, Osvald. Of course, it hadn't and before Aivar had gotten more than a few steps into his preparations a hand grabbed his shoulder and spun him around to come face to face with the grizzled veteran who led crew C-16. Osvald stared into the face of his younger subordinate and fixed him with a steely glare.

“Late again Aivar, that's the third time this month.” Osvald declared, a statement rather than a question.
Aivar nevertheless could not think of anything else to do but nod. “Yes boss, it's my work-shift alarm, the vox is broken again.”

“Paltry excuse,” Osvald shot back. “That thing should have been fixed after the first failure, you'll be docked censure pay for being late and I expect you to get that alarm fixed, if this happens again I'll have to formally recommend you for punitive work detail.”

“Of course boss, it won't happen again boss,” Aivar said, meek in the face of the hardened crew boss.

“See that it doesn't,” Osvald replied before the boss finally turned away and began to shout orders at the rest of the crew. Aivar sighed inwardly and resumed his preparations, hastening to catch up to the rest of the crew. He didn't know why Osvald intimidated him so much, something about the man just exuded experience and authority, hard won over several decades working the dangerous depths of the planet's surface. To spend so long out here, in the wilds, one either had to be made of incredibly stern stuff, or maybe just insane. Either way Aivar didn't want to test such an individual.

Within a few minutes Aivar's sentinel was ready and he hauled himself into the cockpit, sealing the hatch and engaging the hermetic locks. The outside air of Andlang's lower altitudes was deadly toxic, often radioactive and corrosive to boot. Without a dedicated fresh-oxygen supply and thick protective coverings a human would choke and bleed to death out there in minutes. Within the sealed environment of his sentinel Aivar was relatively safe but it did not stop him, or to his knowledge every other worker who went out onto the surface, from donning the helmet of their own hazardous environment suits and sealing themselves into their own suits air-supply as well, better to be safe then sorry. Aivar wouldn't remove his helmet for any reason until his walker was safely back aboard. 

 

A quick glance at his display board showed that most of the crew was displaying green ready-lights and it was nearly time to disembark. Through the armored crystal panels of his cockpit windows Aivar watched the section c tech-priest Cedrix V Tangent perform final rituals over the crew's goliath before retracting his mechadendrites and scuttling quickly out of the bay. Aivar suppressed a shudder at the sight of the tech-priest, the cyborg was critically important to making sure the machines of the crew were maintained and would keep them safe on the surface but there was something about the way the creature, he was not even sure if it was originally male or female, moved that just unsettled him deeply. Aivar shook off the feeling and began a pre-operation prayer to focus his thoughts and prepare himself for the dangerous job ahead. Around him the other sentinels of the work crew stepped from their berths one after the other and lined up behind the goliath, prepared to march out of the bay and onto the surface.

Great yellow hazard lights at the corners of the bay turned on and began to rotate, flooding the whole bay in a sickly orange illumination as the last of the maintenance crew and servitors retreated and sealed the bay behind them. A minute later the lights changed to green, indicating the bay and the outside atmosphere had been equalized and the bay was ready to open.

+All crew, indicate readiness.+ Osvald barked over the vox.

+Crewman C-16/12 ready.+ Voxed the goliath's driver.

+Crewman C-16/13 ready.+ Voxed the goliath's gunner.

+Crewman C-16/14 ready.+ Voxed the goliath's and the crew's vox operator.

Then the sentinel crew voxed in, one after the other until it came to Aivar.

+Crewman C-16/26 ready.+ Aivar voxed, depressing the transmit stud on his dashboard as he spoke.

+All crew ready, bay crew, open the doors, the Emperor protects.+ Osvald voxed, finishing the crew's preparations and beginning the debarkation.

+Bay doors opening, the Emperor protects.+ Voxed the bay crew boss from her command station overlooking the bay below. Aivar swiveled his cockpit periscope to look back at the armorcrys bubble housing the command crew of the bay. Three individuals sat at illuminated stations behind the transparent armored crystal, flipping switches and turning levers that began the process of opening the bay doors, extending the ramp and activating the defense guns.

Aivar rotated his periscope back to its forward position and locked it in place for the time being. Watching as the huge armored doors of the bay slowly ground open, letting in the dust and grit of the harsh surface into the formerly clean bay. When the doors were fully extended the armored ramp extended out from beneath the floor and unfolded, section by section until it thumped into the dry, cracked earth some twenty-meters below.

+Work crew C-16, disembarking.+ Voxed Osvald, and the goliath began to roll forward on its fat tires, bumping over the lip of the bay and beginning a slow descent down the ramp.

