[= Data Link Restored... =]

  [= Location Data Initialized =]

  **Nivara**

  Unknown Lab Facility, Thalasson Expanse

  **Standard Galactic Date**: 2739, Cycle 07

  **Local Time**: 12:52 Nivaran Standard

  [= Restricted Data: Clearance Required =]

  Bound to the wall, bruised, blood trickling from a cut on her forehead, Astra's breaths came shallow but steady. Her head hung forward, hair matted with blood, her usually fierce eyes half-lidded and struggling to stay open.

  “Astra,” I said, my voice rough as I crossed the room and knelt beside her. I touched her cheek gently.

  Her eyes fluttered. Recognition flickered behind the fog. “Corvus…?” she rasped, barely above a whisper.

  “It’s me,” I said, tearing the restraints from her wrists and catching her before she collapsed. I held her close, her body trembling in my arms, limp with exhaustion. “I’ve got you.”

  “Your eye…” Her voice cracked. Her hand, trembling, reached up as if to touch it, but stopped midway. “What did they do to you…?”

  “Don’t worry about it, I’m fine.”

  She murmured something, too quiet to hear, as she sank against me, her head resting on my shoulder. I could feel the tremor in her body, the exhaustion, the pain she’d endured.

  “Let’s get her out of here before I tear this place apart.”

  Yuki nodded, stepping aside as I carried Astra out, her head resting against my chest, her breaths steady but weak.

  Cradling Astra against my chest, Yuki moved ahead, pistol raised, checking corners as we backtracked through the corridor.

  The alarms hadn’t stopped. If anything, they’d grown louder. Angrier.

  “WARNING: Core containment at 93%. All non-essential personnel evacuate immediately. Sublevel incineration protocol primed.”

  Red lights pulsed across the walls, casting everything in emergency glow. The air trembled with the hum of failing machines and distant howls. Somewhere above, another blast shook the facility.

  Yuki paused at a T-junction and pointed left. “That leads to the main lift,” she said, glancing at a half-fried schematic flickering on a wall screen. “If it still works, we can reach the surface access point.”

  I started to follow Yuki left... then caught sight of the markings on the wall.

  Stenciled in bold red were three blocky Republic glyphs. Beneath them, a translation in Standard:

  CORE ACCESS – AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY.

  Yuki turned back, frowning. “That’s not the way out.”

  “No,” I said, staring at the lettering. “It’s the power core.”

  She looked from me to the door. “We don’t have time—”

  “I’m not leaving this place standing.”

  I shifted Astra carefully into her arms. She was barely conscious, head lolling against Yuki’s shoulder. Her fingers instinctively gripped the fabric of my jacket, and her lips moved, the words cracked and thin.

  “No… don’t leave me again…”

  “I’m not,” I said, steadying her. “But I need you to trust me. Take her to the lift. There’s a staircase right next to it. I’ll take that.”

  Astra gave the faintest nod before slipping back into the haze. Yuki stared at me, arms tightening around Astra.

  “You better not die down here.”

  I smirked faintly. “Not my style.”

  Yuki turned and made for the lift.

  I turned to the door, the touchpad showed *LOCKED*, with no other option I once again I made a fist, metal shrieked as it twisted inward under my psionic grip. I tore it from the hinges, flung it behind me, and stepped into the core.

  The room was massive. Circular. Walls lined with glowing conduits and coolant tubes pulsing with pale blue light. The center held a towering crystalline reactor suspended in anti-grav harnesses, humming with power I could taste. The air felt charged, every breath tingling like static.

  I approached the main console, flicking through the holographic displays. Diagrams. Thermal data. System readouts in a dozen languages.

  I frowned.

  “Okay, how the hell do people do this in movies?”

  I jabbed at a few keys. Nothing made sense. Just status logs and access errors. Was there a button labeled explode facility? Of course not.

  I fumbled around for another ten minutes, until I gave up.

  They’d be topside by now.

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  “Hell with it.”

