The Core: The Dark Enemy

35. The price of disobedience

Meditati arrived at the shattered remains of the Solar Citadel just as George was finishing his work—lobotomizing and compressing the last of the shuttles down to one unit. With most of the Skii dead, except for the last anomalous giant, they no longer needed as much living space. That gave him some cr to work with, as long as Nurse lent him part of the modified swarm as protection. Meditati knew he'd get creative. She counted on it.

The giant Skii, however, sat motionless, its massive dark hands covering its head. For all its knowledge of the future, Meditati had hoped it would contribute something. Anything. But Kevin's AIs had gotten nowhere trying to break through to it. It just sat there, its dark skin absorbing everything—their movements, their struggle—without reaction.

Did that mean that it knew Kevin was going to die to the Skism weapons?

The thought nearly made her hesitate as she slid through one of the largest fractures in the hull. If that were true, then the Skii wasn't an ally, it was an enemy agent solely focused on its own benefit and agenda.

Worrisome thoughts.

The Citadel was a wreck. What had once been the pride of the greatest General in Tela history was now exposed to space, torn open and failing.

What was going through the General's mind right now?

More importantly—what had he been planning with all that Gold cr? She had read the legends of his strategic mastery, yet he seemed content to sit back and watch rather than use every option at his disposal. He hadn't even opened dialogue since unleashing his hellish weapon.

Surely, he hadn't intended to release something that would grow forever.

Moving through the vast halls and hangars brimming with the military wealth of the Legendary General, she expected resistance. A battle. At the very least, a skirmish—something that would force her to prove just how superior the swarm was, the thin layer of it wrapped around her cr body.

But nothing came.

Nurse had lent her part of the swarm for this mission, and Meditati had long suspected the alien ant saw further than she let on.

Right now, it felt like Nurse was watching her every thought.

In all fairness, she probably was.

Meditati moved through the Citadel without resistance. That in itself was unsettling. The ship should have been alive with activity—emergency protocols, automated defenses, last-ditch efforts to reclaim control. Instead, it was a corpse of common cr, gutted by the chaos that had unfolded. No alarms blared. No AI soldier bots stood guard. No AI-guided turrets tracked her movement. The only sounds were the distant groans of the ship's failing structure and the faint, rhythmic hum of something deeper inside.

She advanced carefully, her borrowed swarm rippling over her form like living armor. The Citadel had been one of the most fortified constructs in the cosmos—once. Now, it felt abandoned, reduced to nothing more than a husk orbiting its own doom. That alone told her everything she needed to know: Magus wasn't here to win anymore. He was here to escape.

What had happened to make him take this path? It was so... unlike everything she knew about him.

General Magus never gave up.

And then she felt it. A pulse.

It rippled through the Citadel like a heartbeat too large for this reality. It wasn't light, it wasn't sound—but something deeper, a vibration that clung to her senses like honey and static. Meditati could feel it even through the swarm covering her skin. A bath of concentrated power, sweet and burning, like the promise of something impossible.