With a bit of help from Vreta, 595 shrugged off the bulky transit station. Still sliding through the snow on her side with the Rothian keeping pace, she pulled the comms cable out of her back and stood up. The sky immediately above them was alight with plasma fire, but singed x-wings had found their way under the umbrella now and were flying about them.

Gritting her teeth, 595 caught a vampire out of the air as razor claws scraped her armour. She punched another one to the floor, then violently squeezed the creature she had in her hand. It disappeared in a flash, with a small cloud of ash floating out from between her fingers.

Bright blue accents appeared on the Agent’s armour, and jagged arcs of energy crackled around her. She pushed her arms out to either side of her, and chain lightning erupted through the swarm of predators, connecting all of them like leaves of a giant fiery tree. Hundreds thumped to the floor straight away, and the others screeched and rolled about them, confused.

“Lets go!” 595 bellowed, as the whole mountain shivered and vibrated under their feet. The rig dropped out of sight - was the cube staying still or rising up? - and a great shower of stone burst from the side of the peak off to their left. 

The head of a giant worm, similar to the one who had greeted them into the simulation last time, poked out of the mountain. It was followed by more of its body, like a train emerging from a tunnel and off a cliff. Its beady front-facing eyes were fixed on the flickering lights of the rig. A continuous stream of light spat from somewhere below them, from the rig’s turret. It splayed across the worm’s face, narrowly missing its eyes.

[hr]”I need to reconnect with the Rübezahl! You won’t have the last minute, and that could be the key! Swap with me!” Freyr shouted over the crescendo of alarms blaring in the bridge now. She locked the steering controls in place then jumped up, moving back to the command console. “Power at 5%, anti-grav failing!” Dr Zimmermann reported, having transitioned from the code lab to the power plant. “Don’t let us spin!” Freyr urged Nirann. “Everyone else out, get clear!” Activating her mag-boots, Freyr keyed in her command override, trying to find the loose groundmast in the tumbling slurry of rocks around them.