Four hours later, they were crammed into a stealth pod no larger than a coffin, hurtling through the void toward the Corrupted supply line. The pod was stripped of all emissions, a black speck against the star-dusted darkness of the Shattered Expanse.
Echo felt the press of bodies—Leyla's tense warmth, Mira's calm breathing, Ryn's steady cybernetic hum. Their bond-links were alive with shared anticipation.
"Approaching target vector," Ryn whispered, her eye interfacing with the pod's rudimentary sensors. "The Chitin Hauler is right on schedule. Ugly thing. Looks like a giant beetle fused with a tumor."
Through a viewport, Echo saw it. The ship was a lump of organic plating and pulsating veins, dragging a net of captured asteroids behind it. Their pod, using stolen Corrupted IFF codes, drifted silently into the net, burying itself among chunks of rock and frozen biomass.
A dull thud reverberated through the pod as they were hauled aboard. They heard the guttural clicks and hisses of Corrupted workers outside, moving in the low gravity of the cargo hold.
"Reality-Anchor holding," Mira reported softly. "But the local spatial folds are… sick. Like scar tissue."
They waited until the sounds of activity faded. Echo used his blood sense, expanding it cautiously beyond the pod. He felt the life signs—dozens of Tier 3 and 4 worker drones, their blood rhythms slow and dim. Further away, the stronger, more complex pulse of a Tier 7 Overseer.
"Clear for now," he murmured. "We move."
They cracked the pod hatch and slipped into the hold. It was a cathedral of grotesquery. The walls were living tissue, glowing with bioluminescent fungus. The air was thick with the smell of decay and ozone. Cages hung from the ceiling, holding captured beings from a dozen worlds in various states of corruption.
Leyla's claws were out, her eyes gleaming silver in the dark. "Which way?"
Ryn pointed to a pulsing artery-like corridor leading upward. "Main conduit toward the heart of the ship. The hangar connecting to the dreadnought should be forward and up three decks."
They moved like ghosts. Echo's Error-Sight combined with his blood sense created a living map—he could see the structural glitches in the organic walls and feel the approaching patrols. They avoided two worker drones by melding into the shadows of a nutrient sac.
As they climbed through a rib-like structural support, a Tier 5 Sentinel Crawler dropped from the ceiling directly in front of Mira.
It was all chitin and barbed tentacles, with a single, massive eye. It screeched, a sound that vibrated in their bones.
Leyla moved, but Echo was faster. He didn't draw his blade. He focused on the Sentinel's ichor—a pressurized, acidic fluid that served as its blood and hydraulic fluid. With a thought, he issued a Sovereign's command: COAGULATE.
At the junction where three tentacles met its body, the ichor suddenly thickened, then solidified. The tentacles seized up, locking in place. The Crawler stumbled, off-balance.
Leyla's claws severed its eye-stalk. It died silently.
[ Bloodline Proficiency: Sanguis Imperator – Progress: 2.5% ]
[ Ability Refined: Foreign Coagulation – Can now cause localized clotting in Tier 5 or lower Corrupted biological systems. ]
"Neat trick," Ryn muttered, checking her scanner. "But don't rely on it. Higher tiers will resist."
They pressed on, the dreadnought Abyssal Heart growing ever larger in their view through occasional organic viewports—a leviathan of nightmare, waiting to swallow them whole.