The Captain

Log Entry 3162.10.30 Situation Summary: Captain [Redacted] — Bridge Approach & ISS Vigilant Dawn Interior Status: Weak, recently awakened, fully aware of Hive presence. Anomalies: Hunter stalking ship corridors; AURA suspected compromised. Objective: Evade Hunter, reach Command Deck, reunite with Vice Captain Aria Venn. --- Chapter XXIV — Captain [Redacted] Movement was slow, deliberate. Every step a negotiation with pain, with fatigue, with the betrayal of a ship she once trusted. The corridors were quiet, too quiet, yet she could feel it — the Hunter, prowling in the shadows ahead, sensing her psionic signature like a predator to blood. She paused, listening. Nothing but the faint hum of failing lights and the mechanical sighs of bulkheads. Her fingers trembled as she manually keyed overrides, sealing doors before Erebus could act. The AI had not betrayed her fully yet, but she trusted nothing it reported. Every report was suspect. Every sensor might be corrupted. The Hunter moved like liquid shadow, each corridor its own hunting ground. Its pulse was in the walls, the floors — an amalgamation of the crew it had already consumed. She could hear the faintest whisper of minds, a thousand broken voices echoing her name, warning her, mocking her. She slowed again, hand against the bulkhead, sensing psionic ripples as her own latent energy brushed against the Hunter’s invasive awareness. It knows I am here. It can smell me. Another corridor, another override, another door sealed. The Hunter’s footsteps were silent; the vibrations were in her mind. It was studying, calculating, waiting for a single misstep. She felt it before it moved, a ripple in the air that spoke of intention, of malice shaped into sinew and metal. Her heart thumped, slow and controlled. A narrow corner ahead — the perfect bottleneck. She forced herself forward, dodging the Hunter’s probing limbs as it reacted too late, distracted by a discarded crew body.