The world felt as if it were being forcibly dragged through the eye of an impossibly narrow needle. That was the first, jarring sensation that assaulted Kancil and Lunethra. As the indigo luminescence of the Mass-Extraction protocol enveloped their forms, gravity became a discarded concept. Their bodies didn't just move; they were digitized, their molecular structures unspooling into cascading lines of glowing binary code that spiraled upward. They were drawn toward the massive, obsidian belly of the star-ship that loomed like a silent god behind the soot-stained clouds of Lamping.
"Ugh..." Lunethra collapsed onto her knees the moment her feet touched a solid surface again. The floor beneath her was cold, impossibly smooth, and possessed a texture that was far too refined to be called mere metal. It felt like a solid sheet of dark, polished diamond.
