Fractured Foundations

The castle groaned like a wounded beast upon its feet. Smoke curled from the cracked walls and an acrid stench clung to the air, a little bit like burnt circuitry. Shen Mu looked down at Granny Wen in the courtyard. His left arm was bandaged, useless as he stood there watching her bark orders at the survivors hauling scrap metal.

"Seal the east wall first!" she snapped, pointing a wrench toward the gap where shadows seemed still to twist and writhe. "And hand me over the devil's own plasma welder! This ain't no knitting circle!"

Shen Mu's system interface glitched and fluttered with loose, stuttery holograms now.

Fortress Integrity: 42%

You look like hell," Zhao Ling said, appearing by his side. Her rifle's barrel was still scorched from the EMP blast, but her eyes were sharp as ever.

"Feel worse," Shen Mu muttered, flexing his good hand. The generator's overload had left his nerves singing with residual energy—a side effect the system couldn't (or wouldn't) explain. "Status report?"

Zhao Ling nodded to the north. "Luo Qi is going to take a scav team up to the old hydro plant. He says he can juryrig a power supply from the turbines."

"And the entity?"

"Is gone, at least for now." She said that last, her voice lower. "But the shadows. they are deeper nearer the breach. Like they are. growing, or something."

Zhao Ling could barely speak the words when the system suddenly turned bright red.

[New Quest: Reclaim the Nexus]

Objective: Captivate fortress core by grabbing a stabilizer module from the desolate Tech-Spire.

Reward: Blueprint of Quantum Shield, 1,500 Points.

"It's Tech-Spire?" Granny Wen hobbled over, wiping grease off her hands. "It is suicide. The place is overrun with Fang stragglers and with those. things."

Shen Mu's eyes turned cold. "We need that stabilizer. Without it—"

"We become sitting ducks," Zhao Ling completed. She slung her rifle. "I take point.".

"Like hell you will," Luo Qi repeated, striding into the courtyard, a crate of salvaged parts under his arms. He walked with an energy that erased his limp entirely, his legs coiled instead with a newly fierce tension. "You are needed here," he said grimly. "I'll run the Spire."

Shen Mu raised one eyebrow. "Since when did you volunteer to commit suicide missions?

Luo Qi dropped the crate with a clang. "Now that I know running behind walls won't save us." He rubbed his jagged scar again, the parting gift from the Fang blade. "I've had enough of running."

The Tech-Spire towered like a rusted dagger stabbing the sky. The lower levels were a maze of collapsed walkways and flickering security drones, the air heavy with the reek of decay.

"Stay sharp," Luo Qi hissed, pushing the scav team through a splintered service entrance. "Fangs love ambushes in—"

A guttural snarl stopped him. Three Fang scouts leapt from the shadows, machetes shining.

Luo Qi reacted first.

His new weapon-a pneumatic gauntlet scavenged from the fortress armory-whined as it charged. He sidestepped a blade, grasped the attacker's wrist, and squeezed. Bones crunched. The Fang shrieked.

"Wrong. Door."

The gauntlet's piston slammed into the man's chest, catapulting him into a wall. The other scouts froze, their bravado crumbling.

"Go!" Luo Qi barked at his team. "I'll handle this!"

As they scrambled deeper into the Spire, he turned to the remaining Fangs, his gauntlet dripping oil and blood.

"Who's next?"

Back at the fortress, Shen Mu stood in front of the core chamber—a room filled with flickering holograms and sparking wires. The voice of the system was distorted.

 [Core instability at 79%. Catastrophic failure imminent.]

 "Can you stabilize it?" Shen Mu demanded.

 [Negative. Organic intervention required.]

 "Organic inter—you want me to stick my hand in there?"

 [Affirmative. Neural interface compatibility: 87%.].

Shen Mu muttered a dark oath. He'd only been there a week and Granny Wen had nearly caught his two fingers too near to her own broken-down generator. Now the brain of the box started its wild, quivering hum again, its flickering light that looked like something's dying heart beating.

He pushed his arm into the light.

It burned like molten lead was dropping down his very bones. And the system flashed out its messages in warning tones as his mind went white —

 and then saw them.

The Devourers.

Not shadows, but legions: dark, twisting coils that writhed between the cold bodies of dead stars. The creature had been no more than a pinprick, a spy for the host.

 [Linked.]

The heart stilled, its light unwavering. Shen Mu yanked his hand back, and the flesh on his skin smoked.

"Found something," Zhao Ling yelled from the doorway. She hurled him a broken tablet. On the cracked screen: pre-catastrophe blueprints captioned Project Veil breaker.

Granny Wen peered over his shoulder. "That's… a quantum resonance cannon. They were building it to seal rifts between dimensions."

Shen Mu's lips curled into a feral grin. "Where?"

Zhao Ling met his gaze. "Buried under the Spire. And Luo Qi's team just cleared the path."

It was an entity's laughter that slid into every shadow and echoed through the fortress that night.

"You think your toys can stop what's coming?"

Shen Mu stood upon the wall, quantum shield schematic glowing in his hands, as below welders riveted new armor plating. His hammers drummed war as they beat iron.

"No," he said softly. "We will make you bleed for each step."

Very far northward, the line of horizon stirred.

Something of immensity was about to stir and move.