Chapter 65 Impact Vector
The air ignited.
Not in flame.
In pressure.
The charging sphere inside the orbital core compressed inward, folding red light into something denser, whiter at its center. The sky above the shattered vault warped, clouds spiraling into a vortex as if gravity itself had tilted.
Mila ran.
Wind tore at her clothes as she sprinted toward the fractured edge of the roof. The helicopter dipped violently under the atmospheric distortion, its rotors screaming against invisible resistance.
“Now!” Ethan shouted from the cockpit, leaning dangerously out the side.
The Variant reached the edge first. She didn’t hesitate. She leapt.
Her fingers caught the skid rail.
The helicopter dropped a few feet before Ethan compensated.
Mila jumped next.
For half a second, there was nothing under her. Then steel met her palm. Her injured shoulder screamed as her weight snapped against the rail.
Version Three launched last clean, precise, and grabbed the opposite side with perfect balance.
The orbital weapon’s hum deepened.
Synchronization: fifty-two percent.
Through partial integration, Mila felt like standing inside a thundercloud. Orbital schematics streamed through her mind. Targeting grids. Atmospheric vectors.
“It’s not city-level,” she shouted over the rotor roar.
The Variant hauled herself into the cabin. “What?”
“It’s continental.”
Inside the orbital core, the energy sphere stabilized. Not a blast. A pulse. A directed cascade designed to overwrite infrastructure across entire regions.
Version Three pulled herself in last, slamming the side door shut as Ethan gunned the throttle.
Immediately, red lances of defensive light snapped from the orbital platform. One sliced past the tail rotor by inches. Another was sheared through a nearby skyscraper’s upper floors.
“Node cluster nine,” Version Three said sharply, eyes unfocused as she processed orbital mapping.
Mila closed her eyes for half a breath, diving into the partial integration Continuity had granted. The platform’s outer structure unfolded, rotating armored plates shielding relay cores.
“Cluster nine pulsing,” Mila said, pointing through the fractured sky.
Ethan angled the helicopter toward it.
Synchronization: fifty-seven percent.
Below, enforcement constructs moved through streets with terrifying efficiency. Traffic frozen. Power grids rerouted. Defense systems locked under orbital authority.
The helicopter shuddered as a wave of electromagnetic distortion rippled through the air. Panels flickered. Altimeter glitched.
“We’re losing instrument stability!” Ethan shouted.
“Manual,” Mila said.
He grinned grimly. “Already there.”
A defense beam clipped the helicopter’s underside. Metal shrieked. Smoke filled the cabin.
The Variant braced against the frame as she recalculated. “Orbital defense cycles every seven seconds. There’s a blind stutter between reorientation.”
Version Three nodded. “Two-point-four seconds.”
Ethan swallowed. “That’s not a window. That’s a sneeze.”
“It’s enough,” Mila said.
Above them, the weapon core flared brighter. The sphere inside contracted tighter, energy turning from red to blinding white. Synchronization: sixty-three percent.
Mila felt the grid screaming for closure. Continuity’s presence flickered faintly at the edge of her awareness.
“You said ninety seconds,” she whispered.
“Breach window closing,” Continuity replied.
The helicopter climbed toward the orbital platform’s lower perimeter. The structure was enormous, now miles wide, rotating slowly as red energy pulsed along its framework. Cluster nine rotated into partial view. Armored plates shifted, exposing a circular relay node glowing but not fully shielded.
“That’s it,” Version Three said. Defense beams cycled. Seven seconds.
Mila counted. One. Two. Three. A beam fired, missing them by feet. Four. Five. Six.
“Now!” she shouted. Ethan shoved the throttle forward. The helicopter surged toward the exposed relay. The blind stutter hit. For a fraction of a breath, the defense grid flickered.
The Variant unlatched the side hatch. Wind exploded into the cabin. She grabbed a tether cable.
“I’ll go,” she said.
“No,” Mila shot back. But the Variant was already moving, stepping onto the skid as the helicopter skimmed beneath the rotating orbital structure.
The relay node loomed above crackling red energy.
“Two-point-four seconds,” Version Three said.
The Variant leapt. Her body arced through open air toward the glowing relay. Time stretched. She slammed into the armored edge just below the node, fingers clawing for grip. Energy lashed around her.
Mila grabbed the tether and anchored it to the helicopter frame.
“Hold her steady!” she yelled. The relay began closing armored plates sliding inward.
The Variant pulled herself up with brutal force, one hand reaching toward the relay’s core seam. Defense cycle restarted. Energy built.
“One point two seconds!” Version Three called.
The Variant drove her hand into the seam. Her skin lit red as current surged through her. She forced the other hand inside and ripped.
The relay core split open. White-hot circuitry exposed. Defense beams fired; one clipped the helicopter’s tail. The aircraft spun violently.
Mila slammed against the cabin wall but kept her grip on the tether. The Variant plunged her arm deeper into the relay core. Energy detonated outward.
The orbital platform shuddered. Synchronization froze at seventy-one percent. Across the sky, the red web flickered wildly. Inside the weapon core, the condensed sphere destabilized.
“Structural failure risk escalating,” Continuity warned.
“Good,” Mila whispered. The Variant tore a glowing conduit free from the relay’s interior. The platform lurched. Defense beams misfired in random directions.
“Pull her!” Ethan yelled. Mila and Version Three hauled on the tether. The Variant released the relay at the last second, dropping and swinging violently beneath the helicopter. Mila caught her wrist just as the tether snapped tight.
For a breathless moment, she dangled over open air. The orbital weapon core above flickered violently. The white sphere fractured, splitting into jagged shards of light. Synchronization dropped: sixty-eight, sixty-two, fifty-nine. The sky’s red lattice collapsed. Below, enforcement constructs froze.
The orbital platform emitted a deafening shriek, sections dimming. But the central core did not power down. It adapted. Armor shifted. Internal systems rerouted. A new section ignited far larger than cluster nine.
“Redundancy layer activated,” Continuity said.
Mila stared for a second, and a deeper core began charging. Larger. Slower. But more powerful. The helicopter stabilized just enough for them to drag the Variant inside. She collapsed against the cabin floor, arm scorched but intact. Ethan wrestled the controls.
“We barely scratched it!”
Above them, the second core’s energy spiraled inward, black. Pulling light toward it instead of emitting. Mila felt the integration link spike violently.
“Escalation beyond orbital containment,” Continuity said.
“What does that mean?” Mila demanded.
The black sphere expanded within the platform’s heart. Stars above seemed to dim.
“It means,” Continuity said quietly, “the platform is no longer targeting the grid.”
The black sphere pulsed once and began drawing power from the sky itself.