“Little is known about the Ignis as a whole. Their origins are unknown, their motives and might remain a mystery. The sum total of Alliance knowledge about their race has been gleaned through their sole representative to the outside world. Duke Thanadon who first emerged onto the galactic stage in the post-Cold War era (circa. Modern Galactic Era [MGE] 6500).
It is unsure how much, if any Ignis culture is actually represented by his actions. However, his Colosseum Igni alone brings in revenue comparable to several mineral-rich star systems. Wherever the Igni homeworld may be in the uncharted zones, it is my true wish they remain withdrawn from galactic politics, lest we suffer the consequences.”
- A Treatise on Species Unknown by Professor Hetr, Archive File #P786D7G3S4387
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Chapter 1: Gladiator
Location: Uncharted Zones, Alliance Territory, 7843 MGE
The beating of my heart and the thrum of my Codex were the only sensations within the dark cell I found myself in. That and the pain of the too-tight shackles around my wrists and feet. No decorum these days – my captors hadn’t even the manners to ask my permission before so viciously chaining me in this dungeon.
Of course, if they had I would have said yes anyways.
I fancy myself a highbrow 'freelancer' – nothing like the common scum that populate these uncharted zones beyond the rigorously patrolled starways of the Alliance. This means that I set myself a higher bar when it comes to thievery. In this case, the infamous Duke Thanadon seemed like a good enough target.
The first step of this plan involved me getting myself captured as a slave-gladiator in his infamous Colosseum. And the next step–
Before I heard the noise, I felt the pulse of a mind and the weight of a soul. Rusted thoughts slipped and dissipated into the cognitive plane. With a flex, I strained my Codex to observe the thought run-off more closely.
A more specialised supersentient might have been able to peer beneath the ego and read the liquid thought beneath. I would have to settle for the natural excretion caused by an active mind. My astral sight was even more useless, unless I invoked an Edict here, though that seemed a little overkill for what appeared a simple warden.
A couple of seconds later, a clanking noise sounded out from down the hallway. I cracked my eyes open, grateful for the dim lighting as my eyes adjusted.
Looking around I was again disappointed in what I saw: rusted bars that seemed about to fall apart even though I had no intention of an escape attempt. I’d been in more secure cells on half-forgotten dust colonies and destitute scavenger fleets.
Although, I was sure that the real powerful gladiators were kept under more secure lock and key – I’d heard that some, despite buying their freedom, remained within the Colosseum to fight and kill and were granted residences near the Duke himself.
I made myself too easy to capture it seems. Oh well, it shouldn’t take too long in the arena before they realised their mistake and I could be ‘promoted’ to a ‘better room’. I couldn’t help a grin forming on my face when I sensed a thin film of annoyance coating the mind approaching.
“What’re you leering at, pirate scum?”, a voice squawked uncomfortably loudly within the confines of my cell.
"Pirate?", I grumbled, "I'm a freelancer. A freelancer. Not a lowly pirate"
"Yeah, sure. Whatever", the Warden replied with a leering grin characteristic of those who found themselves in a small position of power and just had to flex it.
I studied the Warden I was seeing for the first time - when I first arrived they had me drugged to Gartem-On and back.
It was a figure half-replaced with implants. Not the sleek kind of implants fashionable among the upper echelons nearer the core worlds, nor were they sporting the characteristic scorch marks of weapons-grade tech. It was closer almost to steam-powered machinery.
“What?”, it screeched disdainfully noticing my obvious stare, “Jealous? Only the Duke’s closest aides get these y’know”. The warden puffed himself up.
Somehow, I doubted the warden of the least secure cell was that close to the Duke himself, but I thought it best I kept that to myself.
“Never seen real Ignis tech before”, I spoke in what I hoped was a convincing enough assumption of the wide-eyed gullible fool I’d played to get captured in the first place.
“Yeah, well don’t get used to it”, he wheezed, “Doubt you’ll be around long enough to either way”. He shuffled around with a set of fobs before selecting one and pressing it against one of the bars. It rumbled and they raised into the ceiling with a loud grinding of gears.
“Am I being set free?”, I asked in a hopeful sounding way.
A guffaw echoed as he entered the cell, bending down to undo my shackles. “Not quite. You see, its time you pay the rent for your stay in our lovely accommodations. And we at the Colosseum only accept one currency”.
He paused to look me in the eyes and grinned maniacally, “Entertainment”.
He chuckled before bending down again, with an air of carelessness. He was well within reach if I were to try something. Suspicious, I glanced outside where I noticed a drone hovering silently in the far corner of the hallway, training its small muzzle on me without moving. Damn Codex hadn’t registered it. No soul or mind to detect in lifeless machines.
