Splayed out across silken sheets, Moltezz yawned softly as she stretched her muscular limbs out, one at a time. The ORG-aided transfer of equipment from Barru X had allowed them to bring most of their belongings onto the dreadnought before hastily leaving the sector, long before any money hungry mercs got close. However, the departure had been quick, and as a result, Moltezz's temporary room (whilst she picked out a more fitting permanent accommodation from within the ship) was a little more cluttered than the Mistress would have liked, but adequate for the time being. Lit by a seductive amber glow from within, her room carried a highly suggestive, spice-laden warmth that filled the lungs with each breath taken.
A slow growing, satisfied grin found its way onto her face as she heard a muffled, low moan coming from within her room. She sat upright within the sheets, rolling her neck to one side, then the other. Her oversized queen bed was in the centre of the room, currently without its usual ceiling drapings. To her left was her weight rack and bar, lain with heavy industrial black rubber mats underneath. Current weight; two and a half tons of high-density tungsten, either side of the bar. To her other side was a wardrobe, with a mirror door on one side and a rack of drawers on the other. A set of black, lacy underwear was draped teasingly on one of the handles, along with a leather crop whip. Opposite the bed, however, were two of the Mistress' custom-made stalls, durable constructions designed to sit and hold a single occupant and expose their genitals and hands on the outside of the stall, allowing others to simply help themselves to the person - and holes - within.
Both of the stalls were currently occupied, one by Kross - her pelvis chained up and her exposed bum cheeks wearing many red, sore looking lashes each. The other stall occupied the rich, night blue scales of Mook. Still chained and bound but not lashed to quite the same extent as Kross's buttocks. Both were covered in a thick layer of glowing amber goo, pooling under both units in copious puddles, along with claw and pressure marks in the wood panelling around where both girls' hands protruded from the stalls, firmly locked in place.
Moltezz pulled herself up from the bed, the sheets slipping from her frame to reveal her nakedness in all its muscular, powerful glory. She immediately felt the pull towards Kross, deep within her chest, her bones, but she turned away, towards the weight bar and settled herself above it. She twisted her neck a couple of times before squatting down and clamping her hands around the metal. With one slow and deliberate inhale, she heaved the bar upwards in a controlled, powerful motion. It rose off the floor like it was made of feathers, despite the bar sagging from the sheer weight fixed to its ends, rising as her thighs and hips straightened out. She held it firmly for ten seconds, mouthing them quietly as they passed before she dropped it to the floor with an earth-shaking thud, causing both Kross and Mook to flinch in their stalls.
She made it effortless, like she always did. The urge was buried for a moment under the rush of blood from her thunderous heart. There was nothing like starting your day with a five ton deadlift to set the tone.
Satisfied with her morning weights, she clapped her hands together loudly and paced over to the wardrobe, idly flicking flames around her palm in one hand. She caught sight of herself in the mirror, her dreadlocks continuing to return back to their curling state, the crystals adorning her carapace were looking more and more vibrant with every day that passed. As she picked through the drawers for something to wear, a knock tapped gently against her door.
"Mistress? Are you awake?" Tani asked politely.
"Good morning, Tani. I am, please come in." Moltezz responded quickly, searching for the right outfit.
The rabbit quickly pushed the door open and slid into the room with an almost giddy look on her pretty face, which only deepened as she laid eyes on the rear of Moltezz's naked body.
"Morning, Mistress! Salem has been in touch this morning! Y-You didn't mention you were going to do a video!"
"I didn't plan to. The sex bot was trying to get a rise out of me so I decided to put her in her place. On the sidelines. What did Salem want?"
"He said the video shoot you did with Kay-Ex was… Well, he paused and said it was 'most entertaining' and has sky-rocketed on the nightweb already! He said that A-tier clients are begging to see you and if you're willing, he'd be open to discussing arrangements for significant money."
A wicked grin spread over the Mistress' face as her fingers plucked at the straps of her various outfits.
"Mhmm. Good." She snickered, turning to face Tani. "Tell him no."
Try as she might, Tani's eyes could not halt their draw to the absurd length between Moltezz's legs. But the rabbit's fluster only amused Moltezz further and she playfully approached the Node with a deliberate swing of her hips.
"The Mistress only comes when she wants to, not when called. Right, Tani?"
"R-Right, Mistress! Shall we go for breakfast?"
"Hmm. We shall, but there is someone I need to see first. Did Leech return last night?" Moltezz asked with a raised eyebrow, tapping her chin with a single clawed finger.
"I don't think so. She's still aboard Sunset Rook."
"She might be enjoying herself. Fine. We shall visit our newest recruit first!" She proclaimed proudly, spinning back towards the wardrobe. "But the question remains, straps or thigh highs?"
"Thigh high, Mistress. Every time." Tani hummed with delight, gently squeezing her eyes closed as a pleasant shiver ran through her body.
"Tell the girls to unhook Kross and Mook, they've had their punishment. We have a new Controller to meet!"
*
Now dressed in her brown leather attire, consisting of thigh high boots, a mini skirt that did not fully shelter her manhood and an undersized coat that barely contained her bust, Moltezz strode proudly through the dreadnought's stone-lined corridors, to where her latest Controller was waiting.
