Meet The Matsudan: Part 2

AN UNSEEN MENACE

And that is how it may have remained until a fateful encounter between the Asterians and a new galactic threat. The Tesseract had been closely tracking intercepted GCPS transmissions about research stations and outposts that were being overrun by a mysterious enemy that appeared from nowhere before wiping out the unfortunate inhabitants. Encrypted comms from Mazon Holdings repeatedly used a common codename: Nightstalkers.

Each time the Asterians intercepted a panicked call for help, they would quickly request the nearest Clade to dispatch a Strike Team of cyphers, marionettes and their overseer to investigate further. However, upon arrival, the Clade would typically find a bloody scene of devastation. Research assistants ripped apart, security guards with their eyes gouged out and walls covered in viscera, while whatever had caused the carnage had vanished without a trace.

For a time, the unseen menace remained an ethereal threat that kept slipping from the Tesseract’s grasp until Clade Burning Tide was dispatched to Research Station: Gorgon. Tucked away on a former logging planet, the station had been used by Cerebral Logistics, a relatively inconsequential rival to Mazon Propulsion Systems formed by a handful of disgruntled Mazon employees. Clade Burning Tide intercepted a distress call from Gorgon and, rather than waiting to inform the Tesseract, immediately sent overseer Ka’la and a trio of her best cyphers to investigate.

A WARNING TALE

While Ka’la remained in the safety of the Chira in orbit above the planet, she sent the cyphers into the research station. Gently touching the nervous systems of the cyphers with her mind, she navigated the droids around the facility. While they scanned the computer systems of Gorgon, Ka’la repeatedly caught references to the deceased Professor Hiraku Kaneko and his research at Mazon Propulsion Systems. It appeared a former colleague of Kaneko had defected to Cerebral Core and stolen Kaneko’s schematics for an experimental device capable of creating wormholes that could be used for interstellar travel. Upon further investigations, the cyphers discovered a machine that resembled that shown in the stolen plans. However, the machine had been partly destroyed and the room in which it was housed was covered in the scorch marks of laser rifles.

Watching through the eyes of the cyphers, Ka’la ignored the occasional streak of blood on the walls and urged them through the abandoned corridors. Even in the comfort of the Chira, Ka’la felt a chill when the flickering lights of the facility caused unusual shadows to dance across the cyphers’ vision. Once or twice she even found herself nervously looking over her own shoulder, only to be reminded that she was safely sitting in the cockpit of her craft.

Despite her surroundings, Ka’la jumped from her seat when a cypher opened a laboratory closet and a wild-eyed lab technician smeared in filth and brandishing a scalpel leapt from the gloom. Through the neural link, Ka’la heard the unfortunate-looking soul screaming that “darkness had come through the wormhole” while the cypher calmy pinned him against the wall. She tried to get more information from the technician but he would only scream incoherently while his eyes rolled violently in their sockets. With a small sense of compassion but a larger sense of frustration, she casually instructed the cypher to snap the technician’s neck. Ka’la watched with indifference while his body slid to the floor.

And that was when the whispering started. At first she wasn’t sure if she was hearing it through the neural link or inside the Chira. Each time she tried to listen more closely, it would disappear like a stray leaf on the wind. She also noticed - or perhaps it was only her imagination - that the lights inside the Chira kept flickering. Ka’la tried to control her breathing and concentrate on controlling the cyphers.

Suddenly she was snapped back to attention by the sound of a noh rifle being fired. Cypher Omega-KL’s artificial intelligence had responded instinctively to a threat that Ka’la hadn’t spotted while she had been distracted. She focused back on the neural link and gazed into the shadows of the lab. She felt all three cyphers raising their noh rifles in preparation for whatever was out there. Ka’la could sense, rather than see, the room becoming darker. It was as if the light was being absorbed and within the murk something was shuffling toward them. She resisted the temptation to shoot with the noh rifles while she gathered more data, despite sensing the cyphers’ urge to open fire.

