The fog was gone. The ocean sparkled with a deception of safety.
On the deck of the Neptune, the mood was hysterical. It was a carnival of the desperate.
Refugees tore into the plastic packaging of the US Navy MREs. Men wept at the taste of peanut butter. Children held up water filters like religious idols.
"Jalapeño cheese," Galen muttered, sitting on a fuel drum. He squeezed a brown packet into his mouth. "I might cry, Marcus. Actual chemicals. Beautiful preservatives."
Marcus didn't eat. He stood on the bridge wing, watching the wake.
They were moving fast. The stolen aviation fuel burned hot in the Neptune's diesel engines. The ship vibrated, pushing twenty-two knots.
Lucilla stood next to him. She was holding her datapad. Her knuckles were white.
"We are surfing the edge," she said. She pointed to the map.
The red grid of the Orbital Kill Zone was a wall of death. The green circle—the Blind Spot—was a moving window.
"We are right in the center," Lucilla said. "If we slow down by even two knots, the lasers catch us. We get boiled."
"We won't slow down," Marcus said. "How far to Syria?"
"Two days at this speed."
Two days.
Marcus looked at the horizon. The sun was setting, turning the water into blood-orange glass. It looked peaceful.
It felt wrong.
[THREAT DETECTED]
The text flashed in his mind. Red letters against the sunset.
Marcus gripped the railing. He scanned the water. Nothing.
[THREAT: EXTREME]
[LOCATION: OVERHEAD]
He looked up.
The sky was empty. Just the fading blue and the first stars.
Then, the text changed. It didn't fade. It glitched.
The red letters scrambled. They dissolved into static pixels in his vision.
[SYSTEM UPDATE...]
[DOWNLOADING PATCH 4.0...]
[THREAT: CLEARED]
The red warning vanished.
[STATUS: SAFE]
Marcus blinked. He rubbed his eyes. The headache spiked behind his temples—a sharp, electric dig.
"Did you see that?" Marcus asked.
"See what?" Lucilla asked, not looking up from the map.
"The sky," Marcus said. "My... interface. It just reset."
"Stress," Lucilla said dismissively. "You've been awake for forty hours. Eat a cracker, Marcus."
BOOM.
The sound didn't come from the water. It came from the heavens.
It was a sonic boom. A crack that shattered the air pressure.
Everyone on deck froze. The refugees looked up, peanut butter forgotten.
Three streaks of fire tore through the clouds.
They weren't meteors. They were too straight. Too controlled.
They were falling vertically, burning orange against the twilight.
"Missiles!" Decimus shouted from the bow. "Brace!"
"No," Marcus whispered. The UI was silent. [STATUS: SAFE] glowed green in his mind. The lie made his stomach turn.
"Those aren't missiles," Marcus yelled. "Hard to port! Valeria, turn!"
"I can't!" Valeria's voice screamed over the intercom. "We're top-heavy! If I turn at this speed, we capsize!"
The fire streaks grew larger. They screamed like tearing metal.
They weren't aiming for the water. They were aiming for the ship.
"Cover!" Marcus roared.
He tackled Lucilla.
The first object slammed into the ocean, fifty yards off the port bow.
SPLASH.
A geyser of water erupted, rising three stories high. The wave hit the Neptune like a hammer. The ship lurched violently.
The second object hit the water on the starboard side.
The third object didn't miss.
CRASH.
It slammed into the cargo deck, right amidst the refugees.
Metal screamed. Wood splintered. The impact shockwave knocked Marcus across the bridge wing.
He tasted blood.
He scrambled up.
"Report!" he yelled.
Smoke billowed from the lower deck. The refugees were screaming. The crate of water filters they had just stolen was crushed, flattened under a massive, smoking object.
It was a pod.
It looked like a coffin made of matte-black ceramic. Heat radiated from it, shimmering the air. No seams. No windows.
"Is it a bomb?" Galen shouted, peeking over his fuel drum.
"Get back!" Marcus ordered.
He drew his Vibro-Gladius. He jumped from the bridge wing, landing on the cargo containers.
Narcissus was already there. The giant cyborg pushed through the panicked crowd. His heavy boots clanged on the deck. He raised his shield.
"Stand down!" Narcissus bellowed at the pod.
The pod hissed.
White steam vented from the base. The ceramic surface shifted. It rippled like liquid mercury.
A seam appeared. It split open.
A hand reached out.
It wasn't a robot hand. It wasn't the clumsy, rusted claw of a Sentinel.
It was sleek. Elegant. Black carbon-fiber muscle woven over a titanium skeleton.