She entered a large, derelict training room, somewhat resembling a dojo with its wooden flooring and hefty pillars that dotted the room at regular intervals close to its walls. It was still in the process of being cleaned up, several Slaves were toiling away in the background, their faint purple eyes barely visible under the dim lighting as they hauled chunks of rotten materials away. To the far end of the room were a row of wooden training dummies, with solid wooden heads and torsos, suspended via tort ropes and chains.
But from within the murk of the dojo resided their reward from last night, currently hanging upside-down like a bat from one of the ceiling joists. She floated gracefully, as though weightless, only suspended by a single foot that gripped the metal work securely by her toes. Upon hearing Moltezz enter the room, she spun around slowly, swapping feet to maintain her grip.
Crystal white skin coated a muscular, tort body of well-honed death. Her iron-grey carapace crown had an almost aquatic design to its sweeping, fan-like horns that frame her steely gaze. Black lips and fierce, blood red eyes with a smattering of black freckles at their outer corner give her an attractive, if stern-looking face. A spike collar of carapace hugged her neck and upper chest, along with a set of shoulder pad carapace that gives an almost mediaeval-torturer look to her otherwise ecto-elegant palette. An elaborate pattern of black dancing tribal death marks and lightening bolt tattoos coated her thighs and hips, surprisingly undistorted by her growth in size. Finally a long series of jelly dreadlocks, matching the intense crimson of her eyes, would usually run down to her middle of her back, but were currently hanging down like a cascading fall of blood, barely brushing the floor. Her vivid aesthetic was as captivating as it was alarming, resembling that which spilled so often on a fresh canvas.
She stretched her free leg out to the side, almost like a ballerina. Despite holding her entire body weight up, she showed zero sign of strain or discomfort. She would look rather carefree, if it wasn't for the cutting stare that seemed a permanent feature of her otherwise attractive face. She had bound her hips and chest with black bandages as the corruption had done what she'd expected: Massively increase the size of her sexual organs. But she wasn't as overwhelmingly large as she could have been. For any reasonable person she was still very busty, somewhere between Plum and Leech in terms of size. A single short blade laid on the floor in front of her, now undersized for her strider stature.
"Look at you!" Moltezz beamed proudly. "Glorious, beautiful death. How do you feel now you're one of us?"
Her stern gaze flicked over to Tani for a second, before landing back on Moltezz's eyes.
"This urge… does it ever change? Does it weaken?" Her voice was still barely more than a ghostly whisper, but it held a noticeably more synthy tone to it now, only further elevating its haunting profile.
"The urge? No. You can acclimatize to it, but it never actually weakens. I suggest at least one session per day, but you can have as many as you want as long as you're still performing your role adequately."
"Hmm." She grunted, making no effort to hide her dissatisfaction. "I used to… copulate… once per year. If that. Now I will have to do it once per day? Otherwise my bones feel like they're being pulled from their sockets?"
Moltezz met her scolding ire with a knowing grin.
"Best sex of your life though. Indulge it, it will make you stronger."
She hissed briefly and shifted her weight, adjusting her body and bringing her leg back in.
"Pleasant as it is, it's very distracting."
"Yes, yes it is. Which is why you need to indulge often. You will learn what frequency you require indulgence at and I highly recommend you adhere to it. Was your induction with the Trio suitable? Did they brief you properly?"
"It was. They were… very kind."
"And did you decide on a name for yourself?" Moltezz asked, stepping forward. "As I don't think 'Three Eight' is a suitable name, personally."
The Controller hesitated for a second, her stern gaze briefly faltering with uncertainty.
"Aranych."
"Wonderful to meet you, Aranych. Aside from the urge, how are you finding the new you?"
"This body is strong." She replied quickly, seemingly thankfully for the change in subject. "I wasn't sure what to expect, but you were correct when you said it would be an upgrade."
"Of course I was, darling. I know you had concerns about your stealth capabilities, have they been rectified?"
"You tell me."
She dropped to the floor, landing with a barely audible thump and in a single motion, swiped her blade from the ground and slung it across the room in a straight line. The blade whistled through the air and split the head of a training dummy, sending a shower of splinters through the air as the blade slammed into the wall behind it, stuck deep into the stone.
In less than a blink, she was already back on her feet, standing up straight in front of Moltezz. The Mistress clapped twice in response, meeting Aranych's ever unyielding stare with a warm smile.
"For someone over eight feet tall, you barely make a noise at all! Most impressive! We shall find a role for your skills in no time at all! Once we have you equipped anyway, those bandages are not suitable for a girl of your calibre." Moltezz tutted, shaking her head. "We shall find something tight and tactical for you. With a touch of Rewritten flare of course."
"What is my role?" Aranych asked cautiously, watching Moltezz closely.
"What do you want it to be?" Moltezz asked back sincerely.
"Like I said, I like to hunt. The thrill of combat. It's my home." Aranych replied, pulling her dreadlocks straight behind her back with a single hand. "I might need to refine my strategy but I see no reason why I couldn't continue that. This form has remarkable physical capabilities."
Moltezz nodded in thought, pacing around the dojo casually as she collected her ideas. Both Tani and Aranych remained still, watching the Mistress from their respective spots.