In pairs the sentinels of the work crew followed, clanking their way out of the bay and down the ramp to the surface. Last in line Aivar closed his eyes when he stepped out of the bay and onto the ramp, a habit he had not been able to shake despite his several years of experience doing this. Each time it felt like entering a completely different world, one that was completely hostile to human life and where every moment could be his last. Aivar's fists clenched harder on his controls and he felt his heart-rate climb as his sentinel began its slow, measured descent of the ramp until the splay-clawed feet of the walker crunched into the dust and dirt of the surface at last and he rotated his cockpit around to survey their surroundings.

The crawler had come to rest on a small rise in an otherwise large stretch of broken plains. Skirling clouds of dust and ash obscured much of the horizon but here and there Aivar could see clusters of broken metal and rockcrete jutting from the burnt earth, indicating the presence of ancient ruins burried beneath the dirt and sand. Several miles to the south east a burnt red cliff of rock rose from the plain, the beginnings of the foothills of one of the mountain-chains, Aivar wasn't sure which one though. According to the work briefing uploaded to his console they were headed toward the cliffs, not towards the clusters of ruins, those were likely targets for other work crews, a shame, digging up rusted iron and old machinery was a simple and profitable task, what they were doing instead could be profitable or it could be a waste of time, if they returned to the crawler with little to show for their efforts it would reflect in their pay-sheets at the end of the month.

Shaking his helmeted head Aivar formed up around the goliath as the crew set off to the south-east. They moved slowly and carefully, constantly scanning around themselves both visually and with their auspex, looking for any sign of threats, magnetic or radiation spikes, sink-holes or other hazards that needed to be avoided. So far it had been easy going, the ground relatively stable and unbroken as they headed into the rocky foothills. There the crew slowed down even more, the goliath having to grind several spars of rock down to gravel to clear a path through the jagged terrain. The sentinels weaved carefully around the rock, scanning constantly for any sign of native predators, potential rock-falls or hidden crevices.

After several hours the crew finally came to their designated target zone and Aivar gasped audibly when he realized that a huge hab-tower of some kind was embedded in the side of the cliff. The ancient structure had apparently collapsed, falling sideways and becoming partially encased in the stone of the cliff it had crashed into. Twisted metal girders and small flecks of glass protruded from the broken skin of the structure and to Aivar's surprise small lights still shone in several spots from functioning lumens or status lights at various points along the structure.

+I don't like this.+ Voxed Canute, crewman C-16/23 and one of Aivar's fellow sentinel pilots. The second set of numbers in Canute's crew number indicated his position on the crew, 23 indicating he was the third member of the sentinel pilot division of the crew, the crew of the goliath numbered 11, 12, 13 and 14 at the sentinel pilots numbered 21 through 26.

+The lights still work, something is still powering this place, if we recover functional archaeotech Canute we'll have it made!+ Voxed Dag, crewman C-16/25.

+We can't spend money if we're dead Dag!+ Canute shot back over the vox.

+Do you always have to be such a cow...+ Dag began before he was cut off.

+Silence the both of you.+ Osvald voxed from his command station in the goliath. +All sentinels fan out and scan this thing with your auspex, maximum strength, give us a better picture of what we're dealing with here.+

+Yes boss.+ Canute replied.

+Affirmative.+ Responded Dag.

The sentinels broke off from their formation and spread out around the sloping base of the ruined spire, pinging the ruins with their auspex from every angle they could. Aivar glanced over at the goliath with his periscope and saw two of the crew, likely Osvald and Eira, standing in the open back, surveying the ruins, Osvald with a pair of high-powered binocs and Eira with a handheld auspex of her own.

+Sentinels report, found anything?+ Osvald voxed to the crew.

+Nothing much yet.+ Responded Amund, Crewman C-16/22.

+I've got a weak power signature coming from somewhere in the ruins, about thirty to forty meters into the cliff and at least a hundred down.+ Voxed Frode, crewman C-16/24.

+Are you sure?+ Voxed Gudmund, crewman C-16/21. +I'm not picking up anything past all this interference.+

+Of course he's sure.+ Voxed Dag in response. +Frode's always been the best with the auspex, if he says there's a power signature I bloody-well believe there's a power signature, the question is what do we do about it?+

+Can we even get the sentinels that far in or should we try to dig a path with the goliath?+ Voxed Amund.

+I think we need to report this to command and let them decide.+ Canute replied.

Dag quickly shot back, complaining about Canute's lack of courage, causing Osvald to interject again but Aivar was hardly listening. He was carefully flipping through different wave-lengths on his auspex, chasing a distant return that he could not manage to pin down but he knew it was there, ghosting around the edges of his detection range.

+Frode, can you search sector 23.58-54.32 on wavelength gamma?+ Aivar cut in, abruptly interrupting the ongoing argument over the vox.

