Scaws of Transcore Hive

On the moon of Rhysia, a ruined forgeworld moon with grim secrets below it’s crust… mutants, known as scaws to the indigenous human population, stalk the ruins of the hives and the ash waste. Centuries of breeding in isolation, amongst the industrial waste has led to horrendous abominations. They have adopted a tribal society with the most hideous and powerful mutants as leaders, and survive by hunting the human survivors of the planet as well as lifeforms such as birds which migrate to the surface of the moon to roost.

 Nukki

He’s not the brightest of them, but he’s sneaky, and does what he’s told!

Seet

Seet is Yag’s loyal servant. He is the smallest mutant in the tribe, but he has been known to bring down much larger prey with his shocker-stick.

Yag the Wyrd

Occasionally, conditions on Rhysia will produce the most powerful of all mutations, the feral Wyrd. Lack of Imperial authority leaves room for these abominations to thrive and terrorize the local populations. To his tribe, Yag is a sacred and powerful leader. He possesses a canny intellect far above his kin, and combined with his powerful… but unguided… psyker abilities this gives him free rein to manipulate others and defeat any rival tribes or outside forces that would challenge his authority.

Yag dreams of escaping his prison on Rhysia and exploring the universe, plotting some revenge on the Imperial authorities that seek his extermination. It remains to be seen whether he can withstand the temptations of darker powers, drawn to his mind like moths to the flame.

 Calb’s Dream: Part 7

As he was looking into the ruins, he heard a bellow from the other direction. It was a gutteral, tortured mix of a bellow and a gasp for air. He swung around, and saw the scaw for the first time. It was a tattooed, hideous open mouthed one! And it was holding a grenade launcher… looking right at him.

Calb was ready. He moved quick with his Long-las, aimed at the bellowing monstrosity. He took a hit to the chest and then ducked out of sight, wounded. It should have been a head shot… buy that one could not have been alone… he was calling in his friends. Dropping his zipline and descending from the tower with his gear, he could hear more bellows behind him and scrambled faster into the denser ruins.

The thought jabbed through his brain. A thought of warm, bleeding meat. It was not his own… the feeling of unease was blossoming now. There was some…. thing in his head. He sank to the floor, weakened. Everything was hazy. It was like his soul was being pulled underwater, struggling to breathe…. and he couldn’t move. He was up against the rubble, everything was numb. It was like the feeling you get when your leg falls asleep, except with his whole body… and then the world around him began to move. Was it poison? His mind raced with desperation.

What looked like a rock, like a pile of refuse, blinked and looked right at him. Everywhere ash colored creatures began to emerge and surround him, each more hideous than the last. One had two heads in place of one. Another had a tentacle for an arm. Their bodies were covered in bloated parts, bony ridges and spikes, and huge pimples, rashes and boils… that was what happened when you lived in the hive, in the poison dust and the atmospheric and solar radiation storms.

They watched him with hunger in their eyes, but didn’t move to attack. He saw them jockeying for position in a circle around him. They were waiting for something. The one he had wounded? Now larger shapes began to stir. A massive, three headed beast emerged from the shadows. The heads were dumb-eyed and drooling with hunger. Something was lazily fluttering out of the sky, like a moth. It landed. Time stopped.

It was the one, he knew. The one in his mind. It was a small thing, with a grotesque swollen brain, and intense, beady eyes that transfixed him.

++hello Calb++ …It was in his head speaking to him. his eyes rolled back.

++let me go, I won’t hurt anyone++

++My children call me Yag. I won’t hurt you, Calb. I know you. I’ve been watching you for some time now.++

And it came over him. A feeling of peace. He was staring into the scaw’s eyes. it was a ripple at first, and then a wave… the numbness gave over to a warmth and pleasure he had never known.

He was aware of the the rest of the group. They were watching in a semicircle around him, Yag was perched on a rock. They all looked to him, reverence in their eyes. The wave of warmth continued. It was unstitching every thread of fear, of doubt, of discomfort. he no longer felt his body and no longer needed it. He looked into Yag’s eyes and through them, like pinholes, he could see the beauty of the void staring back. And infinite sea, and he was a mote of dust inside it. Time slowed, until it finally melted into one perfect moment.

He let Yag into his mind. They shared every moment, from being a child setting off on his journey. Every tiny memory, everything his clan had known and had told him, he relived.

++thank you calb. together we will travel the void++

Slowly, the larger mutant began to move, and lifted him gingerly. He saw the rest of them watching, jostling, intent. They were hungry! All had blue stripes painted on their foreheads. The world turned upside down. There was a bucket under his head. There was no pain, every moment was stretched out. He thought, they can have my body. I don’t need it! My meat will sustain other beings… never rot, never nourish the worms.

His last thought was of love. His lifeblood was love pouring from his body, into the rusty bucket. For Yag, for the scaws, for his clan back home, for the vast twinkling universe that had been revealed. And Yag smiled back at him.

THE END