The first thing that struck me upon entering normal space again was that I could immediately sense that it was different. My decayed magicians senses could still sense that the resonance of N-Space had been subtly different, I would not have been able to sense this before my Insight got increased. I quickly shake my head to stop my thoughts from becoming distracted and I turn my attention to the other crew members. Captain Torran clasps his hands together with a loud smack, "Welp time to get into positions folks. We have a target coming here soon." Torran ran up one of the staircases that leads to the upper tier of the ship. Namatha and Mary nods to each other and walk out of the room in opposite directions, but Mary calls out over her shoulder. "Tlokbur, please show Glyphie the way to the boarding tube. Get your shit ready cuz when they come you won't have the time to run around the ship."

Morgera bobs his Golem body at Tlokbur and I, "Please stay safe you two. I don't want to lose any friends on this mission, okay?" Tlokbur stretches out her tentacles and wrap them around the Octopus and his golem shape, the tentacles seems to tighten their grip for a second until she lets go. "Of course we will be safe. Just have some medstims ready for when we come back. Anyway, we got to go Glyphie!" She exclaims as she bounds down the stairs towards her domain at a speed that makes me think of charging rhinos. I nod to the Octopus and walk after Tlokbur down the stairs.

I discover that Tlokbur has stopped down in her workshop and seems to be adressing her various automata assistants. "Build Team! This gonna be one of ya biggest tests, get ready and assist the others in fixing the ship m'kay? We are counting on you while myself, Glyphie, and Mareh are out there beating up the baddies." The various mechanical creatures chirps and moves in what I presume is in some kind of ascent, they then disperse up the stairs and out through the corridors. Tlokbur sends out her tentacles to grab various items from the tool racks. The items are placed within her thick plantmass. "I got that over most species, I don't need clothes to store muh stuff." Tlokbur says proudly before she walks out of the workshop and beckons me with a tentacle.

We wander until we reach a metallic door that unlike all the others I have seen on the ship so far, stands out by being painted in a very bright yellow. Tlokbur points at the door, "that door leads to the boarding tube. The yellow paint is to clearly indicate what this door is and that it is not always safe to go through it." She then pokes the door three times in what seems to be a specific pattern, and the door slides open with a woosh. We step into a large room with a circular exit at the far-end of it. Beyond the exit there are several chairs and shelves set up along the walls of the room, there even is some kind of massive pillow contraption that Tlokbur settles into. "Sit Glyphie, we are going to have to be seated for the first portion of the assault. Also grab one of the transluscent masks from the shelf.

I do as instructed and struggle through her explanation of seatbelts once I have actually gotten seated. The soft transluscent mask seems to form itself to cover my mouth and nose, without being uncomfortable and the belt contraption keeps me confined to the chair. "Space battles are unpredictable affairs Glyphie, so you are better served with being secured in one place." She is interrupted by Mara's voice reverberating through the ship once more. "Observation: Target ship is detected. Announcement: Priming sensor array and warming up all armaments."

Captain Torran Pierce is inviting you to his party, as this is a mandatory party for members of the Incredulous Crew, you may not refuse the invite.

Before I can respond to this strange new notification, I suddenly hear Captain Torran in my ear almost as clearly as if he stood beside me. "Well then folks, the show is about to start. Now that everyone is in the party I will share the ships primary feed with those of you who can't see the action." Suddenly a mirror like box appears before me through which I see the starry void of space along with several floating rocks. Through the random debries and the darkness I can see a light moving in roughly our direction. I blink at this sudden change, but my experience with scrying pools makes me relax. This is just some kind of psychic link formed between the crew and through it can see what Torran has deigned to share.

My reverie is broken as I feel a poke in the side, and I see Tlokbur extending the long package which I presume contains my staff. I absent mindedly grab the package and open to reveal a long staff with a rounded top and an almost flat bottom with three nubs extending barely from it. Tlokbur exclaims "It is pretty smooth for something I cooked up on the fly, now notice that there is a switch with three configurations. Off, Shock, and Fried. So you can decide if you want to just smack a target, stun em or leave em fried." Her voice contains a notable amount of pride at her work and I give her a grateful nod to appease her.

