The massive creatures stood motionless at the center of the vast room, as still as a statue.

  Its limbs were a grotesque fusion of flesh, metal, and circuitry. The head, sunken deep into its hulking frame, was only vaguely humanoid. Black, viscous liquid dripped from its hollow, lifeless eye sockets, pooling at its feet. Thick tubes snaked across its chest and down its muscular arms before disappearing beneath the skin, pulsing faintly like veins filled with poison.

  Derek crouched behind a black, cubic formation, smooth and featureless. He had no idea what it was for, but it made for a decent hiding spot. And since nothing was actively trying to kill him right now, that was good enough. Maybe something here was interfering with their sensors.

  He shifted, angling for a better view of the Kolaar Node and its surroundings.

  The place resembled a colossal space station, with pathways radiating outward from the center into tunnels carved into the walls.

  The enormous structure seemed to serve as the central hub of the entire complex. Thick conduits of indestructible black metal, its texture faintly resembling stone, snaked outward like the tentacles of some giant octopus. At the core, a massive column flared outward like an inverted funnel, looming over a pedestal.

  And atop it, there it was: the Kolaar Node.

  A small metallic disk shimmered with seven iridescent colors. Even from afar, it glowed like a beacon. At its center, a tiny orb of silvery light pulsed in a steady rhythm. The artifact rested on a black stone pedestal, thick cables tethering it as they disappeared into the surrounding shadows.

  It was identical to the one he and Yuki had studied for so long. He’d always believed there was at least one more and now he’d finally found it.

  For years, he’d seen it only in dreams and nightmares. The memory of those sleepless nights with Yuki remained vivid: experimenting, theorizing, arguing. They had bombarded the thing with every kind of radiation they could think of, desperate to trigger any kind of reaction.

  Nothing had worked.

  A simple disk that, according to the ancient files they’d recovered, was supposed to power an entire city for centuries. If they had cracked its secrets, they could have harnessed nearly limitless energy.

  But they hadn’t.

  He’d felt like a caveman trying to understand a microprocessor by smashing it with rocks, hoping it might somehow start to glow.

  Until that final night, when something finally did. And from that moment on, his life spiraled down the drain, never to resurface.

  “Derek, are you okay?” Vanda’s soft voice pulled him from his thoughts.

  Derek blinked and cleared his throat. “Yeah. Why?”

  “I noticed irregular pulse readings. You’re under stress. I don’t usually see numbers like this, not even when you’re in combat.”

  “I’m fine, Vanda. Really. Just… digging up old memories.”

  “Okay. So, what are we doing here? Waiting for something in particular?”

  Derek bit his lip. “I’m just watching the giant beasts guarding the artifact. They seem... dead.”

  “No, Derek. They most certainly are not dead. I’m detecting faint energy fluctuations, like they’re in some kind of energy-saving mode or hibernation.”

  No good news from Vanda, as usual. The beast was massive, and its artificial parts were probably made of the same indestructible material as everything else in this place. A direct engagement sounded like a terrible idea.

  To make things worse, the creatures were positioned around the Kolaar Node to guard it from every direction, like sentinels.

  There wasn’t a single path to the artifact that didn’t take him dangerously close to one of them.

  His best chance was that those things wouldn’t be able to snap out of that hibernation state before he got out of the room with the Kolaar Node.

  “Are you finally changing your mind about this foolish mission?” Vanda asked.

  Derek shook his head. “Not at all. In fact, I think it’s time to move.” He tightened his grip on the small cylinder of the cloaking device in his hand. “Are you ready?”

  “Whenever you are.”

  Derek took a deep breath. The only silver lining was that the zombie-crabs had temporarily lost his trail. Every now and then, the metallic clicking of their movements echoed through the corridors, but so far, he’d managed to stay out of sight. Maybe they weren’t allowed into this chamber. Maybe they were even scared to enter.

  Derek lifted his head slightly, activated the cloaking device in his hand, and hurled it with all the strength his suit’s actuators could muster.

  It shot across the vast chamber like a bullet, clattering down hundreds of meters away on the far side. The impact wouldn’t even scratch it. It was built to survive battlefield conditions. It struck something with a sharp metallic clang that echoed through the room before skidding to a stop.

  “What now?” Vanda asked.

  Derek crossed his armored arms. “We wait.”

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  “Oh, that’s brilliant! When they detect the radiation from that messy cloaking device, they’ll think it’s you sneaking through the chamber,” Vanda said.

  “And when they go check it out, I slip past and grab the artifact while those giant, terrifying things are busy elsewhere.”

