Marcus stepped sideways.
One of the monitors was failing.
Bands of interference rolled across the display.
Behind the static lay a vast chamber filled with transparent cultivation tanks.
Not laboratory tubes.
Massive vessels.
Each large enough to hold a man.
Or something much larger.
Most stood open.
Many were empty.
Several had burst from the inside, shattered glass hanging from twisted frames.
Dark residue stained the floor beneath them.
Symbols and biological diagrams scrolled endlessly along the edge of the screen.
Layered tissue.
A glowing core.
Branching vessels spreading through an unfamiliar body.
Noah stopped looking away.
Marcus glanced back.
"You recognize it?"
No answer.
They kept moving.
The next monitor showed something entirely different.
A natural cavern.
The walls pulsed slowly, as if alive.
Thick tendrils spread across the rock, disappearing deep into the mountain.
Creatures wandered through the darkness.
Some limped.
Some dragged broken limbs.
Without warning, several tendrils lashed forward.
One creature was caught.
Then another.
The monsters struggled desperately.
The light beneath their skin faded first.
Moments later, the crystal cores inside them went dark.
The empty husks fell to the ground.
Blue-white streams of energy raced through the tendrils and vanished deeper into the mountain.
Caleb's voice dropped.
"That thing is feeding on them."
Marcus didn't answer.
They were already passing the next bank of monitors.
Different caverns.
Different species.
The same ending.
Caught.
Drained.
Discarded.
Every screen told the same story.
Ethan slowed.
"The cores..."
Noah's eyes narrowed.
He wasn't watching the creatures anymore.
He was reading the data flowing beside the images.
Numbers climbed steadily.
Warning symbols flashed.
His expression changed.
"Marcus."
"What?"
"Keep moving."
Marcus broke into a run again.
Monitor after monitor slipped past.
One displayed another cultivation hall.
Rows of empty tanks stretched into the distance.
Another showed sealed biological containers moving automatically along a conveyor.
Another showed an assembly machine wrapping pale organic tissue around a newly formed crystal.
Another showed security gates opening as newly grown creatures disappeared into the underground caverns.
Then another screen caught Noah's attention.
Unlike the others, it wasn't a live feed.
It was an old recording.
Scientists in white protective suits stood inside a spotless laboratory.
Behind reinforced glass floated a tiny organism suspended in nutrient fluid.
A faint glow pulsed deep inside its body.
The recording accelerated.
The organism grew.
Its shape changed.
The glow became brighter.
The image ended.
Two monitors farther down, a company emblem remained frozen on the screen.
A pale spiral enclosed within a circle.
Beneath it, only one word was still readable through the static.
BIOENERGY.
Noah stared at it.
The chamber shook violently again.
Half a row of monitors went dark.
Glass shattered somewhere overhead.
Marcus kept running.
"BioEnergy..."
Noah murmured.
Caleb frowned.
"So this company built the place?"
Noah looked past him.
The cultivation tanks.
The laboratories.
The monsters.
The crystal cores.
The feeding caverns.
The tendrils running beneath the mountain.
Another monitor died.
His voice was barely above a whisper.
"They were growing it."