The underbelly of New Terra-9 stank of rust and regret.
Grimbarrow's industrial district stretched like the bones of a dead god—endless corridors of collapsed warehouses, gutted refineries, and silent loading bays. Above it, the smoggy sky blinked between red sunbeams and flickering drone lights.
Elira and Fenrir moved through the debris with precision, scanning for heat trails, biochemical residue, and signal echoes.
"Three hours since we hit the drop zone," Fenrir muttered. "Still nothing but dead air."
"Incorrect," Elira replied. "There's movement—faint thermal anomalies. Four lifeforms. 200 meters. Human signature."
Fenrir grinned. "Finally."
They passed through Grimbarrow's heart, where synthetic creatures now lived shoulder to shoulder with struggling humans.
A dwarf-class servitor, short and stocky with soot-stained overalls and an acetylene torch for a right hand, welded a support beam over a crumbling walkway. His faded VirexCorp insignia had been scratched out and replaced with crude graffiti.
He looked up as they passed. "You two got clearance?"
Fenrir didn't slow. "Don't need it."
The dwarf shrugged. "Just sayin'. Corp's been sniffing around. Lotta heat lately. Ask the bat—he's seen stuff."
Moments later, a vampire-model courier descended from a rooftop, his coat flaring like wings. His red optics scanned them with machine-fast accuracy.
"You're looking for someone," he said.
"Rian Koss. Logistics division," Elira said.
"He came through. Three nights ago. Paid his way north. Said something about needing to find an 'anchor.'"
Before she could ask more, he vanished into the rain.
They passed elf-class servitors sitting under a tattered awning, chanting calibration mantras. A child watched them from a window, entranced by their glowing eyes.
"Why are they meditating?" Fenrir asked.
"Low-tier elven units default to spiritual algorithms. Stabilizes firmware," Elira replied.
"Cute. Useless, but cute."
A werewolf-lite vendor handed a fungus skewer to a masked teen. "Rian was here," it confirmed. "Too many questions. Left east. Didn't say why."
Their route took them to a crumbling gate with a half-lit sign: DREX BIOLABS – SUBSTATION C.
Inside, the air was thick with mold and rotting plastic. Discarded servitor limbs lay tangled in corners.
A noise.
Fenrir drew his claws. Elira scanned.
A human woman stumbled out, wide-eyed, cradling a datapad.
"Don't shoot—please! I don't work for VirexCorp!"
"Identify," Elira commanded.
"Ketta. I fix bots. Rian was here. He was scared. Said the company sent monsters."
Then, an alert flashed in Elira's HUD.
ALERT: UNIDENTIFIED SIGNAL – ENCRYPTION UNKNOWN
MATCHED PROTOCOL: VIREXCORP AUTO-HUNTER DRONES
OVERRIDE ACCESS: ELIRA // DESIGNATION: EXECUTIVE CLASS – PRIORITY 2
DEACTIVATION: AVAILABLE
Elira raised her brow slightly. "I can shut them down."
Fenrir's claws gleamed. "Don't."
"I can—"
"I said let 'em come. We need the exercise."
She dismissed the override.
Blue light shattered the ceiling. Combat drones dropped like razors. Ketta screamed and dove behind cover.
"Auto-hunters," Fenrir growled. "Corp cleanup squad."
Fenrir lunged, smashing one midair. Elira disrupted the next with a resonance wave. Drones whirled and slashed, but the duo moved like a storm.
Elira disabled limbs and cores with surgical strikes. Fenrir left crushed metal in his wake.
Silence fell.
Fenrir snarled "Told you. Better than pressing buttons. Now what do we do about her?"
Ketta had already lost feeling in her legs during the fight. Now, facing Fenrir, she fell down face first on the ground. Groaning, she said "He found something. A control matrix. Buried in your code."
Elira's eyes narrowed. "What kind of matrix?"
Ketta passed out.
Fenrir nudged her gently in her ribs, and looked at Elira, "Well, better bring her in and hand her over to security corps. With the amount of filth on her, I am not touching her even with a ten foot long snout."
However, Elira had already tuned him out, and stood there staring at her hands, override window long gone. She didn't reopen her HUD again.
Not because she couldn't.
Because something in her didn't want to.