Chapter 12: Syndicate’s Price

The Sump was a warzone, its neon-lit stalls shattered by Syndicate and Colony skirmishes. Sylas led Veyra and Rhea through back alleys, his ghost rig cloaking them from drones. The Nexus was unraveling—holo-newsfeeds reported blackouts in the Spires, riots in the Underdistrict, and Klyros's radiation spiking, glitching the dataweb.

The Core's awakening was destabilizing everything, and Sylas was the spark.He arranged a meet with Kalia, the Syndicate's Underdistrict boss, in a derelict warehouse. Kalia was a hulking woman, her face a patchwork of scars and cyber-implants, her eyes sharp with greed. "Vren," she said, flanked by enforcers with pulse-rifles. "You've got balls, starting a war for a Core you don't have."Sylas leaned against a crate, casual despite Veyra's glare and Rhea's tense stance. "I have enough," he said, tossing Kalia a dummy shard with partial Core data—enough to tempt, not enough to threaten.

"You want the real thing? Protect me from the Enclaves and Collective. I'll split the profits."Kalia's implants whirred, scanning the shard. "You're playing every side. Why trust you?""Because I'm winning," Sylas said. "The Core's awake, Kalia. It's talking. You want a piece, you keep me alive."She laughed, but her eyes were cold. "Deal. But cross me, and I'll carve your implants out myself." She gestured to her enforcers, who dispersed to secure the warehouse. Sylas nodded, but his lenses were already planting a virus in her comms network—a failsafe. Trust was for suckers.As they left, Veyra grabbed his arm. "You're selling out the Nexus to criminals.

The Core's corruption will spread—blackouts, system failures. People will die."Sylas pulled free, his smile venomous. "People die every day. I'm just making sure it's not me." But her words lingered. The Core's glitches were escalating, and Klyros's decay was accelerating them. If the star collapsed, the Nexus would follow—Core or no Core.Rhea's optic flickered. "Got a hit on the Collective. They're rallying in Sector 10, some kind of ritual. They think the Core's their god waking up.""Then we crash the party," Sylas said. "Veyra, you're with me. That data-core's got answers, and I'm done waiting."