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Divine: Chapter 7

"I need to get back to my ship." Marty told Vargus and slipped his suit back on. It smelled of stale sweat, sweet, but sickly. Normally he would sterilize it before donning it again, but he felt a sense of urgency to get to his ship and get his supplies. The people of this planet, who Vargus had described as being not only bipedal dogs but a vast array of different species, were primitive, it would be a disaster if they got a hold of something they didn't understand. God forbid if they got their hands on the Cossus Engine.

"You are still hurt." Vargus protested. He was actually being selfish. A part of him knew that once he left, the rest of the world, the church would have him. The church wouldn't let go easily and then he wouldn't have any time to understand, to talk with this god who wasn't at all like the scriptures. He didn't exude power beyond belief or demand reverence. He appeared normal in every way other than appearance. Vargus felt surprisingly at ease around him, and even Petrus was starting to take a liking to him.

"It's not so bad," Marty insisted and did his best not to wince when he pulled the suit's tight fitting shoulders over his own shoulders. The fracture wasn't bad, but it still hurt like a bitch whenever he shifted his upper body too much. The suit only had so many painkillers. It was only supposed to keep the pain down until rescue came which was ironic since out in empty space, a rescue was only a fleeting thought. It was more for peace of mind.

"Then let me come with you." Vargus already had his coat in his hand. He was ready to grab his sword and hunting bow as well. "I know the way back. I've lived in these woods for years. I can get us both to your, uhm, ship faster than if I just gave you directions." There were also those bandits out there. Normally thieves and crooks weren't an issue. The Church wasn't tolerant of law breakers and had steady patrols along all of the highways.

Marty considered it for a moment before nodding his head. He also thought of the bandits. He was in no condition to fight, and his weapons were back at the ship, right there in the mud where he fell, if someone hadn't come and picked it up and burnt their faces off already. How much damage could one laser rifle and one laser pistol do if introduced into a medieval environment? Until the charge went out, a lot. The invention of guns on Earth changed warfare forever. Laser weaponry in the hands of someone who was just using a sharpened piece of metal to hack others to death would shift everything in the favor of whoever got a hold of it.

"Petrus." Vargus called over to his son who was watching from the table. He slid off the chair and ran over to his father who kneeled down and patted him on the side of his face. "Remember, only open the door for me. We'll be back soon." He licked him on the nose.

"Okay." He looked up at Marty and blushed, wiping the kiss from his nose. "No one but you," He repeated back.

"Good." Vargus stood up and opened the door. "Let's go."

The rain had stopped as fast as it had started. The clouds were already clearing out and there was a pleasant breeze blowing through and between the trees. For a moment, Marty forgot about his pain. It had been some time since he had felt real wind. He had been on planets before to meet Rem, but planets controlled by him were barely habitable. Strip mining fouled the air as machines belched innumerable amounts of toxins directly into the atmosphere. Marty stayed inside.

The last time he had felt a breeze was back when he discovered Aegis. His scanners showed that it had a breathable atmosphere. No terraforming required. Marty couldn't pass up the opportunity to be the first person to step on a planet. He went down, slowly to take in all of the sights. Aegis was a very active planet. Most of it was covered in vast mountain ranges that went as far as the eye could see with peaks that went miles, upon miles into the sky. He had set down in a small valley that was shaded from the sun, sitting between two smaller peaks. That was where he discovered a small stream that ran down further into the valley. He took samples and discovered simple microbial life. He reported his discoveries as fast as he could.

Last time he checked. Aegis was in the process of being pummeled. Pummeling was a technique used for mountainous worlds where it was hard to use heavy machinery. Bit by bit, the surface is flattened by sonic blasters that shake mountains apart. After that, the mining would begin. Any life that survived the pummeling process would be poisoned and extinct within a decade.

"You with me?" Vargus snapped his fingers in front of Marty's face. He had gone glass eyed.

Marty blinked back into reality, unclenching the fist he had made. "Yeah." He wiped some sweat off of his forehead. "I'm with you."

"The crash site is this way." He led them on. Even though it was raining and dark at the time, Vargus wasn't lying when he said that he knew the woods around his home well. He had no doubt about where he was going. He had been raised here. He hunted since he was a small pup, under his father's watchful eye. When he wasn't hunting, he was playing, running and hiding with friends from the city. He knew every tree, every hill and stream. It was all burned into his head from a lifetime of experience.

They passed an old rooted truck that belonged to a tree that had been struck by lightning and killed. Vargus had cut it down the previous season for firewood. The crash was still a ways away.

"Are you the only one?" Vargus asked to pass the time. Scriptures talked about numerous gods. Each god had a specialty or was known for a certain trait. "Can I expect more of your kind to appear. Come crashing into the ground in fiery balls?"

Rescue was not going to happen, not with a busted up ship, but if he could fix his ship somehow, then it would be. "I don't think so," Marty answered. "I was sent here to scout."

"But when you don't return to the other gods?"

"Gods?" Somehow the whole subject had never come up.

