Page 24 of Sy

“Three minutes until seismic impact,” the computer announced.

“Execute lockdown now.” The command barely left his lips before the final blast doors began closing. Emergency lighting cast everything in harsh shadows as the main power grid shut down.

He sprinted through the closing barriers, each section sealing behind him. The entrance tunnel stretched ahead, emergency strips guiding his way toward the surface exit.

He had to get back to the garrison. Now…

9

One moment, the ground was under Sy’s feet, and the next it split between them and surged in opposite directions, like ships departing a spaceport. Then the ground beneath him shifted, rolling like liquid rather than solid earth, and he was forced to leap clear.

“Fuck,” he muttered as metal shrieked, support beams flexing under the strain. Three smaller vehicles were thrown into the air by the shifting earth. Tools were transformed into deadly projectiles as they fell from the sky.

Thick clouds of disturbed earth billowed upward, creating a haze that would blind the humans. But his legion-enhanced vision cut through it like a knife, cataloging threats with brutal efficiency. The construction site had become a gods-damned deathtrap of swaying equipment and unstable surfaces.

“Everyone, get clear!” Ashley’s voice cut through the cacophony of garbled death wails of the Hell-V’s control panels and the panicked shouts of the human workers.

“Draanth,” he snarled. His body moved on instinct, his muscles coiling and releasing as he launched himself across the pitching ground toward her. Where humans stumbled and felllike drunk revelers at a spaceport bar, his enhanced reflexes kept him upright and mobile. He tracked her with multiple senses—scent, sound, and sight—as she kept her footing through sheer determination, her spine straight as she gestured workers toward safety zones.

The distance between them closed rapidly. He reached for her just as she twisted away, her voice rising above the din. “Get to the emergency zones! Move it, people! Sy, for god’s sake, stop grabbing me! I have a job to do, and you’re not helping!”

“For draanth’s sake,” he growled in frustration, the sound rumbling up from deep in his chest to match the earthquake’s thunder. He could easily overpower her, but her authority here was absolute. She jabbed a finger urgently toward workers in precarious positions even as she fought to maintain her own balance.

Another violent tremor nearly took her feet out from under her. Sy’s hands found her waist, steadying her against his much more stable frame. She continued struggling like a caughtdeearin, trying to direct the evacuation even as fine particles of dust coated them both, reducing visibility to mere meters for human eyes.

“The crane operator—” Ashley’s words cut off as she coughed through the thickening air, jabbing a finger toward the towering equipment now swaying dangerously. “I need to give him orders to evacuate.”

“Trall,” Sy muttered as his grip tightened instinctively when the ground pitched again.

“You can’t give orders if you’re dead,” he snarled near her ear, fighting to be heard over the chaos.

She twisted in his grip like an angrydeearin, her eyes blazing. “Let me do my job!”

The ground rolled beneath them like a living thing, forcing them closer together as he maintained balance for both of them.Then a spike of terror sliced through him, overriding even his tactical assessment of the construction site’s collapse. “Draanth!The kids?—”

Ashley shook her head. “They’re up in the garrison.” Her fingers dug into his forearms like talons, her face pale with fear. “Will they be okay up there? Go check on them. Please. You’re faster than I am.”

He shook his head. The teens were protected within the garrison’s reinforced structure, away from the deadly rain of construction materials and equipment.

“The garrison’s shielded. They’ll be safer there than anywhere else right now.”

His enhanced hearing picked up the distinctive crack of support beams giving way, forcing him to pull Ashley clear of falling debris.

She stumbled against him, dust coating her hair until it looked like worn steel. “You’re sure they’re safe?” she asked, her voice shaking.

“The garrison was built to withstand orbital bombardment.” He tightened his grip as another violent tremor rippled through the ground. “A few earthquakes won’t touch it.”

A deafening crack split the air like a plasma rifle discharge as the ground ruptured, forcing him to tighten his grip on her.

“Draanth’s balls,” he swore as one of the massive Hell-Vs teetered on the edge of a rapidly expanding void, its metal frame screaming in protest. Through the thickening dust, he caught glimpses of dark shapes moving with inhuman speed… ferals using their abilities to pluck humans from danger. One leaped twenty meters straight up, snatching a worker from a collapsing scaffold before landing with impossible grace.

The air grew thick with hazards: chunks of debris raining down like artillery fire, choking clouds of dust rising up, thesharp mineral scent of broken earth mixing with the acrid smell of burning metal where equipment shorted out.

Another violent tremor forced him to wrap both arms around her waist as the ground bucked beneath them.

“The emergency pods—” Ashley’s voice emerged rough from the dust. She pointed toward a squat structure barely visible through the chaos. Several were dotted around the perimeter of the site. He’d wondered what they were but figured the humans had brought extra bodily waste elimination facilities so they wouldn’t have to leave the site all the time.

“Hold on,” he growled as he threw her over his shoulder and ran.

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