2026-01-02 00:05:51Chapter 5: The Price of Power
The Nomad limped away from Vespera Station, engines running hot after the emergency jump. Dex sat in the pilot chair, knuckles white on the controls. His armor was scorched in places where Nova's casual shove had sent him through steel and crystal. The nanites were already repairing, but the ache in his ribs lingered. Corruption sat at 38%. Stable, but high. Every heartbeat felt like a warning. Lira paced behind him, boots echoing on the metal floor. She had not spoken since they broke dock. Finally, she stopped. "That was her. The Apex Echo." "Yeah." "She didn't even try. She could have ripped the Core out of your chest and walked away." Dex kept his eyes on the starfield. "She wants me to grow first. Test me. Break me. Whatever the prophecy bullshit says." Lira came around to face him. "And you're going to play her game?" "No choice. She's miles ahead. If I don't close the gap, I'm dead the next time she decides the test is over." Lira crossed her arms. "Then we stop running from fights. We start picking them. We need more fragments. More power. Before she comes back." Dex nodded slowly. The Core in his chest pulsed in agreement. *Seek. Consume. Become.* He hated how much he agreed with it. "Next target," he said. "The black archive had coordinates. A derelict called the Eclipse Shard. Supposed to be a Convergence-era cruiser. Lost during the cataclysm. Last known location: the Dead Nebula." Lira raised an eyebrow. "The Dead Nebula? That's not just dangerous. That's suicide. Void storms. Gravity anomalies. Ships go in. Nothing comes out." "Exactly why no one has looted it yet." Lira stared at him for a long moment. Then she sighed. "You're insane. But fine. Set course. If we're doing this, we're doing it right." She moved to the engineering console. Started running diagnostics. "The upgrades Sera gave us should hold. But if we hit a storm, the shields will drop fast." Dex punched in the coordinates. The Nomad turned. Engines flared. Jump initiated. The jump was rough. Space folded wrong in the Dead Nebula. The ship shook. Alarms blared. Dex gripped the arms of the chair. They dropped out into darkness. No stars. Just swirling black clouds lit by occasional purple lightning. Gravity wells pulled in random directions. The scanner screamed with interference. "Shields at 70%," Lira called. "Storm activity increasing." Dex scanned. "There. Signal spike. Dead ahead. Two thousand kilometers." Lira looked at the display. "That's it. The Eclipse Shard. It's intact. Mostly." They pushed forward. Dodging gravity spikes. Lightning struck the hull once. Shields dropped to 40%. Dex felt the Core stir. Excited. Hungry. The cruiser appeared through the storm. Massive. Ancient. Hull cracked but not breached. Runes still glowed faintly along the spine. They docked at a side airlock. Magnetic clamps locked. Dex stood. Hammer in hand. "Ready?" Lira checked her pistol. "As I'll ever be." They stepped into the ship. Darkness greeted them. Emergency lights flickered. Air stale but breathable. The corridors were wide. Designed for crews and mechs. They moved carefully. Boots echoed. First signs of trouble: bodies. Crew skeletons fused with void corruption. Wires growing through bone. Eyes replaced with red optics. "Mutants were here," Lira whispered. Dex nodded. "Or still are." They reached the central bridge. Consoles dark. Captain's chair empty. In the center of the room, a pedestal. On it, another Eclipse fragment. Smaller than the master core, but brighter. Pure purple light. Dex approached. The Core in his chest sang. [Superior fragment detected. Integration recommended. Tier jump imminent.] Lira grabbed his arm. "Wait. Something feels wrong." The ship groaned. Gravity shifted. Then the shadows moved. Mutants emerged. Not the mindless ones from Zorath. These were evolved. Coordinated. Armored plates. Weapons grafted to limbs. Eyes glowing the same purple as the fragment. A leader stepped forward. Bigger. Taller. A corrupted captain. Half flesh, half machine. It spoke. Voice distorted. "The Core... calls..." Dex raised the hammer. "Then come take it." The fight exploded. Dex charged. Hammer swung. Crushed the first mutant's chest. Void energy flared. Lira fired rune bolts. Dropped two more. But they were fast. Smart. They flanked. One tackled Dex. Claws raked