The ladder was rusted. It felt cold against Jin's bare hands. He climbed down into the dark shaft for what felt like hours. His arms burned with lactic acid. His Foundation Level 3 muscles were pathetic. A normal worker on Earth could probably climb longer than he could right now.
The air grew thicker the deeper they went. It smelled like sulfur and rotting meat. He coughed loudly. The sound echoed down the long metal tube.
Nyx dropped silently beside him. She did not use the ladder. She just fell through the dark and landed on her feet like a cat.
They reached the bottom. The floor was covered in a thick layer of grey, oily sludge. This was the Root Wastes. It was the absolute bottom of Chimeria. All the toxic runoff and biological waste from the upper Canopy tier drained down here. It was a massive, subterranean slum.
Nyx reached into a small pouch on her black belt. She pulled out two masks. They were made of hardened leather and petrified bone. Heavy filter cartridges hung from the sides.
She handed one to Jin.
"Wear this," she said in his mind. Her telepathic voice was flat. "The spores in the air down here will dissolve your lungs in twenty minutes. We must hide our faces anyway."
Jin strapped the mask over his face. The filter tasted like burnt charcoal and chemicals. He breathed a little easier. The mask covered his entire face from the nose down. He pulled the hood of his robe up over his hair.
Nyx put a mask over the lower half of her obsidian visor. She pulled a dark, tattered cloak over her shoulders. She looked like a scavenger. She threw a matching grey cloak to Jin.
"Hide your posture," Nyx instructed. "Walk like you are injured. Keep your head down. Predators look for strong prey in the Wastes. We want to look entirely unremarkable."
Jin put the heavy cloak on. He forced his spine to curve again. He slouched his shoulders. He dragged his left foot slightly as he walked. He focused on putting one foot in front of the other. The corporate logistics manager was now playing the role of a sewer rat.
They walked into the massive tunnel system. The walls were lined with glowing green fungus. It provided the only light. Large, mutated rodents with six legs scurried away from their footsteps. The sludge on the floor ruined Jin's silk palace shoes in minutes.
They walked for two miles. Jin's legs shook with exhaustion. He forced himself to keep moving. If he stopped, he died. That was the only motivation he needed.
Finally, the narrow tunnel opened up into a massive underground cavern.
This was the black market. The noise hit Jin like a physical punch. Thousands of people yelled, bartered, and threatened each other. There were makeshift stalls built from rusted scrap metal and giant beast ribcages. Smugglers sold illegal, unstable Aether-cores on dirty blankets. Unlicensed bio-surgeons grafted mechanical limbs and insect armor onto desperate mercenaries in open alleys.
The air was thick with grey smoke and the smell of burning flesh.
Jin stayed close to Nyx. He kept his eyes fixed on the muddy ground. A massive man with three arms bumped into Jin's shoulder. The man turned around to snarl at him. He raised a heavy fist.
Nyx simply stopped and looked at the man. She did not speak. She did not raise a weapon. The man saw her blank mask and the absolute stillness of her posture. He recognized a killer. He backed away into the crowd and disappeared.
Nyx led Jin through the chaotic market. They reached the far end of the cavern. A massive iron gate blocked a wide tunnel. An old smuggler stood by the gate. He chewed on a piece of dried, mutant root. He held a heavy plasma rifle.
Nyx approached the smuggler. She did not say a word. She reached into her pouch and pulled out a fist-sized gem. It pulsed with pure, bright blue light. It was a high-tier Aether core from a Divinity Realm beast. It was worth more than a small city.
The smuggler's eyes widened. He grabbed the core quickly and shoved it into his pocket. He pressed a button on his belt. The heavy iron gate groaned and slid open.
They walked onto a hidden launch pad. The ship sat in the center of the dark cave.
It was an ugly machine. It looked like a cross between a metallic beetle and a flying cargo container. The hull was scarred with plasma burns and acid stains. The left engine housing was missing its outer shell. It was perfect. No imperial guard would ever look twice at a garbage hauler.
They climbed up the lowered boarding ramp. The interior of the ship smelled like old machine oil and stale sweat.