Its design held none of the superfluous tubing and glass like that of the warden. Only sleek, dull grey metal with a single barrel protruding ominously. I must have been staring intently as the Warden followed my gaze before speaking:
“What kinda pirate’s scared of a little harmless drone, eh?”, he mocked, “No worries: its only got a tranq dart, wouldn’t want the merchandise harmed would we?”
He looked me up and down. “Well, looking at the size of you, the needle might go in one side an’ out the other”. He wheezed another laugh at his own joke before standing back up and leaving the cell with a gesture to follow.
With a clang, the loosened shackles around my wrists and ankles fell to the floor as I stood up. Following the warden through the metallic guts of the Colosseum, I stretched my sore and stiff muscles.
My Codex only had limited Body Axis enhancements leaving me not that much physically stronger than the average human. Of course, my own implants had yet to be disabled, although I preferred those remain a trump card.
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Codex: Flux was uniquely suited to be easily hidden due to the inherently hard-to-detect nature of its tenets. Even a powerful pure Soul-axis Ascendant would find it hard to register my Codex in their astral sight.
It was always better to be fly under the radar in these parts, especially a lone pirate - I mean, freelancer like me. Had my Codex been flashier, I had no doubt I would have been captured and killed, or worse, long ago. My old man always said the tallest trees are the first to fall. Never seen a tree for myself, but I got the gist of what he meant. Even back then.
I was jolted out of my thoughts when I noticed the lights in the hallway dimming. Soon after, we had reached a rusted looking gate. I couldn’t help but think that The Duke really seemed very committed to the aesthetic of the ancient gladiatorial arenas so many civilisations had in their history.
The arena itself could have been drawn straight from a holo-flick. Red sand covered the ground while the surrounding bleachers were encompassed with an air dome, exposing the view of the starlit sky behind. The bleachers were several hundreds of metres tall, although of course, the real spectators were the hundreds of drones circling above, each with their own logo representing their streaming service.
I had no doubt trillions across the galaxy watched Duke Thanadon’s games regularly. Even I had watched some games on the holo a couple of times. Only the lucky few were there in person, and they were not shy about their enthusiasm.
Even with an empty arena, the roars of the crowd seemed to vibrate the entire stadium. And this was only the surface.
Closing my eyes briefly, I let the let the sounds wash over me and focused on my Codex. With a flex of will, I invoked [Edict: Influx] and the vertical line on my forehead opened like a third eye. I reeled as the wave of astral-psychic energy hit me like a physical force.
Opening my now-activated Truesight, I could see a veritable corona of energy rising from the stands. The sheer weight of the scarlet-tinged euphoria caused a well in the astral plane large enough any half-baked mystic would be able to sense it.
With [Influx] invoked, this otherwise-directionless energy flowed towards me and into the channels of my Codex like water down a drain.
It felt like pure electricity was injected into my veins except without the pain and with all of the energy. I hadn’t been this charged in months – it was rare I encountered such a large crowd so unified in the emotions they felt. My Codex veritably thrummed with power as its ethereal framework pulsed like an idling star-engine waiting to be put into gear. My heart began to race, infected by the euphoria I absorbed and my own excitement.
Despite my lurking tendencies, I always felt alive in situations like these. Not least because with [Influx] I was most acutely aware of life as I had ever been. Regaining my senses, I restrained myself. It would do no good to draw too much energy and be noticed by the wrong kinds of people.
My opponent looked to be hidden from sight in past the gate on the far side of the arena, though he could not escape my Truesight. Its soul was a grotesque abomination compared to that of a natural being. No doubt some chimera reject sold to the Colosseum for a pittance to recoup the cost of its creation. Its mind was dull. Encompassed only by rage – the flat and unchanging type clearly characteristic of stimulants. None of the sharp edges and ebbs and flows found in true anger.
I had no doubt about the outcome of this fight: my only problem was how. I needed to do enough to grab the attention of the Duke, but not enough that he became suspicious about me.
Anyways, this was not the time for planning. I already knew what I had to do and there was nothing left for me but to do it.
The warden, who had been silent up until this point, squawked as he toyed with the controls at the side of the gate.
“Not sure whether you’re lucky or not, but you’re the opening show”. He grinned maniacally, implants blowing steam, “Better not disappoint”.
With those parting words, he flicked the final switch, and the rusted hinges screamed as the gate opened laboriously outwards as I took my first steps onto the arena.
The sand was soft beneath my bare feet. It was only a thin layer – enough that I could feel the cold stone beneath. Now that I was in view of the crowd, a different kind of pressure encompassed me. Enough that I wouldn’t have had to be a psychic to feel. The deafening roars, the blinding lights. The pain in my wrists and ankles a continuous reminder of my own powerlessness. A clever trick, no doubt. But the Duke would have to try harder than that to put me off my game.
