“Elric, haul your ass over here and get these scraps prepped for the bonfire!” a feminine voice hollered from the nearby treeline, “We’re burning daylight so get working and stop slackin’ off!”

“Would you shut your trap for 2 seconds Lia, if I had eaten any faster the jerky would have had to go down whole”, standing up from his temporary resting spot, a flawlessly cut tree stump, Elric picked up his steel axe and jogged back to the treeline. 

“We got 2 hours till sundown,” Lia turned and gestured at the general area, tree stumps decorated the forest floor, along with hacked-off branches and scrap wood. “Let's get this cleaned up and a fire going in 90 minutes, think I can whip up a decent stew with our supplies and that boar Kraft brought back, it’s been way too long since any of us had real meat.” 

Like the hands of a violinist, the duo began work gathering wood for their fire, each hand played a different role, yet had to work with the other in coordination to perform their piece. Wood scraps were split and cut down by Elric, who tossed the scraps into a wicker bag Lia whipped up and dragged around. 

The stars soon faded into the darkening sky, the tiny sparkles of cosmic gas decorated the skies of Primose in swirls; every arm beginning from beyond the horizon and tapering off to the great abyss of the night. Five individuals were gathered around a lively bonfire, its flames licking a simple metal pot filled with Lia’s pork stew. The loving embrace of the warm fire, the excited pouncing of sparks upon the earth beneath the flaming wood and the crackling of the burning wood instilled a different flavour of peace among the five settlers, it was a first time experience for the group, and to be so far from home, in the wilderness of the untamed wild.

“Sorry to break the silence, and oh, the stew is absolutely delicious Amelia, but has anyone heard from Josse yet? He has not returned from checking the cavern over at C13 yet, and it really is getting quite late.” a well-shaven blonde man inquired. 

“I believe he will be fine Mack, the lieutenant can handle a simple cave survey, he’s probably just wasting time by the stream picking the shiniest obsidian pebble or something” assured Elric. He picked up another slice of bread and used it to cradle more stew into his mouth. “Worst comes to worst we can get Tokugawa to check on his location”.

A young man with black hair tied into a high ponytail nodded. “Let’s just leave his share in the pot and get ready for the night shall we? It’s been a long couple of days, we should get proper rest and probably get one last night in our sleeping bags before the cabin is complete” he laughed, gathering chuckles from the group.

The pioneers froze, turning towards the direction of the cabin. With the soft crunching of fallen leaves, the figure stepped into the warm glow of the fire revealing its features. 

Amelia ran towards the figure, “Josse! Are you okay? We were wondering where you’ve been…”, trailing-off she found his lower body caked in dried blood, as her eyes wandered towards his legs, she found that his legs now possessed three joints, no, they were grotesquely contorted in 3 places. Yet he stood before her, panic, fear and worry flashed through her mind before their eyes locked.

A cavity stared back at the shaking woman where Josse’s eyes used to sit. The scent of fresh blood permeated the air, contaminating the once serene atmosphere. The pitter platter of blood grew silent as quickly as it began as Amelia’s body went limp, still righted only by the twenty-five centimetre organic blade that pierced her mid-body. 

A scream of pain and hate cut the still air as Elric charged the imposter with his lumber axe, its blade glowing with energy. Recovering from the shock of the execution of their comrade, the rest of the panicking settlers grabbed the tools nearest to them and charged at the abomination.

Blades connected with flesh, footwork pressing the grass beneath the fighters into mud. The ordeal ended in less than sixty standard seconds, just as the fight began, with the dripping of blood, a torrential flow of it and then only the crackling of a dying fire. Five corpses lay in their own pools of crimson, the latter of which slowly stained the earth a rich red. The skin of the imposter slowly split in hundreds of places before popping, revealing a humanoid abomination whose physique was a cruel mockery of an overbuilt strongman, with two thin appendages that ended in an organic blade. 

As the bonfire uttered its last sparks, and the flames licked the pot for the last time, the embers of the expiring fire painted the disfigured shadow of the imposter fade into the darkness of the night. The campsite, a gruesome scene of human entrails, dismantled makeshift weapons, and blood-drained bodies. 

======

“Enter.” A lithe hand waved away a holographic display as the indent in the far wall split and an armoured figure entered the chamber. 

