As soon as Noah said those words, the tech crew around him all looked at him like he'd uttered something forbidden. Harbingers? In space of all places.

Not that that was rare or anything. In fact, according to reports, one was more likely to encounter one off planet. Earth got attacked occasionally but mostly EDF installments, not locals. Take out the soldiers before the civilians who pose no threats. Harbingers weren't stupid. They were galactic conquerors for a reason.

But the main reason why harbingers in space were scary was because it was space. On earth, people would run to shelters and seek cover while the EDF handled it. Hence why EDF were respected.

Out here? There was nowhere to run.

Angel burst onto the bridge, moving past crew members with the kind of haste that came from years in Ark Division. She stopped at the main viewport, and Noah watched her face go completely still.

Ten black pods, growing larger by the second, closing the distance with velocity that shouldn't be possible for objects that size. They moved in formation, were coordinated and deliberate.

The vein in Angel's neck stood out as she spun toward the communications officer. "HARBINGERS! All security personnel to defensive positions NOW! Get the governor to the panic room! MOVE!"

The bridge erupted into controlled chaos. Crew members running to stations, systems coming online, weapons being armed. Angel was already on the comm system, her voice cutting through every speaker on the ship.

"This is Chief Angel. We have confirmed hostile contact. Multiple Harbinger signatures approaching at high velocity. This is not a drill. All combat personnel, prepare for boarding action. All non-essential personnel, seal yourselves in the nearest secure compartment and do NOT open the doors for anything."

She turned to Noah, Sophie, and Lila who had all made it there. "You three, with me. We're going to have breaches, and I need bodies that can actually fight these things."

Noah nodded. Sophie's hands went to her plasma blade hilts. Lila's eyes had already gone sharp, calculating, objects around the bridge starting to vibrate slightly as her telekinesis activated.

Through the viewport, the pods were close enough now that Noah could make out details. They weren't elegant. Just black metal shells designed for one purpose, getting their contents from point A to point B through the vacuum of space.

The first pod reached the Peregrine's outer hull. But it didn't impact. Instead, the front section split open like a flower made of razors, and something stepped out onto the surface of the pod.

Eight feet tall. Proportions all wrong. Three horns curving from its skull. It crouched on the pod's surface, looked at the ship, and then it jumped.

The force of its leap sent the pod careening backward into space, tumbling end over end. The Harbinger covered maybe fifty meters in a single bound and slammed into the Peregrine's hull with enough impact to make the entire ship shudder.

Then it started punching.

Metal shrieked under the assault. The first hit created a visible dent. The second opened a crack. The third, fourth, fifth, the Harbinger's fists were blurs of motion, each impact sending vibrations through the ship's frame.

More pods opened. More Harbingers launched themselves. They hit the hull in different sections, and immediately began the same brutal assault, pounding through reinforced plating designed to withstand micrometeorite impacts and weapons fire.

"Hull breaches imminent in sections C-7, D-3, and F-9," someone called out from the sensor station. "They're punching through!"

"Emergency force fields active in all sections," another crew member responded. "Atmospheric containment holding."

Angel was moving before the announcements finished. "Eclipse, section C-7 is closest. You take that one. I'll coordinate security teams for the other breaches."

They ran.

The corridors of the Peregrine blurred past as Noah ran past with his enhanced speed. Behind him, Sophie and Lila tried to keep pace but ultimately failed.

Emergency lighting had activated, bathing everything in red. Crew members pressed themselves against walls as the three of them passed, heading toward the sound of metal being torn apart.

[NEW QUEST RECEIVED]

[PROTECT THE HEAD]

[REWARD: +50 STATS TO BE DISTRIBUTED FREELY]

Noah's system interface appeared in his vision for just a moment before he dismissed it. He could worry about rewards later. Right now, there were Harbingers trying to get inside.

They reached section C-7 just as the metal gave way. The wall simply peeled back, torn open by raw strength, and a Harbinger dropped through into the corridor.

Three crew members were in its path. One of them, a young woman who had recently made it out of academy training but had landed a job with the governor through her connections started to raise her blaster. The Harbinger moved. Its hand came down on her shoulder, and there was a wet crunch as her collarbone shattered. She hit the floor screaming.

The second crew member managed to fire. The blast caught the Harbinger in the chest, scorching its grey skin. It looked down at the injury with what might have been curiosity, then its tail whipped out and took the man's legs out from under him. He fell hard.

The third crew member just ran.

