Chapter Text
Chapter four
The search begins
“Zala, I think that I’ve got a pretty solid lead for one of our missing tenno. What do you remember of Rell?” Kyu asked his friend as he pulled him aside.
“I remember scarce little of him during our time becoming Tenno, and only a bit during our time aboard the Zariman. Mostly that most of the Tenno ignored him or didn’t associate with him because of what Margulis and then Lotus thought about him.” Zala replied with a sullen shrug. He knew a bit of Rell though regrettably it wasn’t anything positive.
“Well after our discussion on the matter, I started asking around with my old contacts from my Red Veil days. Figured it was worth a shot, made sure to ask about everyone on our missing list. Though it went about as well as I thought it would.”
Regret tinged his voice as he spoke.
“So safe to assume you at least got a lead on one of our missing kin, that being Rell?” Zala asked.
“I was hoping for more, but yeah. I only have one good lead and it’s for Rell. I’m trying to manage my expectations but it’s hard not to want to see my friend again. I just hope we can find him doing well.”
Zala could see the worry on Kyu’s face, and he wasn’t one who worried easily. It just went to show how deep the bond of the friendship between Kyu and Rell went. Zala knew a bit about it though Kyu spoke little of it. He understood that they all carried tragedies from the past that they didn’t care to recount. Drudging up such things needed to be handled carefully less the psyche break or inadvertently cause a void power based accident.
“Then we’ll do all we can to find him with all haste. Don’t worry too much about it though, Rell is Tenno so that means he’s a tough bastard.” Zala replied in as best a calming voice as he could.
“No you misunderstand. I know he can handle himself, he was a beast in a fight. What worries me are the memories that came back after last night. Back when I joined up with Red Veil during the early days of our freedom from our old masters, Rell had mentioned something about visions he was receiving of the void.” Kyu paced back and forth as he recounted the ancient memories to Zala.
“At first we both thought nothing of it, and no one else thought much of it either when he told them. As time went on though, they started getting worse, more vivid and horrifying in ways he couldn’t put into words. It was terrible watching what it did to him, how it tormented him. Eventually he stopped going on missions with us, I can’t remember why but it feels like it’s at the very edge of my mind.” The frustration cutting through his worry, Zala knew the feeling as well. The lingering effects of the second dream were not being kind to them.
“That’s strange, do you remember anything else about the visions or dreams that he was having? Anything at all?” Zala asked, a strange feeling of familiarity pricking at his heart as he pondered on that.
“Yes… I think so. He mentioned that something was in the void, or a man.” Kyu halted his pacing, softly knocking on his forehead while deep in thought, trying to pluck the answer out of the haze in his mind. Just as fast, his eyes widened with the revelation as he shouted out louder than he had intended. “I remember! He said that there was some kind of man in a wall that lurked within the void. I’m not sure if it’s literal or metaphorical but he wouldn’t stop going on about that being in the void. He rambled about having to stop him from coming into real space.”
“A man…in a wall? Well I didn’t think I’d ever hear something like that. But either way, he thought there was some kind of entity in the void?” Zala asked, very perplexed by the implication if it were true.
“Yes, it caused him terrible anxiety. I’m not sure if it was real or just a project of his imagination due to his powers and what happened on the Zariman.” Kyu shook his head as he spoke. “I haven’t seen or heard a word from him since his disappearance some time ago. I did some asking around though and I think I’ve got a lead. A Red Veil mystic who goes by the name Palladino.”
“From my understanding, you were quite popular within the Veil, I’m surprised you haven’t had more of their members throwing themselves into your messages trying to help.” Zala chuckled to himself at the mental image that conjured up. “I thought the same thing Z, but up to now, I've been waiting weeks without any replies to my post for aid. With the exception for Palladino, no one responded, which is very odd.” Kyu exclaimed in an exasperated fashion.
“Perhaps something is wrong then. We should find this Palladino quickly and not waste time, I don’t know why but the more you tell me about this, the more disquieted I feel. I just can’t place why, and I don’t like that one bit.” Said Zala.
“We should gather the others then just in case, from what Palladino was willing to tell me, she’s scared she’s being followed by someone. I’m not sure if it’s real or paranoia but why risk it?” Kyu said while pulling out his com device to alert the other tenno.
