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Chapter 11 - CHAPTER 11 – DESCENT INTO DARKNESS

Kara plummeted into the chasm, the void swallowing her scream as the girder's remnants crashed around her, sparks raining like falling stars. Marcus and Ghost fell beside her, their silhouettes twisting in the smoky abyss, the OmniCorp transport's shadow looming above, its enforcers leaning out with rifles glinting. The air roared, a mix of wind and fire, as the chasm walls closed in, jagged rocks rushing past, threatening to shred them. Kara's flailing hand snagged a fraying cable dangling from the collapsing dock, her shoulder wrenching with a sickening pop, but it held—barely.

The cable swung violently, slamming Kara against the chasm wall, her ribs cracking against stone, blood filling her mouth. Marcus caught a protruding pipe, his scarred face contorted in pain, but Ghost slipped past, her unconscious form tumbling toward a fiery pool below. A drone buzzed down, its claw snapping at her, missing by a hair as Kara lunged, her free hand brushing Ghost's jacket. The cable frayed further, threads snapping with sharp cracks, the weight of two bodies stretching it to its limit. The transport's spotlights pierced the darkness, illuminating a squad of enforcers rappelling down, their harnesses clicking with mechanical precision.

Marcus grunted, swinging toward Kara, his hand outstretched. "Grab her!" he shouted, but a rifle shot from above grazed his arm, blood spraying as he faltered. The chasm rumbled, a deeper groan signaling a massive collapse, and a slab of rock broke free, hurtling toward them. Kara twisted, the cable swinging her out of its path, but the impact severed the cable's anchor, sending them into a free fall. Ghost's jacket tore, her body slipping, and Kara's fingers caught her wrist, the strain tearing at her already dislocated shoulder.

A net deployed from the transport, its edges electrified, snapping at them like a predator's jaws. Kara dodged, the cable's end whipping around her leg, entangling her as she dangled upside down, Ghost's weight pulling her downward. The enforcers fired, a bullet piercing the net, sparking dangerously close, while another drone latched onto the cable, its weight dragging them toward the fiery pool. The chasm's heat seared Kara's lungs, her vision blurring, but a faint hum—another pulse rifle—cut through the chaos, blasting the drone apart, its wreckage tumbling into the flames.

The masked figures from before emerged on a lower ledge, one firing a grappling hook that arced toward Kara. It missed, clanging off the wall, as the transport's enforcers closed in, their boots clanking on descending cables. Lena's voice crackled through a speaker, amplified and mocking: "Your rebellion ends here—surrender, or burn!" Her cannon blast struck the chasm wall, dislodging a boulder that rolled toward Marcus, forcing him to leap, his pipe snapping as he fell toward Kara, colliding with her in a tangle of limbs.

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