Chapter -56 : The Anomaly's Fury

Outer Sector Outpost 7, Imperial Periphery

The auxiliary control center plunged into a disorienting chaos. Emergency lights flickered on, casting stark, dancing shadows across the faces of the stunned Navy personnel. Consoles were dead, the main holographic display a blank void. The powerful hum of Scanner Unit Two had been replaced by an unnerving silence, punctuated by shouted questions and the sharp crackle of short-range emergency comms.

"Report! What happened?" Investigator Thorne's voice cut through the bedlam, sharp and authoritative despite the sudden darkness. She was already moving, her sidearm drawn, her potent M4+ energy signature flaring defensively.

"All systems down, Investigator!" a technician yelled back, his voice tight with panic. "Scanner Unit Two is completely offline! Massive energy feedback just before the crash!"

"Source of the feedback?" Thorne demanded, her eyes sweeping the room.

"The anomaly, ma'am! It pulsed – a directed energy surge straight at the scanner!"

Valerius stood frozen at his peripheral console, not from fear, but from the aftershocks of the psionic and spatial wave that had washed over him. His System Interface was a mess of flickering static and error messages.

<>

His link to the System, his greatest advantage, was severely crippled. He felt a profound sense of vulnerability, a blindness he hadn't experienced since before discovering the ancient technology. He could still feel his Wargod energy, turbulent but present, but the analytical power, the predictive capabilities, the enhanced senses provided by the nanites – all were either gone or severely degraded.

Lieutenant Commander Jian was trying to establish a connection with the main outpost command via a handheld emergency communicator. "Auxiliary Control to Command, do you read? We have a major system failure, Scanner Unit Two is down, repeat, Scanner Two is down. Hostile reaction from subsurface anomaly."

Lieutenant Kaelen, pale but resolute, was checking on a nearby technician who had slumped over his console. "He's just stunned, Investigator," Kaelen reported. "The feedback pulse must have overloaded the neural interface." He looked towards the blank main display, then at Thorne, a strange mixture of fear and vindication in his eyes. "I told you there were unusual energies down there, Investigator. Energies that reacted."

Thorne ignored him for the moment, focused on damage control. "Engineering teams, report to Scanner Hangar Bay immediately! Assess damage to Unit Two. Security teams, secure all access points to Sub-Levels 3 and 4. No one enters or leaves without my direct authorization. Jian, get me a sit-rep from the Vigilant. I want to know if their long-range sensors picked up that energy surge."

Valerius forced himself to move, to appear functional. He subtly tried to access the System's deeper functions, but the interface remained a garbled mess. He was operating on his own Wargod senses now, his own intellect. The experience was jarring. His Spatial Sense, though still present, felt blunted, less precise without the nanite enhancement.

"Investigator," Valerius said, his voice carefully controlled, "the anomaly's reaction was… defensive. It only pulsed when the scanner intensified its probe on the core nexus."

Thorne turned her sharp gaze on him. "You observed that, Lieutenant Valerius?"

"Yes, Investigator. The energy build-up in the anomaly was directly proportional to the scanner's focused intensity. It was a clear stimulus-response." He offered the observation as a tactical assessment, hoping to steer their interpretation.

"A stimulus-response that disabled a Tier-5 deep-penetration scanner," Thorne retorted grimly. "That's more than just a geological phenomenon, Lieutenant. That's a capability. Potentially a threat."

The emergency comms crackled. "Command to Auxiliary Control, we read you. We registered the energy surge on internal sensors – massive, localized beneath the outpost. What is the status of your team?" It was Commander Vorlag, his voice tight.

Jian relayed the situation. The news that the anomaly possessed the power to actively defend itself and disable advanced Navy hardware sent a fresh wave of apprehension through the outpost command structure.

Valerius watched as Navy engineers in hazard suits began arriving, their own handheld sensors active. The air in Auxiliary Control still felt charged, the lingering psionic interference making his head ache. He focused on maintaining his composure, on observing. Kaelen was now animatedly talking to Jian, likely reiterating his theories about the resonance links and the 'sensor ghost' from the battle, now with far more dramatic evidence to support the idea of an active, powerful energy source beneath them.

The unblinking eye of the scanner had not just been met; it had been violently blinded. The anomaly had revealed a fraction of its power, and in doing so, had plunged the investigation into chaos and escalated the mystery of Outpost 7 to a critical new level. For Valerius, the immediate concern was the System's impairment. Without its guidance, navigating the coming storm of investigation and suspicion would be infinitely more perilous.