"Do you have any experience in non-lethal take-downs and capture?"
"Some. But I am mostly elimination."
"Mhm. It's become obvious to me that we need more specialist target incapacitation. My prince has at least one Controller at his side who renders our forces inoperable, and she is a capable threat even to other Controllers. I need dedicated huntress units, people who can operate away from the horde comfortably and… disable… our enemies."
"Disable? Not eliminate?"
"Ideally. Diego is non-negotiable, hurting him will draw my temper, to put it politely. But killing Seeth would be so incredibly boring. The girl has such potential and helped establish our cause at the very beginning. I would very much prefer to keep her alive, but not at the cost of your own life of course. But she needs to be dealt with. I need someone fast, trained and capable. Someone like you."
"This Seeth, is she dangerous?" Aranych asked with a growing note of interest.
"Oh, remarkably. Word of her mercenary work has spread far. She's brawled with Barons and personally taken down the biggest of us, Ink. I dare say she could take on anyone but me. And that is no insult. Does that sound like a worthy primary task for now?"
Tani caught the hint of a grin on Aranych's face, the glimmer of a fang visible from the girl's onyx lips. The first and only smile she'd shown the entire time.
"Consider it done. She will fall. Either onto her knees, or into the abyss."
*
Within Sunset Rook - Leech's Black Laboratory
*
A long, tired sigh escaped Leech's parched lips as she sunk into her chair. The sound of the heartbeat monitor had become background noise hours ago, but she still clung onto its beep, worried for if it might fall silent.
She was positioned in the corner of the lab on a heavy duty but comfortable armchair, dragged into the lab at her request. A scattering of dried coffee mugs littered the work surface to her side, having long given up on using a coaster some time into the night. To her side on the other side of the room, a vast plastic bin was full of fowl-smelling medical waste, discarded tissue and viscera that had been trimmed away, as well as waste fluid which had been pumped from her project's body.
And yet, the body herself laid still.
A massive curtain had been strung through the middle of the room, shielding the czarite and offering both Venter and Leech visual space within the lab.
Several heavy metal liquid tanks were resting in another corner of the room, their contents drained and used. They had various letters written on them in chalky, coloured writing: L, I and BG.
A whiteboard on wheels had been pulled into the lab and had various, messy, tired scribbles over it, as well as a detailed drawing of the czarite in question, with various annotations spidering off her.
Leech struggled to stay awake as she rested on one arm, her eyes heavy and low. The door swished open and shut and woke her a bit as Venter padded back into the room, holding two more cups of coffee.
He made his way over and offered a cup to Leech, which the Controller took with a tired, low "thanks" given in response. Pulling a metal stool over, the two sat in tired but not uncomfortable silence, sipping their drinks with nothing but the mellow beeps of the heart monitor to warm the room.
"Do you think she'll make it?" Venter asked quietly, blowing some steam off the top of his mug.
"Honestly? No idea. I've done everything I can. We've stripped as much dead flesh as possible, administered various healing serums and antibiotics as are compatible, and I've practically flooded the girl's blood stream with the best quality corruptant I have. But this is the longest I've ever seen it take to corrupt someone." Leech replied quietly. Despite how tired she was, she was in a good mood.
"Maybe it's the sheer mass of the lower body? Or the fact that it's not genuinely organic? The corruption would be bringing two separate genetic codes together, right?"
"Yeah, we've never seen what that'll do before. I'm half expecting her to just turn into some giant flesh monster. We're at the cutting edge of discovery here." She chuckled to herself, placing the coffee down. "What a crazy few days…"
"Yeah. That's one way of putting it."
Leech was happy to rest her eyes, despite the uncertainty of how the procedure went. But Venter shuffled around in his chair uncomfortably, glancing over at Leech repeatedly. He cleared his throat once, then again. And a third time. But the words wouldn't come to him.
The Controller smiled and shook her head, still keeping her eyes resting.
"Cmon, out with it, slut. I can feel you looking at me every time you nervously glance over like I'm your high school crush. Your homework sucks, you need help, let's talk about it."
"Would it be prudent to say I'm… worried about you?" Venter chuckled lightly, awkwardly scratching the back of his head.
"Worried?" Leech sat upright in her chair. "What for? This has been a lot of fun! And it's not the first time you've seen me conducting surgery either, did I finally gross you out?"
"No, no. It's not today I'm really referring to. This is… This is you at your best. I'm talking about the constant backchat and tension with Ink. And how you were super excited to see Bubblegum for two days straight but… but I mean, c'mon, she's avoiding you."
Leech sighed and went to retort, but nothing came out of her mouth. So the Controller pouted and twisted away instead, trying to gather her thoughts.
"And there's the failure of the DA operation. I know Moltezz said it's fine… I just worry about you. Maybe I'm overstepping my role as disposable lab assistant and fuck meat but -"
"You're not disposable, Venter. I promise you that. Fuck meat, definitely. But you've been more than useful to me. Valuable, maybe?"
"I wouldn't push it that far." He smiled shyly.
"Good idea. We wouldn't want anyone to think that me fucking you is personal. This is purely a professional relationship we have." Leech responded in her usual sarcastic tone.
