Luca's body felt like it had been put through a blender, but damn if he didn't feel amazing. They'd just taken down what was basically a space kraken with shields and spikes, and he'd landed the killing shot. The notifications from his level-ups were still swimming through his head, but there was no time to bask in the glory. His crew needed to move.

Weapon racks lay scattered like dominoes, display cases shattered across the floor, and entire sections of the ceiling had collapsed. Scorch marks painted the walls where plasma bolts had missed their target.

Joey sat against an overturned weapons locker, slapping a coagulant patch over the gash in his leg where the tentacle had caught him. "Could've been worse," he said, wincing as the patch sealed. "Missed the artery."

Zoe leaned against a weapon rack, trying to hide the dark stain spreading across her armor where shrapnel had caught her. She straightened when she noticed Luca looking. "I'm fine. Just a scratch."

"Sure, and I'm just mildly attractive," Luca snorted. "Joey, check her out when you're done."

"Already on it," Joey said, limping over with his med kit. "Zoe, armor off. That's not a scratch."

She rolled her eyes but didn't argue, which told Luca she was hurting more than she let on.

Emily was struggling with her makeshift sling, trying to adjust it one-handed. Luca crossed over immediately.

"Here, let me," he said, gently taking the fabric ends.

"Thanks," she said, looking up at him through strands of blonde hair stuck to her forehead. "Stupid thing keeps slipping."

He carefully adjusted the sling. "Better?"

She flexed her hand. "Much better. Thanks."

"I thought I'd lost you back there," he said.

She looked up and smiled. "Not getting rid of me that easily."

He leaned down and kissed her, brief but firm, tasting sweat and relief. When they broke apart, she smiled. "What was that for?"

"Did I need a reason to?"

The massive carcass was sprawled across half the armory floor, black ichor pooling beneath it. The red core where his shot had connected was now a gaping, charred hole. He couldn't help feeling proud looking at the thing.

A familiar blue glow appeared above the Champion's remains, and Chris scrambled toward the loot box with Christmas morning enthusiasm.

"Mine!" he called.

The box opened with that satisfying hiss-click, revealing a chest piece that made Chris actually grin.

[Item acquired: Centauri Guardian Mk-64 Exo-Frame]

Medium armor plating with reinforced composite materials.

"Nice find," Joey said. "That'll go perfectly with your Guardian setup."

Chris was already examining the piece, running his fingers over the reinforced plating. "This is exactly what I needed."

Across the room, Danny had found something in an open locker. "Joey, get over here."

Danny pulled out a set of gleaming leg armor with reinforced knee joints. "Greaves. Perfect match for your Juggernaut set."

[Item acquired: Centauri Juggernaut Mk-64 Titan Striders]

Joey took the armor pieces with enthusiasm. "These are perfect."

"Anyone find anything for a Phantom suit?" Luca called out, trying not to sound desperate.

Five blank stares answered him. Great. Everyone gets fancy new toys except the captain.

The panel slid open, revealing a rack of Power Cells, at least two dozen pulsing with energy.

[Item acquired: Power Cells] (x28)

"Power cells!" Ryan yelled. "Just when we were running low."

Luca distributed them quickly. These would keep all of them alive longer.

"Alright," he said, looking around at his team. "We should head back to that mess hall. Get some food, rest up, and figure out our next move. The AI core isn't getting any closer while we stand here."

The adrenaline was fading, replaced by bone-deep exhaustion.

Luca took one last look at the Champion's corpse. The memory of Emily being yanked toward its maw was all the souvenir he needed.

"Coming, Captain?" Emily called from the doorway.

He turned away from the dead monster. "Right behind you."

[Mission Objective: Secure the battleship and defeat the AI‑controlled defenses. 70% Complete]

Twenty minutes later, they stood before the access hatch...

The room below sprawled beneath them, all exposed wiring and server racks stacked impossibly high. Luca went down the ladder first because that's what captains do, though really it just meant he'd be the first one to die if something nasty was waiting.

The heat hit him halfway down, a suffocating wall that reeked of burned circuitry.

"Jesus, it's hot as balls down here," he called up, his boots landing on metal grating.

Emily descended next. She landed beside him, wiping sweat from her forehead. "This place is huge."

The rest of the team followed. Ryan looked around with huge eyes. "It's a datacenter. Probably powering this whole damn battleship."

"Fascinating," Luca said, not bothering to hide his sarcasm.

The datacenter stretched before them in a maze of server banks and blinking lights. Heat radiated from every surface, making sweat bead immediately on Luca's forehead despite his suit's cooling.

"So, which way to the AI core?" Chris asked.

