The Ashen Wastes howled with a wind that carried the scent of ozone and decay, the gray dust swirling in violent eddies as the Nullstorm breached Nexara's sky. Kaelith Varn stood in the mining outpost's main dome, her silver-veined skin flickering erratically as her nanites struggled against the entropic energy seeping through the Shatterveil's fractures. The holo-screens displayed the chaos: black tendrils of the Nullstorm poured through the Veil, a void of annihilation that swallowed stars and cast an eerie shadow over the city. Admiral Vren Korsath's taunting voice still echoed in her mind." Nexara will be the first to fall. And you will watch as the galaxy burns." but a more immediate threat loomed outside.
Toren Calyx crouched by the dome's entrance, his pulse-rifle aimed at the horizon. The Concord strike team had found them, their skiffs kicking up ash as they surrounded the outpost. At their head was a Veilweaver, his silver veins glowing with a cold, controlled intensity that marked him as one of Korsath's loyalists. Kaelith's implant buzzed, a sharp pain lancing through her skull as the Nullstorm's energy interfered with her nanites. Her memories already fragile after unlocking the data-core were fraying, fragments of Mira slipping away like sand through her fingers.
"We're surrounded," Toren said, his voice low and tense. "Twelve soldiers, plus that Weaver. We can't take them head-on not with you like this." He glanced at her, his green eyes narrowing with concern. "Your nanites are failing, aren't they? The Nullstorm's hitting you harder than the rest of us."
Kaelith clenched her fists, her pulse-knife humming softly in her hand. "I can feel it," she admitted, her voice strained. "It's... erasing me. My memories, my connection to the Veil it's all slipping." She met his gaze, her gray-blue eyes fierce despite the pain. "But I'm not done yet. We need to get to Solara. The Veil's core node is there if we can disable the failsafe, we can stop the Nullstorm."
Toren's jaw tightened, his hands steady on his rifle. "Then we fight our way out. But we need a plan. That Weaver he's not like you. He's a killer, Varn. I can see it in the way he moves."
Kaelith nodded, her implant pinging as she scanned the enemy Veilweaver. His energy signature was cold, precise, a machine in human form. She'd seen his kind before Weavers who'd embraced their erasure, who'd become the Concord's perfect weapons. "His name's Ryn," she said, her voice low. "I... I remember him. We trained together, before my blocks fully took hold. He was loyal to Korsath even then. If he's here, he won't stop until I'm dead."
Toren's expression darkened, but before he could respond, a voice crackled through the outpost's comms array a cold, mechanical tone that sent a shiver down Kaelith's spine. "Kaelith Varn," Ryn said, his words amplified by the strike team's skiffs. "You are a threat to the Orion Concord. Surrender the data-core and submit to termination, or we will eradicate this outpost and everyone in it."
Kaelith's heart pounded, her nanites buzzing with adrenaline despite their faltering state. She glanced at Toren, her voice steady. "We can't surrender. The data-core has the schematics for the Veil's core node. If Korsath gets it, he'll make sure the Nullstorm wipes out everything."
Toren nodded, his grin reckless. "Then we fight. I've got a few tricks left outpost defenses, automated turrets. They're old, but they'll buy us some time. Can you handle Ryn?"
"I'll have to," Kaelith said, gripping her knife. "Get the skiff ready. We'll need to move fast once they're down."
Toren darted to the comms array, his fingers flying over the controls as he activated the outpost's defenses. Ancient turrets whirred to life outside, their barrels creaking as they locked onto the strike team. Kaelith moved to the dome's entrance, her nanites boosting her senses as she prepared for the fight. The Nullstorm's energy pressed against her, a weight that made her head throb, but she pushed through, focusing on the task at hand.
The turrets opened fire, a barrage of plasma bolts that forced the strike team to scatter. The soldiers returned fire, their pulse-rifles tearing through the outpost's rusted walls. Ryn charged through the chaos, his movements a blur as he closed the distance to the dome. Kaelith met him head-on, her pulse-knife clashing against his own a longer, serrated blade that hummed with a darker energy.
"You're a traitor, Varn," Ryn growled, his voice devoid of emotion. His silver veins glowed brighter as he channeled the Shatterveil's energy, his strikes faster, stronger than hers. "The Concord gave you purpose. And you threw it away."
Kaelith parried a blow, her ribs aching from the impact. "The Concord made us slaves," she spat, dodging a swipe that would've taken her head. "They turned us into weapons puppets for their war. I'm not Mira anymore, but I'm not their tool either."
Ryn's eyes narrowed, a flicker of something anger, maybe breaking through his stoic mask. "Mira was weak," he said. "She resisted. She failed. I won't." He lunged, his blade aiming for her heart.
Kaelith twisted, the blade grazing her arm as she countered with a slash to his side. Ryn staggered, his nanites flaring to repair the damage, but the Nullstorm's interference slowed him down. Kaelith pressed her advantage, her strikes fueled by a desperate fury. She wasn't fighting just for herself she was fighting for the galaxy, for the trillions of lives hanging in the balance.
