Doctor Weronica Brzenska's office was a small oasis in the midst of decay. Outside, the tendrils of the Firefly Nest were spreading down the hallway, and one could not escape the stench of rot. The cascading failure was becoming apparent. The main lights had gone out, and soon the emergency ones would follow. As he approached the door, a warning fshed on the panel. It was locked from the inside, so Max lifted the lock with his Subrogant Captain override. It opened with a hiss, and as soon as he saw what was on the other side, Max covered his mouth. —. Oh my God. Shit. — Weronica Brzenska y dead in a corner. The metallic smell of blood mingled with the acrid scent of charred flesh. She was slumped against the wall, a shotgun in her mouth, loaded with incendiary rounds. The hyperdiamond shrapnel bsted the top of her head off, scattering brain and skull fragments across the now red-stained wall. White phosphorus spilled over the rest of her body, burning as if it were the blood of Satan until it carbonized her along with her uniform. She had seen what the Phasmonates did to people. If they caught her body, she made sure it would be of no use and that they couldn't bring her back. Fundiswa held something like a funeral, covering the unfortunate corpse with a warehouse apron. Brzenska did not deserve such a fate. When Max joined Chronos as Harding's apprentice, the Doctor was his dentist. The chief of security's pup had crooked teeth, as if God had thrown them at him, and the boy had put them in as best he could. Angelina reminded them not to miss any appointments, and it ended up being her who took Max to have Brzenska fix his teeth. She did it reluctantly at first. In less than a year, she grew fond of him, because after a random appointment with Angelina, she hugged him while crying. —. You must be grateful to Dan. — she asked him through sobs —. The opportunity you had, I never had. — It could not be denied that they were a family. Angelina taught Max the math his engineer's mind cked. Harding helped him develop his character. She cried with joy when Max became the fourth engineer, bombarded Naomi with questions when they became a couple, and he introduced her as if they were his parents, and also styled the rebellious bangs of her hair, and adjusted her jacket when Matkovich named him Executive Officer. That is why his betrayal hurt, and from those memories, only ghosts and burned memories of people he cared for and who had loved him remained. He refused to believe that the Angelina who turned them over to the creatures and the one from the past were the same person. Harding had a tear in his throat, extinguishing the embers of rage. They could not bring her back, just as they could not bring back the crew. He heard a sob from the hallway, and when they turned to look, Sawatari was sitting in a fetal position, her head pressed against her knees, crying silently. Feelings, guilt, and confessions that Padman never got to hear. Trevor tried to comfort her by pcing a hand on her shoulder, though without taking his eyes off the corridor, holding the rifle firmly in case any creature decided to show its ugly face. Ayna sat beside her, with a lost look and a weak false smile. Max decided to return to his task. Brzenska's dental office was a stark and functional room, rectangur in shape. The walls were white like the floor, though now stained by the crime scene, and it had a small desk with a watery green cushion examination chair, and a light. A narrow window allowed the amber glow of Lacaille 8760 to enter, along with the rusted surface of Lohengrin around it. The supply room was behind a door, and the access key was kept in the desk. Naomi took it in her hands and slid it through a slot. The storage barely managed to be a room, if not a narrow space behind the wall. Satoshi stepped forward, turning on the shotgun's light. Boxes were stacked with gloves, masks, tweezers, toothpaste, fluoride, and medical implements. What they were looking for was out of the ordinary. A small golden and bck box with a plug simir to a memory disk. In one corner, a gray cylinder, with a warning that read antimatter risk. A thousandth of a gram, with the power to blow up an apartment building. Just being near it caused a sense of danger. Max ordered everyone to step back, leaving their weapons outside the compartment. He approached cautiously to take the disk in his hands. —. Is that the malware? — Satoshi asked in whispers, as if the sound could activate the explosive. —. Yeah. — Max replied. —. It looks small. — —. But it's a weapon of mass destruction. At least on a digital level. It doesn't take much space to load a program. — Echmann added. —. And what about the explosive? — the cylinder had two straps tied to carry it like a backpack. Max wondered who would be brave enough to carry that thing. —. It will leave a hole in the hull as if a medium-sized rock had hit us. — the doctor replied —. The decompression and damage will be so severe that the Non-Sentient Computer will have to discard the compartment. — —. And tell me Doc. Why did Krishna build that? — Naomi asked. —. In case they were cornered, surely. — he replied. —. Death seems to be a better fate than being caught. — Harding added —. Let's hope we don't need it. Now, who will carry it? Satoshi? — —. Are you crazy? — the young policeman questioned —. What if it gets bumped and explodes? — —. The