The heavy blast doors of Hangar Bay 4 ground open, admitting a surge of frigid, smog-laden air and the rhythmic stomp of armored boots. Kai watched through the optical sensors of the Widowmaker as a phalanx of the Iron Dominion's elite Iron Guard filed in. They weren't like the sleek, silent sentinels of Neo-Veridia. These men were encased in jagged, industrial power-armor, their movements accompanied by the hiss of high-pressure steam and the smell of ozone.
In the center of the formation walked General Kross. He was a man carved from the same hard minerals the Dominion mined, his face a map of thermal burns and military discipline. He stopped fifty feet from the feet of the Vanguard-Sigma, looking up at the towering machine with cold, evaluating eyes.
General Kross: "Commander Roric. You were ordered to scrap this prototype three cycles ago. It has already cost the lives of four master pilots and nearly leveled a research block. Why is it active?"
Roric stood his ground, his hands clasped behind his back, the scarred tissue of his face illuminated by the machine's internal red glow.
Roric: "Because General, I found the missing component. It wasn't a hydraulic buffer or a lead-shielded processor. It was an analyst who knows how to hold a lightning storm in his bare hands."
Kross shifted his gaze to the cockpit hatch, though he could not see Kai through the armored glass.
General Kross: "The Analyst from Neo-Veridia. The Oracle has sent three diplomatic ultimatums in the last hour demanding his return. They claim he is an 'unstable data leak.' I don't care about their data. I care that a civilian from the high-rise cities is currently piloting the most dangerous weapon in my arsenal."
Kai gripped the control sticks, feeling the faint, agonizing thrum of the Widowmaker's core vibrating through his seat. His neural link pulsed. The interference loop he'd constructed was holding, but the machine was hungry. It felt like the core was trying to taste his thoughts, testing the boundaries of the stability he provided.
General Kross: "Analyst Kai. Walk toward the Guard. We will verify the unit's stability protocols. If the core fluctuates by even a micro-percent, my men will breach the chassis and extract you by force."
Kai looked at his HUD. The energy readings were jagged mountains of red light.
P(textStability): 81.2%... 80.9%...
"I can't just 'walk,' General," Kai's voice echoed through the hangar's speaker system, sounding metallic and distorted. "The stabilization loop is localized. Every step shifts the Industrial Flow distribution. If I rush, the interference pattern collapses. You'll have a crater where this hangar used to be."
General Kross: "Then solve it. You are an analyst. Analyze."
Kai closed his eyes, leaning into the roar of the core. He had to be perfect. He reached into his nearly empty Primal Flow reserves. It felt like scraping the bottom of a dry well.
Anchor point: Left leg, pressure valve. Reflection point: Torso heat sink.
He willed the probability of the machine's center of gravity remaining static during the step to surge. He felt the cold drain of his affinity, the phantom needle of pain behind his eyes growing sharper.
The Widowmaker took a single, ponderous step. The floor didn't just vibrate; it groaned under the impossible weight. The Iron Guard lowered their weapons slightly, their tracking sensors readjusting.
Roric: "Do you see it, Kross? Look at the gauge. The Industrial Flow isn't resisting him; it's following him. He isn't fighting the Widowmaker. He's becoming the brain it was never designed to have."
Kross stepped closer, a daring move given the proximity to the prototype's massive limbs.
General Kross: "If he can hold this sync, he's more than a component. He's the foundation for the Reclamation Fleet. We've been unable to push into the Scourge zones beneath Sector 4 because our traditional cores shatter under the reality distortion. But if he can anchor the Flow..."
He trailed off, a glint of predatory ambition entering his hard eyes.
General Kross: "Analyst, the Dominion is at war with its own decay. The Prismatic Array anchors beneath this city are swarmed by Scourge-entities that feed on our Industrial waste. If you stabilize those anchors, I will offer you political asylum that even The Oracle cannot override. You will be a Hero of the Dominion."
Kai tightened his grip. Asylum. It was a tempting lie. But he knew what "Hero of the Dominion" meant—it meant being a permanent battery for their war machines until his soul burned out.
Roric: "General, he needs downtime to calibrate the loop. He's nearly empty."
General Kross: "He has thirty minutes. Then we march. The Reclamation Fleet is ready, but they need a Vanguard to breach the first gate. Kai is that Vanguard."
Kross turned and barked orders to his guards. They set up a security perimeter, turning the hangar into a makeshift fortress.
Inside the cockpit, the tension finally snapped. Kai unhooked the neural probe and slumped forward, gasping. His synthetic suit was soaked, and his skin felt like it was humming.
Roric's face appeared on a small monitorside screen.
Roric: "You did well. Kross believes he owns a new god. But listen, Kai. The anchors in Sector 4... they are worse than he thinks. The Scourge there has begun mimicking the Industrial Flow. It's no longer just distortion; it's an evolution."
"Why are you telling me this?" Kai asked, his voice a hoarse whisper. "You're his subordinate."
Roric: "I am the man who built the Widowmaker. I built it to defend the Dominion, not to feed Kross's hunger for conquest. In Sector 4, the Array is exposed. If we can reach the center, you can do more than stabilize the anchor. You can reset the nation's Flow frequency to cleanse the corruption. It will hurt the military output, but it will save the people."
Kai looked at the flashing 1% on his Primal Affinity gauge. He was a man made of borrowed time.
Roric: "Think fast, Analyst. We move in twenty-nine minutes. Either you be the General's pawn, or you be the world's bridge. Choose your probability."
Kai looked at the dark, heavy hangar, the armored men outside, and the lightning storm behind him. He didn't want to be a hero. He just wanted the code to make sense again.