Prometheus' Flame (4)

Ezekiel had thought this scheduled resupply would be fairly easy. After all, according to what he had learned from books, every garden world was a pleasant place of fair weather, green mountains, and clear waters.

—Three minutes after landing, he stepped out of the hatch and personally overturned that bit of knowledge he had acquired.

"Captain, I remember you saying garden worlds were all nice places?" one of the battle-brothers in the company said, winking at him teasingly. "Well, this place does look pretty good, aside from the part where it stinks to high heaven."

Ezekiel looked at him expressionlessly and put on his helmet. The Respirator Grille activated, finally cutting off the damned stench.

His altered voice rang out across the landing pad. "Techmarine, inform the mothership in orbit that something is wrong here. We will conduct preliminary reconnaissance."

"Received."

"Second Tactical Squad, with me. Everyone else, hold position and stay alert."

"As ordered."

There was no need for too much communication or too many commands. Their combat discipline was more than enough to handle these minor matters. Ezekiel led ten battle-brothers toward the far end of the landing pad. The silence around them was terrifying. This was the port of a garden world; by rights, it should have been the busiest place of all.

Every day, dignitaries and magnates from all across the galaxy would take off and land here. Some had already finished enjoying themselves here and planned to move on to the next garden world to continue their pleasure. Others were busy disembarking from their ships to indulge in lives of luxury and excess.

There were indeed many aircraft on the surrounding landing pads, but not a single person could be seen. The entire port was frighteningly quiet.

"Captain, looks like your jinxing hasn't improved."

The