Raze Anatomy (Leviathan)

"Raze Anatomy" is the twelfth and last episode of the second season of Leviathan: Distant Stars and the twenty-third episode in total.

## Summary

Back on Tsarin, the crew of the Bat'leth have a day to spend before they reach the Sinoso System. They talk, deal with Tylo's escape, get ready each in their own way. Ludwig tests his helmet on Xe'anna, and makes her revisit painful issues of trust.

Ary brings them to a meeting with their allies to combine their assault on a Raze scout heading for this system. They have brought several ships to provide distraction and help the Bat'leth evade the Raze's immune system-like defense systems to infiltrate it. Once inside, they'll have to rely on biological similarities between Raze ships to find their way to the brain.

The ship arrives: time to go on the Bat'leth and navigate a course inside, Xe'anna meandering her way casually from one cluster of allies to the next and Theea helping by disguising their signals. Three white blood cell-like drones like the ones they have already seen dismantle a fighter head in their direction. One gloms on to them and starts drilling into the ship. In the tense fight, Kika cuts power to the cargo bay, then to the left side of the ship, including the thrusters, thus causing a stroke to Oxana that thankfully doesn't break her core. The Bat'leth makes a sharp right and donuts in space. Kika restarts all the systems just before they destroy the last *space squid*. The Bat'leth drifts into the Raze's small, narrow docking bay without further incidents. They all suit up, Ludwig wears the helmet with his suit, and they exit the Bat'leth after a short conversation with Oxana.

They have to go through a membrane, then several sphincter-like doors, as they make their way toward the brain of the ship. Their progression is stopped at an intersection by a group of five Hollow led by a converted Andartan.

As Xe'anna prepares to fight, Ludwig resists Kika's suggestion that the two of them proceed with the mission on their own, but only after using his Oracle ability to get a glimpse of the grim consequences it would entail. Meanwhile, Theea manages to burst a vessel nearby and splash the Hollow, as well as Xe'anna with acid. Eventually the Hollow are vanquished and Xe'anna allows her *sister* to *rest now*.

The crew reach their destination without further incidents. A voice, *the* Voice, invites them in. It starts talking, explaining that *We are never welcomed, we take what we were not given because it should be ours*. Meanwhile, Ludwig connects with the helmet and, in an effort that makes veins in his eyes burst and his eyes turn red, manages to retrieve the maps he was after. Xe'anna keeps talking to the Voice, the conversation grows tenser as the Voice replies *Yours will be ours as well* to Xe'anna's *You have conjured your home*. Xe'anna counters: *We will defeat you*. Two crawlers approach, the Voice repeats *You are ours*. Fighting starts.

Using his *Sense the Need* ability, Ludwig pulls out a grenade *that he conveniently had on him*. The explosion it causes allows them to flee and return to the Bat'leth. Oxana takes control, the ship pilots itself away.

In the episode and season's epilogue, the Bat’leth tears through the battlefield and their remaining allies their the Raze scout ship apart.

## Notes

1. ↑ See the dedicated paragraph in The Raze.
2. ↑ See the dedicated paragraph in Hollow.
3. ↑ See the dedicated paragraph in The Raze.
4. ↑ See the dedicated paragraph in Ludwig Van Pelt.