Confused with the information being displayed to him he dismissed them for another time. Tem looked at the scene before him. He looked to be in a small cave with a low light source coming from the entrance about twenty feet ahead. Tem looked behind him, freezing in confusion. Where there was an omnipresent fog and an indeterminate barrier on the other side now only rock remained.
Feeling the rock Tem notices that it feels nothing like the barrier from the other side. What kind of tech is this? Carefully inspecting the rocks in the area provided no clues as nothing seemed to be out of place. Tem placed his fingers on the rock wall, moving it up with the grooves and bumps. Feeling the minute textures of the rock Tem tried to determine some kind of irregularity. He moved his fingers around the wall in a clockwise fashion noting the bumps and grooves as he moved. There was something here, it was only a hunch, a hunch that itched at the back of his mind like a nasty bug bite.
One hour later Tem cursed. “Damnit this is getting me nowhere.” He mumbled. Frustrated he moved towards the entrance. Tem leaned outside the entrance taking in the view. The cave appeared to be situated extremely high up a mountain. Looking at the landscape spread before him he gasped in surprise. A gigantic sea of blood red was spread out before him like the blood of countless murder scenes in the countless back alleys of the countless cities in the known galaxies of man. Where is that red coming from? He concentrated on the patch of red closest to his location. Tem’s vision came into focus and he found himself looking at a blood red tree. Completely red, with red leaves and a red trunk. He found this fact very interesting as most planets with trees usually had ones with green leaves due to photosynthesis, a common evolutionary path for plant like organisms. Interesting but he was no biologist, he would leave The conclave’s biologists a note about this. No doubt that lot would find something useful about them to add to the DNA vault banks. Tem was left agog at the vastness spread before him. “A gigantic forest on a planet inhabited by humans?” An impossibility to be sure, for wherever humans colonized deforestations always followed. No logging drones or resource scout drones to be seen anywhere. This planet must be on the frontier for there to be such a wealth of the wilderness to be left untouched. He thought. Tem estimated that he was approximately 200 feet from the ground, too high to contemplate a straight drop especially in the uncertain situation that he was currently in. No telling how long he would be in the wilderness after all.
Steeling himself Tem turned around and started climbing down the mountain. Maintaining his hand grip on the ledge of the cave entrance he probed with his feet for potential footholds. Finding suitable anchor points, he maintained his grip on the cave ledge with his left hand. Using his free right hand, he lowered it to halfway between his chest and waist level probing for a good handhold. In this manner always maintaining at least three anchor points and using his legs for the rock climb, Tem descended 20 feet down. He was about to continue downward when he noticed another cave entrance that was embedded deeper into the rock face to his lower right. Carefully he made his way over to the cave entrance and peered into it.
Tem saw a slightly larger man sized cave with a makeshift door consisting of a large piece of red wood overlaid over the cave tunnel where it narrowed. Curious he slid carefully into the cave conscious of his landing to make as little sound as possible. The wind up here was starting to pick up so he didn’t think that even if anyone was actually on the other side they would have been able to hear him even if he were much clumsier. Tem inched his way further inwards towards the makeshift door stopping just inches from the barrier. He cast his eyes over the barrier scanning for any holes that might let him see what was on the other side. Finding a small one-inch hole on the lower right side of the barrier, Tem lowered his ear as close to the hole as possible without exposing it to line of sight. Concentrating Tem listened closely trying to find the telltale signs of a human presence. He exhaled and held his breath minimizing the sound from his own respiration and froze scrutinizing his hearing. Had anyone been watching this scene for the past ten minutes they would have mistaken Tem as a very detailed lifelike statue that is until he minutely moved his head ever so slightly adjusting the angle by 2 degrees. There! Tem thought. Deep heavy breathing. A telltale sign of someone sleeping. He could only just pick up the sound meaning whoever was there was quite a way from the entrance. Tem edged his eyes downward as slow as a lethargic snail towards the hole. When he was in position he peered into the other side. There was a room about 20 by 20 feet at their widest points, it was dimly lit with a torch that was embedded in the rock. A rough table consisting of a flattish piece of wood with big stones as support pieces was in the center. He could not see the person he heard earlier due to the position of the hole but could clearly make out their feet clad in some rough leather boots. Surmising that the person was at the very end of the room he had to be swift. The makeshift door was angled so that the top part of it was lying against the narrower top part of the rock wall giving Tem a possible route to enter undetected.
