RISE FROM THE VOID

Chapter 4

Dawn didn't exist in the Void. Only the shift from absolute darkness to toxic twilight,greenish light filtering through chemical clouds.

Xander woke up to Veyra shaking his shoulder. 

"Gear up. Hunt leaves at ten."

His body screamed in protest. Every muscle ached from yesterday's fight. The wound in his side throbbed beneath fresh bandages. But he stood, tested his bracers. The copper wire responded instantly, flowing around his forearms like liquid metal.

The hunting party gathered in the Rust Haven's armory,eight Exiles including Xander. Garreth stood at the center, his staff planted like a war banner.

"The Broodmother nested in the eastern ravines, three miles from here."

 He traced a route on a salvaged map.

 "She's been spawning wraiths for months. Every one we kill, she births two more. We end her, we cripple the wraith population in this sector."

Kael checked his daggers. 

"Broodmothers are Alpha-class. Intelligent, adaptive. 

She'll have guardians."

"Which is why we're bringing our best."

 Garreth's eye fixed on Xander. 

"Fresh meat stays in formation. Don't be a hero."

Xander nodded, his throat dry.

They descended into the Void proper.

The terrain shifted as they walked,mountains of furniture giving way to valleys of crushed electronics, rivers of chemical waste carving twisted paths. Xander's bracers hummed constantly, sensing wraiths in the distance. Dozens of them, maybe hundreds.

"How many are down here?"

 Xander whispered to Veyra.

"We've stopped counting."

 She kept her Remnant blade drawn.

 "The Void is massive. Miles deep, stretching beyond what we've mapped. For every wraith we kill, Celestara throws down more garbage. More materials for new ones to form."

"So we can never win."

"We survive. That's the only victory that matters."

A scream echoed from their left,distant, garbled and inhuman.

Garreth raised his fist. The party halted. He pointed to Kael and another Exile,a woman with a bow Remnant.

 "Scout ahead. Two hundred yards, no further."

They vanished into the haze.

Minutes crawled past. Xander's heart was hammered. His bracers shifted restlessly, wire coiling and uncoiling.

Kael returned at a sprint. 

"Contact. Guardian wraiths, six of them. Big ones. They're circling something,probably the nest entrance."

"Formation Delta." 

Garreth's staff began to glow. 

"Ranged fighters on the high ground. Melee with me. Fresh meat, you're with Veyra. Do exactly what she does."

They moved like a well-oiled machine. The bow-woman and two others with ranged Remnants climbed a garbage ridge. Garreth, Kael, Veyra, and Xander advanced through the valley below.

The wraiths appeared through the chemical fog.

They were massive,each one twelve feet tall, built from industrial machinery. Hydraulic pistons for arms, steel drums for torsos, legs made from I-beams and rebar. Their heads were clusters of broken cameras, dead lenses staring in every direction.

"Steady." 

Garreth breathed.

The wraiths turned as one, lenses focusing on the Exiles.

Then charged.

"Now!"

 Garreth slammed his staff into the ground. A shockwave rippled outward, cracking the earth. Two wraiths stumbled. Arrows of light rained from above, punching through their armor. One collapsed, sparking.

Kael blurred forward, daggers multiplying. He became a whirlwind of blades, carving through a wraith's leg joints. It toppled.

Veyra's sword sang through the air, cutting pistons like butter. 

"Xander! Left flank!"

A wraith bore down on him,massive, unstoppable. Xander's bracers erupted. Wire shot forward, wrapped around the wraith's legs. He pulled hard. The creature crashed face-first into garbage.

But another was already there.

Its hydraulic fist hammered down. Xander rolled, felt the impact shake the ground where he'd been standing. His bracers formed a blade. He slashed at the wraith's knee joint,once, twice. Metal shrieked. The joint gave way.

The wraith collapsed, reaching for him with desperate fury.

Veyra's blade took its head.

"Good instincts!" 

She shouted. 

"Keep moving!"

The battle was chaos. Arrows from above, blades below, Garreth's staff detonating shockwaves that scattered wraiths like toys. In three minutes, all six guardians lay in pieces.

Xander gasped for breath, bracers steaming.

"That was the easy part." 

Garreth said. He pointed to a crack in the Void's wall,a cave entrance sealed by webbing made from copper wire, power cables, and cloth.

 "The Broodmother's inside."

Kael cut through the webbing. The opening exhaled a stench that made Xander's eyes water,rot and chemicals and something else. Something alive.

"Stay tight."

 Garreth commanded. 

"Broodmothers are cunning. She'll try to separate us."

They entered the cave.

