The metal door leading out the room shivered in its frame for a moment after Eric pushed the small square panel on its right side, before smoothly hissing upward.

The pair found themselves facing the opposite wall with a spacious corridor in-between, about five meters wide, that gently curved away to the left and right. A light strip set near the base of the wall began to glow as the two soldiers stepped past the door, giving off a pale, amber light that showed smooth, metal floors scuffed by years of neglect. The walls themselves had an angular, aesthetically pleasing shape, rising up to join seamlessly with the high ceiling, which bore an intricate design made of different metals interlocking in a delicate filigree.

Before they could move forward a strange, vaguely upright wisp of pixilated, shimmering pale blue light appeared a few meters from the open doorway. The two Terrans both gasped in surprise, readying their chosen weapons at the probable threat.

The tableaux held for a moment, with neither side moving.

“It appears to be a light projection of some sort, sir.” Pig opined after examining the construct through all of Eric’s available sight modes.

Eric huffed an assent, but stayed wary, his left arm extended a bit away from his body while his right hand tightened on the hilt of the sword he had chosen as his primary weapon. His Dragon Sight showed him nothing but a faint metallic light streaming into the projection. From the corner of his eye he saw Serra shift her hands on the haft of the war-hammer she had decided to use, but her scarred face showed no fear.

The light projection moved, one arm-like limb gesturing to the pair with a beckoning motion.

“I think it wants us to follow it.” Serra’s stage-whisper sounded loud in the huge empty room they were in.

“On me, soldier.” Eric growled, before stepping cautiously forward.

The moment his foot touched the floor of the corridor, a golden notification window appeared.

Hidden Quest Activated: Revive the Obsidian Moon

Step 1 Objective: Use the Key and Awaken the Ship Soul

Time Limit: None

Step 1 Reward: Transcendent Ability Ticket x1

Do you accept this active quest? Yes/No

Eric stopped dead in his tracks, raising his fist and stopping Serra from moving forward.

“Sorry sir, I couldn’t stop that one from opening.”

“No problem Pig,” Eric turned his head slightly to look at his companion. “I just got a quest notification. Did you?”

Serra shook her head, then looked forward at the slowly oscillating wisp as Eric accepted the quest.

“Well, I guess we know what to do next.”

The wisp of light turned and glided towards the left-side corridor, its arm still beckoning towards them, pixels of illumination falling off its body in a sparse but constant stream.

“Do you think it’s a trap, Sir.” Serra whispered behind him.

Eric gave her an exaggerated shrug, but kept moving.

Why had he gotten a quest and not Serra? Should he have taken it even though he knew nothing of what the quest was talking about? Did this wisp even have anything to do with the quest?

Their strange guide led them down the curving corridor, its light brushing past tightly-closed doors, until they came to a dimly-lit intersection where the pair found the first signs that someone else had recently been within the location.

Eric dropped on one knee beside a dark pool of what looked and smelled like blood and touched it with a fingertip. Felt like old, congealed blood. A grunt from Serra made him turn his head, where she traced a white line of damage to the corridor wall with the head of her hammer.

“Something sharp and metal made this, Sarge.” She whispered, her eyes narrowing as she examined the aftermath of what looked to have been a pretty intense battle.

“I make it four or five humanoids against something bigger… something that could make those.” Eric pointed with his sword at the arch of a new passage leading out at a right angle from the corridor they had been following, which bore four wide scratches on its surface.

“My analysis concurs, Sir.” Pig interjected. “The blood is from two humans and two, possibly three, xenos unknowns.”

“So, four operators got into a fight,” Eric whispered aloud, trying to take in all the information he could from the marks on the wall and the floor, and even the blood splatter on the concave ceiling above them. “Question is, did they fight against each other? And more importantly, who won?”

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“Blood trail leads this way, Sir.” Serra said from passage Eric had indicated earlier. “And I see that wisp still beckoning ahead.”

Eric straightened from his crouch and took one last look around. Many of the blood pools were large enough to indicate a fatal amount of blood loss.

“Where are the bodies?”

A few minutes later, Eric and Serra both stopped short. The wisp had followed the blood trail down the corridor until it opened up a little way ahead meeting with another curving passage. At this point the wisp faded away suspiciously, leaving them behind. Somewhere beyond the two Terrans could clearly hear fierce growls and the harsh breaths of someone putting up a fight.

The two soldiers glanced at each other, before cautiously moving up to the new intersection.

A few meters from the intersection, silhouetted by a wide doorway, a hulking humanoid figure equipped with what looked like modular battle armor and wielding a heavy curved sword fought against a color-shifting, sharp-bristled beast with silvery claws and a face that looked to be made up of mostly teeth.

White light flashed from Serra’s eyes as she activated her ability.

“Anything?”

“The thing is wounded sir; it’s chest armor near the left foreleg is cracked.”

“We have a target then.” Eric growled as he took a breath to ready himself. He willed his Dragon Sight to activate, showing him a web of aetheric flows emanating from everyone in his line of sight. “Pig, Record and Analyze. Call out any weaknesses.”

“Wilco, Sir.”

“You ready, soldier?” He asked his companion, noting the casual readiness of her stance as she hefted her hammer.

