The separation felt like tearing away part of her soul. Emma watched Lucas and Chloe disappear into the swirling grey static, their forms swallowed by the chaotic twilight of the failing prison. Every instinct screamed against splitting their forces, but the mathematics were cruel and absolute. Two Anchors. One point two hours. No alternatives.
[Auren: Tactical Protocol 'Hammer and Scalpel' ACTIVE. Displaying dual-team telemetry. WARNING: Environmental energy drain is constant. Estimated Time to Containment Breach: 1.1 Shifts.]
Emma's HUD expanded, a small secondary window materializing in her peripheral vision. Two sets of vital signs pulsed in the corner of her awareness: Lucas's steady, determined heartbeat and Chloe's elevated but controlled rhythm. The connection felt fragile, stretched across the dimensional void like a lifeline that could snap at any moment.
"Gray, how's your cloaking matrix?" Emma asked, her voice barely above a whisper as they approached the outskirts of Anchor Gamma's sector.
"Stable for now," Gray replied, his holographic form flickering as he calibrated his Techsynth gauntlet. "But the corruption is interfering with my projections. The constructs' new signatures are harder to mask against."
Through the comm channel, Lucas's voice crackled with static and barely contained aggression. "Contact! Multiple bogeys inbound!"
The secondary window in Emma's HUD exploded with combat data. Lucas's armor integrity dropped from green to yellow as something massive struck him. Chloe's energy readings spiked wildly, raw Stormgleam power bleeding through her grief like molten gold.
Meanwhile, Team Gamma moved like ghosts through the larger, more stable Lattice structures surrounding Anchor Gamma. Where Team Alpha carved a path of destruction, they slipped between shadows, each step carefully calculated. Emma actively suppressed her power, forcing the stellar fire within her down to a mere three percent output. The effort was like trying to contain a supernova with bare hands.
[Power Output at 3%. Warning: Suppression is causing passive energy bleed. It's inefficient and straining.]
"I know," Emma muttered through gritted teeth. Every second of suppression sent waves of exhaustion through her body, but a single flare of her true power would light up every sensor in the sector.
Aisha moved beside her with predatory grace, her enhanced eye scanning patrol routes while her prosthetic arm whirred softly with each precise movement. "Two constructs, bearing northeast. They'll pass our position in thirty seconds."
Gray's cloaking field shimmered around them, a bubble of distorted space that made the corrupted constructs' Order-based sensors slide past them like water. Through the distortion, Emma watched two of the geometric guardians drift by, their once-pure white light now veined with sickly darkness that pulsed in rhythm with some malevolent heartbeat.
[Stealth Protocol Engaged. Psionic signature masked. Move on my mark... Three... two... one... NOW.]
They sprinted across an open gap between cover, Aisha's Speedvance carrying them in a silent MFTL burst that lasted less than a heartbeat. Emma's suppressed power wanted to explode outward with each step, but she held it down, sweat beading on her forehead from the strain.
Across the dimension, Team Alpha's battle reached a crescendo of violence.
"Left!" Lucas roared, his voice carrying across the comm as his secondary window showed his position surrounded by a dozen constructs.
"Covering!" Chloe's reply was punctuated by the distinctive whine of unleashed Stormgleam energy. Emma watched her teammate's power readings spike impossibly high, grief and rage feeding her abilities beyond their normal limits.
The sound of Lucas's Kineticvance impacts echoed through the comm like thunder. Each punch carried the force of a tactical weapon, shattering corrupted constructs and sending their remains tumbling into the void. But for every one destroyed, two more emerged from the failing Lattice debris.
"On me!" Lucas's command was followed by the distinctive grinding of metal on metal as he physically smashed two massive fragments together, crushing the constructs caught between them.
Emma felt a surge of pride watching their perfect, brutal coordination through the tactical feed. Lucas and Chloe moved as one organism, their shared grief over Markus forging them into something devastating and beautiful. They didn't need words beyond the essential; their bond had been tempered in loss and emerged stronger.
Team Gamma reached the edge of a deep chasm filled with static discharge, the gap between them and Anchor Gamma's platform. The corrupted constructs patrolled in predictable patterns, but the margin for error was nonexistent.
"There," Aisha whispered, pointing to a narrow bridge of failing light that spanned the chasm. "But it's exposed. We'll be visible for at least forty seconds during the crossing."
Emma studied the tactical display, weighing risks against the dwindling time. "We take it. Gray, can your cloaking hold during movement?"
"Barely," Gray admitted, his form flickering with uncertainty. "The energy drain from maintaining the field while mobile will push my systems to critical levels."
They began the crossing, each step a calculated risk on the treacherous bridge of rusted light. Halfway across, the Formless Hunger's attention found them, and the psychic assault began in earnest.
Gray stumbled first, his hands clutching his head as visions flooded his quantum consciousness. Emma watched through their link as his Techsynth systems failed repeatedly in phantom scenarios, leaving him helpless and purely human. The logical framework that defined his existence crumbled in each vision, replaced by chaotic terror.
"No," Gray gasped, his holographic form destabilizing. "Not real. Just projections. Data streams can't be trusted."
