Chapter 273: Exploring The Alien Spaceship [Edited]
The elevated gangway leading to the primary core chamber hung over an abyss of swirling violet vapor.
At the center of the vast platform stood an obsidian pedestal housing three master power crystals. Each was a foot long, carved into perfect geometric facets that radiated a deep crimson and purple glow. They were identical to the gemstone embedded in the base of Zero’s longsword, but far more concentrated, humming with a frequency that vibrated through the floor.
Zero stepped forward, his dark cloak catching the faint drafts of ozone rising from the pit below.
"These crystals stabilize the ship’s dormant energy reserves," Zero said, his dry voice tight with focus. "If we leave them here, any scavenger or rogue faction that breaches these ruins will have enough raw energy to manufacture an army of high-tier weapons. We extract the primary cores, take them to Eric, and seal the chamber behind us."
"Just make sure they’re not hardwired to a self-destruct mechanism," Selena cautioned, one hand resting firmly against the containment case latched to her tactical belt. Her eyes scanned the crystalline housing. "Alien engineering rarely leaves high-yield power sources sitting around without automated safeguards."
"I studied the docking clamps during my first survey," Zero replied. "The housing uses magnetic locks. Once the resonance frequency matches the stone in my blade, the physical clamps will release."
Zero drew his sword.
The purple gemstone in the hilt pulsed brightly, casting sharp, rhythmic shadows across his masked face. He pressed the stone against the primary housing mechanism.
A soft, harmonic click echoed across the platform.
The heavy metallic teeth holding the central master crystal parted with a smooth hiss. Zero reached out with a gloved hand and carefully lifted the pulsing crystal from its cradle.
For a single heartbeat, the chamber remained completely silent.
Then a low mechanical shudder traveled through the entire foundation of the vessel.
CLANG.
A sound like a massive iron bell resonated through the subterranean chamber, followed immediately by the harsh screech of shearing metal. The soft violet glow running through the floor conduits flared violently, turning into a strobing crimson alarm.
"Zero, what did you just touch?!" Nectron shouted, bracing himself as the gangway violently rocked beneath them.
"The magnetic release triggered a secondary fail-safe." Zero swiftly slid the extracted master crystal into a reinforced thermal sleeve on his pack before his hand snapped back to the grip of his blade. "The core wasn’t completely severed. An automated defense protocol just activated."
Around the perimeter of the colossal engine deck, the smooth obsidian walls began to fracture.
𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖
Thick plumes of acrid purple gas erupted from the walls with deafening shrieks, filling the cavernous chamber with toxic clouds of raw plague essence. Heavy pneumatic latches popped open in synchronized sequences across the multi-tiered bulkheads, revealing hundreds of vertical stasis alcoves lining the inner hull like a massive biomechanical hive.
Inside the pods, biological fluid drained in rushing torrents.
Then, from the darkness within, hundreds of eyes snapped open, glowing with a cruel amber light.
"Oh, no, no, no," Julie whimpered, clutching her handheld camera to her chest as she backed toward the center of the platform. "Those are not friendly space robots. Those are definitely murder machines!"
With sickening, wet tearing sounds, the dormant constructs detached from their neural umbilicals and dropped onto the metal catwalks by the dozen.
They were grotesque biomechanical guardian beasts, each easily the size of an armored transport vehicle. Their elongated bodies were covered in jagged, pitch-black chitin that seemed to absorb the surrounding light, while metallic skeletal struts reinforced their musculature. Four massive, sickle-shaped forelimbs clicked against the metal flooring, and their split jaws dripped with sizzling, caustic saliva that ate through the steel grating beneath their claws.
Raw arcs of purple plague lightning rippled across their segmented carapaces, surging through their enormous frames.
A chorus of piercing, multi-tonal screeches tore through the chamber, vibrating with terrifying intensity.
"They’re guarding the exit corridors!" Selena yelled over the deafening shrieks, drawing her sidearm and checking its power cell. "We’re cut off from the main bridge ramp!"
"They aren’t just beasts," Vixen said, her emerald eyes narrowing as spatial distortions began rippling around her hands. "Their hulls are infused with the same plague energy as the engine. They’re designed to purge biological contaminants!"