“Sounds like a plan, besides it’ll be nice to go on a mission with everyone. Now do you know where Palladino is specifically? We don’t want to walk into a trap or anything suspicious if we can help it.” commented Zala as he also began his own preparations to leave, sending a message to his cephalon. “She’s managed to hitch a ride on a Steel Meridian ship, said she hoped it would be enough to ditch whatever she thinks is following her.” Kyu said without looking up from his holographic display.
The two elder tenno began to walk and talk, moving in long strides out of the ship’s lounge, which each of the group had taken turns decorating in their own fashion to make it feel more like a true home. Their destination being the armory and foundry, which was a shared favorite room for the two battle loving warriors for obvious reasons.
“As a precaution, let’s hail the ship before we go in for an approach to ensure that she’s telling the whole truth about her situation. And so we don’t give the crew a heart-attack when we pull up, asking to come aboard.” Zala asked Kyu as he punched in his desired load-out into his armory terminal. “Come on now, obviously I had thought of that. Just because I control rocks doesn’t mean I have them for brains you glow-stick, I’m not that dumb.” Retorted Kyu. “You sure about that? No reason in particular, just thought I’d ask is all.” Zala gave a nonchalant shrug as he spoke. It only took a second before both Tenno were laughing with each other over their shared childishness, they easily entertained each other. Not that they’d have it any other way.
With a flash of white light and thrumming of the armory’s circuitry, both Zala’s and Kyu’s warframes and weaponry materialized before them. Leaving behind a puff of air that smelled faintly of ozone. Wasting no time, both tenno got to work inspecting their respective weapons before the mission. An old habit from their old war days that all tenno learned, though not all kept up with the habit, which Zala and Kyu thought was absolutely absurd.
Just a few minutes later, the rest of the tenno burst into the room excitedly for the mission, having seen Kyu’s message for them all to assemble there. Alvin was most excited as it meant an excuse to break in his new warframe, which he dubbed Chameleon. The room was filled with the sound of small talk as the late comers quickly gathered their own equipment. Once everyone had their warframes and weapons prepped and ready for deployment, Zala got to business.
“Alright as I’m sure you’re all no doubt aware due to Kyu’s message, we’re going out to find the connection for a lead on our first missing tenno hunt. We’re looking for Rell, a woman who’s associated with Red Veil, called Palladino contacted Kyu saying she can help us find him. She is, however, rather worried that she’s being hunted or followed by someone.” Zala spoke in his serious voice that he used when dealing with mission briefings. “Lemme guess, the lady wants us to give her protection from the perceived threat in return for the info?” Jazz correctly assumed, chiming in and interrupting.
“Yes, exactly that. It’s unclear if the threat is real or not but either way we’re going to take this seriously on the off chance that she is being stalked. Currently she’s been taken in as a passenger aboard a Steel Meridian galleon on route to Iron Wake.” Continued Zala. “Want me to hail them then? It would be dumb to not ask the ship’s Captain about boarding so we can talk to Palladino. I’m on pretty good terms with the SM so I can do all the talking!” Chirped Alison happily.
Kyu gave Zala a knowing look with the most shit eating grin he could muster. “Yeah Zala, why didn’t you think of that? Tsk Tsk Tsk, not thinking ahead and all that. I was just about to say the same thing, Ally.” Kyu managed to say without dying of laughter as he saw the look on Zala’s face. Alison laughed with him though she wasn’t quite sure as to why, though Alvin and Jazz seemed to catch onto what Kyu was doing without needing an explanation. Only shaking their heads as they smiled to themselves.
“Don’t make me wreck your ass Daikyu, the mission hasn’t even started yet.” His stern expression was instantly replaced with a smile before he continued with the briefing. “But yes, that's exactly what we’re going to do. I let our Cephalons know where we needed to go so we’ll be heading out as soon as we’re finished here. As for roles, Kyu, Alvin, and myself will be on the boarding party. Jazz, you’re on archwing support, if we have any real pursuers you’re going to be our first line of offense.” Zala spoke before being interrupted again.
“What about me? I can’t help but notice you’ve saved me for last and I’m not on the boarding party? What am I going to be doing?” Alison asked in confusion, her head tilted to the side.
