The Fire Plains

DAY 0, 2525 - THE FIRE PLAINS

They say plants once covered the Fire Plains. I find it hard to believe that this hellish expanse of lava flows and fiery geysers and red sand could ever have supported life as delicate as flowers—for one thing, there would need to be a water source. But the soldiers treasure this fantasy, much as they treasure the stories of salamanders. From what I’m seeing on our flight in, this planet seems to deal exclusively in reds and oranges and I expect when I finally do see one of these creatures, it shall be brown at best, not green or blue or purple. And I doubt it will sing to me.

Perhaps my Kokkinos Serum will give the soldiers something real to fantasize about. Provided I get the microbes to mesh with human cells.

DAY 0, 2525 - BETA LAB

My new lab seems a beacon in this hellhole—a hexagonal metal dome shining blue-grey against the red sand and the towering red cliffs on three sides. Blue lights pulse around the doorways and a pleasant hum of electricity fills the bright corridors. The sergeant says the structure is secure from the flaming geysers. It had better be, since this is where I’m going to create humanity’s first super weapon. Unless Alpha Lab unlocks the microbes’ potential first.

The sergeant also says I’ll be safe here. As if I hadn’t noticed the blaster marks pocking the armored doors.

On our way to my lab, we passed several soldiers sitting slumped in the corridors. I heard a few of them grousing about the red sand which gets everywhere. I’ll have to make sure my lab stays free of the contaminant.

My assistant is a mere girl with hair messier than a nest of Exidna Vipers and a smile far too wide to be pretty. Her greeting does not inspire confidence. “Gosh, it’s a real scientist”?

At least my equipment looks up to date.

I gave the girl a healthy glare as I explained the mission—test these microbes and make a workable serum before Alpha Lab can. I’m not sure she got the point, since she was clapping and saying something about giving soldiers hope before I even finished. I wasn’t quick enough to rescue the computer console her elbow sent flying.

I suspect I’m going to need new equipment after all.

DAY 5, 2525 - BETA LAB

My lab has its short comings. The name is an affront. And my assistant is intent on blowing me and every scientific asset higher than one of the Plains’ flaming geysers. On accident, of course. I’m considering sending the girl out to collect rock samples. Perhaps she’ll get fried in a geyser. Or blasted by a Fiend. That would wipe the smile off her face.

I smell smoke. And green acid. Maya. Again.

DAY 6, 2525 - BETA LAB

Despite incredible setbacks, my work is coming along. The microbes are thriving in their cultures, well sequestered from the invasive red sand, and I plan on introducing them to a living host in the next few days. Provided that girl doesn’t leave the cage door open tonight.

DAY 8, 2025 - BETA LAB

The microbes have not survived their host. Or the host did not survive them. It’s hard to say, given the mess.

DAY 21, 2025 - BETA LAB

I saw my first Fiend today. Truly fascinating. It seems immune to the fiery landscape—or perhaps simply rebuilds. Six arms, six blasters, two saucer-like eyes glowing as orange as the lava it sprang from. I wish the soldiers had not blasted it so throughly with their gunfire, particularly since it seems to keep moving until its luminescent spinal cord is severed. I would prefer to have more to study than a smoking metallic husk.

DAY 22, 2525 - BETA LAB

Another Fiend today. Command is getting worried. We’re supposed to be safe behind the lines. From Fiends, at least.

DAY 23, 2525 - BETA LAB

Still no symbiosis.

DAY 30, 2525 - BETA LAB

I found microbes in my Fiend’s sciatic nerves. They bear a startling resemblance to the cultured ones I gleaned from the red sands. This might be the key—the piece I’ve been missing. Have the Fiends adjusted to symbiosis?

DAY 45, 2525 - BETA LAB

Attempts to combine the two strains of microbes have failed. They co-exist in the cultures well enough, but put them together in a living host, and they destroy each other.

DAY 46, 2525 - BETA LAB

More Fiends have been sighted. We cannot contact Command. The sergeant thinks the front-line has broken. He seemed to want to stay and talk, but I have no time for idle conversation.

The sergeant cornered me again at lunch, asking about the serum. He’s offering to be a test subject: “Hell, several of the boys’ll be willing.” I told him he doesn’t want to be the first human injected with Kokkinos serum—there’s a reason we use criminals. He did not withdraw his offer.

It’s a moot point, since I am no closer to success, but the man’s sincerity is unsettling. I finished my lunch in the lab.

