A dim red glow pulsed along the ship's walls, casting long shadows over twisted metal and shattered panels. Sparks fell from torn wires, spinning through the stale air before vanishing into the dark. The hum beneath their feet rose and fell, uneven and jagged, as if the whole ship struggled to stay alive.
Ash dropped first. His boots struck the deck with a sharp clang. Blade already drawn, his eyes swept the wreckage, catching every flicker of light, every twitch of movement. The air reeked of scorched steel and melted circuits.
"All right. We're in. I don't see anyone."
Kael landed behind him. Smoke curled from his shoulder as he brushed glowing embers off his hair.
"Great. You see, Max? That was my goal. A clean entry."
Max hit the floor last, landing with a steady breath. His gaze swept the corridor. Burned walls, loose wires dangling overhead, consoles sparking in the shadows. He let the silence stretch before answering.
"You call this a clean entry? Look around. This place is falling apart."
Kael shrugged without a care.
"It worked, didn't it?"
Max stepped past them, eyes locking onto a shattered terminal. He reached out, fingers working fast over the cracked screen. Damaged data feeds blinked back to life. Static rolled across glitching displays, words cutting in and out.
Then his hands stopped. His eyes narrowed. Slowly, a grin crept across his face.
Ash caught the change in the air. The sudden stillness.
"What is it?"
Max didn't answer right away. He pulled up the ship's schematic. A cargo bay lit red, clamps locked tight around something buried in the lower hold. Strange readings bled across the screen—unstable spikes of energy that flickered far beyond normal levels.
"This ship was transporting a piece of the asteroid. I've been trying to find a way to study it. Looks like we found one."
Ash stepped beside him. The screen shifted, pulling up the lower decks. A fragment of the asteroid sat in the cargo bay, veins of faint light running beneath its surface. The glow felt alive, pulsing like a heartbeat sealed in stone.
Kael crossed his arms, unimpressed.
"Okay, nerd. Can we focus on not dying first? We're still being chased."
Max's fingers were already flying across the controls.
"Yeah, I remember. I just got excited for a second."
The screens flashed red.
The ship trembled beneath their feet.
Beyond the hull, Apex fleetships shifted into position. Rows of cannons turned as one, their glow burning in the dark like distant suns preparing to fire.
Max stared at the warning. His voice dropped, sharp and clear.
"The real question is whether we make it out in one piece."
The AI's voice cut through the chaos, cold and sharp.
"[Multiple hostiles detected. Defenses offline. Evacuation recommended.]"
Max didn't flinch. His hands blurred across the controls. Engine cores rumbled beneath the floor. Lines of light pulsed through the ship's frame as power surged through broken circuits.
"You don't have to tell me twice."
He slammed the command.
The world outside erupted.
Red beams sliced through the void, tearing it apart. Explosions lit the dark like falling stars. The hull screamed as blast after blast shredded across it. Inside, the floor shook violently. Loose wires tore from the ceiling, snapping like tendons torn from bone. Smoke filled the air, thick and choking.
Max gripped the controls tightly, his knuckles pale, teeth grinding as another warning shot grazed the side.
"This is worse than I thought."
He turned, eyes sharp.
"Find something. Anything. Slow them down. If we take another hit like that, we're done!"
Ash scanned the dead consoles. Screens flickered, barely alive. Most were cracked, their edges burned black. There were no weapons or shields they could use.
Kael cracked his knuckles. The sound hit the air like a warning.
"I'll handle it."
Before anyone could stop him, he sprinted toward the breach. The torn hull hissed with leaking air, lights flickering in broken rhythms.
Kael jumped through. His legs struck the outer plating with a sharp metallic thud.
Max froze.
"Tell me he's not actually—"
Beyond the breach, the void stretched wide and endless. Cold. Black. But not silent. Somehow, in this strange place, Kael heard it all. The hum of engines. The pulse of battle.
Far ahead, the Apex ships waited, red beams still burning toward them.
Kael grinned.
Fire erupted from his palms. Gold and crimson twisted together, burning against the dark. These flames didn't drift like dying embers. They moved with weight, like fists crashing through the void.
The first blast hit the closest ship. Light burst across its surface, swallowing metal whole.
The battlefield broke apart.
Enemy ships staggered. Their perfect formation was shattered, thrown into chaos.
Kael blinked. He expected power. But this was something else. Bigger and Wilder than what he usually creates before.
His grin spread wider.
Another blast roared from his hands. Then another. Flames ripped through space, carving burning scars across the void. Apex ships twisted, their shots missing wide.
Inside, Ash stood frozen at the breach, his sword clenched in his hand. He watched the fire paint the darkness, lighting Kael's figure like a ghost among the stars.
The ship rocked again. The battlefield pressed closer. Engines hummed deep beneath the floor. Fire crackled against broken steel.
Ash tightened his grip on the blade, his chest heavy. Right now, he couldn't do anything but watch.
Max yanked the controls, forcing the ship into a sharp turn. The frame groaned under the strain, panels sparking at his sides.
"Kael, don't you dare die out there!"
Kael's laugh broke through the storm. A fireball spun in his palm, heat rising like a second sun.
"No promises. Turns out this is more fun than I thought."
The void burned around him.
Kael's flames tore through the cold. Streaks of molten light split the shadows apart, firestorms blooming in their wake. Apex ships scattered, twisting, and spinning to escape.
One ship turned too late. Fire kissed its hull. Metal split open like broken glass. Explosions rolled across its body, tearing it in half.