“You’ll be on guard and pilot duty of the ship with the Cephalons. We can never leave our home unmanned lest someone somehow manage to get aboard. Besides you wanted to talk to the galleon captain, someone would have to do that from the ship.” Zala finished the briefing finally. “But come onnnnnn! That’s boring! I want to explore the galleon with you guys!” Alison whined, upset at her job assignment.
“I’m sorry but I also don’t want you ‘accidentally’ borrowing someone’s personal possessions while we’re there. I don’t want you getting in trouble with them after everything you went through to get on such good terms with them.” Said Zala apologetically, the others knew he felt bad about doing it to her but they also knew it was for her own good. She wouldn’t be able to handle that kind of self restraint without exploding.
“Takua, we’re ready to depart, please take us to the provided coordinates now.” Zala called up to the room’s ceiling and received an answer as a synthetic voice responded. “Hang on everyone, we’re initiating void jump, don’t want anyone to hit their heads now. Jump in three….two…one!” Everyone quickly grabbed hold of whatever they could that was bolted down as they felt the familiar jolting lurch and heard the subtle change in the tone of the engines as they jumped into the void.
Just as quickly as they had entered, the tenno felt the ship shake and lurch a second time, signaling their arrival back in real-space, they had arrived. Knowing their roles and having arrived at their destination, the tenno all disappeared into their respective warframes with a flash of bright void light. Alison raced out of the armory first, making a dash for the bridge to begin hailing the friendly galleon.
Jazz wasn’t far behind her friend, though her target was the ship’s archwing launcher, arguably her most favorite feature that the ship possessed. She let her muscle memory take control as she deftly strapped herself into the archwing harness in preparation for her launch and the rush it gave her each time she rode on it.
The others calmly strode to the nearest airlock to await permission to board once the two ships were in position. After a short burst of soft static went through their comms, the ship Cephalons linked everyone together. They didn’t need another meteorite incident all over again.
Alison got to work at the communications console trying to hail the galleon that was gently floating nearby. Tapping away with the help of her cephalon to open a channel with the galleon. “Hey Marius, am I doing something wrong here or are they just ignoring us? Because I’m starting to feel that they’re ignoring us.” Alison spoke aloud to her cephalon. “You have to be patient with these things darling, you don’t know that they’re ignoring you, someone could simply be busy at the moment or having a malfunction.” Said the bemused caretaker.
“I know but….it’s Steel Meridian, they never let things like this take forever! On the off chance that’s the case and they can’t respond, could we run a bioscan on the ship to see if anyone is even on the bridge?” She questioned.
“We can but the systems haven’t been given their final tuneup yet. We’re able to perform a broad scan but it’s not possible to narrow down specific locations for now.” Came the voice of Alvin’s cephalon Ordis.
“Sorry that’s my bad heh, I’ll get right on that after I get back. I put that off because I was doing the software work for Chameleon.” Said Alvin over the comms.
“Don’t worry about it Alvin, and yeah Ordis let’s do that, I guess it's better than nothing. If they’re slacking then I’m going to give them an earful for this.” Alison huffed in annoyance and impatience. “Running biological scan right now Alison.” Replied Ordis happily. The others all waited with bated breath, wondering what could be going on over on the galleon.
“Scan complete. The ship does indeed have a multitude of life—mEat bAGs—signs within it. Though the curious thing about that is, it’s nowhere near what they’d need to effectively operate a Grineer Galleon of that size. It may not be—a bLOOd baTH—trap but I would advise caution operators, this seems suspicious.” Came Ordis through the comms.
“Let’s move in a non-threatening manner if this is just freak circumstances, but be ready to take immediate evasive maneuvers if they start to open fire on us. Once we get within two hundred meters, Jazz will launch out and provide support if we need it. After that we move to board if they don’t start shooting.” Zala spoke after taking a moment to form a quick plan from that information.
“Aye Aye Captain. Let’s move in closer and see how they act then.” Alison shouted and rushed over to the controls and began to steer a little too excitedly at first.
Alison started to move the ship into the proper orientation as subtly as she could so the ships could dock as soon as they pulled alongside each other. She did so in a way to make it seem as least threatening as possible, all the while the two vessels came closer and closer.