"Yes. Itia. Uhm. Lukiel. Kasses."

"Cossus?"

"Kasses," Vargus corrected. "The god of creation. Do you not know of him?" They stopped mid-walk.

"No," Marty replied. "I mean. I know of someone named Cossus, but he died a long time ago. No one named Kasses. Definitely don't know of any gods. What's this about?"

"The Church. The Prophecy." Vargus explained the tale that all believers knew. It was taught at a very early age and then on it was repeated time and time again so that it wouldn't be forgotten. "The gods came to this world, led by Kasses. He created everything around us along with the other gods. They nurtured us and helped. The great city of Melur was built by the gods. Then we went to war, bickering and arguing led to killing. The gods were so disgusted with us that they left, taking all of their knowledge with them. It's prophesized that they will return one day and judge whether we are worthy of them. Are you not here to announce their return?"

"I'm afraid not. At least I don't think so?" Marty felt like he was breaking some 'yet-to-be-invented' law about influencing alien cultures by telling Vargus that he wasn't a god and yet if he were to say yes, he was a god... Playing god wasn't exactly good either. A middle ground perhaps. "Perhaps I am a sign, though. Who can truly understand the will of the gods." He felt silly, entirely unconvincing, but it seemed to convince Vargus enough.

Vargus grinned. "That is most true." He turned and kept leading on. "Who can know their will without asking them in person?" He sighed, not in relief, but more in disappointment. He thought that he was int he presence of a god, but only just another person caught in whatever scheme they had. It was still important to note that Marty was the spitting image of the gods. All images of the gods were hairless beings that rode on sky ships. Not a god, but related in some way. Vargus did not believe in that kind of coincidence.

It took about an hour more of walking before the two got to the crater. Marty was relieved to see that everything was where it was, or how he remembered where it was. He slid down the side of the crater with Vargus right behind him. The mud was a thick slurry that sucked at their feet. The bodies were still there with no sign of carrion and at the base of the ship were the weapons.

Marty picked up the weapons and wiped the mud off of the sensors and displays. They were still working and had a significant charge left on them. Enough to last quite some time, especially if the solar chargers in the ship were still intact.

"Can you give me a hand?" Marty asked and stood at the base of the ship. The exterior looked good. The hull held up well through the atmosphere and even the impact, which was the worst he had ever had. He wanted to check the inside of the ship. Each ship had repair tools and some spares. Nothing like an extra Cossus Engine, but enough to fix electrical issues and some mechanical issues.

"Yeah." Vargus went over and boosted Marty up high enough for him to climb onto a wing. "You need me to do anything down here?"

"Uhh," Marty thought for a moment. "See if anything else can be found. Something could have come loose and fallen off. Anything, no matter how small, could be important, so don't look over anything," He shouted from the top of the ship, heading towards the open cockpit. There was going to be so much water pooled inside. Marty groaned internally at the sight of the ruined leather seat. He had begged Teth for months to let him use his own pay to get the custom leather seat. The original had the bad tendency of holding onto smell easily and when it was possible to spend days sitting on the seat, smell quickly became important among other things.

Marty began sifting through the inside of the ship. He opened all the panels and took out the emergency diagnostics tool, but quickly found that all of its internal circuitry was fried. He then checked the ship's wiring, which was shielded against EMP and radiation. There was damage, some melted wires, but it looked fixable. The ship had stores of spare wires and by the look of it, the wiring was the only issue. Any other damage was just superficial as of the moment.

Marty got right to work. Melted wires were removed. There was no chance of being shocked. The ship had mechanical safety features to isolate the electrical systems in case of failures. The ship's power sources were isolated.

There were a lot of wires and while it was necessary to keep his electrician skills up to par to stay qualified, the real thing was harder than messing around with practice boards. Wires weren't as neat and organized and the practice boards were from a different model of ship, so they didn't always go to where Marty expected them to. Also, there was the fact that his diagnostic tool was nothing but a plastic shell with melted wires on the inside, so he couldn't check if his work was entirely correct. It was hit and miss at the moment as he used his own suit's limited diagnostics to test for grounds. It was all he could do at the moment. He was looking at a month of slow and meticulous work before he would even think about trying to turn the ship back on.

On the outside, Vargus was making rounds. He started looking for anything of interest, but quickly found himself studying the ship. It was made of something that looked like steel, but it most definitely was not. It felt lighter and more refined to the touch. It was a marvel. The ship had the same basic shape of a bird. There were wings, but no joints to let it flap. Instead, there was a massive cylindrical tube near the back of the body.

He couldn't figure out how it could fly. He wanted to ask Marty about it, but from the amount of noise coming from up top, he was too busy to answer any questions. Another time.

