Captain: Warpmancer Book Three by Nicholas Woode-Smith

Author:Nicholas Woode-Smith [Woode-Smith, Nicholas]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-05-18T18:30:00+00:00

“It is true of all wars that the only thing that is ever accomplished is the loss of more and more chess pieces.” –General Winston of the Trooper Order

Chapter 9. Truth

James could have pressed the Lector then and there, but he knew he had won the battle. The Lector would talk. With that victory, James risked collapsing under his own existential anxiety.

Psychopath.

Just a thief.

Murderer. Killer.

He wasn’t so different from the Lector and what hurt James the most was how easy that was to accept.

The Lector led him to an antique lounge area misplaced in such an alien, high-tech environment. A fibre rug allocated the area, topped with a mahogany table and two leather armchairs adorned with pin-striped pillows.

The Lector pressed some indicators on the holo-screen of his wrist-tab and a column of black rose from the floor nearby. It opened up to reveal a smoking kettle and some Trooper issue tin-mugs.

They sat down and the tea-set hovered towards them.

‘Tea?’ he offered. James accepted but didn’t drink.

After taking a sip, the Lector put down the mug and pinched the bridge of his nose.

‘There’s so much to say...perhaps best to start with the beginning. My name is Aven Smith. I fought in Ganymede and then served as a Wraith in, what has been called in the few circles that know about it, the Terra Excursion.’

James repressed his shock. Wraiths were the best of the best that the Troopers had to offer. Special operators who answered straight to the High Protector of the Trooper Order.

Aven seemed to look straight past James, into the void he so desired.

‘After Ganymede, the High Protector appointed a group of us, newly appointed Wraiths, to undertake a top-secret mission. You would have been a young boy after Ganymede ended, but even this close to the Outer Reach, you will have felt its effects. In Great Terra, in all the centres of human knowledge on Mars and across the human nations, historians began to hatch a theory. Until then, we thought that this was the first major attack by the enigmatic Imperials.’

His gaze snapped to James. ‘What do you know about Earth?’

‘The dead world? The mythical heaven of humanity?’

Aven frowned. ‘Not much then. Well, that is to be expected this far from the core worlds. Earth is the birthplace of humankind. It’s our homeworld.’

‘My homeworld is Zona Nox.’

Aven waved away the comment. ‘Stop thinking only about yourself for a second… Earth is the origin of the human race, but half a millennium ago, it was blighted by unknown aliens after a protracted war.’

‘Blighted?’

‘Rendered uninhabitable by warp storms. Its atmosphere was made toxic. Unbreathable. Everything inorganic was put into a stasis, guarded by visions of the past, future and the demonic. Warp has the ability to travel through space and time. It can carry images of what has happened and those attuned to it can glimpse at the lives of those long dead.’

James shifted uncomfortably in his seat. He didn’t like the mystical tone. He was an empiricist at heart. But this resonated with him, somehow.

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