The Second Deimos: Unfortunate Planet

"We knew the universe to be boundless but assumed the worlds within had boundaries. We reached for the stars and touched them. In our arrogance we assumed we had come to understand it all, and had the pinnacle of knowledge. Then we began to expand, expand and expand. When it came time to leave the world that was once ours we knew what we were doing. We knew where we would go, who we would take with us, who we would leave behind in desolation, and we knew every unexpected aspect that could possibly happen… or so we thought."

–Duke Edmond Galilhali before assuming control over the planet Merrulian.

Illetz stumbled in the sand falling back into the tiny crystal grains. He swayed back and forth like a man lost to alchol. Drunk from the heat of the sun. Dehydrated from the lack of water. The ground was hot, but not hot enough to kill him. He had a mission to complete. He could not be distracted from the tasks he was compelled to complete. We thought we knew it all… so smug.
He reached his hands outward staring into them with disgust. Human hands for an inhuman creature.

The man roared with all his might at the sun screaming with a desperate pain; thirsty for a vengeance that could never be quenched. Illetz was a broken man. Slowly he lifted himself from the ground taking another step continuing his ever painful existence on this planet. Deimos, god of the fear that comes with war.

Illetz shook his head, “You’ll not have me! I have no fear!”

Why did he feel the need to lie? The planet continued to rotate without hearing him; there were no gods here. Nothing could reciprocate his feelings, understand him, fear him, or justify his experiences; there was nothing. There was nothing out there. All Illetz had left was himself and the monsters that walked this planet as aimlessly as he did.

His mind torturously entertained memories and possibilities as he took another step forward in the desert sands. His past was agony and his future even more terrifying. The man laughed loudly as he put forth another foot onto the hot burning sand. How he longed for insanity to take him, or death. No one was around to hear him as he trudged through the day-time desert.

He was once told only a madman would walk through the desert unprotected during the day, and somehow he could not believe he was fully yet a madman. His mind wrenched back to a more painful time, another memory of a past he was not allowed to forget.

“I’m not afraid!” Illetz again yelled at a planet that would not return with a response. His knees fell forward into the glittering red sands and for a moment Illetz sat still.

A madman could forget and not worry about the things that have happened. A madman would no longer be disturbed by sinful actions done in the past. Tears welled up in the eyes of the laughing man, “I’m not afraid,” he trembled.

His hand fell to the ground and the sand burned at his skin. How long could he live in such climatic conditions? The desert was no place for a human, even the mutated clickers could not survive the desert alone. Yet Illetz willingly turned his back on the surviving humans and began his painful walk alone. He had run into caravans, other wanderers, but with the clickers as a new threat to humanity he kept his meetings brief. Illetz chose the daylight and he chose to be alone.

His skin was dark and crisped from constant sun exposure. Beneath the fine cotton cloth that skin had been burned red. The heat penetrated past the clothing, there was no escaping it. Two mismatched eyes stared out into the desert behind sunglasses that didn’t provide enough protection from the brightness of the light.

Deimos II had a proximity closer to its sun than Earth was to its. Furthermore, Deimos II had a larger sun. Illetz stared out over the cracked and dried rust-red surface. If not for the canyons this place would never have been considered for habitation.

Part of the ground cracked into vast fissures, canyons that were far deeper than they were wide. Like the surface of dried up clay. He lifted himself knowing of the barriers the canyons could be. Here the surface of the planet was flat, except where water had flowed. Water flowed through the soft crust of the planet engraving itself farther and farther down towards the core. A canyon could be hundreds of feet wide, or just a few feet wide. Regardless of width it was always thousands of feet down. A misstep would mean death for the weary traveler.

“A catastrophic mistake…” Illetz reached forward touching the dark red crystal sand grains, “I won everything I could ever hope to win. The greatest victory ever fought for and I was rewarded with death and devastation…”

The sun’s rays were so intense that as the heat rose off from the desert floor, images farther away were distorted. Mirages were around everywhere; another flat chunk of sand with an empty promise. A painful promise that Illetz will carry on, he will live another day. He will live until Deimos II has him admit his fear before killing him in a final act of cruelty.

Memories from Illetz’s past were trying to push their way into his conscious. Memories his mind didn’t want him to forget, but how he longed to have them removed. He had a family once before the parasites… Illetz’s body rolled over as he laid down in the sun raggedly breathing in dry air. Parasites, a sleeper agent in the water. Harmless while in the tepid liquid and a complete devastation once inside a body.

Click-tock-snap.

Illetz shuddered at the sound the bodies hosting the parasite colonies. Always popping and clicking where bones no longer aligned the way they were meant to be.

Click-sssssssshhhh-pop-snap.

He rose from his sand bed and peered out into the heat waves around him.

Click-click-click-tock-snap.

The noise wasn’t a memory come to torture him, but a real sound existing outside of his mind. There was a clicker nearby hidden in the heat.