  I raised my hand, feeling the Verum ignite beneath my skin. A surge of light and energy crackled across my arm, and with a flick of my wrist, a bolt of lightning slammed into the core’s containment field.

  The impact shook the entire room.

  Displays flickered. The reactor’s glow shifted from blue to red. Warning glyphs flared across the walls.

  WARNING: CORE OVERLOAD INITIATED

  Perfect.

  The lights overhead pulsed in sync with the countdown. Alarms screamed down every corridor. Holo-screens showed emergency readouts, containment breaches, system collapse, creatures escaping into the facility unchecked.

  I turned and ran, heading back toward the elevator.

  The door slid open with a soft ding. Empty. No bodies. No scorch marks.

  Good. They must’ve made it.

  Still not taking chances.

  I yanked the stairwell door open and nearly slammed it shut again.

  Something was sitting on the landing.

  Small. Furry. Black.

  A cat?

  It blinked up at me with molten amber eyes. A faint ember-shaped marking pulsed on its back. The same kind of eyes Nyx had when she was serious.

  It hissed softly, then blinked two feet from me, like it had teleported.

  “Hey, little guy…” I muttered, crouching slightly. “You from that weird room with the bloody paw prints?”

  The creature nodded.

  I blinked.

  “You understand me?”

  It nodded again and swiped the air playfully, almost smug.

  “Well shit. If that’s the case…” I scooped it up under one arm. “You’re coming with me. This place is about to blow, and I know a girl that would love you.”

  It purred once and settled against my chest like it owned the place.

  I hit the stairs running.

  I reached the top of the stairs, lungs burning.

  Yuki and Astra were waiting there.

  I stopped, eyes narrowing. “I told you to get to the surface.”

  Yuki gave a shrug, completely unapologetic. “Figured you’d need backup.”

  Then her eyes dropped to the black cat tucked under my arm. “Wow. You got a pet.”

  I nodded. “For Nyx.”

  She raised an eyebrow. “What about the core?”

  The facility answered for me.

  WARNING: CORE MELTDOWN IN PROGRESS. EVACUATE IMMEDIATELY

  Yuki nodded once. “Oh.”

  “Let’s go.”

  I grabbed Astra from her arms. She stirred weakly, eyes fluttering, head pressing against my shoulder as I cradled her close, the cat on my other shoulder.

  We turned the corner. The exit came into view finally. Behind us, the sound of tearing steel and shattering glass grew louder. The whole lab was giving out. The pressure of the overload was starting to buckle the structure.

  The exterior blast doors loomed ahead.

  Yuki sprinted forward, slamming a fist into the emergency release. The panels groaned and slid open just enough for us to squeeze through. Cold slammed into us like a freight train, sharp and clean after the rot and heat of the lab.

  Outside.

  Frozen ground. Empty sky. Endless white stretching to the horizon.

  Astra stirred again, voice already shivering. “Where… where are we?”

  “Nivara,” Yuki said, pulling her coat tighter. “A lovely little ice planet in the middle of nowhere.”

  “Yes, quite lovely.” I said, watching the snow whip across the barren ice field, swirling in sheets as we stood on the cracked landing platform, surrounded by frost, silence, and ash.

  “Well… we need a ship,” I muttered. “There’s nothing out here, and it’s freezing.”

  “It’s fine,” Yuki said, tapping her comm. “I already pinged Ares. He’s en route. Zara and Nyx are with him. Should be any minute now.”

  The facility behind us was collapsing in on itself, guttural groans rising from the ice as molten fire belched from the ruins, geysers of steam tearing upward. Chunks of metal and concrete rained from above like hell’s own hailstorm.

  “Hope they hurry,” I said. “The whole place looks like it might drop into the shelf.”

  A second later, the wind changed to a thunderous whine as the Valkyrion sliced through the stormclouds, descending fast with engines flaring blue. The wings folded back, retro-thrusters engaging as the landing gear extended and skidded against the ice cracked platform.

