The first wave hit like a storm. Shardborn vessels ignited with blinding arcs of energy, their crystalline hulls flaring as they collided with the Echo-Lord's biomechanical swarm. Explosions rippled across the void—bursts of color and shadow warring in silence.
Inside the command chamber, chaos erupted. Officers shouted in the Shardborn tongue, their translucent fingers darting over organic control nodes. The ship lurched as a volley struck its shields.
"Evasive pattern Theta!" Veilara barked.
Kaelen braced himself against a console as gravity fluctuated. "Where's the breach coming from?"
Ceyra's fingers flew over her datapad, her face pale. "It's not just from outside—they're inside our systems. Someone's feeding them our positions!"
Veilara's gaze snapped to Veyric. "Explain this."
Veyric's eyes blazed. "You dare accuse me? I've bled for this fleet—"
A sudden pulse rocked the ship—harder than before. Sirens wailed. Then, one of the forward bulkheads exploded inward.
From the smoke emerged a figure cloaked in blackened crystal armor, carrying a spear of writhing voidlight. Shardborn soldiers reacted instantly, but the figure cut through them with impossible speed, leaving trails of shadow behind each strike.
"Who the hell is that?" Kaelen shouted, drawing his blade.
Veilara's face drained of color. "The Harbinger's Hand."
The assassin moved straight for Lyra. She barely had time to raise a hand before it slammed into her telekinetically, hurling her across the chamber.
"LYRA!" Kaelen launched himself at the intruder, phaseblade clashing against the spear in a shower of sparks.
As they fought, Rhyss noticed something on the tactical display—one of the fleet's own ships breaking formation and transmitting a beacon to the enemy. His stomach dropped. "We've got a traitor on board. They're guiding the swarm right to us!"
"Who?" Veilara demanded.
Before he could answer, Ceyra turned from her console, a plasma pistol in her hand—and fired at Rhyss.
He barely dodged, the shot searing past his cheek.
"Ceyra?" Kaelen's voice cracked with disbelief as he fought the assassin.
Her eyes were wrong—glowing black, veins of shadow crawling beneath her skin. "I told you… the Architect always wins."
The realization hit like a blade to the gut. She wasn't Ceyra anymore.
The room erupted into pandemonium as friend and foe blurred, the battle outside raging ever closer to tearing them all apart.