Morrigan rushed down to the closest hanger she could find to see a room full of soldiers and star craft eagerly prepping for a fight as the battle alarm blared throughout the massive room.

  No one seemed to pay attention to her as they busied themselves with putting on armor, retrieving weapons and ammunition as she weaved through the crowd with precision.

  Morrigan knew Sister would attempt to obey Shepard but she wouldn’t let that stop her as she focused on the one thing that could keep her from stopping her hunt; the atmospheric barriers.

  Sticking her Inquisitor’s badge into the control console for the barriers and searching for the command override to change the complex polarity of the barrier, switching it from a glowing green wall of light to a blue one telling pilots they could freely pass through without worry of slamming into the wall of magnetic plasma.

  Typing the extensive code that overrode the system and locked everyone out of the command structure of the console, Morrigan picked the closest ship as her ride into battle; a small combat dropship designed for a single squad of soldiers that packed a nice enough punch with its array of ordinance.

  “Attention crew of hanger four, as a request from the Admiral, do not allow the Inquisitor to leave the Archangel.” Sister announced over the intercom system.

  Morrigan anger spiked as crimson energy flashed around her as everyone in the room turned to look at their trembling Inquisitor. So much fury was held within her, the reason for her crumbling life drew closer; the much needed predatory release of tearing apart each and everyone one of them nearly within her grasp. However, Morrigan had no time to waste by arguing with Shepard nor the ship’s A.I.

  Before she could move, a piercing howl from Skoll resonated throughout the hanger, giant ball of electrified fur barreling through dozens of crewmembers to get to his master as a wave of excitement and aggression slammed into Morrigan.

  Skoll slid across the smooth metal floor and into Morrigan’s path as he lived his gaze to her and let out a sharp growl that demanded her attention.

  As if on instinct, Morrigan let out a growl of her own as she bore her fangs, crimson electricity dancing across the floor around her between her and her companion. “Move,” she demanded forcefully as her hands curled into fists, her patience wearing thin with everyone attempting to stop her.

  Skoll’s ears went flat under the weight of her authority as he sat in front of her letting out a sharp bark that echoed across the room before he whined with an emphatic wave of yearning.

  Morrigan eyed the crewmembers that stood completely still, all watching to see what she would do however, what they couldn’t see is the shame and further anger she felt about herself as she realized Skoll wasn’t attempting to stop her but instead, he was trying to join her.

  The thought that she had been willing, if even for a brief moment, to harm her most loyal companion out of spiteful determination only solidified her views about herself and heightened the need to vent all of her stress upon the enemy.

  “Fine, in,” she stated sharply pointing towards the ship as her wounded eyes looked into Skoll’s gaze. Most were too far to hear the sullen tone underneath her aggressive demeanor as she began to second guess her plan.

  She knew Skoll could sense her intentions and yet, his excitement overshadowed the entire situation as he yelped in joy before prancing into the hold of the small star craft.

  “Hurry up! We have a battle to win!” she shouted as an order to the confused crew before stepping into the ship, listening to the raucous cheer of her assault teams as they doubled their efforts in preparing. Stepping her way into the hold that Skoll mostly occupied and stepped into the cockpit where the pilot did preflight checks.

  “Get us moving, now,” she ordered from behind him darkly.

  “We haven’t been cleared to launch…” The pilot turned in surprise however, before they could raise another argument, the pilot turned to see her crimson eyes shimmer underneath the shadow of the once vacant hold striking fear through their spine.

  “Uh, right. Right away, Inquisitor…” the pilot murmured nervously with a hard swallow before skipping the rest of the checks and sealing the ship automatically before taking off.

  “Admiral, I would like to point out that it was futile to attempt to stop the Lord Inquisitor…” Sister said over the bridge intercom as everyone on the bridge watched as a single ship launched and arced towards the enemy Frigate.

  “Damn it!” Shepard shouted as she slammed her fist on her own console before Sister interrupted her impending tirade.

