The road out of the underground base was lined with shadows. Above, power grids remained shattered after the solar flare, and every second that passed brought them closer to Seth's awakening… and Veydrin's descent.
Inside the stolen Syndicate rover, the silence was only broken by the hum of old circuits and Lyra's fingers tapping a decrypted map.
Alex looked at her. "You sure they're still alive?"
Lyra nodded. "Astra went dark two years ago, but if their beacon still pulses, someone's there."
Brad coughed from the back seat, his ribs still bandaged, face pale but focused. "What do we even say when we get there? 'Hey, wanna help stop a space god your enemies created?'"
Raven, driving with sharp, steady hands, answered first. "No. We say we're the only damn shot they have left."
—
Location: Outer Fringe – Himalaya Sector
The base was camouflaged beneath an old hydroelectric dam, long abandoned by the government. It didn't look like much — just snow, stone, and old tech — until the rover passed the second signal pulse.
Doors opened in the mountain itself.
Out stepped figures in ragged coats, bearing patchwork weapons, and bright, luminous tattoos that glowed faintly under the snowlight.
Their leader, a woman with storm-gray hair and one mechanical arm, approached.
"You brought Raven," she said, eyes narrowing. "That's either really brave... or really stupid."
"Name's Viera," she added. "Welcome to Astra. I hope you're worth the trouble."
—
Inside the Astra Citadel
Alex, Lyra, Brad, and Raven stood in a steel hall lit by natural light and solar cores. Everything felt… alive, even as worn as it was. Scientists, ex-military, even children were here — learning, building, surviving.
"These are the Children of Astra," Viera said. "The last ones not bought by OMNI or buried by governments."
Brad raised a brow. "You're not what I expected."
She smirked. "Neither are you, kid."
Raven cut in. "We need your help. Seth is real. And he's becoming Veydrin. The meteor was never natural. It's a seed. A carrier."
Viera's face turned to stone. "Then we're already too late."
"No," Lyra said, voice calm. "We have his original code. And Gaurav's sacrifice bought us time. But we need your quantum relay to broadcast a counter-signal… before he fully takes form."
Viera considered. "We'll help. But you're not gonna like what's in the vault."
Alex frowned. "What vault?"
"The original project logs. OMNI's black-site experiments. On kids. On you, Alex."
Alex froze.
Viera nodded grimly. "You weren't just a survivor of OMNI. You were the prototype."
The room fell silent.
Outside, far beyond the stars, something massive stirred. A cold, echoing whisper rippled through space.
Veydrin is awake.