Into the Gates of Hell
Home to a malevolent entity, Quasar QSR-541 had been quarantined for decades. Finally, the Holy Terran Empire decided to send a fleet to cleanse it.
Author’s Note: I’ll be honest, this story actually just came up to me this Tuesday. But I liked the result and I felt like I had to put it out ASAP. Also, this is my
submission.Brother Ion absentmindedly looked at his communicator, the screen of the gadget attached to his left wrist read as follows:
October 7th, 8271 AD
Inside the Seraphim-class starship Logos, the inquisitorial marine looked outside the window. The blackness of outer space was contrasted by the brightly lit quasar from far distance; it was blood red overlaid by dusty white. He could not forget its name even if he tried: QSR-541, known colloquially as the Gates of Hell.
That name was fitting. After all, a malevolent macrobe – incorporeal creatures inhabiting celestial bodies – was known to occupy this place. For decades, the Church had declared all space within twenty parsecs of the quasar to be off-limits. It was that dangerous.
Emperor Aeneas IV of the Holy Terran Empire would have been content to maintain this status quo if it wasn’t for the heretics and devil worshippers who had taken refuge in this area of space.