Chapter 14: The Armory

Dylan moved through the ruins, feet kicking up dust, brain firing on all cylinders. He wasn't just thinking—he was processing. Analyzing every wall, every wire, every weird-ass piece of tech buried in this place. The Echo Shard had flipped some kind of switch in his brain, and now he was running at max capacity. And yeah, it was kinda terrifying.

He could see it all now. This wasn't just some ancient temple. It was a ship. A whole damn civilization built inside a freaking warship. And it was dead. Cities, schools, homes—everything was still standing. But the people? Gone. No bodies, no bones. Just... vanished. Like someone had hit the delete button on an entire species.

That wasn't even the worst part. The worst part was that he already knew why. The Echo Shard. The same thing that had juiced him up, turned his brain into a supercomputer, and made his body feel like it was running on cheat codes... Had wiped out everyone who lived here.

His chest tightened, but he shoved the feeling down. No time for existential dread. There was something ahead—a vault. Big. Sealed. Untouched. Dylan phased through the door. And immediately stopped breathing. Because holy. Freaking. Hell.

Drones. Rows upon rows of them. Not a hundred. Not a thousand. Millions. All lined up. Silent. Waiting. Some looked human-shaped, built sleek and perfect, like they could snap your spine without blinking. Others were pure machines—floating, multi-limbed, armed to the damn teeth. All of them were off. And all of them were wired to wake up the second someone gave them power.

Dylan swallowed, stepping forward. The air in here felt wrong. Stagnant, heavy, like the whole room was holding its breath. His fingers twitched. The Echo Shard was buzzing inside him, syncing with the tech around him. He could feel it—control. One touch. One pulse of energy. And every single one of these things would activate. His brain did the math. If these drones were online, they could wipe out a planet. This wasn't just a hidden stash of cool alien tech. This was a sleeping army. And he was one second away from waking it up.

Dylan clenched his fists and forced himself to back away. Not yet. He needed to understand this place before he did something stupid. And there was only one way to get answers. The power room. The one he had been to before. The one that had reacted to him. If this ship had secrets, that was where they were.

He turned and moved fast, phasing through walls, barely even paying attention to the wreckage anymore. His brain was locked in. Focused. Get to the power room. Figure this out. Don't die. In minutes, he was there. The room was massive, filled with generators and power conduits thick as skyscrapers. The air hummed with potential energy, like the whole ship was holding back.

Dylan stepped forward. This time, he didn't hesitate. He reached out— And touched the main console. BOOM. The entire room exploded with light. Energy rushed through the walls. Screens flashed on. Holograms flickered to life. The ship had been dead for centuries. And Dylan had just woken it up.

His mind snapped open with a flood of information. This wasn't just a ship. It was a war machine. And the drones? They weren't just guards. They were weapons. The Echo Shard inside him thrummed, linking him directly to the ship's systems. And that's when he realized something even worse. This thing, this warship hadn't just been built to fight. And now, it knew he was here.