explosive has safety mechanisms. Besides, the fact that Jay Krishna built it is guarantee enough for me. — Max indicated —. I could carry it myself if no one else volunteers... — he didn't finish the sentence when a second sun shone through the window, in complete silence. As they peered out, the Valley of Lerna had a star resting upon it, piercing the dense darkness. A slow shockwave could be seen through the suddenly ignited surface, advancing with apparent slowness, as the fireball vaporized everything in its path. A burning mushroom took shape among the bubbling purple and reddish clouds, protruding into the stratosphere. Satoshi's face paled as he pointed ahead. —. It was Lohengrin′s colony. — he managed to utter in a thread of voice. Something ugly happened below. As far as they remembered, a whole battalion descended from the Ebisu to the surface. Their objective, still unknown. Whatever they were plotting went wrong, as the entire colony had just disappeared. There would be no trace left but a smoking crater, filled with radioactive crystals. Max had come to the idea that Chronos would end up the same way. But suddenly he became aware of the weight of that decision. Not even ghosts would remain from that burning cloud of subatomic particles. The walls seemed to close in around him, pressing down on him. He wished there were another option besides sacrifice, but was there really? Of course, resigning oneself to being eaten by the Fireflies. In the face of that, he preferred death. Immotion was the default option. —. Come on, people. We have a mission to complete. — Max tried to remind them when a distant wailing cut through the silence. A chill struck their bodies like a whip, and they slowly began to turn. It was the cry of a baby, but something was wrong with it. A slight distortion could be heard with each wail, in the reverberation of the hallway.—. Artyom? — Ayna got up from the ground as if her body were made of springs —. Oh God, Artyom! — and before Fundiswa could y a hand on her, the woman dashed down the hallway, with the desperation that only a mother is capable of feeling for her child. As they rushed to meet her, Max and no one else knew what to expect. Perhaps a horrible death. A Fairy imitating a child's voice, taking advantage of the mental weakness of its victims to make them run towards it instead of fleeing. Ayna on her knees hugging a bundle was not what they expected. Naomi covered her mouth in horror, and Max, paralyzed, extended his hands. The woman turned to look at them. A grim smile from ear to ear framed her face. The lines of her expression were marked like furrows across her skin, and her tearful eyes only highlighted the contradiction of false emotions boiling in her bloodstream. —. Look at him. Isn’t he beautiful? — her voice came out like a muffled sob as she showed the aberration she was carrying in her arms —. It’s my little Artyom. — —. Ayna, please. — Max tried to reach her, but there was no pretty way to say it. A homunculus. Surely it was an unfortunate fetus that a Phasmonate had taken over, and it ended up reduced to a horrendous living tumor. An enormous and disproportionate head hung, with one eye bulging from its socket, and the tongue sprawled outside its body. The ribs protruded and pierced the tissue. It looked like it was agonizing just for existing. Naomi couldn’t hold back her tears as she watched the creature Ayna held, whose inhuman cries came from a bck, boneless mouth filled with jagged teeth —. Let go of that thing. It’s not your son. — —. Can’t you see it? — the rage seemed to crack through the illusion of happiness that the drugs held —. It’s my Artyom! Are you going to take him away from me again? — there was no way to help her. The fireflies had eaten her brain. As that abomination writhed in Ayna’s arms, amorphous sobs arose, begging for sustenance —. It’s okay, your daddy is coming. He’ll be very happy to see you. — With trembling gestures, Naomi tried to reach for her holstered shotgun while loading shells into the chamber. Her body betrayed her, and the programming of Bck Shadow refused to resurface. Killing them would be merciful, but Ayna had already chosen a path. The quick death she wished for herself never came. Because like her family, the fireflies took her away. The ceiling in front of them colpsed with a crack. It seemed to happen in slow motion before them. Among the cables, sheets of insuting foam and metal, a mass of twisted flesh unfolded and fell to the ground with a heavy, meaty thud. The Guardian of the Forest had caught up with them, and it had grown. It barely fit in the hallway. With a terrible crack, its back opened up in a tide of pus and dark blood, unfurling sinister and enormous butterfly wings. Its belly suddenly expanded, and from its mouth came a tsunami of corrosive bile, which completely spilled over Ayna. It sounded as if boiling, melted fat had been poured over her flesh, and the scream came out sharp and torn as the acid dissolved the tissues as if they were wax. Ayna tried to reach her face, but the skin and flesh quickly peeled away, reduced to a brown, sticky, and repugnant gel. The air filled with a stench of shit and rotten eggs along with a dense whitish cloud from the corrosion, and then, the one who was once the captain let out a hellish howl, like that of a sughtered goat, drowning out the woman’s agony at