Nucleus 1: The Dust of Moon [Mature Sci-fi Romance]

16:12, March 20, 2295

Mount Lyell Approach, Yosemite Valley

Something was wrong.

Jabari couldn't shake the feeling as they advanced through the frozen wilderness toward Mount Lyell. The golden Plasma Rifle he held with both hands offered no comfort, neither did the Vibro-Spear sitting dormant on his armored back. The Moondust shard in Thorin's containment box pulsed erratically.

"Eyes up," Wilhelm called from his Scarab's cockpit. "This quiet's making me nervous."

The Valoran was right. After their brutal clash with Astrid, the absence of Radi-Mon activity felt like the held breath before a scream.

That's when they heard it—the distinctive whine of military-grade fusion engines slicing through the alpine air.

"Incoming!" Ume's warning came a heartbeat before something massive crested the ridge at attack speed. Her Plasma Handgun snapped up, tracking the threat.

Jabari's breath caught. The vessel moved nothing like the Directorate's armored Isazi transports. This predator was sleek death sculpted in Alliance cobalt, its white-silver hull catching the afternoon sun like a blade. Rotor assemblies howled, letting it pivot and dive with an agility that made his stomach clench. The curved glass nose reminded him of something organic.

"StarWhale," Wilhelm identified. "See those modifications? Extra hardpoints, deployment rails... that's not standard."

On the enemy vessel's side, the cargo doors gaped open like hungry mouths. Through them, Jabari glimpsed Alliance marines in gray-white exosuits, Gauss Rifles already tracking targets. Then the first ordnance dropped.

"SCATTER!" Thorin roared.

The bombs came. They burst twenty meters up, birthing clouds of crackling electro-foam that descended like toxic snow. Where the substance touched, electronics shrieked.

"What by the Thousand Gods—" An Ologun ripped off his malfunctioning helmet just as foam splattered across his Plasma Rifle. The weapon sparked violently, its power cell overloading. "Get it off! GET IT—"

The rifle exploded. The scream cut short as shrapnel punched through the marine's armor. He dropped, clutching his ruined arm, blood already pooling on the frost.

"Sólskjöldr Vörn!" Thorin's hands swept upward, golden light erupting into a protective dome. The foam hissed against the barrier like acid on glass, but it held.

More bombs fell in overlapping patterns, each drop calculated to maximize chaos. Through the StarWhale's open doors, Jabari spotted someone—a towering Valoran with bionic arms that caught the light like chrome.

"Wilhelm, suppressing fire!" He shouted. "They're trying to separate us!"

"Sun rising, boet!" Wilhelm's voice carried dark satisfaction as KM-227's Sun Moon Cannon screamed to life. The thermal beam carved through the air, flash-boiling moisture into steam. Where it touched the electro-foam, the substance combusted, clearing patches of visibility.

"Predictive algorithms engaged," Ume announced, her android eyes cycling through spectrums visible and invisible. Golden light danced in her irises as she focused. "Next cluster will drop seventeen meters northeast!"

"How in the Five Realms—" Celine's voice sounded over the comm, incredulous.

Jabari was already moving their squad clear. "Ologuns, pull back! Don't chase the shuttle!"

And Ume was right. The bombs fell exactly where she predicted.

"Beautiful work!" Wilhelm called out. "Keep those coming, boet!"

That's when it clicked for Jabari. The way the blonde marine moved. His bionic arms. Taiwan. The Azure Mount Logistics Hub. The man who'd helped Zhi-Xin Wu escape as his team secured Ume.

"Thomas Mendoza," Jabari breathed. The last time they'd faced each other, Jabari had been sealed inside the cockpit of his Scarab, KM-233. Now they were both feet on the ground, both leading their people.

Thorin moved amidst the chaos, green eyes narrowed in thought.

"Are they herding us?" He said suddenly. "The Alliance use these often when dealing with protests near the Triumph Tower Office. Designed to disable without killing—"

"We stop them here!" Jabari raised his hand, Solar energy gathering, Anansemka parting his lips. "Owia Kɔkɔbɔ Kyɛ!"

The defensive ward flared, giving his people breathing room as Ologuns rallied behind him.

Solar fire rippled outward from Jabari's ward, clearing a twenty-meter radius. Through the dissipating foam, he could see the StarWhale circling for another pass. Its rotors tilted, bringing it into a hover directly overhead.

"Their Vanguards preparing to fire!" Ume's eyes tracked the shuttle's movements. "Concentrated fire will impact... there." She pointed to a rocky outcrop fifteen meters north. "And there." Another gesture toward a snow drift to their east.

