The Epoch Serpent broke through the fogged perimeter of Sector 19 like a blade through oil.
Drifting before Kael was an ocean of twisted metal. Derelict ships—hundreds, maybe thousands—floated in silence, orbiting a shattered colony core like vultures circling a dead sun. Their hulls were rusted, cannibalized, some ripped open by war, others bent by time. It was a graveyard in every sense.
> "We're in," Kael said, tightening his grip on the helm. "Any sign of life?"
"None," Ziri replied, her voice low. "But there's movement. Coordinated… like puppets on strings."
Kael looked out the viewport.
He saw it too.
Fragments of ships shifting—deliberately—clearing a path toward a massive wreck near the center of the field.
> Anchor Two Location: Confirmed.
> Warning: Temporal Instability. Nullborn Presence. Unknown Entity Active.
---
As Kael guided the Serpent through the silent ballet of the drifting dead, a sudden jolt shook the ship.
"Something's got us," Ziri warned.
Mechanical arms—no, tentacles made from fusion cables—shot out from a broken cruiser and latched onto the ship's hull.
> "They're not just wreckage," Ziri hissed. "They're... responding."
Kael launched counter-thrust and slammed the override.
Plasma vents ignited, melting through the grasping limbs. The Serpent wrenched free, spiraling toward the anchor signal. Metal screamed against metal as they tore past debris.
---
Moments later, the ship landed—hard—on a tilted hangar deck, half-submerged in vacuum.
Kael sealed the helmet of his chrono-suit and stepped out.
The hangar was silent… but not empty.
Scattered across the floor were machines twisted into humanoid forms—welded from ship parts, missing eyes, bearing swords made from shattered consoles.
> "Constructs," Ziri said grimly. "Built from wreckage. Controlled by something nearby."
Kael moved cautiously between them, weapon drawn. None moved.
Yet.
He pressed forward through the crumbling halls of the cruiser, each corridor lit by sparks from failing systems and flickering grav-pads. The signal grew stronger.
Then he heard it.
A voice.
Not from comms.
From within the ship.
> "You shouldn't have left me, Kael."
He froze.
"Ziri, did you hear that?"
"No audio registered."
Kael turned. Nothing there. But the hair on his neck stood on end.
The voice had sounded exactly like… Elara.
---
He reached the Anchor chamber.
It was a vault—a chamber carved into the ship's heart. Inside, suspended above a collapsed gravity core, hovered the Anchor.
But it wasn't alone.
Standing before it was the blurred figure he'd seen in the hologram.
A woman.
Cloaked.
Face obscured by a shifting veil of light, as though time couldn't agree on what it should look like.
Kael raised his weapon. "Who are you?"
The figure tilted her head. "I warned you they were coming."
"Are you Elara?"
She didn't answer. Instead, she stepped aside, revealing the Anchor.
> "Touch it… and you'll see."
Kael hesitated.
The last Anchor nearly tore him apart.
Still, he moved forward.
As his hand brushed the Anchor's surface, a wave of energy surged through him.
---
⏳ Flash
He was standing on New Arisia.
The skies were burning. The collapse had begun.
Elara stood before him, blood on her uniform, her eyes full of fury.
> "You left. You jumped. You abandoned us."
Kael reached for her—but she shattered into dust.
---
He fell backward, gasping.
Back in the chamber. Anchor humming. The cloaked woman still watching.
"That wasn't real," Kael snapped. "A memory?"
"A warning," she said. "The past is not dead. It's folded."
> "Who are you?!"
The veil flickered.
And for a single, terrifying second…
…he saw her face.
It was Elara.
But her eyes were wrong.
Void-black.
Like the Nullborn.
But deeper.
Human… and something more.
Then—she was gone.
The Anchor pulsed.
> Anchor Two: Synchronized. Timeline stability +0.09%
Kael sank to his knees.
---
Ziri's voice crackled through the comm.
> "Kael. The constructs… they're waking up."
The ship's walls screamed as metal bent and shrieked.
Kael ran.
The hall behind him exploded in sparks as the constructs came to life, their twisted limbs reaching, their eyes glowing with hollow red light.
He sprinted through collapsing corridors, vaulting over fallen beams, dodging bursts of gravity distortion.
> "Ziri, I need evac. Now!"
"Landing pad's compromised. I'm redirecting."
Kael reached the exterior hull just as the Epoch Serpent hovered into view, bay doors open.
He leapt—suspended for a heartbeat in the gravity gap—and crashed into the ship's deck.
The doors slammed shut behind him.
---
As they soared away from the Iron Graveyard, Kael leaned against the wall, panting.
"Ziri… was that Elara?"
"I do not know. But the voice matches. The bio-signature is fractured."
"She's not dead," Kael said slowly. "She's something else."
Ziri was silent.
Then: "We have her coordinates."
Kael turned, eyes fierce.
> "Then plot a course. I'm done chasing ghosts."