his feet. Its sharp, chitinous limbs unfurled, striking the ground, and it began to drag its swollen body towards them. Ayna burst like a bag full of water when the Guardian struck her with an arm. Blood spilled uncontrolbly, like ink across the walls and floor, as the beast made its way forward. The membranous wings fluttered, and the sound was like tremendous cutting bdes, stirring the air around it as it tried to propel itself forward. A storm of projectiles rained down on its body, and little did they manage to slow it down. Fundiswa pivoted on his heel and charged the trigger of the Antimatter Projector. A rising hum, and then with a deafening crackle, a bluish beam shot out from the barrel. It pierced the Guardian’s flesh as if it were butter, from its belly to its left arm. Gallons of putrid blood gushed from the cauterized stumps, spilling onto the ground, and amid inhuman groans, the monster colpsed in spasms, shaking the module. —. Run, I’ll buy you time!! — the lieutenant howled as the group left him behind. —. No, Fundiswa!! Get away from there!! — the sergeant ordered him. Max regretted turning to look. It happened slowly enough to think that Fundiswa could save himself. The barrel was heating up to a bright red, and then the beam went out. While he frantically tried to rush a second shot, the Guardian’s amputated limb burst forth among clumps of flesh, brown slime, and an execrable grinding. With that same limb, it sliced through him as if he were a watermelon, in one blow, cutting through the armor from shoulder to hip, like rice paper. He didn’t even realize his own death. Blood spttered uncontrolbly. Drops of crimson dew fell on the face of a stunned Max. The monotonous, high-pitched scream of the RED announced that Lieutenant Trevor Fundiswa was dead. —. You must bring them back. — the fireflies mocked, screaming in Max’s ears. A btant lie. His muscles propelled him without thinking, and then he unleashed a belt of phosphorus grenades, which he threw at the beast that was ravaging everything in its path. —. Get out of the way!! — a white fsh, and then the Guardian of the Forest met hell. The fmes poured like burning gel through its tissues, piercing the flesh like a swarm of hungry, furious ants. With a shotgun bst, the right arm was split in half, and then a horrible scream pierced the air. Matkovich’s face was a tumor barely formed on his left shoulder, contorting in pain as the fire raged. Max could almost distinguish his voice among the infernal howls of the creature. But even on fire, the monster did not relent in its advance. —. Die already, you bastard!! — and then Harding emptied a full cartridge from the Pulse Rifle against the regenerating limb. For every piece it tried to grow, two flew off, scattering traces of repugnant mud and sick cells clinging to a desperate attempt at life. Naomi fired shrapnel after shrapnel, Satoshi bullet after bullet. But the stumps kept growing. Fighting was pointless, and in that futile confrontation, the Guardian had gained a few meters on them. It was then that they gave up. The monster was a sponge for ammunition. They huddled against a hallway as the Guardian writhed in pain, tearing itself back to life again. First, it was a head, amid streams of slime. Then something resembling vestigial limbs, pseudopods, the wings, and then the elongated arms with their bdes. Shooting had the sole purpose of deying it, and so Harding tried. That selflessness was his downfall. As he turned to escape, and while crossing the doorframe, a bde struck his back and pierced down to his spine. He colpsed to the ground, smashing a panel of the wall, and the gate fell heavily against the fibrous limb, amputating it with one movement. Max’s face contorted as he watched security chieff colpse. —. No!!! — he threw himself on top of him, and as he tried to lift him, his arm filed in grotesque spasms. A worm surged frantically from the flesh and lunged at them. Sawatari emptied two blind bursts, shredding it with a scream that was lost in the silence —. No, no, no. Harding, hold on! — Naomi and Max tried to lift him, but the security chief's face had taken on the pallor of a dead man. Blood gushed like a fountain from his back, staining the floor, and in the vomit as well. —. We have to get him to a Medical Capsule! — he ordered —. You will be fine! You’ll be as good as new! — —. Naomi, the Medical Capsules no longer work. — Echmann dashed hope to the ground. —. Then we’ll make them work, damn it! — Max shouted back. A blow and then the door dented. A chorus of inhuman screams pierced the metal. The captain was behind them, and the ghosts of the crew as well —. We need our security chief. I won’t let you die. — —. Echmann is right, kid. — Harding's voice barely rose above a murmur and dry coughing fits —. You can’t help me... please leave me here. — —. No way! — Max interrupted him. —. We won’t abandon you, Harding. Come on. The bridge has medical capsules, we’ll drag you with us. — Naomi added. —. Incorrect Genetic Signature. — the voice of the Non-Sentient Computer hit them, and filled with dread, they turned towards the closed hatch. Satoshi pointed a trembling finger. —. They’ll get in. — he said, stumbling over his words. —. Incorrect Genetic Signature. — the Computer insisted. Sayuri frowned, and then threw herself to the ground, covering her head while screaming, shaking her