CHAPTER 12.1

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Approx. 5500 words

All Rights Reserved

Copyright 2015   SJ

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The Chaos Continues:

Tolstoy Chaos

 

written by  SJ

 

 

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    The General’s Command Cruiser was waiting at Proxima Altair with Federal Marine Squads two and three. Yarrick had taken a fast corporate yacht to Zeta Reticulti for a corporate meeting, and to pickup a new spaceship, plus some reinforcements, when they both got the news about Tolstoy.
    The leadership of Tolstoy 2 contacted the General’s command ship as soon as they had verified the identity of Yarrick’s command cruiser.
    Tolstoy 2 was primarily a peaceful planet, dedicated to arts and culture and had almost nothing in the way of a Planetary Guard. However, they did have two planetary guns, both on the equator.
    Planetary Equator Guns were built, as the name implied, exactly opposite of each other on the equator, and usually on the highest ground there. This allowed each gun to cover one half of the planet. They had plans for a set of polar guns, but those were never built.
    Planetary guns, like the guns on spaceships, were simply extremely large lascannons; but, guns on planets had access to much larger amounts of power. A standard space cruiser had a power rating of 9. Each planetary gun on Tolstoy 2 had access to 50. Yarrick’s command ship had a power rating of 6, which meant a maximum defense of 6.
    However, as the captured ship began its approach, the gunners on Tolstoy 2 needed help. Even though they had run the occasional drill, simulated attacks, they had never fired on an actual spaceship before. The General had to talk them though it.
    With a power rating of 50, this allowed each planetary gun to fire with a rating of 10 at a range of 5000 miles (8100 kilometers), which was what each of the guns were set for since the diameter of the planet was 10,000 miles. However, it was possible to reset the guns to a range of 10,000 miles (maximum possible range) and fire with a rating of 5. By the time the General had explained this, it was too late, so the guns were left as they were.
    With the General’s careful and patient guidance, and when the spaceship was within range, it fired, scoring, much to the surprise of the crew, a hit, which damaged both power and speed by approximately twenty percent.
    When the spaceship got closer, it would’ve been possible to reset the guns to a range of 2500 miles, with a rating of 20, but due to the obvious inexperience of the crew, the guns were left the way they were again.
    Two more shots scored only glancing hits with no damage.
    As the spaceship approached the planet, it had accelerated to triple reaction speed, which made the General happy. There was no way the spaceship could launch shuttles at that speed, and have any crew survive atmospheric entry. However, as incredulous as it sounded, Tolstoy 2 announced the launching of some kind of craft, maybe a small shuttle, which entered the atmosphere. The command cruiser, then, accelerated faster to get away.
    This time, the General was successful at getting the planetary guns set to a longer range. The gun on the opposite side of the planet (the spaceship now in its arch of fire), fired twice, scoring one hit, which appeared to damage the spaceship’s speed.
    Technically, the defense of the planet was a success. The cruiser had not fired its guns on civilians, it had not landed on the planet, and even though a small shuttle had been launched, there was no way it could’ve carried troops...however, the General was still concerned.
    He stayed in contact with the planet, having them update him about the shuttle and the command cruiser. He was disappointed when he heard two things: The shuttle had not burned up in the atmosphere, and the cruiser had parked itself next to one of the solar system’s gas giants about 50 A.U.’s away. That’s when he knew what was going to happen.
    The General informed Tolstoy 2 that he and Yarrick would be there with troops in 3.3 days. Stay away from the location where the shuttle had landed, evacuate any civilians there, and keep an eye on any Chaos troops that can be spotted by satellite. As far as the cruiser, he told them that shouldn’t be a problem; it had been damaged, and if it came in again, their planetary guns should be able to destroy it this time.
    ******
    Yarrick’s new spaceship, a fast transport, arrived at Tolstoy 2 sooner than the General’s command ship, in 2.25 days, with reinforcements, as much as he could acquire in the limited time he had.