We don't get to discuss my new weapon any further than that. As the light I see through the scrying window reveals itself to be the thin starship that is our quarry. With this new perspective I realize that it almost looks like a floating double-edged dagger flying through the void. Captain Torran speaks up again through the link, "We are in stealth mode, we will let the ship pass us and then move to ambush it. Mara prepare to activate the communication jammer. Mary try to hit their communications array with your first volley, just in case they can counter Mara. Namatha prepare the particle beam to intercept any torpedos they would send our way." He instructs the various people he addresses with consumate speed and authority, that quite frankly surprises me considering his very lackadaisical nature.

The floating dagger passes us through the ship and I feel the perspective lurch as the ship turns to follow it. A red number 5 appears in my vision and it slowly counts down to 0. When it reaches 0 then I see a myriad of lights fill the view as several things happen at once, first a volley of several turqoise bolts of energy fly silently through the darkness and hits the floating dagger on the underside. Their ship seemingly shakes and before they can respond a white energy beam hits the top of the ship.

The Floating Dagger rolls to the side in an evasive manuver and turns to fly straight up at a ninety degree angle. We follow them and the white beam once again comes out from our ship, but this time the blast seems to move into a sort of wave like pattern. The goal seems to have been to hit something other than the ship, because the beam waves do not even get close to hitting our quarry. Our enemy suddenly turns the ship to a 45 degree angle and several turqoise energy bolts similar to what we had used, fly towards us silently through the void. Thankfully, our ship manages to avoid the attack and flies even higher up before we switch to match their course.

The enemy is now underneath our ship and I can hear Torran speak through the link. "Mary they are all yours, give them hell!" She doesn't reply, but the sudden volley of turqoise beams along with other stranger things that is shot at the enemy, seems to be sufficient as her answer. The enemy ship is hit several times and I can finally see debries float away from the enemy ship. "Good Job Mary, we will move in but shoot them a few more times just to be sure it isn't a rouse." Torran says encouragingly and she obliges by sending more turqoise bolts into the ship. When we get closer to the ship it becomes clear that, while we have damaged the enemy vessel it has been surgical rather than total destruction. The construct floats silently through the void and remains mostly intact, just with several marks and tiny fractures in the hull.

Mara's voice can once again be heard as she says, "Announcement: Scanning indicates the enemy ship is internally intact, the damage is only to it's normal space engines, the external weaponry and the communication array. Query: Shall I engage cracking protocols?" Captain Torran replies, "not yet Mara. We don't want to tip them off, engage those protocols after the Assault team has entered the ship. Mary you can now move down to join the assault team, Namatha shoot out the cable and Mara engage the boarding sequence once we are properly connected."

Affirmations are given by the various individuals adressed and I turn to ask Tlokbur something that I noticed about the battle. "Erm, Tlokbur why was there no..sound in the battle? I would have expected such destructive attacks to make some kind of sound." Tlokbur makes that strange laughing sound of hers and wags her flytrap mouth in my direction. "Ahh Glyphie I know it sucks, but sadly there ain't much of any sound in space. Oxygen is needed to help sound move and as a result despite these attacks making sounds, we can't hear them."

Her laugh makes my cheek redden slightly, but I shake the embarassment away and turn my gaze to the scrying window. I now see a long metallic cable being shot out from our ship and connecting with the enemy vessel. We are getting pulled closer and closer until the window disappears. Not long after I hear a woosh as the doors slide open. Mary steps in but unlike the other times I have seen her, she now seems to be wearing armor and a mostly featureless helmet that covers her entire head. "We don't have a lot of time so my orders are going to be brief. They know we are coming and they know where we are coming through, it is in their interest to give us a warm welcome and then try to counter-board our ship. I expect three or four of them will be ready in their docking area, and they will give us hell the moment we step through the doors. Tlokbur, unleash a wide range scramble immediately when we enter and then it is up to us to get into appropriate cover before we do anything else."

Mary then turns to me and looks me up and down, "you are useful in close quarters combat. Don't rush them and take these two and connect them to your clothes." She grabs two grey disks and hands them to me. "They are energy shields, not as useful as proper armor but they will let you absorb a couple of blaster bolts. Now, neither of you be an idiot and run off on your own, we do not know the interior of this ship and that makes us prime ambush targets. If we do get separated, keep in contact through the party chat. For you Glyphie that means whenever you want to talk to us, think party in your head and then say what you want to say."

