Sector Zero wasn't a place. It was a warning.
Purple mist coiled thick as soup, swallowing sound and light. Jagged metal spines jutted from the ground like the ribs of a dead god. And the silence… heavier than Grudge's fist.
[ENTROPIC ENERGY: CRITICAL]
[WARNING: GEARGRINDER TERRITORY]
Ethan limped behind Grudge, leg throbbing. The enforcer stopped at a corroded pylon topped with a shattered sensor dish, Mama Knox's "eyes" in the gloom. Wires dangled like guts.
"Fix it," Grudge growled. "Mama wants diagnostics by sundown. Or I use your bones for spare parts." He spat near Ethan's boot and lumbered away, leaving him alone in the Geargrinder's den.
The sensor was a relic pre-System tech jury-rigged with mana crystals. Its core was fried, veins of entropic corrosion snaking through its circuits. Ethan placed a palm on the pylon.
[ABSORBING ENTROPIC INTERFERENCE... +0.08%]
`[TOTAL: 0.40%]
Warmth eased his leg's ache. He focused, pulling decay from the damaged wires like poison from a wound. Rust flaked away. Frayed copper gleamed.
SKREEEE…
The sound vibrated in his molars. The Geargrinder materialized ten feet away, its core pulsing slow, curious purple. Blades retracted. Pressors lowered. It didn't attack. It… observed.
[ANALOGY: PREDATOR STUDYING PREY'S TOOL USE]
Ethan forced calm. It didn't kill me before. Mama stopped it. Maybe…
He ripped a strip from his shirt, soaked it in machine oil from his pocket, and offered it.
The Geargrinder tilted its head. A whirring limb extended, not a blade, but a delicate pincer. It took the rag, retracted, and vanished into the mist.
Okay. Not food. But maybe… currency?
Ethan returned to the sensor. With purified components, he rerouted power from a cracked mana crystal. Sparks flew. The dish hummed…
SKREEE-ACK!
A jagged error code flashed across the sensor's screen:
[FOREIGN FREQUENCY DETECTED: SOLAR LEGION ENCRYPTION BETA]
A transmission? Here?
The Geargrinder reappeared, core flaring crimson. It slammed a limb down, cracking concrete, not at Ethan, but at the sensor pylon's base. Dirt exploded, revealing a buried Solar Legion comms buoy, its light pulsing stealth-blue.
"Shit,"Ethan breathed. Aris was spying on the Scrap Pile.
The Geargrinder's core blazed. Blades extended aimed at the buoy.
"Wait!" Ethan scrambled forward. "If you destroy it, they'll know we found it! They'll send worse!"
The Geargrinder froze. Its core cycled purple → red → deep, thoughtful indigo.
Slowly, agonizingly, Ethan dismantled the buoy. He handed its power core, a humming sphere of S-Rank tech,to the Geargrinder. The entity took it, the core vanishing into its chest cavity like a gem set in scrap.
SKRrrr… A sound almost like… satisfaction.
The Geargrinder melted back into the mist. The sensor screen flickered green,
[DIAGNOSTICS: NOMINAL]
[ENTROPIC INTERFERENCE: CLEARED]
Ethan slumped against the pylon. He'd survived. And made… not an ally. A fragile understanding.
Meanwhile;
Lena watched Razor's compound through cracked binoculars. F-Tier slaves hauled rubble from a collapsed admin office under the whips of thugs.
"Stabilizer's deep," she muttered. "Razor's got it guarded like his last brain cell."
Kai materialized beside her, smelling of ozone and garbage. "Guard rotation's every seven minutes. Plasma rifles set to 'stun',probably wants slaves alive. Boring." He grinned. "Distraction?"
Lena pulled a modified car battery from her pack. "Overload their perimeter lights. Five seconds of chaos."
"Perfect." Kai vanished.
Chaos erupted. Lights exploded in showers of sparks. Thugs cursed, slaves scattered. Lena slipped through shadows into the excavation pit—and froze.
Inside a makeshift tent, Razor stood over a table, a Dungeon Core Stabilizer glowing beside him. But he wasn't admiring it. He spoke into a sleek Legion transmitter:
"—tonight, yeah? Tell Thorne his 'package' is ready. The Stabilizer… and the Scrap Pile's location logs. Mama Knox's little empire? It's gonna make one hell of a bonfire."