    He had Shaw’s Mercenary Guard squad and 1st Armored Fist Platoon HQ with a Leman Russ Demolisher Tank attached, apparently the very tank that was supposed have been on Cornucopia; it had been transferred to Terra Zeta2 so its hull mounted weapon could be upgraded to a lascannon. He would also have access to 2nd Armored Fist Squad, which was a little under strength at eight guardsmen, but had a Chimera APC with multi-laser turret and heavy flamer hull mount. Yarrick’s morter squad had been left on Cornucopia, where the General promised to take it with him to Tolstoy.
    The General had wanted to time the jump of both ships so they would arrive in the Tolstoy solar system simultaneously. But, Yarrick, in his own way, decided to get there first. Once his fast transport had jumped into the system, he flew it directly to the planet and had it land at a location within ten kilometers of where the Chaos shuttle had landed, joining up with two small squads of local militia.
    The small town near where the shuttle had landed had been successfully evacuated. When they reported spotting a dark gold gateway, it confirmed the Generals theory: The shuttle hadn’t carried any troops, thus the ‘G’ forces and heat of the extreme landing didn’t apply. Once the shuttle had landed, even thought it had been severely damaged in the process, it had apparently set up a WARP gate, which allowed any and all troops aboard the captured command cruiser to be potentially deployed.
    As far as a strength report of Chaos forces, they had little information. The shuttle had come down in a wooded area and had been spotted by some hikers, who got out of there fast. As the civilians left their town, they said they spotted several Chaos Marines in dark-blue battle suits along with about a half dozen men in greenish robes move into their town.
    Satellite reconnaissance hadn’t done any better except they made out that the Chaos Marines were carrying bolters, except for one, who was carrying a staff. The others seemed to be carrying a mixture of lasguns, laspistols, and a couple bolters.
    Before leaving Zeta Reticuli, Yarrick had boasted of acquiring the services of two Tau Pathfinders. Once he was situated on the planet, and had set up a defensive position, he sent the two Pathfinders out to get a better strength report.
    ******
    The General’s arrival in the solar system was exactly on time, 3.3 days. Once he was in orbit, he was quickly able to determine the location of Yarrick’s forces, discovering that he had already advanced to within three kilometers of the town, something he wasn’t surprised at.
    Yarrick contacted the General first. “I’m sending you some satellite pictures, and the information gathered by my Tau Pathfinders. I made out one guy as a leader. He’s carrying this strange-looking staff with some kind of long, curvy, horns coming out at the top where there was a metal spear point. Below that it looks like there’s a blade on each side of the staff. In between the horns and the blades there’s a piece of dark gold metal in the shape of the eye of Tzeentch--”
    “That’s a weapon, Yarrick.” The General informed seriously. “A very powerful weapon.”
    “Huh,” Yarrick had to think a second, then continued. “Oh, yeah...I got Officer Dion’s report about what happened on Alshain. So far that guy, what Dion called, a Chaos Sorcerer, hasn’t fired on us. In fact, so far, they’ve been fairly non-hostile. They haven’t even fired on my Tau Pathfinders.”
    “You still should’ve kept a distance of at least five kilometers--”
    “Oh, by the way. I have something for Officer Dion.” Yarrick interrupted. “She wanted to find out what those scientists were doing in Zeta Reticuli, on Terra Zeta1. I had some of my people check it out. I just sent you the report.”
    The General mused a second then responded. “Thanks, Yarrick.” He grinned, then joked. “Now you’re doing something to help me.”
    Yarrick half smiled, then changed the subject. “I have pictures of those Chaos Marines. They look strange. Their helmets have some kind of tall design sticking up out of them, striped dark-blue and yellow; it has a kind of Old Earth Egyptian look to it. One of my Pathfinders got a close up picture of the design on the Chaos Sorcerer’s right shoulder pad, a thin snake in the form of a circle, like it’s trying to eat it’s own tail. There was some lettering on the snake. We sent it through our linguistics computer.”