"Absolutely." Venter snickered, before turning more serious once again. "But I am worried. You and Ink were so close before, now if you do anything at all, she storms off and you don't see her for the rest of the day. And the fact that Bubblegum missed a session with you tells me something is very off. She always turns up for a session."
"I don't think I'm in anyone's good books right now, Venter." Well, maybe there's one… "But you don't need to worry. I got through the worst of it. If I can survive that attack we literally threw ourselves into, I can survive anything. And Ink is just… she's more fragile than she looks. Emotionally, I mean. Physically the girl is built like a tank. I mean, she took the beating Seeth gave her and walked around like nothing happened!" Leech flexed her arms to illustrate the point, seemingly almost proud of Ink's durability. "But anyway, I'll win her back. I always do."
Venter hesitated. If Ink was more fragile than she appeared, then Leech was too. Behind the girl's mad scientist aesthetic, sharp eyes and sharper fangs was a soft heart.
"I'm sure you'll be fine. I just…" The wolf struggled to get the words out, and instead just shrugged after a few seconds of meandering murmuring.
"I get it. Noted, Venter." Leech smiled back genuinely. "I… appreciate your concern."
"You're getting better at this." He laughed, taking a sip of his coffee.
"Shut the fuck up, ya' scroungy little dishrag. Or I'll chain you to the cuck stool for a week."
The wolf merely blushed and turned away, taking another, albeit slower sip of his drink.
"Yeah, that's what I thought. Li'l shit." Leech turned away too, hiding her smile. "I -"
Beep-beep
Her words were cut short by a new sound, stealing both of their attention immediately.
Behind the curtain, the heart monitor's tempo had shifted. There was a second beep within the monitoring loop.
"Her encryptor heart! I think it worked! She's alive!" Leech stood from her chair excitedly, when another new sound captured her attention. A rattle from the corner of the room, emanating from the bio-waste bin they'd recently filled…
From within its plastic shell, a deep gurgling noise echoed. It sounded almost like the final, hollow glugging of a drain, followed by the sound of thick liquid, splashing around like a muddy puddle.
Both Venter and Leech stared at the closed bin, the former retreating in fear, the latter posturing forward in deep curiosity.
The lid began to shudder and, gently, it crept open.
Streaks of dark red blood bulged against the lip of the bin, flowing over its edges and spidering down to the floor. It formed a stream and flowed around the sticky wheels of the waste bin, before snaking around the room, leaving a trail across the floor in its wake.
Venter quickly leapt up onto his chair, his gaze flickering between the animated cruor and Leech's perplexed expression.
But the blood's path was not random. Its flow was seemingly intentional as its trail left spirals and esoteric markings of the floor, their meaning unknown but their presence left Venter a deeply concerning, uncomfortable pit deep in his stomach.
From behind the curtain, the very tip of the snake tail began to flicker and twitch as the czarite took her first, gasping breath. The blood trailing its way across the floor finally ran itself dry, having painted almost the entire floor in its unknown language. The laboratory now resembled more a ritualistic sacrificial altar, rather than anything remotely scientific.
Both Venter and Leech gave one another a look as her silhouette began to rise and she sat up. Leech was visibly excited, barely able to contain herself, whilst Venter was doing his best to remain calm, considering the circumstances. The peak of her now poison-yellow dreadlocks rose above the curtain rail. Her serpentine body coiled up, and while her face and features still remained unknown, the silhouette she possessed was very much Rewritten in style…
She didn't pull the curtain back or speak… Instead, she raised her hands up to examine them, her head tilting in curiosity.
"Well, no time like the present! I don't really know how to do an induction…" Leech whispered with an excited grin, biting her lower lip as she stepped forward and pulled the curtain back.
Curled up and staring at her hands with an almost innocent curiosity was a massive czarite hybrid, her lower half was almost unrecognisable compared to the blobby white mess it used to be. Now it was a smooth, full snake tail, its top half being deep charcoal grey with bright yellow stripes spaced out across its width, the underbelly matching the stripes but with a slightly more muted tone. But where her newly fused serpentine half seamlessly joined to her upper body, her torso suddenly faded into a slightly off white, but then faded back on her limbs. Both her hands and head were the same deep charcoal of her body, fading into the white of her centre torso. She had the same yellow stripes across her forearms and even one directly between her eyes, starting under her carapace crown and dropping vertically down her face, stopping just above her onyx lips. Her charcoal and hazard yellow colouration continued with her carapace and claws too, with her black hands equipped with sharp, yellow claws and her head crowned sharp, heavy carapace that shimmered slightly in the light. Her large, yellow orb irises might have been similar to Ink's, but her pupils were much sharper, like that of a viper.
The rotting half-corpse she had been yesterday was long gone. Now she was a Controller, with all the assets expected of one. Her body had grown and expanded, larger and stronger in every way. She barely had enough room to sit without her dreadlocks scraping the ceiling. She must have been close to twenty-five feet in length, 'standing' at around ten feet tall, towering above even Leech. Finally, her teeth had their own unique look, with her front upper incisors curving towards one another and her canine teeth were longer, almost like a vampire.
