“Well that was easy!” Elksia whispered as the tiny Thantir ship latched on to one of the large, crystalline spikes of the Voidborn stronghold. “Didn’t notice us at all!”
“If you say so, Elksia…” Arkay was almost breathless as he shakily let go of the ship’s controls. Despite all four of them essentially being deities, they all still had internal organs, and Arkay could feel his heart pounding in his chest. After all, he had just flawlessly piloted a ship through a literal Voidborn minefield. One mistake and he could have caused the whole ship to disintegrate.
To Arkay’s side, Retvik was busy double-checking that the ship was properly anchored, then turned back to Tahnahos, who looked only slightly nervous.
“So you want me and Elksia to stay here?” Tahnahos asked.
“Yes,” Retvik grunted. “You two need to keep the ship undetected so we can make a clean escape.”
Tahnahos nodded, then started rummaging in his little backpack. After a moment, he pulled out a couple of small wristbands. “Alright. I can do that. You guys should take these though. Lets me track you inside the… Void thing.”
“Those are handy!” Elksia interrupted. “They got comms and stuff on them?”
“It’s unlikely we’ll be able to get communication in and out,” Tahnahos frowned, attaching the wristband to Retvik’s finger, as that was the only place it would fit. “But this is low tech radio signals, harder for the Voidborns to detect, if a bit inaccurate. There is a button on them though that changes the frequency if you get in trouble. It’s better than nothing.”
Arkay took a bands as well, attaching it underneath one of the silver wristbands he was already wearing. “Thank you, Tenuk. We should get going, we don’t have long.”
Retvik nodded as Arkay bowed to Tahnahos and Elksia, then led Retvik down to the back of the ship, to the cargo bay. Waiting for them was a large sack of explosives that Arkay had prepared earlier, which Retvik dutifully picked up and carried on his back. The pair then made their way over to a small hatch near the entrance to the room.
With some effort, Arkay opened up the hatch. It was almost directly in contact with the crystalline mass, which meant Retvik could start melting a hole into the side of it. It didn’t take too long to break through into a dark corridor inside the structure. Suspiciously not long at all.
“Do you want me to go down first?” Retvik asked as he summoned his gun-staff, a small torch on the end of it barely cutting into the gloom.
Arkay summoned his own weapons – a laser rifle and a small blade, both with light attachments. “No. I’ll go first. Just place as many explosives as you can a decent space apart so they can chain-react, then get back here, alright? I’ll do the same. Try to remain undetected, and get away if anything moves.”
Retvik nodded. “Of course.”
“Good…” Arkay hesitated for a moment. He stared down the dark hole, as if waiting for something. “Before we go down there…” Arkay stuttered. “You be careful, alright? If… if anything happens, you come back here, get back on the ship and get to safety, alright?”
“Of course. Is there something you want to tell me, Arkay?”
Arkay took a long, drawn out breath. “Yeah. There is. Thank you for caring, Retvik. I could always count on you three to care, when no one else did. I appreciate that…” The little Decayling shook his head, clearing his thoughts. “We should get going.”
“Very well…” Retvik sighed. “Are you sure you do not want me to go first?”
“I’m sure…” Arkay grunted as he leaped down into the darkness. “We’ll be fine…”