+Uh sure, just one moment.+ Frode replied, the rest of the crew falling silent as their auspex expect checked Aivar's findings. +Yea there it is, I'm getting... wait, what IS that... oh hells...+

Frode trailed off just before Aivar saw the sides of the ruined spire shudder and shake as something huge moved within the ruins. Frode's sentinel took two steps back and started to turn before something huge smashed through the outer-shell of the ruined spire and slammed into Frode's sentinel, carrying the whole machine and pilot beneath the earth. A tortured scream of rending metal and a gurgled cry over the vox and Frode was gone.

+Emperor's blood what was that?+ Shouted Dag over the vox as he moved his sentinel towards where Frode had disappeared.

+All units, retreat, I repeat, retreat, get the hell out of here!+ Osvald interjected over the vox.

+It's a sand-wyrm!+ Shouted Canute, his sentinel already retreating from the ruins rapidly.

The rest of the crew were backing away from the downed spire quickly now, forming up around the goliath as they moved to retrace their steps. But they could only move so fast, the ground was still treacherous and if they moved too fast they risked a foot falling into a sink-hole or slamming their machine into a jutting spar of rock or metal and spearing themselves.

+That size, no, sand-wyrms don't get that big, it has to be something else!+ Voxed Dag, his voice cracking a bit with fear as Frode's abrupt death started to sink in.

+It can't be anything else the way it moved, just run!+ Canute shouted back over the vox. +We're moving too slow!+

As if to emphasis his point Canute began to speed up, running away from the group and back down the foothills faster, quickly outpacing the slower moving body of machines.

+Canute don't get separated!+ Osvald called over the vox. +Get back into formation!+

But Canute wasn't listening, his sentinel had now put at least a hundred meters between himself and the rest of the crew when suddenly the earth in front of him erupted and a huge armored head thrust up into the air. Massive plates of bone armor surrounded a bulbous head that was all mouth, a great ring of serrated teeth large enough to swallow a sentinel almost whole set between two huge mandibles, each sporting a row of piercing spikes longer than Aivar's forearm. A row of three beady-eyes sat either side of the head, fixing Canute's machine in their murderous yellow gaze. Canute barely had time to scream before the monster fell on him and crushed his machine to scrap in its huge jaws. Blood and oil spewed from the torn armor plates as the largest sand-wyrm Aivar had ever heard of tore back into the earth, carrying most of Canute's machine with him. Only a pair of torn legs remained sticking partially out of the earth after all forty-odd feet of the creature's elongated body had slithered past and into the broken soil.

+Hells, what do we do?+ Voxed Amund, his voice cracking with fear and horror.

+Form up!+ Osvald ordered in response. +Form a ring around the goliath, weapons out, maybe we can drive it away, Eira, get on the comms and call for backup!+

Aivar and the others formed a ring around the goliath. Each sentinel had some form of secondary weapon. The loaders had flamers mounted beneath their claws, the two grinders and Aivar's own sentinel each sported a heavy-stubber mounted to the top of their chassis just above their rotating periscopes. Plus the grinders, claws and Aivar's own mining laser were not terrible as weapons in their own right. Aivar saw Osvald climb out the top of the Goliath, an autogun held in his hands while the gunner, Bjarte, swiveled the goliath's mining laser back and forth, seeking a target.

+Where is it?+ Voxed Dag. +It can't have gone, can it?+

+Stop yapping and keep your eyes open!+ Responded Osvald, putting one hand to the side of his suit's helmet as he worked his own suit vox to reprimand Dag.

Moments later the earth burst into the air right behind the goliath, throwing the vehicle forward on its chassis and threatening to flip it on its front. Osvald was thrown from the back of the goliath, crashing into the dirt twenty-feet in front of the machine and Dag's sentinel was also tossed aside, stumbling away from the suddenly unstable ground and going down hard onto its side.

+Bastard!+ Yelled Gudmund into the vox as he showered the sand-wyrm in a jet of burning prometheum. The beast howled and whirled its head around, smashing its armored brow into the front of Gudmund's sentinel, caving in the cockpit and hurling it backwards.

Gudmund's machine rolled several times before smashing into a spur of rock and coming to rest, leaking prometheum from its ruptured tank.

+I'm still ali...+ Gudmund began to vox before his machine exploded, violently hurling chunks of metal and armor in every direction.

+Damn this thing!+ Shouted Dag as his sentinel appeared from behind the wyrm, he must have circled around to come at it from its blind spot. With a scream of tortured metal and splintering chitin Dag slammed his rock-grinder arm into the side of the beast and drove it deep, smashing through the armor and drawing blood. As soon as the purplish ichor of the beast began jetting from the wound Dag triggered his stubber as well, pelting the beast's hide with heavy-caliber bullets and drawing more blood.

