Page 28 of Alien Devil's Wrath
No life support hum. No electronic chatter. Just our footsteps echoing in the tomb.
Air stale enough to choke on filled my lungs. Years of decay and failed atmosphere scrubbers created a smell that coated the back of my throat. Every breath tasted of endings.
“Someone had a bad day,” Bronwen said, stepping over scattered bones. A ribcage, still wrapped in shredded fabric. She crouched beside it, examining the claw patterns on the ribs. “Looks like they tried to barricade themselves in. Never works against creatures with claws.”
A child’s toy lay crushed in a doorway. Someone’s journal, pages scattered and yellowed, told half a story that would never finish. These people had been running from fear. Just like my squad when Slade abandoned us. Same desperation. Same betrayal. Same result.
The tracker pulled me deeper into the ship, its pulse growing stronger as we approached the captain’s quarters. My boots crunched on broken glass. Dark stains marked the floor where blood had pooled and dried years ago.
“This feels like walking through someone’s grave,” Bronwen said, picking up a data pad and trying to activate it. When it stayed dead, she tossed it aside and moved to examine scratch marks on the walls. “All these little pieces of interrupted lives.”
The cabin door hung askew on twisted hinges. Inside, bones scattered across the floor, some still in the tattered remains of a captain’s uniform. The skull had rolled into a corner. He’d died trying to save his people.
The tracker led me to a hidden compartment behind the navigation console. My fingers found the release—a Sovereign design, coded to respond to those who’d sworn the oath. Would it still recognize me after all this time? After what I’d become?
The panel remained sealed for three heartbeats. Then, with a soft hiss, it slid open.
“Secret compartments,” Bronwen said, peering around my shoulder, her fingers already reaching toward the opening. “What kind of security system recognizes you specifically?”
The Regalia sat in its protective cradle, and my breathing stopped.
This was his. The Sovereign’s own tech, created by hands he’d touched, programmed, hidden here for us to find. The device hummed against my palms as I lifted it free. The weight felt right, familiar. Memory crashed through me—the Sovereign placing the first piece in my hands, teaching me the activation sequences, trusting me with secrets that could reshape the galaxy.
“That’s pretty,” Bronwen said, tilting her head to study the shifting patterns on its surface. “Is it what we came for?”
“Yes.”
But unease prickled at my spine. The energy signature fluctuated, unstable. Without verification, I couldn’t confirm this was genuine rather than an elaborate trap. The Conclave had resources for that kind of deception.
I needed to activate it. Just enough to confirm its authenticity.
“What are you doing?” Bronwen asked as I began the sequence.
“Making sure it’s real.”
“Is that safe?”
“No.”
She grinned, bouncing slightly on her toes. “Safe is boring anyway.”
The activation sequence flowed from muscle memory, fingers moving in patterns the Sovereign had drilled into me. The device warmed in my hands, patterns of light racing across its surface in configurations I recognized. Real. Genuine. Exactly what we needed.
The Regalia pulsed once, twice, then interfaced with the ship’s dying systems.
Every emergency beacon that should have been disabled lit up at once.
“Shit,” I breathed, securing the Regalia as alarms began wailing through the dead ship. The low-frequency pulse emanated from the artifact, spreading through the hull and beyond. The vibration traveled through the floor, through the walls, out into the nest itself.
Outside, creatures shrieked in response to the electromagnetic disturbance. The nest’s careful equilibrium shattered as the pulse disrupted whatever biological harmony existed.
“That’s not ideal,” Bronwen said, but she was already moving toward the door, head cocked to listen. “Listen to them all wakeup. The harmonics are scrambled. And those alarms are going to bring every patrol in the area running.”
The mission was successful. The Regalia was genuine and secure. But my necessary verification had just announced our location to everyone and everything within fifty kilometers.
BRONWEN
We scrambled from the ship into pure chaos. The nest guardians that had ignored us before now swarmed in aggressive formations, their warning clicks becoming hunting shrieks. The electromagnetic pulse had disrupted their whole system, and they were looking for targets to blame.
