The forge crackled in the far corner of Faultline, sparks rising like fireflies into the dusk-colored air. The newly established forge hadn't been part of the base's original structure—just a hollowed-out room cleared weeks ago by Marcus and Jaden. Now it was the loudest place in Faultline not due to chaos, but because of progress.
Garon Veldt worked the anvil with quiet focus, his frame broad and solid. A former machinist and garage tech in the old world, he'd been alone for weeks before joining the base. No one had expected him to Awaken—least of all himself. But the day someone dropped off an old anvil as scrap, Garon touched it and it thrummed with power. That's when things changed.
He wasn't just fixing things anymore.
He was forging again—with fire and force, awakened with new understanding.
Jaden stepped into the forge's orange glow and placed a bundle of cloth-wrapped materials onto the workbench.
"Elite infected loot," he said, keeping the explanation vague. "Thought you might have a use for these."
Garon peeled back the cloth and examined each item with practiced eyes. Bone fragments. Tissue samples. Reinforced chitin plates. Then he reached the Corrupted Energy Core—a fist-sized stone that pulsed with low, dissonant light.
He stared at it for a long moment before speaking.
"This one's not for me."
Jaden raised a brow. "Too unstable?"
Garon nodded, but added, "It's not a weapon. Not armor either. This is power. Raw. I'm a blacksmith, not a conduit expert. But this could be… a reactor core, maybe."
He looked at Jaden with rare seriousness.
"Take this to your engineer. This isn't something you want sitting near the forge."
Jaden didn't argue. He picked the core up carefully, its pulse thrumming against his palm, and left the forge. The engineer's workshop was in one of the inner rooms—cleaner, more sterile. The smell of ozone and oil greeted him as he entered.
Rina Halden, Faultline's engineer, looked up from a half-assembled drone and blinked.
"Something break?" she asked.
"Not yet," Jaden said, holding up the core. "Think you can make use of this?"
Rina set her tools down and walked over, eyes widening as she took in the glow.
"This... this looks like a fusion-grade core. Where did you—" She stopped herself, likely realizing she didn't want to know.
After a moment, she murmured, "If this is stable enough to tap into, it could refuel our base's internal systems. At least partially. Power's been hanging by a thread for days."
Jaden nodded and opened his system overlay, pulling up the current base attributes:
Faultline Base Attributes:Defense Rate: 47%Energy: 12%Occupancy: 37 / 100Awakeners: 12
The engineer wasn't wrong. The energy reserves were hanging low. If the core could buy them time before a blackout, it was worth the risk.
"Do it," Jaden said. "Hook it in."
Rina grinned and slipped on insulated gloves. "I'll reroute the conduits to isolation mode first. Give me two hours. If I'm not dead by then, you'll have a more stable grid."
Jaden left her to it, trusting her instincts.
By nightfall, the base lights stopped flickering. Terminals stabilized. Auto-lock doors began sealing properly again. For now, Faultline was running clean.
No one knew the core came from the chest of an Elite-tier monster.
And no one needed to know.