The horizon wasn't a line; it was a collapsing ceiling.
Above the desolate ash of the Radiation-Sea, the Nullity Armada was descending. Massive, geometric drop-ships black monoliths that absorbed the starlight were detaching from the main fleet, dropping toward the wasteland like falling tombstones.
Behind us, the six Null-Stalkers were gaining ground, their multi-jointed limbs eating up the distance with terrifying, silent speed.
And beneath me, the Sovereign was dying.
"Engine core at negative one hundred and forty degrees!" I yelled over the comms, my teeth chattering uncontrollably. Frost was crawling up the matte-black gas tank, spreading across the digital dash in jagged, fractal patterns. The closed-loop cooling system my father had installed was working too well. Without ventin
