Dark Omega

CHAPTER 1 - CONNECTION

Marcus Aurelian walked along the deserted stone corridors of the Pentacle's deepest level. The steady beat of his polished boots against the granite flagstones was the only sound bold enough to cut through the graveyard silence. Like whipcracks, they echoed down the dimly lit passageways, heralding his coming, but there was no one there to hear.

There were no physical or virtual infosigns on the deeper levels. Still, Marcus knew precisely where he was going, courtesy of the floor plans he had committed to computer-assisted memory. Satisfied he'd reached his destination, he halted in front of a massive bronze door. The portal was perfectly circular, edges flush with the walls, looking more like a seal than an actual door. The likeness of Apep, the Great Serpent of the Abyss, was worked into the burnished metal, coiling round and round in ever-smaller circles. Its head sat in the middle, snout pointed down, dull eyes staring blindly into the gloom.

Marcus's hands rose from beneath the folds of the cloak. Strong, dexterous fingers, unadorned save a golden signet with a stylized dragon rampant: the ancient symbol of the Ordo Draconis—the Dragon Order. He pulled down the hood, revealing a handsome face, with sharp, symmetrical features. Jet-black hair, neatly slicked back, shaved at each temple to accommodate a pair of cranial cyber-implants.

By any standards, Marcus was an attractive man. But there was something more, beyond the physical, that set him apart: an intangible aura of superiority and confidence, such as is found only among the divinely descended ruling caste of the Dominion. He was a scion, with the blood of ancient gods, however diluted, flowing through his veins.

The serpent's eyes came alive, glowing with an inner light. A red-tinged scanning beam lanced out, playing across the dark-clad visitor. Marcus lifted his head, eyes rising to meet the beam. For a moment, their gazes remained locked, stony-eyed human and metal serpent. The serpent was first to look away, ruby ray fading to nothingness.

"State your identity, clearance level, and purpose," a voice droned from hidden speakers.

"Marcus Aurelian. Clearance: Dark Omega. I have come to interrogate the prisoner," Marcus stated in a firm voice and pulled out an Omega-shaped pendant of darkest black on a golden chain. "As you already know."

"Proceed," came the reply. "At your soul's peril," it added half a second later.

The sound was the same throughout, flat and mechanical, but there had been two speakers, Marcus was sure. The first had been professional and to the point. The second was either a joker or a true believer. The information was not immediately useful, so Marcus filed it away for later, starting a mental dossier on each of his two watchers.

The metacomposite surface of the portal started to change. The snake looked like it was melting. Then it was gone, leaving a perfectly smooth metal surface. The seal slid backward before rolling into the wall on quiet force-bearings. The door itself was exceptionally sturdy, made of thick armor laminate, tough enough to endure the bite of a war titan's weapons. For all practical purposes, it was impervious to physical assault, and the thick nanocrete walls offered no respite for a would-be intruder.

Without delay, Marcus swept forward into the chamber beyond, black cloak billowing in his wake. The door slid shut behind him with hardly a sound, wiping away all signs of his passing, leaving only shadows to crowd the silent stone corridors.

The room on the other side was one of several ultra-secure chambers within the Ninth Tier of the Second Pentacle. The ninth—and final—underground level of the inverse pyramid that lay buried beneath the metal surface of Aphrodite-Eta, one of the great floating cities of Nuovo Venezia, capital world of the Venetian sector.

The Second Pentacle—named in honor of the original Pentacle, the penultimate edifice of knowledge lost during the Titanomachy—was one of the most secure facilities, not only in Coalition space, but in the entirety of humanity's once-great dominion. Not many people knew of the Pentacle's existence, fewer still were allowed inside, and access to the secrets of the final tier was restricted to a small elite.