Halvek ordered the three of them to follow him. His voice carried easily through the immense chamber, sharp and controlled, cutting through the low mechanical hum that filled it. Youri, Kess and Adin exchanged brief glances and fell into step behind him. As they walked, the true scale of the chamber began to reveal itself. It was colossal — far larger than anything at the academy — its ceiling lost in darkness high above behind a web of massive support beams and hanging gantries. Floodlights bathed it in pale white light that fell across six towering shapes standing in perfect symmetry down its length.
The God Units.
All six stood dormant and yet imposing, held in place by enormous holding mechanisms and thick magnetic clamps sunk into the floor and the walls, titans of metal and materials nobody had ever been able to name. Helios stood first, tall and radiant, its armor etched with glowing lines that pulsed faintly like the surface of a star. Next came Sirius, broader and heavier. Then Perciosa, elegant and sharp-edged; Montern, dense and brutal, built for raw force and endurance; and Barken, compact beside the others but radiating a predatory stillness. And at the very end of the chamber stood Altopereh — the same unit they had glimpsed on entering, now revealed in full. It was unlike all the rest. It was darker, and its surface was not so much metallic as almost organic, as though it had been forged from condensed shadow.
The three of them slowed without meaning to, awe and dread tightening in their chests.
Halvek led them past each unit in turn, his measured footsteps echoing as he explained their designations, their combat roles and the scale of the destruction each could cause, in a tone so professional and clinical that he might have been describing ordinary war machines rather than instruments capable of erasing civilizations. Then he stopped abruptly and turned to face them. His expression hardened, and the light caught the scar running down the side of his face and made it look deeper and older.
"The machines you see before you are not merely machines," he said slowly. "They are sentient beings. Deep within each core lies a consciousness. A will. A mind."
Kess's eyes widened, and Adin went rigid beside him.
"There have been only two recorded cases in the entire history of the God Unit program," Halvek went on, "in which a unit took control of its own body." His gaze drifted back to the towering Orbitons. "And when they did…" His voice trailed away.
The silence that followed was heavy and oppressive. In the end it was Kess who broke it. "What happened, sir?"
Halvek turned back to them with cold eyes. "They reverted to their original shape." He let the words settle. "Monsters. Of unknown origin. Capable of erasing whole sections of the universe on their own."
Youri felt his breath catch. Adin clenched his fists. Nobody spoke.
Halvek straightened, adjusted his uniform and cleared his throat, as though forcibly pushing the memory away. "Today is your first day, and you will be assigned your units." He took a data pad from his coat and glanced at it. His fingers moved quickly across its screen, and then three of the holding mechanisms woke with a deep mechanical groan, and massive hydraulic arms pushed Helios, Montern and Altopereh slowly forward. Up close, they were even more intimidating.
Halvek gestured at Helios. "Kess Pert. As of today, you are assigned to Helios. Testing and your neural link dive will begin once the research crew arrives."
Kess straightened and saluted sharply. "Yes, sir."
"Adin Roe. You are assigned to Montern. Your testing and link dive will follow shortly."
Adin nodded with his jaw tight. "Understood, sir."
And finally Halvek turned to Youri. "Youri Kronos. As of today, you are assigned to Altopereh. Your testing and link dive will begin now."
Every muscle in Youri's body tensed. He said nothing. He only nodded.
As if it had been listening, Altopereh's cockpit began to open with a metallic screech that echoed through the chamber. A suspension line came down from the ceiling. Youri took hold of it and was lifted smoothly up toward the open cavity in the machine's chest. Inside, it was dark. Strange insignia lined its walls, symbols unlike any Terrian script, cut deep into the surface. At first the controls looked impossibly complex and alien, but as he stepped in, dim lights flickered on one by one, as though acknowledging him.
"Connect your neural link," Halvek's voice said over the comm. "Once synchronization begins, all cockpit data will be transferred to you."
The seat in the center of the cockpit was a deep brown, almost organic in its texture. Youri sat down slowly and connected the link at the base of his neck. He closed his eyes, and the world vanished.
When he opened them again, he was floating in a vast, dark abyss — an endless underwater expanse — and panic seized him at once. He flailed and opened his mouth on instinct. A cloud of bubbles drifted up from it, and he waited for the burning in his lungs. It never came. Slowly he realized he could breathe. He calmed himself and turned slowly in the water, staring up at a faint, piercing light far above him. Then something moved behind him. He spun around, and there was nothing there. It moved again, closer this time. He turned again. Still there was nothing. Then the water behind him darkened, and a colossal shape rose silently out of the depths. Youri froze.
It dwarfed anything he had ever imagined. Giant wings unfolded from its back. Its limbs were massive and elongated and ended in jagged, horn-like spines. Its body was pure black — not metal but something viscous, like living darkness, streaked beneath its surface with faint crimson light. But its head was the most terrifying thing of all: arrow-shaped, crowned with twin horns curving upward, and it tilted slowly toward him.
A piercing scream tore through the abyss, and Youri clutched his head as pain exploded behind his eyes. Then a voice struck his mind.
So you are the newly sentenced one.
Youri staggered back with his heart pounding. "What are you?" he shouted, though no sound left his lips.
A cruel laugh echoed through the dark. To your kind, I am a being beyond comprehension. An anomaly within existence itself. The shape loomed closer. Altopereh. The Vanisher.
Youri remembered Halvek's words — the sentient cores, the monsters beneath the machines. He forced himself to stand his ground. "What do you want from me?"
The creature flexed its wings slightly, and the water trembled around it. I like your thoughts. I will be taking some of them.
Youri frowned. "What do you mean?"
Each time you call upon my power, I take a part of you. Memories. Instincts. Organs. Anything that is yours.
Fear surged through him. "You'll drain the life out of me!"
Another laugh. You are not the first. At most, you will use me twice.
Youri let out a bitter smile. All his life, people had been taking pieces of him — Knox with his saws, Malden with his blood. At least this one had the decency to tell him first. "So I'm just a lamb for the slaughter."
Altopereh drifted closer still, its presence suffocating. This is the path before you, it said. Live as a monster of mass destruction — or die as a coward.
And the abyss trembled.