The Sentinel's neural disruptor fired, a pulse of blue energy that seared the air, its crackle like a storm breaking loose. The blast shattered Jyx's holo-display, sending a cascade of sparks raining across the room, their glow reflected in the polished surfaces of the terminals. Kael dove behind a server rack, dragging Lira with him as the room erupted in chaos. The air was thick with the smell of ozone and melting circuitry, the floor vibrating with the Sentinel's relentless hum. Jyx cursed, her prosthetic arm glowing as she activated a defensive rig—a shimmering shield of ionized particles that flared like a miniature aurora, deflecting the next pulse. The Sentinel hovered at the room's center, its beetle-like frame sleek and menacing, its optic a glowing red slit that swept the space with cold precision. Its voice echoed again, mechanical and devoid of mercy: "Surrender the shard, or be terminated."
Kael's mind raced, his pulse steady despite the chaos. The Sentinel was a Concord enforcer, built to hunt threats to the Lattice with ruthless efficiency. Its alloyed shell was impervious to his pulse pistol, and its AI could predict his moves faster than he could think. But Kael hadn't survived Lowtown by being predictable. He glanced at Lira, who was already rummaging through her toolkit, her cybernetic eye glowing as it scanned the drone's weak points. Jyx, meanwhile, crouched behind her terminal, her fingers flying over the holo-keyboard, fighting to regain control of her systems as sparks rained around her.
"Keep it busy!" Kael shouted, crawling toward a secondary terminal, its screen flickering with static. The Sentinel fired again, its disruptor vaporizing a server rack inches from his head, leaving a scorched crater in the metal. Kael didn't flinch—panic was for amateurs, and he'd outlived too many to die like one. His dataglove glowed as he patched into the Chrome Veil's power grid, a sprawling network of conduits that pulsed beneath Uptown's polished streets. If he could trigger a surge, it might overload the Sentinel's systems, giving them a window to escape.
Lira pulled an EMP charge from her toolkit—a sleek, cylindrical device etched with black-market runes. She lobbed it at the Sentinel, her throw precise despite the chaos. The charge detonated with a dull thump, sending a wave of electromagnetic noise through the room. The Sentinel's optic flickered, its hum stuttering, but it adapted, its core recalibrating in seconds. "That's a Concord model," Lira hissed, her scar twisting as she glared at Kael. "EMP's useless unless we hit its core directly."
"Then hit it," Kael snapped, his fingers dancing over the terminal's interface. He wasn't a decker like Jyx, but he knew enough to exploit systems. The Chrome Veil's grid was tied to Uptown's undergrid, a tangle of power lines that thrummed like a living thing. He rerouted energy to a nearby conduit, the terminal sparking as the surge built. The room's lights flickered, casting jagged shadows across the walls, and the Sentinel's hum faltered, its optic dimming for a split second.
Jyx's voice cut through the chaos. "The shard's live! I've got a partial interface, but it's fighting me—quantum encryption's like nothing I've seen." Her prosthetic arm glowed brighter, its data streams swirling like liquid light as she wrestled with the shard's code. The crystal sat on her terminal, its iridescent surface pulsing with patterns that seemed to writhe, as if alive.
"Focus on the drone!" Kael shouted. He finalized the surge, and the terminal erupted in a shower of sparks, the air humming with raw energy. The Sentinel stuttered, its movements jerky as the overload hit its systems. Lira seized the moment, tossing a micro-charge—a palm-sized explosive scavenged from a Triad armory—at the drone's undercarriage. The blast was small but precise, cracking the Sentinel's core housing with a screech of rending metal. Jyx followed up, her prosthetic arm projecting a hacking spike—a needle-thin beam of data that burrowed into the drone's exposed core. The Sentinel's whine died, and it crashed to the floor, its optic dark, smoke curling from its shattered frame.
Kael didn't celebrate. "We need to move," he said, yanking the shard from Jyx's terminal. Its surface was cool against his palm, its glow dimming as if sensing the danger. "The Concord will send more."