Ryan consulted his pad. "According to the map, we need to head through the main server banks and access the central processing hub. From there, we can—"

A high-pitched whine cut through the air. The floor vibrated beneath them.

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"What the fuck was that?" Luca asked, hand reaching for his blaster.

"Luca, the walls," Emily said, staring behind him.

He whipped around to see the impossible. Server banks were shifting, panels sliding across metal runners. The walls were moving, rearranging themselves like some demented puzzle box.

"Everyone stick together!" he shouted.

But the datacenter had other ideas. A wall panel shot between Ryan and him, nearly clipping his heels. He stumbled backward, reaching for Emily's hand, but another panel sliced between them.

"Luca!" Her voice came from the other side, already muffled by metal.

"I'm okay!" he called back, panic rising as more walls moved. "Joey! Danny! Anyone still with me?"

No answer. Just the grinding of metal as the walls rearranged, separating them completely.

Luca backed away from a panel sliding toward him. His back hit another wall, and for a terrifying second, he thought he was about to be crushed. Instead, the wall behind him slid open, sending him stumbling into a narrow corridor.

He caught himself against a server rack, hot metal searing his palms. "Shit!"

His interface lit up with a new notification:

[Hack through the Black Archives]

"The what now?" he muttered. "Great timing, System."

The corridor was absurdly narrow, barely wide enough for his shoulders. Wires hung from the ceiling, sparking near his helmet. Then he noticed something that made his stomach drop: an oxygen meter had appeared in his HUD, showing limited supply.

"Oh, you've got to be kidding me," he growled, watching it tick down from 100%.

He tried comms. "Ryan? Emily? Anyone copy?"

Nothing but static.

At the end of the corridor sat a bulkhead terminal, its screen flickering with the same symbol from his interface. He pulled out his hacking pad and got to work, sweat pouring down his face in the oppressive heat.

Whatever these Black Archives were, they'd better be worth losing his team and potentially suffocating in this digital oven.

Maybe next time he'd let Ryan go down the ladder first.

Luca had done this a hundred times before. The terminal's security should have crumbled before his amazing abilities, but instead, the algorithms shifted, refusing to yield. Something wasn't right with this system.

"Come on, you piece of shit," he muttered, calling on his [System Bypass] ability. The security measures faltered momentarily before rallying.

His oxygen meter ticked down to 93%. "Almost there," he whispered, spotting a weakness. The screen flickered, data streams shifting from red to orange to yellow.

Then everything went wrong.

[Access Denied: Triggering Correction]

"What the fu—"

The terminal exploded in his face.

The blast sent him staggering backward, superheated sparks peppering his hands. Pain erupted across his palms like he'd pressed them against a hot stove. His gloves were burnt through with angry red blisters already forming on scorched skin.

"Motherfucking system bullshit!" he spat. "Anti-tampering measures? Really?"

His oxygen level dropped to 78%. The explosion had damaged something, or maybe it was the System's way of punishing failure.

Wait. He had something for this.

Luca pulled out the [Varnathi Command Key] he'd grabbed from the Varnathi boss two portals ago.

"Let's see if you bastards programmed around this," he muttered, approaching a different terminal and inserting the key.

The response was immediate. Security barriers dissolved like they'd never existed, and the terminal's screen filled with archived footage that made him forget about his injuries.

The first video showed what looked like a genetics lab. Tall Varnathi figures moved among complex equipment, working on something biological. Green vats lined the walls, each containing moving shapes in various stages of development. DNA strands displayed on wall screens.

"What the actual fuck is this?" he muttered. "Jurassic Park all over again."

One sequence showed them extracting something from a tank... a creature that looked partly insectoid, partly intelligent. Something was wrong in ways his brain couldn't process.

"What the fuck were those called again? Thornmolts..."

The footage cut off. His oxygen meter read 70%. The Command Key had unlocked more than one terminal, apparently, because the walls shifted and another access point appeared ahead.

The second terminal activated immediately when he inserted the key. New footage filled the screen: planetary defense systems firing upward from a gleaming civilization with tall towers that defied gravity. Then the view shifted, showing thousands of invading starships raining destruction on cities below. Buildings crumbled, streets vaporized. People fled in every direction as fire consumed everything.

"Jesus," he whispered, watching entire continents burn against oceans turning black with ash.

This was planetary annihilation on a scale he hadn't imagined. Was this what was coming to Earth? Had this already happened elsewhere?

The terminal powered down. Another wall shifted, revealing the final access point.

The corridors seemed to be shifting with purpose now, walls sliding open just as he approached, then closing behind him. What had initially felt like a trap now seemed more like a guided tour through hell. The System wanted him to see these archives.

