In Umbris Potestas Est
Toltec
Otherspace, The Void
In the aggressive campaigns of the Void Irregular Fleet at the command of Onrai, exploration teams had been sent to discover more of the bizarre alien realm that she and her legion of followers called home. These smaller fleet units, comprised mostly around a cruiser or smaller carrier and whatever surviving stealth fighters she was able to scrape together, had made a number of discoveries: the Charnel Worlds, home of abominable planets such as Diyu, Nephil, and Orgus, had only briefly been touched. The ancient shrines of Oozultharoum, Xanthiir, and Mezzallmech were within her reach, as was the ossuary-world of dead Yumar. Even the Citadel of Cykranosh was known to her.
Yet this discovery defied even much of what the souls aboard the aging Angral-class Star Destroyer Malgus had seen before.
The creation was unlike anything they had ever seen before. Traveling through the void, it had come upon them suddenly, their sensors overpowered by the presence of ethereal dark matter. So sudden was its approach that the Malgus had nearly collided with it and itself been claimed by the mire. While the ethereal stuff known to bound the universe together, and occasionally to have been used in arms and armaments, was not unheard of within a plane where the very fabric of reality was often torn, this was different. For whatever reason, by whatever nameless entity Onrai knew not, it was as though the ethereal material had congealed, coalescing within and around itself in ways that defied the boundaries of order and structure.
Many attempts had been made to remove the obstruction as a danger in space. Weapons fire had been directed against it from the turbolasers of the Star Destroyer, only to have no effect. Heavy ordnance, laden in the bomb bays of venerable Detritus-class bombers, likewise had nary an impact on the practical iceberg within the void. Whether it was the energies of the dark matter that absorbed or otherwise neutered their effectiveness, they were unsure, but even the collision of a Scrapmetal-class drone had done nothing - it had impacted, then utterly disappeared within the thrall of the undulating mass. The crew felt that there was as of yet no alternative were they to uncover the mystery behind such a construct, and thus, mass prayers and supplications were made to the twice-false goddess.
Prayers that were heard and answered.
Into the system, manifested from naught but will, was a platinum-scaled cube, easily the physical equal or superior to the old Angral in size. Nectar oozed between the plates as it traveled through the void of space, nary a visible form of propulsion within it. This manifestation of Onrai, a reflection of the dead-yet-living Ooradryl and his Kindred, was most appropriate, a form she had taken to that was more imposing than the shadowed humanoid who typically stood upon the bridge of the Ablution and gave commands as a leader would. Tendrils of flesh emerged from between the shifting scales, emerging and maneuvering around the dark matter, as though they were an animal examining a new form of entertainment provided for it. That, or perhaps a meal.
The tentacular appendages done observing whatever quantifications had occurred within the shattered persona and psyche of the once mortal being, one, then another, plunged themselves into the mass of dark matter. For but a moment, the great cube shuddered, as though it was perhaps pained or otherwise unfamiliar with the sensation it now experienced. Those peering through the windows of the bridge of the Malgus pondered - was this something that the one they had devoted themselves towards could not yet handle?
Time stood still for what seemed like an eternity before anything happened. The mass of dark matter began to grow smaller, as though it were an untouched dessert of ice and fruit melting under a smoldering summer sun. The consumption of this energy was strange to Onrai, an experience yet unlived, yet still she persisted, drawing more and more through the tendrils of her manifestation and into her omnipresent being. Yet within the mass, something peculiar was felt. The Scrapmetal drone began to slowly emerge from beneath the surface of the mass as it further shrank, drifting derelict into the void of space before being snared by a tractor beam and returned to the hangar of the Malgus with a sigh of relief from the commander of its fighter squadrons. Yet this was not the only irregularity to be found within the mass itself - there was something else. A frame. A body.
As the last of the ethereal flotsam disappeared, tentacles returned beneath the armored flesh of the cubic form of Onrai's manifestation, a shuttle flew towards the object. Yes, there was no mistaking it - a metallic body, humanoid enough, but inhuman enough to bely its mechanical nature. Recovery of whatever this being was soon became paramount, and it was taken to the hangar bay of the Malgus. The cube, its immediate needs satisfied, disappeared, as shadows stirred within the hangar and a much more humanoid shade was assembled before the crew, who gave it but a moment's respect before returning to their duties as the shuttle returned with its cargo.
The body of the droid was quickly taken from the ship and placed on a cart. Onrai's form looked down upon it with white eyes, milky color contrasting with the light-devouring blackness of her body's existence. Though the option yet remained to take the droid to a laboratory and wire in a terminal to try and reactivate the construct, she looked down upon its metallic form and decided simply to wait for a moment, to see if perhaps a sliver of life stirred within its battered shell.