I'mThe nebula burned with war.
Kaelen jerked the ship hard to starboard as a Consortium plasma lance seared past, missing them by mere meters. "Rhyss, get on the dorsal turret!"
"Already on it!" Rhyss bolted to the weapons station. Twin energy bolts spat from their ship, clipping a pursuing drone fighter and sending it spiraling into the abyss.
Ceyra's hands danced over controls. "We're being targeted by everyone. The Shardborn are closing a cordon around us. They know Lyra's here."
Lyra stood frozen in the center of the cockpit, feeling the Seed's pulse inside her chest—syncing with something out there, deep in the flagship. She closed her eyes briefly. It's calling to them.
"Lyra, stay with me," Kaelen barked, cutting through her daze.
A violent shockwave slammed into them. The Shardborn flagship had opened its maw—a massive, spiraling vortex of bio-organic tendrils, sucking in everything nearby. Two Consortium frigates were dragged helplessly into its lightless depths.
"They're going to swallow us whole!" Ceyra shouted.
"Not if I can help it," Kaelen snarled. He slammed the throttle, but the ship barely inched forward against the pull.
Rhyss cursed from the turret. "We're out of options unless you've got a miracle!"
Lyra's eyes snapped open, glowing faintly. "I… I can speak to it."
"What?" Kaelen turned to her, startled.
"The Seed—whatever's inside that thing—it wants me. If I reach out, maybe I can…"
"Or maybe it'll kill you," Ceyra snapped.
"We're dead anyway!" Lyra shot back. Without waiting for approval, she pressed her palm to the console.
The Seed's power erupted. The ship's systems flared with alien symbols, the comms flooded with layered whispers, and the Shardborn flagship hesitated. The vortex stilled for a heartbeat.
Then a new voice resonated through the bridge, deep and inhuman, filling the space with gravity:
"Bearer… enter willingly… and the war shall bow before you."
The Shardborn were inviting her inside.
Kaelen looked at her, jaw tight. "This is a trap."
Lyra's voice trembled, but her resolve hardened. "It's also the only way we survive."
The flagship's maw opened wider, like the throat of a leviathan awaiting its prey.
Kaelen exhaled sharply. "All right. We go in. But if this thing tries to eat us, I'm blowing a hole in its heart."
The ship surged forward—into the darkness of the Shardborn's living world.