Raven Tide

“Paya hears my call,” Gar’mol shouted through the corridors. “She promises vengeance for my only pup!”

“Will he shut up?” I clung to Raven Tide’s shoulders.

“I doubt it,” Raven Tide pulled us around a corner into a cooler section of Silosa Outpost. “He’s pissed I killed his son, the green one.”

“Good riddance!” I sneered. “But not great, if that gun of his still has charge.”

SHKREEEEE!!!

The Graven let out a long screech from several turns behind us. It had condensed into a slender bestial form composed of molten lava.

“Don’t you have weapons to kill it?”

“Not a full Graven,” Raven Tide shook his head. “My cannon can be charged to kill a minion but not that thing. It can only be defeated one-on-one.”

“Really?” We were on our way to a second docking port on the opposite side of the station. “Not even with a thousand atomic bombs?”

“Nope,” Raven Tide grunted and pushed off on another sealed doorway. “My people tested something like that. The Graven will be injured but it grows back fast.”

“But not if you do it by hand...?” I twisted my brow. “Odd.”

“The Graven are a peculiar adversary.”

The modular hallway vibrated and once again the Graven was on us, snapping its massive red canine-shaped mouth at our heels.

“Shit!” I hugged Raven Tide tighter. “It’s back!”

We moved through the corridors quickly but something felt off.

“How are we still breathing?” I shouted while glancing back over my stumped shoulder to stare down the maw of that monstrous thing. “If it’s melting the station, wouldn’t it be quicker to destroy the life support?”

“Dunno. The outer shields must be holding,” Raven Tide raced through the junctions. “Maybe it wants to keep Gar’mol alive?”

“Maybe...” I narrowed my eyes. The creature was terrifying but if it was soo damn powerful why not snuff us out now? “Do you know where we’re going?”

“There’s a second dock for auxiliary medical transports, just beyond the dojo,” Raven Tide jutted his chin forward. “The medics mentioned it when they let me spar with them.”

“Couldn’t it stop us from getting there if it wanted to?”

“What?” Raven Tide didn’t slow down, but he shared my concern. “You think we’re getting funneled into a trap?”

“I think this whole place is messed up.”

Raven Tide pushed on and eventually rounded the corner into the dojo. It was a wide spartan arena with a few melee weapons attached to the walls.

“Welcome sinners!” Gar’mol stood waiting for us in the middle of the arena. Then he tapped on his gauntlet to reactivate gravity.

WOMP

We hit the floor hard.

“Chyani calls it again,” Raven Tide grunted as he rolled to his feet.

“Paya guides you from your impure path,” the old yautja flashed his fangs.

“Why does he want papayas?” I straightened up while trying to keep my ass and coochi covered.

“Paya,” Gar’mol bellowed in my language. “Will deliver justice! Kneel and praise her glory!”

The red beastial figure lumbered into the room. It walked on all fours like a gangly werewolf but was three times larger than any of the yautja.

We hurried across the room to keep our distance from both of the fiends only to be encircled by a wall of fire.

“Witness her blessing!” Gar’mol began stripping off his chest armor.

Black veins pulsed across his torso webbing out from a jagged hunk of metal lodged in his pectoral.

“That looks infected,” I scooted closer to Raven Tide.

“Oh, it’s more than that,” He put his arm around me and released his wrist blades on the other.

The magma creature loomed in front of the door, watching in silence then it lifted to his hind legs and spread its arms wide like some magnanimous holy figure.

“Is that Paya?” I stammered.

“No,” Raven Tide moved me behind him. “There’s no such entity. Only stories told by the weak-minded to manifest selfish ambitions.”

“Do not deny the glory that reveals itself before you!” Gar’mol thrummed. The black worming veins thickened and spread up and out across the old yautja’s face and limbs. “It’s not too late, Raven Tide. Even you can achieve atonement.”

“Nah,” Raven Tide cringed. “I’ll take my chances as is.”

“Then be judged,” Gar’mol growled. “And be cleaned in her sacred fire.”

The red false god groaned and opened its long wolfen-mouth. Then a thick black tongue flopped out and slithered toward Gar’mol.

