Episode 1
Kael stumbled into the cool, silent sanctuary of the Blind Oracle, slamming the reinforced blast door shut just as the booming shouts of the Chaos Conduit began to reverberate off the external ferrocrete.
Kael leaned against the metal, breathing heavily, the searing pain from the scarlet scars on his arms demanding his attention.
The Oracle remained seated on her stone platform, utterly unperturbed by the external chaos. The silence of the chamber felt heavy, almost accusatory.
"You brought the fire right to my doorstep, Stabilizer," she said, her voice a dry rasp. "And you used the power again. Look at the cost."
Kael ignored the throbbing pain, pushing himself toward her platform. "I need the location of the Cold Archive now. And a way out that isn't that door."
"Your payment bought you the location, not safety," she retorted, yet she began to move. She reached out, her skeletal fingers tracing the console of the massive, defunct gravitational stabilizer that dominated the chamber.
"The Conduit is no mere brute; he is a zealot convinced of his own chaotic purity. He knows that if he cannot corrupt your power, he must simply exhaust your body."
She activated a small, concealed holographic projector built into the console. A complex, three-dimensional blueprint of the lower Sprawl levels shimmered into existence.
"The Cold Archive is in Sector 12, four levels down," the Oracle explained, her voice quick and urgent. "It's built into the old ship's cryo-bays—structurally sound, highly insulated, but guarded by automated systems that have been running for centuries."
She circled a small, red pinprick on the map. "You must use the original access tunnels. The Syndicate uses the main shafts. But they are blocked by a seismic trigger. Only one route remains viable for you."
As the Oracle spoke, the Conduit's assault began. Not with energy, but with brute force. A deafening, rhythmic BAM! began to strike the blast door—the sound of heavy-duty kinetic hammers powered by pure Chaos energy. The sound shook the entire chamber.
"He'll breach that in under five minutes," Kael said, grabbing the Syndicate rotary cannon he'd taken in the market.
"The other exit."
The Oracle pointed a thin finger toward a secondary exit—the rusted hatch marked with ancient, indecipherable alien symbols, which Kael had noted in the previous episode.
"That is the Veil Gate," she revealed. "A localized quantum lock built by your kind. It leads directly to the core substructures of the old ship, but only those of the Guardian Code can open it."
Kael felt the familiar, crushing weight of the unknown Code. "How do I open it? I don't remember the Code."
"The Code is not a password, Kael. It is a process. It requires energy balance. A perfect, instantaneous Stabilization of a high-energy field. It needs a massive flare of power—pure, controlled, and perfectly channeled."
The Oracle looked him straight in his eyes, her silver mesh bandages unnerving. "The kind of flare that could also kill you, given the state of your scars.
But it will give you the chance to momentarily cloak your entire energy signature, making you impossible to track through the substructures."
The hammering outside intensified. The metal groaned and warped inward, smoke curling from the hinges. Time was running out.
Kael slammed the heavy rotary cannon onto the console next to the Oracle. "Activate the Chaos Static again. I need cover for the channel."
"I cannot! The strain would destroy the stabilizer and collapse the entire junction!"
"Then I need a distraction," Kael rasped, his eyes fixed on the warping door. "Something big enough to throw off the Conduit's tracking for one minute."
The Oracle smiled, a disturbing, serene gesture. "You ask for a distraction. I offer you a sacrifice.
I am part of the static, Stabilizer. My presence here is a stabilizing influence on this entire junction. If I leave, the energy balance of this whole sector will violently shift—a massive spike of ambient Chaos that will confuse the Conduit's tracking apparatus for exactly sixty seconds."
"You would leave your sanctuary?"
"I have already told you my truth: the price of your memory is the world. My purpose is served."
The Oracle reached for a small, cylindrical device near her seat. "Take this. It's an environmental disruptor. In the Cold Archive, you will need to open the main server bank. This will do it. Now, go!"
The blast door outside suddenly gave way with a screech of tortured metal. The Chaos Conduit stood in the breach, his white uniform smeared with soot, his face contorted in a terrifying mix of fury and relief. He saw Kael, and he saw the Oracle.
"Stabilizer! End your pathetic flight!" the Conduit roared, his hands already gathering a massive ball of concentrated, dark violet Chaos energy.
Kael didn't flinch. He looked at the Oracle, who was already moving toward the ruined door. He grabbed the disruptor, his mind racing through the Oracle's instructions: Perfect, instantaneous Stabilization of a high-energy field.
He realized his only option was to use the Conduit's attack as the source of energy.
The Conduit hurled the ball of Chaos—a destructive force designed to vaporize the entire structure.
As the Oracle slipped through the breached doorway, she stopped right in the blast zone, looking back at Kael with a final, serene expression. "The Veil protects the truth, Kael. But the Code... the Code lives within you."
Kael didn't hesitate. He thrust both hands out, directly at the incoming ball of Chaos, just as the Oracle threw her small, cylindrical device at the Conduit's feet.
Absorb. Channel. Stabilize.
The Chaos sphere slammed into Kael's outstretched hands.
The pain was beyond anything he had ever felt—it felt as if his very molecules were being ripped apart. His entire body lit up a blinding, incandescent white.
But he held it. The Stabilizer core, pushed past its physical limits, refined the massive amount of chaotic energy in a fraction of a second. He took the power of destruction and turned it into perfect, controlled potential.
Code Initiated.
The energy didn't dissipate; it flowed directly into the alien-marked Veil Gate hatch behind him. The rusty metal immediately glowed with the blinding white light of the stabilized energy. The complex quantum lock instantly recognized the Code.
As the Veil Gate hissed open, the small device the Oracle threw detonated, not with force, but with a massive, localized surge of Chaos Static, exactly as she planned.
The Conduit—having just witnessed his own devastating power turned into a key—was momentarily blinded and disoriented by the chaotic surge.
Kael didn't wait for the Static to clear. He plunged through the open Veil Gate, carrying the Oracle's disruptor, and disappeared into the depths of the ancient starship.
Outside, the Conduit screamed in furious realization as the Oracle, engulfed by the collapsing Chaos Static, dissolved into the static field. Kael's signature was completely gone, shielded by the quantum lock and the residual Chaos spike. He was utterly blind.
Kael is now in the ancient, unmapped substructures of the Sundered Star, heading toward the Cold Archive.
He is safe for now, but his use of the ultimate Stabilizer move has left his body scarred and bleeding a bioluminescent fluid. The Conduit's threat remains.