The interior of the heavy transport hauler was a cage of vibrating steel and uncomfortable silence. I sat on the rear bench and clutched my left arm to my chest. The field dressing was soaked through with a mixture of blood and the strange, oily residue from the Scorpio suit.Commander Vane sat directly across from me. She hadn't spoken a word since we left the Iron Grave. She just watched me. Her gaze was heavy and dissected every twitch of my face. She was looking for a crack in the mask. She was looking for the reason a janitor could move like a soldier and survive a fall that should have shattered his spine.Behind our vehicle, a flatbed truck carried the prize. The twisted and crystallized remains of the Scorpio Avatar. Even through the armored walls of the transport, I could feel its dead weight pressing against my mind. It was a silent hum that made the Apostate Drive in my arm itch beneath the bandages."We are five minutes out," the driver announced over the comms.Vane final

The morning after the Iron Grave operation the Academy was vibrating with a nervous and electric energy. It wasn't the usual pre-mission tension. It was something closer to hysteria. The capture of the "Scorpio Avatar" was the only topic of conversation in the sprawling complex.I sat in the back corner of the mess hall and nursed a cup of synthetic black coffee that tasted faintly of battery acid and burnt beans. Around me the room was a cacophony of rumors. Cadets from the assault squads were leaning over tables and trading theories with the excitement of children on a holiday."I heard it's a prototype," a cadet with a fresh scar on his cheek whispered to his table. "R&D finally cracked the Zodiac code. They say we're going to mass produce them.""Bull," another countered. "I heard it was a rogue unit. A demon warlord tried to hijack an old chassis and got slapped down by Commander Vane herself."I kept my head down. My left arm was encased in a heavy white plaster cast that went f

The silence in the hallway felt heavier than the blast doors I had just walked through. I clutched my left arm against my chest, feeling the heavy plaster cast vibrate. It wasn't the bone healing; it was the Apostate Drive. It was buzzing against my skin, agitated and hungry, sending phantom signals shooting up my nervous system.He is here, the sensation whispered. He is in the walls.I leaned against the cold metal of the corridor and pulled out my communicator. Randar’s text from minutes ago was still burning on the screen: Signal ghost in the Archive.I typed back with my thumb, my hand shaking slightly: On my way. Where?The reply came instantly: Sub-Level 4. Server Farm B. Don't use the elevator. The logic gates are acting funny."Great," I muttered, shoving the phone into my pocket. "Haunted elevators."I pushed off the wall and started walking. I tried to keep my limp consistent, favoring my left leg just enough to sell the injury from the Iron Grave, but it was getting harder

Gravity is a harsh mistress, but she’s predictable. War is not.I hit the scree slope rolling, the impact jarring my teeth. My shock-absorbing boots took the brunt of the fall, but my left arm—the one encased in plaster and secrets—slammed against a granite slab.Pain exploded. Not the dull ache of a healing bone, but the sharp, electric feedback of a system error.Hardware warning: Gyroscopic stabilizer offline. Recalibrating.The text scrolled across my vision in neon violet. I didn't have a HUD in my helmet. The HUD was in my optic nerve."Move!" Vane’s voice cut through the howling wind. "Secure the perimeter!"I scrambled to my feet. The drop zone was a slaughterhouse of geology. The shearing of the mountain peak had revealed the guts of the world—massive ribs of black metal jutting out from the grey stone, pulsing with a sick, purple rhythm.A swarm of Void-Stalkers poured out from the gaps in the machinery. These weren't the disorganized beasts from the Iron Grave. They moved i

The word "Self-Destruct" is usually a metaphor in mechanical engineering—a colorful way of saying the engine is about to seize. Here, in the belly of a mountain that had been hollowed out to serve as a cosmic battery, it was an instruction manual."Chase, what does 'void the warranty' mean?" Sylvia shouted over the roar of the rising magma."It means," I grunted, my hand still fused to the obsidian console, "that the mountain is about to become a crater, and we have approximately ninety seconds to not be in it."The Scorpio Avatar wasn't laughing anymore. The pillar of molten rock he stood upon wobbled as the terminal rerouted the geothermal flow. The violet glow in his eyes flickered, replaced by a frantic, jagged strobe. He realized what I’d done. I hadn't just locked him out; I had turned his own house into a furnace."You would kill your own kind for these... insects?" Scorpio roared, his voice cracking like breaking stone."I’m not your kind," I spat. "I’m the guy who fixes the t