The shattered sky hung above them like a broken mirror. Millions of different worlds shined through the jagged cracks. Commander Oliver stood at the edge of the high cliff. He looked down at the deep gray valley. Far below, the massive Apex Spire pierced the sky. At the base of the dark tower, the Supreme Admiral fought alone on the wing of a crashed ship. "We must reach the valley floor," Oliver stated. His voice was smooth and cold. "The Admiral is a valuable asset. He is holding the front gate.""Commander, the path down is completely destroyed," General Vega said. She pointed at the steep, rocky slope. "And there are glowing purple cracks in the ground. The magic is twisting the earth."Oliver looked at the glowing cracks. They were rift anomalies. Space and time were broken in those spots. If the human soldiers walked into them, they would be ripped apart. "I will scout the path," Oliver ordered cleanly. "Sergeant Miller. Hold the army here. Do not move until I signal."Oliver

The giant, corrupted clone pointed its dark metal finger at Commander Oliver. "Come down here and die," the monster’s voice boomed across the ash-covered valley. Oliver did not step out from behind the broken concrete pillar. He did not yell back. He crouched down in the gray dirt. His cold, human left eye and his burning red right eye looked at his terrified squad. General Vega, Sergeant Miller, and the two privates were breathing hard. They had thrown their helmets away. Their heavy plasma rifles were dead, locked by the infected computer network. Billy the hacker held his knees, shaking violently. Captain Iris leaned against the rubble, her face pale. "Commander," Sergeant Miller whispered. His voice was hoarse. "We have no guns. The armor is dead. That giant monster is coming for us.""We will not fight him with empty guns," Oliver stated cleanly. His metallic voice was calm and steady. "I must understand how the Overlord turned our weapons against us. I must find the source o

The red cannons on the giant human warship glowed like a hundred angry suns. High in the dark sky, the corrupted destroyer prepared to fire. The giant, evil clone of Commander Oliver stood in the mud, laughing. "Burn them!" the Overlord’s voice roared from the clone's mouth. General Vega closed her eyes. Sergeant Miller shielded the civilians. There was nowhere to run. The cliff behind them dropped into a bottomless gorge. The bleeding, fleshy ground around them offered no cover. Commander Oliver did not close his eyes. He did not freeze. His cold, gray human eye and his burning red Wraithborn eye looked straight down at the ground. He had not picked this cliff by accident. His upgraded Echo Sense had seen what was buried under the dirt. [Variable A: The enemy will fire in exactly two seconds.][Variable B: Directly beneath my boots is ten feet of rock, followed by an ancient, hollow chamber.]&n

The dust floated up from the floor. The heavy metal bullets flew backward out of the walls and returned to the barrels of the guns. Commander Oliver stood in the giant, clock-like room inside the Protocol-Spire. He watched time run in reverse. Sitting in the center of the room, the little boy with pitch-black eyes turned a massive golden wheel. The Overlord’s child-avatar smiled a cold, evil smile. As the wheel turned backward, reality broke. Oliver felt a strange, cold emptiness inside his head. He forgot how he got to the room. He forgot the layout of the tunnels. The child was not just rewinding the physical world. He was erasing Oliver’s memories. His cold, mechanical mind processed the danger instantly. If the golden wheel turned for three more minutes, Oliver would forget how to hold a knife. If it turned for five minutes, he would forget how to breathe. Standard weapons were useless against time. He needed a weap

The giant glass mirror showed the terrifying truth. Commander Oliver stared at the reflection. The young man standing behind him looked exactly like Billy the hacker. He wore Billy’s dirty green shirt. He held Billy’s cracked computer tablet. But in the mirror, the young man’s eyes were not human. They burned with a bright, evil red fire. He was a clone. A shapeshifting monster sent by the Overlord. Oliver did not spin around quickly. He did not yell a warning. He slowly tightened his human left hand around his titanium combat knife. His supercomputer brain planned the perfect, silent strike. But before Oliver could move his knife, the dark space around them exploded with light. It did not come from the mirror. It came from the armor of every human soldier on the platform. Loud, piercing alarms buzzed inside their helmets. A mechanical voice spoke directly into their ears. It was the