Illetz scrabbled forward gazing around wearily. Even with the heat as extreme as it was he should have been able to see the walking colony host. Waves and waves of heat rose from the ground but the monsters were near. The man focused on the nearest dune, with all his mind and all his mental capability. He let out a slow exhale of air. CRACK.

Instantaneously Illetz opened a space between space and he stepped through the portal of his own mind and teleported his physical self from one flat ridge to a slightly escalated dune ridge. He stood atop of the new location looking around him.

The feeling of hopelessness was fleeting, removing itself from his mind as adrenaline took over. This was all he had left; it was the only reason he had to live. Illetz narrowed his eyes as he focused on the disjointed movement somewhere near him, the sound would lead him to his target.

CRACK! He moved farther along to another flat ridge of red cracked sand. The sound grew in intensity and Illetz knew he was getting closer. He could hear the parasite colony force the body they inhabited to shudder. Whatever he was hunting it knew, somehow, that he was coming. Illetz would have to move quickly to achieve his ultimatum.

With a final teleportation Illetz leapt through space appearing in air above the mangled infected figure. It was a medium sized creature, and its body was too far wasted to the parasites within it to be quick or agile. Illetz reached for the sword on his back and the dagger in his boot.

The slashing motion was forgiving, instantly debilitating the parasite infested body so that it would not be able to get up. The wriggling worms within were dismembered and tiny bodies torn apart as Illetz cut through the muscle fiber of the creature. The beast fell flat and worms sprawled out drying up under the sunlight rapidly disintegrating now that there was nothing to protect them from the harshness of this planet.

This was why Illetz enjoyed walking alone under the sun. He knew what the sun could do to these exposed pests, and he knew how potent it was. The man watched until the creature no longer twitched or moved. Finally the tired and tortured body could rest with its soul. No longer did it have to wander without purpose, but for Illetz it was a different story.

“You can’t have gone too far from your brethren,” Illetz murmured.

If there is one thing Illetz had come to learn from this infestation, it was that the parasite hosts generally liked to stay close to one another. The worm bodies were all clones of one another and they did not like to separate too far from other sister colonies making them a difficult horde to deal with. He whipped his blades clean and returned them to his person.

He checked his pack for supplies realizing a trip into town wouldn’t just be a boost to his moral, but a necessary venture for stock resupply. He grimaced, more of these twisted monsters. He would die fighting them or they would die before him while he lived.

With a loud CRACK Illetz jumped from portal to portal, teleporting his way across the desert sands. The effect took little energy on his behalf, just a careful realization of what he was doing. The day the parasites came to his colony was the day he was forever changed. He had been given an ability from the parasites, one that he both used but hated.

His speed slowed for a moment as a metallic glimmer sparkled off in the distance. Most likely a scrapping district set to re-purpose the ships that flew man-kind in. He looked over at the shambling bodies trying to remember a time when those distorted figures were just regular citizens going about their daily procedure. His discolored eye itched and burned as he neared. It was a curse of the parasites. Few humans were lucky enough not to become infected, and even fewer were able to fend off the parasites with their immune system. Those that did fight the infection were able to bond the foreign creatures to their genetic code making them more of a use than a curse.

A symbiotic relationship was formed between parasite and the select few thought to be immune. Illetz was one of these select few. If the human body had successfully repressed the vermicelli shaped worms within it the parasites proved to help make the human body something far more than mankind could have ever dreamed of.

For Illetz he could force open portals between the planes of reality traveling at great speeds and seemingly teleport as he moved. For others who fought down the parasites, other gifts were discovered. The uninfected called Illetz’s kind the immune’s, they were called God’s Blessed, or they were called devils. There was a very brief time when the immune were welcomed into colonies and viewed as an asset. But as the infection continued to spread so did the fear. No longer were the immune seen as God’s Blessed, but rather as demons secretly spreading the infection within the uninfected.

Illetz’s eye kept burning, the pain grew as he moved closer to the outpost. For a split second he thought he saw his wife through the pain. Her beautiful tan skin standing out in contrast to the deep reds of the desert sands, her hair was hidden and tucked back into a light pink hijab, she wore a lovely turquoise colored dress that made her stand out like a Venetian goddess among the sand. Her golden eyes glittered under the light of the sun as she turned to look at him. Her mouth moved as though she were about to whisper something to him, and then the burning in his eye stopped. Her image disappeared and was replaced with the reality before him.

The creatures clicked and popped oblivious to the outsider standing at the edge of the town. The infected monster’s grotesquely continued their diminutive existence before him. These were the monsters that took his wife, his family, his life from him. These were the colonies that continued to kill and infect without reason or symbiosis.

Illetz pulled forth his long sword. He closed his eyes picturing his wife’s delicate face, the way she smiled, her full red lips and striking brown eyes. “For you, my Sihaya,” he whispered.

With a loud CRACK! Illetz began his descent into the town where he’d wipe every disfigured form off of the planet’s surface.