—The Truth Beneath the Ice
The data chip felt heavier than it should in Shawn's palm as the transport touched down at X-Red Base.
Outside, the storm howled across the landing pads.
Inside, Elder Lee stood behind flickering holoscreens, his posture rigid.
As soon as they entered the command center, Lindsay moved with purpose, her boots echoing across the permacrete floor. She snapped a sharp salute.
"We need to debrief. Immediately."
Shawn followed, his fingers clenched around the data chip. It pulsed faintly with heat.
Termination failed. Asset acquired.
The transmission echoed in his mind like a faultline waiting to crack.
At the center of the room, a holographic map hovered over the briefing table. The glacial basin glowed pale blue, five red markers pulsing across its surface.
Elder Lee stood behind the projection, leaning on his cane, unreadable.
He didn't ask why they were there. Only, "These are the execution sites?"
Lindsay nodded. "Mapped from orbital recon. All five locations show residual Core resonance—but the pattern doesn't match any known configuration."
"You understand what you're suggesting," he said quietly, voice controlled.
Lindsay met his gaze. "The Purge wasn't about containment. They're desecrations—systematic ones. The O.S.S. didn't recover the Cores—they killed the hosts to extract fragments."
Elder Lee was silent for a long moment. Then he looked at Shawn.
"You said you had proof—something that could clear Ranzi's name?"
Shawn nodded once. Wordless, he stepped forward and inserted the data chip into the console.
The lights dimmed slightly as the central display flickered to life. Grainy footage emerged: an overexposed laboratory, its sterile white gleam tinged with a sterile, deathly cold.
A figure convulsed violently on a metal table, restrained by thick straps. Surrounding him were five black-clad operatives, moving with clinical precision. Their faces were obscured, their actions methodical—detached.
The audio crackled, distorted—but the screaming cut through the static like a blade.
The camera shifted. At the edge of the frame, a sixth figure stood in the doorway—unmoving, faceless, watching.
Shawn's voice broke the silence, steady and low.
"They didn't extract full Cores. They shattered them—and took only fragments. These aren't recoveries. They're desecrations."
Lee's grip tightened around his cane. "This changes nothing."
Shawn's Core stirred: "You knew."
Silence.
"I knew the O.S.S. had… extreme measures. I didn't know Ranzi documented them." His tone sharpened. "Revealing this would only fuel chaos."
Lindsay gave a humorless laugh. "Is that what we're calling it now—chaos? Or truth?"
Outside, the wind roared in harmony with the Thunder Core's rising hum. Hail fragments rattled against the windows like echoes of something deeper—of something broken.
The holomap shifted. Five glyphs appeared beside the execution markers:
LAKE | WIND | WATER | FIRE | EARTH.
Lindsay tapped the map. The markers realigned into a star around Ranzi's last known position.
The Thunder Core pulsed violently. Shawn's vision flooded white. For an instant, he saw five glowing fragments—glimpses of the original Cores—trapped beneath the ice, still pulsing with residual life.
"They're not whole," he murmured. "Just pieces. But they're still trying to reach us."
The snowcat churned through deepening drifts. Static blanketed their comms—this wasn't weather. It was jamming.
Lindsay frowned at her scanner. "Energy signatures match the Lake Core fragment… but something's holding it back."
The Thunder Core in Shawn's chest surged. A warning.
He grabbed Lindsay's arm—just as the ice gave way beneath them.
The snowcat plunged into darkness, crashing with bone-rattling force. For a moment, blue fire illuminated the crevasse walls—and what lay below.
Five containment pods, encased in thick frost. Inside each: a body suspended in ritual stillness. Chest cavities hollowed. Faces frozen in anguish, turned outward as if watching.
Not random victims.
Not Dora, Grace, Yong-Myung, Azman, or Lara.
"Execution sites weren't just for termination," Lindsay said, sweeping her light across an O.S.S. seal etched into one pod. "They used the dead as anchors—to bind what fragments remained."
Shawn's Core vibrated violently.
These weren't just graves. They were locks.
Above them, repulsor engines screamed. O.S.S. skimmers crested the ridge.
"Go!"
They dove deeper into the ice as plasma fire tore the surface apart. There—beneath the fractured glacier—was a staircase. Hewn from black stone.
Lindsay wiped frost from her scanner. "This predates the Purge—"
"It's native to the Cores," Shawn said. The Thunder Core hummed in assent.
At the bottom, the ice opened into a chamber.
Five massive pillars rose in a perfect circle, each one inscribed with radiant runes. Energy flowed between them like a living circuit.
At their center, suspended in a lattice of crackling light, was Ranzi—his eyes open. Conscious.
Shawn's gaze snapped to the base of the pillars.
Each one mirrored the containment pod above, as if by design.
Each fed into a core-shaped recess—glowing, pulsing. Fragments buried with the dead now funneled power here, locking the system in place.
"They sabotaged the election," Shawn murmured, realization crashing in. "They knew what would happen if Da get the Central Core."
"Who's they?" Lindsay asked, scanning the shadows.
"The O.S.S.," Ranzi answered, voice taut with strain. "And the ones funding them. They're afraid. Afraid of what happens when all nine Cores reunite. The Rift must open. It's the only way to break the Loop."
The Thunder Core pulsed again. On each pillar, the core-shaped slots began to glow—recognizing resonance.
The energy web constricted. Ranzi gasped. "They're coming. Free the fragments—before—"
A voice cut through the chamber:
"—before you doom us all."
Commander Veyd stepped from behind the Earth pillar, skull implants glowing with neural red.
"You thought we'd let you unleash that much power unchecked?"
Shawn's vision distorted. For a moment, the pillars flickered—showing another layer: five bodies in ice, five radiant fragments pulsing in sync. His Core trembled in recognition.
Lindsay raised her rifle. "You're the ones who doomed this world. Keeping the Rift sealed means the Loop never ends."
Veyd sneered. "Let the five fragments stay buried. The others—"
Ranzi screamed. "Shawn, now!"
No hesitation.
Shawn unleashed the Thunder Core's pulse. The bindings on the Lake pillar shattered. The blast threw Veyd back. Other pillars flared—unstable.
Lindsay fired into the restraints of the mountain pillar. "Keep going!"
Shawn tore free the restraints on the Water slot. Each fragment released fed the Thunder Core—triggering flashes, visions of something vast breaching the veil above.
As the final lock broke, the chamber convulsed.
Ranzi fell. Shawn caught him just before the energy surged upward—five beams piercing the glacier, splitting the sky with an unnatural radiance.
The basin trembled—not collapsing. Awakening.
From Veyd's broken body, Lindsay retrieved a cracked data crystal. Her voice was grim. "Conclave orders. They wanted to trigger the Loop before the eclipse."
Ranzi, barely conscious, clutched Shawn's wrist.
"Then we're out of time. The Central Core… it's the key."