The sky cracked open like a wound. The alien ship loomed over the hidden city, casting an unnatural shadow against the twilight—a monolithic behemoth etched in obsidian, rippling with strange, pulsating patterns that defied geometry. The blinding light that had accompanied its arrival faded, but the message lingered in Liam's mind, repeating like an echo carved in stone: "The convergence is complete."
Liam clutched his head, his neural implants sparking in protest. Around him, the others scrambled to regroup, eyes fixed on the colossal ship overhead. Smaller vessels detached from its hull, sleek and sinister, like hunting birds breaking from a massive predator. They shot downwards in arcs of controlled descent, energy pulses rippling through the ground as they landed.
Tremors surged beneath their feet. Dust spiraled in choking columns as local technology—communication relays, personal shields, even Liam's interface—flickered wildly. The Network, corrupted though it was, seemed to convulse in resistance to this new invader. It wasn't enough.
"They're jamming everything!" Juno shouted, her screen filled with static.
Maya rose from a crouch, eyes blazing. She turned to the team, voice steady despite the chaos. "Weapons up. We hold them here. We give them nothing. This is our ground."
They checked their gear—makeshift railguns, reprogrammed drones, fusion grenades cobbled together from scavenged tech. It was all they had. But it would have to be enough.
From the shadows beyond the city, the altered ones came. Their eyes glowed in unison with the descending ships, their steps perfectly synchronized. They didn't speak. They didn't need to.
The first energy blasts struck. Buildings—ancient and unnatural—vaporized in an instant. Static-charged air stung nostrils and burned skin. The battle had begun.
Liam scrambled into a nearby control chamber carved into the alien city's edge. He connected to a corrupted relay station, sweat pouring from his brow as he reconfigured its output.
"If I can amplify a disruptive frequency... maybe I can buy us time."
He tore through layers of hostile code, each string more corrupted than the last, trying to stitch together a signal strong enough to shake the alien network.
Meanwhile, Maya led her team through a narrow corridor toward the tower. Alien conduits pulsed along the walls, casting shifting light and twisting shadows.
They encountered resistance fighters hiding in the ruins—survivors, rogue AIs, even a few humans who had adapted to resist the alien presence. One, a woman named Sera, joined them.
"The tower's not just a gate," she warned. "It's a mind. A node. If we kill it, we might break their grip."
Pushing forward, Maya's team suffered losses. A drone dropped from above, slicing through one of their techs before they could react. But they kept moving, fueled by desperation and fury.
At last, they reached the nexus.
The central tower rose like a blade into the sky, encased in crystalline plating that vibrated with energy. The vortex above it pulsed faster now, its swirling maw growing larger.
A guardian descended—a being of incandescent light wrapped in fractal armor. It struck without hesitation, its weapon folding the very air around it.
Maya ducked and rolled, firing a concussive charge. It staggered, but reformed, hurling a bolt of gravity-warping force that splintered their cover. One of her team was caught mid-run, disassembled atom by atom.
"Liam! Now would be a good time!" Maya yelled into her comms.
In his chamber, Liam screamed as he flooded the system with his counter-signal. The corrupted relays screamed back, erupting in sparks and flame. But it worked.
The alien forces staggered. Their ships flickered in and out of phase, drones halted mid-motion, and the vortex shuddered.
"Hit the core!" Liam shouted.
Maya and her remaining team zeroed in on the core—a massive crystal at the tower's heart. But the guardian stood between them, spinning into a whirlwind of blades and light.
It charged.
Time slowed.
One of Maya's soldiers, Kanan, surged forward, arms wide. He intercepted the guardian's blast with a scream, his body engulfed in flames of raw energy.
"NOW!" he roared before collapsing.
Fueled by grief and resolve, Maya fired.
The salvaged weapon struck the crystal dead center. Cracks bloomed across its surface, and then it shattered with a sound like the universe exhaling.
A shockwave erupted. Alien conduits burst like overfilled veins. The vortex began to collapse, folding in on itself and flinging shards of alien matter across the skyline.
Above, the ships stuttered, broke formation, and fell from the sky in trails of black smoke.
Then, silence.
A glowing surge pulsed from the shattered core, enveloping Maya and the remaining survivors. Liam watched from his control room, readings off the scale.
"No... Maya..."
The light faded. And from the ruins, figures stood.
Their eyes shimmered. Their movements were too fluid. Maya turned toward Liam's drone, alive. Radiant.
Liam's systems rebooted. Streams of alien and native code merged across his screen. Data cascaded like a river through his neural pathways.
> System Upgrade Initiated... Processing Bio-Energetic Integration...
He gripped the terminal as power coursed through him.
> New Abilities Unlocked...
His senses expanded. He could feel electromagnetic fields, decode ambient data waves, perceive networked consciousnesses like distant beacons. His mind moved faster than thought, dancing through layers of reality.
Across the field, Maya looked at her hands. Energy danced across her fingers, faint but growing stronger. She could hear the alien city's pulse, feel the flow of power through the ground.
They weren't human anymore. Not completely.
> Five new core abilities acquired: - Enhanced Sensory Perception - Bio-Kinetic Manipulation (Level 1) - Advanced Data Processing - Psionic Interface (Latent) - Temporal Awareness (Foresight - Fragmented)
> System Level Increased: Tier 2.
> The true potential has been unlocked.
Liam opened his eyes. They glowed with unfamiliar energy. In the distance, the sky remained stained with static. Ships still floated—damaged, but far from destroyed.
The alien threat had not been vanquished.
Only... stalled.
And now, the world would have to reckon with something new.
The evolved.
End of Arc one.
Sorry for the late update everyone. Been busy with school works.