Grabbing the lower right hand corner of the ‘door’ Tem angled it upwards slightly then stopping listening for signs of detection. Hearing none he continued another inch and again fixated on any sounds of alarm, again negative confirmation, he continued. He repeated these actions until he could safely squeeze his way under the barrier. Slowly he inched his way forward in a squat, periodically examining the sound emanating in the room. When he was directly under the barrier in his squat he lowered himself so that he was sitting on the rocky floor. Tem inched his legs forward while he kept the barrier from announcing his presence with his hands. Tem pondered that the barrier was meant for at least two people to operate for it easily weighed 100 kilograms, luckily for him he was no ordinary human. When he reached far enough into the room with his legs he lowered the barrier while getting on his back. Pausing for a minute to gauge his detection, he moved into a prone position when he heard no cause for excitement. Tem moved toward the sleeping person slowly but methodically like a snake weaving through the grass periodically tasting the air for its prey. When he reached the point just prior to cresting into the line of sight past the rough table he peered past it at the sleeper. A tan bearded man in rough leathers was seated on a wooden chair sound asleep with a rough wooden spear resting in his arms.
Tem slinked his way closer to the man and surveyed the area beyond him. There was a door about 5 feet behind him, this time an actual door and not just a large piece of wood. He creeped his way behind the man and towards the door, then pressing his ear on it he listened for activity. Nothing… Tem turned back to the man, deciding that a small bit of noise would be an acceptable risk. He walked behind the soundly sleeping man with light steps and placed his left forearm directly in front of his neck then moved it further so that the crook of his arm was in front of his Adam’s apple. Imperceptibly quick, he brought his right elbow on top of the man’s right shoulder arm pointing to the ceiling, pulled the crook of his left arm to the man’s throat, then grabbed his right bicep with his left hand. He moved his right hand down to palm the back of his victim’s head and then started constricting his jugular vein. The man started to splutter in alarm trying to grab Tem’s arms to relieve the pressure buildup in his head dropping his spear in the process. The chair made a skidding noise as they struggled, the man tried to stand up but Tem maintained his hold while lowering himself into a kneeling position multiplying his force with that of gravity. The man was panicking attempting to lacerate his assailant with his fingernails which proved to be as futile as a luddite trying to stay the course of history by destroying cotton mills.
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The man’s once active resistance puttered into the equally useless slaps of a child. Once he was on the brink of a more forceful sleep, Tem loosened his hold just enough so that the victim could catch a shallow breath. “Listen to me. Slap my arm once if you can understand me.” A few seconds passed with the man taking shallow breaths, then when Tem thought he had his answer he felt a weak slap on his left elbow.
“Good. I don’t know if there are more of you close by so we will remain in this position. You will slap my arm once to indicate in the affirmative and twice for negative. Understood?”
Slap.
“I have questions; you will provide answers, yes?” He hissed.
Slap.
“Are there more than three people in the nearest room from here?”
Slap. Slap.
“Two, then?”
Slap.
“Are you part of a rotation? Is somebody coming to relieve you?”
Slap.
“Within the hour?”
Slap. Slap.
“Are the men close by armed similarly to you with spears?”
Slap.
“Good, I am pleased with your cooperation. I will return shortly.”