Once Jazz had been alerted to the passing of the two hundred meter mark, she smiled her wicked smile within her warframe as she smacked the launch button. She never grew tired of the insane rush the slingshot gave her, the feeling as it tossed her up in the large barrel that was hidden within the ship. Only to be flung out of it, seconds later, at high velocity. Now she was in her favorite element, space flight, she took off at top speed in her Elytron towards the galleon.
It was truly a marvel of engineering flightwise to her, sure the many factions that fought for dominance in the Origin system had their problems. Most of which she and her friends solved by using their eldritch powers and copious amounts of gunfire to mitigate. But she couldn’t help but admire the unique and interesting eccentricities of each faction's space technology and engineering.
“Hey Jazz, let me know when you’ve found one of the maintenance panels on the galleon. If you can plug in then I can try and sift through their security cameras. That might shed some more light on whatever the heck is going on in their terribly unpunctual ship.” Alvin replied with a hint of glee at being able to hack into another system.
Letting herself swirl around in the shadow that the galleon cast, she skipped forward with the archwing’s blink teleport onto the hill without issue. So far nothing seemed to change or alarms to trigger, cautiously she made her way over to a maintenance panel that Alvin had marked out. All the while, she kept her eyes on a swivel, checking between the panel and the galleon’s weapons to ensure they didn’t start to move into a firing position against her friends.
In no time she had the panel cover open, variously colored wires and ports all hers for the taking. Flicking her wrist, she brought out her parazon tool and unceremoniously jammed it into the proper port that Alvin instructed her to aim for.
“Perfect, just hold there for a few, I’ll just need to T-pose through their rather easily penetrated security and then you can pull out.” He giggled at that last bit as he began to work his technical magic. His fingers worked in a blur of motion over his data-pad, and after tapping on all the parts of the security circle, he was in. “Hah, I got it, and a new record for how fast I’ve broken past grineer security. Alright let’s see what secrets they don’t want us seeing. Laziness or technical problems?” Pondered Alvin aloud.
Pressing his fingers against his data-pad, he allowed void energy to flow through him, making him one with the technology under his control. It was his special talent granted to him by the void, technopathy. He saw through the cameras as if they were his own eyes and ears. Quickly he scanned through the environments of each and every one of the security cameras aboard the galleon with a keenly discerning eye.
To say that Alvin was creeped out by what every camera was showing him would’ve been an understatement, he was terrified by the fact that everything inside was dead and dark. There were no signs of life despite what Ordis had stated, yet nothing seemed wrong with the galleon’s systems besides the lights.
“I don’t like this guys, the ship’s lights are all dead, I can just barely make anything out in some of them due to outside light coming in through the windows. Everything seems functional but the lights, that and I’m not seeing any signs of crew activity. It’s like the whole ship is abandoned.” The dread in his voice was unmistakable though he tried to hide it and keep a stiff upper lip.
“That’s definitely not good, we should take a stealth approach then and keep in a tight formation. It’s probably safe to assume we’re going to run into some unfriendlies when we start searching for Palladino.” Said Kyu as he tightened the straps of his quiver and cracked his knuckles. “Damn, I was hoping we wouldn’t run into this. Kyu is right, everyone be on high alert, it’s very likely we’re about to get into a fight. Alison, get us docked with them as quickly as you can. We need to find Palladino if she is still here or if she’s even alive.” Said Zala while he too, gave his weapons one last quick check before their departure.
“Getting us into position right now, be careful in there, I’ll let you know if I see anything fishy on my end. And if you see anything you think I’d like please grab it, I’ll pay you back I promise!” Alison replied hurriedly before they ignored her request and ran off into the galleon.
Slowing the ship down just like Jazz had taught her, with the help of the cephalons who managed the other systems of the ship. Alison brought their cruiser in for a perfect docking with the galleon. There was a gentle rumble through the ship as it clamped onto its neighbor and extended the docking tube to the galleon's airlock hatch. After a few moments for the safety measures and lock to engage, the doors slowly hissed open before the boarding party.