    “Did you get anything?”
    “As a matter of fact, we did.” Yarrick shrugged. “Apparently all it meant was, ‘Thousand Sons’.
    “I don’t know how much that helps us, right now.”
    “I agree.” Yarrick became serious. “Here’s the strangest thing: We’ve obtained numerous satellite life sign scans, and the Pathfinders have made their scans. Each time, we get the same thing: Eight to ten total living beings are in the area. And we know we’ve spotted more than that.”
    “Yes...I have your report on screen right now.” The General paused, thinking. “There seems to be six Cultists being lead by a guy in a grey-green battle suit--” Suddenly he came to a disturbing realization. “Those belong to Alpharius. That’s his color...with the design of a hydra on it. I wonder if that’s him in the battle suit.”
    “I don’t know.” Yarrick commented, then continued. “But, you see what I mean? That’s six Cultists with possibly Alpharius leading them, plus I know we’ve seen two other Cultists, which makes eight, then there’s the Sorcerer, with his group of at least five Chaos Marines, the ones with the weird, tall, designs on their helmets. That’s more than ten.”    
    “Well, life sign scanners are never perfectly exact. Plus there’s WARP interference.”
    “Maybe you’re right.” Yarrick agreed. “Once your guys are down here with us, I’m sure we’ll figure something out.”
    “I have three destroyers on route here from Beta Aquilae. But they won’t be here for another six days.”
    “How about my--”
    “Yes, Yarrick. I brought your mortar team with me. We’ll all be down in a couple hours. Parker, out.”
    ******
    By the time the General’s troops had landed, and once they had gotten organized with Yarrick’s troops, they cautiously advanced a little closer to the town, within two kilometers.
    The town was located on their left, in between two areas of fairly dense woods. On their right, the terrain was open plains with a sizeable hill overlooking the town about 500 meters away. There was a gravel road that went between the woods and the hill, then met up with a perpendicular paved road, which went into and through the town.
    The General had already entertained thoughts about sending his two Marines squads, both which had been reinforced and brought up to full strength, around to the woods behind the town, where the WARP gate was supposed to be, hopefully, to try and capture it. If successful, they’d have a working WARP gate to study.
    Of course, that would mean splitting their forces.
    The General had decided to be with his troops on the ground this time. He had set up a small HQ on top of an abandoned, but sturdy, three-story, grain-storage, building, which had enough room for his personal shuttle to set down on. As part of his HQ, he had Librarian Marcellus and Sergeant Jennifer Dakota, who was now armed with a metallic Staff, a weapon, for which, along with her new found abilities, they were both eager to test.
    The two commanders had been discussing various plans for several hours. For the most part, they had been hoping Chaos would make the first move, the Federal Marine squads positioned next to their shuttles as a strategic reserve.
    Yarrick had his HQ a little further forward as part of his Armored Fist Platoon HQ. The General could easily spot the HQ’s Chimera APC, and attached Leman Russ Demolisher tank, plus the five members of his Mercenary Guard squad. In front of that was 2nd Armored Fist Squad, spread out and deployed defensively along with its Chimera APC. Yarrick had been warned not to use the APC’s heavy flamer unless they absolutely had to. The last thing the General wanted was to burn down the entire town and surrounding woods, which was one of the reasons they were waiting for Chaos to come to them.
    As time pasted, Yarrick eventually decided to suggest a starting move. His Pathfinders had spent most of their time in the woods in front of the town, where they were now. That left the hill.
    Yarrick began, “Parker, I’m going to send Shaw’s team up on the hill. All of them have nice, mastercrafted, sniper rifles. The rocks up there should make good cover.”
    The General pondered. “Yeah, that’s good. They can park their hover sleds on the back side of the hill.”
    “Okay. I’m going to tell them to get ready and--”
    Yarrick was interrupted by some urgent background talking over the General’s com.
