CHAPTER 6: The Core

  The wind howled low across the cracked dunes as Kai slipped past the final warning sign. Rusted metal jutted from the ground like the bones of ancient beasts, and the air tasted faintly of iron. The Shatterfield loomed ahead—a collapsed crater riddled with forgotten tech, twisted pylons, and myths strong enough to keep even scavengers away. Kai’s boots crunched over broken glass and charred cables as he moved deeper into the crater's heart.

  “Radiation levels are minimal,” he muttered to himself, glancing down at the small, cobbled-together scanner in his hand. Its flickering green light blinked uncertainly.

  The Shatterfield had long been deemed cursed. Rumor said it was the crash site of an orbital research array from Earth’s last evacuation efforts—tech so advanced and corrupted it had poisoned the land. Others claimed the machines here still whispered at night. Tech didn’t function near the core zone, and people who went in never came back out. But Kai had never been one to listen to stories.

  Something was here. He could feel it.

  He reached the ridge where the crater's inner basin dipped sharply down. A tangled jungle of broken towers, collapsed data satellites, and heaps of scorched synthetic armor stretched across the ruin. Most of it was dead—dead and silent. But his scanner was picking something up. A pulse. Rhythmic, low… like a heartbeat.

  Kai adjusted the frequency wheel and watched the needle twitch violently. "What the hell are you?" he whispered.

  He climbed down the slope, slipping on gravel and catching himself on a corroded support beam. Sparks flew as he brushed a live cable—still humming after decades of decay. His breath caught, but he pressed on, his heart syncing with the pulse.

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  The further he went, the heavier the air became. Static clung to his skin like invisible cobwebs. His hair stood on end, and even the scanner began to act up—flashing symbols it wasn’t programmed to show. Ancient glyphs, shifting and rearranging themselves in patterns he couldn’t understand.

  The pulse drew him toward a collapsed mound of metal, half-swallowed by ash and sand. Something beneath it hummed—deep, layered, like the growl of a sleeping beast.

  Kai dropped to his knees, brushing away soot and debris. Fingers trembling, he uncovered a smooth, obsidian-black surface, warm to the touch and completely intact. The shape was roughly spherical, with etched lines running along its sides—markings that shimmered faintly blue in the shade. It wasn’t broken. It wasn’t damaged. It was waiting.

  His breath caught.

  A gust of wind howled through the open husk of a fallen antenna above, and for a moment, he heard a whisper—not from the wind, but from inside the core. “…connected…”

  Kai leaned in closer. A hairline groove on the surface began to glow, reacting to his proximity. He reached out, hand hovering just above it—

  A sudden crack of static surged through his body like lightning. He cried out, thrown backward several feet. The world spun as the sky bent sideways and blurred into light. He hit the ground hard and didn’t move.

  ---

  The stars whispered above him when he opened his eyes. Darkness had fallen. His limbs ached, and a dull humming echoed in his skull—soft but persistent, like a distant engine idling.

  Kai groaned, rolling to his side. The crater looked different now—darker somehow, more alien.

  The scanner lay in pieces a few feet away, fried beyond recognition. His fingertips were numb, but his eyes locked on the source of the sound.

  The core was glowing.

  Not flickering like a damaged light, but pulsing—slow and alive. The glyphs had fully awakened, flowing like molten lines across its surface. It wasn’t just some old piece of scrap or tech.

  It was like a heart.

  Kai sat up slowly, his mind reeling. The humming inside his head hadn’t faded. If anything, it had grown clearer… more focused.

  He stared at the obsidian orb and whispered again, “What are you?”

  A chill passed through him as the air around the core shifted. Somewhere deep within the pulsing hum, a new tone emerged—a voice, fragmented and broken, but unmistakably human.

  “…connected… again… fragment... secured…”

  Kai’s pulse raced.

  He wasn’t feeling alone anymore.