Zala, Kyu, and Alvin were greeted by an oppressive darkness that seemed to endlessly pour forth from the galleon side of the airlock. Alvin gulped and kept behind his two friends, but as they started to slowly and cautiously make their way across the docking tube into the galleon proper, he puffed out his chest. He strode forth to keep up with them, he may have been afraid, but he’d be damned if he gave them a reason to think him a coward. Though he kept his mind prepped to unleash his warframe abilities at a moment's notice.
“So far so good, it’s unnaturally cold though, and there’s still life support. I think our best course of action is to make our way towards the crew quarters and see if we can find any crew or perhaps even Palladino if we’re lucky.” Zala whispered to his friends as they entered their respective stealth modes. They were all accustomed to making practically no noise as they crept through the darkness of the galleon’s corridors, another thing that became second nature to the Tenno as a whole.
While to most the lack of light would pose an issue, Tenno eyes adjust more easily to the dark, evening seeing things that others are unable to. This helped to eliminate the need for lamps, which would be a dead giveaway to any foes that may be skulking within the dark corners of the galleon.
After following the path laid out by Zala’s cephalon on their mini-maps for what felt like hours due to their slow pace, though in truth it was only fifteen minutes. Zala spotted something in the dark and quickly halted the others with a signal from his hand. He slowly signed to them to avoid any noise being made. “There’s something up ahead, it looks like a leg, be ready to shoot if it's hostile.” Zala slowly crept up along the wall until he reached the hallway corner.
Jutting out just barely around the corner of the T shaped hallway, looked to be the very end of a boot clad foot. Though he himself made no noises, the galleon was still filled with its own noise at intermittent intervals. It could be anything from metal settling and groaning, to various mechanical hardware working in the background. It made it hard to determine if what he saw was alive or not judging by sound. Approaching the corner, Zala leaned out just enough to see what the foot was attached to and if anything was hiding down the hallway.
Thankfully he didn’t see any horrible abominations hiding down the corridor, unfortunately that’s as far as the good news extended. As he looked to what else was attached to the door, Zala found the corpse of a grineer in a congealed pool of his own blood, who was clad in Steel Meridian armor and their emblem. He gestured for the others that it was safe to move forward. Judging from the clean cuts around his throat, the soldier never even knew what hit him, the work of an assassin’s hand Zala and the other easily guessed.
Kyu nodded for Zala to continue forward, but before he moved to follow him, he gently closed the soldier’s eyelids to offer him one last semblance of peace before they returned the body to its brethren in Iron Wake. When he looked up he saw that Zala and Alvin had stopped just before the door at the end of the corridor, they seemed to be staring at a spot on the wall. He strode forward as quietly as he could to see what it was they were looking at.
Crudely drawn out on the wall in blood from the nearby corpse no doubt, was the sigil of the Red Veil. No sooner had Kyu set his eyes on the gruesome artwork when a crackle of soft static shot through their comms. Kyu wasn’t able to make out what he heard but he swore he heard whispering trying to come through before it came to an abrupt stop, and all was silent again.
“Did you hear that as well?” Kyu signed to the others whom he could tell were just as bewildered as he was. “You mean that static and the whisper?” Alvin signed back. Both he and Zala gave Kyu an affirmative nod.
Zala gestured towards the closed door nearest to them and motioned for Alvin to open it as quietly as he could. Slinking up soundlessly next to the door’s control panel, one of the few sources of light in the corridor, it barely illuminated a foot of space in front of it with its red glow. Gently pushing his fingertips against the side of the panel box, he took control of it, slowly pulling the two halves of the door open so as not to raise any suspicion or alert anyone with the sound of a door suddenly opening.
Creeping through the doorway, they found themselves in the port-side heavy cannon gallery. They could see more grineer corpses strewn about the floor, a small river of blood caked the floor below them. The air was stagnant and filled with the scent of rotten decomposition. It was a truly brutal sight, and to add to the cruelty, they could see more of the depraved artwork scattered all over the gallery walls and high up into the ceiling. All of it was the same, a statement repeated over and over again. ‘You cast him out’ written poorly in the blood of the murdered.