    The General then spoke up. “Yarrick, don’t do that, yet.”
    “What’s up?”
    The General talked to someone, actually, two someone’s, a little longer, then explained. “I’m here with Librarian Marcellus and Sergeant Dakota. They just explained to me...well, according to Marcellus, he says Dakota has some kind of special insight. To put it in her words, she says the hill feels demonic.”
    “What’s that mean?” Yarrick frowned slightly.
    “Well, let me put it this way.” The General grinned. “If your guys go up there and get jumped by a pack of demons--How are they going to feel about--”
    “I get your drift.” Yarrick sighed. “So, what do you want us to do?”
    “Give me a minute.” In the background, Yarrick listened to the General talking, then he explained. “Marcellus and Dakota have decided it would be best if she went to the hill alone. Can you lend her a sled? A good one?”
    Yarrick thought a second. "Yeah, sure. I’ll send one over right away.”
    ******
    The sleds that were assigned to Shaw’s mercenaries were basically two-man, civilian, recreational, hover-sleds, and in this case, top of the line. Marcellus gave Jennifer a few coaching words before the sled arrived by remote.
    As part of the General’s HQ staff, Marcellus and Jennifer were wearing only lightweight, soft armor, basically just vests. They also only had old-style, Federal Marine, 11mm automatic pistols that belonged to Marcellus from his days as a Federal Marine officer. Once the sled was there, Jennifer placed her Staff, which had been painted Omicron Ranger red-brown, with a couple small totems on it, in the passenger seat. She then took off for the hill, saying she’d be right back.
    ******
    Jennifer came up from behind the hill on the far side away from the town, all the while the demonic feelings intensifying. Once she was almost to the top, she stopped the sled and got out, moving slowly toward the top of the hill on foot.
    It was as if she could detect the wavelength of the demonic aura even though there were no demons there--but, that quickly changed. It was like a dark eye opened, then closed somewhere just behind the top of the hill; she could feel it, and now--see it!
    She stood witnessing four demons as they showed themselves from behind the hill, moving in her direction less than two hundred meters away.
    The first thing she noticed was that these were not the strange little demons the General’s Marines had met in the mine. These things stood at least as tall as Marine in a battle suit, their description incomprehensible as thick tentacles waved behind them, extending from their back, head, and arms. They didn’t seem to really have a face, just a wide open, black mouth, like they were in a constant state of screaming. Their writhing skin was pink mostly, but fluctuated, grey and purple. It looked like they had two legs as they walked slowly forward. However, they had more than two arms, three or four, each one looking like they pulsed and dripped with some kind of black tar. Some of them had long, pointed, horns. All in all, they were horrible beyond belief. And it was obvious they had spotted her.
    Fear quickly began to overwhelm her, a supernatural kind of fear. But, she remembered the last thing she had said to LaFong. Realizing fear was just another form of control, she steadied herself, resisting--overcoming.
    For the most part, she had already determined the WARP energy wavelength of the demons. She held out her hand and concentrated, making sure as she used her other hand on the Staff, setting it to the opposite wavelength.
    Marcellus had tried to train her how to set the Staff’s wavelength by feel; but, she had to look to make sure. It was correct. She also took this time to set how much energy the Staff would fire, wanting to be sure, but, still wanting to save some, so she set it to eighty percent.
    The demons were within a hundred meters now. As she began to raise her Staff, holding it lengthwise to the demons, ready to release the energy in a cone, the demons slowed down, raising their arms--like they were getting ready to throw something.
    All of a sudden, in her mind she sensed danger--the demons were firing at her!
    Jennifer moved quickly, dodging behind a large rock as some kind of globs of tar passed by her, inaccurate, some even missing the boulder. As she stepped back out, she could see a golf-ball sized, black hole in the rock, smoking. With a determined grin, she raise her staff again, the same way as before, aiming so her cone covered all the demons. At seventy five meters, she fired.
