Chapter 44: The Gateway of Doom
I stepped onto Neptune Five, the secret weapon testing ground just a few kilometers from Fort Vanguard. The air hit me like a slap—sharp with the tang of burnt metal. Twisted husks of old machines jutted from the dirt. This was supposed to be the birthplace of the orbital weapon, but as I scanned the barren site, my gut twisted.
There was nothing.
No towering structure, no hum of power. Just silence and dust.
If I was right, we were about to open the door to hell itself. The thought of ruin gripped me, cold and unyielding. Those equations from my father’s notebook flashed in my mind—scribbled lines I’d once thought were genius, now taunting me with dread.
I pushed into the research building, the faint buzz of machinery vibrating through the walls like a trapped insect. There he was—Number One, hunched over a small device, his metal fingers tapping with eerie precision under the flicker of dying lights.
“Why are you doing this, Number One?” My voice came out rough, edged with anger I couldn’t hold back.
He turned, slow and deliberate, his humanlike machine eyes glinting as they locked onto mine. “Cipher Silver. Your arrival is... unexpected.”
“Why did you lie to us?” I stepped closer, my heart pounding against my ribs. “You’re not building a power dampener. I saw your equations in my dad’s notebook. You’re making a quantum gateway engine!”
“I’m afraid I don’t follow your deduction,” he said, his tone flat, mechanical.
I ripped the notebook from my coat and shoved it at him.
“Look at this! These formulas—my father’s work. You’re not damping anything. You’re tearing reality apart!”
He went still, staring at the pages. Then, without a word, he turned back to his device, fingers clicking faster.