Chapter 123: Equine Reach (Part 2)
Kian pressed Parson for more details. Were there other villages? Other "pockets" of rot? Parson shook his head. Equine Reach was the only one.
That confirmed it. Equine Reach was ground zero—the source of a Warp-taint that hadn't yet reached its "bloom" phase. Kian knew the location. He stood up, ready to mount his Survey Crawler and conduct a high-speed audit.
Parson immediately stepped into his path, his expression desperate. "Lord Voss! You cannot go! That place is a festering wound in reality. If you enter that stench, your soul will be liquidated! You won't return!"
Kian sidestepped him with a confident smirk. "Relax, Parson. People usually don't come back from places like that because they don't have my... 'insurance policy.' I've walked through worse fire than a stinking village. I'm going."
Parson grabbed his arm, but this time it wasn't to stop him. "Lord, if you must go, you cannot take the machine. Between here and the Reach, there are several other Secessionist cells. They aren't all as 'diplomatic' as we are. If they see a Mid-Hive vehicle tearing across the plains, they'll assume it's a PDF scout and hit you with everything they have."
Parson led Kian to the camp's stables and pulled out a massive, obsidian-black Cyber-Steed.
"Take the mount," Parson said. "A rider is just a traveler. No one will bar your path. This beast is bio-tuned for endurance; she can cover the distance faster than any crawler in this terrain."
Kian nodded, mounting the saddle. The beast's neck was corded with synthetic muscle, and its eyes had a dull, orange bionic glow. "Move out!" Kian commanded.
The horse didn't just trot; it exploded into a gallop. These bio-modified animals were a staple of Agri-World logistics, capable of sustaining high speeds by metabolizing raw protein. In an hour, Kian covered fifty kilometers of rugged terrain.
He reached a shallow river and signaled the mount to slow down. He needed to let the beast hydrate and check his own "Energy" bars.
As the horse drank, a few peasants in tattered work-smocks approached the river with buckets. They looked like local subsistence farmers. Kian offered a friendly nod and a Lho-stick to the eldest man.
"Greetings, brothers. I'm from the Silas Cell. My kinsman went to Equine Reach to trade for horses and hasn't returned. I'm heading there to find him. Any news of the road?"
The farmers froze. The buckets clattered into the water. The old man looked at Kian with eyes full of ancestral terror.
"Traveler from the stars, hear my warning," the old man whispered. "Turn your beast. Ride until your lungs burn, but do not look North. Equine Reach... it is no longer part of the world of men. It is a charnel house where the dead refuse to sleep. Do not go, or you will become a maggot in their feast!!"
Without another word, the peasants scrambled away, abandoning their water buckets in their haste to put distance between themselves and the man heading for the "Village of Rot."
Kian's brow furrowed. A taboo zone. He pushed the Cyber-Steed harder, covering another twenty kilometers before he hit the real obstacle.
A massive rebel blockade.
"HALT! NO TRANSIT! IDENTIFY OR BE PURGED!"
A swarm of rebels—nearly a hundred of them—surged from hidden trenches, leveling their pipe-rifles and scavenged stubbers at Kian.
Kian dismounted, keeping his hands visible. He handed out Lho-sticks and gave them the same story about his missing kinsman. The rebels didn't relax; if anything, they looked more pained.
"Your cousin is ash, Scavenger," a sergeant barked. "Nothing comes out of the Reach. We've established a total quarantine for thirty kilometers in every direction. Orders from the High Command are absolute: If it moves, if it crawls, if it breathes coming from the North—kill it."
The sergeant leaned in, his voice shaking. "We don't just block the road. We are a burial detail waiting for the world to end. Do not slip past us, traveler. If you enter that zone, you are an 'Unclean' element. We will shoot you the moment you try to return. Go home."
Kian realized the Secessionists were more tactically aware than he'd given them credit for. They had recognized the biological threat of the Warp-taint and were trying to starve it out with a human wall. It was a heroic, desperate measure that was likely the only reason the whole planet wasn't currently a Nurgle-garden.
Kian didn't argue. He turned his mount around and rode back until he was out of their sight.
He dismounted and patted the Cyber-Steed's neck. "Remember the way home, girl?"
The horse gave a surprisingly human-like nod. Kian pulled two Sanctified Rations from his bag and fed them to the beast. The horse whinnied in delight, the "Holy Aura" of the wafers making its orange eyes glow with a momentary brilliance.
"Good girl. Go back to Parson."
The horse lingered for a second, then galloped south, disappearing into the tall grain.
Kian stood alone in the fallow fields. He reached into his rig and prepped his "Buff-Stack." He cracked an Adrenal Surge (Strength), an Endurance Bolster, and took a long, burning swig of Sanctified Amasec.
[COGITATOR STATUS: TRANSHUMAN PEAK]
Strength: 23 | Endurance: 23 | Mental Clarity: 30
He felt like a god standing in the dirt. His perception was so sharp he could hear the heartbeat of a field-mouse two hundred meters away. He dove into the tall crops, moving with the silent, predatory grace of a leopard.
He watched the rebel patrol patterns. Using his enhanced speed, he waited for the split-second gap when two squads turned their backs to one another. He exploded across the "Death Zone," a grey blur in the twilight, and vanished into the restricted territory before the first sentry could even blink.
The quarantine was breached. Kian Voss was now walking into the heart of the rot.
☆☆☆
-> 20 Advanced chapters Now Available on Patreon!!
-> https://www.pat-reon.co-m/c/Inkshaper
(Just remove the hyphen (-) to access patreon normally)
If you like this novel please consider leaving a review that's help the story a lot Thank you