The bridge was a graveyard of shattered glass and bent steel. The deafening alarms finally died. The emergency backup batteries failed completely. The red lights faded into absolute dark. Only the soft blue glow of the remaining console screens illuminated the ruined room. Thorne stood in the center of the debris. His iron lung hissed loudly. The mechanical breath echoed off the cold walls. He looked down at his left arm. The cosmic iron was heavily scorched but intact. He was alive. "Status." Thorne ordered. His metallic voice sounded incredibly loud in the silence. Su Qing groaned. She pulled herself up from behind the shattered navigation console. Her hazard suit was torn. Blood dripped from a deep cut on her forehead. "Primary drives are gone." Su Qing coughed. "Secondary thrusters are melted. Life support is running on localized chemical scrubbers. We have maybe two hours of breathable air." Thorne looked at the black stone table. Zero lay motionless across the cracked an

Thorne fell through the blinding heat. The air turned into pure fire. The extreme temperature hit his organic right side immediately. His skin blistered perfectly inside his heavy hazard suit. He spun his heavy body in mid-air. He positioned his cosmic iron left side downward. He used his metal half as a heavy heat shield. He hit the obsidian rock shelf. The violent impact shattered the dark stone. His heavy iron legs absorbed the shock perfectly. He stood up. He was fifty feet from the massive lake of boiling orange magma. The seventy remaining Scrappers ignored him entirely. They reached into the white-hot liquid steel. They pulled the molten metal out and hammered it. They forged the second massive link of the cosmic iron chain. ... The Hydra. The Star-Eater felt the new heavy presence. The giant lake of orange fire shifted violently. The magma rose up. It formed a massive pillar of pure heat. The pillar split into five thick tendrils. They looked like giant flaming serpen

Thorne gripped the broken steel I-beam. His cosmic iron fingers dented the heavy metal. The fifty-foot wall of liquid fire loomed over him. The blinding light illuminated the entire subterranean cavern. The heat instantly vaporized the sweat on his organic face. He dragged his severely burned right leg backward. He anchored his heavy iron boots perfectly against the cracked obsidian floor. The wave crashed down. Thorne did not brace for impact. He stepped forward. He swung the massive steel beam. He swung it horizontally. He put the entire mechanical strength of his cosmic iron chest into the strike. "Physics Lesson 675." Zero whispered over the heavy radio static. "Fluid Displacement." The heavy steel beam hit the magma wave dead center. The sheer kinetic force of the swing broke the surface tension of the liquid fire. The incredible velocity created a massive physical wedge in the center of the wave. The liquid magma parted. The fifty-foot wall of fire split perfectly in ha

Thorne looked at the cracked datapad on the floor. He did not pick it up. He did not show fear. He was almost entirely metal now. A machine does not feel terror. It only calculates the next necessary action to ensure survival. "How much time do we have?" Thorne asked. His heavy mechanical lung hissed steadily. "I do not know." Zero stared at her pale hands. "The Glass Hammer explosion shattered local spacetime. The signal travels faster than light. The hunters could be a million lightyears away. Or they could be right outside the door." Thorne turned back to the massive medical bay window. He looked down at the ruined surface of Iron-Abacus. The ten thousand yellow diesel lifters were moving broken concrete. They were preparing to build civilian housing. "Su Qing." Thorne commanded. His voice echoed like cold steel. "Cancel all civilian reconstruction. We do not need houses." Elena Cross stepped forward. "General, the survivors have lived in deep subterranean bunkers for two yea

Thorne drifted through the vacuum for a split second before his magnetic stabilizers kicked back in, slamming his heavy boots onto a different section of the Silver Ring’s hull.Around him, the iron horizon was crawling.Millions of the faceless organisms—Su Qing had already dubbed them "Corroders"—were latched onto the Ring. They moved with a disturbing, insectoid twitch, their obsidian claws scraping against the cosmic iron. The sound didn't travel through the air, but the vibrations traveled through Thorne’s metal feet, a billion tiny, scratching voices screaming in his sensors.The nearest Corroder lunged. It was fast, propelled by a burst of pressurized gas from its rear vents.Thorne didn't flinch. He caught the creature mid-air with his cosmic iron right hand. The strength of his new limb was absolute. He squeezed. The bone-chitin armor of the creature shattered like dry glass, spraying thick, glowing green acid across his forearm.The acid hissed against the cosmic iron. The m