“Always, sir.” She answered with a grin.

“Take the lead.”

Traditional Hexguard Corps engagement doctrine emphasized firepower over pretty much anything else, on the principle that gunning an opponent down from a distance meant he wouldn’t be able to get in close to maul you. When Eric took command over his own special squad five years ago he had insisted his grunts practice their hand-to-hand skills extensively, knowing that any moment in the heat of battle that fancy gun of yours could be taken away from you, either by hostile intent or dumb circumstance.

Breaching tactics were a particular favorite of his to run, since they were simple and relatively straightforward: Identify the foe, seek out its weakness, and pound them until they were dead or they surrendered. Many of his subordinates had quite enjoyed the rush of mindless destruction. Serra in particular, was always a very enthusiastic participant in those types of drills.

Running forward, the young woman swung her hammer up and over, aiming at the creature’s spine.

Aided by some preternatural sense of danger the creature was able to react, shifting its hindquarters aside just as Serra’s hammer was about to connect. Snarling in outrage, it even managed to lash out with one of its hind legs even as it rolled away from the blow.

With a resounding clang, Serra’s hard-swung hammer smashed into the floor in a shower of sparks even as the creatures’ foot slammed into her knee. With a cry, Serra dropped her weapon and tried to roll with the blow, colliding with the corridor wall.

Eric’s Dragon Sight showed a flash of orange light at the point where the beast connected, cushioning the blow and even lashing back to burn the creature. Had Serra done that on purpose? Or was it a reflex?

The beast was yowling in pain, clearly favoring its hind leg as it awkwardly tried to turn to face the new threat. Seeing an opening, the armored man the beast had been fighting lunged forward, his broad blade slashing across the beast’s shoulders. As broken bristles from the beast’s back flew, Eric moved into striking distance, thrusting his sword forward.

The sharp point of the blade sunk a little way into the creature’s flashing, psychedelic hide before sliding away, leaving a thin line that oozed pale, bluish blood. Surprised at the negligible amount of damage he had caused, Eric jumped back, avoiding a swipe of the beast’s front paw.

The beast turned its sinuous body, twisting around like a snake so it could face these new threats. As it did so, Eric clearly saw the discolored area near the left foreleg that Serra had identified as a weakness.

“It’s going to leap, sir.”

Pig’s voice was calm, which helped Eric gain control of his own emotions. Helpfully, the AI had also placed a red circle over the vulnerable area. A quick look to his right let him know Serra had picked up her hammer and was ready to charge in. Thinking quickly, Eric came up with a course of action.

The creature’s hindquarters bunched, launching itself forward, claws outstretched.

As the creature moved, Eric instinctively activated his Blood-Soaked aura.

The beast visibly faltered in midair as the aura expanded outward, its claws retracting, and Eric met it with a leap of his own, his sword leading, its hilt held in both of his hands.

The point of Eric’s sword hit exactly on target, the creature’s momentum pushing the entire length of Eric’s blade into its own body. The two combatants collided, and Eric had the presence of mind to activate his marking ability as his knuckles brushed the beast’s hide just before he was smashed to the ground. Eric quickly recovered, rolling to his knees with a grunt of pain as the beast gave an angry yowl and continued forward to hit the curving corridor wall with a bone-shaking crunch.

Surprised by his own success, Eric got up shakily, turning slightly to face his opponent.

Amazingly, the beast was still alive.

The resilient creature was attempting to rise, the hilt of Eric’s sword still imbedded on its chest, rising and falling with every labored breath. Beside the quivering hilt, Eric could clearly make out a dark purple mark on the creature’s damaged chest. The beast gave a whistling, distorted sound, its lower jaws broken from its impact on the corridors wall. Its long dark tongue hung from between its jagged teeth from which bloody ropes of saliva hung as more crazed, mewling sounds emerged from its throat.

Eric grinned, blood staining his teeth, as he activated his Burden ability.

With a squawk of surprise, the creature crumpled into itself as its weight increased tremendously, leaving the beast helpless as Serra charged in like a thunderbolt, her hammer smashing into the side of the creature’s head with the force of a runaway truck.

The hammer strike flung the creature’s neck with an audible crack, as its tremendously increased weight prevented it from moving with the force of Serra’s blow. Neck broken, the creatures head dropped heavily to the floor, its tense muscles relaxing as the light died from its multiple eyes.

Eric straightened with relief, breathing heavily, as Serra shouldered her hammer and crouched by the creature’s body. With his Dragon sight active, Eric saw a silvery mist rise up from the dead body and stream into him, Serra, and the man behind them. Message alerts began to flood Eric’s vision.

“Pig.”

“On it, Sir.”

The windows retreated, and Eric turned to face the man they had rescued.

The armored person they had helped was now leaning on his right forearm, propping his weight onto the side of the doorway.

With the beast taken care of, Eric could clearly see how horrendously injured the man was. Streaks of dark blood covered the man’s close-fitting gray and silver armor, streaming from several deep rents and a particularly large hole. In addition, a large chunk of the man’s shoulder looked to have been bitten off by the beast.

Even as Eric wondered how he could keep standing, the man crashed down to the floor.