I fumble a bit before I place the disks on my clothes and on a whim I place them underneath my shirt, this nets me an approving nod from Mary. Tlokbur seems to also attach some of those disks to herself and with that we turn to walk towards the circular exit hole. Mary goes first, Tlokbur behind her, and I form the backtroop. As the circular door slowly opens with a loud WOOOSH, I can hear Mara whisper to me and me alone. "Be careful Glyphie, I need you...and losing you is not an option. Don't abandon me." I shudder as my Patron finishes her decree and follow my two compatriots into the tube connecting us to the enemy ship.

The walk through the tube is surprisingly short, but the tension makes it seem like a far longer walk than it actually is. Mary stops by the closed door that leads into their ship, and gestures in a way that seems to indicate that we should get ready. I grab even more tightly around my staff and mumble as low as I can, "Lesser Absorbtion, Lesser Limitbreak." I feel mana flow through my body and I decide to amplify my Cunning and Instinct attributes. Being able to cast stronger spells as well as being quicker to react, will serve me far more in this conflict than physical might.

The door sloooowly slides open and Mary rolls in followed by Tlokbur, but before any incoming attacks come I feel a strange flicker flow through the room. Mary indicates several crates to the side of the room and Tlokbur and I follow her there. The second I get behind the crates, then several turqoise bolts are fired in our direction. These bolts are accompanied by several loud pheeews, that seems to be the sound that blasters make when they fire. I brace myself against the crates as several of them shake from the impact of the shots. Mary points a long object over the boxes and returns fire at the welcoming comitee. Tlokbur on her end hunkers down as her massive bulk is barely hidden behind the boxes.

Mary glances to Tlokbur and nods before sending a circular object out into the room with a flick of her wrist. Tlokbur wraps a tentacle around my eyes and plugs two in my ears, before I can react and then a sudden explosion shakes the room. Tlokbur removes her appendages from my face and by that time Mary has already moved to a different cover and is firing in the direction of our until now hidden assailants. I look to my plant cohort and she rises up and charges out from the boxes, and once again that strange flicker moves out through the room. A round object hits Tlokbur and she is suddenly covered in white foam which seems to mostly imobilize her, before I can run out to assist in the battle I am suddenly assaulted by thousands of flickering system notifications.

Thousands of blue and wordless boxes appear in my vision and I feel a massive headache coming, but I manage to barely dismiss the boxes instinctually. And in the second after my view is cleared, I notice a human man that is sprinting at me with a knife in his hand. He must have dashed out from the shadows and I can see the murderous intent in his eyes. If it had not been for my magically enhanced reaction time, I would not have been able to parry his incoming strike. As it is I barely managed it and I elbowed him in the side of the head to try and get him away from me, the man rolled with the blow and spun to slash at my stomach. Once again I only barely managed to avoid his attack, this time by stepping back and bending my stomach away from the blow.

I feel that my back once more goes into the boxes and I realize that my assailant has managed to pin me to what is my only protection from the blaster fire. The man dashes towards me and moves his knife hand upwards from below to stab me, I grasp around his hand to stop his blow and hold him in place. I return the attack with a punch as I drop my staff to the floor, as in such close quarters it would not do me any good, but he manages to block the incoming punch. Before I can do anything else, he stomps on my toes and knees me in the stomach. I fight through the pain and manage to slam him into the boxes and jump to the side, so that I am once more free to move as I please.

My hand stretches out to magically call the staff to my hand, but I remember with a wince that I am not cabale of that at present. So I kick the staff up from the floor and into my hands. In the background I can hear the firefight still going, but they have not yet shot in my direction again. Most likely this is because their friend would be in danger of getting hit, combined with the fact that Mary seems to be more than their equal. I am not exactly confident about resuming my duel with this human, in our brief exchange it has become clear to me that he is my superior when it comes to brawling and he is far faster than I am.