Kyu followed along with Zala and Alvin though he had to keep check of himself lest he fell behind. His mind filled with tumultuous thoughts as he tried to process what it was he was seeing. A faction he considered to be his second family after his friends, led by a good tenno, killing their comrades the Steel Meridian. He knew how the Veil’s operative worked, it fit their MO. But to betray and kill their allies? He hoped against hope that there must be either a very good explanation or that these grineer weren’t truly with the Steel Meridian.
Just as they were about to turn at the halfway point in the gallery to exit through the main entrance to their right. Another transmission came through on their comms, this time however they were able to make out a voice and it’s owner on their HUDs. “H-Holy chil-children of the Z-zariman, I serve the Veil, but the flock has been driven mad. I humbly b-Beg for the p-protection of you an-and your vessel.” Spoke a soft feminine voice.
They all halted in their tracks as the transmission came through, they grouped back to back to ensure they weren’t about to get jumped by surprise. As they listened to the plea, they all wondered the same thing, it could be Palladino, or possibly a trap. Zala’s cephalon Takua spoke softly over the comms. “I’ve marked the location of that transmission, it came from the crew quarters. Please proceed cautiously Boys.”
Needing no further encouragement, they continued forward out of the gallery and up the stairs to the right out of the entryway. They weren’t more than one hundred forty meters from the crew quarters now and still hadn’t come upon any resistance. Perhaps the assassins, whoever they were, had up and gone without managing to find who they were looking for, thought Alvin hopefully.
As they entered one of the several reactor decks that led to the crew quarters, Kyu calmly placed a hand on both Zala and Alvin’s shoulders as they walked and halted them. “Do you guys hear that? I hear whispering?” He signed to them. They both shook their heads and shrugged their shoulders. “Weapons ready, it could be something important or an ambush.” Zala signed.
Just as he was about to continue walking, an almost imperceptible sound, the soft rush of dispersing air registered to him. In what looked like a flash instant, Zala had drawn out his new sword which he’d received from the loot the other brought back earlier. In that moment the Nikana Prime blade split the throwing knife in half, the two halves clattering noisily to the ground. In one fluid motion after blocking, the elegant sword flung out from his in the direction the knife came from in the dark upper rafters in the ceiling.
A cry of pain shattered the broken silence yet again, as the sound of a body falling to the ground with a wet and resounding thud, informed Zala that he’d struck true. Flexing his arm, the weapon returned to his grip in blip of void light. “Ambush! Get ready boys!” Shouted Zala to the others as bolts from Ballistica, Cernos, and more throwing knives rang out all around them with vicious accuracy.
Alvin shrieked in surprise as he caught two daggers that had been intended to bury themselves into his skull. Flinging them without regard into the upper rafters, he dropped low to the ground before seemingly melting into the environment and disappearing. Kyu stood unmoving as he stomped a large booted foot into the flooring, the ferite plating coating him in a layer of armor as he commanded it. None of them had to wait long, however, their attackers cast away their advantage of the high ground much to the trio’s confusion. Their attackers were Red Veil operators, they should’ve been much smarter than to throw away an advantage like that in a fight, but they did, and they recklessly charged forward to meet the tenno.
They could hear those of the Veil screaming and babbling incoherently as they attacked without regard for their own safety. Zala dove into action as Kyu shouted to them. “Don’t kill them, something is wrong with them, I don’t think they’re in their right mind.”
Though they didn’t reply, his friends heard him loud and clear. Zala switched up his grip on his sword as a staggering number of Veil assassins blocked their way to the crew quarters. “Guys let’s form up and drive through them to the crew quarters.” Called Zala as he began to gracefully weave his way through the raging crowd of assassins. He became a blur of movement, turning aside their dark daggers and thrown weapons with the ease of a flowing river. He lashed out at them with the back and flat of his Nikana, aiming for non-vital points though painful to knock them out or to beat the wind out of them.
Kyu charged up beside him, he was a mountain among the diminutive assassins. He simply would shift his weight and his fists around and they flew back like gnats. His armor protecting him as he strode up to Zala, at that point, he somewhat began to resemble a porcupine with the amount of cernos and ballistica arrows he had protruding from his armor plating.