  Shepard muttered to herself incoherently in fuming irritation as she struggled to find the right words she wanted. With a defeated sigh, she resigned that she would have to chew Morrigan out later, but for the mean time, the Archangel would have to support their Inquisitor in her suicide mission.

  “Gunnar… target the enemy’s engines, have the Javelin crew fire when ready… Sister, give the green light for all assault crews to launch and somebody get me Ebony!” Shepard stated as she watched the foolish girl rocket towards a ship brimming with folk who would try to tear her apart.

  ◇◇◇

  Ebony braced herself against the frame of a door as the announcement of the Javelin firing sequence was followed by a severe shudder and the shut down of all primary systems, the auxiliary systems and lighting kicking on a moment later.

  “Oh, what the hell…” Ebony grumbled to herself as she moved with more haste to answer the call to the bridge. She didn’t know what it entailed, especially since she had never been called upon by the admiral before however, between the klaxon alarm and sudden loss of power, she felt that it couldn’t be good news.

  Granted, she had been on board to witness the repercussions of the use of the Javelin arsenal, but that didn’t explain why she had been called to the bridge especially since boarding enemy ships was Havoc Squad’s specialty. So, for her and her team to be kept from combat seemed extremely odd at the least.

  Stepping onto the bridge, Ebony was greeted with a lot of sour faces, especially that of Admiral Shepard though she noticed Morrigan was nowhere to be seen.

  “About time,” Shepard gruffed out at her upon noticing her arrival. Stepping away from her console, she approached Ebony, “I need you to hack into the enemy ship, remotely, can you do that?”

  Ebony furrowed her brow as she looked up to see the shadow of a Federation ship looming in the distance before a tiny explosion ignited along mid ship hull. “Probably but why doesn’t Sister handle it? She should be able to do it far faster and easier than I can?” she questioned in confusion.

  “It is against my system’s safety protocols to interact with anything outside the hull of the Archangel, at least, not without the Inquisitorial override. Inquisitor Clarke is capable of giving me temporary freedom outside my protocols…” Sister stated over the intercom.

  “Why don’t you have her do that?” Ebony asked, cutting the A.I. off with a further inquisitive look.

  Shepard huffed indignantly as she turned and stepped towards the front of the bridge, standing over Sarilla to see that dropship Morrigan had absconded with nearly made it back to the Archangel. “Because the dumbass hijacked a ship and is already on the enemy ship by herself. I need you to get eyes on her…”

  Ebony's eyes went wide as she heard the audacious statement. She knew how dangerous it was to raid a ship even with a full company of soldiers, but to think that Morrigan had gone by herself was crazier than anything she could imagine, even with how powerful she was, she couldn't imagine Morrigan taking on an entire ship’s worth of marines.

  “You’re serious?” She asked in disbelief, unable to believe Morrigan would do something that stupid.

  Shepard growled as she nodded, “Use Sarilla’s terminal. We need to make sure she lives long enough for me to kick her ass for being this stupid.”

  Ebony shook the surprise from her mind as she grabbed the data-slate from the small of her back before stepping towards the terminal Sarilla and Shepard stood by. Sarilla moved around towards the back of the bridge near Morrigan’s console so Ebony could crouch and reach underneath her terminal to plug her data-slate in, “Sister, are short range comms up? I’m going to need as little latency as possible,” Ebony called out from underneath.

  “Yes, Ebony. Is there a specific channel you desire?” Sister asked.

  As Ebony pulled herself up and planted herself into the chair next to the terminal, she said, “No, we’ll connect them all and see which ones hold strong and eliminate the surrounding channels.” A moment later Ebony began transmitting a plethora of viruses and daemons used to tear through the firewalls of the Federation ship, her fingers dancing across the screen as she sent data package after data package as each virus hit a block simultaneously across dozens of frequency channels.

