“They know I can just restart the ship, right?”
The Deathly Soulflame was quiet currently. The engines and lights were all switched off as the ship had been hit by an EMP to briefly disable it. A ship of similar size had come out of nowhere and immediately fired the EMP at it, with the plan to board and pillage the ship.
Arkay, Retvik and Litvir were still somewhat just sitting there, mostly as the other ship was also somewhat just sitting there, trying to decide how to take on a ship they seemed to be scared of.
“So… what should we do?” Retvik asked. “They are clearly pirates or something, perhaps we should fight back.”
Arkay shrugged, but Litvir seemed oddly excited.
“May I go and have a snack?” Litvir queried.
“What do you mean?”
“I am emotionally hungry and want to feed on their emotions.”
“You can feel their emotions from here?” Arkay frowned.
“Of course. I am quite a powerful Psion, after all. But I have not fed on anyone’s emotions in a while, and these pirates smell like a very nice piece of roasted meat with gravy and mash.”
Retvik and Arkay glanced at each other, then shrugged.
“Sure, go ahead, Litvir. Arkay and I will keep them off our ship and you can go and have some fun.”
“Wonderful!”
Litvir undid his seatbelt, got up, summoned his armour and gun-staff, then disappeared through a nearby shadow. Retvik stared at where Litvir once stood, then grunted.
“I forget Litvir can do that.”
“What, shadowjump?”
“Yes. He rarely does so.”
Arkay shrugged again. “Litvir finds it harder to calculate the distances than I do, so he doesn’t do it much.”
“Fair enough.”
…
On board the other ship, known only as The Battered Cod, the five Decayons on board were all arguing. They were all former Voidborn slaves who had attempted to become Decay Lords but had given up just before their Decay Lord Trial, because they were scared of running into another Voidborn. Instead, they had spent the last five year-strings hiding in an asteroid belt and attacking smaller Decayon ships, stealing what they could before running away. The Deathly Soulflame was a smaller ship, they’d all assumed whoever on board wasn’t a threat, but something felt off and their second-in-command, an armoured humanoid by the name of Garry, believed that this was some sort of trap.
“It’s got like two people on it, according to my scanner!” Greg, the boss of the team, hissed. All five on board were similar-looking, all of them ork-like but with blue skin instead of green, but Greg was the biggest, so he was in charge.
“I dunno, boss…” George muttered. “I think Garry has a point.”
“What point?” Geoff grunted. “Garry hasn’t made any points! He’s going all “muh feelings” on this!”
“My feelings are often correct!” Garry argued.
“What, like the time where you FELT that you were going to win big at that casino and lost 1k Deathvenbucks?” Steve tutted. “It’s a tiny ship! It’s probably got less people on it than we have! Let’s just hold them up, steal whatever’s valuable then get back to the pub in time for happy hour!”
“Alternatively, you could all just head home now.”
That voice didn’t belong to any of the crew. It seemed to have some sort of odd accent that none of them could place. Both oddly smooth and oddly gruff at the same time time, and slightly… British.
Suddenly, all the lights on the Battered Cod went dark, and the ship’s engines both fell silent as something large and armoured pulled itself through a shadow and ran its claws across the main console.
“FUCK!” Greg cursed loudly. “WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU WHAT THE FUCK IS-”
Shadowy tendrils curled around Greg’s arms and legs as the creature lifted him into the air.
“Oh, you are tasty!” the being grinned, showing off sharp fangs. “You are so scared! May I feast on that fear?”
Greg struggled briefly, but abruptly fell silent and still as the monster bit into his neck, paralysing him. It then seemed to quickly let go and surrounded Greg with tendrils. The paralysis was brief, and Greg was dropped back into his seat, doing nothing but staring blankly ahead and muttering “I will be a good boy” under his breath.
While Geoff tried to find something to fight with, George and Garry immediately ran away. Steve remained in his seat, completely frozen in fear, trying not to piss his pants and failing miserably. The monster seemed rather annoyed by that, and they swiftly turned to Steve.
“Hmph. You stink. And you disappoint me. I am thankful I do not have to touch you myself.”
More shadowy tendrils wrapped around Steve, but the monster didn’t bother with sinking its teeth into Steve’s neck. It snapped its fingers in front of Steve’s face, and he too started staring blankly ahead and muttering to himself.
Something whacked the monster on the side. A metal pipe. It grunted, then stared directly at Geoff.
“Really?” the being growled.
“Uh… maybe…” Geoff stuttered. But Geoff found he couldn’t even consider trying to strike the monster again. He unwillingly dropped the pipe and found himself stepping back. The lights flickered briefly and Geoff saw more of the creature. The light didn’t help at all, since the monster was still cloaked in shadows and tendrils. All Geoff noticed was that it was wearing a cape.
Before Geoff could do anything else, he found he was unable to move at all. He screamed briefly as a tendril seemed to pass into his skull via his eyes. The monster then dropped him into one of the empty seats, where he fell silent and muttered to himself.
With a grunt, the creature headed down the main corridor, where it quickly found George and Garry hiding in the tiny cargo bay.
“PLEASE DON’T KILL US PLEASE!” Garry squeaked.
The being tutted, then turned all the lights back on with a snap of its clawed fingers. “I am not going to kill you. And if I am brutally honest, which I often am, you two are not worth feeding on. I am full and you two have already learned your lesson. And, admittedly, your companion who soiled themselves has ruined my appetite. Now, do you two promise to stop your criminal activities, finish your Decay Lord Trial and try to live a decent life?”
Garry immediately nodded. George nodded and tried not to piss himself.
“Will you make sure your companions do the same?”
More nods.
“Well, alright. I shall leave you to it. Thank you for the snack.”
The monster turned around and marched off, disappearing into a shadow. Once the coast was clear, Garry staggered to the cockpit. George pissed himself, then collapsed.
…
“So, how was it?” Arkay asked as he got the ship up and running again.
“Ugh. Not great. I want actual food now…” Litvir tutted as he sat down. “Does anywhere near here do ice cream? I require a palette cleanser.”
“Hah!” Arkay laughed a little. “According to my quick search, there definitely is. Shall we get going, my babes?”
“Sure…” Litvir frowned, feeling disappointed. “Remind me to just eat normal food next time…”