Elysium and Purgatory​

Elysium and Purgatory
by Eric J. Sexton

Covin’s eyes moved across the crowd. The flashing lights, pounding music, the writhing throng of dancers and drugged party goers made it impossible to find who he was looking for. The top floors were still dark. No activity. Its still to early. He would have to wait longer. This miasma of the Dark Elysium didn’t bother him. He had been in worse environments. Lived in worse. He spent more than half his life in a radiation hell hole infested with Kelk, slavers, rape gangs, cannibals, and worse. He didn’t mean to start dwelling on that place, but the drug infused smoke that filled the air was starting to get to him. He had some time so turned off his CHEM blocker and allowed himself to relax. Breathing in the fumes made him think of home.

Haderath was once a massive sprawling world, teaming with over 30 billion inhabitants, but that was a long time ago. Now it’s a vast landscape of ruins for as far as the eye can see, decaying monolithic structures stab at the horizon in every direction. Almost 20 cycles back the Kelk invaded. The Hederath forces retaliated. And for 3 long cycles it was chaos, and death, and destruction. In an ever losing battle against such a mindless enemy, the commanders began to panic that word of their failure would get back to the Empire. They became desperate and started using Nukes. Their failure had gone unnoticed, but the use of unsanctioned Nukes on an civilian populated world did not.

Then the Empire Elites landed, their drop pods crashing through 500 year old buildings and killing countless thousands. The Hederath commanders and their advisors were all executed. The Elite forces began a systematic campaign to eradicate the Kelk invasion. After 1 cycle the Kelks were all but destroyed. They would never be gone for good since the ruins made them impossible to find. That and their hyper reproduction cycle would keep them a viable threat for many years to come.

Now, the streets were treacherous mine fields. Weapons of the most destructive power lay cast aside or buried in the rubble of a million destroyed buildings. The dead were in the tens of billions, bodies were piled taller than some buildings. In total, more than two thirds of the Haderath population were killed. Vast swaths of the continents were irradiated or poisoned by toxins. The oceans turned a sickly brown color, completely poisoned. Rains brought deadly radiation. And the civilians that survived fought each other for the little that remained. This was the world that Corvin grew up in.

With the sense of falling that could only come from dreaming Corvin lurched awake. Stupid. Letting his guard down is a good way to get ended. He quickly scanned the scene of which not much had changed save the faces of the people on the dancefloor. His eyes drifted up the old cracked columns that made up the building. The Dark Elysium was a pleasure den built in what was once the Empire’s main palace on this world. Corvin smirked. Stokely's dirty finger in the eye of the dead Empire. On the upper floors he could see activity that wasn't there earlier. Corvin blinked to bring up his HUD. The digital display in his retina told him that enough time had passed. He should head up to see the her.

He slid out of the dark booth he had been lurking in and made his way through the wall of flesh. Forcing his way through the undulating mass a Vorian girl wrapped one of her tentacles around his neck and in one quick motion pulled him close and kissed him, the suckers of her tongue gripping and pulling on his, then releasing in a sequence of disturbing little pops. He instinctively went for the pistol under his long coat. Before he even got his fingers around the grip the girl slipped back, a smile of bliss on her face, her distant eyes and already looking to another to accost. Wiping the ickor from his face Corvin forced his way through the crowd to the base of the stairs.

He made his way to the upper level where Stoakley, queen of Dark Elysium, would be entertaining her guests. Reaching the top of the landing the harsh lights and din below was already fading to more reasonable levels. Corvin took a moment to look around. The floor was covered in layers upon layers of plush cloth that ran in random haphazard strips. The bolts of cloth were hung from the walls and allowed to drop and roll randomly until they stopped against the far walls. No effort was made to smooth folds and wrinkles. The corners of the open space were near pitch black. He could just make out shapes moving rhythmically and did not need to switch his enhanced vision to know what they were doing. Two men stepped from behind the ornate columns of the landing. They were both big and looked like ex-military. They wore tailored suits with angles that suggested combat weave armor and concealed weapons. The one on the left had obvious military grade cybernetic eyes. Corvin started formulating a combat plan to deal with these two when a voice stopped him.