I can't spare any more time to analyze the conflict as the man dashes out at me again and elegantly sidesteps my jab with the staff. I swing it to hit him in his side, but he merely bends under my attack and then rushes up to continue stabbing and slashing at me. I am only barely able to parry and deflect his ferocious assault, barley but still able. And I manage to send him back with several sweep attempts with my staff. If I can keep him at a distance and off guard, I might be able to prolong the conflict until Mary or Tlokbur can help finish him off.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

He, however, seem to have also reached that very same conclusion so he grins and then frowns in concentration. Once more I am beset by thousands of flickering system notifications and a throbbing headache, I wildly swing my staff in the air in response and feel it deflect a knife blow. I don't get to enjoy my victory as my next sensation is world consuming pain, as the human kicks me in the groin and sends me sprawling to the ground. I lie there and stew in humilation and pain as I realize that I am going to die in a brutish knife fight to a human, not exactly the grand death that one would expect from a being of my standing.

I open my eyes when the pain of being stabbed does not fill me, and a shrill scream manages to drown out the sounds of battle. My opponent stands above me while clutching his head and screaming, as blood start pouring out of his eyes, ears, and nose. I don't know why or how he ended up like this, but I don't need to find out right away either. I flick my stabs lower end up into his stomach and feel the electricity course through the staff and into him. It vibrates as he also vibrates and the smell of cooked flesh fills the air, and he collapses to the floor. I move back up to my feet with a pained groan. 

NOTE: You have sustained 6 damage, caused by Scrambling

NOTE: You have sustained 4 damage, caused by brawling strikes to toes and the gut

NOTE: You have sustained 12 damage, caused by scrambling and brawling strike to genitals.

I angrily wave the system notifications away after they note that my current health is at 78 out of 100. Arbitrary points seem to be a moronic way to meassure damage, but at present my thoughts are too muddled by my headache to to ponder it. My gaze turns to the rest of the room where I see that Tlokbur is busy freeing herself from the liquid that constrained her, and Mary is briskly returning to us. "I killed one, injured another but the two that remained in the fight managed to flee." She inclines her head to the corpse on the ground next to me. "Good job surviving that ambush, it must have been a pretty good Skulker to have been able to hide from my helmet sensors."

Tlokbur manages to get herself freed from the liquid and wanders over to us, "annoying bitch used a gluegrenade on me. It is going to take me forever to get all of the gunk out of my leaves, anyway, yeah he was a good skulker and a pretty mediocre scrambler. Glyphie held their own, but since they did not know about scrambling it became a way for the guy to break his guard. Thankfully, I managed to scramble him good and at that point Glyphie finished him off." Her usually cavalier and enthused tone has now been replaced by a far more dispassionate and cold one. "Before you ask Glyphie, scrambling as a system skill that lets you send signals to another living being and try overload their brain. This dude was not that good at it or you would not have been able to shake it off, since you don't have any training or a high Instinct attribute."

I am left speachless as Tlokbur intercepted my incoming question and the knowledge left me cold. A completely new avenue of attack that I had no defense against? That is unacceptable and I will have to rectify it as soon as possible, but I compartmentalize these feelings and focus on the here and now. "So, how do we proceed Mary?" I ask as I shake of the last remnants of my headache. With the rush of battle leaving me I can also feel the internal clock on my spells, I had only ten minutes left of the Lesser Limitbreak effect. Lesser Absorbtion could still go for twentyfive minutes or so, therefore speed would be of the essence here.

"We will enter the ship with caution, the goal will be to get Tlokbur to the cockpit. We must also ensure that we don't get ambushed by any of them, so it will be your job to keep our backs covered Glyphie." Mary nods after delivering her orders and with that we move into the narrow corridors of the ship. I have in my life gone through several infiltrations of enemy strongholds, and in that time I have learned that suspense can often be the greatest danger of all. Suspense and tension can make people jumpy and prone to mistakes. Thankfully, Mary seems to be a consumate professional and does not let the dimly lit corridors of the ship get to her. Tlokbur, however, while fierce in battle does not seem to be the most seasoned of infiltrators. Her bodylanguage leaves subtle clues that only a perceptive genius like myself could notice, like the fact that all her leaves are constantly shaking, which most likely means that the tension is making her jumpy.