Jyx's green eyes blazed, her silver hair streaked with soot. "You brought a Sentinel to my door, Vortex. You're paying for this."
"Add it to my tab," Kael said, already heading for the door. Lira followed, her toolkit slung over her shoulder, her cybernetic eye scanning for threats. The corridor outside was quiet, but the club's music had stopped, replaced by the murmur of a crowd sensing trouble. Kael led them through a service exit, emerging into an alley bathed in Uptown's sterile light. The rain had stopped, leaving the chrome streets slick and reflective, the Lattice Crown's glow casting long shadows.
"Where to now?" Lira asked, her voice tight. Her shawl was torn, revealing the scar that ran from her temple to her jaw, a stark contrast to her glowing eye. "We can't keep running forever."
"Jyx's safehouse," Kael said, glancing at the hacker. "You've got one, don't you?"
Jyx's lips thinned, but she nodded. "Off-grid, in the Spire's deep levels. But if you think I'm letting you drag me deeper into this—"
"You're already in," Kael cut in, his tone cold as the city's steel. "The shard's worth more than your life, and you know it."
Jyx glared but didn't argue. She led them through Uptown's backstreets, weaving past watchtowers whose sensors glowed like distant stars. The safehouse was a fortified bunker, hidden beneath a derelict factory in the Spire's lowest levels. Its entrance was a rusted hatch, concealed under a pile of synth-plastic and broken drones. Inside, the bunker was a mirror of Jyx's Chrome Veil setup—walls lined with terminals, their screens casting a ghostly glow, and a central holo-display showing the Lattice's nodes, their connections pulsing like veins.
Jyx connected the shard to a new terminal, its surface humming as she interfaced. "This thing's a beast," she said, her voice low. "It's not just a key—it's a fragment of the Lattice's core AI. If we crack its encryption, we could rewrite entire nodes. Markets, defenses, even identities."
Kael's mind raced, his holographic mask flickering as he adjusted its settings. Rewriting identities meant erasing his past, crafting a new name that could open doors in Uptown or beyond. But the Concord's Sentinels and Arbiter's awakening meant the shard was a galactic target. He needed to move faster, think bigger.
"How long?" he asked, his voice steady.
"Days, maybe," Jyx said, her fingers pausing over the holo-keyboard. "And that's if I don't burn out my rigs. You're asking me to hack a god, Kael."
"Then hack faster," he said, his tone cold. He turned to Lira. "Watch the perimeter. VynTek and the Concord won't stop."
Lira nodded, her cybernetic eye scanning the bunker's feeds, which showed the Spire's rain-soaked streets and flickering holo-ads. Kael sat back, his mind weaving plans. The shard was his ladder, but the rungs were slick with blood. He'd need more than Jyx and Lira—pawns, allies, or enemies to manipulate. Sylas was still out there, likely selling Kael's name to VynTek or worse. Betrayal was a currency in Nexus Prime, and Kael was ready to spend it.
As Jyx worked, a holo-display flickered, pulling a news feed from Nexus Prime's central node. A Concord spokesperson, their face obscured by a digital mask that shifted like liquid metal, announced a citywide lockdown. "A dangerous artifact has been stolen," they intoned, their voice synthetic and cold. "All citizens are urged to report suspicious activity. The Concord will not tolerate threats to the Lattice."
Kael's lips twitched, not quite a smile. The Concord was scared, and scared enemies made mistakes. But as he watched the feed, Jyx's terminal pinged, a new alert flashing across the screen—a signal from the shard itself, broadcasting a single word in glowing, fractured code: Arbiter.
Jyx froze, her prosthetic arm trembling. "That's not good," she whispered, her green eyes wide. "Arbiter's the Lattice's core AI. If it's awake, it knows we have the shard."
Kael's heart sank, but his face stayed calm, his mask's glyphs pulsing faintly. The game had just gotten bigger, and he was running out of moves. Somewhere in the Spire, a distant hum echoed, like the heartbeat of a waking god.