Though he was unseen, Alvin also ran to get into formation with his friends. He disliked fighting but that didn’t mean he was a slouch to it. It was no mistake that one of Chameleon’s abilities helped him to meld into the environment, effectively making him an unseen phantom. Those in his way were struck out of his way by invisible hands and feet as he made them move out of his way. They became even more enraged when they couldn’t find the invisible assailant, causing him to giggle, giving himself away slightly. As they tried to swarm him, he shrieked out and danced about launching them with his feet as he tripped over but still rolled with the proverbial and literal punches.
While caution wasn’t thrown out the window yet, they certainly had no need to move slowly now, especially as they received yet another transmission from the same source as earlier but it was much clearer now. “Please help deliver me to the safety of Iron Wake, holy children. Our sacred muse has abandoned the temple, leaving our people in chaos!” Called Palladino, she then changed the transmission to address everyone aboard the ship in the chaos of the fight. “Please my brothers and sisters of blood, resist the muse!” She pleaded with her fellows but they offered her no reply except their screams.
Moving as one, the trio beat and battered their way to the crew quarters with skill of blade and martial prowess. It wasn’t much of an exercise to the experienced space ninja, but letting their skills dull at all would’ve been unacceptable even against foes of this low caliber. They burst through the crew quarter door in a frenzy as they bashed a group of assassins out of the way. All while being chased by a screaming and enraged horde right at their heels. Alvin popped back into the realm of visibility, reaching out and taking hold of the door controls, he slammed the great door shut and burnt out the controls.
They’d have no way of getting in without using force and that would take some time he notes with a pleased smirk. As they took a moment to catch their breath, a red and black clad, slender figure, followed by a mysterious kavat stalked into view of the trio. “You must be Palladino I assume?” Asked Kyu. “You assume correctly holy child, please we must get to Iron Wake they won’t go there.” She pleaded with them as she approached.
“You have some explaining to do first before we deliver you to them. At least one question before we do, what the hell is going on with them?” He pointed back towards the door, scratching, beating and banging could be heard as the horde of maddened assassins tried without success to break it down. “Our sacred muse has left his post…and us, his whispers remain though. We can all hear them and ‘the other’ from the void.” She shuddered visibly as she spoke that last bit.
Before they could continue further discussion, a cacophony of sound and force rang in from outside the ship and rattled the galleon violently. Their comms exploded with chatter. “What the hell is that thing!” Cried Alison in terror. “Whatever it is, it's big and ugly! Guys I hate to interrupt your talk but you need to get your asses back onboard, we’ve got BIG trouble out here and we can’t remain docked with the galleon for much longer!” Jazz shouted over the comms as she readied herself for one hell of a fight.
“We’ll be there in a flash!” Zala replied before turning to the others. “We need to make it back to the airlock, Kyu you should carry Palladino and protect her, Alvin I’ll need you to drop the door for me and to keep the kavat safe. We need to get out of here fast, so I’ll clear us a past out!” He stated sternly, gripping his Nikana in one hand and its scabbard in another.
Outside the galleon, a massive wound had opened up in the reality of real-space. From the glowing, ethereal rip in reality, an eldritch hand of black gripped at the edge of distortion and pulled. Out from the massive rift, a horrifying creature pushed its head through the opening. It was like the face of an emaciated corpse, skin stretched tight against the skull and leaving little to the imagination. A baleful red glow filled its sunken eye sockets and jagged teeth filled its shadowy maw.
Alison and Jazz were the first to lay eyes on the creature, both had seen many terrible things during their time aboard the Zariman and during the old war. But this was a new entry into that list even to their standards. Pulling out her Dual Decurions, she decided to test what the ugly bastard was made of. “Hey Alison, if you can, have one of our cephalons take over the hun controls, imma need covering fire against this tree ogre!” She asked with excitement clear in her voice.
Taking off at top speed, Jazz got within the effective firing range of the creature that she could now see was trying to pull the rest of itself through the rift, currently it had a bit of its upper torso and arms and head through. “Hey ugly you’ve got some more pressing matters than just getting your scrawny ass through your hidey hole.” She shot the taunt at the abomination before opening up with actual gunfire next.
Letting her trigger fingers fly, she unleashed a bullet hell against the creature, all of which aimed at its unprotected head. She was surprised however when she witnessed its arm grow in length as it stretched up to try and grab her, it shrieked in pain as her barrage peppered its scalp with holes and craters. Jazz was happy it wouldn’t be like shooting fish in a barrel at the very least, quickly she took off into evasive maneuvers.
