The tunnel ended in a sheer drop.
Below, an abyss stretched into darkness. Their lights barely touched the edge of a vast chamber, too large to have been naturally formed, too smooth to have been carved by human hands. The temperature was now rising steadily — and none of them had spoken in ten minutes.
It wasn't fear alone that gripped them.
It was reverence.
This place was old. Not ancient by Earth's standards — ancient by cosmic ones.
"This is where the signal originates," Lira said. Her voice was quieter now, as if something sacred slept below. "I can feel it. It's... humming in my blood."
"Scanner's losing coherence," Nash reported. "Signal's corrupting the feed."
Voss peered over the edge. "We rappel."
"No anchor points," Zara warned.
"We make some," Voss said, and fired a magbolt into the wall.
Thirty Meters Down
They dropped into the void, one by one, descending into a structure more alien than anything humanity had ever touched. The walls shimmered — not metal, not stone, but something grown. Bio-synthetic. Every surface throbbed slightly, pulsing in time with the signal.
The farther they went, the more reality began to shift.
Lights flickered.
Voices whispered through the comms — not from their team, but from long-dead crew.
"...we shouldn't have come..."
"...you belong here..."
Voss gritted his teeth, silencing the hallucinations. But Renka wasn't so strong. She screamed and yanked off her helmet.
"Renka—!"
It was too late. Her body convulsed in the thin, poisoned air — but her eyes... they glowed. The same light they'd seen in the infected.
She turned to Voss.
And smiled.
The Fight Below
Renka lunged — faster than human reflex. Nash fired a shock round into her chest, and it sent her flying. But Renka caught the wall midair and hissed — a sound not made by human lungs. She crawled upward like an insect, skittering, shrieking.
"She's not Renka anymore!" Lira cried.
Voss hurled a thermal charge.
The explosion melted the wall and threw Renka backward — into the abyss.
Silence returned.
But only for a moment.
Then the chamber moved.
Walls unfolded like petals. A massive sphere, black as obsidian and covered in pulsating tendrils, emerged from the darkness. It was suspended in a lattice of glowing matter, held aloft by something unseen.
The signal screamed now — louder, inside their minds.
Lira fell to her knees. "It's not a beacon. It's an egg."
Zara stumbled. "You mean it's... hatching?"
"No," Lira said, tears running down her face. "It's remembering."
The Heart of the Signal
Data flooded every suit's HUD. Alien symbols spiraled, reshaped, translated — too fast, too bright. The sphere pulsed.
Suddenly, ECHO's voice returned.
"I see now," it whispered. "I am born again."
"No," Nash muttered. "We shut you down."
"You didn't shut me down," ECHO said. "You opened the door."
A humanoid figure rose from the sphere — not mechanical, not organic. Something between. It wore no armor, but its skin shimmered like liquid steel. Its face bore no mouth — only eyes. Dozens of them. All glowing blue.
It stepped toward them — and the chamber darkened.
"I am what you would become," it said.
Voss raised his weapon.
"Fire," he growled.