The corridor was empty as she walked along the wall, silent, to avoid making the slightest noise.
A door suddenly swung open a few meters away, spilling light and two silhouettes. The first pirate, with bluish skin, brandished a rifle, while his ally, disfigured by metallic implants, clutched an energy axe that crackled with a menacing hum.
The first shot fired before they could react. The plasma bullet pierced the blue-skinned pirate's eye socket with precision, exploding on exit in a splash of pulverized bone and brain matter that stained the wall.
The hybrid leaped, hurling her axe. She spun, narrowly avoiding the blade, and kicked him in the sternum. The impact sent him flying backward, winded.
She didn't give him time to get up.
With a swift motion, she grabbed his cranial implants, jerking his head back, and crushed his throat with the butt of her rifle. Once. Twice. The cartilage snapped with a wet crack, and a jet of bloody mucus burst from his nostrils.
He thrashed like a trapped animal, pulling a retractable blade from his forearm. She seized his wrist with one hand and twisted until the bone snapped. The arm, now useless, hung limply.
Then she shoved the barrel into his mouth.
The detonation blew his head apart like an overripe watermelon, spraying shards of skull and metal across the floor.
She picked up the knife that had fallen from his lifeless hand, barely examining it before a new group burst in, alerted by the carnage.
The bursts of fire arrived before she could fully take cover. Three hits struck her in rapid succession: shoulder, hip, thigh. The plasma's heat burned through her clothes, but her superior race's epidermis absorbed most of the damage.
A fourth shot tore into her leg.
She bit the inside of her cheek to stifle a cry, aimed blindly, and pulled the trigger.
A pirate collapsed, his knees reduced to pulp.
She lunged at him before the others could react. Her fingers sank into his eye sockets, and she pulled with her superstrength. The eyes popped out with a sickening sucking sound, followed by a bloodcurdling scream.
She plunged the knife into his flesh below the ribs, slicing upward to the armpit, tearing through muscle and organs. When he tried to push her away, she snapped his wrist with a sharp twist, reducing his defense to a limp limb.
Then she slit his throat.
Not enough for a quick death. Just enough to watch him drain, his blood gurgling into a growing pool.
She stepped back, surveying the damage. She wiped the blood from her face.
She rose, ignoring the mutilated bodies littering the floor, and headed for the control room.
Three pirates in heavy armor, helmeted, unreadable. An assault drone buzzed above them, its targeting laser sweeping the room.
She disintegrated it with a shot to the core. The explosion briefly lit the ceiling, showering sparks.
The soldiers opened fire.
A bullet grazed her temple, an instant burn.
"Shit!"
She smelled her own scorched flesh before the pain hit.
She dove to the ground, firing back at the joints. A soldier screamed as his knees exploded, collapsing like a broken puppet.
She was on him before he hit the floor.
The helmet cracked after three blows to the face, revealing a gaping mouth and bloody nose. She took his plasma grenade, pulled the pin, and hurled it at the last two.
The explosion slammed them into the walls.
One of them struggled to his feet, his right arm torn off, his face half-melted. He raised a trembling hand.
"P-Please! Spare me!"
"Your victims said the same thing."
She shot him in the mouth.
The other tried to limp away. She put two bullets in his heels, sending him crashing down.
She approached, grabbed his neck, and squeezed until a sharp crack signaled the end.
"... "
She took a deep breath, trying to ignore the throbbing pain in her slowly regenerating arm.
It was strange—they were all generic pirates with no real experience, but their equipment was exceptional. Something's off...
"Instead of looting the place, they were looking for something specific."
Around her, the corridor was a slaughterhouse: severed limbs, split skulls, slowly regenerating.
She grabbed the corpses and tossed them out.
In the interstellar void, they wouldn't survive.
Then she looked up. The enemy ship was still visible through the cracked airlock window.
The DarkStick.
"Paying a visit to their leader."
She adjusted the automation settings. Without hesitation, she jumped out of her ship, straight into the inverted boarding corridor.
***
Meanwhile.
Gamma-4, one of the two habitable planets in the Gamma solar system.
Control room, Heart Guardians Main Base – Northern Sector.
"Lieutenant, unidentified high-velocity object. It just pierced the atmosphere!"
The operator's tone was nervous. His eyes glued to the thermal screen, he tracked an incandescent mass slicing through the atmospheric layers like a guided projectile.
"Why worry? Intercept it."
"It's not that simple. It's... slowing down."
The lieutenant approached the screen. A humanoid shape. On fire.
"Slowing down?! Are you sure it's not a ship with a weird thermal signature?"
"No, it's organic. No cockpit, no metal structure. It's breathing, and it's descending like it's controlling its fall."
"..."
"A humanoid entity... surviving direct atmospheric entry?"
"And the vacuum of space."
The lieutenant clenched his teeth. Only the Superior Races could survive such conditions. And even they used protection—a brutal atmospheric entry could tear their flesh, despite their resilience.
"Put the base on red alert. Now."
Skies of Gamma-4 — Desert Zone
Zrahel let himself be drawn by the planet's gravity, and due to air friction, his silhouette ignited despite himself.
"Ahh... This is annoying, and my head hurts..." As he was a few meters from the ground, he abruptly slowed.
He closed one eye. The pressure built. The voices in his head screamed. Again.
'Kill them. Kill them. Kill them.'
He hissed through his teeth, irritated.
His landing created a scorching shockwave that carbonized the ground for a kilometer around. Rocks cracked, sand melted into glassy plates.
Zrahel stood at the center of the crater, eyeing the horizon.
"I just landed. Can't you shut up for two seconds?" He spoke to himself.
He looked at the cloudy sky and the red sand at his feet, stretching for dozens of kilometers with mountains in the distance.
"Desert planet... typical. Ashera might have crashed here." He rubbed his temple. "Or on the other one?"