Noah was already moving. His body blurred as he closed the distance, dropping into a knee slide that carried him under a piece of torn metal floating in the reduced gravity near the breach. Excaliburn materialized in his right hand, void energy crackling along its edge. His left hand folded into a gun shape, fingers pointed at the Harbinger's head.

[VOID BARRAGE ACTIVATED]

His hand jerked back from the recoil as dark purple projectiles erupted from his fingertips. Five shots. Five holes that appeared in the Harbinger's skull, void energy eating away at the edges, leaving nothing but emptiness.

The creature's eyes went wide. Its mouth opened. Then its head just came apart, sections falling away as the void consumed tissue and bone. The body collapsed, twitching.

Noah came out of his slide in a combat stance. "Two more breaches. Sophie, take Lila and head to D-3. I'll handle F-9."

"Alone?" Sophie's tone carried concern.

"I'll be fine."

Another impact shook the ship. Somewhere distant, metal screamed.

"Go!"

Sophie and Lila took off down the corridor. Noah went the opposite direction, following the sounds of destruction. His comm crackled.

"Multiple breaches confirmed. They're inside. Security teams engaging." Angel's voice was clipped, professional. "Eclipse lead, what's your status?"

"One down in C-7. Heading to F-9."

"Copy. Be advised, we're tracking at least eight hostiles inside the ship now."

Noah turned a corner and found exactly what he expected. Two Harbingers, both two-horns, standing over the bodies of four security personnel. The creatures were examining the weapons scattered on the floor, picking them up with surprising delicacy.

They looked up as Noah approached.

The first one smiled. It opened its mouth to speak.

Noah blinked. Reality folded around him, and suddenly he was behind both creatures. Excaliburn carved through the first Harbinger's neck before its brain could process that he'd moved. The void edge didn't just cut, it erased. The head toppled, void energy spreading from the wound like black fire.

The second Harbinger spun, faster than it should have been able to move. Its fist came around in a hook that would have caved in Noah's ribs. He stepped inside the blow, too close for the punch to have power, and drove his foot down on the creature's knee. Something cracked. The Harbinger stumbled.

Noah's blade took its head. Two bodies hit the floor.

[HARBINGER ELIMINATED]

[HARBINGER ELIMINATED]

The notifications appeared and vanished. Noah kept moving.

Section F-9 was chaos. Three Harbingers had breached simultaneously, and they were tearing through everything. Emergency force fields flickered at the breach points, containing atmosphere but doing nothing to stop the creatures from moving deeper into the ship.

Noah found the first one trying to pry open a sealed door. Crew members were probably huddled on the other side, listening to claws scraping against metal.

His approach wasn't quiet. The Harbinger heard him coming and turned, abandoning the door in favor of this new threat. It charged, covering the distance between them in two massive strides.

Noah met it head on. His fist, cocked back, he threw it with out care and it slammed into the Harbinger's jaw. The impact created a shockwave that rattled nearby panels. The creature's head snapped sideways, but it recovered instantly, its own fist coming around in a counter.

Noah blinked backward six feet. The Harbinger's punch hit empty air. Before it could adjust, Noah was moving again, this time coming in low. Excaliburn carved through both the creature's legs in a single horizontal slash.

It fell. Noah's boot came down on its neck, and his blade followed, erasing the head from existence.

The second Harbinger hit him from behind.

[-15 HP]

Noah felt the impact, felt himself being driven forward, slamming into the corridor wall hard enough to crack the reinforced material. His ribs protested, but his enhanced vitality meant nothing actually broke.

He spun, blade coming up. The Harbinger was right there, inside his guard, too close. Its hand caught his sword arm at the wrist. Not the blade, not making the fatal mistake of touching void energy, but stopping him from bringing it to bear.

They were face to face. The Harbinger's breath smelled like a garbage truck.

Noah headbutted it. His forehead met the creature's face and bounced back. But the Harbinger's grip loosened just enough. Noah twisted his arm free and activated Phase Step.

His body phased out of sync with normal matter. The Harbinger's follow-up strike passed through him like he was smoke. Noah materialized behind it and drove Excaliburn through the back of its skull.

Void energy spread. The Harbinger went still, then collapsed.

The third one was already running. It had seen three of its kind die in under a minute, and whatever intelligence governed its actions had decided retreat was the better option which was the first time in Noah had seen that happen.

Noah let it go. He wasn't chasing through the ship when there were more breaches happening.

His comm crackled again. "Noah, where are you?" Sophie's voice came through strained. "D-3 is turning into a problem."

"On my way."