Nyx went straight to the cockpit. She sat in the pilot seat. Her hands moved rapidly over the organic control panels. The ship rumbled to life. The engines whined loudly, vibrating the floor plates.
"Strap in," Nyx commanded.
Jin found a rusted jump seat bolted to the wall. He sat down and pulled the heavy, four-point harness over his chest. He clicked the buckle into place.
The ship lurched upward violently. It shot out of a disguised exhaust vent in the cavern ceiling.
The G-force slammed Jin back into his seat. The pressure crushed his chest. He could not draw a breath. His vision blurred at the edges. His Foundation Level 3 body fought hard to stay conscious. He gripped the straps of his harness until his knuckles turned white.
They broke through the thick smog layers of Chimeria. The ship rattled violently as it hit the upper atmosphere. The sky outside the viewport turned from polluted grey to the deep, endless black of space.
The pressure released. Jin gasped for air. He coughed hard, his lungs burning. They made it out of the capital.
Jin unbuckled his harness. He rubbed his sore shoulders. He walked on unsteady legs up to the cockpit. Nyx sat perfectly still in the pilot seat. She navigated the ship smoothly through the planet's orbital debris fields.
Jin looked out the front viewport. He saw the stars. It was a beautiful, terrifying sight. On Earth, he rarely saw the stars through the city light pollution. Here, they were bright, piercing, and violent.
The moment of peace lasted exactly four minutes.
A red light flashed rapidly on the main control console. A harsh, electronic buzzer sounded in the small cabin.
Jin looked at the radar screen on the dashboard. A single red dot appeared on the edge of the sensor range. It was moving incredibly fast. It was heading straight for their ship.
"What is that?" Jin asked. His voice was tight.
Nyx tapped a few commands onto the console. The main screen zoomed in on the red dot. It was not a random asteroid or a trade ship.
It was a military interceptor. It was sleek, silver, and shaped like a deadly spearhead. It had two massive thrusters burning bright blue. Painted on the side of the hull in dark crimson was the crest of the Apex Dynasty. It was the First Prince's symbol. A dragon wrapped around a bloody sword.
"An imperial interceptor," Nyx said flatly. "They picked up our engine signature when we left the underground vent. They are scanning our bio-rhythms now. They know you are on board."
"Can we outrun them?" Jin asked. He gripped the back of her pilot chair.
"No," Nyx replied. "This ship is built for stealth and cargo capacity. It has no top speed. They will be in firing range in exactly two minutes."
Jin felt a cold knot form in his stomach. They survived the palace assassins. They survived the toxic tunnels. They bought a ship. And now they were going to get shot down in orbit. His corporate logic told him this was a dead end. There was no negotiation in the vacuum of space.
Nyx stood up from the pilot seat. She flipped a switch on the console. She put the ship on autopilot.
She walked past Jin without a single word. She headed toward the rear cargo hold.
Jin followed her. He watched as she walked to the center of the metal deck. She opened a hidden compartment bolted into the floor. She reached inside and pulled out a weapon.
It was a heavy, bio-mechanical missile launcher. It looked like it was grown from a massive spinal cord and reinforced with black steel plates. It was huge. It looked far too heavy for a normal human to lift. Nyx hoisted it onto her right shoulder easily.
"Open the rear ramp," Nyx ordered.
Jin hesitated for a fraction of a second. They were at the very edge of the atmosphere. The air was incredibly thin. The temperature outside was dropping far below freezing.
But he did not argue. He slammed his hand onto the manual release lever on the wall.
The heavy metal ramp at the back of the ship groaned loudly. It slowly lowered. The howling wind of the upper atmosphere rushed into the cargo hold. The sudden drop in cabin pressure made Jin's ears pop painfully. He grabbed a wall handle tight to keep from getting sucked out into the sky.
The cold air bit into his skin like sharp needles. He shivered violently.
Nyx stood right at the edge of the open ramp. The violent wind whipped her dark cloak around her body. She did not flinch. She aimed the heavy launcher directly at the silver interceptor rapidly closing the distance behind them.
She planted her boots firmly on the metal deck. She pulled the firing mechanism.