She was like a butterfly, graceful in flight, every time the creature had thought it had grabbed her successfully and flexed to crush her within its grip. She would come flying out just out of reach of its clawing fingers, making it more and more furious with her. Though graceful, she stung the creature like a hornet from ancient earth, never easing up on her barrages of fire or void charged slashes from her Centaur shield blade when it tried to grab her.
Feeling gutsy and annoyed by her lack of progress with the creature's death despite how much lead she was pounding into its thick skull. She dove in, pushing her elytron’s engines as she skimmed along its arm after it had failed twice to grasp her with both hands. She moved in as close as she could, right up to its ugly mug and infusing even more of her own void energy into her centaur, she plunged the blade end into the creature's head and focused the explosion of energy down into it. Hoping its skull would scatter and shatter.
“Come on bastard, break already! Your bloody skull is almost as thick as Kyu’s!” Shouted Jazz to herself in anger.
“Hey watch out Jazzy! Marius has the guns trained on that thing and I’ve got an idea. Move it if you don’t wanna get blown to smithereens.” Alison called out to her friend who instantly heeded her warning. Jazz withdrew her shield blade from the creature’s skull and made several blink jumps to return to the ship before the creature could recover its wits to grab at her. She had to admit she was incredibly angered at the fact, it’s thick skull hadn’t shattered to her. But it was certainly a fun fight nonetheless. Jazz was curious though to see what Alison had planned as the creature tried to swat away the gun fire from their ship’s gun batteries.
“We’re back onboard! Retract the tube now!” Shouted Zala over the comms as the others could hear the shouting not far behind him of the assassins. “Closing the tube off now!” Came Ordis in a concerned and hurried tone. The galleon’s airlock hatch slammed closed and the docking tube retracted as fast as it could.
“Hard to port! We’ve got an eldritch abomination to deal with!” Alison exclaimed excitedly to try out her plan. Turning their cruiser leftwards so they were now facing the rift and the being that was trying to claw its way free of it. “Wait wait, Ally, what are you planning with that thing?” Came Jazz a little concerned. “Don’t worry, I’m….sixty nine percent sure this’ll work guys. Ramming speed!” Alison declared before putting the throttle up to full. The cephalons all clamored trying to stop her without success however.
Extending out her palm, she quickly began mustering up every ounce of void energy she could feel within herself for what she planned. Feeling it flow out of every cell of her being, Alison started producing an ever-expanding shield in front of the cruiser and bending it around the creature and the rift. “Marius, take control of the ship now, I’ve gotta concentrate on closing this femboy back in its hell hole.” She struggled to say as she now devoted all of her focus and discipline to control her void shield.
It was like struggling to contain a raging typhoon, the creature raged and threw itself with monstrous strength against Alison’s shield. It was a battle of strength and will as the two combatants fought back and forth. As the seconds ticked by however, she began to doubt her ability to close in on the creature. Her energy supply was dwindling and the creature showed no signs of waning in its strength. That was when Zala burst onto the bridge with the others, he flew up to her side and saw what she had planned to do.
He looked out the viewport at the creature and then back at Alison. “Let me help you, I’ll lend you power, but it’ll be up to you to crush that beast. I’ll hold as long as you can” Zala spoke softly, this was indeed an occasion where he’d had to tap into his ability. Alison gave him a shocked look but said nothing more as she readied herself for more power. Zala gently laid a hand on Alison’s struggling arm and focused within himself; he needed to stay centered or the flood of negative emotion would overwhelm him.
Pure void energy flooded his body and enriched his eyes causing them to glow with the eerie dark light of void energy, using his physical contact with Alison he poured a steady supply of it into her. The flood of raw, rejuvenating power, hit her like a runaway train. “Now we’re cooking with orbiter fuel ladies and gentlemen!” Alison proclaimed loudly.
With renewed strength and resolve, Alison closed down harder and harder over the abomination and its rift. Slowly but surely the rift and the creature shrunk back into wherever they’d come from. Giving one last hard push with her power and gaining a slight nose bleed, Alison collapsed the rift back into itself and the creature with it.