NOVEL NEXT Ch62 Xin: Shattered Containment
11:59, March 17, 2295
B7, Stardust Command, 1901 Patriot Way, Evanston, IL 60201, Terra Alliance territory
The backup generators of B7 level hummed at a frequency that made Xin's teeth ache. His Quantum Watch showed alarming readings as they descended in the lift - power fluctuations spreading through the containment grid. The temperature had dropped six degrees in the last four minutes.
"The stabilizers are failing," he said, watching ice crystals form in the corners of the lift. "The system's diverting everything to maintain the quantum lock on Watrous's cell."
Lorna stood beside him, her golden hair bright against her blue turtleneck. No trench coat, no Psi Shield Device - just clothes and the Pendant of Mánagrát at her throat. Håkon stood on her left shoulder, his sapphire eyes tracking the floor numbers with unusual intelligence.
"We've handled worse," she said, but her hand drifted to where her Psytum Sword should have been.
Thomas leaned against the lift's back wall, his expression grim. The recently rescued marine's posture remained military-straight despite his ordeal with the Imperium. His blonde hair and cybernetic arms gleamed in the emergency lighting. "Diego said communications went dark. Could be a glitch-"
The lift shuddered, emergency lights flashing red. Xin's fingers moved across his Watch's interface. "Power draw just spiked. Whatever's happening down there, it's using enough energy to power a city block."
"Or one very hungry prisoner," Lorna muttered.
Thomas reached into his tactical vest and produced a Kinetic SMG, checking its magazine. His eyes met Xin's. "Take this. My arms give me enough to fight." He offered the weapon to Xin. "Manny prefers you have it while he's — on vacation."
The Kinetic SMG gleamed under the emergency lights – a sleek, compact weapon with an angular white polymer frame accented by matte black components. Through transparent sections along its barrel, Xin could see the pulsing blue energy core that powered its quantum accelerator.
"Manny calls it 'Kuma'. Not sure what it means in them Maridians' tongue, though." Thomas added as he pushed the gun into Xin's hands.
As Xin's fingers wrapped around the grip, the SMG's internal energy shifted perceptibly, the blue luminescence fading to a verdant green that pulsed in rhythm with his heartbeat. The transformation spread like watercolor through the weapon's transparent chambers, its light casting emerald shadows across his olive skin.
"Cool stuff, huh?" Thomas murmured, watching the color change. "Reacting to your Void attunement. Don't see that often."
Xin hesitated, adjusting his grip on the now-green pulsing weapon. "Truth be told, I wasn't very good with—"
"Diego's tinkered with it. The recoil's now nothing compared to your 10mm," Thomas said. "Less firepower, though. Just point and shoot."
The lift doors opened to reveal a frost-covered corridor. The titanium walls gleamed with ice, emergency strips casting everything in red shadows. Their breath fogged in the cold air as they stepped out.
Håkon let out a low warning sound. Through the ice, Xin could make out scuff marks from his last visit. But something was different now. The air felt wrong, charged with energy that made his new psionic senses recoil.
"The resonance frequency," he said, checking his Quantum Watch again. "It's not just fluctuating. It's being manipulated."
"What, by Watrous?" Thomas's cybernetic arms whirred as panels slid open, revealing Fist Blades extending from his forearms.
"No," Xin narrowed his eyes at the readings. "Something's helping him. Like feeding him information about the containment systems."
Lorna moved ahead, Håkon's scales reflecting the emergency lights. "We can theorize later. Right now-"
The corridor lights died. In the darkness, Xin heard something that chilled him more than the freezing air - Watrous laughing. It echoed through the halls, a grinding metallic sound.
"The auxiliary grid's failing!" Xin called out, his Watch providing the only light.
"Then we do this the hard way," Lorna's voice was firm. But as she moved forward, Xin noticed a slight hesitation in her step. No sword. No armor. Just determination and a recovering body.
They rounded the corner toward Watrous's cell, and Xin's heart nearly stopped. The containment field flickered, its quantum matrix unraveling. Through that failing barrier, red eyes burned in the darkness.