I on the other hand grab my staff more tightly and focus on looking through the side corridors that we pass. Mary seems to know roughly in what direction the cockpit is, and as such is leading us with ironclad determination. She checks all the doors, to ensure that we have no one ambushing us, before she makes the group move. Unfortunately not even she noticed the hidden door on the right side, nor did I for that matter. As we near the area of the ship where the cockpit would be, suddenly a portion of the wall slides open and a massive arm grab me with a crushing hold. I am pulled into the room and the door slides shut with a woosh, I can hear from outside that Tlokbur and Mary are in a fight of their own.

I am thrown across a relatively spacious room and smash into the wall opposite of the door. I blink and see a golem body not dissimilar to the one Morgera uses. This one has some kind of head or helmet built into it, which Morgera's golem does not have. The massive golem lumbers towards me with it's fists raised to strike. I meet it with a smile as my idiotic automata opponent, have isolated me from the others. That means that I am free to use all my abilities and this construct will not be able to stop me. 

"Jam Technology!" I shout and flick my finger at the construct, it shudders and stops moving. The construct stands still and is helpless at which point I casually step forward and jab my staff into it. Once again on the frying setting and I feel electricity course through the staff and into the construct. However, rather than finishing of my automata opponent it seems to leave it unharmed. I try to jab it again and it seems to have already overcome my spell because one of it's massive hands grabs my staff and pull it out of my grip.

The golem tosses the staff behind itself and begins lumbering towards me. My eyes widen in fear as I realize that something must be wrong with my Jam Technology spell, it should have left an unintelligent golem like this completely imobilized. I try to analyze the machine as I step back, but something seems to block my efforts as nothing about it appears before my vision. The situation is dire as the Golem is pushing me back towards the wall, and it has become clear that I cannot match it in a context of strength.

I desperately fling all the magic I can access at it in response, when it becomes clear to me that I am not going to be able to run past the machine. "Grasping Hands, Jam Technology, Transform Hand, Transform Hand!" I rapidly cast my spells with no thought to precision or even power, an eldritch black void opens underneath the golem and a myriad of limbs grasps around it. It stops to a standstill as my jam technology spell takes effect, but it is only left still for couple of seconds. It starts to tear through the grip of the grasping limbs by just walking, I on my own end feel the Lesser Limitbreak spell end, as both my hands transform into massive bony stumbs that are only fit to smashing and punching. Hopefully, they will be enough to harm the metal construct before me.

As the automata steps out from the grasp of the eldritch limbs, I rush forward to meet it and slam my massive brick-like hands into it. My punches are slower but carry far more weight as I try to beat the golem back, I manage to dodge it's two counter-strikes but it sends me staggering backwards with a simple shove. I once again go back into the wall, and this time I am left truly demoralized. My punches only left a few tiny dents in the metallic body of the golem, and while my own hands are unharmed I can feel them throbbing with pain. "Lesser Limitbreak, Eldritch Servant Incorporeal, Eldritch Servant Corporeal, Jam Technology!" As the Golem gets close enough to end me I cast any and all spells I can think of that could help me. I only manage to utter the last spell as it reaches down to try and crush my head. 

The Jam Technology stops it in mid bend, and I punch it in the head space. But what is truly surprising are the flickering purple arms that wrap around the Golem. A flickering purple wraith that seems to partially be composed of countless numbers and purple light, is floating behind the golem and pulling it back. My corporeal eldritch servant is trying to pull the golem backwards towards the grasping limbs. The Golem body is also shacking as something seems to be truly wrong with it this time. As my summoned servant tries to pull the construct back, half the time it obligingly steps back and then it tries to stepforward. Almost as if there is an inner battle for control over the creature...My incorporeal servant must be possessing the Golem body, and whatever guiding intelligence it has is fighting my servants possession.

This opportunity is too good to waste, so I rush forward and once again start delivering all the punches I can to it. The golem seems too preoccupied to stop me and my two summoned monsters at the same time. Collectively the three of us manage to drive the golem back into the grasping limbs, the grasping limbs takes hold of the legs and the dangling arms of the Automata. With all of these factors we manage to bring the construct to it's knees, I then focus all my strikes on the head of it. Hopefully, whatever is powering the golem is in there and I can destroy it if I smash the head.