+Dag get back, strike and fade!+ Aivar voxed as he turned his own machine about and tried to line up a shot on the monster.

+I've got this, die you scum!+ Dag voxed back, ignoring Aivar's warning. 

Aivar could only watch as the wyrm reared further out of it's tunnel, twisting about with astonishing agility and flexibility to bring it's head slamming down into the earth almost directly behind itself, flattening Dag's sentinel into the ground beneath the armored bulk of the monster's head. The mandibles latched onto the wreckage and hurled it away, the poor remains of Dag's machine tumbling down the foothills, smacking off of raised spurs of rock until it was swallowed by the swirling clouds of ash and dust wreathing the slopes.

The monster tilted back its head and roared, a thick line of blood still running down its side from where Dag had pierced its hide. Aivar grunted in frustration and triggered his mining laser at full power, spearing a beam of intense laser-light easily as powerful as a lascannon into the belly of the creature. Armor blackened and shattered and more blood spilled out but Aivar had missed the existing wound and most of his shot had been soaked up by the bone armor of the wyrm.

+To hell with this!+ Voxed Amund before, unexpectedly, he turned tail and ran, his agile sentinel weaving around the spurs of rock as he sprinted away from the battle, or massacre, as quickly as he could.

Despite the presence of several available targets right in front of it however the wyrm chose to give chase to Amund, whirling around and speeding off after the fleeing Sentinel across the surface, its body weaving and undulating across the earth like a serpent, its full and incredible size fully visible now.

+No, no, stay away!+ Amund voxed, clearly watching the wyrm approach through his periscope.

Aivar tried to follow but he could not keep up with the chase and safely navigate the terrain at the same time and he quickly fell behind, yet he was still close enough to see Amund misjudge a turn and slam his sentinel's chassis into a sharpened spar of ruck jutting from the landscape. The front slope of the loader sentinel crumpled upon impact and the hardened spear of rock pierced deep into the cockpit, almost certainly impaling Amund himself. Aivar heard a gurgle over the vox that could have been a plea for help before the wyrm caught up to him. Aivar looked away as the wyrm slammed into the impaled sentinel and spar of rock at full speed and crushed them both in its powerful jaws. When Aivar looked back up both the rock and the wrecked sentinel were gone and the wyrm was turning about and coming towards him at speed.

+The Emperor protects!+ Aivar voxed, even though he was now alone as far as he knew, the message as much for himself as it might have been for anyone still alive.

Aivar held his ground, charging his mining laser to maximum yield, red-lining the power cell and cycling his stubber up to fire as well. The wyrm was almost upon him when he fired, the potent blast of killing light searing a blackened line across the wyrm's face just under its left row of eyes and scorching down its back as well. At the same time Aivar triggered his stubbers, stitching a line of bullets along the same path as his laser-beam. One of the beast's eyes burst as an errant shot miraculously slipped past it's armored brow and blasted apart the watery orb while more bullets embedded in the armored carapace or broke through the damaged bone to tear bloody chunks from the beast's flesh.

The wyrm howled and diverted to its left, grinding its way back into the soil and away from Aivar's laser shortly before it would have plowed into him and left his machine a smear of metal and oil in the dust. Aivar howled in triumph into his helmet, turning his machine about and backing away rapidly, looking to see where the wyrm would emerge again. Yet for several long moments the wyrm did not re-appear and Aivar began to feel the hair on the back of his neck rise, some instinct deeply embedded in his bones urged him to move and he listened to it, surging his sentinel forward at maximum speed, threatening to tip over and go sprawling with how quickly he shifted its weight. Yet the move saved his life, mere moments after he surged forward the earth where he had been standing blasted upwards as the wyrm tore its way back to the surface, having clearly intended to come up right beneath him and swallow him whole.

Aivar swiveled his chassis around and continued to run backwards as he fired blast after blast from his laser into the side of the monster and emptied his stubber magazine into it. His efforts were not pretty and not hugely effective but he was running out of options. The wyrm would not be deterred this time however and turned about quickly, surging after him across the surface with mandibles spread wide and mouth open as wide as it would go, revealing multiple layers of razor-sharp teeth, each as large as Aivar's fist and each layer rotating around the creature's mouth like the blades of a saw, it was mesmerizing and terrifying all at the same time but there was little Aivar could do to stop this beast.

