‎Chapter 1: Scavenger's Fall‎‎The air on Zorath Prime hung thick with the stench of decay. Dex Taylor crouched behind a crumbled wall of what used to be a towering arcology. His breath came in short bursts through the filter mask strapped to his face. Void spores floated in the dim light like deadly snowflakes. One wrong inhale and you were done. Turned into one of those clicking horrors that shambled through the ruins.‎‎Dex gripped his makeshift plasma cutter tight. It was a jury-rigged piece of junk. Salvaged from a crashed freighter last month. But it had saved his skin more times than he could count. He was a Nullborn. No magic flowing through his veins like the elite Hex-Engineers up in their orbital stations. Just wits, grit, and whatever tech he could scrounge.‎‎The planet was off-limits for a reason. The Convergence had hit here hard centuries ago. Magic and AI tech slammed together in some cosmic accident. Now the place was a graveyard of fused horrors. Bio-machines tha

‎Chapter 3: Shadows in the Black Market‎‎The Nomad emerged from hyperspace on the edge of the Fringe Belt, a sprawling zone of asteroid stations, pirate havens, and black-market hubs that even the biggest corporations avoided unless they had overwhelming firepower. Nexus Station had been chaotic. This place, called Shadow Drift, made Nexus look like a polite tea party.‎‎Dex cut the engines to idle. The ship drifted among the debris field. Scans showed dozens of docked vessels. Most were patched-together wrecks. A few looked like they could still fight.‎‎Lira leaned over the console. "Shadow Drift. You sure about this?"‎‎"We need upgrades," Dex said. "The hammer is strong, but the armor is still street-grade. And we need intel on what the hell an Eclipse Core really is."‎‎Lira tapped the master core they had taken from the forge-world. It sat in a containment field on the workbench. "This thing is singing to your Core like a siren. If we integrate it, you might jump tiers ove

‎Chapter 5: The Price of Power‎‎The Nomad limped away from Vespera Station, engines running hot after the emergency jump. Dex sat in the pilot chair, knuckles white on the controls. His armor was scorched in places where Nova's casual shove had sent him through steel and crystal. The nanites were already repairing, but the ache in his ribs lingered.‎‎Corruption sat at 38%. Stable, but high. Every heartbeat felt like a warning.‎‎Lira paced behind him, boots echoing on the metal floor. She had not spoken since they broke dock. Finally, she stopped.‎‎"That was her. The Apex Echo."‎‎"Yeah."‎‎"She didn't even try. She could have ripped the Core out of your chest and walked away."‎‎Dex kept his eyes on the starfield. "She wants me to grow first. Test me. Break me. Whatever the prophecy bullshit says."‎‎Lira came around to face him. "And you're going to play her game?"‎‎"No choice. She's miles ahead. If I don't close the gap, I'm dead the next time she decides the test is o