"Hunters Blade" -From within The Serpent

Know thy friend and thy enemy

Laquins like Jonah and his brother Levi had the ability manipulate thought patterns of other humans. This was pretty much standard with all Laquins as they were at the top of their own food chain on their own planets. It was Rumoured they could shape shift in water; but to what ends was still unknown.

Eindri was very relived to hear about her mother being alive. She regretted her actions that led her to become a black hunter; but however viewed them as a means to an end. She felt she would never return to that way of life. Especially now that she had no reason to.

All seemed normal on-board the Tallis. Besides its murderous tendencies; it only seemed to target The Narashti. At least for them moment. It's tendrils had burrowed through the entire ship now. In hallways looking up you could see large vein like vessels slightly pulsing. 

Thinking back to the Aegis they remembered seeing this feature there; but they never questioned it. It's power was still a mystery. It's hatred for the reptile race was a mystery. Rhynn and Eindri both wanted to uncover its mysteries; but even Jonah seemed slightly protective of its lore.

"I'm telling you right now there isn't anything on the lower decks that needs to be checked out." The Laquin said with a flat expression. The other two seemed deflated. "I need you on the bridge. We will be meeting up with The Seawolf shortly anyway."

The other hunters were not children, but they knew how to take orders. They also knew when something was being withheld for a reason.

"Jonah." Rhynn said raising a knowing eyebrow. "What?" He asked ignoring his eyebrow.
"Jo-nah!" Rhynn said slapping his hand on the station his commanding officer was working at. Annoyed Jonah made eye contact; "If you know I'm withholding information from you, it would be prudent to determine there must also be a very good reason. Specially considering I just finished telling you I've told you everything you NEED to know."

"It's the need to know part I'm worried about." Rhynn said under his breath.

"Are We transporting forbidden goods capn?'" She laughed.

"Do you remember that beautiful expression "ignorance is bliss?"" He looked at his crew and slowly became a little angry. "It's an amazing sensation NOT knowing key points of a situation. It's like being able to live your life free without the hassle of knowing the truth." The other two frowned and became a little more concerned. "No? Still want to know?" He clapped his hands together? "ALRIGHT! this way!" He yelled as he marched off the bridge.

They walked behind their captain step by step past bulkheads doorways and large rooms. They kept snaking  back and forth till they were directly under what was the bridge.

The bulkheads had been fused into one large melted wall of synthetic and naturally occurring ores. The floor plan did not match with what the computer told them was here. Jonah paced back and forth by the wall. He turned and nodded putting his helmet on. The other two followed his lead.

He drew his sword and focused his energy from his body to the blade. Like any good weapon; his sword carried a name. "Limlifter" was its name. It was a 3ft long falchion. It had never been used in nearly 1000 years.

The blade sunk into the melted composition of slag. Limlifter did the rest. It glided it's way quickly three different ways. A makeshift door was now available. Returning his sword to its place he sighed and motioned for the others to follow him.

As they entered the darkness; Their visors tried to compensate. Gradually a large empty room could be seen. It slightly startled them as Jonah began to talk.

"I wasn't always working on just the Aegis armour. I was working on several things. Liquid life forms. Atomic Disintegration and a self aware AI program." Ahead of them a golden light began to shine. A low reverberating sound could be heard. Like a really slow heart beat. Pointing ahead, he commented. "This is the heart of the Tallis." A cylindrical device began to rise from the melted floor plating. Inside the cylinder was a humanoid body. Around the body a liquid seemed to swirl and moved to and fro. The liquid would stop and almost watch the three observers.

"1000 years ago I got a unique opportunity. An Atoma is injured and delivered to my research vessel. I think great this is exactly what I wanted to further my research. Turns out the Atoma is infused with a symbiotic life form. They're know as Ry-mans or Alicren, I wasn't sure- I was just happy to have an Atoma in my lab." He frowned slightly.
"I understand in someways why my lab was raided and destroyed..." he trailed off in thought.

"After a few months of engineering, I determined the Atoma could not wake up from its repair cycle." He licked his lips and looked down. "He however didn't like what I had done."

"One day he woke up and began to destroy everything. My fellow researchers, my friends. Everything. He wasn't going to stop till everyone was dead...And he didn't. I had never used my fear abilities before as I hated anything that had to do with what I was."

"So I put the mighty Atoma into a comatose state of fear. I made him experience something so terrible he couldn't move. I don't know what it could have been. So I put him into this chamber and began to use him like a reactor. I could control through the AI interface how much atomic mater the Atoma received. I have taken something that was meant to be free and I have anchored it to a hell like slavery." He looked down and frowned.

"The chamber has been damaged. The likely hood the Atoma will wake up and leave this chamber is very high  if we don't fix it."

"How do we do that then Jonah?" Eindri asked.

Looking at the chamber he shrugged. "I don't know. This was an ill conceived plan to only temporarily hold a dangerous subject. The plans were then copied and then sent out amongst the starts. I'm to blame for every Atoma that has burned up in one of these things. It's my design. A design I didn't even get to test!"

"What do you mean?" Rhynn asked.

"Right after I got golden boy in the chamber, I had a change of conscience. I set up a status pod to strip me of my genetic makeup. I didn't want to be me anymore. So I quit."

"You can still make this right somehow." Rhynn reassured.
"1000 years later?" Jonah argued. An alarm aboard their suits informed them there was a change to the chamber. Containment had began to fail. The Atoma was going to wake up. As an eye opened on the subject in the chamber, they could reasonably assume it was going to be soon.