Sinners of Tyre: Act 1 Chapter 3

Space around the Bas'Ilean homeworld was bustling with freighters traversing on renewed, post-war trade routes, as well as whole formations of warships. The Imperial Manufactoria were experiencing increased demand for repairs, since every single one of the ships taking part in the defence of Bas'Ilean space was severely damaged. Sch'Lvya looked out of the window of the hypertrain, getting the hang of her new eyes. Able to zoom in and out, she could focus on each singular ship in close proximity of the orbital ring. Her perception has been somewhat altered as well, since brain implants increased the processing power of her neurons, she could momentarily slow down time, or at least her perception of its flow. It caused her a certain sting in her head, but in turn, she could focus on spaceships outside and scan them for publicly available details, despite the immense speed of the train she was in.

- Hey Schee. - Na'Rov's voice beckoned her.

- Yeah? - She turned her head, however forgot to zoom out her eyes, causing Na'Rov's face to fill her field of vision, startling her. - Gah!

- I know I'm handsome, but please, calm down. - He chuckled.

- Very funny. - Sch'Lvya rubbed her closed eyes, resetting the zoom. - What's up?

- You've been staring out for quite a while now.

- Getting the hang of my new eyes. - She smiled shyly. - Shipspotting was a bit of my hobby, back on Bas'Aqash.

- Didn't know that! - He returned the smile. - With those new eyes you don't need binoculars anymore.

- You wanted to ask me something? - She tilted her head.

- I'm hungry. - With a click of a button, Na'Rov extended a holographic screen out of the table. - Want me to order you anything?

- No, thanks. - She shook her head.

- Miss Assault Drone doesn't need food? - He giggled to himself. - Come on, you haven't eaten in 6 months, you deserve a treat.

- You and your sense of humour. - Sch'Lvya softly facepalmed, shaking her head again. - Fine, have it your way, chocolate-peanut protein block if you please, garçon.

- They didn't mess up your taste buds either, great! - He clicked several times on the screen in front of him.

- I suppose they didn't. - She nodded and looked out of the window again.

- Is something wrong?

- I shouldn't be here. - Sch'Lvya looked at her reflection in the mirror.

- Oh come on Schee, that's not true. - Na'Rov hid the screen after finishing making an order. - You saved everyone on Qar'Ma, we would either be dead or enslaved by now, if not for you.

- That's correct, but I was already dead.

- Schee...

- Don't "Schee" me, you know it's true.

- You want to tell me that... You've seen her?

Sch'Lvya turned to face Na'Rov, tilted her head and lowered her eyebrows.

- Her...?

- Mother of all... - His hand took hold of her forearm, however it shivered as their scales touched each other. - Your spirit was in the Meadow...

Na'Rov went silent, holding Sch'Lvya's arm, slowly looking into her eyes.

- Why are you looking at me like that? - She waved her hand in front of his eyes, but that didn't influence him at all.

- Unbelievable...

- You mean... - She looked back into his eyes. - This wasn't a dream...?

- I've heard legends and mythos in old songs and tales, about individuals... chosen by the Great Serpent, in one way or another.

- Chosen...? What do you mean?

- I... I'm not sure, I was only an acolyte at one of the Serpentariums, I didn't spend enough time on studying due to the war.

- Serpentariums... You mean like the temple on Bas'Toroq?

- Precisely, there is quite a few on each Imperial world, but on Bas'Toroq, there is an unusual amount of them. Each has a Pontifex, elder scholar who spent centuries on studying milennia-old scrolls and tomes, to learn what our kind ever knew about the Meadow, and try to reach out to the Great Serpent herself. I haven't heard about a sucessful contact, but apparently you spoke with her, somehow, maybe you could get one of them to share their insight?

- I guess... I guess it's worth a try. - She rubbed back of her head. - Is there one nearby the Imperial Complex?

- Is there? Ha! - Na'Rov chuckled. - You speak like as if you never been there.

- Well... I may have been hatched on the homeworld. - Sch'Lvya crossed her arms. - But as a hatchling, I was taken along with my clan to Bas'Aqash.

- I see, well, you're in for some grand architecture, the Serpentarium Maximum on Bas'Ilea is the largest of them all, with several Pontifexi researching the Meadow there.