“What’s it doing?” I started to shiver.

The creature made a vile gagging sound and the magma flow currents covering its skin twinged and began swirling in different directions.

“I am chosen!” The old yautja howled then jolted with a moan when the Graven’s tongue latched onto the relic embedded in his chest.

Black bile pulsed into his body, fattening his veins and saturating his skin.

“He looks like he’s going to burst,” I covered my lips and nose in horror.

Why is it doing this? Couldn’t it just eat us or burn us to a crisp anytime it wanted? Why waste time appeasing this lunatic?

The Graven snapped its mouth shut and snipped off its own tongue in the process. Then the wretched slippery leftovers wriggled up into Gar’mol’s body.

“Paya demands your blood,” Gar’mol yowled in a distorted voice that was not his own. He stomped forward with blades out and ready as his fingers grew back in a matter of seconds.

“We have to leave,” I tugged at Raven Tide.

“Show me the way and I’ll take it,” the white yautja tossed me a somber smile.

Shit...The ring of fire had us cornered at every angle.

“Face me!” A monster that looked like Gar’mol roared.

“He’s not going to fight fair,” I bit my lower lip. “And what’s to stop that thing from burning me while you’re fighting?”

“Do not fret,” the yautja formerly known as Gar’mol chittered. “I would gladly feast on your innards but Paya forbids it. She grants my prayer so that I may avenge my son and destroy his killer. But she decrees that you shall be my witness, on the condition that he removes his cannon.”

Raven Tide’s ears dipped and sharpened.

What the hell?

The Graven turned its wicked head at me. It had no eyes but I was certain that it was grinning. Then the glowing magma currents whirling across its body contracted and realigned, narrowing in concurrence with the ring of fire as it expanded to give me space and observe from the sidelines.

“Don’t do it,” I pleaded.

“Show me another option,” Raven Tide clicked his tusks in resentment. Then he unclamped his cannon from his shoulder harness.

“Over there,” Gar’mol pointed and Raven Tide flung the weapon away.

Concessions my ass!

Whatever nonsense the Graven was feeding Gar’mol, that thing had ulterior plans.

Why do you want with me? What’s so important about those grubs? Are they your babies? Is that what a Graven looks like in pupa form? If you’re pissed about what I did by accident then address your grievances directly!

“The time for words has ended,” in a blink, Gar’mol vanished.

Raven Tide’s ears went sharp and then he clashed his blades with Gar’mol’s. The corrupted yautja was still cloaked, only his warbled silhouette was visible.

They collided like bears, roaring and slashing.

Raven Tide once mentioned duels required both participants to be revealed but Gar’mol and his twisted dead troop didn’t give a damn about honor.

Gar’mol weaved in and out around Raven Tide. He was faster than before, stronger, bolder, more savage.

I didn’t want to watch but the Graven left me with no other option. Raven Tide was covered in bruises and still bleeding heavily from the wounds left over after breaking free of his bindings. He may have retained his power and stamina but Gar’mol’s strikes were unnatural.

He swiped at Raven Tide’s head, hopped backward, and dissolved into the background, then in an instant, he leapt down from the ceiling.

“Watch out!” I screamed.

Raven Tide sidestepped the incoming blades pointing at his head and narrowly dodged Gar’mol’s fangs chomping at his back.

The Graven flexed its hot wiry clawed hands and curled the sides of its mouth upward.

That thing’s enjoying this!

It trapped us in a barrel and now it’s savoring the sight of watching us squirm.

Gar’mol slipped away again then snuck in from behind, wrenching Raven Tide’s arm up and bending him face down over the ring of fire.

“Stop it!” I clenched my fist.

The room filled with the stench of tips or Raven Tide’s long quills burning.

Breaking loose and then fighting and killing five yautja all his own had taken a physical toll, but Raven Tide didn’t yield. He kicked the old yautja and broke free only to receive a solid body slam into the floor.

Gar’mol wrapped his black-clawed hands around Raven Tide’s neck and knocked his skull repeatedly into the metal floor.

