——— Dawn's End ———

Silghen roared as the tactical computer chirped; it had detected the opening of a wormhole near the planet hiding the Jeweller. His thin lips peeled back from his teeth as the preset program began altering the parameters of the wormhole, widening the aperture to accommodate his ship and move it's entry point to just before him. Barely even a nudge on the galactic scale, doing so still drained half his power reserves. As the milky white window in space dilated in front of the Dawn, Silghen activated one of his favorite weapons.

As the Dawn disappeared into the wormhole, multiple lights of dark purple flashed around it for the barest amount of time, even a quantum computer would have trouble registering them. Asteroids, wrecked ships,and comets sprang into being, all transfixed by golden spears. Silghen had summoned a dense field of previous conquests and defeated enemies to shield his exit. Among them a white hexagonal craft drifted.

——— On board the Aperio ——

"Was that one of our wormholes?" Captain Radamere Ivanovich asked from his combat seat.

"No, it appears to have originated from the first planet of the system, Hirst." responded a cool synthetic voice, "But it appears the enemy hijacked it for their own means."

"Thank you Izanagi. Get the fleet prepped for another wormhole jump."

The Captain sent away his orders, Izanagi whisked them away to the other AI and DP of the fleet to give to their own captains. Ixanagi would add additional commands for positioning data for jump. Radamere leaned forward, a dangerous smirk framed his face.

"It feels so good to finally be doing my job."

——— Hirst ———

Eli was flabbergasted. The Jeweller, the main religious figure of the Glint, was real and a sentient, sapient alien tree at that. He had watched as Saule, Riyn, Yors and Stuhkey had their standoff with the hologram, to yet further surprise when the hologram physically grabbed their weapons and crushed them.

Humanity didn't have any technology like that. Sure he could make holograms and light shows, but they couldn't interact with anything. To make a hologram dense enough to be able to touch and interact with physical objects was prohibitively energy intensive. It was monstrous how easily the Jeweller had dismissed that feat, then to summon a wormhole at a moment's thought? Eli had to restrain his code from allowing himself to simulate a tremble. He had no clue on what to do.

So he stepped forward.

In his best Lost In Space impression, he said, "Commander Saule, please return to the ship. This environment has not been scanned."

"Lifeforms detected, atmospheric reading unavailable. Please make a full survey." chirped the VOLD.OS program. The damn thing had come with him when he had copied himself to this body!

Commander Saule turned at Eli's voice, his ears swiveling, and eyes bright with panic.

"What are you doing here? You're supposed to be on the ship!" Saule stammered.

"What is that?" asked Rass Misiun.

The glittering lights from the tree's crown had coalesced to two points, one watching the display, the other focused solely on Eli. Before the Jeweller could say anything else, a great shudder and groan passed through the room. Lights flashed a painful white, and a smell of citrus wafted in.

"My little gems, I recommend you return to your ship, leave that… thing here however. The Tharg has rammed their ship into my scrying array. I shall have to deal with it personally. It's a shame the fleet of savages couldn't deal with it."

——— Dawn's End, Hirst ———

Silghen's four eyes narrowed as he took stock of his ship. The wormhole hadn't been one of the Human’s, but the foul Jeweller that resided here. It had deposited him and his ship in a large sealed vacuum chamber just below the planet's crust. It had crippled the Dawn's End, and destroyed the chamber. Hot air flooded the chamber, and even into the ship, smelling of sun broiled soil and a tang of rust.

Extricating himself from the commander center, Silghen crawled to the nearest transit tunnel. He made his way through the normally comfortable tight spaces quickly, not knowing how much damage the Dawn's End had suffered. He quickly entered his personal cabin and began to gather what he needed. Killing a Jeweller in person wasn't what he'd expected or planned but it would be satisfying nonetheless. A few passages had been crushed or too compromised for Silghen to traverse, but after a few drips he made it to his quarters.

The Captain's quarters were a spacious affair styled after the cavern mansions of his homeworld. What would have been a pleasant pool of warm water had been drained for combat, and the crevices that held his gear had their lids ejected when the _Dawn_ had crashed through the wormhole. The armor and weapons were still held fast in the stands and braces for them.

The armor was first, Silghen unraveled the once grown carapace armor that had hardened through countless year of care and maintenance into something akin to ceramic steel. He locked it in place over his flight suit, the segments protecting the majority of his torso's length in a dark deep sea blue, over the pale green of the flight suit. He took only one rifle from the locker, but four large daggers. The rifle was a hefty thing, requiring three of his arms to use properly, and fired an iron shell holding a vial of the strongest acid it could hold without corroding the vial. That shell was fired by three symmetrical rails of electromagnets. It's sleek but heavy design folded in several places to be sling over Silghen's back. Eight extra shells found their way to pouches on the rearmost of Silghen's six legs.

The brace of four daggers were a stark contrast to the rifle's utilitarian design. Each was about half the length of a forearm and ornately designed with depictions of mountains and stars on the wide blades. The edges tapered to a near monomolecular edge. Each was housed in a black sheath around each of his forward four legs. These daggers had been made specifically to kill a Guo'Saphyrn in person, capable of cutting the silica based bark to reach the fragile innards.

As Silghen finished outfitting himself, the emergency power came on. A thin grey light lit the room, and a terminal near the access tunnel displayed a safe path to exit the ship. Silghen slipped into the tunnels once again, with a cruel expression in his red eyes. It was time to kill a Jeweller.