Well if he could not stop it, he would at least die trying to kill it, Aivar stopped his retreat and turned about, readying himself to fire one last shot as the beast crashed into him, it was his only chance of causing the creature critical damage. Before it reached him however a pair of powerful headlights speared from the dust before the bulk of the goliath slammed into the side of the wyrm, the rockgrinder tearing away at maximum speed. Bone armor flew everywhere in a spray of shattered chitin and spurting blood. The wyrm howled and reared back in pain, twisting away from the rockgrinder as fast as it could. The goliath continued to blow forwards, tearing down the side of the wyrm and leaving a vast bloody gash carved down the side of the monster. Aivar was so stunned he could only stare as the monster twisted about and rolled its whole body, crushing several spars of rock as it desperately tried to shift it's bulk away from the rockgrinder. Several stinging blasts from the mining laser carved into it as well, the turret swiveling as far as it could to strike the wyrm again and again before the monster moved out of the firing arc of the industrial tool turned weapon.

For a moment Aivar thought the goliath would kill the beast but then the monster succeeded in rolling away from the grinder. Moving at nearly top speed the goliath could do little to arrest its downward sprint, rolling and bouncing over the rough terrain the goliath slid in the loose soil, turning about as the driver fought to regain control before it too, like Amund before it, slammed into a spar of rock and came to a sudden and fatal rest, impaled on the hazardous terrain of Andlang.

The driver and vox-operator were clearly dead but Aivar watched as Bjarte slowly pulled himself from the ruined hatch of the goliath and tried to stumble clear of the wreckage. At first Aivar thought he would make it until he realized Bjarte's helm had been damaged in the crash and he was exposed to the toxic surface of Andlang in all its deadly horror. Bjarte only made it about twenty steps before he fell to his knees, clawing at his faceplate futilely before crashing down onto his face and laying there, unmoving and lifeless. 

 

“To the hells with this beast!” Cursed Aivar as he turned to regard the wyrm. The great beast was horribly injured, sheets of blood spilling from the huge rent in its hide, more fluid leaking from holes in its head and back left by Aivar and Dag. The once terrible majesty of the beast reduced to a tattered mess that was nevertheless still incredibly dangerous. Yet at that point Aivar could no longer care, no matter how blatantly suicidal he was going to try to kill that thing. Twisting his controls to bring his sentinel around again Aivar charged at the monster. His mining laser spat two more ruby beams straight into the creature's face before the power-cell whined out the alarum of depletion and Aivar's stubber registered its ammunition hopper as empty as well. Aivar merely grunted in annoyance and reared his machine back to deliver a bone cracking kick from one of his feet, smashing into the jaw of the beast and cracking the bone armor of its face. A slow swipe from one of the mandibles was easily dodged with a backstep Aivar slammed another kick into the beast's jaw where the mandible connected with the skull, dancing backwards before a return swipe from the bone blade could catch him.

Almost unarmed but determined nonetheless Aivar triggered his last weapon, unfolding the small chainblade arm folded beneath the cockpit of his machine. The blade was hardly a functional weapon, merely an emergency backup intended for clearing obstructions and untangling the sentinel should it become caught up in something. On other worlds the blade would have been used for cutting through jungle plants or hacking down small trees but here and now Aivar intended to use it as a killing blade. As the beast tried to swing it's head around to track him Aivar side-stepped a smashing headbutt and drove his sentinel forward into the same spot where Dag had pierced the beast's armor, sinking the whirling chainblades of his emergency saw into the beast's hide.

The wyrm howled in pain and rage, the terrible roar shaking the cabin of the sentinel even as Aivar struggled to keep the blade embedded in the beast's hide and push it ever deeper, trying to carve into something important.

“Come on, just a little more!” Aivar urged, quick-stepping his sentinel to the side to avoid being crushed under the wyrm's bulk as it tried to turn to bite him.

Aivar was quickly gaining confidence, he might be able to kill this thing if he could just carve a little deeper when the wyrm suddenly decided to change tactics. Instead of trying to smash or bite him the wyrm instead chose to rear upwards suddenly. With the chainblade embedded deeply in the beast's side Aivar could not extract himself quickly enough and his whole machine was lifted into the air. The wyrm then twisted about and shook itself back and forth, snapping the arm connecting the chainblade to Aivar's sentinel and sending his machine crashing back to the earth in a broken heap. His head smashed into the side of his cockpit and Aivar blanked out for a moment, coming to a few seconds later to a world of flashing red lights and blaring alarms. His sentinel was ruined, the power plant ruptured, fuel tank leaking prometheum, the hermetic seals ruptured and toxic, poisonous air leaking inside. Quickly Aivar checked his dented helmet and sighed in temporary relief as he found the seals were still intact and he would not end up like poor Bjarte, at least not yet.

