Rise of the Legion

by David Craddock and Eric J. Sexton

(Data Spike: vr4/ng7/k6/ov13) Recorded by Vestari, 35th Chronicler of the Spire of Heaven

William Kade, High Lord of the Paxia Empire and the most decorated general in the empire's vast army, led to Planet ZR-322 in preparation for terraforming. Anomalies in the science reports were delaying the terraforming efforts and required inspection. Half of his forces accompanied him to the planet's surface while the rest remained on board the High Lord’s ship, the Spire of Heaven. William Kade ordered his ship to low orbit to continue to scan the anomalies while he led an expedition to the surface.

A visiting noble dignitary, Luthran of the House Donovin, had paid handsomely to accompany the renowned general on his expedition to claim uncharted territory. Kade was not happy to leave his ship under the control of this Blue Blood, but Donovin’s Nobility outranked his command. Donovin, sour over being left behind to watch from the above, was told in no uncertain terms to stay out of the crew's way. Three earth days William and his men investigated the point of the strange readings they detected, and then the sky tore open. With a flash of black inky smoke and a deafening shockwave, horrors not of this universe crashed over the Arm in a wave of chaos and fire and madness.

William Kade didn't even blink. His shouts of command rose above the screams of the dying. Kade sent a distress transmission to Luthran. Static answered his call to arms. Resolved, he waded into the thick of the invaders. The horrors fell before him, shrieking and dying. The sight of their general pushing forward bolstered his men's courage and rallied them to his side. More of the unnamable fiends spewed forth from the void. Not a single man in the Kade's Arm broke rank. If they were to die, they would die standing tall and firm.

Just then the the Spire of Heaven barreled through the roiling clouds and General Kade's communicator crackled back to life. Ship scans had discovered a pyramidal structure beyond the blackened hills where Kade's men fought and died. If he could reach the structure, the starship's weapons could breach it, giving the general a place to regroup.

For the first time, William Kade gave the order to fall back. The the Spire of Heaven trailed behind them, firing cannons that scattered the pursuing horrors like smoke before a breeze. Yet still more appeared, rushing in like a tidal wave. At last the Kade crested the hill and saw it: a gleaming pyramid, miles wide and rising to a fine point lost in roiling clouds. Bloody and broken, the soldiers made one last desperate push toward the structure, waiting for the barrage of fire from the Spire of Heaven that would create a point of entry and give them a chokepoint to hold.

The barrage never came. Kade looked up to see the the Spire of Heaven lifting off into the clouds. The voice of Luthran Donovin, trembling with fear, crawled from his communicator.

20:14 TRANSMISSION #7642 BEGINS

---and I am assuming comm --will do as I say! Evacuate immediately. Return to--

20:14 END TRANSMISSION #7642

Hatred as hot as the fire that the enemy had rained down over his men consumed William Kade. That hatred burned away rational thought, such as concern for what unknown dangers might lurk within the pyramid. He ordered his surviving men to concentrate their firepower on the wall of the structure, and a large section of wall crumbled, revealing only shadows. Kade turned to regard the horrors boiling over the far hill. His choice seemed obvious. As his final order, he led his fractured army into the cool darkness of the pyramid.

Moments after William Kade set foot in the tomb, startled cries followed by shrieks and death rattles broke out around him. Kade had no sooner turned to answer the closest plea than a torrent of cold, sticky sludge enveloped him. He tried to move. To breathe. To think. He could not. The viscous substance rushed over him, stole his breath, his body, and his mind. Hunger. All he knew was hunger.

Memories of a race long dead assaulted him. He was one with the Nanophage, a bio-organic weapon created by the Progenitors. Weapons designed to devour the shadows beyond the veil, invaders from another universe, another dimension. Countless eons ago, the Nanophage had razed this universe, feasting on their enemy until no trace of the void's existence remained. But their hunger had not been sated. They had turned on their makers, ravaging them, until the Progenitors had erected the pyramid, a trap the Nanophage would be drawn to, and locked them in darkness. Their makers had thought to starve them, but the Nanophage survived, waiting to feed again. Knowledge spilled through his skin and mind like water through a cloth. Almost too much for him to understand. He felt his mind close to snapping. “No” he thought. “I will not succum to this madness”.

With a start, William Kade awoke, he drove his mind to the front of the alien mind that had taken him. He could sense others around him. They had been human once, but no more. Then the alien mind inside him caught a familiar scent. Entropy and decay. Then a ravenous hunger swept through him. The biomass, the sludge that had transformed him into his new form and now covered his body like a second skin, demanded sustenance. He would feed it, or it would feed on him. He knew he would become mindless like this men. William emerged from the chamber and devoured the dimensional fiends, as the Nanophage had before their Long Sleep. His fallen soldiers joined him, and they fed and fed, but the biomass still hungered.

Despite the savage battle that was happening before his eyes, William Kade's mind turned to the events that had stolen his humanity, and hatred bubbled up. Hatred for the ones who had betrayed him. Hatred for the ones who had left him to die. His hunger rose up to meet his hatred and they fed on one another, his hunger like kindling to the flames of hate.

Gathering his swarm, William Kade followed the tear in reality to the madness of the void, the pit where the agents of Entropy had spawned. For what felt like an eternity, he fed on the Voidborn, devastating their worlds and devouring billions. Then, Kade shifted his focus. He had allowed the hunger to control him, reveled in its carnage. But it could not bury the hate he felt. Now he would take this thing that took him and control it and return to his Universe.

Pushing back the the urge to feed on the creatures of the Void, he spent a hundreds of years searching for a way back to his Universe. Eventually, he found a wormhole that led back to the Universe of man, back to his home. Kade led his unholy army back to ZR-322, the planet that had almost become his grave. Now it would serve a new purpose: he named it Izvorul, this world of death would be the throne from which he would wage war on the stars of Man.

Firmly in control of his new abilities, William Kade took his place at the ruler of the Phage. No longer was the biomass his master. It was a weapon. He was a weapon. He was their Lord and he bent the Nanophage to his will. They were his. They were his Legion.

And they were hungry.