  “A great diversion, indeed,” Vanda replied. “I wonder how long it will take to—”

  A thunderous roar reverberated through the chamber, like a colossal engine roaring to life. A faint breeze swept through the air as the ventilation system suddenly kicked on, after who knows how many centuries.

  Derek’s gaze shot upward to the towering ceiling. Intermittent white lights flickered across its surface, which had been nothing but bare rock just moments before.

  When he looked down again, he saw them.

  The grotesque creatures were moving, their massive metallic feet stomping slowly across the ground.

  Derek blinked. His plan was actually working. They’d detected the faulty cloaking device and were heading over to check it out.

  Of course, there was also the small possibility they’d detected him too, in which case, this mission would be over very soon… and very badly.

  The creatures shambled toward the cloaked device he’d thrown, dragging their heavy metal limbs and sagging flesh with those same unsettling, jerky movements.

  It was time to move.

  Derek bolted toward the artifact, his heart pounding like a war drum. After so many missions, so much research, he had never been this close to actually grabbing it.

  The disk sat on its pedestal, the blue orb at its center pulsing faster and faster. In all his hours spent studying and experimenting on a similar artifact, he’d never seen it react like that.

  If only he could stop for a moment and run a proper scan…

  But that was out of the question. His best shot was to rip it free and get the hell out before triggering a catastrophic meltdown.

  The energy stored inside was beyond massive. Yanking it loose might blow the whole chamber sky-high. Maybe even the entire pyramid.

  But there was no time left. This was it.

  He skidded to a halt in front of the multicolored, glowing disk and grabbed the cables with both armored hands. His pulse slammed against the suit’s reinforced plating.

  He had to figure out how to disconnect them fast.

  “I think these need cutting,” Vanda said.

  “Oh, really? You think? Too bad, I was planning to take the disk with the whole pyramid still attached.”

  “Sorry, Derek, but I’m out of my depth here. I have no idea how this thing works.”

  One of the smaller monsters, barely twenty meters away, snapped its head toward him. The yellow, liquid-filled sockets trembled as it hurled itself in his direction with an unsettling screek.

  “We’re out of time. I’m doing this,” Derek said.

  He channeled energy into his arm and yanked the cables. They resisted for a moment—then snapped free with a burst of white sparks and a spray of black fluid that splattered onto the floor.

  The liquid looked disturbingly like the goo that had poured from one of the creatures he’d torn apart in the previous corridor.

  The deafening hum that had filled the chamber cut off in an instant. The flickering lights overhead died out, plunging everything into darkness, like someone had just pulled the plug.

  The creatures, however, didn’t stop moving. Quite the opposite. One by one, they turned toward him, suddenly more alert than ever. Their yellow eyes gleamed in the dark.

  The largest creature unleashed an earsplitting roar, a horrifying blend of grinding gears and guttural vocal cords.

  Derek funneled energy into the NOVA’s arms, gripped the disk by its edges, and yanked with everything he had. He nearly stumbled backward as the artifact came free without the slightest resistance.

  The light at its center pulsed relentlessly. Whatever had activated it was still functioning. If he could retrieve the artifact in its active state, he might finally uncover the answers he’d been seeking for so long. “Well, that was easy,” Derek muttered, blinking in surprise.

  “Tell that to them,” Vanda replied with a hint of anxiety in her voice.

  The creatures were closing in from all directions, their arms outstretched, ready to tear him apart. Their bodies moved in jerky motions, as if their joints were mechanisms stiffened by centuries of inactivity.

  Luckily for him, they weren’t fast. Twisted products of Wardilai technology, and without a doubt, if they caught him, it would be over.

  Derek spun and bolted toward the second-nearest exit, having been cut off from the one straight ahead, clutching the disk tightly against his chest. A strange vibration pulsed from the artifact into the structure of the NOVA. The tremor reached him even through the adaptive internal gel.

  If it exploded, it would definitely be a quick death.

  “I need the fastest route out of this hellhole,” Derek shouted.

  “I’m calculating, but it’s complicated. Just keep running.”

  “Great advice, Vanda. I was totally about to stop and ask those lovely folks for directions.”

  The mouth of the tunnel loomed closer. Once he made it into the corridors, losing his pursuers would be far easier. He just needed to hold out a little longer. Suddenly, the task didn’t seem so hopeless anymore. “I’m doing this for you, Yuki,” he muttered.

  His armored legs pounded against the stone floor, sparks flying with each step as he powered himself closer and closer to the exit.