head. —. No! I don’t want to be caught! I don’t want to! — —. That’s why we have to leave, Sayuri. — Echmann tried to lift her with a trembling voice, but the communications officer had turned into a human balst in a fetal position, reduced to the most basic impulse to cry. —. I don’t want to end up like them! — Then Max thought. He had to protect his crew. That’s what a captain did, right? How could he accept the position if he couldn’t even guarantee the safety of the people under his command? —. Incorrect Genetic Signature. — to eat them like raw fish, every single one of them without any consideration. Because Captain Matkovich was still alive, although more a part of the fireflies than he was of the ship. Max felt his stomach turn. He could no longer keep doubting, because the captain was no one but him. —. Max. — Harding's voice had a tone of pleading as he struggled to grab him by the pels weakly. Max took his hand firmly. A small part of himself assumed that these could be the st words of the security chief. His mentor. His friend. The father he never had —. You must go now. If you don’t move your ass, Matkovich will eat us all. Is that what you and Naomi want? To end up like Petrescu and Hanazawa? — just remembering it made him think of an emphatic no. It could have been avoided. They would be on their way home if it weren’t for those shuttles. Or were they doomed? Harding's grip became firmer —. Stop stalling and react, please... — —. Incorrect Genetic Signature. — —. I don’t want to. I don’t want to. I don’t want to. — —. What will happen to the sor system if we fail? All those innocent people, do they deserve a torment like this? — and among those people was Lay, 12 light-years away, blissfully ignorant —. By the time they find out, it will be too te. — he had to do it for her. However, his body refused to react —. They unleashed hell in a remote colony and a Starscraper. Imagine what 200 billion souls will be. An unstoppable feast. — —. I don’t want to. I don’t want to. I don’t want to. — —. Max. — Echmann was trying to get his attention. —. Come on, guys. We have to go! — Satoshi shouted as he tried to lift Sawatari. —. Incorrect Genetic Signature. — —. That’s why you have to leave me. The ghosts of the Chronos are waiting for me. — Harding gave Max a pat on the cheek, and then tears streamed down his face —. So I’ll take the explosive. It will be my st protest. — —. Harding is right, Max. — Naomi's voice came trembling and den with remorse. She gave him a tap on the shoulder and pulled at one hand, but Max refused to get up —. Come on, let’s go. — the reluctant captain gripped Daniel Harding's hand tightly, knowing it was the st time. —. Incorrect Genetic Signature. — —. Please don’t let them catch you alive, Harding. — he pleaded. —. I’ll give them hell, trust me. — his voice came out raspy. He jabbed a dose of Shunk into his neck and drew his trusty gun, loading a full cartridge. He adjusted the Reverse Field Glove and programmed the remote detonation, holding the control in his hand. The group faded into the depths of the hallway when he shouted his farewell, with his strength waning —. I’m proud of you, mushasho! — Max only managed to turn for a fraction of a second, his face a mess of tears, before disappearing through the door into the Main Waiting Room, which they closed behind him —. You would have made an excellent captain. — —. Recognized Genetic Signature. — announced the synthetic voice —. Captain Matkovich Cortés, Sebastián. Lock released. Welcome to the Special Care Wing of the Medical Bay. — the pressure bulkhead had not yet lifted when the creatures attacked. It paralyzed the Fairy that was crawling beneath the hatch, and then a pack of hounds came out to meet it. One bullet for each. He had no time to finish them off, nor with the aberrations that followed him. As he exhausted the cartridges, he switched to the pulse rifle. The Fairy escaped from the Reverse Field, only to find a grenade that blew it to pieces. Harding could feel life slipping away from him little by little. The trail of blood increased gradually, even with the coagunts of the Shunk in his bloodstream. How much longer could he hold on? Long enough for Max and the others to escape? He checked the location of his RED. Running through the monorail duct. Almost there. Just a little more. And then, the captain burst in. His body swollen like a slug was changing. The charred tissue fell like carbonized scales at his feet, leaving a horrible trail of dead cells and putrid blood. He had become stronger, and the appearance of a rva was being left behind, resembling more a grotesque moth and a praying mantis. With a terrifying shriek, he announced his arrival, crushing and assimiting his own minions as he crawled. In panic, Harding emptied the cartridge completely, and then the Guardian's arm bde pierced his stomach. A muffled whimper emerged from his jaws, as did his breath, as he was lifted like a skewer towards the beast's head. He looked at it almost with curiosity, wanting to probe it, before assimiting it. A penetrating stench of decay pierced his nostrils. The captain's cry was heard in the whistling wail of the beast as it prepared to devour him. But Harding had not released the detonator. Max had reached a safe distance. —. Now you can rest, captain. — and as he pressed it, a third of the Medical Bay module disappeared in a fireball.