“Corvin Grim. Its been too long.” A watery female voice drifted from the back of the room. “Let him enter so he doesn’t have to kill the two of you.”  The men hesitated obviously insulted that she didn't think they could take him. But they stepped back. Jaws clenched.

“Stoakley” Corvin rasped. His voice dry and harsh. The drugs and smoke of the Dark Elysium bar had left him dehydrated. Almost as if on cue, lights at the back of the room lit up to reveal a raised black circular dias. And there she sat like the aristocracy of old. Stoakley is a stunning woman. Pale skin against the black cloth throne she lounged on. Her red dress spilling out in front of her like a river of blood pouring down the abyssal black dias. On both sides of her are people engaging each other. Another woman on Stoakley’s right is covered in tattoos and watching Corvin with smoldering dark eyes. Corvin could tell the tattooed woman would would be serious trouble if a fight broke out. Something about her screamed GeN Mods and cybernetics. It might have been the infinitely black eyes that seemed to suck the color out of the room.

“Why are you hear my old friend?”  Stoakley asked while distractedly popping a large blue pill into her mouth and smiling to the dangerous girl. As Corvin moved forward the tattooed girl started kissing Stoakley and came back with the pill between her teeth.

“Are you here to have a good time with me like we use to? Or are you looking for something...” She paused looking at him. "..more interesting"? Corvin was reminded of better days when they ran drugs and other contraband after the collapse. The fall of the Empire allowed for a lot of profitable times as long as you didn’t get killed. No rules means lots of danger. And they kept each other safe in very dangerous times.

“Where is Hob? I want that traitorous feck on a spike Stoakley. You know I will do a lot of damage to get to him. I would rather not burn your house to the ground, but I will if I have to.”  Corvin saw the tattooed woman’s muscles convulse involuntarily. Yeah. She is going to be a handful. Combat drugs were feeding in to her system as he watched. Her body involuntarily shivered when her enhanced reflex skeleton got a shock as the drugs kicked in. Corvin was starting to think he might have walked into the wrong den to make these kinds of threats.

“Corvin my love. No need for threats”  She suddenly looked very attentive and alert. “You know I won’t deny you anything. But before I tell you where you can find him I want your word on something.”  Her distracted smile slowly returning, her eyes roll into her head as she finished her sentence. “When you kill Hob and take your ship back I want exclusive rights to his drug trade business. To ensure our deal is a success I will be sending Val with you.” Stoakley leaned in to the tattooed woman and kissed her on the cheek. Val never took her burning eyes off of him.

“Agreed. But if I am going to be running the risks I need a cut. Repair and operating costs.” Corvin was watching her closely for any sign of a plan to double cross him. But she was just a liquid and distant as when he first stepped off the stairs, sliced up on her own product. It must be good stuff for her to be in such a state of bliss and still be able to retain so sharp a sense of reality.

“I’m not unreasonable. You run the routes and the risks. Of course you will need to cover your overhead. I am going to offer you 100% on the first run. That should help you to replace lost crew and make repairs when you take down Hob.” Then she turned her gaze from the deadly girl next to her and got very serious. Her eyes became instantly clear and the old fire he knew so well was there. “After that Corvin. You will get a non-negotiable 25%.” She was staring at him. Corvin sensed a trap in there somewhere.

“That sounds fine. But if I run other cargo on the same run I am not splitting that with you. You only get Hob’s drug trade route. Not 75% of all of my business.

“Agreed.” She smiled in a way that made Corvin uncomfortable. He obviously missed something but what could it be? Stoakley made a motion with her left hand and another bodyguard in a well tailored suit stepped from the darkness. He handed her a DAT Pad on which she quickened started working.

“Here you are my love.” She was handing the DAT to Corvin. “This is our agreement. With this signed I tell you where you can find Hob and where you can recover your ship The Throne of Purgatory.”  Corvin scaned the DAT, signed it and handed it back. She smiled the silky smile that told him her drugs were being allowed to work agian. “Betrayal will be very bad Corvin so play nice.”  Corvin caught the eyes of Val, still staring at him. The blue screen glow of the DAT gave her a psychotic look. Pinpoints of blue impossibly far away in those beetle-black eyes. Yeah. He missed something. Damn.