162: Jamming Down The Pedal – One
A slight ripple as something moved across the expanse of stars scattered across the black was the only indication that this space wasn't unoccupied.
Within the ship making its way through the void, Queen Kaizoku sat at attention in her throne, eyes on the screen before her, Chancellor Bathory and the Knight of the Tomb standing like sentinels at her left and right respectively.
Before them, General Grim was at the helm, guiding them forward, while Madame Augury and the Queen's Red Left Hand were at the gunner stations flanking her. Like the others, their gaze was fixed intently on the screen before them.
"Program, are we close?" Kaizoku asked, her mismatched eyes darting across the expanse stretching out on the view screen.
The crimson axe of its avatar appearing in the corner of said screen, the Program announced, "We should be nearing our target. Scanners indicate it's just ahead."
"There," Grim said, gesturing forward with a nod of her head, "That must be it."
The Program zoomed in for them all, bringing something they had assumed was just another star into view. Only rather than a distant pinprick of light set against the backdrop of the faint sandy gold nebula beyond, the screen was filled by an oddly shaped object, the casing of it the slightly imperfect, organic-like off-white of Hyttan material.
"These are the coordinates the scanner indicates as the entry point for the Omega." The Program announced, an uncharacteristic edge of worry to its voice, "Perhaps this object is a marker to denote that?"
Her mechanical fingers drumming out a quick, staccato beat, Kaizoku ordered, "Scan that device. Whatever it may be, I want its secrets laid bare."
The Program's avatar vanished from the view screen, along with the vista outside, all of which was replaced by a series of readouts flying by too fast for anyone to read.
"The amount of data stored in this device is staggering," the Program's voice was thick with awe, "There's something more here. A file. A warn-"
The view screen was suddenly filled with light, bright and overpowering, searing away every trace of colour as it blasted through the bridge of the Pelekys.
As bright and overpowering as the light of two suns.
Two suns, the light of them so purely white that colour could not exist under their glare. This harsh light shone down on a city, squat buildings butting up against towering skyscrapers, broad streets running through them like rivers along the bottom of canyons. The sweeping architecture and organic-looking material was unmistakable.
This world was Hyttan.
There were people in the street, so unlike the other races of the galaxy.
There was something almost moth-like to them, frond antenna sprouting from their heads, small noses and mouths with compound eyes, a thick mane of hair while their joints seemed to be covered in protective plating. Under the light of the twin suns, they were as rendered in greyscale as the rest of the world around them.
These people were hyttan.
They were moving around one another, going to and fro as if there was nothing amiss, their clothes light and breezy enough to give the impression that this was just another warm summer day.
And then darkness began to creep in along the edges of their horizon.
Some of the hyttan turned in confusion, the sky above them cloudless, nothing there that should have been dimming the light of their binary stars. But then shadows, lightyears in length and undulating like they were alive, began to rise beyond the atmosphere of their world, and the people began to scream.
The streets erupted into panic, the people fleeing at the sight of this eldritch nightmare swarming up around them. Past buildings, past monuments, past advances greater than any that had yet to be matched by the modern peoples of the galaxy, a shadow from beyond the stars stretched out across this world.
A military base, squat and practical, the people inside it rushing about not with the panic of those outside, but with the intensity of people on a mission, hurrying to make sure that everything was in place.
In a control room within, people were at stations frantically going over readings and typing on consoles, a map of that star system dominated one of the walls before them. Worlds within the system were blinking out as the shadow advanced closer and closer to the twin suns at the heart of it all. Standing before this was an officer, the medals on their chest denoting some high rank, staring at this advancing threat with a look of grim determination.
With the press of a button, they dismissed the map, and shutters that had been sealed over the windows in the room slowly slid open. Only moments had passed, and the world outside had grown so much darker, the shadow that had come there to destroy their world advancing closer and closer with every second.
Staring out at this for a few moments, the officer drew in a breath like they were steeling themselves for something, before glancing down to type a command up on the console before them. As the skies continued to grow dark, they turned their gaze to the twin suns hanging in the sky above them.