Behind her, Toren fought off the soldiers, the turrets providing cover as he picked them off one by one. The skiff was ready, its engines humming as he shouted, "Varn! We need to go now!"
Kaelith drove her knife into Ryn's shoulder, the blade sinking deep. He roared, his nanites sparking as he stumbled back. She didn't wait to finish him there was no time. She sprinted for the skiff, diving into the co-pilot's seat as Toren punched the throttle. The craft shot forward, weaving through a hail of plasma bolts as the remaining soldiers fired after them.
The skiff cleared the outpost, soaring over the Ashen Wastes as the Nullstorm's tendrils grew closer, their black void swallowing the horizon. Kaelith's implant buzzed, a new memory fragment hitting her like a wave: Mira, standing on Solara, watching the Shatterveil's first activation. "It's beautiful," she'd whispered, her voice filled with awe. But the memory shifted, darkening Korsath's voice, cold and commanding. "You'll activate it when I say. Or we'll erase you."
Kaelith gasped, clutching her head as the memory faded. Her nanites were failing faster now, the Nullstorm's entropic energy eating away at her connection to the Veil. "Solara," she said, her voice trembling. "We have to get to Solara. The core node it's our only chance."
Toren nodded, his hands steady on the controls. "It's a long haul across the Orion Arm. We'll need a ship, a real one, not this skiff. I know a guy in Nexara's orbital docks Rykar, a smuggler. He owes me a favor. But the city's going to be a warzone with the Nullstorm hitting."
Kaelith's gaze hardened, her resolve steeling despite the pain. "We don't have a choice. If we don't stop the failsafe, there won't be a city left to save."
The skiff flew low over the wasteland, the city's neon lights coming into view. But the sight that greeted them was apocalyptic: the Nullstorm had reached Nexara, its tendrils touching down in the undercity. Entire districts vanished, their structures dissolving into ash as the entropic wave erased them from existence. Hovercars fell from the sky, their pilots' screams cut short as they were wiped from reality. The Shatterveil's fractures glowed ominously, its threads snapping one by one.
Toren's face paled, his hands tightening on the controls. "We're too late," he whispered. "It's already started."
Kaelith shook her head, her voice fierce. "Not yet. We can still stop it. Get us to the docks."
He nodded, banking the skiff toward Nexara's orbital docks a massive station in low orbit, a hub for smugglers, traders, and Concord patrols. The station was in chaos as ships fled the planet, their engines glowing as they raced to escape the Nullstorm's reach. Toren patched into the docks' comms, his voice urgent. "Rykar, you bastard, I know you're there. It's Calyx I need a ship, now!"
A gruff voice crackled through the comms, laced with irritation. "Calyx? You've got some nerve calling me with the galaxy falling apart. Concord's locking down the docks I'm not risking my neck for you."
"You owe me," Toren snapped. "I saved your hide on that Kaldor run. Get me a ship, or I'll make sure the Syndicate knows you're skimming their cut."
There was a long pause, then a grunt. "Fine. Bay 12. I've got a corvette fast, but no weapons. You're on your own after that."
The skiff docked at Bay 12, its hull scraping against the station's rusted clamps. Kaelith and Toren disembarked, the station's air thick with the smell of burnt circuits and panic. Rykar a burly man with a cybernetic eye and a scarred face waited by the corvette, a sleek, silver ship with a patched-up hull. "She's yours," he said, tossing Toren a keycard. "But you'd better hurry. Concord's locking down the system no one's getting in or out."
Kaelith's implant buzzed again, the Nullstorm's energy intensifying. Her vision flickered, another memory slipping away: the child's laughter from her dreams, fading into nothingness. She stumbled, Toren catching her before she fell. "We need to go," she said, her voice weak. "I'm... I'm losing myself."
Toren's expression hardened, a fierce determination in his eyes. "Not on my watch," he said, helping her into the corvette. He took the pilot's seat, the ship's engines roaring to life as they launched from the docks. The station shrank behind them, Nexara's surface now a patchwork of void-black scars where the Nullstorm had struck.
The corvette's nav-system plotted a course for Solara, a journey that would take days even at maximum speed. Kaelith sat in the co-pilot's seat, the data-core in her hands, its glow dimming as her connection to the Veil weakened. "We'll make it," she said, more to herself than to Toren. "We have to."
But as they cleared Nexara's orbit, the corvette's sensors blared, a red alert flashing on the holo-screens. A Concord fleet emerged from hyperspace, dreadnoughts and frigates blocking their path. At their center was Korsath's flagship, its weapons locking onto the corvette. A transmission came through, Korsath's voice cold and final. "You cannot run, Varn. The Nullstorm is my instrument and you are its key. Surrender, or I will erase you myself."
As the Concord fleet closes in, Kaelith's nanites fail completely, severing her connection to the Shatterveil and leaving her vulnerable. The Nullstorm's entropic energy surges, erasing more of her memories including the activation code needed to disable the failsafe. With Korsath's flagship bearing down and Solara still days away, Kaelith and Toren must find a way to escape or risk losing everything to the void.