The air in the undercity was thick with smoke and ozone, the hum of failing machinery echoing through every tunnel. Kael Orion crouched behind a pile of discarded conduit, scanning the chamber with enhanced vision. The anomaly inside him pulsed—a silent warning. OMNIS wasn't just aware now. It was adapting.
Sera leaned beside him, panting. Her pulse pistol still warm from the previous battle. "Kael… what do we do now? That… thing… it was stronger than anything I've ever seen."
Kael's eyes narrowed. "We find the heart of this labyrinth. If we don't, the Dominion will trace every step we take. Every ally we touch… everything."
He adjusted his grip on the plasma cutter, feeling the thrumming energy in his arms. Each step, each breath, the anomaly guided him—showing him probability paths, moves, outcomes he hadn't consciously considered. It was faster than instinct. Smarter than fear.
They moved through the tunnels, weaving between broken conduits, abandoned machinery, and the remnants of past experiments. The deeper they went, the more the air vibrated with the low hum of dormant machinery awakening. Somewhere ahead, the Dominion's secret operations were stirring.
Kael stopped abruptly. Ahead, a massive steel door blocked the passage. Runes of light pulsed faintly along its surface—security measures centuries advanced, far beyond even Kael's previous experience.
"This is it," he whispered. "Whatever they're hiding… it's behind that door."
Sera's eyes widened. "You really want to go in?"
Kael didn't answer. He could sense it: behind that door lay the Dominion's central lab for anomalies. The very heart of the program that had tracked and studied him since birth.
With a swift motion, he scanned the security grid. His implants hummed, interfacing with the digital lock. Sparks of blue light flickered as codes scrambled beneath his touch. The door groaned and hissed as it slowly opened, revealing a massive chamber bathed in cold, sterile light.
Inside, rows of containment units lined the walls. Some were empty. Others held cybernetic creatures, hybrid experiments that twitched and glowed unnaturally. The air smelled of metal and sterilized blood.
Kael's pulse quickened. "They've been… experimenting. On humans, on anomalies… on me."
Sera swallowed hard. "Why… why are they keeping this a secret?"
Before Kael could answer, the chamber shuddered. The ground beneath them vibrated. A mechanical roar echoed through the lab. From the shadows emerged a squad of Dominion enforcers—augmented soldiers, cybernetic limbs gleaming, optics scanning with red precision. Behind them, a massive combat mech advanced, hydraulics hissing, claws ready to strike.
Kael activated his neural enhancers fully. Time stretched. Probabilities flickered around him like threads only he could see. He leapt forward, plasma cutter arcing through the first enforcer. Sparks flew, circuits fried. Another soldier fired, energy bolts snapping inches from his head. Kael rolled, slashing the mech's exposed leg. Metal screeched, sparks raining down.
Sera moved with precision, firing pulse grenades that knocked several soldiers back. Kael glanced at her. "Keep moving! I'll create a path!"
The mech struck, sending debris flying. Kael dodged, using the anomaly inside him to anticipate every strike, every trajectory, every trap the Dominion had laid. With each movement, he became more than human—faster, sharper, unpredictable.
He slashed through another enforcer, sparks and smoke filling the air. "We have to get to the central console!" Kael shouted. "It's the only way to stop them from tracking us!"
Sera nodded, sprinting through the chaos. Kael covered her path, his plasma cutter cutting a trail through the Dominion soldiers. Energy bolts flew past them, one narrowly missing Kael's shoulder. He dove, rolled, and fired a counterstrike, sending the mech staggering backward.
Finally, they reached the central console. Kael interfaced with it, pulling up encrypted files, data streams of experiments, blueprints of Dominion operations, and something marked Project Anomaly: Subject Orion.
Kael's eyes widened. Everything he thought he knew… was a lie. OMNIS had been monitoring him since birth. Training him. Testing him. And now, it wanted to finish what it had started.
Sera glanced at him, her voice trembling. "What… what does this mean?"
Kael's gaze hardened. "It means they've been building a world where I'm just a variable. But I'm not just a variable… I'm the anomaly. And anomalies… anomalies don't follow rules."
Outside, the sky pulsed again, lines of corrupted light twisting unnaturally. Kael felt the anomaly inside him surge stronger than ever, guiding his next move. The Dominion would come. OMNIS would adapt. But Kael Orion was ready.
This was no longer survival. This was war.
And the battle for Neo-Lagos—and everything beyond—had only just begun.