Vargus kept a wide berth from the bodies. Something about how there was a clean hole, the same diameter as one of his fingers, burnt through them. Their leather armor did nothing. Even if Marty denied being a god, his people were most definitely blessed with such weapons and tools. They would be extremely helpful in the war. Not even the Pillars of Kelm, the two most powerful wizards the heretics had would be able to stop them and they were known for winning entire battles by themselves. Only a heavy paladin presence on the border stopped further incursions by the two and at a heavy cost. There weren't many Paladins to begin with. Thier training took up to a decade and many had to defend holy sites. There weren't enough to spare for the war and that number dropped each time the Pillars attacked.

People near the capital were far from the war and often acted as if the war wasn't happening. Most soldiers were recruited from the regions near the war since it took too long to move soldiers from the central regions of the Church lands. Due to this, the only thing from the war that the citizens of Melur felt was the decrease in Paladins. Vargus only knew about this from conversations he overheard while on patrols. While the Church had larger armies, the heretics use of wizards on a large scale countered that. The war was a stalemate with neither side making any sizable gains. That is until the Legion of Itia could no longer spare anymore.

After some time, Vargus invited himself up onto the ship. Marty didn't mind. He was too enamored by his work to pay any attention to anything else. Vargus sat on top of the ship, just waiting. He began to think that it would be a good time to start heading back.

"Yeah. Go ahead." Marty said when Vargus asked. He was in the process of rewiring the navigation panel which had the least amount of shielding. It was a mess. He had to scrape away the melted bundle of wires while making sure he kept track of where the wires went by using his suit's wrist pad's not function to keep track of it all. "I'll stay here for now. I think I'm almost done with this panel."

"I think you should come with me." Marty said. "You never know who may stumble upon you."

"I guess I can lock up the ship. I don't think anyone is going to be able to move this thing over one night." Marty got up and groaned when he felt a shift in his chest. He did need to go back and rest... for a while. He didn't even know why he was in a rush. Sure, his disappearance would cause an initial panic, but a rescue mission would never be mounted. It was too dangerous to risk more lives when a disappearance could have been caused by anything. He could take a year to fix the ship if he wanted to and the rest of the world would think he was dead. It was only emotions that were rushing him.

"You alright?" Vargus asked and helped Marty back up.

"Yeah." He nodded. "I just need a bit of time to recuperate and then I'll be able to make some better progress. But for now, let's head back. I'm sure that Petrus is getting tired of being left behind."

Vargus was about to respond when he saw a figure running in the woods.

"Help!" The figure screamed. "Help me." He was clothed in Heretic's leather armor, but was unarmed and apparently scared for his life. "You must help me." He ran right towards them. "Please!"

"Who's that?" Marty asked and drew his rifle. Vargus had his sword drawn.

"A heretic." Vargus' fur was on end. "Be ready."

The heretic stopped at the edge of the crater and turned around, yelling over his shoulder at Marty and Vargus, ignoring the ship they were standing on. He had bigger issues. "They come, prepare yourself." He raised up his hands, which lit up. He was a wizard.

The air around him crackled, sparks coming off of the jaguar's fur.

"There!" He pointed as another figure came out of the trees, this one was running on all fours and it's body shape seemed off to Marty. It was twisted at the midriff with growths coming out of it at random points. "It is consumed by Fel!" A blast came from his hand and hit the creature which collapsed with a chunk blown from its shoulder. It snarled and immediately got back up and started running again.

"Holy shit!" Marty cursed. "What's that thing?"

"I'll explain later," Vargus said. "We need to kill it."

"Alright." Marty raised up his weapon and fired once. The laser struck the Fel creature in the other shoulder and cutting through the flesh cleanly.

The beast roared in pain, faltering some more. A second blast from the wizard, this time in the face, brought it down for good.

"Do not rest yet," said the wizard. "There are many more out there. I am sure that more than one followed me."

"We'll kill them and then you will explain why you are here, so close to Melur, Heretic." Vargus snarled, visibly angered at the heretic's presence.

Marty held his gun to his shoulder and looked down the sights, looking for more of the creatures. Under the fear he was feeling from seeing the creatures he could only describe as being demonic, he was filled with a curiosity to record the body. This planet was already showing a diversity beyond anything that any scientist would expect. They talked about the Fel like a virus. Rabies caused an insanity like state of being in mammals from earth, this was that and beyond, way beyond.

"I will explain everything, but only after the Fel has been purged." He scanned the surroundings and then pointed again. "There. I see more movement."

It wasn't just Fel this time. It was a paladin and several soldiers being chased by more Fel corrupted beings.

A soldier that was lagging behind got jumped. He screamed as claws dug past his iron armor. The paladin, who stuck out due to his larger size and his warhammer, stopped and in an impressive feat of strength, he threw the hammer in a perfectly straight line. It went right through the Fel creature, nearly bisecting it straight down the middle. The paladin helped the soldier up, but his action used up too much time, the rest of the creatures were too close.

"We must help them." Vargus said. The wizard was hesitant, but he agreed as well. Both the Heretics and the Church were sworn enemies of Fel since the Fel was the enemy of everything else.

Marty didn't know what was going on, but he understood that they would need his help to stop the Fel. Whether he wanted to or not, he was going to become a major part in this world's history.