It took Aivar four attempts to release his restraining harness and seven to get the damaged locks on his cockpit hatch to disengage. When he finally pulled himself out of the broken wreckage he was confronted with the sight of the wyrm, its side heaving in tortured gasps of air as it wriggled around in pain and anger, trying to tear the chainblade from its side with its teeth. The angle was poor however and the beast was not quite able to get a grip on the broken arm of the sentinel to pull the blade out. Aivar could not help but chuckle weakly as he watched the monster struggle, reveling in the pain and discomfort he had caused to the beast that had killed all of his companions and friends. Maybe the beast heard him, or maybe it smelled him, or maybe by sheer coincidence that was the moment it decided to give up on its efforts and finish him off, whatever the reason that was the moment the wyrm stopped trying to remove the chainblade and turned its five remaining eyes on Aivar. For long seconds they stood there, armored man versus monstrous wyrm and regarded each other.

The mandibles of the wyrm slowly opened wide and then clacked together several times, emitting a strange rhythm of taps and scratches that might have been some form of communication. For his part Aivar did not say anything, he just drew his sidearm, the holdout laspistol issued to each and every crewman, flipped the safety off and touched the barrel to the forehead of his helmet in a crude salute before he aimed the weapon at the beast and started to fire.

Weak beams of crimson light slashed out from the barrel of the pistol and stabbed at the face of the beast, leaving small black marks where they struck but doing no real damage but clearly angering the monster. With a fresh roar the wyrm lowered its head and rushed towards Aivar, bearing down on him with all its terrible, lethal fury. Aivar stood his ground, setting his stance wide and preparing to face his death as a true son of Andlang should. Calmly and coolly he placed each shot, one after the other, counting down the shots remaining in the power cell towards zero. Five, four, three, two, one he counted, zero as the cell chimed emptiness and the last shot blasted out.

“Well that's that then,” Aivar said out loud. “The Emperor protects.”

And then the sun vanished behind something big and terrible. Aivar looked up in shock to see huge adamantine legs stride over him before the mighty fist of an Imperial Knight Titan swung out and connected with the jaw of the sand-wyrm with an almighty crack. The left-side mandible of the beast sheared off in that single blow, blasting out a spray of blood, spittle and chunks of bone and taking a piece of the beast's jaw and skull with it. The monster howled and reared back, firing an array of wicked bone-spikes from its belly at the knight. Several stuck, and one ruptured a hose beneath the knight's torso and one came dangerously close to taking Aivar's head off but none did lasting damage to the mighty war machine. Instead the knight grabbed the beast's right-mandible in its massive fist and yanked the wyrm back down onto its side. Jaw open and howling the beast was pulled around until the knight had a good angle to jam the barrel of the massive laser cannon mounted on its right arm down the throat of the beast and discharge the weapon in a series of scintillating blast of killing light up through the roof of the monster's mouth and into its brain. For long seconds the weapon fired until even Aivar could hear the power-cells of the weapon whining in stress. The wyrm's kicking shaking body slowly gave out a last shudder as steam erupted from its mouth and its eyes burst, leaking a steaming goo from their sockets and down the outside of the skull. Finally, convinced the creature was as dead as it could be, the knight let go of the remaining mandible and allowed the corpse to crash down into the dust and lay there, bloody and smoking.

Aivar just stood there, staring at the slain beast and the metal giant that had saved him, speechless. His empty lasgun was still held in his hand, outstretched and aiming at the beast as though he was still firing at it futilely. It was only when the vox of the knight activated with a loud screech of static that Aivar was shocked out of his stupid and stared up at the knight.

+Are you injured thrall?+ Asked the knight.

“N-no, no my lord I, I am uninjured... I think.” Aivar stammered out, unsure of himself in the face of the terrifying noble.

The armor of the knight was battered and scored, its heraldry chipped and damaged, eroded by the toxic and corrosive winds of Andlang's lowlands and dented by the spines of the sand-wyrm but still clearly visible as the colors and iconography of House Cenwulf, the noble lords of Andlang and protectors of its people. Aivar had never been this close to one of the knights before, had never seen one fight, had never heard their weapons fire and now that he had his mind felt like sludge and he struggled to even form thoughts through the morass of awe and fear.

+You are to be commended thrall, this was a great beast and you and your crewmates injured it gravely before I arrived, noble deeds and noble sacrifices.+ The knight announced, as though speaking to Aivar over a glass of wine, not standing amid the wreckage and corpses of a battlefield.

“I... thank you, lord.” Aivar managed to get out, slowly holstering his pistol after several attempts and making the sign of the aquila over his chest.