The man pathetically struggled as Tem renewed his constriction, quickly bringing his victim to losing consciousness. He lowered the man to the floor and removed his rough leathers clothing? Hmm, these seem to be more than just clothes, some type of protective wear? Perhaps, the man did have a spear. How primitive… Did these humans lose their tech somehow? More questions to answer, but first he needed to take care of the potential threats in the nearby room. He placed the armor on the table and picked the man up. Moving to the makeshift door, he deposited the man on the floor, then removed the barrier. Placing the man on the other side of the door he then closed it. Were he to regain consciousness he would not be able to remove that door on his own. Tem thought about wearing the armor but decided against it as the unfamiliar articles might have idiosyncrasies that might give him away like making a creaking noise at some inopportune time. He made his way to the inner door and listened for footsteps. Not picking up anything he opened the door and sidled down the corridor slowing down significantly when he came to the nearest room. Slowly getting close he heard the sound of laughter. Coming to a standstill Tem positioned his ear to as close to the entrance as he could and listened.
“Last crop had a redheaded beauty, too bad she was as crazy as they come. Drained the bitch on the spot.”
“I don’t fucking get it if we’s gonna drain em anyways why the fuck can’t it wait a bit so’s we can have some fun, eh?”
“Cuz Dracker says so, and I ain’t gonna fucking tell im no!”
“Nothing doing, let’s just make sure the next time we catch a beauty we just take our time telling im, hmm?”
“Nah, bad idea you pan dripping. Them shamans always know when something’s up.”
“Fuck me! Forgot about those mumbo jumbo twats…”
“When’s the next fix?”
“Calm down, it’s tomorrow. Stop talking about it it’s making me anxious…”
“Fuck I don’t see why we can’t have it a day early? What’s it matter for fuck’s sake?!”
“Dracker’s our enforcer… Go ahead and ask him. I’ll claim your fix when he’s done with ya.”
“Fuck off!”
“I’m gonna take a nap, so keep it down you drippers.”
“Yeah yeah, when are you ever awake?”
The conversation dropped off and Tem waited ten more minutes before risking a peek into the room. A room much like the other with a makeshift table in the center and three men sitting around it. One man had his back to Tem with his head down, apparently the one sleeping. There was a middle aged man on the right of the table with his feet up relaxing, then there was the large man who was staring right into Tem’s eyes!
Left without a choice in the matter Tem rushed into the room coming up behind and to the right of the man sleeping with his back to him. Tem threw a powerful left hook snapping his hips to add to his momentum, the force was so great the snapping of neck bones could be heard as his victim collapsed to the floor. Something flashed in Tem’s lower right hand field of view but not seeing a threat he put it out of his mind continuing on to the man to his right. He was so fast the man was still in a relaxed position with his feet propped up on the table which made it easy for Tem to push off his left foot and leap into the air bringing his right knee up to collide with his victim’s left temple with an audible thunk. Tem continued in his trajectory landing just two feet from the last man who was up and pointing his spear at him. Tem had to back away as the man went on an energetic offensive, sidestepping left and right to avoid being impaled, he jumped over a corpse and landed on the other side of it with his right foot stomping down on its head with a pounding force like a gravel pounder ensuring the corpse stayed that way. Conclave instruction was clear, ensure that death is always permanent. Tem’s adversary was coming around to get in range to strike, but Tem had other plans, bending down to take hold of the corpse’s discarded spear he gripped the unfamiliar weapon attempting to mimic his opponent. Tem never trained using a spear before as nobody has ever used such a primitive weapon in hundreds of years now. Taking a step back Tem hoisted the weapon into the air catching it with his right hand just at the level above his head then heaved throwing his whole body into the motion, with a blur the spear traveled the short distance to impale the man spilling a tremendous amount of gore on the floor as it continued its trajectory straight thru the man to embed itself into the wall. Confused and in shock the man dropped his weapon and grabbed at his own entrails that were spilling on the floor and attempted to stuff them back in, kneeling he futilely tried to do something anything to save his life. Having dealt with the last possible threat Tem made his way over to the first corpse and stomped its head to pulp and looked over at the stubbornly alive man who had started to weep as his movements became more and more sluggish. In a monotone voice Tem said “Have the dignity to know when you’re dead.”