
Morrigan met Clare on the bridge, her crew working frantically to pull scans and update the live feed that Clare studied while the gunner officers prepared the guns crews for combat.
After glancing at the information for the slightest of moments, Morrigan scowled already knowing what it said. The evidence drifted in space before them and she didn’t need to read about it to know that everyone that had encountered the Malleus Die was dead.
What did interest her was what had been happening to the planet. Despite the majority of the information was about the destroyed Inquisition ships, there was a small projected screen that magnified the contract point between the ship and the planet.
The land within a hundred miles of the tendril that penetrated the world had become sickly as if it were rotting away, the ground slowly became barren before her eyes as vegetation wilted and the ground darkened to a gray tone. “You said she was decay and rot?” She asked Apollyon.
That's right. She is the ruin that follows destruction… it seems my girl has picked up some tricks over the millenia, Apollyon noted with both interest and disgust.
Morrigan nodded as she ground her teeth. She hadn't bothered asking what powers the being likely had, given how much Morrigan had evolved in a matter of a decade. Having thousands of years to hone her craft, Ruin, as Apollyon so kindly dubbed her, the possibilities were limitless. Truthfully, given the concept of rot and decay as well as the brief view of her handiwork on the recording she was shown, Morrigan surmised that the creature’s abilities evolved around infection, poison and anything that encompassed debilitating life.
“Now how do I deal with that?” she wondered to herself. Morrigan had faith in her power, especially knowing that it was hers now, but according to Apollyon Ruin was just as powerful as she was.
Apollyon grunted, The same way you handle everything else. Tear her to shreds.
That was obvious to her though. Granted, even though Ruin beat Apollyon at one point, it occurred to Morrigan that the main difference is that Apollyon may have been the master of death, even creatively, but the deity had no real combat experience. Nothing ever tried to fight it and the edge that Ruin had was the instinctive traits of fight or flight.
Morrigan was a master of combat though which she believed gave her an edge even though Ruin had much longer to hone and develop her abilities. That begged the question, how would she deal with the embodiment of decay?
“I have all hands on deck, Mori. We're going to storm the ship in force and stop whoever is in command and put a stop to whatever is happening on the planet,” Clare stated without taking her eyes off the data.
Morrigan looked at the determination on Clare’s face and frowned. There were over a hundred thousand combat troops aboard the Inquisition flagship and even with those numbers Morrigan considered what she saw. Despite an entire squad’s worth of gunfire, whatever attacked them didn't even seem to slow. More so, despite the ship’s outlandish firepower, it would barely be a match for the Malleus Die’s hull… and whatever destroyed the ships that had been in system…
“Is this planet inhabited?” Morrigan asked before turning her attention to Apollyon, “Do they stand a chance against her?”
Not a chance in hell, Apollyon quickly retorted.
“Thankfully no, not yet. It was a planet set for colonization but the Marmuro’k have been waiting for Imperial supply…” Clare explained. Morrigan’s eyes widened at the fact that not only was it dumb luck that the Marmuro’k weren't there to face this threat, but that the Marmuro’k territory was only a handful of systems away. This meant that if she didn't stop Ruin, then the demigod of ruin would reduce the Marmuro’k to extinction. The stakes were far more grave than mere vengeance.
“Tell your troops to stand down,” Morrigan commanded and the look of startled confusion on Clare’s face was nearly comical, and it would have been if the situation wasn't so dire.
“They don’t stand a chance against what's on that ship, we've seen that already,” Morrigan added, attempting to throw logic in, so that Clare would understand.
Clare didn't see it that way though, “But we have far more than just a mere squad!”
“It doesn’t matter, Clare! Stand down, that's an order!” Morrigan growled as she caught the wearily obstinate looks from around the massive bridge.
We’re wasting time, Apollyon interjected, which Morrigan knew full well.
“Fine, then we'll set the Javelins on it and destroy the fucking thing!” Clare nearly shouted, attempting to turn and give the order to her crew.
“No,” Morrigan cut her off, “We don't know how the other ships were destroyed…”
Everyone looked between the Lord Inquisitor and the Empress, uncertain how such opposing view points would end as Morrigan continued, “So far, it seems, that we haven’t been spotted, or deemed a threat. Whatever the Malleus Die did to our ships, I feel like this one won’t fair much better regardless of its class.”
