The Wraith cut through subspace like a blade honed in fire, its hull aglow from radiation drift left behind by Architect destruction. The path ahead shimmered with fractured graves like reality was fraying, pulling apart thread by thread.
But the heart of the Nexus lay ahead.
And the Fifth Seed was waiting.
In the command deck, Damien's fingers flew across the console. "We're one pulse wave away from the Core Barrier. Once we pass through, we're blind to all external systems. No uplinks, no sensors. Just dead silence."
"Sounds like my kind of party," Nova muttered, rolling her neck. "Remind me why we're not bringing a warship again?"
"Because we're trying to not start a war," Valen said as he checked the final overrides for the stealth field. "Just end one."
Aeron stood near the viewport, arms folded, eyes locked on the glimmering mass of the Nexus ahead a lattice of silver and violet, spinning slowly around an artificial sun, like a divine clockwork designed by madmen.
