Deliver me. Deliver me. Like overripe fruit… I…

This is Lieutenant Alexander Sporag of the Kytheria crew. Private Eckles is… He… When the ship went down, Private Eckles and I became separated from Captain Chloros and the rest. We took shelter in a bit of wreckage. At first we experienced symptoms of… euphoria. A donkey came and spoke to me in the night.

Then Eckles bled from the eyes. Later, he bled from everywhere else. On the third day…? I held his hand. The skin came off like a loose glove. Next day, I put him out of his misery. His head gave like overripe fruit. Keep rubbing my hands. Can’t get rid of that sensation.

Eckles is just a puddle now. Now. Now… I’m bleeding out of my eyes. I hear Eckles still complaining. Tell the puddle to shut up.

Deliver me.

Wasn’t supposed to be like this. Katrina wasn’t supposed to get hurt. Nobody was supposed to get hurt. It was going to be my nest egg, my retirement, my way out of this life. But it all went wrong. We found the cannister when we liberated Ix. Our very own cache of spice. Just had to smuggle it, sell it, and reap the rewards.

But it all went wrong.

What is this stuff? A plague by accident or by purpose? Something rotten was going down on Ix.

Damn the Houses and their wars. No matter who you serve, no matter who wins, the rest of us small folk lose. They’ll call me a traitor, but I did my duty. I did my time. I waded through a sea of guts. Damn the barons. Damn the dukes. Damn the emperor. I’m done squeezing stones for blood. We should be squeezing them.