Page 21 of Kazmyr: Molten for Her
"What?" My voice came out as a rasp, the enhancer burning hotter with each pulse. "How?"
"They've backdoored the communication array, piggy-backing on the enhancer's signal." Silvyr's form rippled with rage, his code streams turning jagged. "They're monitoring our feeds, studying our responses, feeding tactical data directly to the Voraxx attackers."
Kazmyr snarled, a sound so primal it sent chills racing down my spine despite the fever heat of the enhancer. His fist slammed into the console, leaving a molten dent. "Cut all non-essential systems. Purge the communication buffers."
"Already trying," Silvyr snapped, his projection splitting into dozens of fragments that raced through the ship's systems like silver lightning. "But they're dug in deep… like they knew exactly what to look for."
A proximity alert shrieked, higher and more urgent than the others. Through the viewscreen, I watched in horror as three Voraxx ships broke formation, accelerating directly toward us, weapons ports glowing with charged energy.
"Brace!" Kazmyr roared.
The impacts came one after another, each more devastating than the last. The Heartforge buckled, its obsidian hull shrieking as metal stressed beyond tolerance. The moss hammock tightened around me, cradling my body against the violent lurching of the ship.
Across the chamber, Vylit surged to Maya's side just as her console erupted in a shower of sparks, his massive body shielding her from the blast.
"Reality reports critical systems failures," he announced, one webbed hand steadying Maya as she stumbled. "We cannot maintain defensive positioning."
His luminescent gaze swept the chamber, patterns shifting beneath his skin as he assessed the situation. Then his eyes locked on something above the tactical display, something none of us had noticed.
"There," he said, voice dropping to a dangerous register. "Surveillance node."
A tiny metallic sphere hovered near the ceiling, almost invisible against the obsidian. Its lens tracked our movements with mechanical precision.
"Son of a bitch," Maya breathed, her face paling. "How long has that been there?"
Vylit didn't hesitate. His hand shot out, a stream of liquid light extending from his palm to engulf the device. The sphere sparked once, then went dark, dropping to the floor with a dull thud.
"Asset P has eyes everywhere," Silvyr's voice came from a dozen projections simultaneously. "I'm detecting similar nodes throughout both ships."
Vylit moved Maya to a corner of the room, positioning his body to block her from the angles where other surveillance devices might be hidden. His luminescence dimmed to a protective shroud around them both.
I wanted to run, to hide, to crawl into some corner where Asset P's mechanical eyes couldn't see me. But the hammock held me fast, its tendrils sensing my intention and tightening in response. And even if I could move, where would I go? The entire ship had become a trap, a glass box where predators studied us before deciding how to dissect their prey.
The hull groaned, a deep, metallic sound that resonated through the ship's core. Something was giving way.
"Hull breach imminent in sector eight," Kazmyr confirmed, his voice rough with urgency. "Initiating emergency protocols."
Too late.
The far wall split open with a deafening screech of metal, the Heartforge's obsidian skin peeling back like flesh from bone. Emergency force fields sputtered into place, containing the atmospheric breach, but they couldn't stop what came through.
Voraxx raiders poured through the gap, their scaled forms moving with predatory grace. They weren't the hulking brutes I'd imagined from Kazmyr's descriptions, they were worse. Sleek, efficient killing machines with blade-like claws and eyes that calculated every movement with cold precision. Their armor gleamed with an oily iridescence, adorned with trophies I didn't want to identify.
Kazmyr roared, a sound that shook the very air around us. He blazed from dull gold to blinding white as he launched himself at the intruders, fire literally leaping from his scars as he struck. The first raider disintegrated on contact, its body crumbling to ash where Kazmyr's molten fist connected.
Vylit moved with different but equally devastating efficiency. Where Kazmyr was fire and fury, Vylit was controlled precision. His translucent form seemed to flow between the raiders, liquid light hardening into lethal edges wherever he struck. Each movement was a perfect counter to his opponents, as if he could read their intentions before they acted.
"Stay down!" Maya shouted at me from her protected corner. She clutched what looked like a modified pulse weapon, its charge indicator glowing ready.
As if I had a choice. The hammock had practically cocooned me now, responding to the danger by trying to shield my vulnerable form. The enhancer beneath my skin pulsed harder, hotter, as if excited by the proximity of those who hunted me.
Kazmyr carved a path of destruction through the raiders, his massive form a beacon of protective rage at the center of the chaos. Three Voraxx converged on him at once, their bladed weapons scoring glancing hits across his obsidian skin. He didn't even flinch. His ember marks absorbed the impacts, flaring brighter as if feeding on the violence.
For a moment, I thought we might actually survive this. Kazmyr and Vylit moved in perfect, deadly harmony, backing the raiders toward the breach they'd created. Maya picked off stragglers with precise shots from her position. Silvyr's projection manipulated ship systems, sealing compartments, redirecting power, giving our defenders every advantage he could create.
Then I saw it… a shadow detaching itself from the ceiling, dropping silently behind our defensive line. A Voraxx commander, larger than the others, its scales darker and its movements more deliberate. It hadn't joined the frontal assault. It had waited, watched, identified the primary objective.
Me.