Gauss rounds cracked against stone exactly where she'd predicted. Ologuns scrambled for new cover, Plasma Rifles returning fire that the StarWhale's altitude made ineffective.

"How are you doing that, Da-Ji girl?" an Ologun corporal gasped.

"Pattern recognition. ." Ume smiled as she moved around but kept close to Jabari. Her voice carried pride. "Next volley in four seconds, targeting ten meters behind us."

"Ologuns, push forward!" Jabari jogged forward towards the enemy shuttle as the Directorate marines followed.

Again, Ume was right. The Vanguards' disciplined fire walked across their abandoned cover, methodical.

"Rally to the Scarab, return fire!" Jabari commanded as he and the Ologuns gathered around Wilhelm's mech, plasma bolts lancing skyward in volleys.

The concentrated fire caught the StarWhale's starboard engine. Flames bloomed orange against white armor, and the shuttle lurched sideways, rotors screaming. But the Alliance vessel held, trading altitude for stability.

"Attention Directorate forces!" The external speakers crackled to life, the voice carrying that particular American confidence—crisp pronunciation edged with Novian warmth. "This is Diego Rodriguez, SIMU. You are interfering with sanctioned Alliance operations. Withdraw, or suffer the consequences!"

Jabari's eyes narrowed, lowering his gun. No field operative would announce their full title unless—

"He's buying time," Thorin murmured, wiping blood from a grazing shot across his temple. "Wants us focused on him instead of—"

Ume's hand shot out, her voice urgent. "Incoming ordnance, eight meters southwest—targeting Wilhelm!"

"Ologuns, break from the Scarab!" Jabari roared as he sprinted with his rifle.

Most scattered in time. One didn't.

The electro-foam cluster detonated directly overhead. While Wilhelm's vintage systems shrugged off the interference, a private had been using the Scarab's bulk as cover. The foam engulfed him completely. His armor's life support shrieked, failed, and went silent. Through the translucent foam, Jabari watched the young marine claw at his helmet, suffocating as his suit's air recyclers died.

"Ndidi!" Another Ologun started toward him, but Gauss rounds forced her back.

"Leave him!" Thorin commanded harshly, hand shooting out, holding the desperate marine. "He's gone."

"But—" The Ologun hesitated.

"You honor his sacrifice by living to fight!" Thorin urged, pulling the young soldier away.

"That's their tactician!" Diego's voice turned sharpa and predatory from the StarWhale above. "Ume! Yeah, I see you, amiga. Xin told me everything about you. Said you were special." A pause, calculated. "Thomas, the squad's yours!"

Ume's entire frame locked up, her combat algorithms crashing against emotional subroutines.

"He... Diego knows about me?" She whispered, disrupted by the emotional shock. "Xin talked about me? He still—"

"Focus fire on the android!" Thomas's shout was audible even at this distance.

"UME, MOVE!"

Too late. Three Vanguards had shifted position while she processed Diego's words.

The first Gauss round caught her in the right shoulder, spinning her half around. The second punched through her left side, just below the ribs. Android anatomy saved her—no vital organs there—but hydrotropic fluid sprayed red across the frost.

"Target confirmed!" Thomas's voice, cold and professional. "Pour it on!"

"NO!" Jabari lunged, throwing himself between Ume and the incoming fire. A round meant for her head slammed into his back armor instead, driving him to one knee.

"I can't—I can't calculate their patterns anymore." Ume gasped, one hand pressed to her leaking side. "Xin... he talked about me..."

More rounds cracked overhead. An Ologun corporal tried to reach them with a medical kit. The enemy Vanguards' precision shots took him through the knee as he came two meters from Ume, slowing his movement.

"What are they playing at?" Thorin snarled, maintaining his Solar barrier with visible strain. The sustained fire was draining him.

"They're playing us for fools," Jabari snarled, Solar energy crackling around his clenched fists. His back armor was cracked where he'd taken the round meant for Ume, but rage burned hotter than pain. "Time we returned the favor."

Another concussion charge detonated. Jabari assessed their situation as he carried Ume to take cover behind a fallen tree trunk. Three Ologuns dead, more wounded, and the Alliance kept pressing.

"Enemy weakened." A Vanguard's chatter leaked from the StarWhale. "Shall we secure the Moondust shard?"

"Negative," Thomas responded with icy professionalism. "Maintain suppression. Agent Lorna has the lead."