The knight did not respond, merely tilted the lupine helmet of its head in acknowledgment and then turned back to the corpse of the beast, the lights of a scanner playing over the corpse as the knight surveyed the kill and analyzed the size, weight and age of the monster. Clearly he was done with Aivar but Aivar did not know what to do now. He simply turned around and looked about him at the wreckage and death. Bjarte's body was still there, not far from the wrecked goliath. Scraps of armor and machine parts from several sentinels stuck out from the dirt here and there. Spent shell casings from stubbers carpeted the ground in several spots where the sentinels had fired on the wyrm. Aivar was still looking at the battlefield when the mist was pierced by more headlights and a trio of goliaths ground up the hill and into sight. Alongside them came more than a dozen sentinels who swept the area with their weapons and moved to form a perimeter. One of the goliaths drove up next to Aivar and stopped right in front of him. The hatch popped open and a thrall of high rank stepped down. Behind the helmet no facial features could be seen so Aivar could only determine the individual's identity by the rank insignia they wore. It took him a moment to make his shocked mind identify the symbols and give him a name. Vidar Haraldsson, Section Boss, Section C.

“You are from crew C-16?” Asked the section boss, slapping Aivar on the shoulder to get his attention.

“Y-yes, yes I am boss, Aivar, crewman C-16/26, sentinel pilot.” Aivar replied, listing off his identity and number by rote habit.

“Are you the only survivor?” Asked Vidar.

“I believe so,” replied Aivar.

“I am sorry for your losses Aivar, but you and your crew fought well.” Vidar told him. “Hersir Torsten, The Storm Claw, has commended you and your crew, a high honor indeed.”

“Thank you sir,” Aivar replied, too numb with shock to really comprehend what was being said to him.

“Come, lets get you out of here,” Vidar said, leading Aivar by the arm and lifting him aboard the goliath transport truck. Vidar followed him inside and slammed the hatch shut. The last thing Aivar saw of the surface of Andlang that day was the sentinel crews moving around, surveying the wreckage and collecting the remains.

The trip back to the crawler took a few hours, during which Aivar did not speak nor was he really spoken to. Section Boss Vidar was up in the cabin most of the trip, conversing over the vox with the search crews and probably the noble. The handful of other occupants watched Aivar but did not speak.

It was only after the goliath rode up one of the ramps and into the a work bay that Aivar really began to feel like himself again. As he stepped down from the goliath and into the bay he was finally able to release the seals of his helmet and remove the dented metal, breathing in the stale, heavily recycled air of the crawler that nevertheless felt like home.

As Aivar was still regaining his bearings someone from among the large crowd that had gathered ran forward and clapped him hard on the shoulder.

“Aivar you bastard I knew you must have been the one to survive but even I can hardly believe it!” Shouted Rurik.

“Rurik, you know what happened?” Aivar asked, left stunned and uncertain yet again.

“Of course, everyone knows what happened, its all over the vox, its all everyone can talk about!” Rurik shouted, his face alight and beaming with excitement before growing serious and somber for a moment. “I mean I also heard about the rest of your crew, I'm sorry for your loss Aivar it must be hard to bear.”

Aivar just nodded and mumbled his thanks but had no real response to Rurik's sudden change in tone.

“Still,” Rurik went on. “Your crew are being credited with killing a sand-wyrm, and the biggest one anyone has seen in centuries!”

“We didn't kill it though,” Aivar replied. “The knight did.”

“Ok sure, sure,” Rurik responded. “But you guys bloodied it right good before he showed up and besides, he's giving your crew most of the credit and has awarded the trophy to you as well!”

“Wait, he's doing what?” Aivar asked, astounded.

“The trophy man, the trophy, the corpse and everything that can be harvested from it, it all belongs to you,” Rurik responded laughing and patting Aivar on the back. “I'm told a gullet pearl the size of my head has already been carved from the corpse, that alone makes you one of the richest people on this crawler, add the carapace, the fangs, the meat, you'll never have to work again!”

Aivar was speechless, sure his crew had heart the beast badly and paid dearly for their efforts but to be rewarded so was beyond anything he had imagined. Aivar looked around the bay and saw how everyone was looking at him with animated excitement, some sympathy, and a lot of envy.

“What about the rest of my crew?” Aivar asked. “Those who died fighting the wyrm?”

“Party of the trophy's earnings will go to them of course,” Rurik replied, putting his arm around Aivar and guiding him towards the exit of the bay. “It'll pay off their debts and set their families up for life too, but the lion's share goes to the survivor and that's you dear comrade!”

“I, I don't know what to say to that,” Aivar replied honestly.

“Bah you don't have to say anything comrade, now all you need to do is drink,” Rurik laughed. “And I'm buying your first round, come on!”

Only after his third round that he had not had to pay for from his own ration allotment did Aivar's situation really begin to sink in. He was a hero and a celebrity among the crew now, already the story of Crew C-16's epic battle against the legendary sand-wyrm was passing through the crew and beyond like wildfire, growing in each retelling. According to Aivar's data-slate his debts were all paid, including the loss of his sentinel, and his account now had more zeroes in it than he had ever thought possible. Though still shocked, though still mourning his friends, though still awed by his encounter with a knight, Aivar at last began to enjoy himself and he cracked a smile. It was going to be good to be rich.