Nothing changed for a few moments, beyond the gradual dimming of the light, but then a spark, a shift, as something irreversible befell the system.
Like fireworks, like bombs, like dreams, those two suns detonated.
The frantic energy in the control room fell away to stillness, some of the people watching on in horror as the shockwave of their suns being destroyed advanced on them with all the inevitability of the tide, others relaxing back in their seats, utterly at peace with what was about to befall them. The officer watched it all, regret and resignation sitting heavily upon them.
Outside, the screams of the people had increased in pitched, undercut by a howl of fury as not only was some great hunter denied its prey, but it realized that there was nothing it could do to escape the fate that its prey had brought upon themselves.
With the force of inevitability, the shockwave of those twin suns being destroyed reached that world, and together the Hyttan and the Omega were wiped from the face of the galaxy in one searing wave of light.
"Report." Kaizoku demanded, slumped over in her seat, her mechanical arm clutching her head, eyes screwed shut and teeth bared in pain. Like her, the others we half collapsed, overwhelmed by the vision they had just borne witness to.
Grim shoved herself upright, her hands flying across her console.
"No damage to the ship, all systems operational," she announced, "However that vision was projected into our minds, we only experienced it for a second."
"They blew up their own suns to stop the Omega," Augury breathed, clutching the arms of her chair, "This isn't just where it will reemerge, this is the mass grave of the Hyttan Technocracy."
Silence fell over the bridge of the Pelekys at that, the weight of that statement settling heavy across them all.
Shoving herself up from where she'd been brought down to her knees, Bathory's voice was distant, her thoughts racing as she said, "This is why no one has been able to find their homeworld - it's gone. Their entire system is gone. All we have left are whatever colonies of theirs are scattered across the galaxy."
When she was brought to the ground herself, the Knight of the Tomb had tried to catch herself on the arm of Kaizoku's throne, but she'd gripped the woman's forearm instead. Blinded by the oracular assault as she was, Kaizoku had gripped the Knight's forearm in return, and as the Knight pushed herself upright, neither of them let go of one another.
"The destruction of two suns was what it took to kill the Omega, but Death is not strong enough to hold it indefinitely. We will have to be as equally relentless when we eventually face it." The Knight said, trying to blink focus back into her eyes.
"We will be," the Hand said, not looking at her, but at Bathory, "We've got way too much to live for to let something like this get in the way of the rest of our lives."
Bathory's stare was intent as she answered that with a decisive nod.
The Program's avatar emerged on the main view screen with a brief, glitching flicker, its voice coming out rough as it told them, "The data from that marker has been downloaded. It seems to be combat information - what worked against the Omega, what didn't. Thankfully it seems to be more videos and diagrams rather than text, meaning this information isn't obfuscated by the language barrier."
"Good, that, at least, will be of use to us going forward." Kaizoku said as she settled herself back into her throne, "Ensure that we have everything pertinent from this device, and then let us be away from this place. It's bad luck to linger at a gravesite longer than necessary to pay one's respects."
Kaizoku rose from her throne and turned to leave, but was stopped in her tracks by the fact that she and the Knight were still gripping each other's arms. They stared at each other in shock for a moment, clearly neither of them having realized they hadn't let each other go.
They dropped their hold on each other a moment later, and with a polite not, Kaizoku left the bridge.
Staring at her back, her expression as unreadable as always, the Knight remained in place, motionless beside Kaizoku's empty throne.
Seated at the open patio of one of the restaurants on the Quanvengier, the crews of the Pelekys and Gorgon were crowded around several tables they'd shoved together to seat them all, the crew of the Gorgon bunched up as they finished watching the latest video release from the Pelekys on Phoebe's data pad.
"And that's truly what a hyttan looked like?" Ravona's voice was quiet with awe as she and the others drifted back to their seats.
"Yeah. Everything in that vision was a recreation of what we actually saw," Elytra told her, "We have copies we can show you. Turns out the Zymeth have the means to record their memories."