DAY 46, 2525 - THE FIRE PLAINS

I sat outside the base today and watched the remnants of our patrol unload from their smoking jeeps. Red firelight filtered through the blaster holes in the nearest vehicle—nothing now but a metal sieve. The men inside lay in a tangled cluster, and the sergeant all but fell out of the driver’s side, body wracking in gusting sobs, smoke and tiny flames rising from the giant hole in his torso. The smell of seared flesh still rends at my stomach.

Two Fiends. Two Fiends took on three times their number and only a handful of our soldiers survived. No wonder they slump in the corridors.

DAY 47, 2525 - BETA LAB

My worst fears are confirmed. The microbes we found in the red sands are not symbiotic. They are parasitic—hence the carnage every time we try a living host.

No progress with the Fiend’s microbes.

Perhaps this venture was doomed from the start.

DAY 48, 2525 - BETA LAB

Even Alpha Lab reports nothing but failure. We must find a solution. We must find a way to save our soldiers—to keep them from burning and dying under the blasters of the relentless Fiends.

DAY 50, 2525 - BETA LAB

Maya’s ineptitude might just save us all. Somehow, she got red sand in the cultures. And left the cage door open all night. The mice were all over the cultures and our clean lab when I came in this morning. But something happened. The creature should have burned when Maya’s hand knocked over the two vials—it should have fallen and died in the resulting fireball, reduced to a crispy bundle of nerves and fur. But it didn’t. It writhed and smoked and got up and evaded us for nearly an hour. Incredible, given that its limbs were little more than charcoal.

DAY 50, 2525 - BETA LAB

The mouse still lives. Maya and I are monitoring it closely. We will have to repeat the process in a contained setting in order to confirm our findings.

Perhaps this is why the microbes die when we ship them off-world. They seem to need the red sand in order to function—are they reliant on this fiery atmosphere for life as well? We must find a way to simulate such elements. The Kokkinos Serum must be able to operate off-planet or whole worlds will fall to the Fiends.

DAY 51, 2525 - BETA LAB

We infected a second mouse with a culture contaminated with red sand. So far, the parasitic microbes have not torn their host apart. We may be close.

DAY 52, 2525 - BETA LAB

Alpha Lab has fallen off the grid. Maya and I are now the only two on this planet with the necessary skills to create a future for the human race.

DAY 53, 2525 - BETA LAB

We don’t know what the Fiend’s microbes contribute to the serum, but without it, the host dies in a pool of its own blood. My microbes and the red sand are not enough on their own.

DAY 56, 2525 - BETA LAB

We have a working serum! Glitches persist, but we are hopeful that it will remain stable off-world. We still cannot contact Command.

DAY 57, 2525 - BETA LAB

The line must have broken—Maya and I can no longer go outside, even when accompanied with soldiers. Fiends are everywhere. We hear blaster shots more often than not and the soldiers continue to dwindle in numbers. At least rations are not a problem.

DAY 58, 2525 - BETA LAB

I saw a salamander today. It hissed at me and slipped back into whatever crack it came from. Certainly not blue or purple or green, but the creature did seem to shimmer. Perhaps they are somewhat luminescent. That would explain the myths which say they live in flames.

DAY 59, 2525 - BETA LAB

We must contact Command. They must know about our success.

DAY 60, 2525 - BETA LAB

Sleep is becoming a rare thing. I can no longer work on the serum myself, for my fingers have become more clumsy than Maya’s. My dreams are populated with Fiends. Every mechanical whir reminds me of metallic clicking feet; every garbled com or radio call reminds me of their inhuman voices.

So far they have not breached our walls.

DAY 61, 2525 - BETA LAB

Even Maya has lost her smile.

DAY 63, 2525 - BETA LAB

Finally. Command has reached us. The line is static, garbled, punctuated by blaster shots and screams. But they are sending a ship to get us.

NIGHT 63, 2525 - ODYSSEY 04

The line has indeed broken. Resources are scarce, as are seats on the ship. They wanted me to leave Maya. I gave her the case of Kokkinos Serum and my notes and locked myself in my lab until the captain agreed to dump salvaged equipment from Alpha Lab and open up another seat.

Now, the planet burns beneath us as we rattle through the atmosphere towards space. Maya sits across from me, clutching the case of precious vials close to her chest, tears sparkling in her eyes.

Yes, we are leaving soldiers behind on the Fire Plains. But we have all we need to ensure the success of this project. Some day, the children of the Kokkinos project will come back to the Fire Plains and turn the tide of war.

And I can see Maya’s smile coming back.