The final, high-pitched scream of the Seismic Breach Drill was the sound of the ultimate collapse.
Lyra Kain stood at the core, her body vibrating with the immense, chaotic power of the Terminal's main reactor she had fused with. Her consciousness was no longer confined to her flesh; it spanned the steel and copper of the entire fortress.
she pulsed into Rheon's mind.
Rheon, positioned near the emergency access, turned his full attention to the incoming threats.
The ceiling above the command center imploded. Kinetic shrapnel and superheated plasma rained down as the Drill finally penetrated the Core's final layer of armor. A single, triumphant Heavy Kinetic Trooper dropped through the hole, his pulse rifle sweeping the room.
But Rheon ignored him. He was focused on the far wall.
An instant later, the wall near the access panel exploded in a localized plasma breach. The Revenant dropped silently through the wreckage, his senses now partially reset, his focus absolute: Lyra Kain.
The assassin, having bypassed the kinetic defense, chose the vulnerable Queen.
Rheon knew the math: he could not stop the Trooper and the Assassin. He had to stop the greater threat to Lyra's ultimate weapon.
"For the Mother!" Rheon yelled, a battle cry of absolute loyalty. He threw himself, not at the Trooper, but into the path of The Revenant.
Rheon met the assassin mid-stride, his body slamming into The Revenant's armored chest. It was a suicidal, final commitment. The Revenant, moving too fast to adjust, discarded his blade and wrapped his arms around Rheon, preparing to crush the Ascendant's spine.
[Rheon's Final Defense: Mission: Buy three seconds.]
The Heavy Kinetic Trooper, seeing the struggle, raised his pulse rifle, aiming for the grappling Rheon.
Lyra's eyes, a pulsating violet that had absorbed the light of the reactor, snapped open. Her psychic link with the power grid was complete.
Lyra saw the battle not as steel and muscle, but as energy signatures: Rheon was a deep, burning orange of discipline and loyalty. The Revenant was a cold, empty blue of pure kinetic force. The Federation Trooper was a solid, focused green.
She saw the Terminal's power grid: a vast, infinite supply of pure electrical and magnetic force.
She didn't target the enemies. She targeted the Terminal's Primary Power Regulator, forcing the entire, immense energy store to be released as a single, simultaneous pulse.
The result was the Aether Scourge.
The command center didn't explode; it disintegrated in a terrifying, multi-spectrum energy discharge.
A silent, physical shockwave of compressed air blasted outward, smashing the Heavy Kinetic Trooper against the rubble wall.
A brilliant white-blue electrical discharge surged through the reactor conduits, vaporizing the surrounding circuitry and the external structure.
And a massive, crippling Psychic Pulse (the core of the Aether Fragment's power) was simultaneously broadcast through every live comm-channel and server node connected to the Terminal.
The blast hit Rheon and The Revenant at ground zero. Rheon's armor shielded him from the immediate kinetic and electrical surge, but the psychic pulse was unavoidable. The mental shock was agonizing, ripping through his brain, a wave of pure, chaotic Aether energy.
The Revenant, already grappling Rheon, absorbed the full, psychic blow. His cybernetic implants, freshly reset and operating at maximum sensitivity, were not just overloaded; they were annihilated. The Revenant convulsed violently, his sophisticated mind reduced to a scrambling, digital mess. He went completely limp, his body going into neurological shutdown.
The Terminal's entire core structure vaporized. The blast ascended the access shafts, turning the Kinetic Infantry's entry points into smoking, molten funnels. The Seismic Drills, receiving the catastrophic electrical surge, failed instantly, their massive motors seizing up and collapsing into the burning chasms.
When the deafening roar finally subsided, the Cerberus Terminal was gone. Where the fortress had stood was now a massive, smoking, molten crater in the desolate surface of the Outer Rim.
Rheon was alive. He crawled out of the crater, covered in dust, blood, and the raw fear of having survived a psychic and kinetic detonation. His body was battered, his senses were screaming, but the Bloodlink was intact, pulsating with a strange, fierce triumph.
He found Lyra nearby, slumped against a massive, shattered block of what used to be the reactor core. She was unconscious, pale, and completely drained. The violet light was gone, but her eyes were now pure, pulsing crimson (a new, deeper color than before).
Rheon checked her pulse (steady, but weak). The integration had nearly killed her.
He immediately turned his attention to The Revenant. The assassin lay sprawled and unmoving, his armor melted in places, his optical and sensory implants permanently scorched. He was alive, but neutralized (a broken weapon).
Rheon didn't hesitate. He stripped the specialized weapons from the assassin, destroyed the last of his comms gear, and rendered the body immobile. The Revenant was not a prisoner; he was a silent testament to the devastating power they had just unleashed.
Rheon then activated the emergency access on his comms (the Sanguis network). He needed to assess the damage to the enemy.
He filtered the catastrophic local comms traffic. The results were immediate, absolute, and terrifyingly successful.
The Aether Scourge had not been contained by the Terminal's structure. Its energy had radiated outward, following the vast, exposed server lines of the Federation infrastructure that ran through the Outer Rim.
Federation Command Log: Massive, localized power grid failure across Sectors 18 through 33. All non-essential Vanguard comms offline. Multiple orbital patrol units reporting total system failure and immediate descent.
Target Confirmation: Rheon zoomed in on the signature of General Korr Vance's command vessel, which had been orbiting close to the Terminal for the assault. The vessel's signature was dark, silent, and rapidly descending.
"Lyra," Rheon whispered, looking at the crater, then back at the unconscious Queen. "We won."
The Aether Scourge had not just stopped the siege. It had crippled Vance's immediate ability to command, collapsing the local military and infrastructure into chaos.
Rheon secured Lyra's body, wrapping her in his tattered, armored jacket. He had to move before Vance's command ship crashed or before the rest of the Federation could mobilize their deep-level defenses.
"We have an empire to build now," Rheon muttered, lifting his Queen. "And a galaxy of lies to correct."
He looked down at the smoking crater, the tomb of the Cerberus Terminal and the Federation's authority. The war had just begun, and the new empire had drawn its first, devastating strike.