Despite the explosion occurring in Torr territories, the Lanex were the first on the scene. A small Lanex exploration craft had appeared on the very edge of the safe zone, hovering awkwardly in the colossal solar winds, avoiding not just the edge of the explosion but the not-quite-a-Lanex floating around on a pair of inky wings.
After some careful observation, the captain of the ship, Elwa Stormchaser, had decided to call out to the strange being via the ship’s communications array. Rather than respond by answering, the being had decided to immediately vanish, before reappearing by Elwa’s side.
Most Lanex were tall, armoured, stocky beings, with metal plating covering their bodies. This plating though wouldn’t always be present, and baby Lanex had no armour at all, being very soft, squidgy beings. The plating would grow and harden before being shed twice in the first five years of life, and a Lanex was often fully grown by the age of six. At the age of ten, young Lanex would go through a ritual to add a metallic sheen to their armour, to represent true adulthood. The Lanex were normally the first race to appear at strange cosmic goings on. Their unique biological makeup meant they could invest less in life support systems, since they only needed oxygen to survive in the depths of space, and more in speed and power. Lanex ships were the fastest around, second only to Spast vessels. And that was because the Spasts cheated and used Whenvern Feathers to power their ships.
Elwa was a pretty average Lanex. She had red, softly glowing eyes, dark green organic flesh and green and silver-varnished natural plating. On top of her armour, she wore the standard silver chest plate, shoulder and thigh platings and a hooded cloak. Her mask was green to match her natural plating, and had two small antennae sticking out of the top, which aided her in picking up communications and strange signals.
The being standing by Elwa’s side though, it was not normal in the slightest. Overly thin and completely black with small yellow stripes painted on some of their natural painting, but also wearing standard armour, this time in gunmetal instead of silver. They weren’t wearing a cloak though, and those black inky wings really stuck out. On further inspection, one of the wings was damaged and the other had a hole burnt through it. Curiously, this Lanex-like being wore an Auu, the standard mask all young Lanex wore, Lanex who hadn’t taken a mask to go alongside their occupation yet.
“Hello, stranger!” Elwa did her best to be polite. Clearly this being was not a Lanex, and, considering it had been floating around in hot solar winds, it wasn’t mortal either. “I assume you are here for the same reason we are?”
The being fiddled with its mask for a moment, as if it was not used to wearing one. “Yeah, well, stars exploding aren’t an everyday occurrence, especially stars exploding without my permission…” The being trailed off, then made their way to one of the consoles ahead of them, where Elwa’s staff were busy gathering data.
Elwa watched the being wander around. Most of the Lanex were aware of this being’s presence, but didn’t want to get in its way. They all knew it was not one of them. Eventually, the stranger wandered back to Elwa’s side.
“How long ago did you get here?” the being asked, before trailing off again. “Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t introduce myself.”
“You are the Deathbringer, yes?” Elwa smiled beneath her mask. “It would make sense for someone like you to be out here.”
The not-a-Lanex nodded. “I am. You can call me Arkay.”
“Do you normally take the form of a Lanex?”
“Been a while since I was a Lanex, to be honest. I tend to take the form of whoever I need to talk to…” Arkay trailed off again. His voice didn’t make much sense, it sounded like Elwa’s voice except with a hint of reverb, despite him taking the form of a male Lanex. “Can I ask, can this ship detect specific signals? I want to double-check my data and get a second opinion.”
Elwa nodded somewhat. “It depends on the signals, but yes, we can show you what data we have collected so far and help you find the signals you seek.”
Elwa led Arkay over to a specific console, where her tracking expert, Kraku, was working. Kraku was a completely grey and silver Lanex who wore a heavily modified plain grey Auu, something he had done himself.
“I assume it’s this you want to see, sir Arkay?” Kraku was immediately on point, having brought up a large holographic map of the vicinity. On it was a lot of long, white lines, emanating from where the star used to be and flowing outwards. However, there was also a trickle of red lines coming from the southern point of the map.
Arkay inspected the map, muttering to himself, before falling completely silent. Despite struggling with his Lanexian form, he had no problem working out how to use the console and move the map around.
“Did you do this?” Kraku asked, only for his boss to slap him across the shoulder.
“I mean, that’s a perfectly reasonable thought, but no, I didn’t. I’m not allowed to blow up stars unless Epani gives me permission to do so and even then, the stars in this universe are kinda too small to explode. I tend to just make them cool down and eventually collapse under their own weight.”
“Is this not… a natural phenomenon then?” Elwa was getting concerned, mostly because the Deathbringer wasn’t really giving her any answers. It seemed just as confused as they were.
Kraku though seemed to notice something. As the Deathbringer was scanning the map, it was making calculations and drawing new lines. It then scaled the map outwards, revealing the local system. While this particular star didn’t have any planets, the handful of stars nearby did. One of those planets was a major hub world for the Torr, and there were Lanex and Rethavok settlements not too far away.
“Are we… in danger?” Kraku hesitated.
“I don’t think so, but I might have to get Kairos to help me move some things around…” Arkay frowned, going back to fiddling with his mask. “On the plus side, as long as this doesn’t happen again in the next 24 hours, everything should be fine. I know who did this, I just need to work out why.”
Elwa felt nervous and wasn’t sure why. “Who… did this? Was it… our Lady of the Deep?”
“Yeah, it was Epani. Did so with a single shot from the centre of the universe. Luckily, the universe is pretty empty, so it only hit this one star. But she’s supposed to be asleep and resting, so this makes no sense.”
“Can we do anything to help?”
Arkay thought to himself, then tutted. “Not really. But I guess you can give me a hand by keeping an eye out and reporting any more of these red signals.”
Kraku and Elwa looked at each other. “Report them to… who?”
“Your government. And to the Archivists. I’ll pick these things up, I have my ways. But in the mean time, I have to go and visit the other deities and see why Epani did this…”
Arkay moved away from the console and patted Kraku on the shoulder. However, as he put his hand on Elwa, he hesitated, looking the captain up and down.
“Is something wrong?” Elwa asked.
“No, not wrong. I’d recommend quitting alcohol though, at least for a bit.”
“Uh, why?”
The Deathbringer smiled and leaned forward, so that only Elwa could hear him. “Congratulations, you’re pregnant.”
Before Elwa could say anything, Arkay waved to the rest of the Lanex crew, then disappeared in a puff of black smoke. An awkward silence filled the ship, only to be broken by Kraku clapping his hands together.
“Well, he’s nice!” Kraku grinned. “Didn’t think the Avatar of Decay would be so pleasant to work with!”
“Yeah… I guess…” Elwa sighed. She called over her second in command, telling them to take over for a bit. Once everyone else had settled down, Elwa immediately made her way to the medical bay, to confirm what she had just been told. “At least my dear husband will be pleased…”