In the pitch-black universe, a small gunboat was slowly approaching the planet-cracking ship, Steel Hammer, not far away.
"These humans are really perverted..."
Looking at the planet-cracking ship in the distance as it disassembled an asteroid for mining, the Batarian piloting the gunboat muttered under his breath. They had never seen such technology before—just peeling off the surface of a planet, hoisting it up, and dismantling it in open space already far exceeded the limits of their imagination.
"Enough, we're not here to marvel at these humans!"
Hearing his subordinate's muttering, the Turian captain snorted coldly and put on his helmet. They were a small pirate group from the Boundary God system. When the Inquisition launched its surprise attack on the Boundary God system, this pirate group hadn't had time to flee and ended up trapped there. In fact, small groups like theirs weren't rare in the Boundary God system. Many people's first thought had been that once everything blew over, they could still escape.
The Star Union isn't going to live in the Boundary God system, right?
Well, turns out the Star Union indeed didn't move in—but the Inquisition sealed off the Boundary God system's mass relays. Any non–Star Union ship that dared to show itself got blown to pieces by a direct shot, without so much as a warning.
Under these circumstances, most of the pirates quickly couldn't hold out anymore.
Some chose to force their way through—naturally, the results were obvious. Others tried to hide even deeper. The Turian captain had even heard that one pirate group had dug into the interior of a small asteroid, apparently planning to live underground like mole rats.
Forcing notorious galactic pirates to become mole rats—this Inquisition really bullied people too hard!
But the Turian captain didn't plan to surrender just like that. After risking several reconnaissance runs, he discovered something.
There was an industrial ship here—with no escort!
No escort!!
He had been quite shocked when he discovered this planet-cracking ship.
In any civilization, industrial ships were heavily protected strategic assets. Warships could be rebuilt if lost, but losing an industrial ship would have an extremely severe impact on all interstellar operations of a civilization. Therefore, most spacefaring civilizations assigned escort fleets to their industrial and transport ships—no matter how small, at least something.
But this industrial ship had none!
So the Turian captain immediately came up with an idea.
He planned to disguise themselves as a human fleet and launch a surprise attack on this industrial ship! If they could seize control of it, maybe they could even use it as leverage to negotiate terms with the Inquisition!
In the Turian captain's view, this industrial ship was probably the Inquisition's only logistics vessel. Its importance went without saying. Although he didn't know why the Inquisition hadn't deployed escort ships, for them this was good news. Thus, the pirates attacked a Star Union transport ship, looted it clean, and then piloted that transport ship toward the planet-cracking ship.
As for the excuse, they had already prepared one.
"Open communications."
The Turian captain gestured to his subordinates, then issued another order to a different crew member—one of the rare humans in the pirate group, now being thrown out as bait.
"Yes."
The human crewman nodded and activated the communicator.
"This is the Kingfisher. We were attacked by space pirates nearby and suffered heavy damage. Requesting assistance!"
This was the excuse the Turian captain had planned. Moreover, since the transport ship had indeed been heavily damaged during their attack, seeking nearby repairs was perfectly reasonable.
"..."
However, there was no response at all. The communication channel was deathly silent.
"This is the Kingfisher. We need help!"
The human crewman spoke again. This time, a voice finally appeared on the channel.
"Kingfisher, this is Steel Hammer. Your request has been received. Proceed according to guidance."
"Hah..."
Hearing the response, everyone let out a sigh of relief. The Turian captain, however, sneered and grabbed the weapon beside him.
"Alright. Get ready to move!"
The battered transport ship slowly followed the guidance to the landing pad and gently touched down. The pirates held their breath, waiting for workers to appear. Once they did, the pirates would swarm out, subdue them, take them hostage, and push their way to the bridge to fully seize control of the ship.
However...
"Where is everyone?!"
Looking at the empty landing pad with not a single soul in sight, the Turian captain was completely dumbfounded. According to his expectations, someone should have come to inspect the ship by now. But instead—there wasn't even a ghost in sight?
"..."
The others were stunned as well. It was like preparing to put on a grand performance—resolve set, momentum built—only to pull back the curtain and find not a single audience member.
Should the show even go on?
"Go out and check what's going on."
