FangTheCat Drakador_Chaos RedAndCosmoteer
As the Remna engineers tinker with the computer system, something suddenly activates. A broad-spectrum transmission is transmitted across the system.
As the transmission plays, at first all that can be heard is the faint sound of gunfire and screams. Then a woman's ragged and exhausted voice comes through. "If you're listening to this, then you've made a mistake. You probably tracked our engine signatures or found out from someone else. I'm sure you came here seeking the fleet and the tech we fled with. But there's nothing here but -"
The woman cuts off for a moment, and the sound of gunfire increases and she can be heard barking orders. Then she resumes "We ran from the Shadow with everything we could get our hands on, but we underestimated its reach. Our own AI's started acting oddly, misfiring and interpreting jump locations wrong. Then the blasted tin cans got ahold of the nanotech. They slaughtered most of us wholesale...and converted the corpses. If you see any corpses, GET AWAY from them and blow the fuck out of them."
Another pause, more gunfire. The screaming is louder now. "They've also been building something around the dataship using the Editors we brought with us. My engineers think it has something to do with ripping a hole into another reality. We're going to overload the quantum links and hope it fries them or puts them into hibernation. Whatever you came here for, you need to remember two things."
"Don't trust the dead. Any dead. And destroy this fleet. Nobody wants to see them succeed."
The transmission cuts out as the gunfire and screaming crests in a thundering orchestra of war.
Aboard all of the boarded dreadnoughts, sections of lighting suddenly turn on, revealing rows of dead, mummified crew members at their stations. The corpses slowly sit up and turn to look at the intruders as the rumble of the main engines igniting fills the ships. At the same time, all computer access is violently locked out as bulkhead doors slam shut and virus counterattacks are launched against the connected networks.
On the ship boarded by @Drakador_Chaos, the corpse on the throne turns its gaze with the rest of its minions, and then it speaks.
"Truly, deliverance has come as the Elder from the Shadows promised us so long ago. You will be converted, the Great Work will be finished, and this Spiral will be swept away."
At the heart of the fleet, something begins to stir once more...
LOLZ. Kudos for anyone who can figure out who the "Elder" is, along with what corrupted the AI's. Hint: They're the same thing.