The snake brought one of her hands close to her mouth and gently nibbled on one of her fingers shyly, ignoring Leech and Venter entirely. As Leech went to clear her throat, the girl bit down more insistantly on her finger, pressing one of her fangs through her skin.
Her gaze locked onto the bead of blood drawing from the wound as she pulled her teeth away. Her eyes narrowed and a deep thrum resonated in both Leech's and Venter's chest and just like that, the blood rose into the air.
It formed a needle-like structure and stretched out of the puncture, floating under tight control. It began to form tight threads, almost like tightly strung liquid yarn and under her stare, it bowed out to the sides to form an iris, staring back at her.
She remained transfixed on the bloody vision, her tongue briefly flickering between her lips until finally, she broke away.
And just as quickly as it started, the blood dropped back into the wound, soaking back into her skin and she pressed her fingers together, smearing the crimson between them.
"Uh… Hi!"
The serpentine twisted her head towards Leech with an intense, but not aggressive stare.
"Name's Leech! You look… uh… better!"
Her eyes drifted down the snake's bust as she buzzed with excitement.
"Oh wow! Bubblegum is not gonna like you!"
*
Four Hours Later - Back Within the Renewal
*
Leech plodded into her room, her arms drooping at her sides as the metal door slid upon and whizzed shut behind her. It was a messy affair, one not tended to properly and as temporary as Moltezz's room was, yet somehow she'd already made the place a cluster filled mess. Piles of boxes, papers and tools were scattered around the room, only organised within her own head. A heavy bunk was built into one of the walls between two pillar-like outcrops, creating a surprisingly cosy, strider-sized sleeping nook.
Opposite the bed was a heavy desk, lit by a single armed lamp, leaning over the paperwork as if it was trying to copy the answers. There was also a mini-fridge, along with a box of chocolate cereal and some spare bowls in the corner of the room.
If the limp arms and dragging feet weren't enough, the big black bags under Leech's eyes weren't there for style either. The new Controller had been safely escorted onto the dreadnought and was within the care of the Trio and Moltezz, having stolen the attention away from Aranych already. Truth be told though, both Leech and Aranych were grateful. One preferred to be left alone, and the other was desperate for a good kip.
She plucked the buttons on her lab coat and let it fall off her, dragging her feet over the mini-fridge where she poured herself a bowl of cereal, with only a splash of milk. Leech preferred them crunchy, after all. Snatching a spare spoon off her desk, she plodded over to her bed and sat her bum straight in the middle of it, scooching backwards to lean against the wall as she crunched her first spoonful.
Despite the tiredness in her body, her mind was alive with the fire of discovery. The new Controller was lodged deep in her head. The successful recovery and binding of a czarite body to the bionic had been seamless, literally. It took her less than an hour to successfully slither, and only another after that to look like she'd been that way her whole life! Which technically she had, Leech supposed... What this meant though was a world of possibilities for the Rewritten and future controllers. The acclimation of new limbs had already been proven through Ink, but was now carved in stone with the success of the snake.
Her mind landed on herself of all things, begging the question if she could change herself further? A pair of tentacles would be awfully handy within the lab. She munched through another mouth full of cereal as a sly smile found its way onto her face. The corruption was far beyond what anyone was expecting or could even predict, despite its hefty cost. The tangible possibilities were teasing her almost as much as the allure of the uncorrupted.
But for now, she needed some sleep. She could still feel blood and grim under her claws from the operation - more and more she'd taken to just using her claws, after seeing how effective Seeth was with hers. But the shower could wait. Even just a couple of hours would give her enough energy to keep trucking on. There was so much to explore and learn, she almost couldn't wait to get up again.
So she quickly scoffed the last of her bowl and placed it down on the floor, before laying herself flat on the bed, still dressed in her trousers and shirt.
A good day's work had earned a good night's rest. A life saved, another Controller added to their midst, and knowledge added to her ever-growing internal library. She couldn't help but smile to herself as her eyes fell heavy, glad for the rest. Never had a pillow felt so welcoming, like a hug from a long lost friend.
The world drifted away, fading into black as she melted into the mattress.
But in just the blink of an eye, her rest was stolen from her.
A thud at her door shuddered her out of her sleep, rattling through her room.
A quick glance at her pager revealed it had only been fifteen minutes.
She huffed with an angry growl and went to drag herself from the bed as the unwanted guest knocked frantically against her door again.
The door pulled back to reveal a nervous looking Tani, pulling one of her tall ears down in front of her, as well as a handful of her Slaves from Barru X, all standing behind her vacantly.
"Leech, I'm so sorry! Moltezz needs you on the bridge immediately! We have a situation!" Tani grimaced, seeing the exhausted expression on Leech's pissy face.
"Really? Could it not wait?"
"No. The dreadnought has been… breached."
"Breached?" Leech repeated, turning her attention to the sound of marching boots not too far away.
"We don't have much info right now but… Moltezz and Kay-Ex seem to be in agreement, so something is really wrong."
"Got it." Leech nodded. "I'll see myself over. This better be worth it, bunny butt."
Tani did not respond in her usual playful manner, and instead hurried away towards Moltezz's room without another word. Her Slaves followed in silence, held under the rabbit's tight control.
