Cadaver Crasher

Bridge

Morwen strode onto the bridge the following day, feeling slightly more rested. She found Lt. Rayshe manning the controls, even though engaging portals was a straightforward affair. Point the ship, open one up, and go to the end. Navigation was more an affair of timing your exit based on your desired exit point more than turns and course shifts. What few nav charts they possessed of the depths had come at the expense of many cartographers. Most of whom failed to return from the black.

Rayshe snapped to attention, “Sir. I was reviewing the system logs and noted that we’d received a long distance spell missive just before entering the umbral realm.”

“Nature of the message?” Morwen requested in a clipped voice as Rayshe exited the command chair and gesturing for her to take the seat. She slid into the worn leather chair, the frame creaked a greeting under her body weight. It was as close to feeling at home as she could manage. Even Eryn lacked the same feeling as this old worn out command chair.

“Unknown, sir. I figured it was best to allow you to review it, since it had a command stamp on it.”

Morwen’s brow arched curiously. “A message from Command? This should be good,” she mused dryly.

Rayshe bristled at that. “Sir, you should probably be less candid with your lack of approval of command.”

She turned to Rayshe, noting it odd that she was being lectured about lack of approval from him, of all people. “Why? Because your father is a member? Thank you for the recommendation Lt. I’ll keep it under advisement. I have the bridge. If I were you, I’d get some rest. I have a feeling we’ve probably received our next hail marry mission.”

Morwen was no stranger to the Federation lobbing her long shot assignments. Kofex, Tohruun, and even Hoshun. All worlds laid to waste by the Sauridius. She didn’t understand why the Federation didn’t deploy more forces and instead seemed to lean almost heavily on her ship and crew as a response force instead of facing the Sauridius threat head on. She couldn’t keep trying to triage the problem. Eventually, they had to get out and get ahead of the problem if they ever expected to make it through.

Lt. Rayshe excused himself off the bridge without replying to her comment, allowing her to settle in and summon the message spell on the primary screen. Her blood ran cold when she saw the face of the ArchPriest, looking concerned.

“Captain Morwen. The Federation command received a distress call from Hidros. Their orbital station came under siege by the Sauridius. The Brotherhood of Man forces have fallen back to the planet's surface, but I suspect the Sauridius will hit the surface before long. I have ordered you to respond. See to what you need, then respond as swiftly as possible.”

System Info: Stop the Sauridius invasion of Hidros

Great. Gods forbid I get time to build my crew up and resupply first, she huffed. Morwen sighed and called up what the system library held for Hidros. A single orbital station to manage traffic and shipments to and from the planet. There was a local defense fleet of rather impressive numbers, considering Hidros’ tactical value being less than what she felt it would warrant. Perhaps the Brotherhood took system security a bit more sternly than the Federation. What a welcome surprise that would be.

She leaned back, tapping at her chin thoughtfully. This compounded her supply woes, but also presented her with some much needed weight for her asks. If she could point to a known attack as a reason for her haste, it might make the bargaining phase less painful. People dealt less viciously if it meant there might be rounds coming their way if you weren’t able to stop a mutual threat.

She had two viable sources of materiel. The Order of Aeryn, and the dwarven smiths in the Forge. She could get something out of the Order by returning one of their own to them as payment. Then she could barter something with the dwarves. She had several knowledge scrolls to start with. She fingered her bracelet idly. The gift from her father. It served as spell armor with a visual spell, camouflaging it to look like a regular gold bracelet. It was an elder piece, but would it be enough? The bracelet pulsed back to her. It too hoped to help however it could. She bowed her head in thanks. She knew it was cruel to trade a piece like this away so casually, but she knew the stakes, and so too did the armor, since it’d been with her ever since she put it on.

Summoning an illusion spell to project her a map of the sector, she scanned it thoughtfully. The Forge was deep in the opposite corner of the sector, though, and would take them past Xanofex Prime. She could take a brief detour there and expose her mage company to the wellspring there. With luck, she could equip them with void magic. The Federation usually frowned on to visit a wellspring unsanctioned, but this was a military operation. She could ask for forgiveness later rather than permission.

After that, a stop to the Forge for supplies and rations. From there, she could then pick up the marines who’d be reinforcing her company at Eryn when she returned the artificer they’d rescued, and then travel to Hidros from there. Command wouldn’t be happy about their tardiness, but she could pass the supply trips off as pre-planned, since they effectively were.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

That would only blunt their ire, however. She’d have to pay for it somehow later, of that she was certain. Worse, she knew it would allow the Sauridius forces extra time to dig in on Hidros. She was certain that if she arrived without the personnel and resources she needed for the fight, that she would just be rushing to a premature defeat.