    She expected to see some kind of disturbance in the air, but there was nothing. However, in her mind, she could sense the cone clearly as it struck the demons.
    The two center demons writhed like they were in pain. As they collapsed she could see an aura around them quickly dissipate, disappearing as the demons disappeared, making it look like they had disintegrated. The two demons on the sides writhed only for a couple seconds, then recovered. As they began moving toward her again, it was like they were angry.
    Jennifer quickly retreated back a short distance to where her sled was hovering behind a large rock. Only twenty percent of the Staff’s energy remained. She remembered Marcellus’ teaching, the science behind what she was doing: range could very well be a factor--and as she witnessed, it obviously was.
    She had helped design the Staff, and now had a plan. She quickly changed the settings on the Staff, putting ten percent of the remaining energy in each end of the Staff, setting it to release on contact.
    Waiting behind the rock, she watched as the last two demons began circling around her. On her communicator, lights were going off like a Christmas tree, telling her she had a call, actually many calls; but, she had no time to answer.
    She expected the demons to fire on her again. But, as they moved, she saw them coming in for the kill, their long black claws--WARP claws, ready.
    When they charged, the demon on the left closed first. With quick, martial arts, precision, she stuck the left one, then the right. The results were instant as the demons stopped short, writhing, as Jennifer watched close up the aura dissipate around them until they were gone. In her head, it was like she could hear them screaming, horribly--like that of a thousand of souls being sucked into hell, then suddenly silent.
    Jennifer Dakota stood breathing heavily, shaking, not actually believing or comprehending what she’d just done. As she recovered, she suddenly realized: It was NOT over!
    There was still one more demon left...a bigger one!
    Stepping out from behind the rock, she got a glimpse of it. But, in her mind, it was worse as she saw the whole area around the rock burst up in fiery WARP flames. Her instincts took over automatically as she ran away from the rock to another rock almost thirty meters away to the right. Behind her she could feel the heat, like someone had fired a flamer. Looking back once she reached the new location, she saw the disintegrated remains of the rock, where the sled lay on the ground, smoking, burned black.
    This demon was much taller. It seemed to float just above the ground, the lower half of its body curved forward like a tube which ended in an open funnel, where inside it was black with a faint ring of teeth. On the sides of its body, it looked like two more smaller funnels were forming. The body higher up curved forward forming a large open mouth, screaming, with numerous smaller mouths doing the same. The lower part of its body was pink, the upper half more purplish, both colors rippling top to bottom, up and down. It had two outstretched arms from which some kind of WARP tar dripped.
    Jennifer had nothing left, just that lousy old-style 11mm pistol Marcellus had loaned her. With her sled fried, the only real weapon she had left was her legs, which she was planning on putting to use soon.
    Then she saw the demon hit, then hit again, and again, tall spires of dirt shooting up behind it as high-powered sniper bullets ripped through it, some passing through with no effect. It was like the demon didn’t know what to do as it continued to be struck again and again...then it fell, Jennifer watching the demon disintegrate exactly like the others.
    She seemed to suddenly lose all her energy as she found a small rock to sit down on. That’s when she remembered her com.
    She heard Yarricks voice first. “Thought you could use a little help over there, Sergeant?”
    “YES...thank you.”
    “Is it safe to send Shaw’s squad over there now?”
    She had to think a second, look into her mind. Then she answered, “yes...it should be.”
    Jennifer had set her com so she was now able to hear all her callers. The General was a little miffed about the Major not asking about her welfare first. “Damn, Yarrick. Jennifer, are you okay? Are you hurt?”
    She smiled, then sighed. “Thank you, General. I’m fine.”
    Then she heard Marcellus, who had another concern. “Jennifer, you were very close to that blast of WARP fire. You may have taken a little too much radiation. I want you to get back here as soon as possible.” He paused, then sighed, smiling proudly. “I wish we could’ve tested the weapon under more safer conditions, but--very good job.”