Lena's blood turned to ice. Aris. He's selling out the Pile!
Razor turned, eyes narrowing. "—gotta go. Trash is snooping." He clipped the transmitter to his belt.
Lena ducked behind a crate. Too late.
"Well, well." Razor's voice oozed venom. "The cripple and her rat. Where's your Entropy freak?"
Kai dropped beside Lena, hands raised. "Just admiring your… face, boss! The melted look? Very avant-garde."
Razor's scarred cheek twitched. Two thugs trained plasma rifles on them. "Search them."
A thug yanked Lena's pack, spilling tools. Another patted down Kai, and froze. "Boss! He's got a Ghost Mark!" He held up the bloodstained token Kai stole earlier.
Razor snatched it. "My mark. From Jax's corpse."His eyes burned. "You looted my dead?"
Kai's grin didn't waver. "Salvage rights, boss! Besides, I'm trustworthy! Swear on my momma's grave."
"You're a rat," Razor hissed. "And rats, rat people out." He drew a serrated knife. "Can't have that before my big trade… Guts'll keep you quiet 'til then."
He lunged,
"BOSS!" A thug burst in, panting. "We have prepared everything for the trade with Thorne. And Mama Knox instructed for the slaves to be given a break !"
Razor snarled, knife hovering an inch from Kai's stomach. "Tch. Saved by the scrap witch." He shoved Kai hard. "Cage them with the slaves! I'll peel their skin after I deal with Thorne."
As thugs dragged them away, Kai winked at Razor. "Hate to miss your skincare routine, boss! That complexion needs work!"
Razor's roar followed them into the dark.
The slave pen reeked of fear and unwashed bodies. Lena scanned the rusted bars. "Can you phase us out?"
Kai rattled the lock. "Needs metal contact. This crap's too corroded." He slumped. "Sorry, Lena. Got cocky."
"Shut up and think," Lena snapped. She eyed the Stabilizer glowing on Razor's table twenty feet away. "That's our ticket out. If we can reach it…"
"With what? Hopes and dreams?"
Lena pulled a small, dented device from her boot, a frequency sniffer salvaged earlier. "Razor's transmitter. He left it on." She powered it on. A red light blinked, active signal.
"Solar Legion Encryption Beta," she whispered. "Same as the buoy Ethan found."
Kai's eyes lit up. "Can you hijack it? Send a distress call? To, I dunno… literally anyone else?"
"Only one person crazy enough to come." Lena typed furiously, overriding protocols. "And he owes us."
The sniffer beeped, [SIGNAL BURST SENT: UNABLE TO TRACE RECIPIENT]
Lena smiled grimly. "Message sent: 'Razor selling Pile to Aris. Stabilizer key. Cage by admin office. Bring snacks. —L & Rat.'"
Kai groaned. "Snacks? Really?"
"Priorities, Kai."
Ethan limped into the Scrap Pile's clearing, the repaired sensor diagnostic chip in hand. Grudge waited, arms crossed.
"Took you long enough, F-Tier. Mama's waiting."
Before Ethan could respond, a tiny green light flashed on his wrist, Lena's entropy tracker band (gifted pre-Sector Zero). A coded pulse
.. .-.. .- -. -.. -.- .- .. / -.-. .- --. . -..
(I-L-A-N-D-K-A-I / C-A-G-E-D)
And coordinates.
Ethan's fist clenched. [ENTROPY: 0.40%]. Not enough. Not against Razor's plasma rifles.
He looked past Grudge, toward the swirling purple mist of Sector Zero. An idea sparked, terrible and brilliant.
"Grudge," Ethan said, voice cold. "Tell Mama her sensor's fixed… and her traitor's name is Razor. He's got a Solar Legion transmitter. And he's trading the Scrap Pile to Aris Thorne."
Grudge's face contorted with rage. "Liar!"
Ethan held up the diagnostic chip. [AUDIO LOG: SOLAR LEGION ENCRYPTION BETA - VOICE PRINT: RAZOR] Razor's tinny voice played: "…tell Thorne his package is ready…"
Grudge's roar shook the scrap piles. "TRAITOR!" He snatched the chip and stormed toward Mama Knox's compound.
Ethan didn't follow. He turned and walked back toward Sector Zero. Toward the mist. Toward the low, grinding purr of a waiting Geargrinder.
He needed a bigger weapon.
And Sector Zero had one.