Alarm

X pivoted the ship around, angling the rear hatch toward us, and we scrambled onboard, his hands already a blur on the controls as he powered the engines. The Liberator's tentacles shot up from the molten ground, stretching desperately toward us, their grotesque forms coiling and writhing like serpents hunting prey.

"Tao'er! Don't leave meee!" The Liberator's anguished scream echoed across the planet's surface, a sound twisted with equal parts malice and desperation, as if he couldn't bear the thought of letting her go. His voice carried a depraved sense of possessiveness, mingled with grief, each cry thick with a longing that bordered on madness.