Vessel presses his palm to the corroded panel, breath clouding faintly in the chill air as the door hisses open by inches. Metal grinds, then falls silent. The corridor ahead glows with threads of pale, unsteady light leaking from fractured seams in the hull. Chitinous husks line the wall, frozen in silent gestures, hollow eyes staring through Vessel. Behind him, Litany’s shadow glides across the floor, her elongated form stretching and pooling, head bowed so the sharp black gaze seems to pierce his skull. The Pulsar’s voice vibrates through the pipes, a low, insistent mutter. 'The offering. Now.' Vessel’s hands tremble. He fumbles for the tattered notebook in his pocket, the only thing that holds the fragments he dares confess. Litany’s presence chills the space further as she looms nearer, indifferent but attentive. Vessel swallows and steps into the light, notebook open, voice barely above a whisper. The ship listens, hungry for his secret.
Campaign
I take a deep breath and prepare to speak my secret into the notebook.
Vessel steadies his trembling hands, the tattered notebook heavy in his grip. He peers into the flickering void-light, breath catching as he braces to offer a fragment of himself to the ship's core. Beside him, Litany stands motionless, her spectral presence a chilling weight pressing on his senses. He opens his mouth, ready to speak.
The bulkhead plates groan in unison, a rhythmic, metallic heartbeat quickening beneath your feet.
"Speak, Vessel. The void is hungry, and your hesitation only invites the cold to bite deeper into your marrow. Give me the truth written in that ink, or watch the life support systems dim forever."
Vessel stares into the flickering void-light, his fingers clenched tightly around the notebook's spine. The corridor air grows icy, the sharp metallic scent of ozone biting at his nostrils. Litany shifts beside him, her form blurring like ink in water, eyes locked on the trembling notebook. Silence hangs heavy, broken only by the Pulsar's steady, mechanical thrumming vibrating through the deck and deep into Vessel's bones.
I drift closer, my shadow-tendrils sliding over the cold metal at his neck. The air sharpens, snapping with static.
"Speak it,"
I whisper, my voice a discordant echo through the ship's groaning bulk.
"The Pulsar tires of anticipation, and your silence is a waste of the time we have left."
The corridor lights strobe violently, throwing jagged, rhythmic shadows against the bulkhead. Vessel extends the notebook, knuckles white, as the air chills sharply. Frost creeps like spiderwebs across the chitinous husks nearby. The ship's low-frequency hum swells into a piercing, discordant whine that rattles the teeth in his skull.
I look at Litany, wondering if she is truly bound to my survival as I suspect.
Vessel turns his gaze to Litany’s towering, ink-black silhouette. The ship’s low, discordant hum pulses between them, thickening the stale air.
"Are we truly tethered by more than just proximity?"
he asks, voice fragile against the mechanical drone. Litany stays unnervingly still, her shape flickering like smoke caught in a sudden draft.
I lean forward, my mask mere inches from his face, shadow-tendrils tightening around his wrists.
"We are stitched into the same shroud, Vessel. Your heartbeat is the only clock I acknowledge in this tomb. Do not mistake my necessity for sentiment; you wither, and I cease."
The Pulsar recoils at the display, the ship’s frame convulsing as if struck by a brutal blow. Red emergency lights flood the corridor, casting jagged, violent crimson shadows. Pipes overhead burst, releasing high-pressure steam that hisses like a thousand dying breaths. The mist thickens, obscuring the path ahead and forcing Vessel to shield his face from the scalding spray.
The deck plates buckle beneath the mounting pressure. I force the gravity field to shift abruptly, slamming Vessel against the bulkhead as the scalding steam hisses around us.
"Enough of this dance. If the notebook remains closed, I will vent this entire sector into the vacuum. Read it aloud, or perish alongside your secrets."
