The Hangar Bay of the newly named Knife of the Stars was starting to get a bit crowded as Chimera and Bayleaf arrived with the prisoners. With most of their pod fighters, an unsettling amount of bodies, as well as a shuttle from the Meras, the smaller destroyer’s hangar was starting to look closer to a military’s armor depot rather than a fighter storage.

  The Meras was already beginning to dock with the Knife so most of the clutter would start to move over, but for the moment Chimera stood by the bodies of the old crew, taking some of the DNA from her enemy.

  Since the fighting began according to the Elfari, the bodies of the dead were simply left where they fell, no one from either side taking the time to perform any sort of burial rites or funeral processions.

  Seems the two races didn’t share humanity’s need to honor their dead, cosigning them to nature instead.

  It made things easier for Chimera, since she could simply absorb the bodies without worry, though she did get a few looks from her crew as they saw her effectively eating the scalekin.

  Bayleaf had left her to start preparing their prisoners for their new quarters aboard the Meras, which left Chimera to twiddle her thumbs and give the occasional order to her crew.

  Tessa, their cyberwarfare specialist, was already decoding what she could from the relatively familiar technology.

  Well, it was familiar to Chimera at the least.

  The computers, the tech, the designs of the hangar and the bridge, they all screamed of some bastardization of human technology.

  It was one of the reasons why Chimera was going through the bodies and absorbing them. She wanted to find out if there was a beginning, some kind of place where this tech was introduced, either through memory of one of the dead or some kind of history that was shared amongst the Verdant Hood.

  Unfortunately it seemed that each mind she went through was either decomposing too quickly or didn’t have anything that she could point back to.

  They did however have a host of interesting abilities that she wanted to test, like the ability of the cold to hot blooded shift being one of them.

  She didn’t know if it would be useful, but it screamed possibilities.

  This one was in a relationship with the captain’s second in command, apparently they were going to finalize the nuptials…

  Chimera sighed as another sad ending spouted from her recent deep dives.

  An entire people, with hopes and dreams, even love.

  Yet someone or something was doing something to instigate these two to fight it out.

  Or at least that’s the theory. Why else would that strange priestess be there? There could be a number of reasons, but just after she arrived, people started going nuts. That can’t be a coincidence.

  No one on the crew recognized her, and the song shut off whatever mental faculties they had after it took over.

  Chimera already confirmed that it was the trigger, some strange sort of hymn about their goddess. It sounded religious at the very least, but nothing about the song seemed to indicate that it was the cause other than once the crew heard it, they became crazy and suicidal.

  “You… alright there Cap?” One of the Harrier pilots came up to her just as she stored the rest of the bodies into her storage deep within her body.

  “Not really, but I’ll manage. How are the others?”

  The Harrier, a rookie named Tarson, rested a two handed stave on his shoulder as he spread his hand out.

  “All our fighters were accounted for save Mesk and Ladea. Lieutenant Bayleaf already confirmed that they’ve passed onto the Mother tree. Bargo and Arrose were pretty shook up on that, apparently Mesk was Bargo’s friend from the military academy. Arrose knew about Ladea since they came from the same town.”

  Tarson placed his back to the wall while lookin up at the ceiling, his face a mask of concern and worry.

  “Most of the crew is worried about his mission, Boss. Some are saying that the Empress is sending us to hold off an invasion with our lives, not giving a damn if we live or die.”

  Chimera shook her head, “idiots, who said they were going to die?”

  Tarson eyed her with the side of his face, “something with the nobles, a few of the crew have ties to them. They’re saying that the Empress was foolish to let you command an entire vessel.”

  Chimera couldn’t really fault the crew for having those types of thoughts, considering where she was coming from.

  It didn’t mean she was going to let them get away with screwing up morale.

  “Got the names of the idiots responsible?” She said, eyeing him the same way.

  Tarson smirked back at her, “right here Boss.” He tapped the side of his head.

  Chimera nodded, “keep an eye on them for me Tarson, and if they start doing stuff that amounts to sabotage, take them out.”

  Tarson’s eyebrows raised at the order, “so you knew?”

  Chimera gave a smirk of her own, “you know that upgrade I gave to the crew? Got a lot of info from the crew that way. I appreciate that the Empress sent a specialist like you, so I know that you got this. Just keep me updated.”

  Chimera knew a lot of handpicked crewmembers were agents of the Empress, her shadowy hand that made sure to catch traitors and keep eyes on dangerous or worrying personnel.

