Robert stared out the viewscreen at the distant glimmer of Stellar Dynamics’ Shipyard, its vast form a delicate filigree of girders, construction modules, and large floating warehouses suspended against the blackness of space. Even from this far out in the exodisk, the sheer scale of the facility was enough to send a shiver down his spine.

  This was it, the point of no return. After weeks of meticulous planning and preparation, their daring infiltration attempt was about to begin in earnest. But unlike their previous heist, where they’d been able to rely on the element of surprise, stealth, and Ace’s ability to blind the target’s security systems, this time they’d be going in blind. No shortcuts, no margin for error. Him, the picobots, and whatever contingencies Ace could cook up from their remote staging point.

  He glanced over at his AI companion, the small orb’s surface glowing with a faint yellow-green luminance as it ran through a final pre-mission system diagnostics test. “You about ready over there?”

  “As ready as we’ll ever be,” Ace said, his tone one of resignation. “We’ve prepped the infiltration routines and mapped out the optimal insertion vector based on the shipyard’s current patrol patterns. But you know as well as we do that once you’re through that outer perimeter, you’ll be on your own until you can establish a secure uplink from within their network.”

  Robert nodded, the weight of the situation settling in on his shoulders as he turned back to regard the looming shipyard complex. “I know the risks,” he said, his voice low. “But those transponders are the only way we’ll be able to move around freely without having to keep looking over our shoulders every time we land. If we’re going to bring down this trafficking op, then we need to operate without the threat of getting our asses thrown in prison every time we try to make planet-fall.”

  He drew in a deep, steadying breath, pushing aside the gnawing sense of doubt that threatened to take root. “Don’t worry, I’ll get it done. Just keep this ship ready to fold-out, yeah?”

  The faint hue of purple ghosted across Ace’s chassis as he said, “You’ve got yourself a deal.”

  With a last nod, Robert turned and headed for the airlock, scooping up his helmet and tether pack as he went. A few practiced motions had the sleek, form-fitting suit sealed up tight, its integrated life support systems cycling to full operational status with a reassuring series of hisses and chimes.

  One last glance at the shipyard in the distance, and then he was through the inner airlock door, the thought of the icy chill of hard vacuum raising goosebumps across his skin as he crossed the staging deck to the outer hatch. A few final taps at the control panel, and the heavy alloy door slid open with a groan, the endless black of open space yawning before him.

  Here goes nothing.

  With a grunt of effort, Robert propelled himself out into the void, his body enveloped in that peculiar sense of weightlessness that always took a moment to readjust to. The picobots swarmed out after him in a glittering cloud, their minuscule forms scattering and reforming in a complex dance of pre-programmed maneuvers as they oriented themselves according to Ace’s calculated trajectories.

  For a few endless heartbeats, Robert drifted, watching the cloud of picobots settle into their predetermined formations as he put a bit of distance between himself and the Acus’Rube. With a deep breath, he gave the mental command that sent the swarm surging forward. Their combined mass and momentum propelled him through the void like some sort of grotesque, half-mechanical deep-sea creature.

  The shipyard loomed ever larger in his vision as they closed the distance, its towering superstructures blotting out the stars with their sheer immensity. Robert kept his eyes locked on the target, fighting back the rising tide of adrenaline and doubt as the first of the facility’s defensive perimeters swept into view, a glittering mesh of sensor grids and high-intensity security beams crisscrossing the void in an impenetrable web.

  Robert willed the little robots forward, the cloud shifting and reforming with each subtle change of his body’s orientation. Closer and closer they drew, the shipyard’s outer defenses swelling to fill his entire field of view.

  With mere meters to spare, the picobots scattered in a blinding cloud of refracting light. The individual forms were too small and dispersed to register on the facility’s sensor nets. Robert tumbled as the swarm’s unified mass dissipated, his body passing through the outer perimeter like a ghost amidst the sudden chaos of their evasive maneuvers.

  After a breathless span of heartbeats, he hung there in the void, watching in awe as the picobots reformed into a new configuration around him, this one designed to propel him deeper into the shipyard’s interior triggering none of the high-intensity security grids. Then, before the moment could register, they were moving again, accelerating toward the next defensive perimeter with all the raw power and precision of a high-velocity railgun slug.

  Robert grinned beneath his faceplate, adrenaline surging as the true magnitude of what they were attempting hit home. “We’re in,” he said, unable to resist the giddy exhilaration bubbling up from somewhere deep within his chest. “We’re actually kriffing in!”

  Robert drifted in and out of a dreamless sleep as the picobots propelled him through the endless void. Out here, untethered and alone save for his tiny companions, it was easy to lose all sense of time or place. The universe became an infinite canvas of black, the stars mere pinpricks in a lightless abyss that stretched on forever in all directions.