Morwen prepared a portal to exit back to normal space. She would set the next jump vector and then put them enroute to Xanfex Prime soon. Once they committed to that path, they would cross a point of no return. In the empty obsidian expanse, a swirling portal blossomed open, showing a window to their native plane as the Crasher spilled through it in a cumbersome, slow fashion. Behind the ship, the portal snapped shut, like a door being slammed behind them. Lest they not invite anything from the void to pry them back in. Morwen had heard the legends and wasn’t foolish enough to try her luck.

She shivered with a sigh of relief once the ship settled to a stop in normal space. The Void always made her skin crawl. Like being trapped in a pen with a predator that was unaware of your presence, but you fully expected to devour you at the slightest provocation. That kind of vulnerability never sat well with her, but conventional FTL required use of the void for rapid sector transit by virtue of expedience.

Sure enough, another spell missive pinged on the console. A follow up from Command urging her to travel to Hidros with haste. She quickly reviewed the message and tossed it aside. It crashed against another console, shattering into aether shards and dust before fading from sight.

“Like hell, I’m rushing an entrenched enemy position with no intel, no weapons, no ammo, and a lack of personnel. I’m no genius, but I’m no fool either.”

She gripped the ship's controls, feeling it meld with her magically, a shallow gasp easing past her lips as her senses multiplied a thousand fold across the entire vessel. More than that, she didn’t just see or hear as it did; she was the ship. Through her shared connection, she could guide the ship as naturally as she might her own body.

Enchanted sensors embedded across the hull allowed her to feel the cold vacuum of space, see in the various spectra, and even control the ship’s movement. The Crasher wasn’t a top end fighter, so the input response had some delay. She did, however, have power. There was also supplemental intelligence. It wasn’t sentient, but there was a base awareness present.

She adjusted the ship's pitch and yaw, placing it on a new vector and locking in the coordinates to plot a trip through the Void again. This time, their destination was Xanofex Prime. Once the imposing bulk of the craft was aimed at their new target, Morwen opened a new portal. The ship sounded the Black Alert, to let the crew know they were on the next leg of a series of jumps and to limit magic use until the void shields went back up. Alert klaxons sounded, and dark blue lights replaced normal run lights. She felt all non-essential systems powering down in the vessel as it ran dark in the Umbral realm.

Once the protective ward was up, she rose. Her bridge watch was nearly done and Corporal Yasiin was due up soon. She’d been slowly grooming him in use of the ship's controls and its defensive assets since he was such a competent counter spell caster. She wanted to cultivate that skill, as she expected he would prove invaluable in the coming conflict against the Sauridius forces. He was the third and vital component of her prophecy’s success.

By the time the corporal marched up the gently sloping ramp onto the bridge, Morwen had been standing next to the command chair, waiting for him. She wanted to present the image that was expecting him. A commander in control meant a commander that could adapt to an ever-changing situation, and she saw the potential in Yasiin for much adaptation. He was flexible, inflexibly.

Yasiin snapped off a crisp salute, and Morwen returned it before putting him at ease. “The Chair, Corporal.” She said with a gesture for him to assume it.

Yasiin bowed his head, taking his seat. He was a dark-skinned Nomad. They were famed for their ability to master both light and void magic, Counter Spell competency and enhancements. They were the ultimate support peoples. But because of this, they were also extremely sought after, with many being thrust into service against their will. Morwen was thankful that she hadn’t been the one to conscript Yasiin. She wanted to assume that gave her a level of deference and respect, more than perhaps her situation with Akamori might have.

Yasiin reached out slowly, gripping the unmoving gold control grips of the ship. There was no need for input, since the vessel linked directly to one's soul and their magic. Something the Brotherhood studied and came up with no results, much to their frustration. Yasiin gasped for a moment as the ship and he became one entity. Then he glanced up at her, panting with a nod.

“I’m linked.”

Morwen nodded with a smile, “Good. Now, we’re in the void and en route, so there’s not much you’ll need to do. Monitor the sensor scans, and if you detect anything, report it directly to Sergeant Sirsir before acting.”

“Yes, Sir.”

Morwen nodded with a confident smile and patted his shoulders encouragingly. “The ship is yours now, Corporal. Lt. Rayshe will be here at the end of your shift to relieve you.”

And with that, Morwen returned to her chambers to do some digging through her sparse personal items to see if she could dig up anything else that might have barter value for their stop off at the Forge. As she strode into her room, she fought back the urge to shiver. She felt like her skin was crawling. She knew it was just her imagination, but it was difficult to keep at bay.

That feeling that something unknowable was just beyond sight. Watching you. You couldn’t see it, but it could see you. Some referred to them as denizens of the void. She’d even spotted mentions of Titans. If that were true, something truly more powerful than even an elder god lurked here in the void. That meant she liked to keep as minimal a profile in the void as possible.

Her fear melted away as her fingers found the aged leather spine of a book on her small shelf. She folded the book open and took a seat. The musty smell of aged paper greeted her. And before long, the book was her world. It was a small comfort, but an important one. She focused on the contents of the tome, intent on finding anything of value she could.