“Lord Commander, we have Null Responses from six of twenty-seven settler locations. And a singular report of unexpected wildlife from the Tribus region, grid 87-L01, A96.” the guest stated.

“Understood, ping me the report on the inconsistency, you may leave.” With a salute, the soldier left the chamber. The Lord Commander ejected a data slate from the desk, sending neural commands for it to display the report. It described a canine-like creature that had no fur but bluish skin and what looked like gills on its ribs. A picture was attached showing the creature from its side, along with a brief by the biologist that theorised that the creature may have somehow survived terraforming by hibernating in the planet’s complex cave systems, along with references to the original ecology of the planet. 

The Lord Commander connected the dots instantly, tossing the data slate on the desk the seemingly young woman left the chamber with blistering haste. She marched through the deck, passing corridor after corridor of utilitarian hallways before reaching the sub-sector’s bridge. The instant the airlock hissed open, the staff on the bridge mustered to attention.

“Status on the evacuation?” the Lord asked.
“Planetfall in 11 standard minutes and up to 27 standard minutes for the teams on the Twilight Hemisphere. All teams already contacted and ready for extraction, details of Impar infestation have been disseminated to them.” The same soldier that entered the Lord’s chambers reported. Shifting to the larger display, the soldier continued, “Unfortunately, we have lost contact with another group of pioneers, shall I send my men to investigate the unresponsive settlement locations?” asked the same armoured individual, whose armour was noticeably more adorned than the other ranking officers. 

“Negative. Get Ordo Cognitionis to do a bio-sweep of Primose Prime, I am enacting Article Psi 5.6, activate the beacons of the unresponsive settlements and get me eyes on their status. Whatever the 670th Legion faced is a ferocious foe, I will not risk any more men.” The Lord announced, moving to an elevated workstation, she sunk her hand into a putty, tapping at a second console with her other hand. 

“Confirmation true, applying patch-in now my Lord.”, a crew member confirmed, “Override applied, initialising beacon drones, relaying feeds to central console now.”

Seven once blank screens lit up on the bridge’s central display, a creeping dread began to suffocate the room. Scenes of carnage plastered each of the seven screens, gore and blood littered the campsites, with one camera displaying a site where the settlers were impaled upon long sharpened logs. As more eyes crept towards the massacre displayed upon the central console, the silence was deafening. 

“Back to work people! We have people to evacuate and I don’t want any more to suffer the same fate, I want a geological sweep as well as a biological sweep of the planet. I will be convening with the rest of the Lords in the meantime. Resolution will come for our fallen in no more than three standard cycles.” the Lord Commander announced, leaving the bridge soon after. Down five decks she went, towards one of the many hangar bays of the Requiem Des Étoiles. 

The cruiser was not large by Arqadian standards, but it was far from small. Shuttle trolleys brought the ships’ crew between various stations on the void vessel, its interior was built around practicality, painted a standard gunmetal grey with little to no attention towards beauty or art, unlike the ships of certain other legions. The exterior of the ship however, was painted a pearly white, complemented with gleaming golden trim and the same gunmetal grey where utility was prioritised such as thrusters and hanger openings. As one of the lead ships of the 1056th Legion, it was spared no expense. 

Soldiers scrambled about the halls of the ship, yet their every step was imbued with purpose and intent, many of them were stocking battlestations and hangars. It is unknown how much of the enemy remained beneath the planet's seemingly tranquil exterior, it was within the speculation of many that the geology of the planet contributed to the false preliminary bio-sweep results, and so orders came from above to prepare and train up lest an infantry assault of the planet’s underground cave network was required. 

With a hiss of air pressure normalisation, the airlocks of the transport ship disengaged, lifting herself up into the belly of the small spacecraft, the Lord Commander huffed a sigh of both relief and stress. It had been only slightly over a standard month since her last campaign in the Sigma Quadrant of Novus, the home galaxy of the Terran Empire, the only galaxy they could call home. But with the completion of the Arqadia Voluntatem, the 1056th now possessed the capability to perform the warp calculations to once again visit the Milky Way, to find home. Yet it is here where they had to clean up the incomplete job of the 670th and avenge Arqadian colonists. 

As the airlocks of the transporter once again interlocked, its ion thrusters pulsed with raw yet perfect energy, guiding the tiny metal box towards the Arqadia Voluntatem.