The containment cell had become a nexus of impossible cold, energy moving across its barriers in strange patterns. Xin's Watch displayed critical temperature warnings. Through the flickering field, Watrous had changed - grown. What had once been a man was now a macabre fusion of flesh and metal. His mottled, charred flesh was deeply scarred, exposing sinew and vines that had replaced much of his body. His skull-like face was partially skeletal, with hollow cheeks and jagged, uneven teeth beneath burned lips. A patch of thin, slicked-back hair clung to his scalp. His glowing red eyes blazed with intelligence. His mutated body was slender compared to Skarn but still towering, adorned with rusted spikes and grafted organic tubes that dripped with viscous fluids. Smoke seemed to wisp from his shoulders, as though his body was barely holding back the hellish heat within.
"The Hivemind has relayed to me what Primarch Skarn saw on Shashan." Watrous's voice rasped. "You possess shards of the Moondust Crystal."
"That's right." Lorna shot back at Watrous as they approached his cell. "Won't be long before your Fenris Horde beg for mercy."
"The Alliance arrogance never changes," Watrous's voice grated like rusted gears, "but the Fenris Horde will get to the Crystal first. It is inevitable."
Frost spread across the corridor's titanium panels. Xin checked his Watch - the temperature had dropped another five degrees in just thirty seconds. The containment field's light pulsed erratically.
"We should keep our distance." he warned.
"Your corporate masters build such pretty cages, never imagining they might become nests." Watrous pressed closer to the barrier. His breath left patches of black ice.
Håkon stood rigid on Lorna's shoulder, his scales darkened to midnight blue. combat ready. The young Diabolisk watched every movement while keeping his balance.
"So you caused the temperature dropping." Thomas grimaced, the servos in his arms adjusting to the cold as he threatened Watrous. "Stop it, or we do this the hard way."
"A bit late for that." The Draug laughed. "Tell me, Agent Weiss, did you think the Nucleus Virus would leave me as weak as when we last met? That I wouldn't learn? Grow?" His red eyes fixed on Lorna.
"Honestly, you sound even dumber now. Guess being all alone down here does that to your brain, huh." Lorna said, but Xin saw her fingers twitch - reaching for a sword that wasn't there.
Instead of answering, Watrous pressed his face against the barrier. Where it touched, the quantum field didn't just flicker - it began to crystallize, patterns of dark ice spreading through the containment matrix.
"The field's collapsing," Xin called out, watching the temperature drop on his Watch. "Whatever he's doing-"
"Rís, Beinagrind!"
The command crackled with power. In the cells around them, the dead began to rise - failed containment subjects, their corpses animated by tendrils of pale green energy leaking through the facility's dying systems.
"Thomas, nine o'clock!" Lorna shouted as a skeletal figure lurched from the shadows.
Thomas's Fist Blades whirred to life, slicing through bone and flesh.
But Xin hardly noticed. His attention was locked on the horrifying transformation before them. The containment field was twisting into something that made his psionic senses scream in warning.
"Lorna," he started, but it was too late.
The barrier shattered like dark glass, and Watrous stepped through, rising to his full height. Metal and corrupted flesh towered over them, red eyes burning with triumph.
"Now then," the Draug's voice resonated with new power, "shall we discuss the true equality?"
"Baldr, hör meinen Ruf! Lorna's hand found the Psytum Sword at her hip, drawing it in one fluid motion. The blade ignited with blue light, but Xin noticed a slight delay in her movement - lingering weakness from weeks of recovery.
Watrous noticed too. He moved with impossible speed, claws swiping at the space where Lorna had been.
Thomas lunged forward, Fist Blades cutting through the air. "The field's collapse triggered a power failure," he said through gritted teeth as he fought a reanimated corpse. "We're cut off from the upper levels!"
The animated corpses lurched from their cells, and Xin struggled to process what he was seeing - failed containment subjects, their bodies partly decayed and augmented, moving with purpose. One still wore fragments of an Alliance uniform, fused with exposed bone and rotting flesh.
"Bheda Atisīmā!" Xin chanted the spell Kathrin had taught him as he raised Kuma. The first burst caught a skeletal figure center mass, Void-enhanced rounds unraveling the necromantic threads holding it together. The corpse didn't just fall - it dissipated, the energy animating it consumed by verdant light.