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"Kimaris, attention." Laurent's voice came over the comm. "Cover Jabari. Defensive formation."

"Let me show you how we do things on Venus!" Thorin said through the chaos. The Elder's eyes blazed gold as he stepped from cover, Solar energy gathering in patterns.

"Sir, here—" An Ologun private scrambled toward them, medical kit in hand. She slid behind their cover, immediately pressing an injector to Ume's neck. Instead of the cyan liquid one would find in a Medi-Vap vial, the injector carried something yellow with an oily texture. "Same stuff Major Wilhelm used on her before. Should stabilize the hydraulics."

Ume gasped as the medication hit her systems, the yellow fluid already clotting at the wounds. Her eyes flickered, motions resuming.

Meanwhile, Thorin had begun something devastating. His hands wove complex patterns as he chanted in that ancient tongue: "Brenna himinn, falla þeir!"

The air above them shimmered. Temperature spiked twenty degrees in seconds.

"What's he—THERMAL SPIKE!" Diego's voice cracked over the speakers. "CLIMB! CLIMBING NOW!"

Too late. A column of superheated air erupted skyward, a invisible fist of distorted atmosphere that caught the StarWhale broadside. The shuttle bucked violently, one engine coughing black smoke. Through the heat shimmer, Jabari saw two Vanguards tumble from the open door, their scream dopplering away until it cut short against granite.

"All units, disembark!" Thomas commanded. "Go kinetic! Diego, put her down controlled!"

Now the Alliance had to come to them. Ropes deployed from both sides of the wounded StarWhale as Vanguards fast-roped down, their white armor stark against the mountain's shadows. The shuttle limped toward a defensive landing, trailing smoke.

"Solar channeling like that..." Ume managed, her voice steadier as the Medi-Vap worked. "He can't maintain it. Aether depletion in—"

Thorin dropped to one knee, chest heaving. The spell had cost him, but it had done its job. He gasped before speaking. "Now they bleed like us!"

"They're buying time for someone," Thorin observed. "Both sides dancing while someone else claims the prize."

Wilhelm's vintage Scarab pivoted, taking the new advantage. The Plasma Spitter s carved into the descending Vanguards. One marine's rope severed mid-descent—he fell thirty meters onto jagged rocks, his armor cracking like an egg.

"The skies are leveled!" Laurent's voice carried grim satisfaction. "Wilhelm, hold this ground. Thin their numbers."

"With pleasure!" The Scarab's Sun Moon Cannon cycled, ready for another salvo.

But Jabari's attention fixed on one figure among the descending marines. Thomas Mendoza, blonde short hair, strong body, hit the ground in a perfect three-point landing, his bionic arms absorbing the impact. When he rose, those chrome limbs gleamed with Alliance pride—and fresh scratches where shrapnel had scored them.

Alliance Gauss rounds cracked against Directorate plasma bolts in a fierce but surprisingly even exchange.

"Jabari, right?" Thomas's voice boomed across the battlefield, personal now. Not Intel-Analyst-to-combatant, but warrior to warrior. "Taiwan was one thing. But now you come for our prize." He gestured to his dead Vanguard, crumpled on the rocks. "And three of mine you've killed today!"

"You shot her!" Jabari helped Ume to her feet, supporting her weight. His voice carried fury. "And announced it like sport!"

"That's what wins wars!" Thomas shot back, advancing with his squad. The maple-and-eagles insignia on his chest was scarred with impacts. "You think the Directorate's hands are clean? Ask your superiors what they did to Alliance settlers on Ganymede!"

More Vanguards formed up, but they were ground forces now, vulnerable. The battlefield had equalized.

"Owia Kɔkɔbɔ Kyɛ!" Jabari thrust both hands forward, Solar fire carving a clear path through the dispersing chaff and smoke.

"Liking our odds!" Wilhelm declared, his Scarab moving to block the approach to Mount Lyell's entrance.

The Sun Moon Cannon swiveled upward, beam switching between modes fast enough to create a prismatic effect.

"Wilhelm, covering fire. Thorin, Jabari, Ume, secure the Yosemite shard!" Laurent commanded over the comm. "Everyone else, with the Scarab!"

"On it!" Jabari gestured to the entrance—a crevice in the mountainside barely wide enough for two people abreast.

The Scarab pilot's response was to unleash everything at once. Plasma spitter, Sun Moon Cannon—all firing in a display that forced the enemy to take cover.

"GO, boet! Say hi to that shard for me, hey?" Wilhelm roared.

