Carzen Type Frigate Interface:
"Enter credentials."
"Shipmaster Vimir approved."
"Please enter point of origin."
"Unavailable."
Two black spindly hands lay sprawled out across a holographic display, twitching with vibrant anticipation. The shift in their behavior, noticeable in each dragging moment, had begun to tell a story. They were learning, and their patience had been steadily replaced by a sense of palpable hunger.
"Enter recipient."
A robotic voice spoke to the system, its cadence garbled and messy. Whoever it was pretending to be clearly did not fit its current parameters. But after a few failed attempts, a voice belonging to a proud Vesper drawled out sluggishly.
"Shipmaster Omizen unavailable. Please try again."
"Shipmaster Imura unavailable. Please try again."
A moment of contemplation ensued. Clearly, the Consortium was hiding something. But it knew deep in its heart that the trail had been found.
Ivy was in there. Somewhere. Close.
"Navigation System Shutdown: Voice Confirm."
The machine spoke in its most audible impersonation yet. "Shipmaster Vimir."
"ID Confirm."
A wave of a finger, rotten and swollen, resolved the matter.
"Approved."
Turning its widened eyes to the corner of the room, a set of black teeth chattered togethor, its edges sharp and jagged. A smidgen of blood dribbled onto their surface as they arrived at a sudden stillness. It felt uncomfortable.
This wasn't who it wished to be.
The lights aboard the Frigate flickered, revealing a single figure standing at the center of the abandoned command center. At least a dozen corpses rotted in the corner of the room, many of them desecrated one way or another. Apparently, finding who was in charge was a problem designated for after the fighting.
It took note of what to do in the future.
But it found the right body. A Vesper, hallowed out and skinned in both armor and flesh, was a suitable costume. Mimicking its proud frame, standing tall at the captain's station, was simple enough. But getting its voice correctly felt unnatural.
For the first time, the endoskeleton was filled with desire. It didn't want to wear the faces of some foreign alien. It wanted family.
"Enter Variable."
"Ivy Tesselation: Psionic Signature." The Endoskeleton boomed in the shipmaster's voice.
"Unable to verify. Eight Psionic Signatures Detected."
A large holomap illuminated the dark room, revealing a single planet of interest. There it was, red and cloudy with eight markings written upon its surface. The endoskeleton had found its prey.
The process wasn't easy. Seven ships later, and after cross-referencing a dozen leads, it had located one planet of interest. Fortunately, much of the Consortium's culture had been laid bare during the violent investigation.
Compartimentalization meant nothing when compared to the social boasting of the higher castes. Yrix was infamous enough, but her trail was slippery. The likes of Omizen, however, were rather vocal on channels the endoskeleton could access.
Nobody wanted to work with the Arch-Flayer, it seems. And they would complain quite a bit about it. Such conversations between shipmasters were the breadcrumbs needed to locate Ivy.
"The Aerie." The endoskeleton spoke in its own native and garbled voice.
Suddenly, the skin it wore began to cave in, crumpling into a fleshy, boneless mass. A snakeline appendage slithered out of its mouth, and after a moment of brief transformation, the endoskeleton emerged naked and unbesmerched. It preferred that state of being.
"Set course for system."
"Warning: Crash Course Imminent."
"Warni-."
The holographic display flickered and died, overwhelmed by a silent omniscient presence. The endoskeleton was as cunning as it was cruel. Under no circumstances would it try to land and fool the likes of Yrix.
No one with a tournament record like hers was some cocky idiot. Not after the way everyone spoke of her. The way they feared her.
A tinge of hate rested on the endoskeleton's mind, even as the Frigate's engines whirred to life. This Yrix, however mighty, was a thief. She had stolen Ivy away from her family.
But she had no idea what would pursue her into the deep expanse of space. She had only ever known humans to be primitive and gullible. However, the endoskeleton was far from a human creation.
It could practically taste the next few days. The Frigate would crash, it would slither away from its wreckage undetected, and Ivy would be found. Anything and anyone who stood in its way would be crushed or defiled.
Not even Yrix could stop that, so long as confrontation with her was avoided. Finding another distraction was seen as easy enough. She simply had no way of predicting something as absurd as Algernon's creation.
"Ivy." The endoskeleton whispered, staring out of the command center's viewport with beady, soulless eyes. "You're coming home."
But unbeknownst to the endoskeleton, it had forgotten a key process of navigation. There were lanes the system would have warned him of, places to avoid. One does not simply travel through a straight line deep in Consortium space.
Not after the Infestare had dug deep into its reaches.