Five minutes before the Meras launched its Solar Cannon.

  This is horrible!

  Chimera moved to dodge another fighter as it tried to ram into her pod, turning to fire at another fighter while she was moved to cover Bayleaf.

  Her pod had taken a freaking plasma lance and was leaking oxygen, saved only by the failsafe she made that turned the amorphous hull of the Stinger into a sealant from the outside. Bayleaf wasn't much better, having been rammed by one of the enemy starfighters.

  Chimera felt like she had an understanding when she first set out to fight these people, maybe even a plan. All of that flew out the window the moment her first team landed inside the destroyer and began to board.

  It was like all self preservation left the scaly bastards, their eyes glowing with madness and frothing at the mouth.

  The same went for the starfighter squadrons, all of the enemy started to either try to ram into them or set their ships to explode and take out as many of their fighters as they could.

  This wasn’t the work of a sane enemy, and something about that unsettled Chimera to her core.

  They… they would go this far just to avoid capture? Is this some kind of religious extremism? Who chooses to die rather than be captured?

  Chimera launched a missile from her pod to another three fighters who even now were trying to ram into her undefended fighters. Arose and Bargo thankfully took up the slack for Bayleaf and her, moving to defend them as Chimera worked on their pods, using her P.E.Gs and auxiliaries to rebuild their pods and merge them together.

  It wouldn’t look pretty, but it would get them back to the Meras once all things were set.

  Hopefully with both of them alive.

  “Bayleaf, Bay!” She shouted to her friend as she finished melding their hulls together, connecting them with a bit of biomaterial and a bunch of printed space oak.

  Bayleaf was inside her pod thankfully, but Chimera hadn’t been able to hail her since she got rammed. Now that she had the hulls tacked together, she threw herself into her friend’s pod to check her condition.

  Bay was alive, but a section of the pod’s oaken interior was stabbed into her right leg, pinning her to the pilot seat.

  “Oh thank fuck you’re here! Get this damn thing out!” Bayleaf grunted as the oak javelin twisted with her movements, causing her to cry in agony.

  “I can’t, we have to wait till we get back! Hold on!” Chimera yelled back as she stabbed a tendril into Bayleaf’s leg.

  Bayleaf’s scream started to peter out as a wave of painkillers hit her.

  “Oh thank the Empress. I can think again! What the hells the situation out there?” Bayleaf spoke, no longer hoarse as she took in big gulps of air.

  Chimera told her about what she had witnessed, about the destroyers turning to fire on one another as the Harriers boarded the first destroyer. The kamikaze fighters, the plasma bombardment and the frothing mouths of the scaly bastards, all of it.

  Bay shook her head, “it’s just like Cerula, those freaks always go mental the moment it looks like they’re going to lose. I thought it wouldn’t be like this in the astral,” Bayleaf spoke as she punched in a few coordinates, sending their mixed pod to land inside the hopefully captured destroyer.

  “All squadrons, retreat to the Sword, I repeat, retreat to the Sword and prepare to defend!” Bayleaf spoke.

  “You heard her, everyone to the destroyer! We can’t handle the lances and the bogeys are suicidal! Move it people!” Chimera screamed.

  The pod inched closer to the destroyer as the rest of the fighters covered them, making their way past the hanger shield and landing inside. The other squadrons soon followed them in and the entire bay, once filled with enemy fighters, was empty save for the Elfari Harriers.

  As soon as they landed, Chimera opened the hatch and ripped out the space oak limb from Bayleaf, gaining a shout of surprise from the medical officer. She launched three of her tendrils into the limb to begin repair it, supercharging Bayleaf’s own enhanced regeneration to speed things along.

  “Secure the hangar bay and get those shields locked down, I don’t want the enemy venting us as soon as they can.” Chimera shouted as she noticed the vents around her.

  “Already on it Boss.” One of the Harriers, the fifth member of their pod squad, spoke as she held what looked like a staff up to a computer device.

  “What’s your name, soldier?” Chimera said as she shifted to prepare for infiltration.

  “I’m Tessa, cyberwarfare specialist for the Harriers. No rank ma’am, I’m a civvie.” The blue shaded Elfari said as she took a cable from her staff and slotted it into the wall. A series of roots shot forth to entangle the strange cables on the vessel, and soon the hangar doors were closing down, shielding them from the crazy pilots and plasma fire.