That's not like her. She usually falls over herself when I call her bunny butt. Maybe this is serious.
A brief walk connected her to the main line that led the bridge, and the spacious walkway was filled with activity. Squad after squad of ORG enforcers were charging up and down, heaving crates of weapons and equipping themselves for combat. There were more pods of ORG reinforcements arriving with each passing second; Moltezz had issued the command to equip all the Nodes and Slaves as best as possible. Crates full of rifles, shotguns and auto-cannons were being cracked open, along with personal and projected shields, but there were also larger crates of scanning equipment being hastily set up in strategic locations.
The urgency was real, Leech could feel her heart rate rising as she broke into a jog and, before long, a full on sprint to reach the bridge as fast as she could. The enforcers were sure to give her plenty of room as she flung herself down the walkway and rounded the corner into the bridge, where Moltezz, Kay-Ex, Aranych and the Trio were looking up at a large holoscreen within the dreadnought's interior.
Leech climbed the stairs up to their deck, five at a time, before throwing herself into the middle of everyone and glancing up at the holoscreen herself.
"Sorry, was trying to sleep. What's the situation?"
"Thank you for coming so quickly, Leech. I wouldn't have woken you for nothing. I'm concerned we have an intruder on board." Moltezz replied, with an unusual formality.
"An intruder?" Leech asked with a raised eyebrow. "Just one? What's the story?"
"We took several full scale scans on your ship upon resting at Sunset Rook." Kay-Ex explained, holding out her palm. A holoscreen flickered on and projected a live feed from outside of the dreadnought. The footage had a remarkably old look to it, but it was purely because of the grey colour palette of the Renewal. "We have patrol frigates that keep an eye out for anything unusual that sweeps the station's perimeter. About thirty minutes ago, a frigate noticed a mark on the outside of your vessel's hull that was not present upon your arrival. We have a crew investigating the impact right now, they're about to enter."
An ORG crew was closing in towards what looked like a black mark on the thick stone exterior. But as they closed in, it became more and more apparent that it was a hole within the hull, about halfway down the length of the ship, on the left hand side which was facing away from Sunset Rook.
"And that definitely wasn't there on our arrival? We didn't have much of a chance to fully survey the hull condition. It could be historical damage." Plum asked quietly, glancing over towards Moltezz as the Mistress flexed her fingers.
"It's new." Kay-Ex repeated. "And likely done within the last two hours. We conduct several full scans of any visitors every day, for their safety as much as ours."
"Maybe I'm just too tired for this, but what exactly is the issue? If someone's here, let's just send a bunch of Nodes and enforcers after them." Leech shrugged.
"An understandable question. We are in a heavily shaded area of space. No terra-corps or major factions know of this base's existence, or it would have been assaulted long ago. We run a sophisticated network of black fields to ensure Sunset Rook's location is practically undetectable by any metric, including the faintest of ship emissions." Kay-Ex explained, her visor unusually blank. "The fact that anyone is here without us being aware is… unheard of."
"You didn't detect them coming in?" Moltezz asked, doing her best not to sound sassy.
"No. They'd already breached before we had anything come up. Anything that can both find us and breach a ship of this stature is something to take with the utmost seriousness. I have explicit orders from Salem to throw the entire station's arsenal in to protect you. We have destroyers and gun boats launching from Rook already, as well as as many enforcers as needed. He has requested that you vacate the dreadnought whilst we deal with the situation."
"Absolutely not." Moltezz scowled. "This is our home. We will defend it ourselves. Besides, we don't even know what we're dealing with yet."
The feed showed the team of enforcers landing within the breach. Whatever had done this had cleanly punched through several meters of metal-reinforced stone armour with nearly no damage to the surrounding area, which explained how the impact went undetected.
The team flicked their flashlights on as they entered through the truck-sized hole and into a derelict hanger. The impact was half-way up the wall and the team dropped down into a massive, dark room, thick with dust and low on light. The ship's atmospheric shielding had prevented air loss, but the gravity was weaker here due to the underpowered life support systems and each step the enforcers took was slow, almost like they were walking on a moon.
But it only took them a few seconds to see exactly what had punched into the Renewal. Their flashlights landed on a scorched trail, scarring the metal tar black as it stretched out towards the craft…
It was a sleek, black ship, its front armoured thickly, almost like a pointed battering ram and dimly glowing with heat. Its slender mid section was definitely a cockpit of some type, with a single seat that laid the occupant down on their back, currently open and more importantly, empty.
"That's an impact ram." Kay-Ex confirmed as the enforcers spread out and surrounded it, looking for anything of detail. Just behind the frontal ram was a faint emblem embedded in the metal. Two triangles pointing at one another, almost like an hourglass.
The team quickly looked around the hanger but everything else was still. The only other point of note was a breached door, forced open and badly damaged.
"So someone is on-board the ship…" Bubblegum murmured, feeling a deep sense of unease. "Crawling about in the dark, doing who knows what. I don't like the thought of that at all."
"Well they have eighty miles of ship to cross, and that's if they head straight for us. It'll get more obvious where we're set up as they get closer, but most of this ship is derelict moth dust." Leech shrugged, feeling some annoyance in her belly.