  In his waking moments, Robert would peer out into that yawning blackness, searching for some familiar constellation or planetary landmark to get his bearings. But it was a futile effort. At this speed, and with no fixed point of reference, all sense of direction or location became meaningless. He was adrift in a featureless sea, trusting in the picobots’ flawless navigational abilities to guide him to his destination.

  Occasionally a large object would drift past - an asteroid, derelict satellite, or ship too distant to discern any details. Each time, Robert would watch it slide by, holding his breath until it passed out of view. It was unnerving being so exposed out here: one micrometeorite impact in the wrong place could breach his suit and end him in an instant.

  But the picobots maintained their protective formation around him, their distributed fields overlapping to provide an early warning mesh that could detect and intercept any incoming particle or debris. It was a reassurance, however small, against the vast indifference of space. Still, Robert couldn’t help the occasional shiver that ran through him as he peered out into the endless night, pondering how alone a single human life could feel adrift among the stars.

  When exhaustion claimed him, he would close his eyes and surrender himself to fitful micro-naps, never asleep, yet never awake, either. It was an almost trance-like state, a hazy grayness devoid of dreams or any genuine sense of time’s passage. He existed, suspended in a void more profound than the one that surrounded his physical form.

  Only the picobots kept him anchored, their constant pull against his tether harness and the occasional course correction nudges reminding him he hadn’t slipped free and been left to drift untethered through eternity. It was his only lifeline, the sole thread still connecting him to any sense of purpose or direction.

  His mind would wander to Ace back aboard the Acus’Rube, maintaining radio silence, yet tracking Robert’s progress all the while. He wondered what Ace made of their situation and whether the stoic AI ever experienced anything akin to apprehension or loneliness. Did his robotic mind fill the empty hours with endless calculations and contingency plans? Or did he possess an inner world unlike anything a flesh-and-blood being could comprehend? Robert intended to ask these questions of his friend one day, but it never felt like the right time.

  Robert hoped they would discuss it afterwards, assuming he made it through this unscathed. Now, though, such musings were a distraction, and he pushed them from his thoughts. All that mattered was the mission. Everything else was a hollow abyss for the next seventeen hours.

  Robert slept.

  * * *

  The orbital warehouse loomed ahead, a vast construct of steel, ceramics, and other specialized materials that dwarfed even the largest of warships. From a distance, it resembled a colossal metal hive, its bulbous central hub ringed by scores of towering storage silos that radiated outward like the spokes of some enormous wheel. Closer inspection revealed a dense web of docking umbilicals and access gantries crisscrossing the structure’s surface - a bewildering, asymmetrical latticework of corridors and maintenance paths.

  As Robert drew nearer, propelled by the constantly changing formation of picobots surrounding him, the immense scale of the place became even more imposing. The central hub alone eclipsed the largest of the orbital habitats he’d seen, its gunmetal gray exterior broken only by row upon row of featureless airlocks and loading bays. Here and there, lumbering cargo drones trundled across the web of access ways, their running lights blinking in mechanical indifference as they followed their eternal rounds.

  Robert shivered despite the temperature regulators in his suit. There was something unsettling about the warehouse, something that plucked at primordial nerves better left unstirred. Perhaps it was the way it dominated the surrounding space, its bulk dwarfing him from all sides. Or maybe it was the eerie sense of desolation it radiated, as if this gargantuan structure existed in total isolation, cut off from all other points of reference in the universe.

  The picobots angled him toward one of the outer storage rings, aiming for a shadowed alcove tucked between two titanic cylindrical silos. As they neared the designated entry point, Robert could make out a narrow maintenance portal set into the warehouse’s armored hull, little more than a hairline seam a few feet wide. To the naked eye, it would have been all but invisible against the vast metal backdrop.

  He activated his suit thrusters, killing what little inertia he still carried, and allowed the picobots to draw him toward the portal’s edge. Their coordinated fields overlapped and interlocked, forming a shimmering quasi-solid platform that extended outward to merge with the hull’s surface.

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  Up close, the entry hatch proved even smaller than it had appeared, almost not large enough for a human to wriggle through sideways. Dull gray and featureless, it lacked any obvious control surface or method of activation. To Robert’s eyes, it resembled nothing so much as the maw of some vast metallic leviathan awaiting its next meal.

  Robert’s heart rate spiked as the final few meters shrank away, the black void of the entry tunnel yawning open to receive him. He knew the picobots could handle keeping him oxygenated in the confined space, but being encased in solid metal with no easy exit filled him with a deep, atavistic dread.

  Robert forced himself to remain calm. He triple-checked his suit’s seals and life support diagnostics one final time. All systems were operating at peak efficiency, his oxygen reserves sufficient for the task at hand. Still, a tiny voice at the back of his consciousness couldn’t help whispering that it wouldn’t matter how much air he had if the whole thing went wrong.