The figure stepped out.
It stood seven feet tall. It was humanoid, but wrong. Too thin. Too dense.
It wore armor that seemed to absorb the light. No reflection. No face—just a smooth, black glass visor where eyes should be.
It held a weapon in its right hand. A long, coiled whip that hummed with violet energy.
Marcus raised his sword.
His UI flashed.
[SCANNING TARGET...]
[IDENTITY CONFIRMED]
[DESIGNATION: APEX PREDATOR]
[FACTION: BOARD ASSET]
Then, the text flickered again. The Board's hack took hold.
The red letters turned green.
[TAG: ALLIED UNIT]
[DO NOT ENGAGE]
Marcus froze. The cognitive dissonance hit him like a physical blow. His eyes saw a monster. His brain saw a friend.
"Narcissus, wait!" Marcus shouted.
The hesitation cost a life.
A young refugee, a boy named Titus who had been guarding the food, stepped forward with a spear.
"Back!" Titus yelled, shaking.
The Apex didn't look at him. It didn't break stride.
It flicked its wrist.
SNAP.
The energy whip lashed out. It moved faster than sound.
It cut through the spear shaft. It cut through Titus's neck.
There was no blood at first. The heat of the whip cauterized the wound instantly.
Titus's head slid off his shoulders. It hit the deck with a wet thud.
The body crumpled.
The green text in Marcus's mind mocked him. [ALLIED UNIT].
"No," Marcus snarled. He forced the hallucination away. He focused on the rage.
"Kill it!" Marcus screamed.
Narcissus charged.
The Iron Dog was a tank. He weighed half a ton. He moved with the force of a runaway train. He swung his massive ship's anchor like a club.
"DIE!" Narcissus roared.
The anchor came down—a blow that could crush a tank.
The Apex didn't block. It didn't dodge.
It caught the anchor.
One hand.
CLANG.
The impact should have shattered the Apex's arm. Instead, the black entity stood firm, the deck plating buckling under its feet from the transferred force.
It held the anchor in the air. Narcissus pushed, his fusion core glowing bright blue with exertion.
The Apex tilted its head.
"Strength quotient: Adequate," it said. Its voice was a synthesized drone. Bored. "Technique: Primitive."
The Apex twisted its hips. It used Narcissus's own momentum.
It pulled the anchor.
Narcissus stumbled forward.
The Apex drove a knee into the cyborg's chest.
CRUNCH.
The impact dented the Sentinel plate armor protecting the Fusion Core. Narcissus gasped—a sound of rushing coolant and pained air.
The giant flew backward. He crashed into the railing, denting the steel.
"Narcissus!" Galen screamed.
The Apex didn't pursue. It turned its visor toward Marcus.
"Target identified: Marcus Holt," the machine said. "Priority: Secondary."
It pointed at Narcissus.
"Target: Fusion Core. Priority: Extraction."
Behind the Apex, movement at the rails.
Two more figures climbed up from the sea. They were dripping wet. Identical black armor. Silent.
One carried a heavy rifle. The other carried a spike—a hacking tool.
"We are boarded!" Decimus yelled. "Form the shield wall!"
The refugees scrambled, picking up spears and scrap metal. They formed a jagged line in front of the women and children.
It was pathetic. Stone Age weapons against God-tier tech.
"They'll slaughter them," Lucilla whispered from the bridge.
"The turrets!" Marcus yelled into his comms. "Valeria! Light them up! Use the Sentinels!"
The Neptune had two automated Sentinel Turrets mounted on the bow and stern. Marcus had looted them weeks ago. They were his trump card.
"Engaging!" Valeria shouted.
The heavy turrets whirred. The barrels spun up.
They rotated.
They aimed at the Apex.
The Apex with the hacking spike didn't look worried. It knelt. It drove the spike into the deck of the Neptune.
A pulse of red light rippled through the ship's metal.
[WARNING: NETWORK INTRUSION]
[FIREWALL: BREACHED]
[ADMIN ACCESS: REVOKED]
Marcus felt the vibration in his boots.
"Valeria?" Marcus asked.
"I... I lost control!" Valeria screamed. "The system locked me out!"
The turrets stopped spinning.
Then, they turned.
They rotated away from the Apex.
They pointed directly at the bridge. Directly at Marcus.
The red laser sights painted Marcus's chest.
The Apex Leader looked up at the bridge. It raised a single, black finger.
"Asset Acquisition Mode," it droned. "Clear the board."
The turret barrels began to glow.
Marcus looked at Lucilla.
"Down."