Frostclaw Vale didn't sleep that night.
The tribe's hunters returned from the outer glaciers with news no one wanted to hear the Kote were gathering in mass, building something in the ice canyons. Smoke pillars twisted against the aurora. The wolves called it a Rendmark a scar in the land where corruption festers.
Lyra's voice was low, grim. "They dig into the bones of the world. The more they take, the more they multiply."
I stared into the flames of the central hearth, still feeling the faint pulse of Aether beneath my skin. "They're mining corruption. Like a virus eating its own cure."
Eva's sphere floated beside me, her light dimmed to a soft pulse. "Energy scans confirm contamination spreading through subglacial caverns. Estimated population: over one hundred Kote. Recommend immediate relocation of noncombatants."
Lyra shook her head. "We do not run. Frostclaws have held this vale since before the moon cracked."
I looked up. "Then we make them regret climbing it."
By morning, the vale was alive with movement. The Frostclaws fortified the ridges with jagged Aether crystals that hummed like deep throats singing in harmony. Spears were gathered shields inscribed with runes glowing faintly in the mist.
I moved among them, checking ammo levels, scanning fields of fire. Old instincts came back. Ground this open needed choke points, elevation, overlapping defense.
Lyra watched me work. "You build walls with your eyes," she said.
"Habit," I replied. "War never changes. Just the shape of the enemy."
She smiled faintly. "Or the shape of the ally."
I wasn't sure if that was teasing or truth.
At dusk, the horizon bled orange. Then it came, a low tremor in the ground, followed by a howl that didn't belong to any living creature.
The Kote surged from the shadows, hundreds this time, their bodies glowing with sickly light. Some were massive, their limbs fused with metal and bone.
Eva's voice was steady, cold. "Commander, anomaly detected. They are channeling Aether. Artificially."
"Copy. Identify the channels."
The first explosions tore through the canyon as Frostclaws unleashed volleys of crystal-tipped javelins. The sky lit up blue-white. I fired into the mass, each shot cracking through the night, but it was like shooting into a tide.
A monstrous Kote broke through, easily ten feet tall, half-machine, its arm a crude cannon that belched black fire. Lyra lunged, deflecting a blast that shattered her shield.
I dove, landing hard, my prosthetic arm locking onto the creature. "Eva link arm!"
The world narrowed to light. My vision inverted, I wasn't just seeing Aether anymore; I was inside it. Lines of energy wrapped the battlefield like veins. I could see every pulse, every beat of corruption.
And then I understood.
The Kote weren't just mutants. They were infected by Aether itself, corrupted data in the code of life.
I clenched my fist. The ground beneath the giant cracked. Blue frost fire surged upward, swallowing it whole in an instant.
The Frostclaws roared, taking the opening. The ridge became a storm of crystal and light.
Hours later, the battle was over. The snow was red and blue and black.
Lyra knelt beside the fallen, her fur matted with blood and ash. "Half of us stand," she said quietly. "Half… do not."
I nodded, my voice low. "The Frostclaw held... Your people held strong."
Eva's orb hovered closer. "Commander, I detected a pulse of Aether matching your neural resonance during the battle. It propagated across the entire valley. The Frostclaws responded instinctively, as if guided."
I blinked. "Are you saying I... synced with them?"
"Unintentionally. Your emotional output created a localized Aether command pattern."
Lyra looked at me, eyes gleaming faintly in the fading light. "You led their souls in battle, Skybrand... You touched upon our gift, Pack Mentality..."
I stared into the snow. "I didn't mean to."
"Intent is the voice of the heart," she said softly. "The Aether listens."
Later, as silence reclaimed the vale, I stood on the ridge watching the aurora ripple overhead.
Eva spoke quietly. "Commander... the Kote's corruption matches data fragments from the Aegis Ark's logs. Their mutation may be a result of failed exposure to experimental drives remnants of human alteration."
My blood went cold. "You're saying they were... us."
"Possibly. The evidence suggests genetic divergence spanning millennia."
I stared into the dark horizon, the light of the aurora flickering like dying code.
If she was right, then the monsters we were killing weren't aliens.
They were descendants...
But how? I racked my brain trying to piece together anything. "Eva... The elder said another Ship crashed to the south right?"
"According to the elder approximately one thousand years ago"
"Eva... The Aegis had an escourt ship, Dreadnought class correct?" I asked though I knew already, our guide or chaperon to the launch point of the Rift emitter.
"correct commander... We were escorted by the Anthem a Dreadnought class gunship..." she paused as if organizing her thoughts.
"when the Rift Emitter activated they should have been out of range... However the energy discharge when it activated... Well everything went down so I cannot say as the sensors weren't functioning"
I sat there, processing what she said and putting things together in my head. "Eva
... If they were in range of the activation they would arrive in the same place as the aegis..
But a thousand years...."
"correct the Rift was designed to fold space between two points... Theoretically we should have arrived at the same time"