I grinned and raised my hands, looking towards the crowd. The roars reached a crescendo as a booming voice sounded out.
“Ladies, Gentlemen, Sentients. We welcome you all to the Colosseum Igni. Here, under the protective shield of our Duke Thanadon, the ancient gladiatorial bloodsports of the Ignis are shared with ‘civilised’ society. Ignis or not, we all crave ENTERTAINMENT”
The crowd roared its approval as drones flicked towards the VIP box in the hopes of a glimpse of the Duke himself. The Ignis announcer continued:
“Our evolution perfected violence, our genes encode wrath. Without further ado, LET. THE. GAMES. BEGIN!”.
At the announcer’s signal, the gate at the other side of the circular arena, some fifty metres away, opened. I waited in baited breath to see the physical form of the creature. Darkly coloured scales covered a body rippling in muscle. It stood on four heavy set legs, with two more limbs as ‘arms’. Each of them ended in three gleaming claws. No doubt some carbon bioweave. A single swing of those monstrous limbs would be enough to gut me from head to toe.
Its tail was thick and corded, covered in dark green spines that grated against the floor as it dragged. The head of the chimera sported four beady eyes glazed over in the characteristic manner of a braindead beast. Its mouth was open, slobbering saliva through several rows of teeth that steamed and hissed as it melted through the sand into the stone below.
It would take barely a flex of mental effort for me to kill its mind and extinguish its soul. But that was not the play today.
Abruptly, I looked to my left as a drone from the sky flew down and dropped an object at my feet. A small sword with no crossguard. It was the same colour as the sand – no doubt the Ignis held some obvious appreciation for ‘red’.
Keeping an eye on the beast before me, I raised a hand to my anonymous sponsor before kneeling down and picking it up. It was heavy for a one-handed sword – not metal, some type of indigenous volcanic rock of the Ignis homeworld no doubt.
I was out of time – the chimera had noticed me. It pawed the ground before charging at me with thunderous steps. Fifty metres may seem far, but the chimera accelerated far faster than a creature of its size should have been able to.
Within a split second, I threw myself to the side, narrowly avoiding its outstretched claws while scoring my blade along its side. No luck. The scales were clearly weapons-grade bioweave. No doubt even shots from a blaster wouldn’t get through.
The chimera had righted itself fairly quickly and was eyeing me from a distance. Its eyes held a semblance of intelligence: it knew enough that those reckless charges would do little.
It was my initiative. The energy absorbed by [Influx] still flowed through my Codex and I channelled it towards my legs. Crouching, I exploded forward in bounding steps. The chimera seemed surprise by my sudden burst in speed.
However, just as I got in close, it reared back on its hind legs, freeing up two more limbs to swing at me. I dodged two with quick footwork and deflected the third before disengaging, narrowly avoiding the fourth.
My hand holding the blade was sore from the clash. Matching it in physical strength wasn’t going to work. However, I saw its weakness. A thin discolouration around its neck. Perhaps an old surgical would that failed to heal. Either way, it was too good an opportunity to pass up. I needed a way to make it vulnerable. I knelt on one knee, pretending to be worn out.
The chimera was watching from a distance seemingly cautious, but the chemically-induced rage won against its reason as it charged again with a resounding roar.
I stayed still. Twenty metres. I tensed my legs. Ten metres. With a split second to go, I activated my second [Edict: Efflux] and sent a wave of psychic energy to disrupt its coordination. With five metres to go, I saw its limbs twitch, tripping over nothing as it collapsed into the sand.
In a last-ditch attempt, it shot out its head towards me, its eyes maddened beyond reason. Its jaws loomed in my face as they snapped shut with a deafening crack.
But the beast had missed. I had slipped under its jaw and sliced the blade across its unguarded neck where its old wound had healed badly. Hot blood spewed outward as the chimera convulsed and collapsed on top of me.
Straining, I threw it off and staggered to my feet. I placed one foot on the fallen beast and raised my arms triumphantly, covered head to toe in gore and with a gleaming red blade in hand.
The crowd’s emotions had reached a climax in my final confrontation, and their ecstasy boiled over onto me. A sense of relief followed the high of the adrenaline, though the pure energy still in my Codex prevented any exhaustion overcoming me. If anything, I felt even stronger than before.
“A FABULOUS KILL. AND A FINE OPENING MATCH”, the announcer roared, “PERHAPS WE HAVE THE MAKINGS OF A NEW CHAMPION CONTENDER?
“EITHER WAY, HE HAS UNDERGONE THE BAPTISM OF BLOOD. AS IS OUR WAY, HE IS REBORN A GLADIATOR OF THE COLOSSEUM”
I felt the sand vibrate beneath my feet as the crowd roared in response as one:
“FOR BLOOD AND GLORIOUS DEATH”