"And lucky for us we happened to bump into a zymeth ex-Kith," Malakh added, "One who just so happened to have such a recording device."
Yarvela scoffed. "Given what you said about how the echo of the Hyttan had called these fortune telling sorts out there to guard that tear from those who would try to bring about the early release of the Omega, I don't think luck had anything to do with it."
"And what a way for the mystery of why all those fortune tellers left a decade ago to be solved," Leto said with an unbelieving laugh, "That they'd been given omens by the Hyttan themselves to guard their grave against a fucking death cult of all things!"
Sara made a burbling noise of worry in the back of their throat before saying, "A worrisome thing, this cult. We'd be well served to find out more about their operations if we can."
"The pirates shared what they knew, but I am putting feelers out of my own," Viatrix said, her drone bobbing next to Adyt's as they meandered around the perimeter of their tables, "Unfortunately, it seems these people are as off the grid as one can be when operating in space, so I'm having a rough time getting anything on them."
"And that's weird too," Adyt said, flying backwards so she could look at Viatrix's drone, "Operating without greater network ties would be more of a hindrance than a help, I would imagine."
"It certainly did them no favours in the construction department," Nevara said, frowning behind her mandibles, "To call their device rudimentary would be overselling it."
Selene shook her head at that. "Hopefully they actually are as kit-bashed as they seem to be, and that this isn't a ruse to lull the pirates into some false sense of complacency. The last thing we need is for the Omega to show up unannounced."
"The pirates were not taking the threat of this cult laying down," V'tala assured her, "The echo of the Hyttan made sure to stress how important it was to guard this place, and now with everything they've seen from the visions the Storlayacas shared with them, and the vision of how the Hyttan died, it's only strengthened their dedication to their cause."
More than one sigh of relief was heaved at that announcement.
Shooting Pryseia a look, Phoebe asked, "That nebula in your video, I know I've seen it before, and I can't quite place it, but I know for a fact that I've never been to the corner of the galaxy where you said this all took place. You filmed this somewhere other than the true location of where the tear lays, didn't you?"
"Well spotted," Pryseia confirmed with a smirk, "No doubt the location struck a familiar chord in you, as we filmed this near the Triewebeorgan Anomaly. I thought it safe to not broadcast the actual location where the pirates stand guard, as they don't need any more curious sorts poking around where they shouldn't be. Should any clever sorts sleuth out the filming location from the context clues, they will doubtlessly realize its not an area of space they should be trifling with."
Letting out a quiet laugh, Elytra said, "I got so caught up with the filming and editing that I forgot to ask why you chose that location of all places, what with it being in Thalatte space and all."
"It's called an anomaly for a reason," Malakh said, her ears pinning back and her tail momentarily thrashing behind her, "Thankfully we weren't close enough to experience any of the weirdness of that place, but ships flying through there often experience strange system glitches, power loss, and sometimes catastrophic failures. Other ships just vanish without a trace. More than the Thalatte have been studying that area, but scanning from far away gets nothing abnormal coming up, while scanning too close gets readings that don't make any sense. It's a sphere of space roughly three lightyears in diameter, and no one's been able to figure out what's wrong with it. Even if it weren't in Thalatte space, it's a hazard only an idiot would go poking around in."
"A double obfuscation, then," V'tala said with a slight smirk, "We've kept the actual location hidden, and we've also got a fake location that only a fool would seek out."
Rhea snorted out a laugh. "We're hardly the first to use the Triewebeorgan Anomaly as a cover. The amount of treasure hunting myths about lost buoys loaded with riches just floating around in there? It's basically its own genre!"
"It's a trope that keeps getting used for a reason!" Leto pointed out with a laugh of her own, "We've got a place sort of like that on one of the oceans of our world, called the Bermuda Triangle, and anomalous shit was reported to happen there too. It was eventually disproved, just a bunch of bad luck happenstance that people spun into a myth, but that myth outlived the cold hard facts, and media's made to this day about the Bermuda Triangle swallowing ships whole. The Triewebeorgan Anomaly, however? That's the real deal. It'll actually eat you for lunch."