  “I’m in position,” he subvocalized, more to hear the reassuring thrum of his own voice than anything else. “Picobots are prepped and ready for infiltration on your mark, Ace.”

  There was a pregnant pause before the AI’s measured tones crackled across the comm link. “Copy that, Robert. I have the access codes primed and the warehouse’s security systems are being spoofed as we speak. You’re cleared to proceed with infiltration.”

  Ace’s words were clipped, all business, but Robert could detect the barest undercurrent of something else there. Tension, perhaps. Or maybe a subtle current of worry the ever-unflappable AI would never admit to feeling.

  “You got my back out there, right, buddy?” he asked, the words escaping before he could reconsider them.

  “Always, my friend.” There was the briefest of hesitations, then Ace’s voice took on a rare tone of solemn reassurance. “We’re in this together, to whatever end. I’ll be monitoring you every step of the way.”

  Robert exhaled, feeling some of the tension bleed out of his shoulders. “Right. Okay then, let’s do this.”

  He gave the picobots a silent mental command. As one, they began flowing forward, pulling him into the maw of the entry tunnel. Robert steadfastly kept his eyes fixed dead ahead, refusing to let himself dwell on the ponderous metal jaws closing behind him.

  Robert fought the urge to hold his breath as the picobots flowed him deeper into the lightless maintenance tunnel. The confined space pressed in all around, constricting tighter with every meter as they advanced. He focused on the faint green telltales of his helmet’s heads-up display, watching the motion tracker’s ghostly outline map his progress through the inky void.

  Time slowed to a viscous crawl, each second feeling like an eternity as the picobots negotiated the serpentine tunnel’s twists and turns with agonizing precision. Robert lost all sense of direction, the tunnel’s interminable length folding back in on itself in a diabolical maze of metal corridors. Only the constant stream of data from Ace’s uplink kept him anchored, the AI’s cool efficiency a talisman against the gnawing sense of disorientation creeping in at the edges of his mind.

  At last, after what felt like an age trapped in that nightmarish metallic womb, the tunnel widened. The picobots slowed their advance, allowing Robert to drift ahead and take in his new surroundings with wonder.

  They had emerged into a cavernous central hub, a dizzying spherical expanse large enough to swallow a dozen orbital habitats with room to spare. Curved decks and access ramps crisscrossed the open space in every direction, a dizzying spider web of gantries and work platforms surrounding a central nexus point. Robotic grapple arms and cargo conveyors extended outward in a manner reminiscent of the spokes of some giant industrial wheel, ferrying endless streams of containers and equipment to and from the towering storage cylinders that ringed the outer periphery.

  “Impressive, is it not?”

  Ace’s voice startled Robert from his reverie. The AI’s tone held an unmistakable note of smug satisfaction.

  “Yeah.” Robert swallowed, struggling to find his words. “I’ll say. How the hell did they even build something this massive?”

  “An interesting engineering challenge, to be sure,” Ace said. “Though not an insoluble one, given sufficient resources and industrial capacity. This structure was assembled over the course of several decades using dedicated orbital construction platforms. And plenty of other people’s money.”

  Robert shook his head in grudging admiration, eyeing the dizzying expanse with new appreciation. “Remind me never to piss off whatever corporate overlords are running this money pit.”

  “A prudent policy. Though we suspect your unique talents would prove a valuable asset, should you ever find yourself seeking alternative employment opportunities. Also, do you not think this stunt would anger them?”

  Despite himself, Robert couldn’t help but snort at that. “You can’t resist running those calculations, can you?”

  “It’s a tough habit to break,” Ace said. “But we can ponder your future career prospects later. For now, we should proceed with extracting the transponder modules before the security overrides kick back in.”

  Right on cue, Robert’s HUD came to life, highlighting a series of nav-markers that traced a winding path deeper into the central hub’s tangle of machinery.

  “We’ve plotted the most direct course to your target. But you’ll need to hurry, we can only spoof the internal sensors for so long before the system’s watchdog routines detect the anomaly.”

  Robert flexed his hands, feeling the comforting solidity of his rifle’s grip as the picobots began shifting their formation once more. “Don’t worry, I’m pretty motivated to make this a quick smash-and-grab,” he said under his breath. “Lead the way.”

  With a subtle mental command, the picobots surged forward, whipping Robert along the outlined route in a dizzying flurry of motion. He twisted and banked through the maze of machinery, the blur of passing equipment and infrastructure whipping past in a kaleidoscopic rush of light and shadow.

  Robert navigated through the complex arrangement of machinery, the picobots propelling him ever deeper into the cavernous central hub. His eyes remained locked on the nav-markers highlighting his route, trusting Ace to guide him true while he focused on maintaining his tenuous control over the nanoswarm.