His breathing became labored, lungs burning as they fought to extract oxygen from the thinning air. The heat was getting worse, sweat dripping from his body in rivers. His oxygen meter ticked down to 45%, then 40%.

"Emily," he mumbled, not sure why he was saying her name. Maybe just to hear something other than the hum of servers and his own ragged breathing. "Ryan. Zoe. Where the fuck are you guys?"

His vision blurred from sweat and the beginning effects of oxygen deprivation. The warnings flashed in his HUD: 35% and falling.

Another corner, another sliding panel, and there it was. The final terminal, larger than the others, its screen already active, as if it had been expecting him.

He fumbled with the Command Key, nearly dropping it as his burnt hands protested. Blood and clear fluid leaked from the blisters, making his grip slippery. He left crimson smears across the terminal as he inserted the key.

"Come on," he growled through gritted teeth. His oxygen meter ticked down to 25%. "Just... fucking... work."

This time, the terminal didn't welcome his intrusion. Even with the Command Key, the system fought back with additional security layers. His hands shook as he worked his hacking pad, sweat dropping onto the interface.

Finally, the firewall collapsed. The screen expanded, projecting footage that made him forget about his burning lungs.

Space. Black, infinite, dotted with distant stars. And ships... thousands of them locked in a battle that stretched as far as the projection could show.

The ships on one side were identical to the derelict battleship he was trapped inside: massive, angular vessels bristling with weapons. Opposing them were something else entirely... organic-looking, chitinous black hulls that reminded him of the insectoids from previous portals. They moved like predators, darting and twisting through space with impossible agility.

Reactionless drives, he realized.

The battle unfurled in silent, terrible majesty. The battleships fired coordinated energy bursts, ripping apart dozens of black ships with each volley. But for every alien vessel destroyed, three more emerged from tears in space itself.

He watched, hypnotized, as a battleship identical to his took a direct hit. The projectile penetrated its shields like they weren't there, and the mighty vessel shuddered before breaking apart, crew and machinery vented into vacuum.

"What the fuck is this?" he whispered, breathing hard.

The footage pulled back, revealing the true scale: thousands, tens of thousands of ships spread across multiple star systems in a coordinated battle humanity could never imagine. The advanced battleships fought back, but they were being overwhelmed by sheer numbers, black ships swarming from that tear like insects from a disturbed nest.

Then the footage cut to a new perspective. It was from the inside one of the battleships. The interior looked exactly like the one he'd been exploring, but intact, operational, staffed by Varnathi in uniform.

Aliens fighting aliens, a war he knew nothing about.

The terminal powered down abruptly. His oxygen meter read 18%.

Then, with grinding metal, the wall to his right slid open, revealing a pathway bathed in soft light. Fresh air gusted through the opening, cool and clean compared to the stifling heat.

Luca stumbled forward, practically falling through the opening. His oxygen meter disappeared as he took a deep, desperate breath of actual breathable atmosphere. The sudden influx made his head spin, black spots dancing across his vision as his starved brain gorged itself.

"Fuck," he gasped, collapsing against the nearest wall and sliding down until his ass hit the floor. His hands throbbed in time with his pulse, the burns ugly and weeping in the better light. They were going to need serious attention, but at least he wasn't about to suffocate.

The relief of breathing was quickly replaced by frustration as he stared back at the now-closed entrance. What the actual fuck was the System trying to tell him with these fragments? Ancient alien genetic experiments, planetary destruction, and now a massive space war involving ships exactly like this one?

It was like being forced to watch disconnected scenes from a movie without any context. Just: "Here's some horrifying shit that happened a million years ago, good luck figuring out why you should care!"

"Cryptic bullshit," he muttered, leaning his head back against the cool metal wall. The burns already starting to stiffen as his body attempted repairs. Without Joey's medical expertise, they'd take days to heal properly.

He tried his comms again, hoping the change in environment might make a difference.

"This is Luca. Anyone copy? I'm out of the server maze. Found an exit."

Nothing but static.

He sighed, closing his eyes for just a moment. The others had to be going through their own versions of the maze right now, separated and facing who knows what kind of System-generated challenges. The thought of Emily trapped somewhere, struggling like he had, made his chest tighten with something beyond physical pain.

After losing his mom, after everything that had shaped him into someone who needed to protect the people he cared about, the idea of not being able to reach his team when they might need him was almost unbearable.

All he could do was wait and hope they'd find their way to him. Try really, really hard not to think about the war he'd witnessed, or how it might connect to everything.

He just needed his team back. He needed Emily.

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