The night air was thick with salt and distant traffic hum as Zephyr's boat glided into the quay beside the old St. Helene Medical Campus. The faded red brick façade loomed against the starless sky—its windows dark, doorways shuttered. This was where the Covenant's final medical prototypes lay hidden: a subterranean archive of half-forgotten blood-alchemy research, rumored to contain the last notes on "Symbiotic Transfusion" and "Vitae Synthesis."
Zephyr stood at the gangplank's end, primer scroll secured at his belt, lantern in hand. Behind him, Rennan, Rook, Elara, Corin, and Jora readied their gear. His HP rested at 90/100; MG sat at 40%—enough for hybrid defense if needed. He inhaled, tasting anticipation and apprehension.
"Tonight," he said, voice low, "we seal the Codex's fate by securing these archives."
Elara murmured the Cloaking invocation, warding their passage:
"Shadow bind, silence keep; lead our steps in silent sweep."
Rook touched her blade's hilt. "Let's move."
They circled the campus perimeter, moonlight glinting on rusted fence posts. Ivy draped over crumbling stone walls; broken pumps lay scattered like forgotten skeletons. Rennan pried open a service hatch near the maintenance wing—its lock brittle with age.
Corin's holo-map glowed on his wrist: "Archives Entrance: Basement Level 2." He keyed in a sequence. The hatch gave way with a groan, revealing a narrow concrete stairwell descending into darkness.
Zephyr led the way, boots echoing on metal steps. Murmured chants wove behind him—Elara's wards and Rook's silent runes. The air grew cool and damp. Below, they found a steel door stamped "Bio-Research Wing."
He studied the lock: an ancient mechanical glyph-latch overlaid with Covenant tech. Rennan produced runic powder and tracked a Binding Glyph; Corin slotted in a bio-access drive. The latch disengaged. With a shared nod, they entered.
Inside, fluorescent tubes flickered, then expired, leaving only lantern light. Long corridors fanned out—labs lined with glass jars of preserved organs, shelves of alchemical tinctures, and skeletal mannequins draped in surgical gowns. The acrid scent of formaldehyde lingered.
They paused at a junction. Corin tapped his recorder: "Pressure-plate ward in the east wing. We'll skirt it via the maintenance conduit." He pointed to a narrow grate in the floor.
Rook knelt, unbolting it. A crawlspace yawned below—hissing steam pipes and a tangle of wires. Zephyr dropped in first, Elara and Rennan behind him. Jora and Malik covered the corridor above.
Within the conduit, the world became a whisper—pipes groaning, water dripping, the distant hum of concealed generators. Zephyr's lantern cast wavering shadows on concrete walls sprayed with abandoned graffiti.
After fifty meters, they surfaced in a small alcove: a reinforced door labeled "Archives – Level 3" with the Covenant crest etched in corrosion.
As Zephyr reached for the handle, the door slid open silently—revealing a solitary guard in a sealed medical suit, faceplate dark. Before they could react, he raised a transducer staff and tapped a ward glyph on the floor.
A shockwave rippled outward—warded energy forcing them back. Zephyr caught Corin's arm. "They knew we'd come."
The guard advanced, staff humming with hematoglyph charge. Rook drew her blade and leapt forward; Zephyr activated Feral Sprint.
System Notification: "Feral Sprint recorded (1/5). MG: 25%."
He closed the gap and disarmed the staff with a Savage Claw double-strike, severing its power conduit. The staff collapsed; the ward fizzled. Rennan subdued the guard; Jora cuffed him.
Zephyr exhaled. "Let's finish this."
Inside the chamber beyond, rows of steel file cabinets lined the walls. At the far end stood a glass-encased vault—its door engraved with the Medical Seal: a stylized caduceus entwined with a blood-drop rune.
Corin scanned the panel: biometric lock requiring both Covenant codex fragment and Bloodwolf authorization. He plugged in the Covenant flash-drive and handed Zephyr a stylus.
"Your blood," Corin said softly, "and your mark."
Zephyr placed a finger on the stylus; the rune beneath his skin glowed. He pressed a drop of his blood into the reader, then traced the Eclipse precursor glyph. The vault's door hissed and retracted.
Inside, glass vials of amber fluid lined shelves—labeled "Prototype 01: Vitae Stabilizer,""Prototype 02: Symbiotic Cell Matrix," and so on. In the center lay a leather-bound tome: the final archive, detailing the Covenant's ultimate Sanguis synthesis.
Zephyr lifted the tome, spine cracked, pages gilded with alchemical diagrams. Elara stepped forward, pressing a cleansing rune into the cover. "These pages will serve life, not weapon."
Rook unlatched a hidden drawer: within, a small crystalline phial—Prototype Omega—the apex serum. Corin pocketed it: "We secure this for Gray Court research."
As they withdrew the vault contents, alarms blared through the facility—security lockdown triggered.
They retraced their steps through the sluice of corridors as red lights pulsed overhead. The guard they'd subdued had surrendered his keycard to Malik, who scanned it at each door. But steel blast doors began to descend around them.
Zephyr's senses flared: a gangway above hissed open. Elite Covenant enforcers rappelled down. He turned to Rennan. "Cover the rear!"
Rennan sprinted back, engaging enemies in brutal close combat. Zephyr and Rook surged forward. The path branched—one corridor flooded with steam, the other with flickering fire suppressors releasing a choking foam.
Elara raised her staff, chanting a Ward of Purity to clear the foam; the corridor cleared in seconds. They dashed through flaming barrels and up a service stair to the ground floor.
Outside, the night sky glowed behind steel barricades sliding into place. Corin shouted, pointing to a maintenance exit door. Zephyr kicked it open; they spilled onto the campus lawn.
They regrouped in the open air, breaths ragged. The stolen prototypes and archives lay secured in Corin's pack; the final Codex primer rested in Zephyr's hands. Behind them, the sealed facility loomed silent once more.
Elara exhaled. "We did it."
Rook touched Zephyr's arm. "We ended their experiments—and saved life's promise."
Zephyr scanned the horizon: the first light of dawn brushed the harbor's cranes. He closed his eyes, feeling the weight and responsibility of the knowledge now in their care.
System Notification: "Quest [011] Medical Archives secured: Complete. New Directive: Disseminate healing research responsibly."
He opened his eyes to the rising sun, resolve shining in amber. "Let's go home."
Together, they departed the campus behind them—Bloodwolf, family, and allies—bearing the Codex's final secrets into the new dawn.