  “How’s did a like yourself civilian join the military?” Chimera couldn’t help but ask.

  Tessa didn’t turn to face her, but she did answer back as she started punching more code from her staff into the cable, her arm acting as a keyboard for her commands.

  “Let’s just say it was either this or prison. I decided on the one that lets me get access to new tech.” She smiled even as she continued her mission.

  Chimera couldn’t help but smile herself, “keep up the good work and get me a line to the Meras, something’s jamming us and I got a date with the captain of this fine vessel. I want to make sure they don’t fire on us.”

  “On it.” Tessa thumbs up back to her as she typed faster.

  “Those of you who can still fight, follow me! We’re taking this boat and any serpents that aren’t too far gone! Shoot to disable! Kill if you need to. Whatever you do though, don’t get hurt, or I’m making sure the healing process is one you never forget!” Chimera barked out her orders, eliciting a shiver in her crew as they moved to secure the hangar and get ready to follow her.

  It took about three minutes to do so before she heard what sounded like a muted cannon going off outside.

  “What the hell? They’re not firing on us are they?!” Chimera almost panicked as she tried to get some answers.

  “Nah Boss, the Meras took out the other destroyer. Got the maps uploaded and sent it to you now.” Tessa said as her face appeared on Chimera’s helmet’s heads-up-display.

  Chimera watched a map unfold of the outside, showing a dazzling beam bisect the middle destroyer. It also shaved off a bit from the destroyer they were on, but not enough to cause too much damage from what the cameras showed.

  Still, time was of the essence here.

  “You all have your missions! Sweep and clean people, and bring me some snakes for dinner!”

  …

  Vash’ena would not say that she was a panicking sort as she witnessed a weapon destroy half of the Goddess’ Wrath.

  No, whenever things that went outside of her control and scope of thinking went over her head, she stuck to her guns.

  And those guns told her that they were absolutely fucked!

  “Captain, captain, do you read me?!” She screamed through the speaker system, desperate to get a hold of the man who could stop this madness.

  “In her bosom, we return… in her waiting arms…” A strange mantra played over the communications, but due to her condition Vash couldn’t hear it. She was deaf in one of her ears, and the other was currently bleeding and stuffed with a clotted mess of blood that blocked her ear from the rest of the noises.

  It was likely the only thing that saved her life as she witnessed her own kin stab themselves in the throats, their eyes glassy before they even took the blades to their veins.

  She was not a panicking sort, but Vash wished beyond all else that someone explain what was happening to the crew!

  Biological? Maybe some manner of contagion spread by those knife-eared bastards?!

  Her mind raced, but ultimately it came down to her trying to stop her crew as they tried their best to end their own lives.

  She managed to incapacitate a few with a well placed knock-out bolt from her manipulator, a handy device that served as both weapon and tool for the vessel. Not trusting them to start up again, she tied the five of them to the bridge chairs as she found the captain, a gaping hole in his chest where his heart should have been.

  What the fuck is going on?!

  She wasn’t going to panic, she wasn’t going to-

  The bridge door bulged as something massive hit it, something that must have been humongous as the reinforced prismscale door began to bend like a can being opened from the outside.

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  Oh Goddess, please save me! Oh please!

  Vash hid next to her unconscious brethren, hoping to pass herself off as a knocked out crew member.

  She closed her eyes, tried to slow her breathing down, even as she kept her tongue out to taste the air around them.

  It was saturated by blood and fecal matter, but once the door bent open all the way, Vash smelled something enter.

  It… was terrifying! Whatever the smell was, it made out to be some kind of mass of body parts. She smelled all different animals, people, creatures on whatever this thing was, things that shouldn’t be!

  She started to shiver, she couldn’t help herself.

  It was a monster, a monster made the crew into a bunch of suicidal freaks, and it was coming for her and the others she saved!

  She opened her eyes, no longer able to keep her curiosity at bay.

  A small knife eared girl with olive scales stared back at her, red hair with locks that seemed to gyrate and move without reason. The equally red eyes stared back at her, intelligence that held experience beyond what her small form would suggest.

  Her tongue flicked, and the smell came back stronger than ever.