  Considering she probably ranked high on such a list, she knew that she was going to run into some of them on the Meras.

  The upgrades she gave the crew simply gave her a dossier of the whole network. Now she knew who was on her side, and who was simply following orders to an extent.

  She also knew the ones that were doing some questionable things.

  Still, better to keep an eye out for them, see if they divulge any details about who they’re working for.

  It was the reason she didn’t simply chuck them into prison too, those few that were potential desenters.

  “Thanks for the updates Tarson, you can go now.”

  He gave her a half-assed salute as he walked on, “Boss.”

  Watching him leave, Chimera moved her attention to the skeleton crew she had set for the Knife as they funneled past her into the bridge room.

  They would be responsible for running the ship and getting it ready for them to start modifications.

  Which Chimera had a bunch in mind.

  That sword tip on the vessel, I wonder if I could give it a barrier that would allow ramming without structural damage.

  Chimera smiled.

  This is going to be fun!

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  …

  Two Hours after the taking of the Knife of the Stars.

  “W-Who are you?! Where are my friends? Please, I need to check on them!”

  Bayleaf was currently sitting in a chair with a one way scrying window as she took note of the first inmate from the Knife.

  She had already taken the time to separate the other four captives from this particular prisoner into their own separate cells, and she was now observing the reactions of the various inmates.

  Normally, she would have had to activate some kind of translator device to allow her to try and understand the Hoodians, complete with a magic toner to decipher their language.

  Luckily, she possessed a mind reading ability courtesy of her extraterrestrial captain, and the panic and worry in this Vash’ena was palpable to say the least.

  She smirked to herself as she tapped her head to focus her hearing range.

  Read the snake’s brain with mind.

  She laughed to herself at the joke, which reminded her of a particular online reference she and her other friends told each other at times.

  The jokes always stayed with her, stuck in her brain like free loading ticks, but they reminded her also of happier times.

  Which helped in this case.

  After delving into Vash's mind, she started to feel a tiny bit horrified.

  Confirmed that it was a trigger, though it’s nice to know that Mera and I are on the same page. Some kind of sound based one, a word or a song most likely based on this one’s memory.

  The major problem she had was that because Vash was deaf for all of it, she couldn’t figure out the words that were spoken to cause the trigger.

  Which worried her as one of the inmates seemed to have been put under this strange hypnosis.

  Turning away from Vash’s cell, Bay slid on her chair as it carried her to the worst case of the bunch.

  She referred to this one as Zealot after she tried to do a basic read of his surface thoughts. The reason itself was rather obvious to anyone if they could only hear the insanity echoing in the scalekin’s mind.

  It was a mess in there, nothing but iconoclastic imagery, pure devotion, and thoughts of ‘returning to her bosom’ in a vain and suicidal way.

  A religious fanatic.

  Bayleaf shook her head as she tried once more to penetrate the religious fervor in Zealot’s mind to find any shred of the original person within.

  At first she once again ran into the wall of the hypnosis, a firewall filled with noise and self flagellation.

  However, the mind itself seemed to be receding away from her touch, and after a push with her ability and a bit of mana, she was able to calm the thoughts around her and bring them to a focal point.

  The mind settled, the religious images fading into a softer more understanding kind of worship. Not insanity made manifest, but rather a quiet understanding that they were being watched over.

  Bayleaf steeled her own mind as she delved deeper in, finding out that this one’s actual name was Talash, one of the bridge personnel that worked with the Captain of the destroyer vessel.

  She was one of the first to try and stop people from killing themselves on the ship, watching as most of her friends started trying to off themselves the moment the music played.

  Eventually she too succumbed to the rapturous voice, swept away by the high priestess’ hymnal.

  So it was a religious figure, just as Chimera stated.

  Bayleaf retreated from the prisoner's mind as she turned to check the others, taking note that their conditions were improving as well.

  It seems the hypnosis is temporary, thank the Mother Tree! Still… it may be best to try and use some kind of concussive based weaponry in case this occurs in another fight. Knock out their hearing like with Vash, and incapacitate them before their priests drive them to madness.

  “Please! I know you knife ears can hear me! Let me see my crew!” Vash began to shout in the room, her injured sides and bandages beginning to rip in her struggles.

  Enough!

  Bay shouted the words into the prisoner’s head, causing the scalekin to freeze.

  ‘G-Goddess?!’

  “No you idiot. My name is Bayleaf, and I’m with the medic corps of the Imperial Harriers. You’ve sustained heavy injuries that took great care to stitch up so stop moving around like a damn fish!”

