The collector pulled the trigger.I didn't think, I didn't calculate the odds. My brain just screamed ‘move’. I threw my body forward, dragging my heavy limbs through the air. The world slowed down. I saw the muzzle flash. A sphere of white-hot plasma began to bloom from the end of the barrel. It was an inch from Nyxra’s face.I shoved my hand into the path of the bolt. The heat was unlike anything I had felt in the lower layers. It wasn't just a burn, it was an erasure. The plasma ate through my alloy skin instantly, screaming as it hit the core layers of my hand. I felt the metal liquefy. I felt the sensors in my palm melt into slag.I didn't scream. I didn't have the breath for it. Nyxra shrieked as I shoved her backward. I closed my fist around the dying bolt of heat. It hissed and popped against my raw internal circuitry."Vaxien!" Zeryth yelled. He was on his feet, stumbling forward."Don't move!" The collector shouted, but his voice had lost that bored edge. He stared at my s

We didn’t stay to watch the billboard.“Run,” I said. The word was barely out of my mouth before the first pulse-round hissed past my ear. The gray fog above the dock swarmed with flickering lights and the roar of small, fast engines. Bounty hunters. They were coming for the ten thousand credits on my head.“This way!” Nyxra pointed toward a rusted hatch near the base of a transit pylon. We dived inside.I slammed the hatch shut and fused the handle with a burst of heat from my arm. The noise of the engines faded, replaced by a deep, wet silence. The tunnels smelled like old copper and rot. It was the scent of a place that hadn't seen fresh air in a century.“Vaxien, my legs feel like they’re made of lead,” Zeryth panted. He leaned against a wall slick with black slime. “This layer is a nightmare.”“Move, I said. If we stop, we’re dead." We ran. Our boots splashed through shallow, oily water. The tunnels branched off into a maze of pipes and groaning machinery. Every shadow looked

I grabbed the bucket of stagnant cooling runoff and dumped it. Rowan’s head snapped back. He choked, spraying a mix of water and thick, black fluid across his boots. He blinked, his eyes unfocused for a second before they locked onto mine. "Rise and shine, Officer," I said. I kept my hand on the hilt of my blade. "We’re having a chat."Rowan’s chest heaved. He tried to move, but the mag-cuffs hissed, biting deeper into his wrists. He leaned his head against the damp wall and laughed. It was a rattling sound. "You’re dead, Vaxien," Rowan wheezed. "You just don't have the sense to lie down yet.""I’ve heard that before," I said. I stepped into his personal space, looming over him. "Tell me about the Sovereign Assembly. Now."He spat a glob of dark bile at my feet. "The Assembly? They’re the ones who finished the race. They’re the winners, kid. A council of gods who beat their own tutorials and clawed their way to the top of Layer 5.""A council?" Zeryth hissed from the shadows. "You me

I stared into the open cavity of the machine, and for a heartbeat, the world stopped.The brain pulsed inside the blue gel. A slow, rhythmic expansion. It looked vulnerable. Thin, transparent tubes pumped oxygenated sludge into the frontal lobe, keeping the organ alive just enough to process combat data. The Assembly wasn’t just building robots, they were recycling people. "Vaxien! Move your ass!" Zeryth’s scream tore through the sound of gunfire. "It’s charging its main cannon!"The unit beneath me bucked. It let out a high-pitched whine that vibrated through my boots. I couldn't jump off. . A cold, oily disgust washed over me, hardening into something sharp."You bastards," I hissed. "You're using them as processors.""Vaxien, get off that thing!" Nyxra yelled from the tunnel entrance. "The other two are locking on!" I ignored them. I shoved my hand directly into the blue gel. It felt like freezing jelly, thick and conductive."Hey! What are you doing?" Rowan’s voice cracked from t

Below us, the magma churned, a thick river of orange sludge that threw a nauseating light against the cavern walls."If I pass out, leave me to bake," Zeryth muttered. He wiped a streak of soot across his forehead, leaving a dark smear. "My lungs feel like they're full of hot sand.""Stop breathing like a panicked dog," I said. I grabbed his shoulder and pulled him deeper into the shadow of a massive coolant pipe. The metal was vibrating, humming with the force of the liquid nitrogen rushing through it to keep the dock from melting. "Match my pace. Deep, slow, and hold it. Force the energy to the surface of your skin. It acts like a buffer.""I'm trying," Nyxra whispered. Her face was flushed deep red, her eyes narrowed against the stinging sulfur. "It’s working. My internal temp is dropping. How did you figure this out?""I've spent a lot of time in places people aren't supposed to be," I said. I looked out over the perimeter. "Keep the focus. If you lose the rhythm, the heat will c