Interstellar Age

?Had Erich known that he was going to enter such a dangerous place upon leaping through time, then he would have prepared himself a proper suit of armor, and a weapon to match. In fact, right now, the man was basically dressed in nothing but his meditation clothing. Which wasn't exactly much.

Knowing that he was about to take a step into a highly dangerous environment, one that was filled with the unknown. Erich immediately hit the pause button on his journey, and dragged himself back to the present, where he was quickly met by Tia's voice, demanding a status report.

"Welcome back Master! How far did you get this time?"

Erich, however, was quick to dismiss his adorable Artificial Intelligence companion has fled the mediation chamber and entered the nearby armory.

"I haven't concluded the journey yet. Rather, I stumbled across something very important, but I can't continue without some proper equipment! Give me time!"

Erich entered his personal armor where he found a variety of armor and weapons to choose from. All of which was gilded in the same gold like coating his usual power armor was. However, Erich did not choose his power armor. Instead, he chose a black and gold slim fitting space suit. Where the hen equipped some light armor that protected his vitals against various weapons.

The light armor did not cover his entire body, but was made to protect the most vulnerable areas. In addition to this, he equipped personal shield generators and a proper stealth field generator. On his belt were a few med pens, and in addition to this he chose to use an energy pistol as his primary weapon.

The reason he wasn't going full Power Armor with a laser Gatling, or something crazy like that, was because every step he took with that armor would reveal his position. And when he was trying to remain invisible while tagging along with the boarding party, he very well couldn't let them know he was there.

After all, the Mk III Advanced Power Armor removed the Stealth capabilities of the previous inferior variation of the armor, as well as its atmospheric flight ability, in favor of significantly more protection and mobility. Which was excellent for the battlefield, but terrible for stealth missions like the one he was about to undertake.

Once Erich had fully outfitted himself with a set of equipment that was more commonly worn by civilian space farers than actual soldiers. He went back to his meditation chamber where he bade farewell to Tia before jumping back to his previous point in time, but not before activating the stealth field generator on his belt.

"I'll tell you all about what I saw the next time I return, Tia!"

Tia had just barely managed to scan a copy of Erich's memories before sending him off with a proper smile and a wave.

"See you in a second, master!"

Just like that, Erich was gone, at least for a single second, from Tia's perspective. As for the man himself, he was back on the ancient Elven shuttle, which was used to land aboard Daelia's stranded Exploration Vessel.

As if he had just hit un-pause on a video game, the people in the shuttle began to stack up at the doors, almost as if they were preparing for combat. After all, they really didn't know what they would see once they entered the hangar bay.

There were horror stories about the Maw that were unconfirmed, and the reason being, few people had ever returned from the Maw alive, and even fewer had returned with their sanity intact. Once the boarding party's commander gave the clearing, the doors to the shuttle were opened, and the fireteam activated their weapon lights.

Utter darkness persisted throughout the vessel, and like they had seen, the dark miasma from the Maw had seeped into the interior of the ship, making it difficult to see more than a foot in front of one's current position. Erich had his pistol drawn, but he did not activate its light. To do so would simply reveal that he was hiding among the boarding party.

Instead, he used his helmet's infrared settings to search for life signs. There was of course, those which belonged to the boarding party who advanced in front of him. But there did not appear to be anything else within visible range.

However, before Erich could activate his long range sensors, he was halted by a voice one that he was intimately familiar with. It did not speak out loud, but rather it was as if it was communicating with him telepathically.

"Go away! The Darkness! The Darkness consumes all! Go away!"

After saying this an ear-piercing shriek, the likes of which would come from a banshee, filled Erich's head, and evidently that of the boarding party as well, as they fell to their knees and covered their ears.

Unfortunately, one of the elves within the boarding party fell into the black ooze which was spreading rapidly across the floor of the vessel, and in doing so endured a horrific transformation. The black ooze spread across his flesh, almost like a swarm of ants devouring its prey.

And as it did so, it began to peel away the layers of his space suit, all while he screamed in fear at what was happening to him.

"No! Get away! Get this shit off of me!"

One of his comrades tried to help him, but the moment he touched the man, the dark ooze spread to his body as well. Because of this, the boarding party, and Erich, who was hidden from their sights, backed away slowly and cautiously.

In the end Erich was stunned by what he saw. After the two elves had writhed in agony on the floor, they stood up. But they were not standing as if they had regained their consciousness, rather they looked as if they were in a mindless trance, almost like that of zombies.

However, this was not the most noticeable change that had occurred to the two men. In fact, their very appearance had become dark and twisted. At least so far as Elven standards were concerned. The two men who had touched the black ooze of the maw were transformed into something else.

Their skin had become dark. But not a dark chocolatey brown like Erich was used to in the era he had come from. No, the flesh of these two elves had become black. One was a slightly lighter shade like that of charcoal, and the other was as black as the void itself. Meanwhile, their hair had turned silver, and their eyes were blood red.

These men had very clearly just been transformed into Dark Elves. But… They were not the Dark Elves which Erich was familiar with from his time. Nevertheless, they were very clearly Dark Elves, perhaps a more ancient and more pure form that Erich was simply unaware of.

And when Erich realized this, he began to understand the true origins of the Dark Elves. Daelia was indeed the first Dark Elf, or should he say that she and her crew were the first Dark Elves? Despite this very real fact, Erich still did not know how the woman and the rest of her kind transitioned from their original state into the form which he knew from his era.

Nevertheless, it was clear to Erich now that the Dark Elves become the way they were, because their progenitors were corrupted by the dark and mysterious energy of the maw. Something which Erich suspected had changed them on both a genetic and evolutionary level.