It was a cathedral of garbage. The walls were compressed trash, packed so dense it looked like stone. Bioluminescent fungus grew in patches, casting sickly green light. And everywhere, eggs.

Hundreds of them, each the size of a barrel, pulsing with inner light. Xander could see shapes moving inside,infant wraiths, waiting to hatch.

"Burn them."

 Garreth ordered.

The ranged fighters sent fire arrows into the egg clusters. They burst with wet pops, spilling half-formed wraiths that twitched and died.

A roar shook the cave.

The Broodmother emerged from the depths.

She was enormous,twenty feet of nightmare. Her body was a fusion of a hundred different machines, layered and interwoven. Car engines formed her chest. Tank treads were her lower body. Her arms were construction equipment, ending in crane hooks dripping with venom. Her head was a satellite dish surrounded by dozens of smaller screens, each showing static-filled images.

But it was her back that horrified Xander. Dozens of cables extended from her spine, each one pulsing, each one connected to egg sacs that grew like tumors across her body.

She was pregnant with death itself.

"Spread out!" 

Garreth roared.

The Broodmother lunged faster than anything that size should move. One hook swept through the space where they'd been standing. It crashed into the wall, tore out chunks of compressed garbage.

Arrows rained down. They bounced off her armored hide.

Kael appeared on her flank, daggers seeking joints. She swatted him away like an insect. He crashed into the wall, slid down. Didn't get up.

"Kael!" 

Veyra rushed forward. Her blade found a gap in the Broodmother's tread armor, bit deep. Oil-black blood sprayed.

The Broodmother screamed. Cables lashed from her back, each one tipped with barbs. They sought Veyra like living things.

"Move!" 

Xander's bracers unspooled. Wire shot out, wrapped around the cables, yanked them away from Veyra. The Broodmother's attention snapped to him.

All those screens focused on Xander at once.

She charged.

Xander ran. Behind him, the Broodmother tore through the cave, destroying egg clusters in her fury. Her hooks carved trenches in the walls. Her treads churned garbage into dust.

He couldn't outrun her. Couldn't fight her.

His bracers pulsed hot against his skin. Harlan's voice echoed in his memory: 

"Everything can be fixed, boy. Even you."

An idea sparked.

Xander spun, bracers blazing. Wire erupted in every direction,not as weapons, but as threads. Dozens of them, hundreds. They shot across the cave, wrapping around stalactites, columns, the Broodmother's own cables.

"What are you doing?"

 Garreth shouted.

Xander pulled.

The wire web contracted. Cables yanked the Broodmother's limbs in different directions. Her treads lost traction. She toppled, massive body crashing to the ground. The cave shook.

"Now!"

 Xander screamed.

Garreth didn't hesitate. His staff blazed with power. He brought it down on the Broodmother's satellite-dish head. The impact released a shockwave that rippled through her entire body.

Her screens shattered. Sparks erupted from her joints. The cables on her back went slack.

Veyra's blade found her core,the central engine that powered everything. She drove it deep, twisted.

The Broodmother convulsed once. Twice. Then went still.

Silence filled the cave.

Garreth pulled his staff free, breathing hard. 

"Is everyone…"

The Broodmother's body exploded.

Not with fire,with birth. Every egg sac on her back ruptured simultaneously, spilling dozens of infant wraiths. They were small, weak, barely formed. But there were so many.

"Run!"

 Veyra grabbed Xander's arm.

They fled through the cave as infant wraiths swarmed behind them. Garreth sent shockwaves to collapse tunnels. The bow-woman fired explosive arrows. Kael, limping but alive, threw daggers that 

multiplied mid-flight.

They burst from the cave into the open Void. Behind them, the entrance collapsed completely, sealing the infant wraiths inside.

For a long moment, no one spoke. They just breathed.

Then Garreth began to laugh. 

"That... was insane."

 He clapped Xander on the shoulder hard enough to make him stumble.

 "The wire web. Where did you learn that?"

"I didn't. Just... seemed right."

"Adaptive Remnant indeed."

 Seris,she'd been one of the ranged fighters,stepped forward. Her metal-page book Remnant was open, stylus scratching across it. "I'm recording this. The fresh meat killed a Broodmother on his second day."

"We killed it." 

Xander corrected.

"Humility too."

 Garreth's expression turned serious. 

"You saved Veyra's life. Gave us the opening we needed. You're no longer fresh meat, Xander. Y

ou're an Exile. A real one."

The others nodded. Even Kael, holding his ribs, managed a pained smile.

They began the long walk back to Rust Haven.

Xander's bracers hummed softly, satisfied. He looked up at the distant ceiling of the Void, toward where Celestara gleamed unseen.

One step closer.

One day closer to climbing back up and making them pay.