  Up ahead, one of the towering storage cylinders loomed, its armored hull studded with row upon row of identical rectangular hatches. Robert’s HUD pinged a rapid pulse of confirmations as he neared the indicated access point, the picobots already shifting their formation in preparation.

  With deft mental commands, he directed a portion of the swarm to flow into the narrow seam surrounding the targeted hatch. Invisible molecular fields interlocked and overlapped, probing the armored portal’s edges with calculated precision. After a handful of endless heartbeats, nothing happened. With a subtle hiss of equalizing pressure, the hatch slid aside to reveal a cramped anteroom beyond.

  “Nice work,” Ace said as a murmur in Robert’s ear. “We’re tracking multiple racks of transponder modules inside that compartment. You should have everything you need for several ship upgrades.”

  Robert allowed himself a tight smile as he angled toward the newly revealed opening. “Don’t get ahead of yourself. We’re not home free until –”

  The words died in his throat as a looming shadow detached itself from the shade of a nearby gantry. For an endless, sickening moment, Robert’s mind refused to process what he was seeing - the lumbering, inhuman form existed outside the boundaries of rational perception, its very presence an insult to biological naturalism.

  The creature shifted, and the illusion of the unreal shattered like a broken pane of glass.

  It was massive, two and a half meters from crown to heel, if not larger. Its body was almost skeletal in its leanness, the sinewy musculature of its frame twisting and bunching beneath a pale, mottled hide that resembled cracked, sun-scorched stone. As it moved, Robert caught glimpses of taut tendons shifting in obscene patterns beneath that petrified flesh, like some hideous inverse of the human form.

  The creature’s face transfixed him, a wave of primal revulsion crashing through his mind to drown out all other thoughts and impressions. It had no lips to speak of, only a rictus snarl of fanged hatred pulled back in a perpetual leer of malice. Lidless, baleful eyes stared from deep pits of shadow, their oily black depths holding the cold, dispassionate menace of the grave itself.

  Even as his conscious mind reeled, some deep-coded part of Robert’s hindbrain recognized the threat for what it was, a hyper-predator made flesh, an alpha skulker from the darkest, most nightmare-haunted realms of the evolutionary abyss. Every nerve, every synapse screamed the same primal warning as the ancient chemical triggers flooded his body: run, flee, escape at all costs from this consummate engine of hungering destruction.

  Somehow, through the sheerest force of will, he remained motionless, his muscles locked in a rictus of horrified paralysis. Only his eyes moved, wide and staring, as they traced the inexorable advance of the looming monstrosity.

  It moved with maddening slowness, each ponderous footfall sending tremors through the deck plating that reverberated up through Robert’s bones. There was an unsettling sense of inevitability to its measured tread, as if it understood on some primordial level that no prey could ever flee its remorseless, unhurried approach.

  As the thing drew nearer, Robert realized its mouth was moving, twin rows of fangs flexing in what might have been an obscene parody of human speech. The sounds it made existed on the ragged edge of coherence, a rasping, sibilant hiss of vowels and consonants that set his every nerve to jangling.

  “Robert Fannec.” The words coalesced from the unintelligible noise, syllables clawing their way free of the guttural, alien vibrations. “GreenNet.”

  Hearing his own name uttered in that eldritch rasp jolted Robert from his horrified stupor. His fingers spasmed as the stark reality of his situation slammed home with brutal, inescapable finality.

  Whatever this... thing was, it knew who he was. Which meant someone had sent it to kill him, to snuff out his existence as efficiently as swatting a troublesome insect.

  His eyes searched the creature’s impassive mask, seeking some hint of intelligence lurking behind those soulless pits. There was no trace of emotion or indication of higher intelligence. Only the cold, pitiless inevitability of the hunter cornering its prey.

  Robert opened his mouth, half-formed pleas for mercy or vain attempts at negotiation bubbling up from the lizard core of his brain. But no words came; only a dry, inarticulate rasp of panic and despair.

  The creature took another implacable step forward, and another. Robert could smell it now, an acrid reek of alien musk and labored metabolism that clouded the very air with its existential wrongness.

  Somewhere in the back of his mind, a tiny voice whispered that he should run, or fight, or do something, anything, other than stand there paralyzed while oblivion itself bore down upon him. But his body refused to obey, locked in a cyclone of mindless terror, too primal for conscious thought to overcome.

  The thing loomed over him now, a towering pillar of malevolent inevitability. As its shadow fell across Robert’s frozen form, he saw its maw convulse again, jaws working as it uttered some final, guttural proclamation.

  Then its hand lashed out, long fingers tipped with bonelike talons unhinging and extending in a single, fluid motion. The surrounding air shivered and warped, as if its presence had warped the very space it occupied.

  Robert didn’t even have time to blink before those talons closed around his throat through his suit, hauling him off his feet.