“Get up! Please!” I cried out. I knew it was futile but I hated standing there being useless.

Gar’mol crouched over Raven Tide, laughing as he steadily strangled the life out of him, then the corrupted yautja hacked up and spat a glob of acidic spit.

Raven Tide rolled and evaded the noxious bodily fluid. Then he kicked and knocked Gar’mol over.

The metal below sizzled but endured. Apparently, Clan Asepa builders made Silosa Outpost acid-proof.

The two wrestled on the ground and Gar’mol sprayed more acid and persisted in trying to take a bite out of Raven Tide.

Some of the spittle splashed up Raven Tide’s torso. He hissed but didn’t give Gar’mol the satisfaction of gaining the advantage.

I was proud of Raven Tide for not surrendering but it didn’t change the fact that win or lose, we were still trapped in here with that thing.

Red-orange magma dribbled from the Graven’s gaping mouth. It frothed with delight every time Gar’mol snapped his jaws.

The fight doesn’t matter...

My eyes darted back and forth between the two yautja.

Gar’mol was a tool, not a loyal servant.

It wants Raven Tide alive! and me...

We’re more valuable alive as obedient puppets.

My chest felt tight and I wanted more than anything to crawl away into a tiny ball.

No!

I was trembling, but I was also pissed.

“You don’t get to make the rules!” I shouted as loud as I could while charging at the Graven.

“Chyani stop!” Raven Tide punched Gar’mol but got tackled down again.

The Graven slammed down on all fours and lurched its massive fanged mouth in my direction.

“You can’t have him!” I took a stand directly in front of the monster.

Flames plumed down its wolf-like spine and a low chortle rumbled from its throat.

OOOGGGGSSSDDDDAAAA!!!!!!!

“Ah!” I folded to the ground with my hands over my ears.

The sound of its voice was pure agony. It was like nothing I’d ever heard.

“Ally-Up!” White-clawed hands pulled me into the air and then next thing I knew, Raven Tide and I were sliding across the floor between the Graven’s long legs.

“Go, go, go!” Raven Tide shoved me to my feet and then we ran, my hand in his, down a wide coiling hallway.

“This way!” Raven Tide smacked a panel by a hatchway in the wall. A human-sized vent door slid open and I crawled in without question.

“Right, left, straight, right!” Raven Tide crawled behind me with his ears up and flicking to navigate the path.

Then he shouted to stop and kicked open a vent grate leading into a white gallery.

“This one’s occupied,” Raven Tide scrolled his finger over a menu screen lit up in the center of the room.

BOOM! KRAK! CRASH!

A cascade of explosions burst from the corridor behind us mingled with the abominable voice of the Graven thundering in the background.

“There is no escape!” Gar’mol marched out from the smoke and flames.

“Hurry,” Raven Tide led us away and to an airlock. He hit the release and the hatch zoomed open. “Inside! Find something to hold tight to.”

I had no idea where we were but my left hand was ready to cling to anything.

The second door shot up and we entered then sealed the hatch tight behind us.

It was a ship, dark, cluttered, and foul-smelling, reeking of sweaty armpits and decaying insects. The layout was similar to Venom Heart’s but ugly and dented.

The bridge!

We ran through the central passageway.

Gar’mol pounded relentlessly on the airlock doors shouting incoherent madness.

Raven Tide hopped into the captain’s chair and woke up the menus. The ship was older and only possessed a single curved virtual view screen floating above a long manual control panel that swung in from the side of the captain’s chair.

There was a chair stationed to the right of Raven Tide with its own smaller panel and a view screen. I got in and locked myself into the over-shoulder harness.

The ship rattled when the docking clamps released. Then fire filled our view screens.

“Fuck this place!” Raven Tide revved the engines and steered the vessel away then he enabled the ship’s defense systems and fired six pulses of plasma directly into Silosa Outpost.

Light overwhelmed the virtual monitors then a massive red-clawed hand reached out from debris and chaos.

It was the Graven expanding and filling the space around us in brilliant orange magma.

“Hang on,” Raven Tide spun the ship around then set the engines to maximum.