Chapter 32: The Sixty-Minute War

The world shrank until it was nothing more than the numbers on the holographic timer, counting down with merciless precision: [00:58:42].

Fifty-eight minutes.

In the cramped, dark ventilation shaft overlooking the enemy's heart, Lin Mei's mind raced, processing the catastrophic new reality with the speed of a combat computer. The enemy had moved up the timeline. Her army was hours away. Her carefully constructed, multi-phase battle plan was now nothing more than a useless piece of fiction.

Her internal monologue was a cascade of brutal calculations.

Option A: Retreat. Follow the original recon orders. Vanish back into the night and report the new intelligence. The team survives. The mission, however, is a catastrophic failure. The Prometheus expedition succeeds. They acquire whatever monstrous prize they seek from the Abyss. Unacceptable.

Option B: All-out Attack. Her elite, four-person recon team against twenty of the enemy's best soldiers, in a fortified chamber, with a god-machine at their back. It wasn't a battle; it would be a suicide. They might cause a minor disruption before being annihilated in seconds. A pointless, sentimental gesture. Unacceptable.

Option C: Sabotage. Abandon the original plan. Use their limited resources—stealth gear, small-scale plasma cutters, and four highly-trained soldiers—to cause as much chaos as possible. The primary target: the Rift Stabilizer. Delay the launch. Buy time. The probability of survival was low. The probability of success was even lower. But it was the only option on the board that wasn't a guaranteed, absolute failure.

She made the commander's choice. She chose the slimmest, most desperate sliver of hope.

Her fingers flew across her comms unit, sending a priority-one message to the silent, watchful gods in [Channel: Zero].

Nomad-Lead: Command, this is Recon Alpha. The enemy's operational timeline has been accelerated. Expedition launch is now in fifty-seven minutes. The main assault force is out of range. I am aborting the primary reconnaissance objective. Nomad-Lead: I am invoking operational autonomy under Protocol 7. New mission: 'Delay and Disrupt'. My team will attempt to sabotage the Rift Stabilizer directly. We will buy as much time as possible. Acknowledge.

The reply from the inner circle was almost instantaneous, a flurry of panicked, brilliant minds reacting to the crisis.

Old-Man-Jiang: "Captain, your courage is commendable, but your plan is suicide! The odds are overwhelmingly against you! Pull your team out now!"

Hephaestus: "Are you insane, woman?! My gear was designed for ghosts, not for brawlers! The Rift Destabilizer grenades and Kinetic Breachers are with the main force! You have nothing in your kit that can even scratch the Stabilizer's core shielding!"

They were right. It was an impossible, emotional decision. But it was the only one she could make.

As the debate raged, Oracle came online. His presence was a wave of absolute, cold calm that instantly silenced the channel. He did not offer comfort. He did not question her decision. He provided a solution.

Oracle: Your decision is strategically correct, Captain. A direct assault is futile. But delay is the optimal path. Oracle: You are thinking like a soldier, focusing on destroying the target. Think like an assassin. You do not need to destroy the fortress. You only need to kill the king. The Rift Stabilizer is powerful, but its king is the energy that feeds it.

A new schematic, a targeted slice from the facility's blueprints, was uploaded directly to Lin Mei's tactical visor. It showed a path through the maintenance corridors leading to a room deep in the sub-levels. A single, thick conduit was highlighted in a pulsing red.

Oracle: Chief Analyst Crystalline_Mind has already given you the key. The primary power conduit in sub-level C-3. You do not need to destroy the machine. You only need to cut its power. Oracle: Hephaestus. The recon team carries standard-issue plasma cutters. They are insufficient to sever the conduit's core. However, there is a coolant regulation junction box 17 centimeters to the left of the main power feed. A precise cut at that junction will cause a feedback loop, overloading the entire circuit from the inside. Calculate the exact coordinates for the cut. Now.

Hephaestus was stunned into silence for a moment, then his mind roared to life. Hephaestus: A feedback loop... using their own power against them... it's... yes! It's possible! Captain, I'm sending you the exact cutting pattern. You'll only get one shot at this!

The mission instantly crystallized. It was no longer a vague suicide run. It was a surgical strike. A clear, achievable, though still impossibly dangerous, objective.

Nomad-Lead: Understood. Recon Alpha is proceeding to sub-level C-3. We will sever the serpent's head.

The descent into the belly of the beast was a journey into hell.

Lin Mei led her four-person team—Swift, Echo, and the Vulture leader, Tien—through the facility's dark, labyrinthine maintenance shafts. The air was cold and hummed with the thrum of immense, barely contained power. They moved with the silent grace of phantoms, their Nyx boots absorbing every sound.

Every corner was a potential ambush. Every shadow could hide a guard. They dodged automated security drones that whirred past on their patrol routes. They froze as they heard the muffled sound of armored boots marching in a corridor above them. The tension was a physical thing, a knot of ice in the pit of the stomach.

They moved deeper, following the glowing pathway laid out for them on their visors by Oracle. After ten minutes that felt like an eternity, they reached their destination. A heavy, reinforced door labeled: [Sub-Level C-3: Primary Power Conduit Regulation].

It was guarded. Not by the elite soldiers from the expedition team, but by two Prometheus technicians in grey jumpsuits. They were monitoring a bank of consoles, their faces illuminated by the glow of energy flow charts.

Lin Mei held up a hand, her team freezing in the shadows of the corridor. She pointed at the two technicians, then pointed at herself and Tien. The message was clear: a two-person, silent takedown.

She could see the countdown clock from a monitor inside the room. [RIFT STABILIZATION: 00:14:52]

Less than fifteen minutes.

She looked at Tien. He met her gaze and gave a single, sharp nod. Her heart was a steady, powerful drum. The fear was gone, replaced by a cold, clear focus. This was her element. The eve of battle. The moment of truth.

She gave the silent, three-fingered hand signal. Three... Two... One... Go.