*WARNING: SYSTEM ERROR DETECTED*
Jewels' world collapsed into pure, unrelenting pain. Her neural interface screamed at her, its failsafe protocols triggering in rapid succession.
[Critical Process Overload]
[WARNING: Unauthorized Execution Detected]
[Shutting Down Non-Essential Functions]
Her vision exploded into cascading lines of code, an unfiltered stream of data rewriting itself in her mind. The pain became unbearable.
[run.exe]
The command executed on its own.
Jewels barely had time to process before her consciousness severed.
Her body collapsed like a lifeless doll, arms flailing limply as she crumpled to the floor.
"JEWELS? JEWELS!"
Julio's voice barely registered, distant and muffled, as if it were coming from the other side of a vacuum.
***
Inside Jewels' Mindscape
She stood in nothingness.
There was no ground beneath her feet. No air to breathe. No warmth, no cold.
Jewels didn't remember how she got here. She didn't even remember who she was.
A pulse.
A distant, almost imperceptible pulse rippled through the void. Jewels turned instinctively, though she wasn't sure how she turned. The motion felt both foreign and natural.
The the figure appeared.
It was humanoid, though barely. A floating silhouette, its body composed of writhing, glitching fragments of black light, constantly shifting as though reality itself struggled to contain its existence. Its hand reached forward.
Jewels wanted to move. To fight, flee, scream —anything.
She couldn't.
The figure's hand made contact with her chest.
[ERROR]
[ERROR]
[ERROR]
Jewels shattered.
Red flooded her vision. Code burned itself into her mind, a torrent of unreadable data forcing its way into her neural pathways.
[install——19:110.exe]
The command executed automatically.
Jewels had no choice.
***
Julio's massive boots slammed against the cold metal as he ran through the derelict hallways, carrying Jewels' limp form.
His breathing was ragged. His arms ached.
He hadn't dared to touch that cursed hard drive after what it did to her. But strangely it had vanished. One moment it was there, pulsing with an eerie glow, and the next… nothing. No trace of it remained.
That was bad.
Whatever the hell it was, it hadn't just disappeared, it had gone somewhere.
Julio's neural interface projected an internal timer on the side of his vision. The Mancer drones were expected to warp in soon. He had minutes.
Then Jewels' eyes snapped open.
Julio skidded to a stop, his boots screeching against the steel floor. His massive frame barely avoided crashing into the wall.
"Jewels oh my god! Are you okay?!" His voice came out more desperate than he intended.
Jewels groaned. Her head throbbed, as if someone had forcefully rewritten her entire nervous system. She blinked rapidly, rubbing her temples.
Something was wrong with her vision.
Lines of code flickered in and out of existence as she looked around. Numbers. Variables. Strings of script that seemed to be embedded into everything she laid eyes on. The walls, the floor, even Julio.
"…The fuck?" she mumbled.
"Jewels?" Julio shook her slightly.
She snapped back, shaking the headache away.
"I'm fine," she lied. "Just a freak accident from touching some old-ass tech, I guess."
Julio scowled.
"Freak accident?" He huffed. "When the fuck have we ever seen a glowing hard drive while hunting scrap?"
Jewels stayed quiet.
"They sent us here to find it, didn't they?" Julio spat. "Who the hell knew we'd stumble across some ancient-ass mancer bullshit?"
"Maybe it was just some dude's encrypted porn collection," Jewels muttered dryly.
Julio rolled his eyes.
With no time to argue, the two of them pressed forward, rushing toward the dockyard. The City Ship's metal corridors stretched endlessly, most of the paneling long stripped, leaving only skeletal beams of reinforced steel. Their boots clanged loudly against the metal as they sprinted.
After nearly twenty minutes, they reached the massive airlocked doors leading to the dockyard.
Julio slammed his hand against the control panel. The ancient security system was already bypassed when they arrived, making it easy for the doors to slide open.
Jewels stepped forward.
Then—
BANG.
The sound of metal crashing.
Jewels and Julio spun toward the noise.
A small metal table had been overturned.
A shadow moved.
Something perched on Rusty's windshield.
A nightmare of biology and hunger.
The creature was massive, at least three meters tall. Its red, scythe-like arms gleamed under the dim lighting, each one looking sharp enough to slice through reinforced hull plating.
Its head was grotesque—two bulging, multi-faceted eyes twitched erratically, reflecting fractured light. Its mandibles dripped with viscous fluid, flexing as if already savoring its next meal.
Jewels froze.
Then it moved.
With terrifying ease, the creature drove its head forward, shattering the cockpit glass.
Max and Quint barely had time to react.
The Ripper's mandibles snapped forward, closing around both their heads in a single, monstrous bite.
Blood erupted spraying across the windshield in thick, uneven splashes.
Their bodies convulsed for a brief moment. Then stillness.
The Ripper chewed slowly.
Jewels' blood ran ice cold.
She turned to Julio. He turned to her.
Both had the same thought.
One word left their lips in unison.
"Ripper."
The thing stopped chewing.
The wet, nauseating sound of tearing flesh ceased.
Then,
The wings unfolded.
A horrific, ear-splitting chitter filled the dockyard. The Ripper launched from the wreckage, its massive wings tearing the air apart.
Julio and Jewels didn't need to speak.
They turned and ran.
The only sound behind them,
The ever-growing, encroaching flapping of wings.