A massive shock-beast bounded across the upper catwalk with impossible speed before launching itself thirty feet through the air, its serrated scythe-arms aimed directly at Selena’s throat.
Nicholas moved first.
He stepped directly into the beast’s trajectory, his dark blue eyes cold and focused. He had no weapon in his hands.
He didn’t need one.
Plague Touch.
Deep black energy surged through Nicholas’s arms, dense and solid like liquid obsidian. In a fraction of a second, the energy condensed and lengthened, manifesting as a massive seven-foot, double-edged executioner’s blade that hummed with terrifying sharpness.
Nicholas drove his heels into the metal grating and swung upward in a vicious arc.
SHING-CRACK!
The condensed plague blade sliced cleanly through the beast’s reinforced chitinous skull, cleaving through its head and neck before it could even snap its split jaws shut.
Purple bioluminescent blood sprayed across the metal floor as the bisected construct crashed onto the platform.
Nicholas casually dissolved the greatsword back into pure energy. The power immediately reshaped around his right hand into a dense, jagged trench spike while his left formed a razor-sharp combat shortsword.
"Nectron!" Nicholas called, his voice cutting through the rising chaos with absolute authority. "Lock down the central walkway! We carve through the primary corridor and push for the vault gate!"
"On it!" Nectron roared.
His massive shoulders rolled as a deep, suffocating hum erupted from his body.
Nectron slammed both palms forward, pushing his gravity manipulation to its limit. An immense, translucent field of localized crushing gravity formed directly in front of the platform, creating an impenetrable barrier across the primary walkway.
Three charging guardian beasts slammed headfirst into it.
The immense downward pressure crushed their chitinous armor, pinning their massive bodies against the metal grating as the steel beneath them groaned under the sudden increase in weight.
"Push forward!" Nicholas commanded.
He blurred into motion, his physical speed exploding across the gangway as he lunged directly into the swarm descending from the lower access ramps.
A four-limbed shock-beast lunged from his left, its razor-edged scythe snapping downward with enough force to crush steel.
Nicholas tilted his torso by a fraction of an inch, allowing the serrated claw to whistle harmlessly past his collar.
He thrust his left hand forward.
The condensed plague shortsword punched cleanly through the creature’s armored eye socket and drove deep into its cerebral processor.
With a brutal twist of his wrist, Nicholas shattered the internal circuitry and ripped the blade free. At the same time, the weapon in his right hand reshaped itself into a sweeping scythe of solid black energy.
He spun on his heel and unleashed a devastating horizontal cleave, severing the limbs of two leaping constructs at once.
Behind him, Nectron kept pace like an unstoppable living fortress.
Whenever the biomechanical beasts attempted to flank them from the upper scaffolding, Nectron raised his fists and reversed his localized gravity fields. Crushing shockwaves rippled through the air, hurling the swarming constructs backward and crushing their armored joints beneath their own amplified weight.
"Keep moving!" Nectron bellowed, sweeping a massive backhand that sent a dazed construct tumbling from the gangway into the churning void below. "There’s too many of them to hold a static position!"
Zero surged past their right flank, his longsword trailing a brilliant arc of purified Qi that cleaved through reinforced chitin with ease. Beside him, Vixen systematically warped falling debris, redirecting chunks of broken structure into the beasts attempting to scale the lower pillars.
Julie sprinted directly behind Selena, her oversized safari hat flapping wildly as she dodged stray spatters of acidic blood.
Despite the terror written across her face, she kept her camera pointed forward, recording the devastating spectacle of Nicholas and Nectron tearing through the extraterrestrial vanguard.
"This is not standard protocol!" Julie screamed, ducking as a severed metal claw clattered past her ears. "My subscriber count isn’t worth this!"
"Then run faster!" Selena shouted back, firing three precise shots into the exposed joints of a pinned construct.
More stasis pods hissed open along the outer hull, their warning lights bathing the labyrinthine decks in violent crimson.
The central corridor had become a battlefield of shattered chitin, crackling purple energy, and twisted metal.
Nicholas stood at the spearhead of the formation, his breathing perfectly steady and his dark eyes blazing with relentless focus. His plague weapons shifted seamlessly from spears to blades with every step, each transformation allowing him to adapt to the creatures surrounding him.
Behind him, the strike team fought through the awakening hive, carving a brutal path toward the vault gate.