  This… this little girl is that monster?!

  She… IT tilted its head at her, a smile that sent shivers down Vash’ena’s spine freezing her in place.

  The girl’s form disappeared, and a blob in the shape of the girl replaced her, its smile widening to stretch across her entire face.

  “Found you.” It spoke, in perfect Hood.

  Vash’ena was not a panicking type, she always kept her guns close.

  So when the eldritch abomination from her deepest nightmares started to try and enter her mouth, she shut her brain off instantly to prevent her mind from devolving into madness.

  The last thing she remembered before she went under was the sound of a child’s laughter.

  …

  Man am I lucky or what! A whole group of intact Verdant Hood!

  Chimera smiled as she started to download the information from each of the unconscious bodies, a total of six of them including the one known as Vash’ena.

  Once she started to scope out the ship with the crew, it became very clear that the behavior they experienced, the suicidal attacks and the complete apathy for their lives might be something they all shared, the Hoodians.

  Hoodians? Hood? She sighed and decided to go with scalekin, as it very much fit that profile.

  The scale people were bipedal with a massive tail that went past their legs, acting as a sort of stabilizer for the rest of their body. They were ten feet from tail to head, and their feet also seemed to be more vestigial than normal legs like the Elfari and Humans shared. It was like they used to have legs but discarded them for their faster tails for mobility.

  Their heads were cobra shaped, with a hood that spread out like hair might from a person, and each hood was unique to each person from what Chimera could see. Different designs etched on the interiors, with a more prominent image on the back of the hood.

  Chimera opened one of the eyes of the now sleeping scalekin, checking her pupils as they shifted. Instead of a reptillian pupil, the rounded orbs of a rather normal eye peeped back at her.

  She checked the others to be sure, but everyone of them had rounded irises.

  Huh, would have sworn that they all had slitted pupils with all the talk that the Elfari gave about them.

  She was still going over the data from her… deep dive into the passed out prisoner, so everything she was doing was like trying to piece the right information to what she was observing.

  Round eyes, well that means that these were diurnal reptiles, ones that hunted actively during the day. Slitted pupils were for the nocturnal variants, ones that were usually ambush predators and waited for such prey to come to them.

  Active hunters based on their physiognomy, with their tails being primarily used for locomotion. Developed arms and hands for tool use, claws at the end with a secretion method hidden in the middle appendage. Three fingers and a thumb, should allow for basic tool use.

  Chimera could almost feel the information slot together as the deep dive revealed more about the basic make-up for these scaliens.

  Though one of the things that she picked up did make her feel disturbed as she waited for the rest of her team to arrive, already tying up the captives.

  Genetic manipulation. Its small, almost barely perceptible, but enough for someone to spot it if they know what to look for.

  It was a simple change, allowing for these serpent people to live in this space ship environment without freezing or slowing down due to their normally cold blooded nature. Instead, it activated a homeostatic state, allowing them to effectively become warm blooded on command.

  Chimera figured it must be some kind of energy reason, which is why they changed back and forth between the two blood states. Cold blooded to save energy, warm to use it during a crisis.

  Such a thing was utterly strange to Chimera, given her memories she shared with Sarah Bockman. It screamed of inefficiency, of someone slap-dashing something together to make it work rather than try and fix the issue.

  Why make them like this? Why not just change their dietary needs, or if you’re rummaging around with their code like this, just make it so they didn’t need to eat as much?

  Chimera almost felt sorry for the invaders, because whoever did this to them, messed with their code to this extent, clearly saw them as disposable.

  I give them three decades of life before they all croak from the DNA breaking down and the telomeres becoming beyond repair.

  Chimera felt the DNA from the captive within her, a mockery of life, but one that deserved as much right to life as any other.

  Today, they’re an enemy, but maybe tomorrow, a friend.

  Chimera held onto that hope, because the alternative was too much to think about right now.

  “Captain!” Bayleaf rushed through the open door as a few other Harriers arrived with her.

  Chimera spun in the chair she made for herself, “Good to see you up and about Bay, what's the situation?”

  Bayleaf gave her a quick salute, which to Chimera meant she was in full military form right now, and spoke, “The whole ships been searched and accounted for Captain, and… its as we feared.”

  Chimera closed her eyes for a second, “no other survivors. What the hell happened here?”

