Chapter 128 - The Final Override

The sky above the mountain was no longer a natural thing. It had become a sprawling, luminescent canvas of indigo and cobalt, a visual representation of the data-stream currently pulsing through the very stone beneath my feet. As the first of Kaelen's heavy Royal Skiffs broke through the cloud layer, its silver-plated hull was instantly bathed in the azure glow of the Valmere Standard. I watched from the edge of the balcony, my fingers curled tightly around the cold stone railing. The skiffs weren't just vessels anymore; in my mind, they were foreign packets of data attempting to infiltrate a secured network. I could feel the friction of their passage through the leash, a series of jagged, discordant spikes in the local resonance that made the Star-Iron Heart in the Centurion's chest thrum with a warning frequency.