    ******
    Back at the General’s HQ, Jennifer Dakota tested positive for WARP radiation. She smiled, suggesting, “next time, maybe I should wear my battle suit, or, at least, Scout armor.”
    “Well, yeah.” The General agreed one hundred and fifty percent. “I’m going to requisition an Iron Halo force shield for you. You can have mine until a new one arrives.”
    Before Jennifer could thank the General, one of his HQ staff medics mentioned she should be taken up to the ship for radiation detox ASAP. He agreed, and with a gesture, they boarded a shuttle, Marcellus joining them.
    ******
    The hill overlooking the town turned out to be a very strategic position indeed. Shaw’s Mercenaries had a perfect view right into the town. It was no wonder Chaos had set an ambush there.
    A little later that day, Yarrick sent 2nd Armored Fist squad to the hill as well, locating the squad’s Chimera on the far right side of the hill, while moving 1st Armored Fist Platoon HQ, along with its Demolisher tank, on the left side of the hill.
    The General had loaded his Marines aboard their shuttle, and they had just taken off so they could come in from behind, try to capture the WARP gate, when Shaw informed him that the five Chaos Marines being led by the Sorcerer had left the town and were starting to move into the woods, toward the WARP gate.
    “Yarrick, can you drop a mortar barrage on those Chaos Marines?” His voice was urgent. “You have my authorization...as well as the rest of your troops, to fire.”
    “Will do.” Yarrick was happy to reply.
    Shaw’s snipers began firing on the Chaos Marines with the tall, dark-blue and yellow helmet designs. He expected them to take off running into the woods, but they continued to move slowly. He watched through his sniper scope as bullets seemed to pass right threw the Chaos Marines with little or no effect. Eventually, one of them crumpled over and stopped moving.
    The strange-looking Chaos Marines, now using the woods as cover, began returning fire. Yarrick’s troops also began taking fire from the town as well. Shaw’s Mercenaries had to take cover. He was going to order a couple of his men to fire on the Sorcerer, but it was too late. Once Yarrick’s mortar barrage landed, visibility to the Chaos Marines ended, which also stopped them firing.
    Yarrick’s mortar tried to prorate where the Chaos Marines were going, firing blindly, but then stopped after a short while. The firefight between the hill and the town continued until he brought his Demolisher tank forward, leveling part of the town with its cannon. At the same time, the infantry of the Armored Fist squad, plus Shaw’s Mercenaries advanced, receiving additional cover fire from the Demolisher’s side-mounted heavy bolters and the Chimera’s multi-laser.
    By the time the smoke cleared, the eight Cultists were dead, and the one Chaos Marine was badly wounded. The Armored Fist squad had taken only one wounded, along with one of Shaw’s Mercenaries, who had actually only sprained an ankle. They found out a little later, the Chaos Marine wearing the Alpharius battle suit, was not Alpharius.
    In the woods, the Federal Marines caught up with the Chaos Sorcerer and the four remaining Chaos Marines. They were in a good position and thought they might defeat the Chaos Marines quickly and capture a working WARP gate. But, they watched as the Sorcerer escaped, leaving behind the four Chaos Marines, and a ruined gate.
    The Chaos Marines with the strange, dark-blue and yellow helmet designs just stood in place, two on each side of the gate, firing, with no attempt to take cover or surrender.
    A firefight ensued between the two groups for almost five minutes. Between their battle suit protection and some kind of protective warp energy, the strange Chaos Marines seemed harder to kill than demons. However, one at a time, they fell, until they all lay silent. The Federal Marines had unfortunately taken one wounded and two killed.
    It was now time to pick up the pieces of this battle and try to make some sense of it.
    ******
    Yarrick decided to join the General on his command cruiser. It was obvious he was not happy about the loss of two of his Federal Marines.
