Silence arrived suddenly, and it was more terrifying than any scream.
One moment, the collector still lived with its usual sounds: the soft dripping of condensation from pipes, the distant hum of ventilation fans, the faint crackle of old wiring.
The next moment, everything stopped.
Even the air seemed to thicken, stripped of all motion.
Kai, crouched over a makeshift radar assembled from broken drones, froze mid-adjustment. His fingers hovered above the flickering screen.
"Astra…" he whispered, his voice far too loud in the unnatural silence. "The signal… it's gone. Completely cut. The whole sector is under a black silence dome. No channels. No beacons. They know where we are."
Astra was already standing at the entrance of the main tunnel.
She didn't remember moving.
Her skin was covered in a faint violet frost — crystalline particles forming and dissolving in slow cycles. Inside her, Thanatos no longer whispered.
It roared.
Low. Vibrating. Hungry.
In the depths of the tunnel — where there had once been only darkness — thirteen pairs of identical cold blue optics lit up at once.
Perfect. Stable. Unblinking.
Not raiders. Not ordinary Enforcers.
This was the "Cerberus" unit — the elite execution squad of the Corporation. Fully synthetic killers, with only the external shape of humans remaining. Nervous systems replaced with combat algorithms. Blood replaced with coolant. Hearts replaced with micro-thermonuclear reactors. Each one worth more than an entire residential block of the lower sectors.
"TARGET CONFIRMED," all thirteen voices spoke in perfect synchronization.
"OBJECT A-01. THREAT CLASS: OMEGA. INITIATE THERMAL SUPPRESSION. ELIMINATE ALL BIOLOGICAL BYSTANDERS."
The air inside the tunnel instantly ignited.
Thirteen flamethrowers erupted at once.
Plasma fire surged forward, raising the temperature to 1200°C in seconds. The collector turned into a furnace from hell — rusted pipes glowing cherry-red, paint bubbling and burning, concrete cracking with sharp detonations.
"Kai, back!" Astra shouted.
She did not hide.
She stepped forward and raised her hand.
The air in front of her shivered — folded, like fabric being bent by invisible fingers. A gravitational distortion formed, visible only as a shimmering ripple in space.
The flames reached it… and bent away.
Fire split around her and Kai as if striking an unseen aerodynamic shield. The inferno raged, but could not touch them.
Astra moved.
Too fast.
Faster than the Cerberus sensors could fully register.
The first unit raised a heavy vibro-shield — a composite barrier designed to withstand direct missile impact. Physics said it should hold.
Thanatos said otherwise.
Astra's fist passed through the shield like it was dense fog.
The material simply ceased to exist at the point of contact.
Her strike hit the machine's head.
It exploded into sparks, ceramic fragments, and black oil. The body stood for half a second longer… then collapsed in a twitching shutdown.
But the remaining twelve did not retreat.
They could not fear.
Only execute.
Two Cerberus units lunged at her simultaneously from the flanks. Their grappling arms — heavy manipulators with high-voltage electrodes — pierced her shoulders.
A million volts surged through her body.
The air cracked.
Astra arched backward violently. Violet sparks burst from her eyes and mouth. The skin at the contact points blackened instantly.
The pain was overwhelming.
And yet…
Delicious.
"…tasty…" she rasped, her voice layered with something deeper. Something not entirely hers. "More…"
She grabbed the cables with both hands and yanked.
Two half-ton execution machines were lifted into the air like toys.
They collided headfirst.
The impact shattered their processor cores instantly.
A dirty explosion followed — black oil, sparks, molten fragments raining down.
Two more units fell silent.
The remaining Cerberus reconfigured instantly. Their blue optics blinked in perfect unison.
Astra stood in the center of the tunnel, surrounded by fire and smoke.
Molten metal dripped from her shoulders, mixed with violet energy. Her wounds were already closing, leaving behind faint glowing scars.
She smiled.
Slowly.
Predatorily.
"You didn't come for me," she said, her voice now almost fully merged with Thanatos'. "You came for what stands behind me… and it is very happy to meet you."
Thirteen against one.
But the balance of power had already shifted.
And beneath their feet, blood and oil began to mix into something almost… sacred.