He found them in a cargo bay that had been converted into a makeshift battlefield. Sophie was bleeding from a cut above her eye, both plasma blades ignited and moving in defensive patterns. Lila stood behind her, surrounded by floating debris, cargo containers, and pieces of torn metal, all held in her telekinetic grip.

Two Harbingers circled them, moving with the coordination of pack hunters.

Noah blinked into the space between Sophie and the nearest Harbinger. His appearance broke the creature's focus for just a second, long enough for Sophie to dart in, her blade carving a burning line across its chest.

The Harbinger roared and swung at her. Sophie ducked under the blow, her enhanced flexibility and combat instincts reading the attack before it fully developed. But the second Harbinger was moving to flank her, and she couldn't dodge both.

A gas vent in the wall suddenly exploded. Superheated steam erupted directly into the flanking Harbinger's face. It stumbled backward, claws going to its eyes, screaming.

Sophie didn't question the luck. Her blade came around in a diagonal slash that took the blinded creature's head.

Noah was already engaging the other one. It tried to back away, tried to create distance, but Lila's telekinesis caught it. The Harbinger's movements slowed, like it was pushing through water. Noah could see the strain on Lila's face as she held it, could see her nose starting to bleed from the effort.

Even slowed, the Harbinger was strong. It pushed forward, inch by inch, fighting against invisible force.

Noah ended it with a thrust through its chest. Void energy spread from the wound, and the creature's struggles ceased.

"How many more?" Sophie asked, breathing hard.

"I count five eliminated between us," Noah replied. "Angel said eight got inside."

"Then there's three left."

KABOOM!!!

An explosion rocked the ship. Not from weapons, from something structural failing. The lights flickered.

Angel's voice came over the comms, and for the first time, Noah heard genuine alarm in it. "Engineering section critical. They've damaged the primary engines. We're losing thrust."

"Can we maintain orbit?" Noah asked.

"What orbit? We're in the middle of nowhere!" The pilot's voice cut in, panicked. "We barely detected that planet in time, and now we're being pulled toward it. Without engines, we can't compensate!"

'Planet? What planet?' Noah wanted to ask but another worrying thought took precedence.

Noah's mind raced. "Angel, where's the governor?"

"Secure in the panic room. Two of my security team with him" she responded.

"Ma'am , if we don't get those engines back online, we're going down." The pilot said.

"Then we go down controlled," Angel's voice came back, hard and decisive. "Pilot, plot an emergency landing trajectory. Get us to the surface in one piece. Engineering, I need damage assessment now. Eclipse team, hunt down the remaining Harbingers before they do more damage."

Noah, Sophie, and Lila regrouped in the corridor. "We split up, we cover more ground," Noah said.

"Or we stick together and don't die," Lila countered.

"She's right," Sophie said. "These things are dangerous. Even you almost got caught by one."

Noah wanted to argue, but another shudder ran through the ship. They were definitely losing altitude now, being dragged toward the planet's gravity well.

"Fine. Together. Let's move."

They found the sixth Harbinger trying to break into the panic room where Governor Sebastian was secured. It was pounding against the reinforced door, each impact creating visible dents in metal designed to withstand explosive breaches.

The creature heard them coming and turned. This one didn't smile. Didn't posture. It just charged.

Lila's telekinesis caught pieces of debris, hurling them at the Harbinger like bullets. Most bounced off its natural armor. One piece of jagged metal caught it in the shoulder, embedding deep.

The Harbinger didn't slow down. Sophie moved to intercept, both blades coming up in a cross guard. The Harbinger's fist slammed into her defense, and even with her suit enhanced strength and the plasma blades absorbing some of the impact, she was driven backward, boots sliding across the deck.

Noah came in from the side. His blade took the Harbinger's arm off at the elbow. The limb fell, void energy spreading from the stump. The creature howled and spun, its remaining hand catching Noah across the chest and sending him tumbling.

[-10 HP]

Lila activated her time manipulation. The air around the Harbinger shimmered, and its movements became sluggish. Sophie didn't waste the opening. She came up running with both blades driving into the creature's chest, crossing in an X pattern. The Harbinger collapsed forward, and Noah's blade took its head from behind.

Seven down.

"Two more," Noah said, getting to his feet. His chest ached where the Harbinger had hit him, but nothing was broken.

They found the seventh trying to sabotage the ship's navigation systems. It had torn open a panel and was methodically destroying components with its claws.

Noah killed it before it even knew they were there. One blink, one slash, one less problem.