The Turian captain put on his helmet, covering his somewhat awkward expression. The other side could afford to wait, but they couldn't. There wasn't much food on this ship. If they couldn't find supplies, they'd literally starve to death here—something the Turian captain definitely didn't want.
Soon, the hatch opened, and a group of armed pirates poured out. They watched their surroundings warily, afraid this was a trap.
Yet... it was still silent. There wasn't even the sound of wind. The entire ship felt as if there wasn't a single living person aboard.
"Move. Head to the captain's quarters!"
The Turian captain didn't hesitate. His species was inherently militaristic, raised with weapons from childhood. Within the Citadel, Turians were a quintessential military race. Even as the leader of a small gang, he at least knew how to carry out a decapitation strike properly.
This ship was clearly abnormal—but they were already backed into a corner, with no retreat.
Before long, they realized that the ship's strangeness wasn't limited to just one thing.
Normally, almost all warship doors were locked down, with many areas requiring specific authorization to enter. But this ship was different—every door could be opened freely, with no restrictions at all. At first, they thought it was a trap and stayed on high alert as they advanced for quite a while—but... they didn't see a single person.
So they took the elevator to the bridge.
However...
Looking at the empty bridge, the Turian captain stood there dumbstruck.
Where was everyone?
"H-how is there nobody here? Didn't we just make contact earlier?"
At this moment, the human crewman under the captain felt his hair stand on end. His mind instantly ran through seventeen or eighteen space sci-fi horror movies he'd seen before, and his nerves were stretched to the breaking point.
This was too bizarre.
There had been a response on the comm channel earlier, yet the bridge was empty.
There had been guidance directing them to the landing pad, yet there was still no one.
Could this ship be fully automated, with no human crew at all?
"Hey, where did Barry go?"
Suddenly someone spoke up. Everyone turned around—and only then realized that one of the mercenaries who had been following them was gone!
"What happened?"
Panic spread immediately. Barry was a Krogan. If Turians excelled at military organization, then Krogans were born warriors. That was why they had him bring up the rear—if anything happened, the Krogan should've been able to handle it easily.
But now he had vanished without a sound?
"When we took the elevator, Barry was still there, right?"
"I think so?"
Everyone was confused. It felt like that was the case… or maybe not. They couldn't quite remember clearly anymore.
"Enough nonsense!"
Seeing the atmosphere growing increasingly wrong, the Turian captain barked sharply, then turned to the human crewman.
"You—go check how to operate this ship!"
"Yes."
The human nodded and walked to the console, then tried to operate it.
"Report. Unable to open. It may require the captain's authorization card..."
"Go find it!"
The Turian captain issued the order immediately.
"Search the other compartments. It has to be nearby. Stay alert—two people per group!"
"..."
The human crewman looked at his captain, really wanting to tell him that splitting up was a huge taboo in horror movies—but then again, aliens probably hadn't watched human films...
"You go too!"
"...…Yes."
The human crewman wanted nothing more than to refuse, but he had no choice. He steeled himself, left the bridge, and began searching the adjacent compartments.
These quarters showed signs of life. He could even see uniforms placed on the bed and hear the sound of running water from the bathroom next door.
"..."
Looking at the female uniform tossed on the floor, the human swallowed hard, then pulled out his gun and slowly crept toward the bathroom. He stopped at the door, took a deep breath, then suddenly flung it open and raised his gun, aiming inside!
However...
"Splash—splash—splash..."
The bathtub was full of water, and the showerhead was still spraying, but there wasn't a single person inside. The human looked around in confusion, then glanced forward—
And in the reflection on the metal wall, he saw it.
A twisted, grotesque silhouette standing right behind him!
Before he could turn around, a massive force slammed into him, pressing him straight down into the bathtub!
"Ugh—ugh——!!"
The human struggled desperately, trying to break free. But at that moment, the hot water seemed to boil, surging with scalding heat. He felt searing pain rush over his face. In the next instant, his skin began to boil under the extreme temperature—softening, tearing—like a sheep's head being pressure-cooked...
Then his legs kicked once—
"Crack."
The compartment door closed again, sealing the human crewman's corpse inside forever.
(End of Chapter)