Chaos' Heir

Khan's eyes shed light on that dark environment, generating countless twinkles. The underground chamber was more metal than rock, with debris from Nak's ships littering its every surface.

A bed of metal shards, large tiles, and destroyed hulls covered the chamber's bottom, creating a quasi-floor. Pieces of ships popped out of the walls and ceiling, stuck in that position for longer than centuries.

Other vehicles also rested on the makeshift metal floor, with many in relatively decent condition. That underground chamber seemed to have been the epicenter of an intense battle, and Khan now had the chance to study its aftermath.

"Thank you," Khan announced, turning toward one of the cavity's edges to perform a Niqols' bow.

The strange lifeform didn't reply, and Khan didn't wait for it. His gestures were slow, but he stepped off the cavity as soon as he straightened his back, gracefully walking through the air to reach the underground chamber's metal floor.

The Nak's call was more intense down there, and finding out why didn't take long. Khan walked toward one of the most intact ships, carefully climbing on its dark canopy to peek past one of its many cracks. A huge skeleton sat on what resembled a pilot's seat, and the three cavities on its skull revealed its origin.
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The cause of death was unclear. Some of the skeleton's ribs and spine were missing, but Khan couldn't see any weapon. The seat was mostly intact, too, but Khan quickly lost interest. He had already questioned Nak's corpses, so he looked for answers elsewhere.

The many cracks on the canopy weren't big enough for Khan, but his careful, glowing hands took care of that. He cut through the dark glass without letting anything spill inside the ship before jumping onto the bridge. Everything was dusty, old, and unfamiliar, but Khan only needed it to be relatively intact.

Khan spotted the same multitude of tubes seen in the previous debris. Those channels connected the sole seat in the bridge to various, unfamiliar equipment, seemingly stretching throughout the ship. It truly seemed the Nak used mana to control those vehicles, which posed an annoying problem.

As intact as that ship was, its insides remained relatively brittle. The damage sustained during the attack and the passage of time had ruined as much as they could, leaving Khan with nothing more than empty tubes.

Khan checked the tubes one by one, hoping to find something, but even those without apparent damage were empty, devoid of any lingering energy or fluid. He couldn't get anything from those seemingly important containers, so he switched targets.

The Nak's technology seemed to rely on mana heavily, but that energy left marks everywhere. Their ships also had to have something resembling consoles, logbooks, or storage units, which Khan's vehicle could probably study.

For starters, while human technology was an imitation of the Nak's, it also used the latter as its foundation, meaning it was slightly more advanced. Those improvements had probably gone in a more suitable direction for Khan's species, but the two remained connected, and he believed his ship could study its progenitors.

Also, Khan's ship was the best money could buy. It had actually yet to hit the general market when he had received it, and he had even filled it with all the tools he might need for the journey. It had advanced scanners and specific software that could complete the harsh task of retrieving information from those ancient vehicles.

Transportation was the main problem. As strong as Khan was, he couldn't lift a whole ship. His kicks might achieve better results, but all the grace in the world wouldn't leave the vehicle's already damaged insides unaffected.

Cutting the ship apart was a possible solution, but Khan would risk breaking something important, making the safer journey to the surface pointless. The unfamiliar technology made him hesitant to touch anything, causing an annoying headache.

Khan's current unknown location was another issue, albeit a minor one. That was easy to solve through his mana and some of his ship's trackers.

Then, there was the other thing, but Khan felt he had a few minutes before addressing it, and establishing a strategy before the possible clash sounded wiser.

Khan looked up while calculations happened in his mind. His glowing eyes pierced the ship's hull, reaching the underground chamber's rocky ceiling and stretching past it.

It wouldn't be easy, especially with Chuwei's more-than-occasional storms, but Khan could create a semi-open connection to the surface. Theoretically, he could move some of his ship's equipment down there, performing all the necessary investigations in the safety of the underground chamber.

That would solve many problems and open more possibilities. Establishing an underground lab would give Khan easier access to more samples, removing all the difficulties the current location and Chuwei's weather posed.

The issue there was the ship's integrity. Khan would have to remove far more than scanners from his ride. He needed the onboard computer to process the retrieved data, meaning bringing the mainframe down there or making many trips to the surface every time.

'It's too deep to establish a communication channel,' Khan considered. 'No antenna can survive the sandstorms, either. Still, touching the mainframe …'

Khan crossed his arms, rolling his eyes. He knew how to move the ship's mainframe, and his vehicle could offer as much guidance as possible. Yet, that process would be pretty delicate and advanced, and his relationship with technology had never been good.

'It's safer to travel to the surface every time,' Khan eventually concluded. 'Not because I'm bad with technology. It's safer that way, and I don't want to risk getting stranded ever again.'

Khan nodded in approval after thoroughly lying to himself and burying the topic in a dark corner of his mind. Still, a sad sigh escaped his throat before he peeked past his shoulder to look at the cracks in the dark canopy.

The strange lifeform had remained unresponsive after Khan left the cavity it created but didn't disappear. Moreover, more of those peculiar lumps of energy had approached the underground chamber, lingering on its surfaces and studying the foreign presence.

Khan hoped that the event was the result of simple curiosity. After all, those lifeforms couldn't get many visitors, especially not one as unique as himself.

However, the lifeforms' internal conflict was palpable, filling the underground chamber's symphony with their intense struggle. Khan wasn't dealing with stable creatures, so he let them do as they wished, but the situation seemed to have reached a critical point.

Khan crawled out of the ship before standing on its canopy. The cracked dark glass somehow didn't crumble under his weight, allowing him to inspect his surroundings. Many three-eyed circles had appeared everywhere, but the chamber's surfaces hid far more of them, and their intentions were unclear.

"If it's mercy you want," Khan announced, wearing a sad smile, "I'll give it to you. Just let me get what I need from here first. I won't be able to avenge your fate otherwise."