Imperial Black Site
"All bulkheads to Level 6—lock them down. Now!"
THUD.
The first impact shook the barricades.
THUD. THUD.
A dent. Another.
Inside the Command Center, the tension was suffocating.
A younger officer—green as hell, barely old enough to grow a proper beard—watched the monitor with wide, horrified eyes. "That's six feet of iron composite," he whispered. "That thing can tank a fucking nuke—"
CRUNCH.
The first layer split. A jagged crack slithered down the reinforced frame like a lightning bolt.
Rinehart rolled her shoulders. "Yeah," she muttered. "Too bad Caspian doesn't give a shit about physics."
Krause shot her a look of pure venom. "Oh, you think this is fucking funny?"
Rinehart tilted her head. "I think it's predictable."
Another hit. This time, the blast doors buckled outward, metal screaming in protest. Something on the other side exhaled—a low, guttural noise that didn't belong to anything human.
The room fell dead silent.