"Some kind of subspace rupture is the leading theory, but no one's been able to produce any concrete proof to back it up," Selene said as she leaned back in her chair, "For whatever reason, despite all the math being correct, you can't emerge from subspace into that bubble in our space. You try and your ship will just pop out on the outskirts. If it'll pop out at all. AI drones and remote ships don't have any different luck on that front either."
Her drone shuddering as she drifted by, Adyt said, "And I'm not volunteering to scope that place out any time soon! Gives me the digital equivalent to the heebie-jeebies!"
"I agree, I got weird vibes off that place, I don't wanna get any closer than we were." Viatrix said as she bobbed along beside her.
Leaning forward with her elbows on the table, Rhea shot her sisters a look as she said, "Given the vague details you shared about us over the assorted comms, it sounds like the mission you want us to go into cahoots with you is located on the other side of the galaxy from Thalatte space, so that's something that should ease your mind."
Mirroring her position, Malakh added, "And I'm sure hearing the details of said mission would go even further to settle any frayed nerves."
"I say, poppycock to act as though we shan't be sharing the details with you in but a few moments," Sara grinned, "As if we'd hold out on something this entertaining!"
Grinning just as wide, Phoebe told them, "There's a lot of empty space between Zymeth and Necupole territories, plenty of room for people to get up to all kinds of criminal activity. There's a lacertus information broker who set up a home out there, and ghe's something of an eccentric recluse. Ghe doesn't sell ger information to the highest bidder, ghe gives it away to whoever ghe finds the most entertaining. Money isn't an issue for ger, so ghe's gotta find her kicks elsewhere, I suppose. And when ghe finds something particularly juicy, ghe throws a race."
"Then I take it ghe is throwing a race at some point in the very near future?" Pryseia asked rhetorically.
"Sure is," Yarvela said, her mandibles clicking together in excitement, "And the prize is a cache of some very sensitive Thalatte navy information."
"If the information is that sensitive, what's to stop the Thalatte from coming to take it back?" Elytra asked, trying to bring a little level headedness to the excitement she could feel beginning to sweep everyone away.
"Speaking of anomalies, ghe chose a really odd patch of space to set up shop," Ravona explained, "Its basically in the middle of an asteroid field, dense enough that popping out of subspace there almost guarantees your ship getting pulverized before its had a chance to fly a full ship length. Safest way to get there is to fly through regular space manually, and it takes a deft pilot to do so. Its not quite as bad as traversing through the core, but it's bad enough. Of course, it's even worse, because ghe's rigged up so many of the asteroids there that if a fleet tried to brute force its way through, ghe could just detonate those mines at ger leisure. No, the safest ways for those who had their info taken would be to enter the race themselves to try and get it back, or to try and snatch the winner once they exited the asteroid field themselves. And with how strained the Thalatte navy is after the bullshit with the Necupole and the Dolabra, to say nothing of the active war fronts on Meleten and Lacertus space, they don't have the resources to spare."
"I'd be willing to bet that they'll forward a team of special ops types to try and win the info back, but if they try any funny business against the information broker's rules for the race, ghe'll have the interlopers killed," Sara said with a dark laugh, "It's certainly happened before."
"There are risks to this mission, but no more than the risks of every other mission we have taken part of. I am in favour of participation, given that we will do all in our power to watch each other's backs," Pryseia said, catching V'tala's eye, "But getting Thalatte information into allied hands will only be a boon to us going forward. The risks inherent in this are worth it, I feel."
V'tala nodded in agreement, her eyes never leaving Pryseia's, and the rest of the crew was quick to voice their own desire to take on this mission.
"Fantastic," Phoebe said, smiling in relief, "We've been keeping tabs on the competition, and as good of a pilot as Selene is, we know she won't be able to overcome the top contenders."
"But you in that little Hyttan flyer of yours?" Selene said, shooting Nevara a knowing look, "I think that's the winning combination we need."