Read Online On The Imperium’s Secret Service (Imperium Cicernus) by Christopher Nuttall - Free Book Online

weapons are considered cheating, even when you’re being chased by a Raptor with bad intentions.  The bullets are designed to inflict as much damage as possible on their target in the hopes that trauma will help stun the beast even if it isn't killed outright.  If you take off the butt and replace it with this” – he passed her a heavy clip – “you can use it in the simulator, simulating bullets.”
     
    He keyed a command into a console and activated the holochamber.  They were suddenly standing in the middle of a desert, looking around them nervously.  Two moons were rising in the far distance, even through the sun was blazing down from high overhead.  Mariko had seen worlds with multiple moons before – they were very common – but this was something different.  The world itself had been shaped to be exotic.
     
    A shape flickered at the corner of her eyes and then vanished.  She turned, staring into the distance, but saw nothing apart from the haze.  And then something moved again, racing towards them with blinding speed.  It was moving so fast that she could barely get an impression of more than its size, just before it leapt up and lunged at her.  Sharp teeth glimmered in front of her just before the illusion passed right through her.
     
    “If that had been a real Roadrunner, you’d be dead,” Fitz observed.  He sounded oddly amused by her fake death.  “They move with terrifying speed; I saw one once run down a man wearing powered combat armour.  Maybe not quite as dangerous as the Mimic, or the Evolved Saurian, but quite dangerous enough.”
     
    Mai caught her breath.  “You mean that Mimics are real?”  She asked.  “I always thought that they were a myth...”
     
    “They’re real enough,” Fitz assured her.  “But we won’t be hunting them.  Far too dangerous for anyone to try to hunt a Mimic in its own territory.  Even the Imperial Zoo on Homeworld refuses to keep samples of the creatures.”
     
    He shrugged and tapped the console again.  The desert vanished, to be replaced by a jungle.  Mariko could hear a constant chattering in the background as the heat struck her, a sound that sent shivers running down her spine.  The noise seemed to blend together into the sound of a generator, perhaps something she might use to power up a crashed system in emergencies.  She couldn't think of what it could be.
     
    “Insects,” Fitz said, when she asked.  “All of them making noises constantly until it becomes one sound.  The sound of the jungle...when it stops, you know you’re in trouble.  And with that in mind, I suggest you look for the Chameleon.”
     
    Mariko looked around.  The jungle seemed an impassable mass of trees and creepers hanging down from high overhead.  She couldn’t see how anyone could beat a path through it, at least not without powered equipment and a certain lack of concern for the environment.  It was alive with activity, with thousands upon thousands of insects skimming into view and vanishing again in the trees.  One tree seemed to be completely infested with thousands of ant-like creatures who marched in and out of it as if it was theirs and theirs alone.
     
    Something went crashing through the trees in the distance and she raised the rifle, peering into the gloom.  Something was moving there...or was it just her imagination?  It struck her suddenly that they were standing still, making themselves targets for anything that decided to hunt them instead of being hunted, but what could they do about it?  The tiny clearing seemed to be an inescapable prison.  She pointed the rifle towards the half-seen shape in the gloom and then hesitated.  It seemed to have gone while she was looking for it...
     
    “A Chameleon can blend in with its surroundings,” Fitz said.  He didn't seem bothered, but then he knew that it was all illusion.  So did Mariko, but it still felt alarmingly real.  Holochamber systems were rare outside the Core