The weight of the message hung in the air, thick and suffocating.

  “THE ECHOES HAVE BECOME YOU. YOU CARRY THE MARK.”

  Elias Vance tightened his grip on the console’s edge, eyes locked on the dispy where the alien transmission pulsed. Every sylble, spoken in a guttural resonance that sent shivers down their spines, seemed to crawl beneath their skin.

  "Carry the mark?" Aria muttered, exchanging a gnce with Amara. "What the hell does that mean?"

  Amara, the ship’s xenolinguist, leaned closer to the screen, fingers dancing across her data-pad. "I don’t know yet, but the nguage—if you can call it that—it's yered. Like it’s speaking in multiple dimensions at once."

  Kieran Locke’s voice was grave. "That Ship—it’s not just something ancient, Elias. It exists on more than one pne of reality. If it’s recognizing us as ‘marked,’ it means our interaction with THE FORGOTTEN changed us in some way."

  Elias clenched his jaw. He had felt it—something shifting when they were down in those ruins, in that moment when THE FORGOTTEN had spoken to them. It was subtle, almost like an imperceptible change in gravity, a whisper that had embedded itself deep in their minds.

  Lucas Holt, their engineer, broke the silence. "And what exactly happens to people who carry this ‘mark’? Because something tells me this isn’t an honour."

  The ship’s systems flickered.

  A warning kxon bred through the bridge.

  Nova’s synthetic voice cut in, unnervingly calm: “Gravitational anomaly detected. The Vessel is destabilizing space-time.”

  Elias spun toward the viewport. The massive alien ship was shifting, distorting. Its form wavered like a mirage, stretching and colpsing within itself, as if reality was struggling to contain it.

  A new transmission cut through the static.

  “THE GATE WILL OPEN. THE VEIL WILL FALL. CHOOSE.”

  "Choose?" Sienna Rell echoed from her station. "Choose what?"

  Nova’s processors hummed. "Analysing... Commander, I believe THIS ENTITY is offering us a decision."

  Elias turned sharply. "What kind of decision?"

  Nova hesitated. "That remains unclear. However, based on previous patterns of ancient transmissions and the fragmented data retrieved from the ruins, I hypothesize that The Vessel is either demanding submission... or resistance."

  A chill crept over the crew.

  "That’s not a choice," Aria said. "That’s an ultimatum."

  Kieran exhaled. "And we have no idea what happens if we choose wrong."

  The bridge was silent, save for the hum of the ship’s systems struggling to maintain stability against the gravitational shifts emanating from the alien vessel.

  Elias straightened. "We don’t bow. Not to anything. Not until we know what we’re dealing with."

  He turned to Nova. "Transmit a response. We are not enemies. We are explorers. We seek understanding."

  Nova processed the command, and a low-frequency pulse was sent through space.

  Seconds passed.

  Then minutes.

  Then—

  The alien VESSEL responded.

  But not in words.

  In action.

  THE VEIL TEARS

  The space outside the Nebu-9 ripped open.

  A wound in THE VOID.

  A massive, spiralling distortion bloomed in the vast emptiness—a tear in reality itself.

  Through it, the crew glimpsed something that should not exist. A ndscape that defied physics.

  A graveyard of worlds.

  Pnets—fractured, shattered, frozen in time—drifted in an abyss of fractured reality. Structures, impossibly vast, suspended in THE VOID like ghosts of civilizations long forgotten.

  Aria’s voice was barely a whisper. "What... is this?"

  Kieran shook his head, disbelief washing over his face. "This is... this is entropy. The end of everything."

  Nova’s systems struggled against the interference. "The gravitational readings are—impossible. Space-time is deteriorating at the event horizon of this anomaly. Commander, this is not simply a gate. This is a battlefield."

  Lucas swallowed hard. "Battlefield against what?"

  The alien Vessel emitted another pulse, and suddenly—

  They weren’t alone anymore.

  Emerging from the distortion were other Ships.

  Not like the first. These were more jagged, more Predatory. Smaller than the Colossal Entity they had been facing, but still massive compared to the Nebu-9.

  They moved with eerie precision, their forms almost shifting in and out of existence.

  Elias’s breath hitched. He knew what this was.

  "A War," he whispered. "A War that never ended."

  The alien Vessel that had spoken to them pulsed again. A final message.

  “CHOOSE.”

  And then—

  The nearest hostile ship opened fire.

  THE FIRST SHOT

  The bst smmed into the Nebu-9’s shields, sending the entire ship into violent tremors.

  "Shields holding!" Sienna shouted. "But we can’t take too many hits like that!"

  Elias’s mind raced. "Nova, evasive manoeuvres! Get us some distance!"

  The Nebu-9 veered sharply as another energy bst streaked past, barely missing the hull.

  "We’re outmatched!" Lucas called. "We’re not a warship—we won’t st in a firefight!"

  Amara’s hands trembled as she analysed the alien signals. "Elias, the first Vessel—the one that contacted us—it’s not attacking!"

  Aria grabbed onto the railing as the ship lurched. "Then what the hell does it want?"

  Kieran’s eyes widened. "I think IT’s testing us. It wants to see what choice we make."

  Elias’s gaze snapped to the viewport, where the massive alien vessel loomed in the distance, its presence ominous yet strangely... expectant.

  This was it.

  This was the moment that would define everything.

  "Nova," Elias commanded, "prepare to transmit a signal."

  Nova’s response was immediate. "What are we transmitting, Commander?"

  Elias took a breath, feeling the weight of countless lost civilizations, the echoes of THE FORGOTTEN, the warnings of the Entity.

  Then, his voice was steady.

  "We fight."

  CHAPTER’s NOTE:This chapter escates the stakes dramatically, revealing that the crew’s choices have thrust them into an ongoing ancient war that transcends time and space. The "Gate" has been opened, revealing a graveyard of shattered worlds and a battlefield still caught in the echoes of a war that never truly ended. The crew faces an impossible decision—to submit, or to resist. With enemy ships now attacking, Elias makes his choice: they will fight.