  The other Harriers came forth as they presented their findings to Chimera. Apparently according to some of the footage they were able to snag before someone fried the computers with acid, someone was playing a song over the intercom before all of the suicide happy scalekin started with their murder suicides.

  “A trigger?” Chimera said as Bayleaf nodded back.

  “That’s what we thought too. It’s clear that this song was what caused it, but… well, none of us know what it’s saying.” Bay shook her head as she pulled up a melted slag of what appeared to have been electronics once.

  “This was all that was left of the computer responsible for the broadcast.”

  Chimera tilted her head at it as she had one of her hair tendrils grab the slagged device.

  Well, let's give our technopathy a whirl once more.

  Her tendril brushed up against the device, and once power started to flood into the piece, she felt something brush against her mind.

  “Oh Goddess, what are they doing?! Holy Goddess help them why are they murdering each other?! Someone please, stop them! ANYONE!”

  Rather than answer, Chimera lets the device speak as it seemed to be caught in a loop, watching everything that had unfurled aboard the destroyer.

  Death, murder, suicide, when one was left they would sing and stab their own throats, a glazed look in their eyes.

  Soon, after she watched the device go through all of the footage, it ended on a final image.

  You! It was you! Monster! Murderer! How could you do that to your own people?!!!

  Chimera held the image in her mind, even as the device sputtered and died, no longer stuck in the personal hell that it was trapped in.

  The image showed a tall dignified scalekin in elaborate robes, a headdress on her smooth scaled hood, placing a blocky drive into the machine, humming a tune before she teleported away, a flash of light carrying her somewhere.

  Chimera watched her face, traced the lines of her snout and remarked her serpentine eyes.

  Not round, but slitted.

  Self-sabotage, someone higher up from the looks of her.

  Chimera could only tell because all of the crew was female from her earlier tests and the deep dive’s information.

  There were no males on this ship, but the DNA showed that the males were sexually dimorphic from each other.

  Tall, huge, strong, and this headdress wearing priestess from the looks of her was small and petite, even by the rest of the crew's standard.

  Chimera opened her eyes, turning to face her crew as she pointed at the prisoners.

  “Do not let any of them near a speaker. This was a denial sabotage attempt and they are our only witnesses to this event.”

  “Captain!” they all saluted her, and started carrying the prisoners away.

  Bayleaf stayed behind as she gave Chimera a questioning look, ‘you’re troubled, I can tell.”

  Chimera tried to hide it on her face, until she remembered the power thief had her mind reading ability.

  “Yeah, I am. This whole thing screams conspiracy, espionage and sabotage.” Chimera turned back to face her, “do you know anything about the Hood’s leadership?”

  Bayleaf took a chair as she answered, rubbing her leg injury, “Only that they worship some deity they call the Verdant Goddess. No one knows if she’s real, and we haven’t been successful in spotting any of the faith speakers of this cult.”

  Crossing her arms, Bayleaf continued, “it always seemed like they were zealots, obsessed with this Goddess of theirs. I never thought that they were manipulating their people like this.”

  Chimera nodded, “they might be prisoners, forced to fight in this war.”

  Bay shook her head, “that doesn’t excuse the lives they took. Cerula is still under siege because of them and so many have died because of this stupid war. Even if they are war slaves, I won’t choose them over my people.”

  Chimera could see where she was coming from, having been part of this conflict as Bayleaf had.

  She doesn’t want to humanize her enemy, it’ll make it harder to fight them.

  Still, Chimera couldn’t let this go knowing that there might be a way to stop it.

  “What if we showed the Verdant Hood that their own leaders were manipulating them?”

  Bayleaf opened her mouth in shock, “we don’t know that for certain though…” Though even as she said it, Bayleaf put a hand to her lips as she thought it through, “but if they didn’t know…”

  “They might rebel, giving us a chance to turn the war around and push the invaders back.” Chimera finished.

  Bayleaf nodded, “we need to get this to the Empress. The council will know how to use this best. This might just be what we need to end the war.

  Chimera smiled, “see? Taking a ship instead of blowing it to smithereens was a better choice, wasn’t it?”

  Bay shook her head, turning to leave the bridge as Chimera mocked behind her, “I’m not hearing a no!”

  …