Two heavily armored Marines stepped forward and seized Vael. They locked his arms and legs into specialized restraint devices before placing a similar suppression collar around his throat, lifting him up off the deck.
As soon as they hauled him to his feet, the suppression equipment activated. Beams of hard-light energy quickly manifested into chains styled after ancient Earth bonds, completely locking down his physical strength and cultivation. The Marines dragged the broken admiral away through the secured, cleared-out corridor toward the hangar bay.
Meanwhile, Ritika retrieved a cylindrical, flash-drive-like device from her gear and inserted it into a interface port on the bridge's central console.
The console instantly drew the device fully inside its chassis. Endless lines of high-level code began flashing rapidly across the holographic screen projected by the central terminal. A few moments later, the interface stabilized, and the holographic display began to shift...