Suddenly, steps on the carpet caught Sch'Lvya's attention. Almost as if her senses grew more sensitive, she heard paws, instead of claws smoothly gliding through the floor. She turned to face the approaching person, but as soon as she did, a thin, upright fox-like servant, carrying a tray with protein blocks was about to trip on her tail. Perception of time in the serpent's mind seemingly changed, as world around her slowed down. The servant was around a meter tall, vixen covered in soft cream coloured fur was wearing a shirt and skirt in a black-blue colour scheme. Almost sustained in air, with the tray, plates and food flying upwards alongside her, she had a terrified outlook on her face, visible past a plastic breathing apparatus. Sch'Lvya quickly moved in to catch the falling canine with one arm and with other, she grabbed the tray and caught the protein blocks, one after another.

- Woah! - Na'Rov clapped his hands in surprise, after seeing what to him was a show of lightning fast reaction time. - Impressive!

- M-my lady! I-I'm so s-sorry..! - The servant shiverred and squeeled, her long, bushy tail curled around her digitigrade legs and her big ears folded into cream hairs of her wavy mane.

- There, there, It's alright. - Sch'Lvya would carefully set the tray down on the table, before consoling the servant with a set of head pats.

- I apologize from the bottom of my heart... - Her ears perked up and her tail began to slowly wave side to side in delightful response to the patting.

- Apologies accepted, little one. - Serpent smiled warmly, then sighed and held her temples.

- My lady, are you okay?

- Yeah... I'm okay... - Sch'Lvya's vision became grainy, then refreshed, a shiver went through her body afterwards.

- Schee, your... your nose is bleeding. - Na'Rov mentioned, leaning in closer.

- T-there, please rest. - The canine pulled a tissue out of her shirt's pocket and handed it to Sch'Lvya.

Serpent leaned back into the seat while putting the tissue to her nose. It would seem her cybernetic augments are having issues in cooperating with her body, just as the doctor feared. Overwhelming upgrades and cybernetics however seem to be limited by some form of safety fuses, to not fry her brain before it's able to get used to all the powerful fixtures.

- You look a bit pale, are you sure you're okay? - Her compatriot showed a seed of doubt.

- Most systems are operational, scans didn't show anything severe, just need a moment to reboot all subsystems. - She spoke almost robotically.

- No, Schee, I'm asking about you. - He reached his hand and layed it upon on her shoulder, gently rubbing it.

- It's... It's just a headache. - She shook her head, holding her temples.

- I don't need my own cybernetics to tell you're not okay. - He crossed his arms and looked at her. - Seems like some shoddy craftsmanship, for the amount of credits they spent on you.

- No, It's not that, I'll be fine... I just need time, my... body needs time to iron out all the kinks. - Sch'Lvya sighed, clearing her scaley muzzle from blood. - Just need time...

- And some water, miss... - The fox set a glass of water on the table, she must've gotten it while Sch'Lvya was running diagnostics. - If you allow me to intrude of course...

- Thank you. - She took a deep sip of the cold water, refreshing her mind and sighing deeply. - Would you like to join us for a moment?

- Oh...? Of course miss! It'd be a pleasure and an honour to serve you with companionship. - She barked happily and climbed the seat beside Sch'Lvya. - Anything I can do for you ma'am?

- Tell me about yourself, I'm curious. - Serpent leaned against the table and looked down to the canine. - I've never seen anyone of your kind.

- You never seen a Vulpesian before? - Na'Rov asked, almost bewildered.

- A Vulpesian? - Sch'Lvya tilted her head. - I did hear that name before, just haven't seen a single one on Bas'Aqash.

- My name is Dahlia. - She said smiling widely and wagging her tail while standing on top of her seat, being just over a meter tall, she didn't even get to eye level with the serpents despite standing up. - Faithful servant of the Imperium, ever since coming from Ferrilata.

- I gotta say, Dahlia, your Bas'Ilean is very fluent, I don't even have to use my auto translate chip! - Na'Rov made a remark on vixen's linguistic skills. - How do you manage to learn an alien language?

- Thank you sir. - She gave him a deep bow and smiled. - It's quite natural for our kind, we're quick learners.

- What made you leave your homeworld, doesn't your kind have close ties with each other? - Na'Rov asked, while pulling in his plate, with a quite large protein block, smelling quite strongly of bacon.

- You're not wrong, sir. - She curled her fluffy tail at her hind paws. - I wish for pups of my pups to have a good life, in safety and prosperity.

- That's what made you take up a servitude contract, I presume? - Sch'Lvya flickered her tounge.

- Yes, ma'am. - Dahlia nodded, making her big ears flop down and perk up right afterwards. - For half a decade already.

- Five years? And how old are you, little one? - Na'Rov said, before swallowing a piece of the block, quite alike earthly snakes.

- I'm going to turn eight on next cycle... - She rubbed back of her head.