    A small staff of researchers tried deriving a preliminary conclusion about the Chaos Marines with the strange, dark-blue and yellow helmet designs, and the weapons they had:
    The first conclusion was that they gave off no normal life sign, the reason why Yarrick’s scans reported less life signs than there were troops spotted. When they recovered the bodies, the armor was in an advanced state of decay. Inside the battle suits were the decaying remains of some kind of artificial life forms, for lack of a better word, biological automatons, but not of this Universe. Each of the battle suits, at least while the automatons were still alive, seemed to be surrounded by a WARP shield, which was what apparently made them so hard to kill.
    The right shoulder-pad armor of each battle suit, had the same marking the Sorcerer had: Thousand Sons. They still had no idea what that meant, but were going to use it to identify this type of Chaos Marine for later encounters. Of course, this bit of information was not all. There was more.
    Next, they analyzed the weapons these Thousand Sons Chaos Marines were using. On the outside, they all looked like normal bolters, each one a little rusted. But, it obviously wasn’t the weapon itself that was special, it was the ammunition.
    The bullets had to have had some kind of WARP enhancement. However, unfortunately, they had to analyze the effects the ammunition had on the objects they hit, such as armor and terrain, since any recovered ammunition no longer had the WARP enhancement. The best identification for the ammunition the researchers could come up with was Inferno Bolts. Upon striking something like armor, a blast of superheated WARP radiation instantly compromised the integrity of the armor, sending any remaining bullet fragments through even the toughest infantry armor.
    The squad leaders of the General’s Marines had specialized armor plates covering vital areas of their bodies; so did most of Yarrick’s Mercenaries. The squad leader of the second Federal Marines was hit in that armor, armor equal to a Space Marine battle suit, yet it penetrated anyway, killing the man.
    The other Chaos troops, even though using bolters, didn’t appear to have the Inferno Bolt ammunition.
    ******
    The badly wounded Chaos Marine in the Alpharius battle suit was taken to medical where he was treated for his wounds and stabilized; however, he never regained consciousness, and began to slip into a coma. They eventually identified him as a former Omicron Ranger.
    Sergeant Dakota didn’t know the Marine personally, but she wasn’t going to allow him to stay the way he was. Along with Librarian Marcellus, she went to the medical bay and examined the man. It was just like they both figured. She was able to quickly identify the Chaos Worms in the man’s head; then, with careful determination, she removed them with a small burst from her Staff. In short time, he was waking up...
    However, it was not a pleasant awakening. He was terrified. The things he had encountered in the WARP were beyond imagination, a nightmare world of pain and suffering. Eventually, he died; his current level of injuries, coupled with his terrifying awakening was just too much.
    Jennifer almost broken down and cried. She wanted to help the man, thinking she killed him instead. But, Marcellus comforted her, explaining, had they waited, he would’ve slipped deeper into a coma and died anyway. In this case, they had gained valuable information:
    Jennifer could, in fact, detect and remove Chaos Worms from a person’s brain. And, later, with a little technology, a small device could be built so that medical personnel could do it themselves, even though it would take them quite a bit longer. They now had a cure!
    Also, it became more apparent to Marcellus, that the Worms could not grow or multiply while in our Universe, a theory he had, which now had more evidence to prove it. The creatures were from a WARP environment, a place they had to be in order to grow and multiply, which also meant, the longer an infected person was in the WARP, the worse they got, something that became more evident with the next group.
    The deceased Chaos Cultists turned out to be Terrans, or, at least that’s what they were genetically. The texture of their skin and facial features appeared to be twisted and stretched, like it had been that way for some time, possibly months, maybe even as long as a year. When they tried to personally identify them by their DNA, they couldn’t, which had been apparently altered. They had to be turned over to a team of medical examiners for any real possible identification.
    ******
    Yarrick’s captured command cruiser remained next to the gas giant until the General’s destroyers arrived; it then left.
    Even though the Terrans had won this battle, it seemed they were no closer to solving the problem with Chaos than they were before.
 

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