"If you touch that breaker without my permission, Thomas, I will break your hand."Ethan didn't even turn around as he threw the order over his shoulder. He was on his knees beneath the main terminal array, his fingers slick with old grease and sweat as he pried open the secondary junction box. The stifling heat of the vault pressed down on them like a heavy, wet blanket, smelling of burnt copper and decades of stale dust.Thomas hovered over him, his jaw clenched, the heavy black tactical suit making him look like a caged beast in the dim light. "I ran military logistics before you were born, Ethan. I know how a backup grid works.""You ran men into the ground," Ethan spat, slicing a melted insulation wire with his pocket knife. "You don't know shit about keeping a thirty-year-old subterranean reactor from starving itself to death. Hand me the copper couplings from that tray. Now."Thomas stood still for a terrifying second, his pale eyes f

 "If I die down here, Thomas, don't you dare put my father's name on my grave."Ethan didn't wait for a response. He didn't even look at his uncle. He thrust both hands straight up toward the ceiling, his blood-soaked face contorted in a mask of pure agony.The three Sentry-9 drones unleashed hell from directly above.A wall of armor-piercing lead tore through the air, diving toward Ethan and Thomas with deafening speed. The muzzle flashes cast violent, blinding strobes of white light across the brass-covered floor."Ethan, no!" Thomas screamed, dropping to his knees and covering his head, bracing for the inevitable tear of hot lead through his armor.Six inches above Ethan's upturned palms, reality warped.A massive, flat plane of absolute darkness opened in thin air, snapping into existence with a pressurized sound like a popping lung. The stream of continuous gunfire slammed straight into the spatial tear. Hundreds of superso

 "If you don't run into that open aisle right now, Thomas, I will throw you out there myself."Ethan didn't wait for a response as he shoved his uncle out from behind the steel support pillar. The heavy metal grating shuddered beneath their boots as the Vanguard-1 frame roared to life in the distance.Thomas stumbled into the open catwalk, his dark tactical armor catching the harsh crimson glare of the drone's optical array. "Ethan, what the hell are you doing?""Be the general!" Ethan screamed, diving flat onto his belly behind a thick, rusted junction box. "Make it look at you!""Target re-acquired," the synthetic voice boomed through the high-ceilinged bay.The heavy thirty-millimeter cannons rotated with a violent metallic clack. A deafening stream of high-explosive rounds tore through the catwalk where Thomas stood. Steel plates disintegrated into jagged shrapnel, throwing Thomas backward against a support column. He screamed in p

 "If you press that wake key, Thomas, I will tear the primary coolant line right out of the housing and watch three thousand bastards suffocate in their sleep."Ethan didn't shout. He didn't even raise his arm. His voice was a flat, freezing blade that sliced through the humming quiet of the sanctuary. His hands rested on the main valve wheel beside the master terminal, his fingers caked in dried blood and black grease.Thomas kept his thumb hovering two inches over the manual override key on the terminal, his heavy tactical suit trembling as ice crystals formed along his shoulder pads. "We need the joint chiefs, Ethan! Look at the roster! General Miller and Admiral Vance are in Pod Row Four! If we wake the military command, we can take back the surface stations! We can put an end to the chaos!""There is no military command anymore!" Ethan spat, slamming his bare hand down on the frozen steel console. "There is only us, and there is the ice! You th

"I am standing right here, so who the hell was sleeping in this glass?"Ethan's voice shattered in the warm, golden silence of the vault chamber. He pressed both hands against the polished quartz, his fingers trembling so hard his fingernails scraped uselessly against the reinforced seal.Heavy, panicked footsteps echoed down the marble stairs behind him."Ethan! I heard the locks disengage!" Thomas panted, bursting through the golden archway with his pistol drawn, his eyes wild and bloodshot. He froze at the base of the platform, staring at the glowing pod. "What did you find? Is it Marcus?""Don't come any closer," Ethan rasped, not turning around. His breathing came in shallow, ragged gasps that hitched in his throat. "Don't look at it.""Ethan, talk to me!" Thomas shouted, taking three frantic strides up the marble steps, his boots clicking in rapid succession. "What are you staring at? Who is inside?""Look at the glass, Thomas!" Ethan screamed, turning his head just enough for h