Aisha's assault was more insidious. Whispers caressed her mind, showing her arm and eye restored to perfect organic form, but crafted from the same corrupting shadow that infected the constructs. The temptation was surgical in its precision, offering her the completion she had never acknowledged wanting.
"I am whole as I am," Aisha said through clenched teeth, her prosthetic whirring defiantly. "My scars are my strength."
But Emma's test was the cruelest. The voices of her Corrupted Double and Arydra filled her mind with intimate knowledge of her deepest fears.
"See? They left you. You are alone. This stealth is a coward's game. Let go. Be the storm they fear."
The suppressed power writhed against her control, eager to break free and announce their presence to everything in the dimension. Emma felt the familiar temptation to abandon subtlety, to meet force with overwhelming force as she had done so many times before.
Instead, she placed a steady hand on Gray's shoulder, sharing Auren's psionic shielding through their connection. The contact stabilized his quantum matrix, pushing back the invasive visions.
"Stay with us, Gray. We're almost there."
Their unity became their shield, each supporting the others against the psychic tide. They pushed forward, step by careful step, as the bridge groaned beneath them.
Team Alpha's situation deteriorated rapidly. Through the tactical feed, Emma watched Lucas and Chloe break through the last of the construct swarm, only to face something far worse.
The platform before Anchor Beta began to writhe and corrupt, the rusted metal flowing like liquid as the Formless Hunger's direct attention focused on stopping them. The debris coalesced, rising into a colossal form that dwarfed even Lucas's enhanced physique.
A hundred meters of corrupted metal and dark light formed a golem with no face, only a swirling vortex of shadow where its core should be. When it struck with a fist the size of a building, the impact sent shockwaves through the dimensional fabric itself.
[WARNING! Team Alpha has encountered a Tier-7 class Golem! Lucas_Valerius - Leg armor integrity 15%! Vitals dropping!]
Emma watched Lucas's health indicators plummet as he took the brunt of the impact, his left leg armor shattering under the tremendous force. Chloe's energy readings spiked as she tried to cover him, but her grief-fueled power wasn't designed for prolonged defensive combat.
"We're not gonna make it, Em!" Lucas's voice crackled across the comm, pain and desperation bleeding through his usual stoicism. "It's too strong!"
Emma felt the weight of command crushing down on her shoulders. Two battles, two teams, one impossible choice. Through her suppressed connection to the Star-Walker's power, she could feel the solution forming, dangerous and desperate.
[Calculating... A long-range, high-energy kinetic strike is possible but will expose your position to all constructs in this sector. Probability of success: 72%.]
Seventy-two percent. In any other situation, those odds would be unacceptable. But with Lucas's vitals dropping and Chloe fighting a losing battle against impossible odds, acceptable was a luxury they couldn't afford.
"Gray! Find me a weak point on that thing! NOW!" Emma's command cut through the psychic static like a blade.
Gray's systems flared to life, his quantum consciousness pushing through the lingering effects of the mental assault. His enhanced sensors focused on the golem through the tactical link, analyzing energy patterns and structural weaknesses.
"Its core! A vortex of unstable energy in its chest!" Gray's voice gained strength as his logical mind reasserted control. "It's shielded, but the shield flickers in a predictable pattern! On my mark!"
Emma stopped moving, planting her feet firmly on the light bridge despite Aisha's worried glance. She held out her right arm, closing her eyes and reaching deep into the stellar fire she had been suppressing. The power responded eagerly, condensing into a single point of infinite density at her fingertips.
Around them, the air began to distort from the gravitational effects of so much energy compressed into such a small space. The bridge beneath their feet groaned ominously.
Through the tactical feed, Emma watched the golem raise its massive fist for what would certainly be a killing blow against Lucas. Time stretched, each heartbeat an eternity as Gray's calculations reached their conclusion.
"MARK!" Gray shouted.
Emma released everything.
The beam that lanced across the dimension was barely visible, a needle-thin line of pure Kineticvance and Stormgleam energy that traveled at faster-than-light speeds. Not an explosion or a wide-area blast, but a focused projectile carrying the compressed fury of a dying star.
The golem's fist was descending toward Lucas when the beam struck. It hit the vortex core in the exact moment the protective shield flickered, penetrating the swirling darkness with surgical precision.
For a heartbeat, nothing happened. Then the golem simply stopped, its massive form frozen mid-strike like a statue of corrupted metal. The vortex core collapsed inward with a silent implosion that sent ripples through local spacetime.
The entire construct crumbled into dust, its hundred meters of malevolent presence reduced to a pile of inert debris in seconds.
Lucas and Chloe stared in shock at the dissipating remains, their tactical displays showing the impossible energy signature that had just crossed half the dimension to save them.
But Emma's gambit came with a price that made her stomach clench with dread.
The energy release had acted like a flare in the darkness, announcing Team Gamma's position to everything in their sector. Across the failing prison, every corrupted construct stopped its patrol pattern and turned toward them with predatory focus.
Alarms began blaring through the dimensional fabric, a cacophony of warnings and alerts that made the very air vibrate with urgency. The stealth approach was over. Team Gamma stood exposed on their precarious bridge, mere yards from Anchor Gamma, with an army of corrupted constructs converging on their position.
And Team Alpha was still too far away to help.