  It took 15 minutes for Ebony to break through the Frigate’s system before she could access the surveillance, all the while dropships began to deploy from the Archangel.

  Pulling up 40 screens at once, Ebony began to siphon through camera after camera, “This might take a while, there’s over 800 cameras…” she said before handfuls of black screens began appearing. Moving through a half dozen more panels, she and everyone on the bridge could see a large crimson claw rip down a corridor towards a team of marines shooting only to watch them break apart as the crimson energy tore through every side of the corridor.

  In a flash of speed, Morrigan appeared and disappeared from view as her iconic power tore through metal walls allowing her to bore through the ship rather than taking the structural walking paths; essentially going through the walls rather than figuring out the actual labyrinth.

  “Oh look, Skoll’s with her,” Ebony commented catching a screen that showed Skoll ripping through the shoulder and throat of a marine as bullets were redirected away from him as the electric field danced across his fur before Skoll released a storm of electricity that shorted out several cameras within the area he was in.

  After several minutes of catching glimpses of Morrigan and Skoll aboard the enemy Frigate, Ebony sighed, “We’re really led by that… aren’t we?”

  Shepard hummed as she focused on the screens, feeling her anger and irritation subside to see the Inquisitor make her way through the ship with ease. Shepard was terrified the Archangel would lose another Inquisitor the same way they had before, but she could see her worries were put to ease though she still intended reaming her out the moment she was back on the ship.

  ◇◇◇

  It was hard for Mo’Emori to remain hopeful the longer her search continued. If it wasn’t for the obscure trail of derelict starships that bore the mark of Morrigan, Mo’Emori would have considered abandoning her mission and returning home.

  She missed her home, her mother and the one she called mom, as well as her siblings wondering if her precious niece or nephew had come into the world yet.

  With some luck, she did come across a fleeing Eskarii transport as Gelia burned. Of course she was sad that the luscious jungle world was gone but hearing word that a black Terran starship arrived and proceeded to tear into the Federation ships, allowing millions of more Eskarii to escape the burning world as giant claws of red apparated around the ship and slashed into the assaulting force.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  Despite being told that the ship soon fled after, it gave Mo’Emori renewed hope as days after, she came across a derelict ship obvious sundered by Morrigan and her crew, as if purposefully leading the Federation on a goose chase which was extremely dangerous.

  However, if Morrigan continued to leave husks of Federation ships in her wake, Mo’Emori knew she would find her eventually; she just hoped it wouldn’t be her friend’s ship floating in space with a crew of the dead when she finally found her.

  What worried her incessantly was the message sent by her brother Torvil, a message passed along by the captain of the civilian transport, which was given to every Eskarii ship from Gelia by one of the several Battleships that tried to defend it. Torvil told her that her mother foresaw a great pain with Morrigan at the heart of it, and they worried for Mo’Emori’s safety however, she couldn't begin to guess at one that pain could be.

  “Princess, we're picking up two Terran signatures,” her Navigator announced, pulling Mo’Emori from her thoughts as she sat in the center of the bridge.

  She blinked her yellow eyes several times to adjust to the streaking lights of FTL before looking over to her left where the female Eskarii sat. “Pull out and let’s have a look. With our luck it’ll just be two more derelicts…” she ordered with dejected emotion.

  Her crew moved without question, having learned several months before near Tik’Taq’To that her orders were not to be challenged, as they prepared to drop out of FTL and engage their stealth engines. Meanwhile, Mo’Emori uncrossed her legs and pried herself off the floor to get a better view.

  The sight was stunning as Mo’Emori’s mind tried to process the distant image she saw as her ship dropped back into real space; a larger black gothic ship with a small swarm of ships releasing from its mid section as a smaller Federation military starship appeared to be under assault from within.

  It wasn’t until she spied the dull, dark red marking across the bridge tower of the Terran ship did her mind realize she was truly looking at the ship she was looking for; and for her excitement to skyrocket.