Håkon chirped sharply from Lorna's shoulder - a warning. Xin spun, trusting the young Diabolisk's senses, and fired at a corpse emerging from his blind spot. The SMG's recoil was indeed minimal, just as Thomas had said, allowing him to maintain accuracy even while moving.
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"They're drawn to movement patterns!" Xin called out, watching how the reanimated corpses tracked their positions. Another burst from Kuma caught two corpses in succession, the Void energy jumping between them like green lightning.
"Aim for the joints!" Thomas called out, his Fist Blades cutting through a corpse's limbs with precision despite the cold affecting his cybernetics. "Immobilize them!"
Xin adjusted his aim, trying to ignore how the zombies' hollow eye sockets followed him, how their movements showed remnants of combat training. His Watch kept sending warnings - temperature dropping, air pressure unstable, power fluctuations critical.
Baldr's blue energy blade carved through the air as Lorna fought two reanimated corpses. But Xin could see her movements lacked their usual grace, each strike slightly slower than normal. Her recent recovery had left her vulnerable, and Watrous was pressing that advantage.
Where Watrous's claws touched the walls, ice spread like infected veins. The transformation was methodical - a professor's attention to detail preserved in monstrous form.
"You feel it, don't you?" The Draug's voice still carried a lecturing tone, now twisted with cruel amusement. "The weakness. The vulnerability. The virus offers so much more-"
"Shut up!" Lorna thrust forward, but Xin saw a slight tremor in her arms as Baldr's edge cut across Watrous's chest. The wound sealed instantly, black ice crystallizing over corrupted flesh.
Thomas rolled behind a frozen support column despite his heavy cybernetics. His Fist Blades retracted as he drew his Gauss Rifle, firing cerulean bursts from its barrel to cover Lorna as she moved away from another corpse.
"Lorna, he's drawing power from the facility somehow!" Xin called urgently. "The more we fight-"
"The stronger I become," Watrous finished, moving with a speed that shouldn't have been possible for his size. Metal claws caught Baldr's blade with a shriek of quantum energy against corrupted steel. "We Radi-Mons understand what your Alliance never will!"
Thomas tried to flank, but a glitch in his cybernetics betrayed him. His arm hitched as cold-affected servos stuttered, giving Watrous the opening he needed. The Draug spun with surprising grace, one metallic hand catching Thomas's tactical vest and smashing him against the wall.
"Thomas!" Lorna cried out as she started forward. But Watrous moved like a shadow, claws finding her throat with precision. Baldr fell to the ground as he lifted her, and Xin's heart stopped for a moment.
"Primarch Skarn could grant you such power!" he whispered. "Instead, you resist!"
Håkon suddenly launched himself from Lorna's shoulder, not toward Watrous but across the frozen floor. Xin almost called out in alarm, but then noticed the pattern - the young Diabolisk was moving between specific frost veins on the walls, his scales flashing pale azure each time he passed one.
"The power conduits." Xin realized, tracking Håkon's path. "He's marking them!" Without hesitation, Xin raised his Kinetic SMG and fired. Green rounds shattered the frozen panels where Håkon indicated, each hit making Watrous stagger as his connection to the facility's grid flickered. The mutated man's grip on Lorna loosened slightly.
Then, leaping up, Håkon struck with precision despite his mere weeks of life, fangs finding the exact junction on Watrous's exposed chest. More than just biting, the young Diabolisk channeled energy through the contact - a pulse of blue light that made the Draug's muscles spark and stutter.
The Draug's red eyes widened in surprise. "Impossible. You're just a hatchling—"
Xin seized the opening, firing controlled bursts at the spots where Håkon's attack had disrupted Watrous's defenses. The Void-enhanced rounds from Kuma found their marks, each impact weakening the Draug's hold on the corrupted energy flowing through the facility.
The words came to his lips as he raised his left hand toward the monster: "Śūnyatā Śāntih!"
The nullification spell hit Watrous like a thunderclap of silence. For a crucial moment, the Draug's connection to the facility's power grid severed. His grip on Lorna loosened as the spell took hold, confusion crossing his inhuman features as he let Lorna go.
Håkon seized that moment of weakness. The young Diabolisk suddenly glowed with protective energy that surrounded Lorna as she broke free. His sapphire eyes, so like his mother's, burned with protective power.
