I appreciated the system's honesty. Really. First time the SYSTEM INTERFACE had spoken to me in three days and it opened with you will absolutely die if you fight this thing. Very helpful. Very encouraging. Exactly the kind of motivational speech a man liked to hear when standing fifty meters from something that shouldn't exist.
Mera appeared beside me, breathing hard, her stepping discs flickering in and out of existence with the kind of instability that said she'd burned through reserves she didn't have to burn. She'd portaled from wherever the hell she'd been to campus in what had to be less than three minutes. The transit had cost her more than she was showing. One of her horns was dull. Not glowing. Not even faintly luminous. Just dark.
That was a bad sign.
