There were times Jax had caught Sera watching him when she thought he wasn't looking. And Lina's stoic front had never fully hidden the way her sharp eyes tracked the Colony's movements. Neither of them were as unreadable as they wanted to be.He was still turning that over in his mind when Lina shifted on the bed and reached for a tablet beside her."I worked through the night on the pathway to the first mission." She said, pressing buttons until a schematic filled the screen. She held it out to Jax.He took it slowly, his eyes moving between her and Sera before they dropped to the display. The structure on the screen was maze-like, the altitude showing a foggy, obscured weather above while the floor below looked plain and open. Both things at once and neither making sense from the outside.Lina stepped beside him. "I know it looks like a lot. It really isn't, once you're inside it. Gather your team. We move soon."She moved to pass him and Jax stepped into her path."Before we do an

The tension in the air had grown bigger than any of them could handle. Kade was still trying to hold the door together by freezing it, giving Jax enough time while Jax looked for where to begin.He had never rewritten code that hard before. The last time he tried was with the primary Overseers. He reached into the control panel and closed his eyes briefly.The system beeped in his mind and he began to dive in. The codes were blurry and interlocked but Jax began to separate them until he was able to reach the core. He touched the code and poured his energy into it, letting the system do the rest of the work.A hard throbbing sensation hit him on the forehead but he did not waver. He needed to see this through. Finally, something shifted. It was the code. It buckled and yielded. Jax's eyes brightened with victory as he watched the codes shift into something his system could read clearly, the first step in helping them eventually get the key to rewriting the Sentinel Protocol.[System: T

Unlike the other NPCs, these frozen ones did not move. They were fewer in number and they were protecting something."The containment field," Lina said from behind the team."What do you mean?" Jax asked as Lina stepped forward. The crystal glow caught her green eyes, making them glint. She held her tablet firmly."My tablet can't read data beyond here. It means one thing," Lina turned to face Jax, her face devoid of any humour. "We're at the Primordial domain.""Is it here?" Jax asked. He held his ribs firmly, pressing against the pain to ease it a little. His teeth grated together, hissing softly with each painful breath.Vortex Core was slowly sealing the wound from the inside. It had helped with the quick clotting so the bleeding had stopped, but the healing was far from done."Let us hope it's not," Lina said and turned back to her screen.As Jax and the team moved forward, the corrupted NPCs held their ground. It made Jax feel more unnerved than he had before. He shifted his gaz

The team surrounded the two men in the middle of the room. Jax's brows pulled together as he gripped Orin's collar tight. He wasn't planning to let go anytime soon. Orin didn't fight back. He stood still and took it, knowing he deserved every bit of the rage coming at him."Tell me everything. Now." Jax said.Orin closed his eyes briefly.Mira took a step forward, pushing through the dull throb in her stomach from the arrow wound. Eldric shook his head at her. She stopped.Orin swallowed hard. When he finally spoke, his voice came out quiet and careful."I was scared to tell you because I thought you'd hate me."He looked around the group. His eyes moved from face to face, dreading what he would find there."Everything I did, I did to survive. I didn't know there'd be repercussions.""What did you do, Orin." Jax's tone dropped low. "This is the last time I'll ask."He meant it.Orin sighed and lowered his head."When I was a young developer, the creators took us prisoner. This was aft

The first thing that settled in Jax's mind as they entered the Primordial Overseer's chamber was the possibility of failure. The frozen NPCs around the room reminded him exactly what it meant if the Primordial Overseer rewrote every NPC's code the moment the countdown hit zero. That was a risk they couldn't survive.The system flashed. Jax checked the countdown.[Time Remaining: 0:28:13][Warning: Critical threshold reached. System destabilisation imminent.]Nervousness sank into him yet he knew he couldn't afford to show fear so he kept his face still.The chamber was dark. Dim lights lined the rocky sidewalls in thin, faint strips. Jax had expected some massive tech entity, or a super program. Something obvious. Instead he found strings.The form in front of them rearranged itself constantly. Multiple threads of code clustered and shifted together like living beads. It hummed with a low, steady buzz that filled the whole chamber."What is that?"Lina's tablet nearly slipped from her