The perimeter of Aethelgard wasn't a gate, but a shimmer of air—a sensory field that made the very atmosphere feel like walking through thin oil. Carlos stopped, his hardened skin tingling as the field washed over him."Stay close," Nikolai murmured, his voice low but sharp. "And don't touch the holographic displays. They’re sensitive."Carlos pulled his hoodie lower, his eyes darting across the pristine plaza. "This place is… quiet. Too quiet. Where are the people?""Inside. Working. Or being worked upon," Nikolai said, glancing at a nearby statue. "Don't stare. It’s rude to gawk at the architecture.""I’m not gawking at the buildings, Nikolai. I’m looking for a pulse," Carlos whispered, stepping onto the white stone path. "Everything is so white. It’s like a hospital ward, not a city.""It’s a clean slate, Carlos. That’s what you wanted, isn't it? A place where nobody is fighting over scrap?""I wanted a meal and a bed, not a sterile cage," Carlos muttered, kicking at a loose piece

The observation booth was a cocoon of humming screens and blinking status lights, currently trembling under the impact of Carlos’s rage. Nikolai didn't struggle as he was pressed back against the console, his expression remaining as unruffled as a lake in mid-winter."You’re really going to do it, aren't you?" Nikolai asked, his voice barely rising above the wail of the facility-wide sirens. "You’re going to break the one thing that keeps your System from collapsing."Carlos slammed his forearm against Nikolai’s chest, pinning him tighter. "Don't talk to me about my System. Tell me how to get out of this hellhole before I decide you’re not worth the effort of carrying.""The service lift," Nikolai managed, his voice strained. "But you’ll never reach it. The entire sector security grid just locked onto your heat signature. You’re the most wanted object in Aethelgard right now.""Object? Still with that?" Carlos growled, his knuckles white against the Doctor’s coat. "Give me the overrid

The world was a chaotic, ringing silence. Carlos clawed his way out of the twisted, smoldering wreckage of the transport, his lungs burning with the acrid scent of superheated ozone. Every inch of his body felt as though it had been struck by a falling building, but the metallic sheen of his hardened skin held firm, preventing him from being reduced to a pile of broken bones."Nikolai!" Carlos coughed, staggering toward the driver’s side, which had been crumpled inward like a tin can. "Dammit, answer me! Don't you dare die on me now."He reached into the ruin of the cockpit, his fingers catching on the collar of Nikolai’s coat. He hauled the man out, dragging him across the scorching sand. Nikolai wasn't moving. His face was pale, smeared with engine grease and blood, his glasses nowhere to be seen."Hey, wake up," Carlos grunted, dropping him gently onto a patch of cooling gravel. "Come on, Doctor. You were just talking about ego and results. Don't leave me out here with just these m

The desert air was frigid, cutting through the thin remnants of Carlos’s hoodie like a serrated blade. He leaned against a jagged slab of basalt, his chest heaving. The mark on his arm—that glowing, amber lattice of bioluminescence—pulsed with an irregular, sickening rhythm. Beside him, Nikolai sat on a patch of grit, his breath coming in shallow, ragged hitches. He clutched his side, where the makeshift sutures were already beginning to strain under the pressure of his movement."You’re sweating, Carlos. That’s new," Nikolai said, his voice brittle."It’s not just sweat, Nikolai. It’s like my skin is trying to breathe for me," Carlos replied, wiping a slick, oily sheen from his forehead. He stared at his palm; the skin was shifting, ripples of grey chitinous material knitting together and then dissolving back into human flesh. "What the hell did that thing do to me?""You didn't just fight it. You absorbed its data, remember?" Nikolai leaned back, wincing. "That wasn't just a combat

The void of the hive was absolute, a crushing, airless pressure that smelled of ionized dust and ancient, decaying bio-matter. Carlos hung suspended in the darkness, his breath hitching as he felt the shifting vibrations of the Reapers around him. They were blind, yet they were everywhere, their collective nervous system pulsating like a dying heart."They’re searching for us," Nikolai whispered, his voice so faint it might have been a ghost. "Don't move, Carlos. Not a muscle.""I can hear him," Carlos murmured, his heart rate steadying into a predatory, rhythmic thrum. "The scientist. He’s still typing.""He’s not just typing," Nikolai breathed. "He’s writing the end of us."Ten feet away, the rhythmic click-clack of a mechanical keyboard continued, an alien melody in the tomb. Aris wasn't using a lamp, yet the glow from his terminal cast his face in a harsh, sickly violet hue."You can come out now, Zero," Aris said, his voice light, conversational, as if he were inviting a guest to