Space Engineers, Aurus' secret: locked door? Skip the door.

The High Admiral walked about the outpost, no, his outpost. Very pleased about the forthcoming ordeal. He was about to make history in a matter of hours. Suddenly a young man by the looks of being 18 years of age. His uniform clearly depicted that he was a messenger of sorts. The boy looked out of breath and worried. He was bent over heaving for breath, his hands on his knees.

"What ist message boy?" The spider-like man questioned, his voice edgy with excitement and anticipation.

"Th MSB... It... was defeated... Admiral V'dam... Has turned..." The boy ran out of breath and collapsed on the floor exhausted. The high admiral took a moment to process this. Thought about it, then continued to refresh the boy for a return message.

"Go to the terminal and tell the first officer that V'dam may go, he possesses no vital information to us now. We are too close." He said this in a very official manner that masked his sudden wariness of the situation. 

He watched the boy walk out of the outpost,

Admiral V'dam had turned, betrayed us even. Therefore he must leave, he is not worth it to us anymore. He thought a strange feeling in his gut ignited.

But he had the suspicion that this wouldn't be the last time he would hear about V'dam. The danger and problems that could come out of this, couldn't be good. 

No information could be as important as the safety of everyone. He was only important to them at the beginning of the plan. He was no longer needed, V'dam could be slaughtered for all he cared. All he cared about was reaching their end goal, He would get there eventually. They were already so close, too close to turn back if something went wrong. 

If something indeed did go wrong, The High Admiral would rather perish than turn back.  The High Admiral walked off excited but upset at the same time. His most prized fleet had been reduced to debris in a matter of minutes. This was gravely concerning. He may have to alert Lord Nightmare.

      V'dam stood defeated in the corner. He knew why the crew of this ship didn't like him. There was what he recognized as a demimon standing in the corner opposite him, waiting, daring him to make a move. V'dam swallowed nervously. He turned and watched as they entered the atmosphere. there was a green blip on the holographic map that symbolized Lucy's ship. It glided towards the blue projection of the planet Aurus. A sunken feeling settled below V'dam's chest. He almost felt sick. As V'dam looked out of the front, plastisteal window, a small detail caught his eye, a small, shiny grey blip, rounding on them from its orbit above the earth-like planet. 

"Oh no... GO! GO FASTER!!! GO!!!" V'dam screamed. Everyone turned around in alarm, the demimon in the far corner put its gun to V'dam's head. 

"Look!" He pointed at the grey shine in the distance.

"V'dam, what the hell is that?" August looked at V'dam angrily but with a hint of pleading.

"It's an E.M.P. Ion satellite, they shut down all electronic systems and kill all batteries and shields that are caught within its A.O.E.! GO, Are you mad? We'll all be destroyed if that thing gets us!" V'dam was beginning to lose his mind, he was struggling to think straight, and struggling to keep a grip on his emotions. He shook his head and rubbed his forehead.

"I apologize, that was out of line and out of character. But with all due respect, we need to get moving before we get hit, or else we could all end up joining the PirateX in their firey graves." August frowned dramatically and nodded at the reformed admiral. 

The High Admiral's scuttled him towards his private chambers. He looked up at the battle that had ensued. They're winning, but not for long. The High Admiral's thoughts reverberated inside his head like a cathedral. He crawled into his chambers, his back erect and stiff, trying to stay formal. As he entered the deep red room, the bright lights dimmed low, and a glowing blue projection of an ominous-looking man in black robes and an overshadowed face fizzled to life in the middle of the room, taller than the Arachnian that stood before him. The projection spoke, slightly fuzzy and unclear, but understandable, deep and foreboding, dramatic, cold, crisp, and calm, as if he were a player at some gentlemen's chess tournament, but also, unnatural. 

"How far along is the operation, Karkerus." The figure said the name slowly, intentionally as if to make certain The High Admiral heard it. And Karkerus had heard it, he had understood it. It angered him that his superior had used his name, but this is what he wants, Lord Nightmare draws pleasure from the annoyance and angering of others.

"The Operation, is going well, we encountered an unprecedented obstacle, but we are quickly making progress on getting through," Karkerus told him in a higher, more gravelly, and raspy voice, his natural voice.

"I see you put in a requisition for a 'large-scale-molecular-phase-device'. I do not know what that means, but I know what it does. It's highly unstable. Karkerus, you're playing a dangerous move putting this thing, so close to our objective."  Karkerus slowly became slightly hunch-backed and his uniform tore at the points and corners of his sharp exoskeleton and fell off. 

"I am tired of pretending. I'm tired of trickery. Let me go after the boy, if we have him, we can develop the immunity now." The High Admiral began to slowly crawl around in a circle around Lord Nightmare's projection, his fractal, almost robotic-looking hands and arms hovered a few inches above the ground, his back bending his head lower to the ground. Karkerus' natural hunter body was going back to its natural posture.

"NO! The boy cannot know his own value. Knowing him he will then be more protected, and he will run off and hide. No, we need him to come to us, or else risk being overpowered by the Omphen. I permit you to no longer pretend to be the ruthless admiral everyone knows you to be. You may go back to your natural hunter state." Karkerus made a high-pitched, rattly clicking sound, expressing his relief.

"Get the boy, his genetic immunity will profit us greatly. Release the omphen. Go, Karkerus, finish the job." Karkerus turned his head towards the projection and let out a raspy growl and then crawled away, out the door and towards the command center as the lights in his room returned to their natural bright yellow. 

Passing officers and mine workers stared as High Admiral Karkerus crawled with his spider-like legs very quickly down the hallway, his body and arms low to the ground like a feral predator, his yellow eyes with black slits down the middle darting all over the place, taking in all of the details. His slightly reflective black exoskeleton ratling in his motions. He entered the command center and came within inches of an officer at his console who jumped and backed against his chair as it swiveled to face the natural predator that stood before him, his rattly breath, his sharp armored teeth, within inches of the terrified man's face.

"You. Activate the scorpion. Now." His raspy, ratling voice surprised all, even more so than his unnatural behavior. No one had ever seen him like this, Lord nightmare had selected him from his rocky desert planet home of Makan Rahib. The officer in front of The High Admiral turned slowly, sweating a little, and pressed a few buttons and typed a few command codes and beep of confirmation showed a satellite activated and a small green marker moving from around the planet, towards the raging battle.

"Send a signal to all forces, ALL OF THEM! Kill every enemy force, but bring THAT one to ME!" Karkerus pointed to a specific red dot in a cluster of enemy markers, and it became a red star. Karkerus turned and clawed his way onto the ceiling his legs statically clinging to the surface as he ran as best an arachnian could towards the observation deck.

"Everyone dive! Dive! Dive!" August yelled as he looked up at the fleet he was commanding, collectively, they turned toward the planet and accelerated towards the planet's surface. August's mind was racing. He needed to get everyone away from the satellite or else be destroyed or captured.