The ruin shook, and Orion snapped backwards spooked dropping everything he was holding as dust sifted down from the cracked ceiling.
He sighed as he picked the sphere back up and pulled open his toolbox, because of how well he had been working he had ranked up to a senior engineer in a short time and his toolbox had been upgraded as a bonus… the only thing he didn't get was a clearance upgrade.
With these new tools, Orion began to run every diagnostic he could think off… from scanners to analyzers and even resonance probes.
Nothing.
Not a single reading made sense.
The sphere just sat there, undamaged at least as far as he could tell.
He rubbed his temples and let out a slow breath.
"You're not just some rock, are you?" he muttered, tossing the sphere lightly from one hand to the other.
It was smooth, slightly warm, 'Or is it cold… I can't even tell.'
He'd already tried cutting a fragment, but every tool had either bent or fried.
When he applied heat, it absorbed it; when he froze it, the damn thing didn't .
The readings were nonsense… its density fluctuated like it was deciding what to be.
"Some kind of adaptive alloy? No… organic but not very organic at the same time." He frowned, running a finger along its surface.
"But it feels like metal. Soft, flexible. Not hard at all, yet indestructible… Maybe I simply don't have the equipment to destroy it… What the hell are you?"
The thought it might be alive crossed his mind more than once, but he pushed that away.
He'd read enough on biotech to know what living metal should look like and react especially to flames and ice but this… this was different.
He slumped against a broken support beam, hearing distant plasma fire tear through the night sky outside the ruins.
The war with the Chrysalith was raging somewhere above, but he knew it would be months before it ended.
No one packed up a war that fast.
Especially when both sides were fighting for ancient tech like this.
But now Orion had another issue than just escaping.
Starvation.
Imagine escaping all that only to die from hunger… He didn't want to go out but staying here meant starving.
So he forced himself back toward the surface, crawling up through the shattered vent.
When he emerged, the surrounding was a nightmare to look at. Blood and corpses were everywhere.
From what he observed, there were more Chrysalith corpses than humans' from what he learnt that didn't really mean much.
The Chrysaliths were just like insect, their broodmothers were able to reproduce as long as they had biological material.
Orion forced his breathing steady and moved quickly.
He found the body of a mercenary half-buried in rubble, and grabbed his gun making sure to avoid looking the corpse as much as possible.
He lost a few minutes checking to make sure it was functioning and loaded.
Once he confirmed that there were no issues, he moved around scavenging a few bottles of water that he dumped into one of the backpacks lying around, a couple spare ammos as well.
Just as he was about to leave, he glanced down at another mercenary, the man's face was gone, but what really caught his attention was the power core.
'Now that I think about it… what if the sphere simply didn't have enough energy to work… why didn't I think of that?'
Although the suit was almost ripped apart, the power core still glowed faintly within the chest rig.
Orion swallowed the bile rising in his throat and pried it free, hands trembling as his hands was stained with brain matters.
Putting the core in his bag he began to move around searching for actual food, but he couldn't find any and he knew he couldn't stay here for long.
Desperate and grim, he turned to the Chrysalith carcass sprawled across the ground, its black carapace split open by gunfire.
The stench was revolting, a mix of scorched meat and acid ichor, but hunger was already gnawing at him and from the little he knew, as long as the meat hadn't been out for too long it should be viable for food.
With his small dagger, he cut away strips of pale muscle from beneath the shell.
The flesh steamed faintly in the cool air.
Carrying his prizes, he retreated into the ruined lab. The thunder of the battle pressed down like a stormcloud, every vibration a reminder that his reprieve was temporary.
He piled broken debris, sparked a fire with a torch tool, and laid the Chrysalith meat over the flames.
The air filled with a sharp, acrid smell that made his eyes water, but when the flesh browned he forced himself to chew.
Bitter, rubbery, sour but it was the best he could do.
When his stomach no longer ached, he turned to the sphere.
He stared at it for a minute before grabbing it and pulling out the power core from his backpack and bringing them both together trying to find a way to connect them.
The reaction was instant. Energy surged through the chamber, light flaring from seams that hadn't been visible before.
The sphere shuddered, opening like a blooming flower of metal and light. Pain exploded through Orion's body as something reached for him, slamming directly into him.
He collapsed to the floor, screaming as fire threaded his veins.
His vision fractured. His body convulsed, his heart hammering until it felt like it would tear itself apart. And that was the last thing he remembered.