“We need to be quick, I have not been able to pinpoint the exact location, but it seems, whoever sent this, they are trapped within their ship, which has caught fire and-”
Galyn came to an abrupt halt, his eyes focused on the tiny yellow and black being sitting in his chair. Retvik and Litvir both also came to a sudden stop, but they seemed more confused than annoyed. Arkay was sitting there, looking as innocent as possible.
“It’s a fake signal.”
“Where have you been and what are you doing in my seat?” Galyn growled, crossing his arms angrily. “You hide away for days and then reappear when it suits you?”
Arkay shook his head, still trying to make himself appear small and cute. “No, ser, you said there was a distress signal, so I thought someone was in danger and I came down from my hiding place to help. But it turns out it’s not real.”
“And what makes you think that?”
The tiny Decay Lord tapped on a console, bringing up a series of numbers. “Actual distress signals all start with the same 112 code. This one starts with an 8800 code. A code normally used in advertising. Also, the signal doesn’t match with the coordinates they gave.” Arkay then pulled up a map and pointed to two different spots. “The coordinates are here, but the signal came from here, ahead of what they gave us. Lastly, the message we received appears to be a recording played down the line. All of this points to what I think is an ambush.”
Galyn still appeared to angry, but he took a long, deep breath to calm down, and looked over Arkay’s evidence. Not only was the little one right, but there were also clear signs of Void Lord meddling. The distress signal was a recording, played over the line as Arkay had suggested, but it was also a very old recording too.
After a moment of thought, Galyn sighed, then sat down next to Arkay in the empty seat.
“Is he correct, ser?” Retvik asked.
“Yes. Incredibly so…” Galyn almost seemed embarrassed. “I should have noticed these little things. Normally, we react quickly to try and save others. After all, Decay Lords have few real allies. But it makes me quite sad that more and more of these distress signals are being faked.”
“This is a common occurrence?”
Galyn nodded. “It is. Very common now. Including this distress signal? About fifty percent of these signals are now spoofed.”
“Wow…” Litvir grunted. “What sort of bastard preys on those willing to help?”
Retvik eyed Litvir, which caused him to get defensive.
“Oh, come on.”
“Litvir…”
“No, do not be like that! I may have… used others, but my intentions were good! It seems these Voidborn entities just want to murder for the fun of it!”
Galyn sighed, agreeing with Litvir. “Sadly, that is often the case. If you are not one of them, then you are just a plaything.”
“So what do we do now?” Retvik asked, changing the subject. Do we just leave, or trigger their trap and give them a taste of their own medicine?”
“It is not worth our time…” Galyn growled, checking the ship’s coordinates. “We should just move on. Otherwise we give those bastards what they want…”