"We're getting sensory equipment operational to see if we can locate them but the sheer size of this vessel and its construction make traditional search methods borderline impossible. But we'll know if they're approaching within a few miles of your setup." Kay-Ex replied.
"You both seem concerned about this." Leech noted, her gaze flicking between Moltezz and Kay-Ex. "I'm sure we can handle a single intruder. Just give the Nodes a bunch of auto-cannons and set them up on the outskirts of our territory. I don't see what the issue is."
"A ram indicates intent." Moltezz replied lowly. "This person intended to find us."
"I agree." Kay-Ex replied, her visor briefly flashing with a red exclamation point. "No one uses rams to get about, this was deployed with purpose. Additionally, the capabilities of the craft are highly suspect. This is an advanced foe. We must advise extreme caution and once again discuss the possibility of a temporary evacuation?"
"Out of the question. I will not be displaced. I will see this intruder disposed of, personally."
The slight delay in Kay-Ex's response gave the impression of some frustration on the robot's part. "Fine. Then let us at least equip you."
"I need weapons." Aranych uttered coldly.
"Gate-22." Kay-Ex replied immediately. "There are wraps, blades and shield-gens. Your usual, upscaled."
Aranych subtly nodded back and immediately departed, slipping past Leech with barely a sound.
"Tani and Mina are fetching my psyonic amplifier. Do you still have your… ehm, hair straighteners, Leech?" Moltezz asked, flicking her claws out one by one.
"Yeah, it's in a box in my room."
"Have the girls grab it and bring it here. I want the Controllers together. Any idea where Ink is? We can't find her."
"Last I saw, she…" Sulked off. "Went to explore the dreadnought some more."
"Well, no-one has seen her in over twenty-four hours. I've got crews of Nodes and Slaves searching, but she's MIA right now."
"Shit… I hope she's okay." A brief twinge of guilt hit Leech, leaving her unsure of how to feel.
A flick of the fingers was all that was needed to send the order to Mook and some other Nodes, but it was an ask, rather than a puppeteer. Perhaps Moltezz's way with the Nodes was rubbing off on her more than she realised.
Either way, weapons were on their way and the sensory equipment had just been activated.
The Controllers turned their attention back to the larger holoscreen, which now showed a suite of sensory data. The few Nodes were frantically working on a separate deck within the bridge, bringing the dreadnoughts internal cameras within fifty miles only, with more and more feeds slowly coming online, but locating their intruder within hundreds of miles of ship was like finding a needle in a haystack.
"Maybe we'll find Ink's big bum, sulking around here somewhere." Leech giggled, trying to ease the tension. But her comment was met with a scolding stare from Moltezz.
"This is serious, Leech. I need your head in the game. Your life might depend on what walks through our doors."
Leech tried to respond, but felt a lump bulge in her throat. She wanted to argue, but her stubbornness was quickly giving way to fear.
"O-Okay. I get it. Our equipment is nearly here anyway. I'll, uh… be on guard I guess."
The room went quiet as both the ORG and Node engineers tinkered away, with the sound of marching boots growing louder and louder as more enforcers landed aboard the ship. A part of Leech wondered if this was some sort of spook play by the ORG, but it must have passed Moltezz's lie test already or otherwise the mistress would likely be speaking to them in a different tone at the very least.
After a couple of otherwise speechless, tense minutes, Kay-Ex suddenly spoke up, projecting a new holoscreen from her palm for the room to see.
"Sensors are coming online now. Twenty mile radius, expected coverage is 85% within two levels but vertical coverage is extremely limited beyond that. Blank spots are likely super high density construction but we can see all major routes…" Kay-Ex's voice trailed off, along with her authority as an exclamation point flashed on her visor. "H-Heat signature has been detected within fifteen miles."
"Fifteen miles?!" Leech exclaimed, a sense of panic starting to spike within the bridge. "They crossed most of the dreadnought within a couple of hours?!"
"They're approaching this location directly. ETA, ten minutes."
"I knew it." Moltezz growled. "Hunker down, we need to be ready should this intruder have my bounty on their mind."
"You don't think it's a mercenary do you?" Plum asked, hiding her concern badly. "H-How did they find us?"
"We have footage!" A Node called out from the deck above before anyone could answer. "There's a live cam on the path. Sending it to Kay-Ex's module."
"Show me." Moltezz replied with a dangerously quiet tone. Her fingers flicked out and a brief roar of flame coated her forearms before extinguishing as fast as it appeared.
Kay-Ex's feed flickered for a moment before showing some grainy footage of a corridor, one of many within the Renewal. For a second it almost looked like black and white footage, until a grey blur rocketed past the camera, shaking the screen violently. Through the grainy view, they could see a straight line carved into the wall, right into the stone, barely glowing amber from the friction. The trail was cut cleanly into the stone, like someone had dragged a blade through it, leaving hazy stone dust floating in the air and chunks on the floor. The room fell into a worried silence again as everyone processed what they'd just seen, or hadn't seen. Kay-Ex rewound the footage and paused it on the clearest image they had.
It was grey, humanoid and oddly spindly, with something long and sharp dragging against the wall behind it. But nothing further was discernible, other than its aggressive speed and posture.