He dropped from Watrous's face, landing gracefully on his little short legs despite the icy floor, and quickly scurried back to position himself protectively near his mother.
Lorna steadied herself against a frozen wall, breathing hard. Even in the dim light, Xin could see faint bruising forming where Watrous's claws had gripped her throat. Håkon maintained his protective stance, watching the Draug.
"So you're Lorna's willing servants?" Watrous hissed.
"You know nothing about us," Xin said, though casting his first combat spell had left him dizzy.
"On the contrary." Watrous's skull-like face twisted in what might have been a smile. "I know everything about my people's futile resistance. The changes have already begun in California to the west. The students there..." He paused, sounding like a professor again. "Such young, ambitious minds. So eager to embrace true equality."
"What have you done?" Lorna's voice was dangerous as she stood up straight.
"Done? My dear, I've merely sent them an invitation. To evolve."
The words were cut off by a sound like reality tearing. Behind Watrous, the frozen air split open, revealing a nightmarish mouth lined with dark brown lips and rows of yellow teeth. The portal writhed with organic malevolence, its edges pulsing with blood red.
"Buddha's balls!" Xin breathed, his mind refusing to process what his eyes were seeing. The creature that pulled itself through was like a living void, big enough to swallow a car, a twisted mix of worm and gateway.
"Ormheimr," Lorna spat the word. Her fingers tightened on Baldr's hilt, but with a slight tremor.
"Living portals of the Fenris Horde. They're how we move between worlds." Watrous backed toward the organic gate, his augmented frame already beginning to merge with it. "Come find me in California, if you dare."
The Ormheimr's mouth closed around him like a flower of teeth and shadow. The creature's retreat sent shockwaves through B7's foundations, leaving only spreading ice and Thomas's unconscious form against the wall.
Lorna staggered to Thomas's side, her steps showing frustrated fury and lingering weakness. Håkon rushed to her, trilling in concern as his protective field slowly dissipated.
Xin noticed how she favored her right side, the way her shoulders tensed against pain she wouldn't mention. He lowered Kuma, the weapon's green glow fading as the immediate threat passed. He secured it to his side with slightly trembling hands - his first real psionic combat had left him more shaken than he'd expected.
"Thank god he's alive," she said after checking Thomas's pulse, but Xin heard the strain in her voice, saw how her hands shook slightly.
Xin helped her lift Thomas, his own muscles aching from spell-casting exhaustion. "You okay?" he asked, noting how Lorna's breathing remained slightly labored.
"We need to move fast. California, the Golden State Republic." Lorna finished, retrieving Baldr with a grimace she couldn't quite hide. Her usual fluid grace was missing, replaced by careful movements of someone pushing through pain. But her blue eyes still burned with determination.
The emergency lift groaned under their combined weight. Xin's Watch showed a holographic diagnostic of Thomas's vitals - elevated heart rate, minor bruises, but nothing life-threatening. The servos in his cybernetic arms had been partially frozen, their metal surfaces covered with frost.
Lorna leaned against the opposite wall, stroking Håkon's scales. Her face remained composed, but Xin caught the subtle signs of her exhaustion - the slight tightening around her eyes, the measured breathing.
"Thomas? Are you still there?" she asked, not looking away from the floor numbers slowly climbing.
"Stable." Xin zoomed in on his Watch's biometric feed. "But his cybernetics need defrosting and recalibration. The cold affected his arms' servos."
"Yeah, I'm okay…" Thomas's voice was barely a whisper, his eyes opening. "Sort of." He tried to straighten but grimaced as his arms attempted to respond.
The lift shuddered as it passed the facility's quantum lock threshold. Xin's Watch registered the change in air pressure, the return to normal conditions. But the chill in his bones remained.
"If this Watrous guy is spreading the Virus in America..." Thomas said suddenly. "We need to chase him down."
"You're in no condition," Lorna said, but with understanding rather than criticism. "Your arms need maintenance before you're field-ready again."
"Yeah…fine." Thomas's eyes found Lorna's. His admission came as he tried to flex his cybernetic fingers, one clearly new, the servos whining. "Give me a day or two, and I'll catch up to you, aight?"
The lift doors opened to the sterile corridors of Stardust Command's main level. Medical personnel, led by Nikki Chakraborty with her hair hastily braided and white robes slightly askew, rushed forward as automated alerts echoed through the halls.