Stumbling through the lab, she saw something that may once have been female but was now something else. Its face yawned open to reveal scores of teeth, while its ‘dress’ resembled the wings of a Craxis lurcher Ka’la had fought on Craxis III. A pair of claws grasped toward the cyphers while the mouth continued to snap open and closed. Ka’la began to record the feed from the cyphers ready to send to Clade Burning Tide. At first Ka’la thought it must be a plague victim but there was something about its movement and the way it almost appeared to shift in and out of existence that convinced her otherwise.

However, what really caught her attention was the screaming. A high-pitched wail that threatened to overload the cypher’s audio receptors. Ka’la decided she had seen and heard enough. Within the neural link she reached out to fire the noh rifles and was relieved when she felt the squad of cyphers respond. The lab lit up with energy blasts.

The screaming stopped.

And the laughing began.

Like the screaming it had a preening, almost musical quality that rose and fell. Ka’la found it far more unsettling though and it confirmed her suspicions this was no Plague victim. Through the cyphers’ optics she scanned around to find the source of the laughter and almost leapt from her seat when the creature materialised in front of Beta-KL. The cypher attempted to dodge backward but the monstrous beast was too quick. Its claw shifted in and out of reality before plunging into the cypher’s chest and ripping out a handful of wires and circuits. As Beta-KL dropped motionless to the ground, Ka-la switched her consciousness to watch through Alpha-KL’s optics. She saw that the entity seemed confused by the wires and circuits it was now holding. Its fang-filled maw snapped together while it held its claws close to where its eyes must have once been.

Ka-la realised she was frozen by fear. Her strong emotions overwhelmed the neural link, which was paralysing the remaining cyphers too. All she could do was stare wide eyed while the creature dropped the innards of Beta-KL and reached toward Omega-KL. It plunged its claw straight through Omega-KL’s optics and into its neural processors, which housed the receptors for the neural link. Ka’la sensed the monstrosity probing the cypher’s connection to her.

“You are… Ka’la,” laughed a voice. “You are this puppet’s master.”

She quickly removed the helmet of the neural link and threw it to the cockpit floor. Her hands were covered in sweat and her heart was pounding. That thing had sensed her through the link.

Ka’la cast her gaze across a pair of feeds from Omega-KL and Alpha-KL. The creature had vanished. Trying to control her shaking hands, she stopped the recording and began to upload the data captured to Burning Tide’s servers. The Tesseract needed to see this. They needed to hear that whatever it was could travel along the neural links. She opened up an encrypted comms port.

“This is Overseer Ka’la Lightstar of Clade Burning Tide. I have an urgent-”

She sensed the presence before she heard the wailing. Ka’la didn’t need to turn around to know what was behind her and she didn’t have time to reach her noh pistol before the creature enveloped her head inside its gaping jaws. As Ka’la’s blood splattered against the monitors, a flashing message appeared to say her footage had been successfully uploaded to the Clade’s servers and had already been viewed.

CURSE OF THE NEURAL LINK

Ka’la’s warning that the creature she encountered could travel through the neural link came too late for Clade Burning Tide. Her footage of the beast inside Research Station: Gorgon was seen by members of the Clade council and their assistants. Just like other nightstalker outbreaks, that was all it took for these transdimensional beings to find the gap between worlds in their hunt for fresh souls. Once the door had been opened, the nightstalkers flooded in.

Unaware of Ka’la’s fate, when the monsters arrived, the warriors of Clade Burning Tide immediately turned to the cyphers and their neural links to repel this invasion. While the creatures shambled and crawled through the chambers of Burning Tide’s mothership, scores of cyphers lined the halls with noh rifles at the ready. Their efforts, however, were futile.

The nightstalkers - led by the despicable banshee that Ka’la had discovered inside Gorgon - simply ignored the cyphers and travelled along the neural links directly into the minds of the Asterians. For the nightstalkers it was a feast. Due to the strong connection between the Asterian pilots, they encountered none of the mental barriers they would normally have to overcome in order to overwhelm their foe. The souls of their victims were served on a platter.

