The interior of the Archive didn't feel like a building; it felt like the inside of a massive, frozen brain. Lines of data, glowing like blue veins, pulsed along the obsidian walls. In the center, the hologram of the "Sister" ship pulsed—a sleek, serpentine vessel identified as the Aurelian Wing.
"She's in the Helios Sector," Elis whispered, her holographic form darting between data streams. "Locked in a gravity well of a dying star. But Kael, there's a lock on the coordinates. To unlock the full nav-data, you need to—"
"WARNING," Ignis's voice boomed, vibrating the very stone of the pyramid. "THE SKY IS BREAKING."
Kael ran back to the entrance of the Archive. Looking up, his stomach dropped.
The orange clouds of Zul-Karak were being shredded by massive, black needles. Vorthax Drop-Pods. Dozens of them, trailing streaks of red fire, were slamming into the silver dunes around the pyramid.
"They didn't send a scouting party," Valerius growled, slamming his helmet shut. the green glow of his visor flared with murderous intent. "They sent a Legion."
The pods hissed open. Out stepped the Vorthax Centurions. Unlike the Skulkers, these were heavy-combat units—eight feet of reinforced obsidian-steel, carrying twin-linked plasma repeaters and thermal shields.
"Kael, get back inside and finish the download!" Valerius commanded, drawing his vibrating greatsword. "I'll hold the threshold."
"Against all of them?" Kael shouted. "Valerius, there are hundreds!"
"Then it is an even fight," the General replied. He stepped out onto the silver sand, his cape snapping in the wind.
"I WILL ASSIST," Ignis roared from above.
The Celestial Vanguard descended from the clouds, its belly-turrets opening fire. Golden bolts of energy rained down from the ship, turning the sand into glass where they struck. But the Vorthax were relentless. They deployed Anti-Orbit Pylons, firing beams of red suppression energy that forced Ignis to pull back into the upper atmosphere.
"You're on your own for a bit, boys!" Elis yelled over the comms. "I've got three interceptors on my tail!"
Kael turned back to the console. His hands were shaking. "Elis, how do I unlock the map?"
"The Archive requires a Starborn Signature," Elis's voice cracked with static. "You have to 'sign' the data with your energy. But be careful—if you give too much, the Archive will drain you dry."
Kael grabbed the central data-pillar. He closed his eyes and reached for the spark.
Tier 1.5. It isn't enough.
He pushed harder. He didn't just look for the current; he became the current. He felt the vast history of the Starborn—the thousands of years of light, the sacrifice of the seven ships, the crushing weight of the Vorthax invasion.
His eyes snapped open, glowing with a fierce, blinding violet.
Resonance Spike: Tier 1.8... Tier 2.0!
"Accessing..." a mechanical voice echoed through the room. "Map decrypted. Relaying to Celestial Vanguard."
BOOM.
The entrance to the Archive exploded.
Kael was thrown backward as stone fragments whizzed past his head. Through the smoke, a Vorthax Commander stepped in. It was different from the others—its armor was white-gold, and it didn't carry a gun. Instead, it had a long, whip-like cable of red energy extending from its wrist.
"The anomaly," the Commander droned. Its voice was a multi-layered chorus of a thousand stolen souls. "You are the spark that will complete our integration."
"I'm the spark that's going to short-circuit you," Kael spat, scrambling to his feet.
The Commander lashed out with the energy whip. Kael rolled, the red line cutting a deep trench into the obsidian floor.
Don't just dodge, Valerius's voice echoed in his mind. Feel the rhythm.
Kael watched the whip. He saw the red energy coil. He reached out, not with his hands, but with his will. At Tier 2.0, he could see the "code" of the whip—a simple loop of thermal energy.
"Break," Kael whispered.
He snapped his fingers. A pulse of blue magic hit the whip. The red energy didn't just stop; it inverted. The whip shattered into a shower of sparks, the feedback travelng up the Commander's arm and blowing its shoulder-plating off.
"Impossible," the machine-voice glitched.
"I'm a User," Kael said, his voice deep and resonant. "And you're just a bug."
He lunged forward, his fist wreathed in a swirling vortex of Starborn light. He punched the Commander square in its optical sensor.
CRACK.
The Vorthax unit didn't just break; it was erased from the waist up by a concentrated blast of cosmic energy.
Kael gasped, his knees buckling. The Tier 2 burst had drained him.
"Kael! The download is complete!" Elis shouted. "Ignis is coming in hot for a low-altitude pickup! Get out of there!"
Kael grabbed the Cube and sprinted through the smoke. Outside, the dunes were a warzone. Valerius was a whirlwind of amber light, surrounded by the scrap-metal remains of twenty Centurions.
"General! Now!" Kael yelled.
The Celestial Vanguard roared overhead, its ramp lowering just feet above the sand. Valerius grabbed Kael by the collar of his suit and leaped.
They slammed onto the metal ramp as Ignis pulled into a vertical climb, the G-force threatening to crush them. Red plasma bolts chased them into the sky, but they were already gone, punching through the atmosphere and into the cold, dark safety of the void.
On the bridge, Kael collapsed into the captain's chair.
"We got it," he wheezed, looking at the blinking coordinate on the screen. "The Helios Sector. The Aurelian Wing."
"Good job, kid," Valerius said, removing his helmet. He was bleeding from a cut on his forehead, but he was smiling. "You hit Tier 2. Most Starborn take years to reach that."
"I had a good reason to hurry," Kael said, looking at the screen.
"Kael," Elis said softly, her hologram appearing on the armrest. "I have the data on the Aurelian Wing. But there's a problem."
"What kind of problem?"
"The ship isn't just floating there," Elis said. "It's being used as a prison. And the Vorthax aren't the ones guarding it."
"Then who is?"
"The Star-Eaters," Elis whispered. "The shadows that even the Vorthax are afraid of."