his armor. Nanites sparked. He teleported. Appeared behind. Hammer down. Skull shattered. The captain mutant roared. Charged. Dex met it head-on. Rage activated. Strength surged. Corruption climbed to 50%. Hammer met corrupted blade. Sparks flew. They traded blows. Metal rang. The captain was strong. Stronger than the guardian mech. Dex teleported again. Appeared above. Hammer came down. The captain blocked. Shoved Dex back. Lira shouted. "The fragment! It's feeding them!" Dex looked. The purple light pulsed in time with the mutants' eyes. They were linked. Powered by the fragment. "Destroy the pedestal!" Dex yelled. Lira ran for it. Dodged a mutant. Fired point-blank. Dropped it. Another grabbed her. Slammed her against the wall. Dex roared. Eclipse Surge. Void tendrils lashed out. Wrapped around the mutant. Drained it. Dropped it. He fought toward Lira. Cleared a path. She reached the pedestal. Raised her toolkit hammer. Smashed the containment field. The fragment cracked. Energy exploded outward. The mutants screamed. Bodies convulsed. Circuits fried. Flesh melted. The captain staggered. Looked at Dex. "You... do not... deserve..." Dex brought the hammer down. Ended it. Silence. The fragment lay broken. But a shard still glowed. Smaller. But potent. Dex picked it up. The Core in his chest reached out. Absorbed it. Pain hit like lightning. [Integration complete. Tier 1 → Tier 2] [New Skill Unlocked: Void Dominion – Command lesser void constructs for short duration. Risk: High corruption spike.] [New Skill Unlocked: Eclipse Armor – Temporary full-body shield. Absorbs incoming damage.] [Corruption reset to 0%. Warning: Next overload will be catastrophic.] Dex dropped to one knee. Breathing hard. Lira ran to him. "You okay?" He stood. Felt different. Stronger. Faster. The armor plates shifted smoother. "Yeah. Better than okay." She looked at the dead mutants. "You just absorbed a fragment. Nova's going to feel that." Dex nodded. "Good. Let her." They grabbed what data they could from the bridge. Schematics. Logs. Then they ran back to the Nomad. As they undocked, the storm raged harder. Lightning struck the cruiser. The Eclipse Shard began to break apart. They jumped. In hyperspace, Dex sat back. The new power hummed under his skin. Lira watched him. "You're changing faster now." "I know." "You still Dex?" He met her eyes. "For now." She reached out. Squeezed his hand. "Then we keep you that way." The stars streaked. Far away, in her cloaked ship, Nova Reyes paused. She touched her chest. Felt the echo. A new fragment claimed. She smiled. "Soon, Nullborn. Soon." The test had escalated. And the Sovereign was rising. 
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Crew of the Damned
Chapter 6: Crew of the DamnedThe Nomad emerged from hyperspace on the fringes of the Iron Veil sector, far from the Dead Nebula’s grasp. The ship’s hull still groaned from the storm’s punishment, but they had made it. Dex cut the engines to minimal power and let the vessel drift among a cluster of small asteroid outposts. No signals. No pursuit. For the first time in days, silence felt earned.He leaned back in the pilot chair, eyes closed. Tier 2 power hummed under his skin like a second pulse. The new skills—Void Dominion and Eclipse Armor—waited like loaded weapons. He could feel them. Ready. Hungry.Lira stood in the doorway of the cockpit, arms crossed. She had been quiet since the derelict. Watching him more than usual.“You’re different,” she said finally.Dex opened his eyes. “Good different or bad different?”“Both.” She stepped inside. “You move faster. Hit harder. But every time you use the new stuff, your eyes… they get darker. Like the void is leaking
The price of Power
Chapter 5: The Price of PowerThe Nomad limped away from Vespera Station, engines running hot after the emergency jump. Dex sat in the pilot chair, knuckles white on the controls. His armor was scorched in places where Nova's casual shove had sent him through steel and crystal. The nanites were already repairing, but the ache in his ribs lingered.Corruption sat at 38%. Stable, but high. Every heartbeat felt like a warning.Lira paced behind him, boots echoing on the metal floor. She had not spoken since they broke dock. Finally, she stopped."That was her. The Apex Echo.""Yeah.""She didn't even try. She could have ripped the Core out of your chest and walked away."Dex kept his eyes on the starfield. "She wants me to grow first. Test me. Break me. Whatever the prophecy bullshit says."Lira came around to face him. "And you're going to play her game?""No choice. She's miles ahead. If I don't close the gap, I'm dead the next time she decides the test is o
