Excavating the Research Annex was an act of profound, focused violence against the mountain itself. The Bulkhauler, repurposed from miner to demolisher, chewed through bedrock at the Bastion's deepest, most stable level. The noise was a constant, grinding earthquake felt throughout the fortress. Dust, thick and choking, filled the lower corridors despite industrial scrubbers working overtime.
Isaac watched from the edge of the growing cavern, a breathing mask over his face. They weren't just digging a room; they were carving a null-space—a chamber designed to be as disconnected from the outside world as Bastion science could manage. The walls would be lined with psychic-refractive crystal lattices and layers of lead-infused, reality-stabilizing alloy. The goal was to create a bubble where the Gloom's entropic signal could be observed, like a virus under a sterile microscope, without infecting the observer.
While the physical space was dug, the manufacturing began. The Zero-Point Energy Crystals were the key. According to the carrier's data, they were not mined; they were cultivated at points where reality had been wounded and then forcibly healed by Bastion technology—places where the "scar tissue" of spacetime held unique, stable energetic properties.
Omicron-22, the corrupted mountain, was one giant, festering wound. The "healing" would have to be his assault.
He couldn't wait for the Orrery to be built to get the crystals. He needed the crystals to finish the Orrery. Another maddening loop.
He broke it with brute force. "We take a piece of the mountain. Not the wreck. The mountain's heart. The Sergeant's analysis of the carrier data suggests the Nexus corruption is centered on a deep geological fault. That fault line, where planetary energy meets Gloom corruption, is where Zero-Point crystals might be forced to form if we can create a local, violent purification event."
It was geo-engineering as a weapon and a mining tool. He would use the Catapult, not to destroy, but to perform surgery.
He called it Operation Cauterize.
The target was a secondary peak on the Omicron-22 massif, identified by deep scans as a major conduit for the corrupted energy flow. The plan was simple and terrifying: the Catapult would fire a sequence of three specialized shells.
1. Seismic-Sensor Probe: To map the exact fault structure.
2. Tectonic-Rend Charge: A shaped explosive designed to trigger a controlled collapse along the fault, physically severing a section of the corruption's flow.
3. Purification Catalyst Shell: A canister of concentrated, refined Essence and Stabilization nanites, fired into the heart of the new rupture to "heal" it with a violent, focused burst of anti-Gloo m energy.
In the resulting energetic backlash, Zero-Point crystals might—might—crystallize.
The Catapult, V-004 'Thunderhead', was moved to a new, heavily fortified firing platform built on a ridge line even closer to the mountain, guarded by both Legionnaires. The risk was immense. They were poking the beast in its brainstem.
From the Bastion's command nexus, Isaac gave the order. "Fire Sequence Alpha."
WHOOMF. The probe shell arced high and buried itself in the mountainside. Data streamed back, painting a picture of seething, violet energy channels deep in the rock.
"Fault mapped. Solution locked for Charge."
WHOOMF. The Tectonic-Rend shell followed. The impact was silent for a second, then the mountain groaned. A plume of dust and rock erupted from the targeted peak. A visible crack raced down its face. The flow of corrupted energy on the sensors stuttered, then diverted around the new rupture, confused.
"Energy flow disrupted. Firing Catalyst."
The third shell flew true, disappearing into the freshly made wound. For a moment, nothing. Then, a light. Not an explosion, but a bloom. A sphere of pure, white-silver light erupted from within the mountain, visible for miles. It swelled, pushing back the violet haze, then collapsed inward with a sound like a universe sighing.
Silence.
Sensors strained. The corrupted energy signature from that peak had diminished by 70%. And in the heart of the collapsed, purified crater, new signatures appeared: pinpricks of stable, multi-spectral energy. Zero-Point Energy Crystal Formations.
"Infantry and Pioneer team, move in. Harvest every shard. You have one hour before the corruption backflows."
A team of Grenadiers in the new Paladin armor—their first field test—descended into the smoldering crater. Using Lascutters set to fine cutting beams, they harvested the crystals. They were beautiful, iridescent things that seemed to hold entire galaxies of shifting light within them. They were also incredibly dense, humming with potential power.
They retrieved eighteen viable crystals before the creeping violet energy began to seep back into the scarred rock, and they retreated.
Back in the Bastion, the crystals were rushed to the nascent Annex. They were installed into the housing of the main computational core—the Orrery's Heart. The moment the last crystal clicked into place, the entire chamber hummed to life. The air itself seemed to still, the ever-present psychic pressure of the Gloom vanishing, replaced by a deep, resonant silence. Holographic projectors awoke, casting a three-dimensional map of the local region into the center of the room, but this map was alive. It showed energy flows as rivers of light, geological strata as translucent layers, and the Gloom presence not as a red blotch, but as a complex, pulsing, fractal infection pattern spreading through the world's metaphysical substrate.
Isaac stepped into the Orrery. The silence was absolute. He could see the Bastion as a small, blue knot of order. The Nexus links were golden threads. Omicron-22 was a snarled, throbbing vortex of black and violet recursion. He could see the Colossi not as icons, but as dense knots in the energy web, like tumors. He could see the deeper structure now—the Vector's local processing nodes, the pathways it used to redistribute energy and matter.
It was no longer a mystery. It was a schematic. A terrifyingly complex one, but a schematic nonetheless.
The Sergeant's voice came through the chamber's speakers, calm and clear in the sterile quiet. "Orrery operational. Primary vector analysis initiating. The Paradox Engine simulation framework is loading."
On the main display, beside the map of the world, a second hologram appeared: a cascading waterfall of mathematical notation, logical loops, and energy-state simulations. It was the beginning of their weapon. A ghost of a idea, starting to take shape in the light.
Isaac stared at the glowing cancer of Omicron-22 on the map, then at the nascent, elegant logic of the Paradox Engine.
He had his microscope. He had his sample.
Now, he had to find the cure. Not for the disease, but for existence itself, in this one, cursed corner of reality. The programmer was at his terminal. The first line of universe-altering code was about to be written.