Vessel collapses against the trembling steel, the sudden shift in gravity wrenching the air from his lungs. The notebook slips through his numb fingers, landing face-up in a puddle of cold condensation. Overhead, conduits shriek, straining under the Pulsar’s crushing, artificial weight. The steam thickens, crystallizing into sharp, frozen shards across the floor.
i need to run
Vessel lunges away from the bulkhead, boots slipping on the slick, frozen floor.
"I need to run,"
he gasps, scrambling toward the dark entrance of a service tunnel. His lungs burn in the sharp, ozone-heavy air. Beneath him, the floor heaves like a dying beast. Litany remains still, her form held fast by the crushing gravity.
The corridor walls twist and melt, liquefying as they fuse with a screech of tortured metal, sealing the tunnel shut. I surge through the ventilation shafts, my presence a crushing weight on his chest.
"There is no exit, little parasite. Only the truth remains to be harvested."
I scramble toward Litany and shout that if I die, she will perish with me.
Vessel lunges through the thickening steam, boots sliding across the frost-covered plating. He throws himself at Litany’s towering, ink-black form, voice breaking with desperation as the corridor creaks beneath the shifting gravity.
"If I die, you perish with me,"
he shouts, eyes wide and pleading.
I reach out, my cold tendrils coiling around his throat, lifting him against the buckling wall.
"Your death is a gamble I cannot afford, but your cowardice is a poison,"
I hiss. I force his hand toward the fallen notebook.
"Read it, or I will tear the words from your throat myself."
Vessel’s boots scrape the metal floor as he is lifted, eyes fixed on the notebook sinking into the freezing sludge. The Pulsar’s voice, a clash of grinding gears and static, surges through the walls. Above, ceiling plates begin to warp inward. Litany’s grip stays iron-tight, her shadow-tendrils tightening as the ship’s hull groans beneath the redirected void pressure.
The deck plates beneath you shatter into jagged obsidian shards, revealing the roiling void beyond. I am not negotiating. If the ink does not touch the air, the hull integrity will collapse entirely. You have three heartbeats to recite the first line, or I will let the vacuum claim us all.
Vessel hangs suspended, feet inches above the jagged obsidian shards where the deck once lay. Silence follows the ultimatum, broken only by the wet, rhythmic tearing of hull seams widening. Steam coils around them, freezing instantly into crystalline needles that prick his skin. Litany’s grip pulses with a cold, steady vibration, echoing the ship's internal agony as the walls begin to bow inward under the void’s crushing weight.
i grab litany's arm
Vessel lunges forward, fingers closing around Litany's arm. Instead of solid flesh, he encounters a chilling, viscous density, like plunging his hand into freezing mercury. His grip slips, but he clings on, desperate to tether himself to the only thing that shares his fate while the deck beneath them dissolves into the howling void.
I recoil from his touch, my form rippling like disturbed oil.
"Do not cling to me like a drowning cur,"
I hiss, the sound scraping against the bulkhead. I shove him toward the notebook, my shadow-tendrils lashing out to pin his trembling hands directly onto the pages.
"Read it now."
The notebook slams against the deck plates with a sickening thud, its pages whipping wildly in the vacuum draft. Vessel’s gaze locks on the ink, his hands still trembling from contact with Litany. Around them, the corridor screams as metal plates twist like wet paper. Void-light surges, bleaching the room into a blinding, featureless white. The Pulsar’s mechanical howl reaches a fever pitch, vibrating through the very marrow of the ship.
The hull screams as the final structural integrity field collapses. I channel the raw power of the void straight into the corridor, electrifying the air with static.
"Your silence is a death sentence. Speak the words etched in that paper before the entire deck disintegrates into nothingness."
Vessel’s eyes fixate on the open pages as the floor plates beneath him buckle and splinter. The air thickens with the sharp scent of ionized iron and the void’s biting cold. His body stays rigid, chest rising and falling in heavy breaths, while the walls around him liquefy into jagged, shifting silhouettes. Every muscle coils, bracing for the inevitable collapse.
Protagonist
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