Discovering the Lie

There was something about the cloud cover today. Light coming from the hive factories was refracting off of the chemicals in the air into a cascading rainbow affect. Adjusting his respirator Josam pulled his coat’s hood up and over his head. As beautiful as the colors were, they revealed that there was a higher than normal concentration of acidic material in the air, and unless he took extra precautions he and his equipment would begin to burn. Once he secured his head gear he wrapped his long rifle and archaic sword in a bundle of rags. If it weren’t for the fact that he had to scrounge for food he’d be safely tucked away in his shelter like most of the sane denizens of the Ash Wastes.

With the recent collapse of a tower off of Hive: Primus an ash storm whipped up that stripped away layers of wastes exposing things not seen in over a millennium, maybe more. Sometimes ancient tech will become accessible again after such storms, abandoned sections of the hive, an old transportation tube, or even a crashed stratoplane – all containing things long forgotten. With things looking bleak for his band, “The Ghost Soldiers”, now was the time to take full advantage of what might have been uncovered – before the ash wastes reclaims her secrets. Normally such discoveries called for going back for more of his fellow nomads to work as a team, but his clan had all been wiped out when the tower fell from above. Only he, An-Nur, Ishik, and their leader Urartu survived. And Urartu lay recovering from his wounds suffered during their first foray into the tower. Not good. Their supplies were gone and unless they found something to barter with, the wastes would claim them as well.

Not far from the new massive landmark, and close to the hive wall itself, Josam discovered an old transport tube. It had long since caved in, and there obviously no way to access the hive through it but, the section of tube leading out into the wastes remained intact.

Once inside the tube Josam slid into the shadows to allow his eyes to adjust and to listen for anything that may be living down here. Just because he was new to this cave didn’t mean that something else couldn’t call it home. Although he could not be certain there appeared to be a light emanating from somewhere in the distance. Once he had adjusted to his surroundings Josam headed for it.

Although he had seen florescent fungi the color of this light didn’t match, but it was also not bright enough to determine what was making it. After walking for over an hour the source of the light was found. Along the side of the tunnel an area had been carved out of the bedrock to facilitate a work yard. Old work vehicles, small tool sheds, and one larger facility. Jackpot! With all of the vehicle parts alone they could make a fortune. But it would not be wise to return to Urartu empty handed.

Looking around he opted to look through one of the small sheds a bit further back from the edge of the road. Outside there was what was left of a small flatbed truck, upturned on its roof. Its frame exposed in several parts and a lot of small arms holes in what was left. Between the truck and shed lay three mummified bodies. It was impossible to tell if they had been male or female, but they were all adult sized and no apparent mutations. How they died though was not a mystery. Josam knew what a wound from a shotgun looked like, and these wounds had been fatal and delivered at close range.

Inside laid two more bodies in a similar state as to those he had seen previously. These two lay in the middle of what must have been a workshop. Several large tools, still standing upright, were set up in a fashion on the right side, and on the left lay a neat pile of some kind of material that Josam had never seen before. His curiosity peeked he stepped over the two corpses to get a closer look. The material was stacked in long rows, and had a rough texture to it. It was not cold like metal, and they had some sort of ‘veins’ running the length of them. After some further thought he doubted that it would last very long and moved towards a small room he had seen as he crossed the workshop.

As he approached the doorway he saw five more of the mummies piled one on top of the other in various positions impeding access to the room. When he got up on the door he found one more. This one was sitting against the wall to the right and a large pole jutting out from its ribcage for about a meter.

Stepping over the pile of bodies Josam kept his eye on the last one. He felt drawn to it, almost like it was calling to him. If it was not for the spear sticking out of him it looked like he just fell asleep and never woke up. His left hand lay on top of the shaft of the spear, but not clutching it. Instead it held a small picture. Time had eroded the image so that details could not been made out, but there were three human shaped forms within. In his right hand he still held a data reader, about the size of couple of lasgun cells fastened together.

Josam’s eyes were drawn to the reader. What kind of coin would this fetch out in the market place? He reached down, and as he pulled it free from the dead man’s hands he glanced up into his face. He looked so peaceful.

When the corpse’s hand fell from the data display the small screen lit up. Compulsively he looked at it and read the last words that this man had ever seen…

He trains my hands for war, so that my arms can bend a bow of bronze. You have given me the shield of your salvation, and your gentleness made me great. You gave a wide place for my steps under me, and my feet did not slip; I pursued my enemies and destroyed them, and did not turn back until they were consumed. I consumed them; I thrust them through, so that they did not rise; they fell under my feet. For you equipped me with strength for the battle; you made those who rise against me sink under me. You made my enemies turn their backs to me, those who hated me, and I destroyed them.

“Humph, it doesn’t look like your enemies were destroyed to me. It looks like you were the one being destroyed.” He said aloud to no one.

Once he secured the data reader in his pack he returned to the overturned truck. With out tools he was only able to procure a few broken pieces from the engine. He wanted to use them as evidence when he returned.
With those few trinkets he headed back to the surface and his fellow nomads.