  “Morrrriii! We found her, we found her!” Mo’Emori screeched as she grabbed the nearest crewmate and shook them obnoxiously, “We found her! Oh, shit. The ship on the left! We need to speak with them!”

  She looked at the operator that handled the short range communications with eyes alight with joy all the while the pilot slowly maneuvered them to intercept the Inquisition Light Cruiser, not giving her a chance to annoy him as she focused her excitement on the operator to the right.

  Within moments, a wide screen appeared and before the connection could fully establish, Mo’Emori shouted, “Mori! I’ve looked every- Oh, Hi!”

  Who appeared on screen was not Morrigan, but an elderly woman with one eye, her wrinkled face affixed in a scowl as she eyed the transmission with curiosity as Mo’Emori waved at her gingerly.

  “Hi, is Mori there? I need to speak to Mori! Mori? Are you there?” Mo’Emori rambled in a high pitched tone before the elderly woman cleared her throat,

  “I am Admiral Shepard, second in command of the Inquisitorial Light Cruiser; the Archangel. Whom do I speak with?” Shepard announced trying to get Mo’Emori to focus.

  “Oh! I’m Mo’Emori! My Mem’ani sent me to find Mori because she wants to talk to her and I really miss her. Is she there? I’m sure she wants to speak to me too!” the quirky excited Eskarii announced before riding out a tangent which only appeared to annoy the older woman on the other end of the call.

  “Wait, did she say “Mo’Emori”?” came a soft voice that almost reached Mo’Emori’s own excitement before a young woman stepped into the call, her long hair complemented by soft pointed ears identifying her as half-Eskarii.

  Mo’Emori waved spastically at the young woman with a bright smile as she studied her from across dark space, “Hi! It’s nice to meet another half-breed-I have a niece or nephew that’s going to a half-breed too! Isn’t that awesome?”

  Luisa’s eyes were bright with surprise as she looked down at Shepard, who gave her an inquisitive raised eyebrow before Luisa stammered, “You, You’re Torvil’s sister? The Eskarii that got Mori’s aunt pregnant?”

  To everyone’s surprise, Mo’Emori’s grin managed to get wider, “Yes! Torvil is my brawder and he got Jen preggers with a little bundle of hybrid joy! Mori is going to be so excited to see them. I bet she…” Mo’Emori trailed off in a one sided rant of pure childish delight that earned annoyed sneers from her crew as Shepard and Luisa looked at each other.

  “I think we should tell her where Mori is,” Luisa said softly as she tried to listen to the unbridled excitement.

  “Are you certain this Eskarii is trustworthy? No offense to them seeing as they’re allies but with the way things have been going…" Shepard asked before looking off screen, “Where is she now, Ebony?”

  A muffled female voice responded before Luisa nodded to Shepard, “When Mori grilled me and the other half-Eskarii about our heritage, because her aunt became pregnant by a male Eskarii, she often mentioned a Mo’Emori. If this is truly her, then she’ll be able to help Mori more than we can, trust me.”

  The mention of helping Morrigan stopped her ecstatic rambling as her brain registered the dire definition of the word, “Wait, is Mori in trouble? Where is she?” Mo’Emori asked politely though her extremely sudden shift in personality was anything but polite.

  That caught the attention of both women as Shepard sighed, “Mori is… working through some frustrations at the moment. Against better wisdom, she has taken it upon herself to handle the assault of the ship you see on her own… She is fine as we watch her progress however, our assault company will be assisting her shortly,” Shepard finished by looking past the screen.

  Mo’Emori looked through her own screen to see that the swarm of ships had disappeared behind the portside of the Frigate before calculating in her mind everything she had been told and cross referencing it with everything she knew between Morrigan and the Federation.

  “She’s mad, isn’t she?” Mo’Emori finally asked, her tone transfixed between worried and contemplating as she looked at both women.