  Vash froze while ducking her head, almost as if she was being scolded by her mother back on the homeworld.

  ‘O-Okay scary doctor lady! B-But I need to see my friends first! I have to make sure they’re alright.” The defiant thoughts pushed at Bayleaf as she sent images of the other prisoners.

  “See? They’re fine, just a little exhausted from what happened on your vessel. They’re resting in the cells next to yours as we speak. Now, I have some questions for you. Would you explain to me what happened after your priestess arrived?”

  Bayleaf showed Vash the images of the ‘high priestess’ from Talash’s mind over to Vash’s, showing the flowing figure and strange robes of the woman.

  “Oh… that is a weird skill. Yeah though, I see her in my head.”

  “Who is she?”

  Bayleaf felt a nudge of something poking at her telepathy, realizing it was the information from Vash regarding the priestess in question.

  She, the priestess, was the High Priestess Zala’taz, the religious leader of the Inquisitorial faction of the Verdant Hood leadership.

  “She’s the military arm of the faith, the first to take in the Goddess’ grace.” Vash said in a lackadaisical way. “If you ask me, she’s just the first to swear herself over to the religious faction.”

  “Religious faction? Inquisitors?” Bayleaf questioned.

  Bayleaf was hit with a load of different images, some of them clearly presented, while others were shrouded in fear and worry.

  “You’re the knife ears that attacked our ship right? The ones that sent out that bio agent that started killing us!” Bayleaf felt Vash’s mind start to close up, her surface thoughts less coherent as the suspicions drowned out everything else.

  “Wait, we didn’t do this! We can prove it as well. Soon as our captain comes back, I’ll have her explain what occured on your ship. It… it wasn’t an isolated incident.”

  Bayleaf’s words reached the prisoner as she cut off the connection, no longer willing to share anymore details.

  “Damnit,” Bay turned to the others in their cells, some of them already coming too after the insanity started to wear off.

  Guess it’s time to start with the others.

  …

  Chimera was back on the Meras staring at the battle recording, a look of concern coloring her features.

  Meras had gave her the simplest explanation of what had occurred already, but after what had happened aboard the Knife, Chimera wanted to see for herself what was going on.

  It was nothing short of insane, the Hood firing on their own ships, the suicides, that strange religious figure.

  All of it screamed of a conspiracy.

  What worried her more though, was the fate of the third vessel, the one that was disabled with the Meras’ first volley.

  That ship was in free fall, taken in by the gravity of Torsca while the fighting had occupied the rest of the crew’s attention. In all likelihood the vessel would burn up on entering the atmosphere, but whatever was underneath it was going to get flattened.

  Meras stipulated that it wasn’t feasible for them to try and pull the vessel out of freefall, and so sent a message to the nearest post on the moon world.

  They were now waiting on a ping from the station.

  “Captain,” one of her bridge personnel said, “we’ve a hail from Torsca.”

  She moved in her seat as she prepared herself, “put them on.”

  The screen on her chair monitor lit up, showing a dark skinned Elfari with some of the biggest arm muscles Chimera had ever seen. She was built like someone who worked out five days a week, with weights that probably weighed more than she did.

  Her curvature was still prevalent despite this, and the person was clearly female. Her blazing red eyes and soft cheeks reminded Chimera of her brother Aden, only this one had seemed to spend most of her time in a forge from the look of her. Soot covered her face, and some of her hair was singed at the ends.

  She spoke with a thick accent, “You’ve the one we got tah thank fer that massive heap heading our whey?”

  The thickness of the words stunned Chimera for a second, before she spoke, “greetings, I’m Chimera, Captain of the starbranch Meras-102.”

  The dark skinned Elfari scowled, “Kass. Now what fecking hells are yeh goin’ ta do about dis?”

  Chimera took a moment to collect herself before she responded, “There’s not a great deal we can do at this time, so the best option is to evacu-”

  “Evacuate?! You fecking moron! There’s at least two villages under the bleeding ship! You git yer stupid ass o’er here this instant!”

  The call ended, leaving Chimera stunned as the crew looked to her.

  “Captain, while we may not be able to stop the descent, we could possibly direct it.”

  Chimera turned to see Bark pointing at a trajectory course for the falling destroyer, her screen showing the villages in question.

  “Do it, we have no time!”

  She felt Meras punch in the coordinates to the falling vessel, leaving the Knife to its own crew.

  A falling enemy just turned into a descending sword, and if they weren’t fast enough, who knew how many lives would be lost.

  …