Eight Months Later

Aivar stood at the refresher in his new apartment and swirled the contents of his glass around in his hand. He watched transfixed as the clear, pure water rotated languidly around the inside of the glass, cool and clear and refreshing. He had never tasted anything so good before in his life.

In the months since his encounter with the sand-wyrm he had become both wealthy, relatively, and famous, also relatively. He had been able to buy his family out of their debts and procure a habitat in the karl district of the capital. No longer would his family be bonded thralls of House Cenwulf, they were freemen now, able to live and work mostly for themselves, paid a proper wage and afforded far better living conditions than they had previously been given. The hab they now lived in was surprisingly spacious, it had several different rooms including a private bedroom for himself and his wife, Sigrid, and another for their two children, Frida and Torsten. Already Aivar was registering his children with the local schola where they would likely learn a trade. Frida had found work in the merchants quarter already to stay busy and Aivar was still enjoying his status as a minor legend, he almost never had to buy his own drinks anymore and it was not uncommon for thralls and karls to recognize him in the streets, after all his face had appeared on dozens of propaganda pamphlets and posters in the last few months.

Aivar was still smiling and looking at his drink when he was startled by a loud banging on the door.

Bang, bang, bang.

Surprised and uncertain Aivar went to the door and stared out the peephole to see who was there. His eyes went wide when he recognized Rurik, still wearing the garb of a crawler-crew thrall but with significantly elevated rank insignia. Aivar opened the door and gestured his friend inside.

“Rurik, my old comrade, what in the blazes are you doing here?” Aivar asked, a confused smile on his face.

“Oh well ya know dear comrade I just had to see your new hab, quite swanky isn't it?” Rurik said as he strode around the main room and took in the quality of the fittings and the size of the space.

“A far cry from a bunk on the crawler yes,” Aivar replied. “But that can't be why your here, what's going on?”

“Oh, I could never put one past you could I?” Rurik returned. “Too smart you are.”

Rurik dusted himself down, fixing his new rank pins and sat down heavily on the couch in the main room, letting out a contented sigh. Aivar sat down in an armchair opposite his friend and raised an eyebrow for him to continue.

“Ah yes well a lot has changed in the last few months.” Rurik continued. “Lets just say I was able to cash in on some of your reflected glory and earned a few well deserved promotions, now I'm the section boss of section B.”

“That's quite a fast rise in rank,” Aivar replied. “That can't all have been on my account.”

Rurik waved his hand and tutted. “No, honestly it's not, the crawler has seen many casualties lately, the former Section Boss met with a gruesome end three months back.”

Aivar balked at that, his face twisting with concern. “How did that happen?”

“Sand wyrms of course,” replied Rurik. “We've been seeing more and more of them lately, big ones, many concentrated around those blasted ruins your crew found.”

“That's horrible,” said Aivar. “Shouldn't the nobles do something about it?”

“Oh they are,” responded Rurik. “Just not many of them, most are currently off world, something about a new crusade though honestly I didn't get most of the details.”

“Of course, so where do I fit in here?” Aivar asked.

“Ah that's just the thing, so remember that noble who saved you? Torsten the Storm Claw? He's putting together an expedition to those ruins to clear them out. Some half a dozen nobles have signed on and their looking for anyone and everyone whose willing to join them and they are paying, and paying damn well too.” Rurik said, arching his eyebrows and grinning at Aivar.

“I'm already well set up here,” Aivar replied, waving around the apartment. “What do I need with more coin?”

“Well, for one, anyone could always use more coin, for another sooner or later you'll need to find more work to maintain all of this, and for a third you can use some of what you've already got to commission your own unit, lead a squadron, have a command of your own and take a larger share of the spoils as a result,” Rurik replied, letting each of his points sink in with a pause before continuing. Aivar sat back in his char and took a long sip from his drink, letting the cool liquid wash down his throat while he thought. Eventually Aivar made up his mind and looked back at his friend.

“What do you have in mind?” He asked, and Rurik just grinned, it was time for another adventure.

The End... for now

Dramatis Personae

Vidar Haraldsson – Section Boss C

Rurik – Crewman B-14/13

Osvald – Crewman C-16/11

Hagen – Crewman C-16/12

Bjarte – Crewman C-16/13

Eira – Crewman C-16/14

Gudmund – Crewman C-16/21

Amund – Crewman C-16/22

Canute – Crewman C-16/23

Frode – Crewman C-16/24

Dag – Crewman C-16/25

Aivar – Crewman C-16/26

Tech Priest Cedrix V Tangent – Section C Engineseer

Sigrid – Wife to Aivar

Frida – Daughter of Aivar

Torsten – Son of Aivar