Clare flailed her arms in exasperation as she turned to Morrigan, “The what the hell do you propose we do? Use harsh language? It’ll take nearly a week to get reinforcements and by the who knows if it’ll even still be here,” she gestured to the screen showing what was happening to the planet, “and after that, who knows if it’ll pick a fight. What you’re suggesting is return to the Void Star and amass a fleet but this thing barely registers on our scans, if we lose it we may never find it again until it does something to draw our attention.”
Morrigan sighed, crossing her arms and glaring at the Malleus Die in the distance. “I know,” she said, considering the option to do just that. As far as she saw, the ship’s shields weren’t operational nor should they have been seeing as Nora disabled them beyond repair. With a fleet, especially with the Marmuro’k, they could outright destroy the Malleus Die, assuming they could find it again.
Given Ruin’s nature, she would wade destruction through the galaxy, her galaxy, but how many lives would be lost in the pursuit… the risk was too great and currently no one knew of the threat. No, if she were to do anything, it’d have to be in that moment.
“I’ll go,” she stated simply.
“Have you lost your fucking mind?!” Clare exclaimed, oblivious to the stunned expressions of her crew as she stared down Morrigan with wide eyes.
They didn't have time to argue though, “I'm the most powerful being in my empire. If anyone can survive it’s me and one life is easier to put at risk than the entire ship!” Morrigan said, fully believing what she said.
She knew it was possible that Ruin could kill her, if anyone could it would've likely been Ruin, but she couldn't needlessly waste the lives of her people even if that meant they would serve as a distraction to increase her survivability. Any other leader may do just that but no matter what horrors awaited her, Morrigan couldn’t waste the lives of those she swore to protect. If they stood an iota of a chance, she may think differently about it however, that wasn’t the case.
“I’ll take a shuttle and board the ship, something I’ve done a dozen times, and destroy the leader of the Malleus Die, or possibly get the drive core to self destruct… but if you don’t hear from me in an hour and a half, get back to the Void Star and summon everyone, every ship in the Imperium…” Morrigan added, informing Clare that she had a plan, as well as fully understood the risk.
“You gotta be kidding me…” Clare said, “I can’t let you do that, you’re the Empress! We need you.”
Morrigan shook her head, “No, that's not true. Besides, you can’t stop me, so it’d be easier if you just got me a suit and a ship rather than making me take command of your ship and taking them anyways.”
“I can still arrest you, you purposely left that possibility open through Inquisitorial regulations,” Clare noted, glaring at Morrigan defiantly.
That made Morrigan chuckle, despite the gravity of the situation, “Do you really think you could? Honestly we’re running low on time, Clare, and this isn’t my first rodeo, work with me here and follow my orders. Whatever is on that ship, it’s not the exiles. Our forces don’t stand a chance and neither does your ship on its own. You know me, and you know I’m the one who is most likely to accomplish this.”
After a tense moment of silence between the two women, Clare finally deflated, “Fine, but if you get injured your wives will skin me alive…”
Without delay, Morrigan moved toward the door of the bridge and said, “Not until after they skin me alive for not telling them,” then exited the bridge.
◇◇◇
It came to a relief that Clare hadn’t changed her mind as Morrigan eased the dropship out of the hanger. Though she had her own private starship now, Morrigan couldn’t deny the fact that she wasn’t the best pilot in the world which, despite having practiced, the prospect of piloting a ship always set her nerves on edge.
Between piloting and the likely coming fight with something that theoretically matched her power, Morrigan was reasonably nervous. If it wasn’t for the nature of Apollyon’s power and witnessing first hand the devastation the deity’s daughter would bring, Morrigan may have considered leaving Ruin to her own devices; though she did also feel obligated to fulfill her end of their bargain.
Despite the anger and sadness she felt for the destruction already caused, something stuck out for Morrigan and the unasked question had begun to gnaw away at her nerves as she shifted the ship toward her destination, bringing the monstrosity that had once been the Malleus Die into view.
“Something has been bothering me… why’d you never bring this up? Why now?” Morrigan asked as her voice echoed through the helmet’s audio system that she wore, knowing full well that Apollyon had been reading the various other questions that flashed through her mind.
Ever since Apollyon had announced the existence of Ruin, the deity emitted a steady aura of fury however, as soon as she asked the question she could feel the deity’s anger falter as if it were impossibly caught off guard.
I… I mean… Honestly, it wasn’t important, Apollyon said with a level of embarrassment that was rare.
