Chapter 31: Ch 31: Abandoned Ship - Part 2
Anna’s breath quickened. Her hands trembled around the trigger of her gun. Every fiber of her being screamed that they were being hunted—stalked by something not alive, yet very aware.
Without thinking, she fired into the empty space ahead. A sharp crack echoed through the corridor, followed by a metallic squeal—thin and high-pitched, like rusted metal being torn apart.
Then everything happened at once.
A freezing touch brushed her side.
Before she could scream, she was yanked back violently—her body thrown off balance as a sharp, cold presence surged toward her.
But before it could reach her, a brilliant flash of light erupted—an aether burst from Nova.
The pressure of it shoved the darkness away, illuminating a grotesque mass of broken machinery, wires, rusted limbs, and mechanical tendrils clinging together in a warped shape of barely coherent anatomy.
Anna gasped.
The abomination shrieked—if it could be called that—pressing against the shimmering sphere of Nova’s aether shield.
Sparks flew as claws scraped against the barrier, and Anna instinctively clung to Nova’s arm, eyes wide in horror.
Then the light faded.