Aftermath

" Now the world is overrun with monsters and demons, because every snot-nosed fool with blood chalk thinks he is a master at scribing runes." said Rashid.

 "Mere apprentices bind undead reavers and worse; guess what happens, the damn idiot loses control and forfeits his soul. To an undead reaver of all things." 

He looks up from the fire, glaring out across the silent wastes.
Black sands billowing across the vast grey waste as the wind stirs.

 "Necromancers own giant swabs of land,  they use it to harvest human souls, to power their rituals. Trying to bind  greater and more powerful demons to serve them," continued Rashid. 

"At some stage the fool cannot complete the binding or it fails and the demon gains the sweet soul of a gifted human."

  The shadow-cowled figure moved, turning towards them, the intensity of his eyes burned with the memories of ancient times. The rumbling of his bitter laughter echo across the waste. 

 "Yes, the human soul has always been the most powerful source of magic, why do you think the gods warred amongst themselves?" asked the shadow wrapped figure.

"We destroyed continents and realms to hold the frail beauty of the human soul" he said. 

"Now demons claim more and more through foolishness."

  The shattered piles of stone, stacked haphazardly, reflected the soft words. A quite sigh of the wind carries the dying echo out among the desicated trees. 

The three travellers sat in quite contemplation for a while, each trying to come to grips with what they have just been told. Rashid stares into the fire, willing the feeble flames higher and brighter.

  "At least the first gate is sealed, no more unsuspecting peasants running into schreechers," Rathe said, as the feeble light cast ragged shadows across his scarred face.

 Idly scratching one eyebrow Rashid looks across to his companion. 

"Do you honestly think that one closed gate will make such a difference in the long run?"asked Rashid.

 "Think about it, we just lost a full battalion of elite fighters from Gromme, our mages are sucked dry to the point where most of them will need to be sealed less their warding fail," said Rashid. 

"How is that any better than before?"

"You depressing, soulless freak," growled the god from the shadows, "If it wasn't for your kind we would not be in this  forsaken mess anyway."

"My kind," asked Rashid, "Lets just get the facts straight you bastard. The only reason my kind exist is because you gods left pieces of your brethren scattered across the universe. Your wars have changed the fundamental structure of the universe, gifting us freaks with the ability to wield power," said Rashid looking across at the godling, "the gods created a world where they are no longer necessary, you have become obsolete."

Debriefing

"I'm telling you that is what I saw, even if you don't believe me, I saw it. Even Evans saw something, he's just to shit scared to say anything."

"That true, Evans, did you see something out there?"

"I ain't seen nothing, Captain, Gorenson's just jumping at shadows he is."

"You lying sack of shit, Evans you saw that thing the same time I did. The fuck man?"

"Control yourself private. Evans answer truthfully, you will not be punished in anyway if you just tell the truth."

"The truth sir, is that  Gorenson left the tub to go wandering about by his self, without saying nothing."  

"Fuck that Evans, you were with me the whole time, it was your lame ass idea to activate the antipersonnel systems so that we could go scope for tracks."

"Give him time to finish private, you will get to speak soon enough."

"He says he saw some troll-like thing walking by them trees so he loads up his shredder and wanders off like he on some picnic or something."

"Then what happened?"

"I left the mug to go take a leak, next thing I know he's shredding them trees like we was mowing down a line of them Terex from Artus sector. Shitting my self I flip the hotness for some cover only to see the fool standing in a smoking patch of scorch all by his lonesome, shredder smoking like an old moon buster. All limp dick, blacked out by the backlash. Fool playing soldier with ghosts in the trees."

"So you did not see anything attack Private Gorenson?"

"Hell no, like I said, he be a big shadow killer, twitchy."

"Thank you private Evans you are dismissed."

"Sir."

"Now private Gorenson, what made you abandon your post and destroy indigenous fauna for half a click on our perimeter?"

"Evans is a lying turd, captain, there is no way that I could do that amount of damage by myself. Not with one little shredder. If I had myself  a heavy plasma carbine sure, but a shredder please."

"True, continue."

"Well as I stated in my report sir, we saw something walking the perimeter. It was about 3 to 4 meters in height, hulking with what seemed to be lightning coursing underneath its skin. It was freaky." 

"So you decided to go and take a closer look instead of calling for a probe run?"

"Yes sir, standard protocol out in the sticks ain't what they teach at the academy. Calling for a probe run by a Strafer will get you docked R and R."

"None sense."

"No disrespect sir, but the frontier is a lot larger than it looks from space, there ain't enough drones to cover all areas, so unless you have a definite positive you don't bother God."

"God?"

"Yeah, what we call the Tomb class destroyer that covers this sector."

"I'm sure Fleet Captain Nerus will be delighted. please continue."

"Yes, sir. Activating the perimeter defence for back-up..."

"Sorry that would be the 'hotness' that Evans referred to?"

"Yes sir."

"OK"

"Anyway we light up the hotness, grab some extra tom, sorry, ammo and we head out toward the last sighted location of the creature.
 Evans and I were both carrying shredders, with full combat rated armor, enhanced muscle capabilities, retinal integration with full split second analysis with the aid of the on-board limited AI. Nothing should be able to sneak up on two boosted rangers."

"Yet I assume from the slight hesitation in your voice that something did?"

"Hell yeah, fucking thing just appeared from nothing. All solid fucking crystalline armor and blazing lightning bolts. Fried out circuits before we even knew it was there."

"Your response?"

"Standard save your ass procedure sir, back to back clockwise rotation on full auto. two full rotations four thousand armor piercing rounds in less that 10 seconds, nothing should be able to survive that."

"This thing did?"

"I don't know sir, remember we were running black, backup batteries take half a minute to kick in. When our systems came online we were glitched so we could not be certain. Sure did not see anything."

"Did you recover any evidence of this creature?"

"Fuck Captain you know we didn't, lots of fucked up trees and shit but nothing else."

"Thank you Private Gorenson, you are dismissed."

"Sir, a question?"

" Yes private?"

"You've seen one haven't you?"

"That is classified."

"Sir."