  The creatures behind him began howling, a sound that wasn’t entirely a voice, more like an amplified metallic screech. It reverberated off the massive chamber walls, sending a shiver down his spine.

  “We’re almost there,” Derek growled through clenched teeth. Just a few more seconds, and they’d never catch him.

  A black shape swooped overhead, something formless, as though made of pure darkness.

  The tactical probability algorithm in the armor reacted faster than his human brain. His legs locked rigidly to the ground, grinding him to a halt in a cascade of sparks. His heart nearly stopped along with the NOVA.

  Panting, he watched as something resembling a black sphere smashed into the ground between him and the exit ahead. It burst like a giant water balloon, spreading dark liquid across the floor.

  Derek frowned, a terrible feeling gnawing at his gut. “What is it, Vanda?”

  “I have no idea, but I’d stay well away from that gooey thing.”

  The liquid began to coagulate, rising in a column, twisting and shifting.

  The black liquid began to stir, bubbling and twitching like it had a life of its own. It rippled once, then again, before rising in a slow, sinewy column. The goo twisted and thickened, strands of oily substance stretching upward, weaving into crude limbs and a bulging torso.

  Pulses of sickly red light flickered from deep within the mass, as if something mechanical was trying to come online from inside the sludge. Jagged metal shards pushed through the surface like bone breaking through skin, forming a makeshift exoskeleton over the viscous frame.

  Derek stared in disbelief as the creature took shape, its form solidifying, its limbs locking into place. Glowing yellow eyes snapped open within the mess of dark matter and armor plating.

  It was the same thing that had chased him earlier, only bigger, and far more grotesque.

  The creature let out a deafening metallic roar and charged.

  Derek’s stomach plummeted. “Shit.” He activated the Micro Missile Array. The cube-shaped module rose from his back, its black nozzles snapping open.

  He fired.

  The missile swarm arced into the air, adjusting sharply as it locked onto the creature.

  Derek didn’t wait to see the impact. That wasn’t going to stop them, not for long. But maybe it’d buy him a few seconds.

  He sprinted toward the nearest exit, but some of the creatures were already on the move, shifting to cut him off. Smaller ones emerged from the shadows, closing in fast from every direction.

  A series of explosions erupted behind him. The missiles had struck. The shockwave hit him, but the Neutronsteel armor absorbed it effortlessly. He used the force of the blast to propel himself forward, gaining speed as the momentum carried him. Clenching the Kolaar Node with one arm, he deployed the plasma cannon with the other one.

  “Derek, that weapon is risky in here,” Vanda warned.

  “That’s the idea.” He aimed at the nearest creatures and fired two quick bursts. The time for caution had ended a long time ago.

  The golden plasma bolts tore through the creatures like they were made of smoke, slamming into the far wall and ricocheting toward the ceiling.

  The gaping holes in the creatures’ bodies, each the size of a soccer ball, sealed up within seconds. The monstrosities didn’t falter.

  Derek kept running, his heart pounding even faster than his footsteps. He didn’t need to look back to know the massive beast he’d hit with the missiles was still on his tail.

  Its roar shook the walls and rattled his bones.

  Golden streaks of plasma zipped past him, ricocheting off the indestructible walls and bouncing wildly around the massive hall, each one leaving a trail of lethal, glowing light.

  If one hit him while he was in lighter armor mode, it would probably punch straight through.

  But switching to heavier plating was out of the question. He couldn’t afford to slow down, not now.

  His only chance was to outrun them and make sure they lost his trail. They didn’t seem particularly agile or smart. He could do this.

  Vanda shouted, “Derek, watch out!”

  He turned just in time to see one of the creatures raising a gnarled limb above him. It shifted into a black metal claw and arced downward in one fluid, deadly motion.

  Derek froze in disbelief as the enormous claw descended to him. How had that huge, slow creature gotten close without him noticing? A sudden burst of golden light tore through the creature’s arm, sending the claw spinning through the air as black goo sprayed in all directions.

  A plasma ricochet had just saved him! He’d probably just used up a lifetime’s worth of luck.

  But the flash ricocheted again off the wall, and his armor’s algorithm instantly flared with a warning: incoming projectile.

  In that exact millisecond, Derek knew he couldn’t avoid it. His luck had finally run out.

  Instinctively, he raised one arm to shield himself from the inevitable impact, while the other clutched the Kolaar Node with irrational desperation, like he could somehow hold onto it even in death.

  Then, without warning, the brightest white light he had ever seen erupted from the artifact.

  It burst like a supernova.

  And then, only darkness.