The Withered Land, THE EMPIRE FALLS: HELL'S AVATAR

HELL'S AVATAR -- PART SIX

3. MUNE'STAHR & PYLOTT

The dark deepness of the infinite ocean of space enwrapped him as he viewed through the panoramic expanse of the spaceport's Observation Deck. The curvature of the massive concave viewing window revealed the cosmic sky some seven hundred and twenty-five kilometers above the planet's slowly rotating surface. He had been peering into the depths of the inky heavens for almost six solar rotations and he'd yet to become bored with examining the endless vista.

Beyond the prismatic glare from the twins suns about which the planet traveled, the Nebula of the Spinning Spear sat, on his left, some fifty degrees above the planet surface's horizon while, on his right, the multiple pinprick streaks of the Gammeghul Meteor Swarm ripped across a band of purplish-blue that encompassed the orbits of the distant mega-asteroids Kulpetann and Qelshaffex. Beyond that he could see the faint green glow of ion-trails from the expulsion drives on a quintet of starships flying in formation past the lagging remnants of a three day-old solar eruption.

The cosmic overview was breathtaking.

He was aboard the Emperial Spatial Network Fleet Watchship 13511, also known more commonly among military star-rovers as "Ravenstear". The Ravenstear was the third of seven such Watchships in geosynchronous orbit around Teshiwahur, beyond the orbit of the craggy disc-shaped moon called "Pex'Insava". It was a Diligence-Class non-expeditionary, innersystem cruiser, meaning a ship not certified for deep space duty, and it carried a complement of one hundred twenty-seven crew members, seventy of those being scientists or scientific technicians. The Ravenstear was one of the last of the Emperium's Extraplanetary High Frontier program's remaining ships. Where once there had been a thousand such vessels, there now, after the emergence of The Wound in their quadrant of space, only a few dozen and they were all eighteen rotational solar cycles beyond their operational End-of-Life.

The Emperium had once owned the sky and all the darkness beyond their planet's atmosphere, but that time had long since passed. The beginning of the Long Death had sparked the great recall referred to as "the Cosmic Revocation", where the Emperium had commanded all its far-flung stellar fleet to return to Homeworld.

"Ah, there you are, Mune'stahr. I suspected I would find you here," a voice said from a distance behind him. He turned around to see his Sentry-kin and friend, a fellow Territorial Expanse SpecOps trooper named "Pylott", standing in the doorway to the command-level Observation Deck.

Pylott, a Master Gunner who held the rank of Crusader-Sergeant, was one of the Rann'Jaddath, one of the oldest, and least cultured, multi-tribal conglomerate populations of the Kingdom of Dust and she hailed originally from Teshiwahur's An-sh'ronn Region on the planet's western hemisphere, on the equatorial continent of Kaetah. Pylott was a muscular woman, moderately tall, with shoulder-length wavy red-hair and almond shaped doe-eyes with startling violet irises. A pale-skinned woman in the later years of her third decade and a graduate of the Emperium's Baronial Extrasolar Naval Battle Academy, she had the posture and demeanor of a professional soldier, yet maintained an almost folksy, friendly general attitude despite the rather imposing suit of bronze and silver body armor she wore. She was skilled as a talented and experienced battle tactician and a highly-competent astronavigator. She was also physically stronger and faster than any three brawny male athletes he, Crusader-Major Mune'stahr, had ever met.

Mune'stahr himself was from the towering bridge city-state of Oshplaktur's Fourth District, called Wrushak, and was a descendent of the tribal conglomerate of the Qa'Sarkoon, who were Teshiwahur's most structured and most militaristic culture. Despite such an advantage in life, he had succumbed to the lure of easy money and had spent a short time in his youth as a criminal and part of a "tregoy" or gangland syndicate. He'd been arrested and spent time in prison, but, on his release, had not strayed back into the lifestyle of the criminal underworld. He had never enrolled in the military academy and had instead come into service within the Emperium's Extraplanetary Expansionist Forces, and the Territorial Expanse SpecOps division in particular, via the Emperium's regional Inter-territorial Battle Lottery. Mune'stahr was a little over average height, standing a few inches taller than most men of his heritage, and his wide shouldered, narrow-hipped frame told of his powerful and robust athleticism. He wore his raven-black hair long, which was completely counter to the style of the day and the style of military men attached to the Extraplanetary Expansionist Forces and he was clean-shaven, choosing not to grow the beard and mustache many others of his command unit wore. He was dressed in form-fitting, segmented, exoskeletal armor that was a pearlescent concord in hue, and the mini-lattice reactor's power panel over the left-pectoral of his torso glowed a dull and fuzzy bluish green.