The docking bay of Titan 07 became a slaughterhouse of light and shadow.
The Void-Walkers—the Emperor's elite guard—did not scream when they attacked. They didn't even shoot. They moved like ink in water, phasing in and out of visibility using personal cloaking fields. They wielded Silence Staves, weapons that created localized vacuums upon impact, imploding flesh and bone.
"They're flanking!" Lyra shouted, her carbine barking. The bullets sparked off the invisible shields of the advancing wall of soldiers.
"They're not flanking," Julian said, his nanite arm glowing a fierce, angry blue. "They're swarming."
A Void-Walker materialized directly in front of him, swinging a staff at his head.
Julian didn't dodge. He caught the staff with his left hand.
CONTACT.
The vacuum field on the staff tried to crush his hand. But the nanite mesh wasn't flesh; it was a dense lattice of carbon and Aether-steel.
"Noisy," Julian growled.
He squeezed.
CRUNCH.
He crushed the staff. Before the Walker could react, Julian drove his nanite fist into the soldier's helmet. The impact rang out like a hammer on a bell, shattering the silence.
"Push forward!" Marcus ordered, firing his energy pistol with clinical precision. "We have to get off the flight deck before they vent the atmosphere!"
"Vent?" Isolde asked, ducking a blade.
"Standard containment protocol," Marcus said calmly, shooting a walker in the knee. "If intruders breach the bay, the station vents the room to space. We have thirty seconds."
The Split
They reached the heavy blast doors leading to the station's interior. They were locked tight.
"Skid!" Julian yelled.
"I'm trying!" Skid was plugged into a wall port, her fingers flying across her datapad. "But the encryption is insane! It's changing every millisecond!"
"It's the Omni-Key," Marcus said. "The Emperor controls the doors mentally. You can't hack him."
"Then we break it," Julian said. He aimed his arm at the door.
"No," Marcus stopped him. "If you blast that door, you trigger the structural sensors. The station will lock down completely. We need to split the signal."
Marcus pulled up a holographic schematic of the Spire.
"There are two critical nodes," Marcus explained rapidly. "The Kinetic Driver—the weapon aiming system—located in the Lower Ring. And the Throne Room at the Apex."
"If we go to the Throne," Julian said, "he'll just fire the weapon on Earth while we're fighting him."
"Exactly," Marcus nodded. "Someone has to go to the Lower Ring and jam the gears. Physically."
"I'll go," Isolde stepped up, hefting her wrench. "Jamming gears is my specialty."
"I'm with her," Skid said. "I can inject a virus into the targeting computer."
"I will go as well," Zephyr said, looking at the sterile white hallway. "This metal sky makes me uneasy. I prefer the engines. The wind is stronger there."
Julian looked at his team.
"Isolde, Skid, Zephyr. You take the Lower Ring. Disable the Sky-Hammer."
He looked at Lyra and Marcus.
"We go to the top. We kill the King."
"Ten seconds to atmosphere vent!" Skid warned.
"Go!" Julian shouted.
Skid hacked a service vent open. The three of them scrambled inside just as the blast doors to the interior hissed open for Julian's team.
The Gravity Well
Julian, Lyra, and Marcus sprinted into the central corridor just as the airlock behind them slammed shut. Through the thick glass, they saw the docking bay decompress. The bodies of the fallen Void-Walkers were sucked out into space in silence.
They were in the Central Shaft.
It was a vertical cylinder running the length of the station. In the center, a massive tungsten rod was loaded into the firing chamber, ready to be dropped on Earth.
"We have to climb this?" Lyra looked up. It was a mile-high vertical climb.
"We don't climb," Marcus walked to a control panel. "We fall."
He punched a code.
GRAVITY: INVERTED (LOCAL).
Suddenly, the floor became the ceiling. Julian's stomach lurched. He felt himself falling upward toward the top of the station.
"Magnetic boots!" Julian yelled, activating his soles.
They slammed onto the 'ceiling' (which was now the floor), running up the walls of the shaft while the massive tungsten rod floated beside them.
But they weren't alone in the shaft.
Zero-G Troopers.
Imperial soldiers wearing maneuvering thrusters dropped from the shadows, firing lasers from all directions.
"It's a shooting gallery!" Lyra shouted, taking cover behind a structural rib. "There's no cover in 360 degrees!"
"Then we make cover," Julian said.
He looked at the floating debris in the shaft—maintenance drones, crates, loose bolts.
He raised his nanite arm.
Focus: Magnetism.
He turned his arm into a localized gravity well.
Debris flew toward him, forming a swirling shield of metal junk around his body.
"Stay close!" Julian ordered.
He ran up the vertical wall, the junk-shield absorbing the laser fire. He returned fire with Sonic Lances—concentrated beams of sound that vibrated the troopers inside their suits, knocking them unconscious.
The Garden of Silence
They reached the upper Habitation Ring. Marcus neutralized the gravity, and they dropped onto a plush, grassy floor.
They were in the Arboretum.
It was surreal. A lush, green forest growing inside a space station. Artificial sunlight streamed through the glass ceiling.
But the plants were... wrong.
They were grey. Crystalline.
"The Emperor's private garden," Marcus whispered. "He collects endangered species from Earth and freezes them in stasis. It's a museum of what he killed."
"It's quiet," Lyra noted, scanning the trees. "Too quiet."
Click.
From the branches of the crystal trees, shapes dropped down.
They weren't human. They were Beasts.
Cybernetic panthers. Wolves made of chrome. Eagles with razor wings.
"His hunting pets," Marcus said, drawing his pistol. "He got bored of hunting humans."
A chrome-wolf lunged at Lyra. She rolled, slashing its throat with her combat knife. Sparks flew, but the beast kept coming.
"Julian!"
Julian grabbed the wolf by the tail and swung it into a tree. The crystal tree shattered.
"They're linked," Julian sensed the resonance. "They're a hive mind."
He saw the Alpha. A massive, robotic bear standing on a hill in the center of the garden. It had a satellite dish embedded in its skull.
"The Bear is the router!" Julian shouted.
He charged the hill.
The cyber-panthers swarmed him. Julian didn't stop. He used the Prime's Momentum.
He activated the thrusters in his elbow (another upgrade). His punch accelerated to supersonic speed.
BOOM.
He punched a panther so hard it disintegrated.
He reached the Alpha. The Bear roared—a blast of sonic distortion.
Julian laughed.
"You want to shout?"
He placed his nanite palm against the Bear's forehead.
Focus: Feedback.
He took the Bear's sonic roar, amplified it, and fed it back into the creature's own skull.
SCREEEEE-POP.
The Bear's head exploded.
Instantly, all the other mechanical beasts in the garden powered down, dropping to the ground like puppets with cut strings.
The Door to the Crown
They walked through the silent, mechanical forest to the far side of the Arboretum.
There stood a massive set of double doors. They were made of pure white gold, etched with the history of the Empire.
"The Throne Room," Marcus said. He holstered his pistol. He looked terrified.
"He's behind that door," Marcus whispered. "And he has the power of a Titan. Julian... are you sure about this?"
Julian looked at his metal arm. He looked at the scars on Lyra's face.
"He's just a man, Marcus," Julian said. "He bleeds like us. He just bleeds gold."
Julian placed his hand on the door.
"Let's go say hello."