With my Lesser Limitbreak spell boosting my strength and endurance, combined with my enhanced hands and the stationary target. I finally after two minutes of repeated strikes to the head manage to crush it completely and the golem falls over. At which point a tiny hatch in the rump of the golem opens and five tiny rodents crawls out of it. They looks like an exotic animal I saw in a book once, Golden Hamsters I think they were called. The rodents desperately tries to make a run for it while begging for mercy in a cacophany of squeaky voices. Absentmindedly I gaze over to the head of the Power Suit, and now I see blood pooling from where the head used to be. So, this machine was not an automata opponent but a piloted golem like the one Morgera has. The similarity was more than the aesthetics in other words.

I turn my attention back to the fleeing rodents and cast a grasping hands spell. Sure enough all five of them end up in the tangle of limbs and I give them a sad smile. "Unfortunately my rodent opponents, I was not instructed to take prisoners and I am not in a habit of letting information leak. You know too much already, but know that you almost defeated Glyphnax Blightburn High Wa..errr Warlock of the First Circle. Take pride in that accomplishment as you go into oblivion." I snapped my fingers and the grasping limbs crushed the tiny rodent bodies to death and pulled them with them into the eldritch void they came from. I dismiss the other servants I summoned and end the transformation of my hands while at it.

NOTE: You have sustained 8 damage, caused by being tossed into a wall. 

NOTE: You have spent 70 out of 100 mana points in a very short order. Be careful so you don't overextend your mana capacity.

I hrumph in annoyance at being chided by an unfeeling machine, but in the quiet portion of my mind I agree with it. I could have achieved more if I had been more conservative with my mystical expenditures and rather adapted to the opponent. The Jam Technology spell was obviously ineffective because the Golem was piloted and maintained by a crew, that could counter act and restart their warmachine almost as quickly as I could stop it. When I walk to the door I retrieve my staff on the way and leave the broken golem behind as I exit the room.

The corridor is filled with the stench of charred flesh and burnt plantmatter. There is a trail of leaves and blood leading in the direction we wandered, and it doesn't take me a lot of time to follow the trail to my companions. On the way I spot four corpses on the way until I reach the cockpit. Tlokbur's massive bulk makes it almost impossible to see the controls for the ship, which saddens me as I had wanted to finally examine how one steered a starship. Mary upods me upon my arrival, and she has removed her helmet. "Good Job again dude! Tlokbur was getting sick with worry but unfortunately there seemed to be no cameras or controls from here that we could use to get that secret door open. We tried to bust in through it, but it was reinforced."

Tlokbur makes some sort of triumphant hornblower sound and sends a tentacle over to boop me, but beyond that she seems to be hyperfocused on whatever she is doing over in the cockpit. "Mara has done a good job with the cybersecurity of this ship, she has pulled the ID-codes already it seems. I have only estracted some extra information about their assignments and a ledger about the cargo. It seems that these guys must have moonlighted as item smugglers because we have everything from rations to sevenhundred year old mummified arms."

She must have said that through the party link, because Torran responds. "Mara tells me that we have about 15 minutes before system security are on our asses. Set up the N-Space stranding and grab whatever you guys find interesting on the way out. Just be quick about it." It takes me all my self control to suppress my grin as I ask Tlokbur after the instructions were given. "Where did they keep these items?" Tlokbur replies absently, "In the cargohold where we went through the docking tube." Tlokbur then clasps her tentacles together to indicate she had finished her task.

We quickly rush back through the bloody corridors and back to where we entered the ship. Since we have a few minutes left before we must exit the ship, we collectively and silently decided to rummage through the crates in the cargo area. Tlokbur and Mary pick up rations and various mechanical devices, while I desperately search for the casually mentioned mummified hand. It takes me almost all the time we have left, but I manage to find the cloth-wrapped limb and a bag. I disguise my haul by throwing in crystals and an assortment of other random items into the bag to obfuscate my real treasure.

"Time's up peepz, we got to go." Torran says through the link again and we all rush out through the docking tube. We barely get time to strap ourselves back into the seats in the boarding tube room, before the ship lurches and I feel us move again. Torran obligingly show us the view from outside through the link again, and I see something rather interesting. The enemy ship is still hooked to ours by the metallic cable and as we fly towards the edge of the system, Mara announces. "Announcement: We are entering N-Space in 10 seconds." And just as she says that the cable whips forward and releases the ship. Just as we pass into the multicolored void of N-Space I see that the other ship grows transluscent just as we transition and the scrying window disappears.