The same question hovered in everyone's minds, but only one came forward to say it.
"What the hell was that?" Cherry asked with a heavy frown, instinctively stepping forward.
"A good reason to leave." Kay-Ex replied, gesturing towards Moltezz and Leech.
"Enough." Moltezz snapped back. "I've already told you, I am not leaving. I will not repeat myself a third time. Arm yourselves and get into defensive positions on the bridge. If this visitor wants a fight, they shall leave in an urn."
Kay-Ex went silent and nodded once, apparently heeding Moltezz's not so subtle message. A line of enforcers marched into the bridge, along with several Nodes carrying Leech's heat cannon, bringing it up the stairs as fast as they could. Tani and Mina both carried parts of Moltezz's psyonic amplifier armour and quickly worked together to equip it onto Moltezz's muscular, tense frame.
In the space of a few minutes, all Controllers present were armed and armoured. Lines of enforcers set up temporary metal barricades within the bridge, using deployable barriers and shield units to create reinforced pockets. They blocked the nearest corridors and formed bulkheads, with nodes and slaves positioned within to give the controllers full vision of everything. Their level, the two above and two below were completely locked down by the ORG, but the bridge was still accessible via higher levels that directly connected to the sweeping, staircase-like arrangement of the decks.
They swapped over to the sensor view on the main holoscreen as Kay-Ex retracted her palm. Her chassis shifted and her limbs clunked, showing the seams in her forearms and legs more definitively.
"I knew it. Hidden weapons." Leech grinned to herself, squeezing the metal handles of her hair straighteners.
All eyes were glued to the holoscreen as the red dot, superimposed against a local map, approached the first set of barricades set up by the ORG. Controllers watched through the Nodes' eyes, their attention glued to the empty, dusty corridors as the sound of a heavy scamper scraped against the stone.
The enforcers' hands gripped their weapons tightly, hearts beating in their chest as sweat dripped down their brows under their helms. But as they expected to see the intruder round a corner into their sight, the dot diverted. A few seconds later, the sound of distant screeching metal rippled down the corridor, and the dot disappeared off the sensors all together.
"Follow them, we need to know where the hell they're going." Kay-Ex demanded over the comm line.
A squad of enforcers threw themselves at the last location detected on the display, arriving in only a matter of seconds. Their headcam footage displayed within the bridge as all the Controllers watched anxiously to the chorus of raked stone playing through the speakers. They arrived at a set of lifts, with a single trail carved horizontally to one of the doors, which had been pried open. The leader leaned into the lift shaft cautiously, his camera catching an echoing high-pitched giggle and a flicker of something sharp and curved, disappearing through a set of doors higher up. The shaft had been carved up by the intruder too, with the line unbroken as it changed angle and rose vertically.
"They've gone at least five levels up." The squad leader confirmed, glancing over at his squad as they awaited further orders. But within the bridge, the ORG were swift to rearrange their defences. Deployable barricades were lifted and shifted, aiming their defences up the imposing stairs that went on almost as far as the eye could see.
Suddenly, the bridge echoed with three loud bangs, followed by another high-pitched giggle, only this one carried some serious, chest throbbing bass, vibrating through the bones of everyone in the bridge. It almost sounded like there were two people behind the door, laughing at exactly the same time.
"Knock knock." The dual-tone voice called out from behind the metal, dangerously playful. "May I come in?"
An eerie stillness enveloped the Controllers. All heads turned towards the upper deck with bated breath, as though waiting for what would happen next. Except for Aranych, Leech noticed, who was somehow scaling the ceiling above the door. Her feet were planted directly against the stone, her hands clutching a pair of long, sharp blades; ready to drop at a moment's notice.
Sense returned the defenders and Kay-Ex stepped forward then along with a rush of enforcers, pushing in front of Moltezz to put herself between the intruder and the controllers. Her forearms opened up to reveal a pair of heavy-duty flamethrowers, their pilot-lights flicking on with a quiet hiss.
But the Molten Mistress did not take kindly to the selfless act. Her eyes narrowed and she spat a furious sentence at the bodyguard:
"I do not need your protection, bot."
She rose into the air of jets of brilliant fire, landing a few decks above where the knock had emanated from. Her boots thudded to the ground and she aimed her palms at the door as the ORG enforcers furiously shuffled their defences forward.
Yet the noise within the bridge was only met with another giggle from the unknown intruder.
"It's rude to keep a guest waiting." They called out again, tapping lightly on the door this time.
Leech felt an odd sense of calmness amongst the sound of shuffling boots, clinking weapons and flamethrower pilot lights. Something told her that this wasn't quite what it seemed.
"State your business." Moltezz barked, her body now fully emblazed with rolling white flames.
"Ooooh. How formal." The voice snickered teasingly, the sound of scraping stone rumbling through the floor undercut their almost flirtatious tone. The door suddenly shunted forward, bent out of shape like it was little more than cardboard and a grey hook-like limb was thrust into its crack. The hook twisted sharply and pried the doors apart an inch, before two clawed hands creeped into the crack, seized the metal and pushed the mechanism open forcefully.
"I'm here for you."