The air above the Aethel trench became a screaming, light-bleached hellscape. The Arbiter's command transport, hovering like a dispassionate god, suddenly found its divinity challenged. Lashing tendrils of blue-and-black matter, now grown thick as ancient trees and crackling with stolen energy, snaked upward.
They didn't just attack; they interfaced. One whip-like appendage slapped against the transport's shimmering hull, and instead of bouncing off, it stuck, a black vein of null-energy pulsing as it began to drain the vessel's advanced systems.
A low, pained hum vibrated from the ship. "The anomaly is targeting our primary systems! It's adapting to our frequency!" a synthesized voice, laced with uncharacteristic alarm, crackled from the Arbiter's open channel, now public in the chaos.
