But the stabilization field was too small! It only covered a few meters around the wreckage! And it was highly unstable, running on a single backup power cell that couldn't last long!
Even if successful, it would only temporarily imprison the crystal, not destroy it. Furthermore, all three of them were almost entirely outside the field!
Vance's remains let out a final shriek and violently exploded, transforming into a dense mass of gray-white energy that shot like a cannonball towards the stabilization field!
"No!" Lia cried out, her data barrier shattering instantly!
*BOOOM!!!*
The energy mass slammed into the field's boundary, causing a violent explosion! The field's dark blue light flickered wildly, nearly extinguishing! The power cell in Kael's hand instantly overloaded, becoming scorching hot, cracks appearing on its surface!
"The power cell is going to blow!" Kael roared.
Was this the end? To fail at the very last moment?
In that critical instant, Kael saw Lia, collapsed at the edge of the field, barely functional. He saw Rex, outside the field, still resisting desperately but covered in wounds.
A cold, but perhaps the only, choice crystallized in his mind.
The Purification Protocol.
The final authority granted by the Director. Total destruction of the target.
Using the *Nightingale*'s main cannon, or something more extreme... triggering instability in the planetoid's core, burying the entire outpost, and this crystal, forever.
But that meant... abandoning Lia and Rex.
He looked at the overloaded power cell in his hand, then at the small, faltering, yet undeniably effective, stabilization field.
No. There was one last way... A even more insane way.
His head snapped up, looking towards the large overhead vent shaft in the lab, used for expelling experimental waste and hoisting large equipment. It was partially blocked by crystals, but maybe...
"Rex!" Kael shouted with his last strength, "Take Lia! Get back to the opening we came through! Now! Back to the *Nightingale*!"
"What? What about you?!" Rex roared, smashing another aggregate.
"I'll buy you time! That's an order!" Kael's tone brooked no argument. "Get the ship airborne, reach a safe orbit! Be ready to... execute the Purification Protocol!"
Rex understood Kael's intent instantly. He was going to use himself as bait, maybe even die with the crystal, to create an escape route for them!
"No, sir! We die together!" Rex's voice was a strangled, metallic scream.
"Go!" Kael roared. "It's the only way! Do you want Lia to die here too?! Do you want this thing spreading across the whole system?!"
Rex looked at the barely conscious Lia, then at the resolute Kael, and let out a roar of pure agony. He knew the Commander was right.
He didn't hesitate further. He charged to Lia's side, carefully scooping her up with his massive power claw, ignoring her faint struggles, and turned to make one final, desperate charge towards the crystalline opening they had entered through!
"Commander! Good luck!" Rex's bellow, filled with a metallic, grating grief, faded into the depths of the passage.
Now, in the lab, only Kael remained, along with the enraged "Pandora Stone" furiously assaulting the unstable stabilization field.
Kael looked at the increasingly hot, cracking power cell in his hand, then up at the overhead vent shaft.
A cold glint flashed in his eyes.
He wouldn't die here.
At least, not with this rock.
He had a plan. An incredibly risky plan, but one that might just create a miracle.