- Eight?! - Sch'Lvya almost choked on water she sipped on. - You left your homeworld before turning three?

- Apologies ma'am, but that's perfectly normal. - Dahlia smiled, blushing softly. - Our kind isn't as long lived as yours, venerable serpents.

- At three, we don't even have legs or arms yet! - Na'Rov let out a belly laugh.

- You don't...? Woah... - Canine widened her eyes in shock. - I've never seen a baby Bas'Ilean.

- I doubt you'll ever be able to, hatcheries are almost sacred, as we are fertile about once a decade. - Sch'Lvya leaned into her backrest. - Every hatching is very important, and most of them happen here, on our homeworld.

- I bet miss was a very beautiful hatchling. - Dahlia smiled widely.

- Yeah, maybe a hundred years ago. - Na'Rov laughed, smiling at Sch'Lvya afterwards, who shook her head.

As the train made its way along the orbital ring, the horizon transitioned from the blues of the ocean, to tall spires of the Imperial Capital. The Bas'Ilean homeworld housed over a trillion inhabitants in its whole landmass spanning, layered ecumenopolis topped with cloud puncturing sky scrapers and numerous continental shelf sea-spires. Homeworld of the serpentkind was humid and on the warmer side, lacking polar caps due to its climate and industrial pollutants, global warming was stopped through technological advancement in past centuries before runaway greenhouse effect was caused. Limited landmass of small continents and archipelagos was fully taken over by the Bas'Ilean metropolises. Layers upon layers of concrete, steel and glass buildings housed the population, the richer the strata, the higher it lived, while at the crown of the ecumenopolis was the pristine celestial district where nobility of entire imperium engaged in hedonistic activities in artificially seeded parks and plazas, inbetween kilometer tall sky scrapers. The only place seemingly missing from it was the monumental complex where Bas'Ilissa along with the Imperial Council of oldest and most influencial nobles and aristocrats governed and ruled over the entire interstellar Imperium, palace which was located away from the ecumenopolis, on a massive artificially constructed island, guarded by the terrestrial units of imperial navy.

Squalor of poor and industrial undercity depths, covered in constant darkness and artificial lighting was hidden hundreds of meters underneath the prosperous commercial zones which basked in the sunlight. Those luckier ones lived in the tall sea scrapers and massive marinas surrounding them. Sea buildings away from layered land ecumenopolis efficently worked on acquiring ocean's gifts and boons in form of various foods from sea creatures as tiny as the terran shrimp, to megafauna several times the size of a cetacean leviathans. Taking advantage of almost infinite food source allowed for the Bas'Ilean homeworld to be almost fully self sufficent. This autarchy was successfully tested during the long war with the Draghodii Hierarchate, which brought death and annihilation to a lot of rural serpent-ruled planets. Seafloor also provided megatons of metals, minerals and countless geothermal vents which fueled local industries. Deuterium rich waters of the planet were used to fuel fusion reactors all around the globe, supported by tidal turbines, they powered the immense energetic needs of entire population and the massive industry. The oceans of Bas'Ilea were the "heart", which fueled the Imperium with "blood", without them, there would be no serpentkind, and the culture of the Bas'Ileans reflected that. Oceanic depths were told to be the home of the Great Serpent herself, making the civilized snakes respect it as their ancient birthplace and despite complete seafloor scans disproving theistic beliefs, serpentine thalasstic cult was still the main religion in the Imperium.

Upright mammal-reptiles that evolved into what we now call the Bas'Ilean serpentkind, came from just those waters, originating from large, air breathing sea serpent group of creatures. The most successful of those precursors left oceanic depths and continental shelves for wide rivers of the limited landmasses of their planet. Over millions of years, serpents shrank to their current size, their miniscule fins evolved into arms and legs, their soft, moisture requiring skin grew scales, allowing for a more amphibious lifestyle. Through big brain required to memorize all rivers, nesting and hunting sites, came sapience allowing the almost crocodillian animal to quickly dominate its environment. Bas'Ileans known nowadays originated from just those animals, when the serpentine-crocodile-like beings started to rise on their hind legs and utilize basic tools to create a cradle for civilization now spanning a large slice of the galaxy.

- Say, Dahlia, you've been eyeing my plate for a while now. - Sch'Lvya looked down to the Vulpesian.

- I'm so sorry... How rude of me... - Embarassed, she blushed up and curld her tail around her. - I've been focusing on providing food for my pups, going hungry myself...

- No need to be sorry. - Serpent, using her claw, cut the block in half and offered it to the Vixen. - Here, I insist.

