Chapter 56: The Living Halls

Bekka drove one gauntlet into another creature’s chest, releasing a cyclone that pinned it against the folding wall behind her.

Leo dropped beneath the first sentry’s blades, sliding across the tilted floor while its hooked arms cut through empty air.

"These things keep growing, so cutting them apart might make our problem uglier," Bekka warned.

"Then break their joints and keep them away from the prisoner pods while I open a route forward," he answered.

Kage surged from the floor and caught two sentries together, crushing their narrow bodies beneath twelve feet of living shadow.

The creatures twisted inside its jaws without bleeding, sending black roots through the beast’s muzzle and trying to reach Leo’s bond.

He swung The Null Razor through the roots, slicing the connection before the invading threads could enter their shared senses.

[ Vorn Hull Sentry Weakness Identified ]

[ Sever Neural Root Before Structural Regeneration ]

"Cut the wall cords, because they feed new bodies whenever we strike again," Leo called.

She ducked under a hooked arm and trapped its elbow, turning through the strike before firing wind into the exposed joint.

The limb tore free, revealing a pulsing cord that stretched toward the ceiling and tightened as the creature tried retreating.

"I found your ugly little leash," she said, catching the cord between her gauntlets before ripping it apart.

The sentry collapsed into loose plates, leaving the passage clear while the remaining creatures rushed from both walls together.

Leo planted one foot and released a Void Arc through the center of their charge.

The spatial crescent crossed every neural root without touching the prisoner pods, dropping six sentries before their weapons reached him.

Bekka struck the last pair with a rising cyclone, lifting them toward Kage as the beast snapped both cords at once.

Silence returned to the gallery, broken only by coolant moving beneath their feet and the collision alarm pulsing through the hull.

[ Estimated Impact: 11 Minutes 26 Seconds ]

[ Planetary Scan Completion: 12 Minutes 53 Seconds ]

"The crash happens first, which means stopping the collision route comes before killing their scan," she said, reading both clocks.

"Vrak controls both systems, so reaching him solves everything if we move quickly," Sierra replied.

Her signal broke apart after the warning, leaving a trail of static while the corridor folded into another path ahead.

Leo touched the beast link and sent Kage through a vent shadow, asking it to find command without alerting more sentries.

The corridor swallowed the beast without resistance, carrying its senses through narrow channels that twisted around the reactor vault.

The bond showed shock drones guarding a shaft and one sealed chamber burning with energy.

"Kage found the reactor, but thirty drones are sitting between us and the only chamber that matters," he said.

"Thirty sounds manageable after twelve walls tried eating us, although my gauntlets are already running hot," she replied.

She vented frost from both wrists while following him deeper, keeping one hand near the pods as they passed the captives.

"We still come back for them, ghost boy, because I heard your promise even with the ship screaming around us," she added.

"We return with the key, then Tempest carries every survivor holding the harness," Leo promised.

The passage opened above a shaft where gravity pulled sideways, making hundreds of cables hang toward a glowing door below them.

Shock drones floated between the cables, turning their round heads as Kage’s shadow slipped across the chamber beneath their sensors.

"The ship is blocking Sierra now, so we lose her directions if that door isn’t command," Bekka whispered beside him.

"The All-Spark is pulling toward it, and Vrak wants me close enough to trap, which makes that our door," he answered.

He dropped into the shaft, catching one cable while nearby drones charged their weapons together.

Bekka followed with her gauntlets firing backward, using each burst to change direction as electric rounds filled the chamber.

The first bolt struck his shoulder and spread across his coat, feeding energy into Material Absorption before reaching his skin.

He caught the next discharge along the blade, storing its force while Kage climbed from below and covered the drones in darkness.

"Pull them together and keep their guns pointed away from the pods above us," he ordered through the shared bond.

Kage wrapped ten drones inside its shadow, forcing their weapons to fire against neighboring shields.

He released the stored charge through a Void-Pulse Palm, sending the force across their linked frames and shutting them down together.

Bekka spun around a cable and kicked a drone into the wall, following with a cyclone scattering pieces down the shaft.

"Twenty left, and the ship just opened more vents beneath us," she warned, seeing red lights appear around the command door.

"Hold the upper cables while I cut the lower formation, then follow before their next wave closes the shaft," he replied.

She crossed both gauntlets, catching incoming bolts while he pushed toward the sealed door ahead.

Gale-Reflex guided him between the shots, letting each one pass his coat as gravity pulled his body toward the opposite wall.

He drew twice while moving, sending spatial cuts through the lower drones and carving a narrow opening toward the sealed chamber.

Kage released the disabled cluster and flowed after him, leaving Bekka enough space to collapse her shield and follow.

The three struck the door together, combining gravity, wind, and shadow until the locking frame bent around The Null Razor.

"Sierra, prepare the beacon for extraction and tell Tempest to circle north now," Leo said.

Only static answered, followed by one broken syllable that sounded like his name before the ship swallowed the channel.

The door opened into a command spine filled with hanging screens, each one showing a different district beneath the scan grid.

Rows of Vorn operators turned from their stations, raising compact weapons while alarms changed from red to burning white.

"I take the consoles, and you keep every soldier away from my hands until I find the collision controls," she said.

Bekka vaulted over the station and forced wind through its seams, exposing the circuits beneath.

Leo entered the operators with Viper-Weave movements, trapping wrists and redirecting their weapons before breaking each firing hand.

Kage moved beneath the stations, pulling soldiers down and binding them without damaging the screens needed to free the prisoners.

"The scan controls are locked behind a commander key, and the collision route uses the same authority," she reported.

"Find the key’s source, because the All-Spark keeps pulling beyond this room now," Leo answered.

She followed the data pulse across three screens, tracing it toward a vault door that began opening before she touched anything.

Cold vapor rolled across the floor as the operators stopped fighting, lowering their heads toward the figure waiting beyond the threshold.

Vrak stepped into the command spine with an anti-matter halberd resting across one shoulder, filling the entrance with his armored frame.

Alien runes moved across his carapace while the translator in Leo’s mind turned each clicking sound into calm human speech.

"The Heart entered willingly, bringing bonded animals and one warrior into our hands," Vrak said.

Bekka’s gauntlets whined beside him, but he raised one hand before her anger pulled them into an immediate charge.

"Your scan ends now, and every prisoner leaves before this vessel touches the city below us," he answered.

"This world carries no authority over Progenitor blood, because the Heart belongs to those strong enough to reclaim it," Vrak replied.

The command screens changed together, showing a formation of distant lights crossing space toward the planet’s orbital boundary.

"Our fleet approaches, and your resistance only teaches them which species deserves chains," Vrak continued.

[ High-Threat Target: Sub-Commander Vrak ]

[ Rank: A+ Vorn Hybrid ]

[ Hidden Objective Revealed: Slay The Sub-Commander ]

The vault doors slammed between Leo and Bekka, throwing her backward while Kage remained trapped on her side with the operators.

Vrak lowered the halberd and ignited its anti-matter edge, draining light from the chamber as he aimed at Leo’s heart.