Echo of the Apex
Chapter 4: Echo of the ApexThe upgrades from Sera Kain took the better part of two days. Dex spent most of it in the chop shop bay, shirtless on a raised platform while nanites crawled under his skin like living tattoos. The new armor fused seamlessly with his body. Lightweight plates that shifted like liquid metal when he moved. Purple-blue veins now ran openly along the seams, pulsing in time with his heartbeat. The Eclipse Core approved. Every test made the corruption meter flicker but never climb past 22%.Lira watched from the side, arms crossed. She had spent the time tinkering with her own gear. Upgraded the stun pistol into something that could now fire charged rune bolts. "You're starting to look like one of them," she said quietly."Like what?" Dex flexed his arm. The plates rippled."Like the Convergence legends. Half man, half machine, half monster."Dex met her gaze in the reflection of a nearby console. "As long as the monster is on our side, I'm good."
Shadows in the Black Market
Chapter 3: Shadows in the Black MarketThe Nomad emerged from hyperspace on the edge of the Fringe Belt, a sprawling zone of asteroid stations, pirate havens, and black-market hubs that even the biggest corporations avoided unless they had overwhelming firepower. Nexus Station had been chaotic. This place, called Shadow Drift, made Nexus look like a polite tea party.Dex cut the engines to idle. The ship drifted among the debris field. Scans showed dozens of docked vessels. Most were patched-together wrecks. A few looked like they could still fight.Lira leaned over the console. "Shadow Drift. You sure about this?""We need upgrades," Dex said. "The hammer is strong, but the armor is still street-grade. And we need intel on what the hell an Eclipse Core really is."Lira tapped the master core they had taken from the forge-world. It sat in a containment field on the workbench. "This thing is singing to your Core like a siren. If we integrate it, you might jump tiers ove
Forge shadows
Chapter 2: Forge ShadowsThe Nomad dropped out of hyperspace with a groan that Dex felt in his teeth. The forge-world loomed ahead, a scarred gray ball hanging in the void. Rings of debris orbited it like broken halos. Factories long silent. Forges cold. But the data chips Lira pulled from the outpost console promised untouched vaults. High-grade rune cores. Magitech schematics. Enough to buy them breathing room from the corp hunters.Dex kept his eyes on the scanner. "No signals. No patrols. Looks quiet.""Too quiet," Lira muttered. She sat cross-legged on the co-pilot seat, tools spread across her lap. A small welding torch hissed as she reinforced a weak spot on Dex's armor. "Forge-worlds like this attract scavengers. Or worse."Dex flexed his shoulder. The patch from Zorath still itched, but the Eclipse Core's nanites had already knit the flesh. "Worse than mutants?""Mutants are predictable. They click and charge. Purists? They preach. Then they burn."Purists.
Scavenger falls
Chapter 1: Scavenger's FallThe air on Zorath Prime hung thick with the stench of decay. Dex Taylor crouched behind a crumbled wall of what used to be a towering arcology. His breath came in short bursts through the filter mask strapped to his face. Void spores floated in the dim light like deadly snowflakes. One wrong inhale and you were done. Turned into one of those clicking horrors that shambled through the ruins.Dex gripped his makeshift plasma cutter tight. It was a jury-rigged piece of junk. Salvaged from a crashed freighter last month. But it had saved his skin more times than he could count. He was a Nullborn. No magic flowing through his veins like the elite Hex-Engineers up in their orbital stations. Just wits, grit, and whatever tech he could scrounge.The planet was off-limits for a reason. The Convergence had hit here hard centuries ago. Magic and AI tech slammed together in some cosmic accident. Now the place was a graveyard of fused horrors. Bio-machines tha
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