The Forgotten Cores

Chapter 6: Three Minutes

The iron hatch groaned as the first Enforcer kicked it completely open. Heavy, brass-plated boots hit the ladder rungs with a rhythmic, mechanical clank. The Enforcers wore full-face iron visors and steam-hissing pressure suits, their weapons glowing with the traditional, oppressive blue light of the High District's Aether.

"Halt in the name of the High Council!" a distorted voice boomed from behind the lead visor. "You are in possession of restricted historical artifacts and illegal energy siphons!"

"You know, for guys who live in the clouds, their vocabulary is remarkably grounded," Kael shouted over the sudden hiss of venting steam. He leveled his pistol and fired.

A bolt of concentrated, violet-tinted plasma erupted from the barrel—a stark contrast to the standard blue gear. The shot struck the lead Enforcer's shoulder plate, the kinetic force lifting the armored soldier off the ladder and sending him crashing into the two guards climbing down behind him. A tangled pile of brass armor and shouting guards collapsed onto the stone floor.

"That's one minute down!" Kael yelled, spinning around to fire a cover shot at the hatchway. "Lyra, tell me you’re faster than you look!"

"I'm a mechanic, Captain, not a magician!" Lyra yelled back. She was already half-submerged in the exposed underbelly of Kael’s blockade runner.

The ship’s primary induction matrix was a melted, smoking nest of copper wiring, fried by the sheer volume of energy they had pumped into the Void Core. It looked completely unsalvageable to the untrained eye, but Lyra didn't see junk—she saw a puzzle.

"Jax!" she barked into her radio. "Jax, if you can hear me, I need you to trigger a manual overload on the Sector 4 secondary grid! Force the feedback down the main conduit!"

Static hissed, followed by Jax's terrified voice. "Lyra?! The Enforcers are all over the maintenance bay up here! They’re looking for you—"

"Jax, do it now or we’re all going to a sky-prison!"

A brief pause. "Rerouting now! Good luck!"

A split second later, the heavy cables running from the ceiling into the room groaned with a fresh surge of power. Lyra didn't use the burnt-out wires; she grabbed her heavy-duty wrench and bridged the gap between the incoming main conduit and the ship's emergency starter valve.

A massive arc of violet electricity jumped from the wrench, throwing Lyra backward onto the cold stone floor. Her hair stood on end, and her hands were numb, but above her, the matte-black ship shuddered. The dead thrusters suddenly hummed with a deep, purring, violet vibration.

"Engines online!" she choked out, coughing through a new cloud of ozone smoke.

"Two minutes!" Kael shouted. He was pinned behind a stone pillar now, trading shots with a dozen Enforcers who had flooded the chamber. The air was thick with the smell of scorched metal and sulfur. "And I hate to break it to you, Chief, but we have a tactical problem!"

Lyra scrambled to her feet, wiping a fresh layer of soot from her face. "What problem?"

"The hangar doors are closed!" Kael pointed his pistol toward the massive, rusted iron blast doors that sealed the hidden bay from the open sky. "They're locked from the central command tower. We're trapped in a cave with a working ship!"