[POV Era]

  The valve chamber had become an epicenter of crimson light, a void where time itself seemed to stretch under the pressure of biotic energy. The Leader, his polymer mask reflecting the infernal glow of the egg, extended his gloved hands. His fingers, trembling with greed, were millimeters away from touching the pulsing shell. The air crackled with bursts of static, and the elders had stopped their chanting, mouths open in awe at the manifestation of a power beyond their scrap-born dogma.

  I kept my arm extended, offering the object, feeling the egg’s heat filtering through my circuits, threatening to overload my thermal sensors. But in that final millisecond, before the exchange could be completed, the system’s voice cracked through my core with the force of a priority command.

  [ ALERT! Era, cancel the transfer. Spectral analysis of the egg indicates phase synchronization with the nervous system of Sora Tanaka. The object is projecting a biotic containment field around the ptform. The egg’s energy is acting as a shield and stabilizer. If you secure Subject Sora now, the egg will protect her vital functions from the disconnection shock. Probability of success in an immediate escape has risen to 94%. ]

  I did not need a second expnation. My tactical processor seized control of my actuators before the Leader could even blink. In a movement that defied biological inertia, I yanked the egg back with a violent pull of my left arm while my alloy legs bent for an explosive unch.

  “Not now!” My voice sounded like the detonation of a reactor.

  I leapt backward, but not to flee—rather to nd on Sora’s ptform. With my right hand I grabbed the main cable connecting her to the console and, applying a high-frequency twist, tore it out completely. Blue and white sparks flooded the room, and the elders screamed in terror as the circuit broke. In one smooth motion coordinated by the system, I slid my right arm beneath Sora’s back and lifted her, pressing her unconscious body against mine. The egg, clutched in my left hand, intensified its glow until it became a blinding torch.

  “STOP HER! DON’T LET HER TAKE THE CORE!” the Leader shouted, his mask losing all composure as he pulled a pulse weapon from his jacket.

  But I was already gone. Using my servomotors at 110% output, I performed an acrobatic backward leap over the heads of the kneeling worshippers. My feet struck the rock floor with a force that cracked the pavement, and without stopping for a single instant I unched myself into the straight corridor I had come through.

  [ Incoming biotic projectiles! Evade left! ]

  A pulse of blue energy whistled past centimeters from Sora’s shoulder, striking one of the steam pipes and triggering an explosion of hot gas that briefly concealed us. I ran. My joints cycled at high velocity, ignoring the grinding pain of metal against metal. I carried Sora with all the delicacy my bance systems allowed, while the egg in my left hand seemed to emit a rhythmic vibration that kept the girl’s heart beating strongly.

  “System, the elevator is out. I need the stair route!”

  [ Route plotted. Three hundred meters at the end of the corridor. Era, the Leader has activated the Sector Alpha security units. I detect multiple Cyclops and elite Ganut signatures converging on your position. We must block access behind us. ]

  I reached the base of the emergency spiral staircase, a rusted iron structure twisting upward toward the surface. I looked back. Far down the dim tunnel I saw the yellow orbs of the pack of Cyclopes beginning to sprint toward us with their unnatural agility. The Leader was behind them, surrounded by guards firing bursts from automatic rifles.

  I climbed the first steps three at a time, Sora pressed against my chest. When I reached the first nding, I saw a series of high-pressure pipes carrying biotic coont toward the boratory.

  “This will do,” I murmured.

  I activated the high-frequency bde on my right gauntlet—the one not holding Sora—and made a crosscut through the pipe supports and the lower structure of the staircase. Metal melted and gave way under the strain. Several tons of iron and concrete colpsed into the tunnel below, creating an impassable wall of debris for the human guards.

  [ Level 1 blocked. Era, Cyclops units are climbing the walls. The colpse will not stop them for long. ]

  I kept ascending. My energy core hummed, draining reserves to maintain speed. Each time I reached a higher level, I used my mechanical strength to topple industrial shelves, tear down support beams, or overload electrical panels that burst into curtains of sparks and fire. I was turning the path upward into a trap of twisted metal.

  “Lock the pressure doors on Level 2,” I ordered the system as I passed through a security threshold.

  [ Accessing local control… Doors sealed. Overloading the hydraulic actuators so they cannot be opened manually. ]

  I heard the violent impacts of the creatures striking the metal on the other side. The hiss of their mutated breathing seeped through the cracks, but the doors held. I continued the frantic climb. Sora let out a weak groan, her head resting against my shoulder. For a second her eyes opened, cloudy and unfocused, reflecting the scarlet glow of the egg I held beside her.

  “Ori… Orion?” she whispered, her voice barely a thread of air.

  My processor halted for a microsecond. The name struck my memory banks harder than any bullet. But I could not stop. I could not be Orion now.

  “Sleep, Sora. You’re safe,” I replied in my Era voice, deep and calm.

  I reached the final staircase section connecting the underground to the technical building where I had fought the pack earlier. The exit door was reinforced. Without slowing, I lowered my left shoulder and smmed into it with the force of a battering ram. The metal bent and we burst into the shattered lobby.

  The pce was still littered with Cyclops corpses, but the air was easier to breathe here. I did not stop. I crossed the lobby toward the main exit, seeing in the distance the patrol lights of the settlement racing toward the building, alerted by the arm from the Leader’s Residence.

  “System, Chelsea. Where is she?”

  [ Signature detected. Still inside the office building on the outskirts, exactly where you left her. Era, the entire Dam is on maximum alert. We are no longer visitors; we are the primary target of a full-scale hunt. ]

  I stepped out into the cold night air with Sora in my arms and the red egg lighting our path like a promise of war. The hunt had only just begun, but Sector Alpha could no longer contain me. The Leader had lost his treasure, and I had recovered the only thing that truly mattered.