"Dump that thing, Kade, it’s drawing subspace filth to us!" The static-laced roar of his scavenger crew leader blared from the comms📻, but Kade only tightened his grip on the cobalt-blue piercer at his hip. He’d pried it from the ruins of the Empire’s abandoned "Abyss Experiment Site"; the hollowed grooves along its blade looked like ancient runes, glowing with a faint blue hue in the dark🔵. Three days prior, their convoy had been ambushed by Void Predators in the Edge Systems🛸—his teammates’ armor had been torn apart by the predators’ tendrils, but Kade survived thanks to this knife: when a tendril coiled around his wrist, the piercer suddenly unleashed a subspace energy wave, shattering the predator into fragments💥. But since that day, a dark pattern identical to the blade’s grooves had emerged on his wrist, creeping up his forearm every hour🔮. The comms went silent, replaced by a low whisper from the subspace, matching the hum seeping from the piercer’s grooves🔊. Kade looked up at the viewport, where stardust was eerily coalescing into the shape of his blade. He smiled, drew the piercer, and pushed open the airlock door🚪—maybe he hadn’t been the scavenger who found the knife, but rather, the vessel it had chosen🤯.