“How was it not important? It's your half of our deal,” Morrigan asked incredulously.
Apollyon grunted before letting out a long drawn out sigh, the feeling of… something Morrigan couldn’t quite place bled into her soul like an amalgamation that was pure that it couldn’t be deciphered.
Listen, I spent more than enough time angry. Thousands of years of humanity’s existence I spent trying to find someone to give me my freedom, to give me my revenge that I sought but when you came along… the one who could hold my being and adapt to my power… Apollyon sighed with a hint of dejection however, Morrigan could also feel a sense of ease as well.
You were young, barely a speck in the galaxy and as you grew stronger, and the longer I spent around you I just… she took my body, my power and my place in the universe but then you gave me that back. You gave me a purpose… a home…
“Apollyon…” she said softly, barely above a whisper. For a reason Morrigan didn’t understand her heart tightened in a feeling she couldn’t describe; a sadness but utter appreciation that the deity could consider her home but at the same she held a dread-filled worry about the unknowns surrounding her at that moment. Ruin’s existence left many questions without answers and the worst one of all being why Ruin had come to the Milky Way galaxy.
I mean, sure, you body isn’t a bad vessel and I’ve certainly made myself home in your mind but… you gave me a family; you, Nora, Mo’Emori, Arahan, Naestra and even that fuzz ball Skoll, you’ve been more of a family than I ever had, Apollyon said firmly.
“But what about your siblings?” Morrigan asked with a furrowed brow, her heart cinching at the notion as her mind tried to process what Apollyon said. It was such a large shift in tone from ranting about how the deity made her to being her family that Morrigan struggled to understand what Apollyon actually regarded her as, let alone what it truly implied.
Apollyon blew a sad raspberry, We may have been born together but we never got along. Sure, we had our fun but my job always kept me either ahead of them or behind them… as they spent their existence incessantly creating, I spent it pondering the universe and, well, like all families, there’s always a black sheep. It probably worked out better that way but existence alone is pretty lonely, thus leading us to our current predicament.
Guiding the ship towards the hulking behemoth, Morrigan idly scanned the hull for an opening large enough to fit the starship as her minded began to pick apart everything she had learned. For years she had a theory regarding Apollyon and it’s siblings and with the revelations laid before her, her suspicion was confirmed.
Apollyon, and the three others, weren’t gods. They weren’t all knowing nor all powerful. In fact, they weren’t much different than Humans, Eskarii or Marmuro’k. Instead, they were just a byproduct of the universe, much like everything else, the only difference being that they were the first, and the closest thing to a god there was. But they were capable of learning, making mistakes, having emotions and were equally fallible as any other species. They may have created life, and Apollyon the end, to form the cycle needed for existence to stabilize, but they were no better different, just older, relatively immortal and powerful.
Then something surfaced in Morrigan’s mind, a conversation she had with Apollyon so many years ago. Apollyon wiped out the creatures put on the Earth, and from nothing, Humanity was born. Apollyon’s siblings never created Humanity, which meant her species grew naturally but given the concentrated energy that bled through the Earth, Humanity mutated after nearly destroying itself. The mutation that occurred bred mages and led to further strife amongst humans and the rest of the galaxy but Morrigan couldn’t figure out if that was a byproduct of Apollyon, or if it was simply nature that caused such strife. If Apollyon was born of primordial energy, and that energy influenced emotions, or was manipulated by emotion, then that begged a question; was the primordial energy that made up existence the cause of strife? Was it Apollyon and it’s siblings? Or was it something else entirely? War and conflict was something each species suffered, but was that just nature, or was it influence by the deities?
As much as I enjoy your philosophical thoughts, I don’t think now is the time for such questions, Apollyon kindly noted.
Morrigan tried to shake the thoughts away, “Yeah, you're right…” she said as she identified a hole in the hull near where the other dropship had used and began guiding her own ship towards it, weary of the tendrils of organic matter that lazily swayed from the hull.
I don't know ask the answers but to answer one of those questions, we're not gods in what your species’ consider to be gods, but we are the core aspect of existence made manifest, each with our own variation… but you're right, we're not much different in the grand scheme, just beings trying to figure it out, Apollyon said with reluctance, shedding its false sense of godhood. Apollyon’s answer only left Morrigan with more questions though, but until Ruin was dealt with, those questions would have to wait.
Thanks for the chapter!