I reacted without processing a thought. I disengaged my left mag-tether and let the wind take my weight, swinging my body out like a pendulum across the sheer face of the Spire."Get back, you overgrown lizard!" I yelled. I swung back in and connected my heavy boot directly with the wyvern’s snout. The impact sent a jar of pain up my leg, but the beast’s head snapped sideways and its jaws missed Pip’s throat by an inch."Arix!" Pip shrieked. He was shaking so hard his magnetic plates were rattling against the glass. "It’s going to eat me! It’s going to eat me!""Shut up and climb!" I barked. I slammed my left plate back onto the glass and locked it down. "Brux! Lyra! Look up!"The screeching didn't stop, it multiplied. Dozens of the leathery shadows were crawling out of the structural vents and clinging to the glass like massive, starving bats. They surrounded us in a tight circle and their claws left long, screeching gashes in the reinforced windows."There are too many of them!" Br

I rolled onto my side and threw up inside my mask. The sour taste of acid and bile filled my mouth, and I choked, spitting it out against the cheap plastic visor. My right arm was a dead weight, smelling like burnt hair and bad meat. I reached up with my left hand and tore the mask off, coughing hard on the metal floor.[System: Core Temperature Critical. Fatal Shutdown in 03:15.]"Arix!" Lyra dropped down next to me. She wiped my chin with a dirty glove. "Don't move. Your arm is completely ruined.""I can move," I said. I spat onto the deck. "Help me up.""You shouldn't be standing," Damian said. He was leaning against the wall, his chest heaving as he stared down the long hallway. "We have company. The big guys."I forced my legs to lock and stood up. My vision swam with red dots, and the system warning was blinking right in the center of my focus. I blinked it away. At the end of the corridor, three men stepped out of the shadow of the main control room. They were wearing heavy,

The heavy blast door to the control room groaned under the force of the blast and flew completely off its hinges, slamming onto the floor inside the room with a loud clatter. The metal plate skidded five feet across the polished floor before stopping. I stumbled through the thick smoke, my left shoulder hitting the warped frame as I forced my legs to keep moving."Get in," I said. My throat felt like sand, and my right arm dragged behind me like a useless piece of log. "Pip, Lyra, get inside now. Don't look back."Lyra came through right behind me, her boots scraping against the loose bolts on the floor. She was holding her staff with both hands, using it to prop herself up. Her skin looked gray under the dust, and her lips were cracked and bleeding from the pressure drop."I'm in," Pip wheezed. He fell down onto his knees right past the threshold, coughing hard. He had his equipment bag clutched against his ribs. "The air in here is old, it's not running. It feels like I'm breathin

The red countdown timer on the central console dropped past twenty seconds. The numbers glared against the dusty glass, casting a dull light over the metal panels. On the lower section of the screen, the main map of the Fantasy Wing was flashing with row after row of yellow warnings."Arix, don't do it!" Lyra screamed. She was still on her knees on the cold floor, her fingers dug deep into the coarse fabric of Pip’s jacket sleeve. She looked up at me, her face pale under the grime and grease. "Save Pip! We can find another way for the air! We can go back down and break the valves manually! We have time!""We don't have time, Lyra," I said. My left hand remained locked around the yellow steel handle of the manual override lever. The metal felt cold and greasy against my palm."Listen to her, Arix!" Lyra cried, her voice cracking as she shook Pip’s shoulder. Pip’s legs twitched against the floor grating, his boots making a light scratching noise. "He's just a boy. Look at him! We can f

I slid down the front of the main terminal box and sat heavily on the floor. The metal grating was freezing against my legs, the chill cutting straight through my torn uniform trousers. Damian’s footsteps had completely faded down the corridor, and Lyra’s departure had left the room entirely hollow. The quietness inside the control room felt like a heavy weight pressing against my ears, thick and suffocating. There was no sound left in the world except the mechanical air pushing through the overhead vents."Get up," I muttered to myself. My legs didn't move and I looked down at my right arm. It was blackened and raw from the wrist to the shoulder, and the synthetic fabric of my tactical jacket had melted directly into the scorched skin. I didn't feel the sharp pain anymore; my nerves were fried. I just felt a deep ache that went straight to my bones.[System: Warning. Core Stability at 14%. Physical Overload Detected.]A flash of green light split my vision right down the middle, m