  Neither women denied nor confirmed,, which was all the confirmation Mo’Emori need as she placed her hands on her cheeks, her mind racing beyond human speed as her memories of Morrigan’s dossier and violent outbursts surfaced.

  “That’s not good… okay, I’ll go talk to her; Bring us towards the right side of the enemy, they should be distracted enough but retreat to the Inquisition ship once we depart,” she ordered as she looked at the pilot, worry filling her voice.

  Without a second thought, Mo’Emori walked away from the call as soon as the pilot adjusted their course for the Federation ship, leaving the two women on the call to watch in contemplation as she prepared to assault the Frigate herself.

  Mo’Emori moved through the door behind the bridge of her ship, leaving the flying crew to their work as she heard the lasers of her ship fire, before stepping around a separating wall from the common area for the crew to find many of her Sybrydian lounging around stationary tables throughout the open space.

  “Get up! We’re boarding a Federation ship!” she ordered sharply as she continued her way across the room, many of the special forces looking at one another in confusion by her lack of detail and planning before scurrying to a side room near the starboard side of the bridge that contained the ship’s armory.

  Mo’Emori knew she was supposed to give her forces a sit rep, a plan and time to prepare for such an prodigious assault, but she knew time was of the essence and with any luck, between Mori and the Inquisition forces, the Federation should be well enough distracted for her to slip onto the ship.

  Mo’Emori stepped around the next freestanding wall that supported the open room to reveal a freight elevator that blended in with the black, gold and cerulean blue walls of her ship before stepping in and letting herself be carried down to the cargo hold.

  “Bring us in for drop off,” she called into the open area where a moderately large cargo ramp sealed the interior of the ship from the void of space. Around her stood sleek crates of materials and supplies her crew used to survive the harsh existence of space travel, lifting one of the containers to reveal dried fruit rations that originated from Gelia.

  It was a brief reminder of the Eskarii’s most recent loss as she opened a sealed package and took a chewy bite of dried fruit; waiting for the assault squad to arrive as she felt the equilibrium of gravity shift slightly telling her the ship had increased its speed.

  Soon, her group of 16 Sybrydian arrived in the hold just as the weight of gravity shifted once again before a soft female voice announced around her, “Princess, we have taken out the enemy turrets. We’re positioning for boarding now.”

  “Understood. We are ready,” she stated back as she finished her ration before turning to the fully armored Eskarii clad in a verdant green; energy weapons shouldered at the ready as they waited for their princess.

  Mo’Emori cleared her throat before stepping in front of the ramp and turning to her team, “We’re looking for a young Terran woman who was last seen with brown and white hair. She wields very dangerous powers that can be identified by its bright red color, if you find her, do not approach, I am the only one to approach her. Also, there are Inquisition soldiers aboard the ship so be wary of your targets, you are to assist as you see fit but our primary goal is finding Mori.”

  The Sybrydian all looked at one another with hesitant looks despite wearing oblong helmets that covered their faces. She didn’t care though as she turned and drew her swords waiting for the pilot to lower the ramp, she had one sole mission and that was to find Morrigan; she didn’t need anyone to help her however, she knew she wouldn’t hear the end of it from her mother nor her brother if she went without guards. If anything, she believed they would slow her down but royalty was a two way street when it came to privilege.

  Mo’Emori impatiently darted out of the ship before the ramp could fully open, at the ready for combat only to be greeted by an empty hanger. With a boost of kinetic force, she launched herself across the entire length of the hanger as she abandoned her crew and landed in front of the closest door she could find.

  Her annoyance rose as she hit the button to open the door only to have it respond with a noise that denied her access. Focusing on her power, she adjusted the molecular structure of her blades by increasing the intensity of its vibration before burying both blades into the metal door. Her blades separated the metal of the door on a molecular level, allowing her to cut through the door with relative ease as she carved a hole wide enough for her to slip through as her Sybrydian attempted to catch up to her.

