Ram that boat and bring me his head. The warlords voice was loud and clear over the speakers with the loud engines of the wasteland fleet. A dozen old interceptors broke away from the rolling fortress to chase Idriss black boat. They shot harpoons at the boat. Heavy chains trailed behind the harpoons meant to catch the boats thrusters and pull it down into the wheels of the central rig. Rhea pulled the control stick hard to the right. The boat rolled violently avoiding three harpoons by a little bit. Shoot them Idris said, his voice calm and cold. The nine clones of Squad Alpha started shooting. Their big guns shot fire at the interceptors. The fire melted through the armor like it was nothing. Three of the interceptors blew up their fuel tanks catching fire and sending burning people tumbling into the sand. Idris did not watch them burn. He was already aiming his gun at the target. He pulled the trigger and a big bullet hit the engine of a war rig. As the driver of the ruined

You are going to choke on your blood before I let them die! Idris roared, his voice bouncing off the sealing iron plates of the execution chamber. The sound of the vents became extremely loud. A thick dangerous green fog quickly filled the engine room eating the rusted iron grating and making the air full of a choking smell of burning copper. Commander the gas is very strong! Unit Three shouted, his Leviathan exosuit already making noise as the toxic vapor started to damage the -steel plating. The air seals are breaking. We have than sixty seconds before people die! On the kinetic wheel the chained people started to scream. The weak survivors. Moved around their skin getting blisters as the green fog covered them. The young woman who had asked Idris fell against her chains coughing up blood her eyes going back in her head. The emotional hit hurt Idriss chest like a knife. This was the cruelty of the Grey Grid. The system made people have to make choices. To save himself and his cl

We have to cut the tether. We will all be crushed into tiny pieces. Rheas hands were white as she held the control yoke. The land-cruiser was tilting forward. The dark-matter repulsors were screaming. They did not like the gravity beam that was holding onto the hull. Below a huge sand whirlpool was turning old stone pillars into dust. A big mechanical centipede was rising up from the center of the pit. Its mouth was open. Had spinning titanium teeth. These teeth could chew through rocks and metal. We are falling fifty feet every second Unit Two said. The warning sirens were very loud. His hands were moving quickly over the control board. Our big guns cannot shoot down at the beam emitter under the creatures neck. The people they saved were in the back of the land-cruiser. They were being pushed against the walls by the gravity. A young woman was holding a crying child. She was looking up at the speaker. Praying for the man who saved them. Idris looked at the monitor. He felt bad.

You think having a system that cheats makes you a god? The Nullifier assassin did not even raise a weapon. He just stepped forward. His boots hit the bridge plating with a sound. The air in the room was sucked out. It was a vacuum that made Idriss ears ring and his lungs burn for oxygen. Rhea moved before the assassin could get close. Her Titan-Grade blade whistled through the vacuum with energy. She swung it straight for the assassins throat. The assassin raised one arm. The white rings of system code in his flesh lit up. Rheas blade hit the white rings. The high energy hum stopped. The golden blade energy went out. It was like a candle that was snuffed out. The impact sent a shockwave up Rheas arms. It forced her back. She gasped in pain. The Nullification field is stopping our gear Rhea said. Her eyes were wide. She tried to turn her blade on.. It did not work. He is stopping every code on the ship! Idris held the edge of the console. His knuckles turned white. The warning in

Get out of the blast radius!Rhea’s scream tore through the chaos. She dove flat across the iron grating just as the chrome giant let loose.A solid column of plasma, so blinding it punched shadows into the walls, exploded from the behemoth’s cannon. It ripped right through the deck, the air thick with superheated metal and the stench of burning iron. Bulkheads twisted out of shape. The railings ran molten, dripping off their supports.Idris threw himself back—missed the beam by a hair. But the shockwave hammered him, knocking him across the deck and straight into the reinforced base of the Purification Matrix.His head rang. His vision glitched with violent flashes. He tasted blood—dark and metallic—splattering across his faceplate. The HUD screamed warnings in brutal red: Neural Degradation at Fifty Percent. Host structural failure imminent.Suddenly, everything snapped into focus. There it was: the truth. His body was coming apart. Black veins crisscrossed his cheeks like a map of