[POV Era]

  The structure rose before me like a monument to old-world architecture that refused to bend. Unlike the rusted industrial hangars and walkways coated in biotic mold that formed the outskirts of Sector Alpha, this technical administration building still preserved its reinforced gss walls and polished metal cdding that barely showed the passage of time. It was an oasis of order in the midst of madness.

  "Sora has to be here," I thought, feeling the vibration of the red egg in my backpack, which seemed to stir at the proximity of something unknown. "It’s the most logical pce for the Leader to keep someone with her intellectual capacity."

  I entered through the main lobby. The air here was different; it no longer smelled of rotten flesh, but of ozone and an antiseptic so strong it irritated my sensory filters. The silence was absolute, broken only by the hum of my own servomotors. I advanced with the caution of a predator, sweeping every corner with my golden eyes.

  Suddenly, the silence was repced by a roar of data in my vision.

  [ WARNING! Attack vector detected at 180 degrees! EVADE RIGHT! ]

  The system’s alert arrived milliseconds before impact. I did not think; I reacted. My body spun on its axis in a fluid and unnatural motion, allowing a shadow to pass grazing my shoulder at a speed that would have been lethal to any human. When I turned, I saw it.

  It was not a Ganut, nor one of the sleepwalkers I had seen before. It was a small creature, no rger than a hunting dog, but with a skeletal structure that vaguely resembled that of a primate. It stood upright on two muscur hind legs, and in the center of its face, a single enormous eye of electric yellow pulsed with disturbing fixation. It had no visible mouth, only a series of respiratory slits that hissed with every movement.

  The creature began to move. It did not run; it leapt. It used the walls, the ceiling, and overturned desks as trampolines, becoming a grayish blur of motion meant to confuse my optical sensors.

  "You’re fast, little one," I murmured, keeping my hands in combat position. "But you’re not the only one who can see in the dark."

  [ Target tracking active. Projecting interception trajectory in real time. Era, the creature is attempting to fatigue your visual processors. Initiating direct link with motor cortex to compensate for tency. ]

  In my vision, a red dot marked the being’s exact position at all times, even when it was behind marble columns. It leapt from the ceiling, cws extended, but I moved a centimeter to the left and watched it miss. It tried again from the ground, and I simply sidestepped. Its reflexes were astonishing, but my sensors knew neither fatigue nor distraction.

  "The game is over," I said, deciding I had observed enough.

  I lunged forward, trying to seize it with my reinforced right hand. The being reacted midair, performing an impossible flip that carried it out of my reach. I tried to corner it, but it slipped beneath my legs with gravity-defying agility. It was frustrating; every time my fingers were about to close around its neck, it was already three meters away.

  [ Tactical analysis: Target possesses agility superior to 95% of cataloged terrestrial specimens. Close-quarters combat is inefficient due to its low mass and high reaction speed. Recommendation: Deploy integrated defensive systems in the ship gauntlets. ]

  "Do it. Unlock the left gauntlet’s weapon system," I ordered, feeling a surge of new energy flow through my arm.

  From the white left gauntlet, the metal began to reform. Alloy ptes slid and repositioned themselves, shaping a small-scale rail cannon integrated seamlessly along my forearm. It was a piece of alien engineering, elegant and lethal.

  [ Rail cannon charged. Ammunition: kinetic fragmentation discs. Muzzle velocity: Mach 5. Calcuting impact point… Fire now. ]

  The creature leapt once more from a desk, preparing to unch at my face. This time, I did not try to evade. I aimed the left gauntlet and pressed the mental trigger.

  There was no fsh, only a sonic crack that made the lobby’s gss tremble. The kinetic disc shot forward at a speed the creature could not even process. The impact was instantaneous and absolute. The disc pierced its chest, fragmenting inside and releasing a cloud of residual energy that illuminated the hall for a brief second.

  The creature hit the floor, dead before it touched the ground. I approached slowly to inspect it, the gauntlet’s cannon still emitting a bluish vapor.

  As I leaned over the corpse, my energy core seemed to lurch. The creature was not naked. Around what must have been its shoulders and waist hung strips of frayed fabric, remnants of a cotton shirt and torn canvas trousers. They were pieces of human clothing.

  "System… this wasn’t born in a tank," I said, my voice trembling slightly. "This… this was a human. Someone from the settlement."

  [ Confirmed. Textile remnants match the standard uniform of the dam’s maintenance workers. Accelerated forced mutation detected. Human DNA has been rewritten through an overload of pure biotic energy. Era, this is what the Leader does with those who ‘disappear’ in Sector Alpha. ]

  A chill ran through my chassis. The idea that these things had once been people filled me with icy fury. But the revetion was interrupted by a subtle sound, the crackle of fabric and the hiss of multiple respiratory slits.

  I turned slowly, feeling my proximity sensors erupt into a cacophony of alerts.

  In the corridor I had just crossed, emerging from the shadows of offices and ventition grilles, more of them had appeared. There were at least thirty, all with their single yellow eye fixed on me, all wearing shreds of clothing that once meant a life, a family, a hope. They stood in perfect silence, surrounding me from behind, blocking my only exit.

  "So you weren’t alone," I whispered, as the cannon on my left gauntlet began to hum, charging the next round.

  [ Era, we are surrounded. The pack has initiated group hunting protocol. There is no trace of Sora in this immediate sector, but if we do not survive this, no one will find her. ]

  "Then let them come," I said, feeling Orion’s consciousness sink while Era’s took absolute control. "I will cleanse this pce of all the Leader’s nightmares."

  The thirty creatures leapt in unison, and the building that had once been a monument to order became a battlefield of kinetic sparks and bck blood.