  Mo’Emori darted through the empty corridors at an inhuman speed, slamming her feet and denting the metal walls as she launched herself around each corner she came to. Her goal was to cover as much ground as possible in hopes to either find evidence of Morrigan or find the woman herself however, with many decks and a vast amount of space to search, it was still a daunting task despite the speed in which she could move.

  ◇◇◇

  Shepard watched the monitors as the blur of teal and purple flashed across the occasional screen. “What kind of power is that?” she questioned to herself aloud. Surprised at the speed Mo’Emori moved.

  “Any chance we can guide the Eskarii to Mori?” Shepard followed up, looking to her crew but more so Ebony.

  Sarilla tapped Ebony on the shoulder to gain her attention as the hacker focused on her data-slate. “What? Sorry, I found a bunch of files of recent orders I’m downloading…”

  Shepard gave her an approving nod before asking again, “Is there any way we can speak to the Eskarii and guide her to Mori, given the brat turned off her comm bead.” Her ire did not seem to wane as she watched Morrigan tear through a small team of marines on screen.

  Ebony let out a breath as she considered the question and how she would manage to do that. It was under the assumption the Eskarii used common digital signals to communicate which, in her experience, they did however, it was something that could always change since the Federation understood very little about Eskarii technology despite studying as much as they could from their spoils of war.

  Even if she wanted to, it would require a multi-mesh transmitter and receiver which, the Inquisition did not have, and the Archangel’s communication array was far too large to properly home in on such a distinct signal. It was the equivalent of trying to drill a hole through glass with a hammer.

  “Wait, is their ship still nearby?” Ebony asked, curious if she could hack into the Eskarii ship and hijack their short range communications.

  “My sensors show that the Eskarii starship is currently positioned underneath the Archangel,” Sister interjected.

  “Sister, are we still receiving their comm signal?” Ebony followed up.

  “No, however, the Inquisition is partnered with the Eskarii. It is standard protocol for each ship to contain a set of codes that allow our signal to be converted to a receivable transmission to other Eskarii ships if the need arises,” Sister stated factually, almost sounding proud of the fact.

  Ebony leaned up as she set her data-slate down and looked over Sarilla’s terminal. Despite being the Navigator, she also handled long and short range comms while a secondary division of specialists handled team to team communications as well as the equipment used by the Inquisition personnel. However, if they already had the proper coding, Ebony could use it to break into the Eskarii network and interject their transmission into the personal devices the Eskarii used to speak to one another.

  “Send those codes to Sarilla’s terminal. If I do this right, we can speak to her,” Ebony stated as an order knowing full well that no one had to listen to her.

  Sister did as requested though and sent pages upon pages of codes to Ebony, shocking the woman with how intricate the Eskarii coding appeared under Terran format. A single “code” turned out to be 67 lines of text and there were dozens of codes to choose from.

  Glancing over each code briefly, Ebony found one that seemed like it was set up for short range, low frequency communication and transferred it to her data-slate before she inserted her own daemons to allow her signal to hijack the Eskarii devices. Even with her impressive speed, it still took Ebony 20 minutes to fully set up a proper signal before sending it out throughout the Federation ship, using the Frigate’s internal network as a broadband to transmit the signal.

  With a nod, Ebony gave Shepard the go ahead before pulling up the closest camera that showed Morrigan’s position.

  “Mo’Emori, this is Admiral Shepard, we do apologize for hacking into your comms but Mori is three decks above you and… roughly 800 feet towards the stern of the ship, but she is moving fast,” Shepard called out as she watched Morrigan’s sweeping claw destroy the camera.

  “Okay!” was the only response she received which mildly amused her, watching on camera as the Eskarii girl slide to a grinding halt as she cleaved through a single marine before turning around and launching herself back down the corridor in which she came.

  Shepard looked to her crew as she contemplated the current situation at hand and sighed, “Am I the only one who thinks this is getting out of control?” Her eye landing on several tired faces that reflected her own concern as each day seemed to become more and more convoluted.