CHAPTER 5Hell was a place on a raw and lonely world blasted by the savage radiation of triple suns. A fissure gaping wide and deep as if some monstrous axe had chopped at the planet, splitting its crust and magma, leaving a spot which had become a festering sore. One filled with a plethora of voracious life and of interest to those with a taste for the bizarre. A haven for the freaks and failures to be found in any society.
“Freeze!”
The guide was broad, tough, taciturn, one cheek mottled by the brand of an ugly scar. He stepped cautiously ahead, the long pole he carried prodding at the dirt. Something leapt from the loam to wrap itself around the shaft, to move like a greased snake towards the gloved hands of the guide. A snake that reared with a rasp of scales as blue fire sprang from
