Dyson’s Game

Book 1: Salvage Claim

Prologue

The Kal'Dari System

In the space between planets, a lone torch drive burned bright against the backdrop of twinkling stars. Metallic struts shimmered in each reflection, holding golden foil in between, and they rippled and shimmered as the whole assembly folded into itself, clacking onto the sides of a metallic hull.

This ship sailed through the deep dark, its trajectory set to an ignoble end. Cargo containers of corrugated metal were released from their locking clamps, the precious cargo within sent spiraling off into the blackness of space. It would serve as a distraction for those who would prioritize riches over bloodshed, for the cargo contained within would've made any Kal’Dari rich beyond their wildest dreams.

Sadly, the ship’s lethal pursuer ignored it all, a missile locked onto one target alone.

A few seconds pass, and the distance between the ship and its pursuer grew smaller. Ten thousand kilometers shrunk to kilometers. If someone had been paying attention to the intermittent ladar sweeps that swept across the system, one would’ve noticed the odd occurrence of the missile flipping and burning as it locked onto an intercept course with the ship.

The ship's crew noticed. But they would be rendered a non-issue as the seconds ticked on.

Five seconds passed, before the sound of crashing metal echoes through the ship, the blue glow of its torch drive cutting off with a wink while emergency protocols slammed into place. The grinding of metal echoed throughout the crew’s ears, an ear-splitting, burning sound that dug into the souls of everyone present and chilled them to the core.

“Boarding torpedo”, one of the crew whispered, horror in its face as it quickly began hammering away at its console. The sound of klaxons ringing throughout the chamber was silenced with a smashed hand, just before a hologram burst into existence on top of the crewman's console.

"Makir? Did you--?"

“Pijoras, scuttle the ship now! We’ve been boarded by…!”

The crewman paused, whirling around to see the door to its chamber smashed open by a cybernetic arm. Without thinking, the crewman immediately reached for the gun underneath their console, a fluid movement borne through years of experience…

… But it wasn’t enough.

Another crash echoes through the little chamber, broken by high-pitched clicks and whirs of the thing that the crewman faced. It lifts them up through the broken, mangled console, watching as the crewman fires the gun in its hand to no avail.

Without saying anything, the thing slams the crewman onto the ground, the metallic floor denting under the impact and causing blood to erupt from the smashed head. The thing looks around its immediate area once more, taking in the emergency green lights, the sparking console, and the cooling corpse of what had once been a Kal'Dari eking out their last breaths.

The sound of cycling pumps cuts through it all however, causing the thing to stand straight once more. With a wordless sound, the creature traces its footsteps back where it came from, the only thing distinguishing it from its surroundings being the soft whir of a pump located on its back, pumping a red-green fluid throughout its body.

For the next few minutes, the thing gets to work. With wordless mien and brutal efficiency, the ship’s crew were introduced to its tender mercies, their blood splattering the metallic bulkheads. It reached forth towards another console, this time facing the pulsing, beating heart of the ship... and shuts down the sequence meant to overload the reactor and render all of them into irradiated dust.

All the while, the spot were the boarding torpedo had pierced through the ship kept on leaking air, until there was nothing left but vacuum.

It only takes a few minutes before the grisly work was done, and the creature circles back to where it first arrived onto the ship, staring into the large gash that provided a few of the deep dark. As the thing contemplates on whatever thoughts it had behind its faceless helm, the red-green fluid pumping throughout its body slowly shifts into a sickly yellow hue.

With a shudder, the creature seems to shrink back, collapsing against the nearest bulkhead as it curls in on itself. Its body rises and falls with each blink of the emergency lights, until it eventually comes to a stop, dead. If one can simply ignore the rhythmic click and whir of the pumps attached to its body, jutting forth like towers of steel against pus-ridden scales.

In the meantime, the ship continues to twirl and whirl, its trajectory slowly falling towards the twinkling star far off in the distance. As the last of its systems power down, beginning to register as nothing more than a stray rock in system-wide scans…

… Its deadly cargo sleeps, waiting for when the time is right.