  The ramp lowered, lights flickering beneath the hull.

  “Another successful mission,” I said flatly, watching the carnage burn.

  “With absolutely no hardship at all,” Yuki said dryly, managing the faintest smirk.

  "Hey," I said, glancing at her, “we lived. Got Astra. Made it out with all our limbs still intact, but the bastard still got his hands on your memory shard. Who knows what he’s planning to do with it.”

  Yuki reached into her jacket and held up a small shard between two fingers, glinting faintly in the moonlight. “Not quite. I swapped it. What he’s got… is trash data.”

  I blinked, surprised. “You… while I was out?”

  She nodded, pride flickering in her eyes. “The scientists thought your memory might hold the secret to stabilizing Verum. The way the doctor pushed your evolution… well, they were hoping it was hidden in your memories. But I wasn’t about to give them that edge.”

  “What about the ichor?” I asked. “Why harvest all of it from my blood?”

  Yuki’s voice darkened. “Because it’s divine. At least… that’s what they think. They were trying to replicate it. A whole army of you. Or worse.”

  I said nothing. Just stared at the smoldering hole in the snow where the lab used to be. I’d only chosen Eidolon for the aesthetic, the edge in combat. But this… this was something else. It was the same game with a deeper lore that made no sense to me.

  I shifted my weight. Astra stirred slightly in my arms, clinging to my bloodied hospital gown like I’d disappear again if she blinked.

  Yuki’s voice cut in softly. “Come on, Commander. Time to get you two out of the cold.”

  The abominations I’d set free were emerging from the craters and broken tunnels behind us. Dozens of them. Mutated limbs, burning eyes, shuddering breath. They wanted off this planet too and they’d tear through us if it meant a ride.

  The little black cat on my shoulder hissed, then leapt down and bounded up the ramp of the Valkyrion, tail flicking like a flame behind it.

  From inside, I heard a delighted squeal. “Kitty?! Oh my god, look at it!” Nyx shouted. “He’s perfect!”

  Zara stood behind her, silent at first, then her eyes landed on me. Or rather, on Astra in my arms. For a moment, her composure slipped. Her lips parted, breath caught, and she stepped forward without thinking. Her twin was alive.

  “Astra…” Zara said under her breath, running down to meet us.

  Zara’s arms wrapped around her instinctively, then gave me a look, full of gratitude she didn’t need to speak aloud.

  Ares’ voice boomed from the Valkyrion’s external speakers. “Multiple hostiles inbound. Six o’clock. Engaging.”

  The rear cannons came alive in a burst of heat and light. Controlled plasma fire stitched across the snowfield, melting ice and vaporizing the first wave of monstrosities. Each impact lit up the dark like a miniature sun. Limbs flew. Craters formed.

  And still, they came.

  Yuki was already halfway up the ramp. Nyx dragged Zara and her new cat inside, guiding her forward with one hand on her back. Astra stirred weakly between them, barely conscious, her head sagging onto Zara’s shoulder.

  Yuki paused, looking back at me.

  I gave her a sharp nod.

  Go.

  She vanished inside without another word.

  I turned to face the swarm and grabbed a support strut near the edge of the ramp. Just in time.

  The closest creature lunged.

  I caught it mid-air with one hand and flung it back like a rock into the pack behind it, bone cracking on impact. Ares adjusted his aim, targeting the opening. Another burst of plasma lit up the rear line, scattering their ranks, but it wasn’t going to be enough.

  Energy danced at my fingertips—just static at first, the usual surge building as I concentrated.

  But when I released it, the lightning wasn’t white.

  It was gold.

  Bright as ichor, alive and searing.

  It ripped through the horde like liquid judgment, chaining from one target to the next crackling across the frozen field surrounding the destroyed facility. Screams echoed, then faded beneath the sound of melting flesh and breaking ice.

  The last of them dropped as the ramp began to rise.

  I turned, the ramp closed behind me, and stepped through the pressure-sealed cabin door, shutting out the chaos behind me.