The eighth Harbinger was waiting for them in the main corridor leading back to the bridge. It stood in the center of the passage, perfectly still, watching them approach.

This one was different. The way it held itself, the intelligence in its eyes. This one had been learning, watching how they fought, adapting.

"That one's smarter," Lila said quietly.

"Doesn't matter," Noah replied. "It dies the same way."

They engaged simultaneously. Sophie went low, Lila provided covering fire with projectiles, Noah blinked behind for the killing stroke. Standard tactics that had worked seven times already.

The Harbinger was ready. It ducked Sophie's strike, batted away Lila's projectiles with its tail, and when Noah appeared behind it, the creature was already spinning, its elbow catching him in the ribs with brutal precision.

Noah's breath left him in a rush. He blinked away before the follow-up could land, appearing ten feet back, Excaliburn raised defensively.

The Harbinger pressed the advantage. It came at Sophie, who barely got her blades up in time. The force of the blow drove her to one knee. It was clear as day that Eclipse's beast suits were working over time.

Its tail whipped around, trying to take her head off. She rolled under it, came up slashing, but the creature had already moved.

Lila's telekinesis caught it mid-stride. The Harbinger stumbled, momentum arrested by invisible force, and Noah saw his opening. He didn't blink this time. He charged, covering the distance in three massive strides, and Excaliburn carved through the Harbinger's neck in a single, clean strike.

The head hit the floor. The body followed.

Eight Harbingers. All dead.

Noah, Sophie, and Lila stood in the corridor, breathing hard, covered in blood that wasn't entirely their own.

The ship shuddered again, this time more violently. The deck tilted beneath their feet.

"Bridge to all personnel," the pilot's voice came over the comms. "Brace for emergency landing. Thirty seconds to impact."

They ran.

The bridge was chaos when they arrived. Crew members strapped into crash seats, holding on as the ship's descent became uncontrolled. Through the viewport, Noah could see the planet's surface rushing up to meet them.

A strange spiral crater formation was visible even from this altitude.

"Strap in NOW!" Angel shouted, already secured in her seat beside the governor's empty chair. Sebastian was still in the panic room, probably safer there than here.

Noah found a seat, the harness snapping shut automatically. Sophie and Lila did the same.

THROOOMMMMMMM

The impact was brutal. The ship hit the planet's surface with enough force to crack teeth. Metal screamed. Systems failed. Emergency lights flickered and died. The whole vessel skidded across alien terrain for what felt like forever before finally coming to rest at an angle that left everyone hanging in their harnesses.

There was silence for a while which was eventually broken only by the sound of damaged systems trying to reboot.

Noah released his harness and dropped to what was now the floor. Around him, crew members were doing the same, checking for injuries, calling out to each other.

"Sound off," Angel commanded. "I need status reports. Engineering, what's our situation?"

The engineering officer's voice came back shaky. "Main engines are completely fried. The secondary systems barely survived the landing. Life support is functional but running on backup power. We're not flying out of here anytime soon."

"Communications?"

A pause. Then, "Ma'am, comms are completely dead. I don't know if it's from the damage or something else, but we're not transmitting or receiving anything."

Sophie pulled herself up, wincing from what looked like bruised ribs. "Something else?"

"This planet," the communications officer said. "There's some kind of interference. Natural phenomenon, maybe. But our quantum-entangled systems that the governor kept bragging about? They're useless. We're in a dead zone."

Noah moved to the viewport, looking out at the alien landscape. The crater formation was clearer now, massive stone spirals rising toward the sky. Beautiful and wrong in equal measure.

"We've got bigger problems," Noah said, his voice cutting through the crew's conversations.

Everyone looked at him.

"Those two-horns we killed," he continued, still staring out at the crater. "They didn't come here by themselves. They were deployed from those pods for a reason. And I'm willing to bet the impact alone didn't kill whatever else might be out there."

Silence fell across the bridge as the implications sank in.

They were stranded on an uncharted planet with no communications, a damaged ship, and the very real possibility that more Harbingers were somewhere in the vicinity.

Angel's hand went to her sidearm, and her voice became steady showing she'd probably fought through worse and survived. "Then we dig in and prepare. Because whatever's out there, it's going to find us eventually."

Noah kept staring at the crater, at the strange patterns in the rock that didn't look quite natural. His system interface flickered in his vision, and new text appeared.

[QUEST UPDATED: PROTECT THE HEAD]

[NEW OBJECTIVE: SURVIVE]

'Yeah. That sounded about right,'

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