Clade Burning Tide’s high council was simply too slow to realise the neural link was being used against them and failed to stop the tide of nightstalkers flowing through the void. Likewise, a chance discovery that the weaker neural link used to control marionettes seemed more resistant to the nightstalkers came too late in the fight against the invaders.

In the dying moments of the Clade, a remaining council member sent a message to the Tesseract - via an outpost on the edge of Asterian territory - warning them about this new menace and explaining the dangers of the neural link.

NEW FOES AND OLD ALLIES

Information from Clade Burning Tide sent shockwaves among the handful of council members in the Tesseract that were allowed to read the report. The threat of the nightstalkers was the greatest the Asterians had encountered since the spread of the plague. A menace that could be spread simply by careless whispers or nightmarish visions.

Even worse, the fact the Asterians were unable to use some of their greatest weapons against this new foe caused panic among the normally unflappable Tesseract. The nightstalkers threatened to tip the balance of the galactic scales once and for all.

Yet, in the darkest hours of the Asterians, it was an old ally that provided an opportunity. Unbeknownst to the Tesseract, as Clade Burning Tide fell, a trio of Asterians ignored the warnings of the council and used an escape pod. Unable to reach Asterian space, they navigated toward the nearest friendly planet: Neo Matsudo.

If the Matsudan were surprised to see this small contingent of Asterians, they didn’t show it. The refugees were welcomed with open arms and toothy smiles. But the smiles began to fade once the Matsudan heard the Asterians’ story and were kept awake by the screams of their guests in the dead of night. Instead of being scared by what they heard though, the Matsudan took the opportunity to prepare themselves for the inevitable arrival of the ethereal beings. Weapons were readied and rousing oaths to protect Neo Matsudo were chanted throughout the temples of each House. They were ready.

The nightstalkers crawled out of the void a week after the Asterians first arrived. The inashi guarding the guests were disturbed by an ear-piercing scream and ran into the Asterians’ quarters to find a dog-like beast with two heads stalking toward a terrified-looking Asterian. While singing the hymns and prayers of their ancestors, the inashi savagely cut down the creature, but unfortunately it was just the beginning.

A shimmering portal to the void had opened in another sleeping quarters and more nightstalkers were ambling through the rift in time and space. The inashi sounded the alarm, resulting in sekiwake and ozeki joining the fight. Alongside the inashi their rousing songs drowned out the growls and whispers of the invading nightstalkers, helping the Matsudan to drive them back into the void. While the Matsudan fought, the Asterians watched in amazement and their hearts were buoyed to see the bravery of their allies, who seemed immune to the nightmarish touch of the terrible creatures.

For another three nights the Matsudan faced the nightstalkers. During moments when it looked like they may be overwhelmed, the warriors would be joined by a gyoji priest who would hold aloft a ceremonial gunbai and bellow the traditional hymns of old Matsudo. The stirring songs of the gyoji would break the spell of the massing nightstalkers and encourage the Matsudan to fight more ferociously and with vigour. Even the Asterians seemed to heed the gyoji’s words and battled alongside their allies.

Then, on the fifth night: nothing. The Asterians slept soundly while the Matsudan stood guard, gently chanting to themselves. They had managed to sever the link between the surviving Asterians and the Void. The Matsudan had fought the nightstalkers and won.

Keen to redeem the name of Clade Burning Tide, the survivors contacted their home world and explained they had found a solution to the threat of the nightstalkers. The sense of honour and tradition among the Matsudan made them less likely to fall to the crooked whispers and tempting promises of the nightstalkers.

Sensing an opportunity to restore balance in their favour, the Tesseract contacted the great houses of Matsudan directly and asked them for help. Whereas before small strike teams of Matsudan had been used to disrupt corrupt corporations, now the Houses were asked to hold back the tide of nightstalkers.

The fight against the darkness had begun in earnest...

Background & Lore: Rob Burman