Another fighter panicked, cutting too close to its own fleet. The impact shattered both, fragments scattering like shards across the stars.
Inside the stolen ship, Max fought the controls. The cockpit shuddered beneath his hands. Warning lights flared red.
[Engines overheating.]
[Stabilizers failing.]
[Frame integrity collapsing.]
Suddenly, the light faded.
A shadow rolled across the battlefield, cold and massive.
They turned as one.
A planet filled their vision, so close it swallowed the sky. Oceans churned below in deep swirls of blue, broken by endless storms. Clouds spun like torn cloth, wrapped around its spinning heart.
Gravity caught them.
The ship groaned under the weight, tilting forward as the pull dragged harder.
Max's eyes locked on the readings.
"Hold on."
Engines roared in protest, pushing against the fall. But it wasn't enough.
Kael spun midair, his body turning in the void. One last flame flicked from his fingertips before he dropped through the breach. He hit the deck with a sharp thud, steam curling from his jacket as he rose.
"Finally. Was getting bored up there."
Ash barely heard him. His eyes stayed locked on the sky below.
The clouds twisted like living things, rushing up to meet them.
They weren't flying anymore.
They were falling.
And this wasn't just any world.
It was Varagos. The only planet left in their system.
A world split in two.
One side was ruined by humanity's endless war against the dangerous creatures of Varagos.
The other side was something else.
A place no one returned from. Covered in thick fog, a shroud that swallowed all light. From orbit, it looked like a crack in the world. Ships lost in that fog were never found. People who fell in never came back.
Max clenched the controls, doing everything he could not to crash there.
The ship tore through the clouds.
Flames wrapped the hull, burning across its broken frame. Chunks of metal peeled away, trailing smoke as they fell into the storm below.
The asteroid fragment ripped free.
It spun once, then vanished into the thick sky, swallowed whole in seconds.
Max's jaw tightened.
"Damn it. There goes the asteroid."
Kael crouched by the wall, one hand gripping a support beam. He didn't turn.
"Forget it. Focus on not dying."
Ash braced against the frame, boots skidding as the deck bucked beneath them. Wind tore through the open hull, ripping wires from the ceiling. Sparks rained down.
Every jolt hit harder. Every second louder.
The ground rushed up to meet them.
Ash's voice cut through the chaos.
"This thing won't hold."
Max didn't answer.
His fingers flew across the controls. No response.
Red lights flashed in rhythm with the dying hum of the engines. A pulse beat deep in the ship's frame—fast, broken, final.
The metal groaned like it already knew how this ended.
Max's eyes jumped between them.
Kael crouched steadily, fire still glowing faintly across his arms. Ready to move. Ready to fight whatever came next.
Ash stood near the breach, body wound tight, a spring ready to snap. His fingers twitched against his blade, reaching for control in a world that had none left to give.
And the planet below waited.
Max pulled a breath through his teeth.
"We jump."
Kael didn't wait. He grabbed their arms and launched them forward.
The wind slammed into them like a hammer. It tore past their bodies, cold and sharp, punching straight through.
Ash narrowed his eyes, searching the broken horizon ahead.
No towers. No cities. No lights.
Only the dead land of sands.
Jagged scars split the earth. Dunes shifted below like sleeping beasts, rising and falling in the wind. There was no sign of life. No sign of help.
The ground rushed up fast.
"Kael!"
Max's voice tore through the wind.
Kael's grip tightened. Fire roared at his feet.
The blast caught them just before impact, hurling them sideways, away from the falling wreck.
The ship hit a heartbeat later.
The crash ripped the land open.
Flames exploded outward, tearing across the sand in a wave of heat and broken steel. The ground shook beneath the force. A blast of dust and fire rolled across the wasteland, thick smoke curling high into the sky.
Kael hovered above it all, the heat swirling around him. A grin pulled at his mouth.
"Feels good to be back on land."
Max didn't answer. His eyes stayed on the burning wreck below, on the wide stretch of nothing that surrounded them.
"We're not on land yet. Take us down."
Kael gave a short breath, then dropped. Fire trailed from his boots as they fell.
They hit the ground hard.
The earth burned beneath their feet, still warm from the wreckage. Smoke clung to the air, thick and sharp, burning in their lungs.
Their ship lay broken behind them—twisted metal curled like broken ribs. Wires sparked in slow, dying twitches. Fragments of the hull jutted from the earth like shattered bones.
Ash stepped forward, scanning the wreck.
The air stank of burnt fuel and something worse—something raw and wrong.
'Too close. If Kael wasn't here, we'd be dead.'
Max clenched his fists.
"Damn it. We lost the asteroid. Now we'll never know why Apex wanted it so badly."
Ash didn't answer right away. His eyes stayed on the wreck, then turned toward Max.
"So what now? Apex will find this place soon. Do you know where we are?"
Max looked out across the wasteland.
The sky stretched wide and empty. The wind stirred the dust. Nothing else moved.
"No. But I did steer the ship towards sector 6's cinderholt, but the way things look, either we are in the right place or in sector 3. Also, I lost my band. Can't call for backup. We're stranded. But maybe, if we find a settlement, I can get a signal out."
Ash shifted the blade at his side, grip steady. His eyes swept the endless horizon.
"Then we move. Staying here is a bad—"
The sound cut him off.
The sky split apart.
A deep, grinding roar rolled across the sand.
It pressed against their chests, deep enough to feel in their bones. The ground trembled beneath their feet.
Max froze. His breath caught.
They didn't need to look.
It was already too late.
Apex had found them.