"Alright. Tell me your symptoms once we get to—" Nikki began, her trained eyes immediately cataloging injuries. She froze mid-step, gaze lingering on Håkon perched on Lorna's shoulder before darting to Thomas's frost-damaged cybernetics.
"Tom needs immediate attention, Doc." Lorna gestured toward Thomas, who swayed despite the personnel supporting his arms.
Nikki's brow furrowed as she moved closer, her fingers already reaching for her medical scanner. "And not you?" Her gaze swept between Lorna and Xin, noting the bruising on Lorna's throat and Xin's exhausted posture. "Either of you?"
"Nothing a few Medi-Vap doses can't fix." Xin straightened his back despite the protest from his muscles, meeting the Djinno woman's skeptical gaze while discretely rubbing his aching waist.
"We need to reach California ASAP." Lorna's hand unconsciously moved to her bruised throat. "Watrous escaped."
From her shoulder, Håkon chirped, his sapphire eyes tracking Nikki's movements with unsettling intelligence as he bobbed his head in what seemed like agreement.
Nikki's shoulders sagged slightly, her hand tightening on the medical scanner. "In hindsight, I was naïve to think we could contain and study him forever." She shook her head, then squared her shoulders with renewed determination. "I'll make sure Thomas is combat-ready within the week."
"I wish you a speedy recovery," Xin said softly, turning to clasp Thomas's non-cybernetic shoulder.
"What, you think I'm sitting this one out?" Thomas's cybernetic arms suddenly whirred to life, the servos recalibrating with a series of clicks and hums. He flexed his fingers experimentally, then pushed himself up from the gurney with surprising strength. "Not a chance."
Nikki stepped back, startled. "Mr. Mendoza, your servos were just frozen—"
"Self-heating elements kicked in." Thomas rotated his shoulders, the cybernetics responding smoothly now. "Military grade, Doc. They adapt." He caught Lorna's eye. "Besides, someone's gotta keep these two from doing something stupid in California."
Lorna's lips quirked despite her exhaustion. "Since when do you stop us from doing stupid things?"
"Fair point." Thomas tested his grip strength, nodding with satisfaction. "But I'm still coming."
As they moved toward the comm panel, Lorna's voice carried renewed energy. "Diego, it's Lorna." She pressed her hand against the blue panel. "Get us the Space Rover. Xin will drive." She hesitated briefly, exchanging a glance with both Xin and Thomas. "And contact Director Otis. We'll probably need Armed Forces backup later."
"Copy that, amiga." Diego's voice crackled from the ceiling speaker, tinged with his usual warmth.
"Also, we're all heading out." Lorna shifted her weight against the wall. "The three of us."
"¿En serio? Even Thomas?" Diego's surprise was evident. "I thought his arms were—"
"Operational," Thomas interrupted, flexing his cybernetic fingers in demonstration. "These babies were built for worse than a little ice."
"That they are." Lorna's fingers drummed against the comm panel, a habit that betrayed her urgency. "What's the situation in California? Anything related to the Fenris Horde?"
"Funny you should ask." The air shimmered as holographic data streams materialized, casting dancing blue shadows across the corridor walls. "Dozens of college students went missing this last week, all from Stanford Psi University. The kind of bright minds Watrous would've taught, back when he was..." Diego paused, his humor still there. "You know, less corpse-like?"
Håkon chirped softly from Lorna's shoulder, his sapphire eyes reflecting the cascading ambient light in the corridor. The young Diabolisk seemed both protective and excited, his brown-blue scales shimmering with energy.
"Lorna, I think you should rest," Xin said carefully, noting how she still favored her right side. The confrontation with Watrous had clearly taken its toll. "After what happened-"
"Whatever Watrous has planned, we have to move now." Lorna's hand found Baldr's hilt, as if drawing comfort from it. Her eyes met his, showing not just determination, but a haunting recognition. "Before California becomes another Scandinavia."
"¡Híjole!, this is getting serious." Diego said. "I'll meet you at the parking lot near the Command."
As they moved toward the exit, none of them noticed the thin trail of black ice spreading along the corridor wall behind them, following their footsteps like a shadow.