They ran. Jabari felt exposed crossing the open ground, expecting gauss rounds to find his back. But Thomas's marines were pinned down by Ologun fire, and the StarWhale couldn't depress its weapons enough without risking return fire from Wilhelm's Scarab.

The entrance loomed before them: rough stone worn smooth by age, descending into darkness.

They plunged inside just as gunshots roared behind them.

The sudden quiet was jarring. Outside, they could hear the muffled sounds of combat, but down here...

"Lights," Thorin commanded, his Solar energy providing a warm glow.

The passage was ancient, carved by forces Jabari didn't want to contemplate. But that wasn't what made him freeze.

Bodies littered the tunnel floor.

Fenormr—the golden-blue serpentine Radi-Mons of the Jokull Horde—lay twisted and broken. The carnage was recent, ichor still glistening in the light.

"Someone fought through here," Jabari said unnecessarily.

"Recently," Ume confirmed, kneeling beside a Fenormr corpse. Her enhanced hearing focused deeper into the tunnel. "I'm detecting two heartbeats somewhere below us. Accelerated. Whoever did this is still down there."

"And they're…disturbingly skilled," Thorin added, examining the precise cuts on a Krabba's shell.

Looking around, Jabari realized they were in a laboratory chamber. At its center stood something that made all three of them freeze.

"By the Thousand Gods," Jabari breathed. "What is that?"

The machine looked eeriely beautiful. A giant glass vessel filled with luminescent pearls, each one pulsing like a tiny heart. Dozens of white spheres suspended in glowing blue medium, the entire apparatus ringed with smaller, empty pods.

"The Vöxtr." Thorin's voice came out strangled. "I thought it was a myth."

"Radi-Mon signature detected." Ume observed the machine as she paced towards it. "These readings are partially biological."

"Harald Omdal's design. The Sand Lotus has texts describing it, but I never believed...." Thorin approached it slowly, Solar energy gathering around his hands. "" He raised his hand. "Stand back. I'm destroying this monstrosity."

"Sólbrenna Eldr!"

Golden fire erupted from Thorin's palm, slamming into the glass surface. But instead of shattering, the Vöxtr absorbed the energy, its blue medium flaring brighter. The spheres within pulsed faster, and a low harmonic tone filled the chamber.

"Is it feeding on your spell?" Ume backed away, hydraulic fluid no longer seeping from her wounds.

Thorin poured more power into his attack, sweat beading on his forehead. The Vöxtr's glow intensified, and suddenly—

CRACK.

A psionic frequency came from the machine as a fissure emerged on the glass container. A quake came, throwing the three of them off balance.

"It's protected by someone's psionic seal." Thorin's face was pale as he rose from the ground. "We'll have to leave it here."

From deeper in the tunnels came echoes—multiple voices, inhuman and hungry.

"The Jokull," Ume whispered. "They're coming."

"How far?" Jabari helped Ume to her feet.

"Based on the frequencies of the quake and sound…" Ume pressed a hand to her temple. "…the nearest one is three kilometers away."

"Then let's secure the Moondust shard before they arrive!" Jabari urged as they resumed walking.

"Lieutenant Adomako." Celine's voice crackled through their comms, distorted by tons of rock but still audible: "Energy signatures spiking below you! My scrying shows Alliance forces approaching from the east tunnel. Another squad, moving fast."

"Clarify, Celine." Laurent's voice joined.

"A Space Rover signature. The same one I mentioned this morning. It's nearing your location." Celine replied. A pause between statics. "No, wait. It's heading deeper underground."

"The Alliance wants this shard as much as we do." Thorin said grimly.

Jabari looked at the corpse-strewn tunnel ahead, then back at the entrance where their comrades fought to buy them time. Somewhere below, someone had already carved through the Jokull Horde's defenses.

And inside the containment box at Thorin's hip, the Moondust shard pulsed faster, responding to its sibling's proximity.

"Whoever it is," Jabari said, drawing his weapon, "We won't let them have it."

Ume checked her Plasma Handgun one more time. "Probability of hostile encounter: 97.3%"

"I'll take those odds," Jabari replied, Solar energy gathering around his fists.

It was then that he saw a vision in front of him.

Time seemed to slow, and suddenly he wasn't alone. A blonde woman stood in front of him, someone who appeared a few years older than him. Draped in a beige trench coat, the blonde woman held a blue energy blade—a Psytum Sword— fighting off the python-like Fenormr, a creature resembling a mix between a groundhod and a beaver next to her.

