Location: Arctic Highway, Norway – 02:47 A.M.
The world was ice and silence.Then came the roar of engines.
Devon's convoy cut across the frozen wasteland like a pack of predators. The lead car a blacked-out, modified Aston Martin Valkyrie drifted through snow and shadow. Inside, the dashboard screens glowed with shifting holograms a neural map of the world. The merged Skynet–God's Eye system ran in his mind like a second heartbeat.
"Multiple heat signatures ahead," Raven's voice called from the support SUV behind. "Looks like Eteon isn't happy to see us."
Devon's eyes flicked across the data feed. "They'll have to get in line."
Deckard sat beside him, calm as ever, loading a single round into his anti-material rifle."You sure about this location?"
Devon's expression hardened. "He's here. No one else could hide under six kilometers of encrypted satellite silence."
Lacy, in the driver's seat, grinned. "Then let's wake him up."
Location: Eteon Blacksite – Norway
The facility was carved into a glacier steel veins running through ice, humming with stolen energy.Eteon soldiers patrolled the perimeter, thermal visors cutting through the storm.
Then the lights died.
The EMPs dropped like comets, silent and merciless. A white-blue pulse rolled over the facility, shutting everything down drones fell, alarms cut out, even the snow seemed to freeze midair. For a moment, there was absolute silence.
Then came the gunfire.
Devon's crew stormed the outer perimeter, cutting through Eteon's strike teams. Raven's drones, running on internal shields, strafed from above, sending shockwaves across the walls. Logan's LMG thundered, carving open doorways and shattering cover.
Lacy flipped through the breach, dual pistols flashing silver, moving like smoke between bursts of fire.
Deckard stayed behind cover, scanning through his scope."Got visual on Nekrom," he said coldly, steadying the barrel. "He's standing in the core."
"Then do it," Devon ordered.
Deckard exhaled slowly then fired.
The .50 caliber round tore through layers of reinforced glass and steel, traveling half a kilometer in a blink.
Location: Core Chamber
Nekrom stood before a shimmering wall of holographic data. The bullet hit him dead center in the head the impact snapping his body back with a burst of crimson mist. The lights around him flickered as his systems crashed.
Devon and his crew entered seconds later, weapons raised, scanning the room. Nekrom's body slumped forward, his blood pooling beneath the central console. Sparks dripped from the shattered neural rig attached to his skull.
"Is it done?" Raven asked.
Devon walked closer, watching the dying lights on the monitors fade to black. "For now."
He reached forward, placing his hand on the console data streamed into his arm implant, the God's Eye syncing with the remains of Nekrom's network. For a brief moment, the room filled with whispering echoes encrypted fragments of Nekrom's voice.
"You think you've won… Shaw… but I'm already inside your system…"
The voice died.
Lacy frowned. "What the hell was that?"
Devon's eyes narrowed. "A ghost in the code."
Before he could finish scanning, a low rumble shook the chamber an explosion from deeper inside the base.Logan cursed. "EMP pulse overloaded the core. This whole place is about to go!"
They ran.
Location: Surface – Moments Later
The crew burst through the side of the collapsing facility, diving into the snow as the mountain erupted behind them. Fire and debris launched into the night sky, painting the aurora crimson.
Deckard turned, shielding his face from the blast. "Bloody hell, that's one way to shut a base down."
Devon stood slowly, brushing frost from his jacket, watching the flames consume the fortress.
"Noway's burned," Raven said, panting. "Nekrom's gone. So what now?"
Devon's voice was low, deliberate. "He's not gone. He's fragmented pieces of him are still alive in the data."
He glanced toward the dark horizon, where the aurora shimmered faintly over the ice.
"We just ended his body," he said coldly. "Now we hunt what's left of his mind."
Deckard loaded a fresh magazine into his rifle and gave a short, grim smile."Then let's finish the job."
As they walked back toward the convoy, the God's Eye interface flickered inside Devon's vision.Nekrom's voice whispered faintly through the static distorted, broken, but alive.
"You took my world… I'll take yours…"
Devon's jaw tightened. "We'll see."
The engines roared to life, cutting through the northern wind leaving only fire and falling snow behind.