- Your generosity knows no bounds. - Dahlia barked happily and wagged her tail, biting hungrily on her portion. - Thank you so much, benevolent mistress.

Sch'Lvya smiled, nodding softly, eating her half of the block. Soon, detailed view of one of the orbital ring's tethers appeared through the window. Massive station around Bas'Ilea was connected with the surface by two space elevators, which beside anchoring lifter wenches for exchanging goods, also served as columns for vacuum train tubes. Motion dampeners kept the train stable as it change its trajectory from regular, orbitting tubes, to ones leading straight down to the surface and back. Energy accumulated by slowing down a train through its descent was saved and then used to catapult another train from the surface and back to the orbit ring with just a tiny addition of energy.

- We're about to begin descent. - Aq'Sal entered the room with the clank of his armour. - I'd recommend seatbelts.

- Ah sheesh, just as I finished eating. - Na'Rov sighed and shook his head.

- Thank you again, benevolent mistress, I shall head to the steward room now. - Dahlia smiled warmly to Sch'Lvya, then jumped off of the couch, by accident right in front of Aq'Sal, she bowed deeply to him, once she regained her footing. - I apologize, your excellence.

- Scram, warmblood. - He shooed the vixen away, who obediently left the room. - Apologies for not being present during the journey, needed to combat imperial bureaucracy again.

- Why so? - Sch'Lvya tilted her head and raised an eyebrow, while clipping in a seatbelt, normally hidden in the seat.

- Hmm... how to phrase it... - Aq'Sal rubbed his chin. - Imperial Complex Guards deemed it suspicious that you are... dead, so to speak.

- Someone forgot a small detail in their several trillion credit project of bringing you back to life. - Na'Rov chuckled, clipping his own seatbelt.

- I'll ignore your remarks, Aquiles. - He sat on the couch across the aisle and strapped in. - It's all cleared now.

- I can see that it would be a big issue, would it not been resolved. - Sch'Lvya flickered her tounge and smiled. - Thank you.

- As courteous as my sister described you as. - Aq'Sal smiled softly, not something he does often.

Soon, the buzz of motion dampeners increased in volume, as the train slowed down and used a descending tube, to head straight down to the surface, along the space elevator winch. Despite the artificial gravity engaged, Sch'Lvya along with others couldn't shake the feeling that for a moment, weightlessness took hold of their bodies and flying around the carriage was prevented only by the seatbelts. Meanwhile, the guard drone in the corner folded its weapons and scanner "head" into a hunker down position and engaged magnets in its hull, staying in place. Outside the window, the tops of enormous skyscrapers were visible, as the train approached the surface. In mere seconds, clouds disappeared behind them, uncovering the homeworld, bustling and filled with people. Hundreds of thousands of air vehicles flew between the glass spires, between which the orbital winch was docked in. The enormous lift station, a four kilometer tall counting from bedrock foundations, building in a shape of a pyramid, one of the two on the planet, dwarfed other buildings, which seemed to spiral outwards from the behemoth of concrete, steel and glass. From the top of the pyramid, a chord made out of nano engineered alloy of plasteel and carbon fiber reached straight into the sky, connecting to the "heavens". Station developed as an efficient and reliable mean of moving goods to and from the orbital ring, was also a testament to hubris and imperiousness of serpentkind, as the largest and tallest single building ever concieved on surface of a planet in known galaxy. Pyramid also sometimes called Ba'Bel, name which archeologists found out during digs on the human homeworld was given through similair size to its mythical counterpart, served another purpose as the main infrastructural hub of the hemisphere, reflected similairly on the other side of the globe, in a smaller sized pyramid station. Tubes of vacuum trains running along the orbital winch were only two of countless tubes leading to and from Ba'Bel, through the shell of ecumenopolis, inside which over 90% of population lived in constant artificial light. Said layer was a labirynth of artificial constructs, around 500 metres deep underneath the surface layer of celestial plazas and skyscrapers, there the near trillion people horde produced and processed countless goods used and distributed across the Imperium. In the middle section of the pyramid, an airport was also located, where airships of various sizes landed and lifted off to deliver people and goods to and from the hub. In a moment the train during in its braking procedure headed towards a closable pyramidion opening at the crown of the monumental structure. Interior lights flickered and turned off for a split second, as artificial gravity generators compensated for another change of trajectory, this time back to flat level. Sound of motion dampeners ceased, as train stopped and with a hiss of air, platform section of the vacuum tube filled with atmosphere, allowing for a safe exit outside, into the interior of the Ba'Bel pyramid.