The same woman that he'd seen in Accra all those years ago, on that day when he decided to enlist in the Directorate Space Corps.

The vision shifted, but now, it was just him and the blonde woman in a dark cavern. The woman had captured his attention without demanding it. Her hair, the color of golden summer wheat, was twisted away from her face, tucking behind her ears to expose the gentle sweep of her sweaty forehead. Her face was an ivory canvas, her cheekbones like the rise of hills at dawn, while her ample lips, a muted rosy hue, held a natural pout laced with velvet and warmth. Her subtle makeup enhanced the contours of her jawline, a sculpture that spoke of inner fortitude.

As she approached, Jabari's gaze was invariably drawn to her eyes—a vivid pair of sapphires framed by delicately arched eyebrows. He looked down to ogle at the toned body beneath the blue turtleneck the woman wore. Her chest was ample. Her limbs, while feminine, had muscles beneath. Unlike Fuuka's down-to-earth beauty, this woman—likely a Nordling—was like a warrior deity out of legends.

But the words that parted from her lips shocked him: "Meat to be consumed!"

"You…" Jabari found himself saying in the vision. "You killed these Radi-Mons?"

The woman did not answer. Instead, she placed a hand on her abdomen, uttering yet another string of provocative words. "Eggs to be fertilized."

"Ekwensu!" Jabari took a step back. "Who are you!?"

"The pendant is mine! The Moondust shard, mine!" The woman's phantasm replied, grinning, revealing her beautiful white teeth, her mezzo-soprano voice, haunting and terrifying, held an edge of madness.

"…who in Anansi's name are you?" he asked, but reality crashed back as Ume approached him.

"Jabari!" The android's voice pulled him back as her hand squeezed his wrist. "What are you doing?"

"No…I…" Jabari muttered, almost to himself. "I think I saw whoever killed these Radi-Mons."

"You saw the vision, as well?" Thorin commented with concern, pacing towards him. "That…woman."

"I did." Jabari tried to clear his head. First Astrid, and now this myterious blonde woman, whoever she was.

"She likely killed these Fenormr under the rage induced by the Nucleus Virus." Thorin added. "Fenris variant, I'd wager. This vision is remnants of her psionic energy, recently unleashed, tainted by the virus."

"Wait." Jabari's voice cut sharp. "You knew. About the virus—what Fuuka gave me. You knew I'd contract it through your ritual."

Thorin's expression didn't change. "Yes."

"And you said nothing?" Solar energy flickered around Jabari's clenched fists. "I have the Lotus strain of the Nucleus Virus in my blood because of—"

"Because of duty." Thorin's voice carried the weight of mountains. "You needed power to face what's coming. The Moondust Crystal doesn't bow to ordinary humans."

"I should've been told!"

Thorin stepped closer, unintimidated by Jabari's flaring aura. "Would you have accepted if I'd told you? Or would your fear have robbed the Directorate of a weapon it desperately needs?"

"Stop." Ume stepped between them, one hand pressed to her leaking side, the other raised. "Both of you."

Her voice carried unusual authority despite her wounds. "We're below ground with unknown hostiles while our friends die above. Is this really the time?"

Jabari's Solar energy guttered. Thorin's rigid posture softened fractionally.

"You're right," Jabari admitted, though his jaw remained tight. "But this isn't over."

"No," Thorin agreed quietly. "It isn't."

"The psionic signature..." Thorin's expression darkened as he studied the lingering energy seeping off the Jokull corpses around them. "I know this aura. Sigrún Fjeld."

"Who is that?" Jabari frowned.

"A Nordling woman who survived when her entire nation fell." Thorin's voice carried something complex—disapproval mixed with... respect? He paused. "She's also Harald Omdal's daughter. Perhaps the most powerful Lunar psion alive."

"And she's here for the shard?"

"Listen, Jabari." Thorin's green eyes bored into his. "If we encounter Sigrún, trust nothing. Not her words, not her beauty, not even her tears. She learned long ago how to weaponize all three. And the virus has likely made her worse."

"We're here for the Moondust shard, nothing more." Ume added from the side.

"I'll be careful. Let's keep moving."

As they walked deeper, Thorin added quietly, almost to himself, "Harald's daughter...here for the Moondust shard, despite it being made for her. Had she fallen out of his favor? The universe has a strange sense of irony."

They descended into the mountain's depths, leaving the surface battle behind. But Jabari couldn't shake the feeling that they weren't moving toward a prize.

Were they walking into a trap?