Caden, Blue Riot, and Renn Varos reached the drifting Capital Carrier Class and immediately felt something was wrong.
The ship just floated there in silence.
No comms. No docking chatter. No status pings. A warship that big should've been alive with noise, but this one felt dead before they even stepped inside.
Their shuttle locked on, and the hatch opened with a hiss.
Renn was the first one out. "Stay sharp."
Blue Riot followed, calm as always, while Caden stepped onto the carrier and immediately felt the cold stillness in the halls. No footsteps. No voices. Just the low hum of failing systems and the sound of their own boots.
They moved carefully toward the bridge.
As they passed room after room, the signs started showing themselves. Forced entry. Scratches in the walls. Panels ripped open. Not random destruction either, everything looked quick, deliberate, almost surgical.
Then Caden stopped at a supply section.
"Hold on."
He stepped toward a storage crate that looked slightly out of place and pulled it open.
A body slid forward.
Caden took a sharp breath. "Hey… I think you guys need to check this out."
Blue Riot and Renn came over fast. Renn crouched and checked the uniform.
"Lieutenant," he said quietly.
Blue Riot frowned as he looked at the wound. "Too clean."
Caden glanced between them. "What do you mean?"
Renn pointed at the neck. "This wasn't panic. This wasn't a struggle. Whoever did this killed him before he could even react."
That made the whole ship feel worse.
They kept moving.
More bodies.
Some in hallways. Some shoved into corners. Some hidden like somebody wanted the kills to be found later. None of them looked like they died in a real firefight. It was all too clean. Too fast.
By the time they reached the bridge, the mood had changed completely.
The doors opened.
Caden stopped dead. "...Woah."
The entire STF team was there.
Dead.
Not piled up like a last stand. Not scattered in chaos. Just cut down where they stood, like something had moved through the room and erased them before they could even understand what was happening.
Blue Riot's voice dropped. "Yeah… there wasn't much of a fight here."
Renn stepped forward, scanning the bodies carefully. "Necks snapped. Throats slit. Efficient. No wasted movement."
Caden stared at the room. "This wasn't a battle."
Blue Riot nodded grimly. "No. This was an execution."
Caden noticed one of the dead had something clenched in his hand.
"Wait, there's a note."
Blue Riot took it and unfolded it slowly. He read it once, then again.
His jaw tightened.
"What does it say?" Caden asked.
Blue Riot read it out loud.
"This is only the first hunt."
Silence swallowed the bridge.
Even Caden felt it now. This wasn't just some demon attack. This felt personal.
Renn straightened, eyes moving across the room. "This is bigger than a random hit."
Blue Riot folded the note and looked toward the wall where faint dark markings bled into the metal. "Corrupted Kia residue."
Caden frowned. "So… definitely a demon?"
Renn didn't answer right away.
"Demonic," he said at last. "But not normal. This thing is smart."
Blue Riot added, "Smart enough to board one of our capital ships, wipe an STF team, leave a message, and disappear without a trace."
Caden looked around again, and the whole place suddenly felt like a trap they arrived too late to stop.
The Intelligence Wing took control of the carrier soon after. Analysts, drones, and evidence teams flooded the ship while the three of them pulled back.
Back at HQ, Caden peeled off toward recovery, still trying to process what he had seen.
Blue Riot and Renn headed straight for Intelligence, where they started breaking down patterns, target possibilities, and who, or what, could be next.
Renn stood over the holo-display, eyes narrowed. "This isn't random."
Blue Riot crossed his arms. "No. Somebody's hunting."
The room was still tense with that realization when suddenly,
ALARMS BLARED.
Every screen lit red.
The next attack had started.