The armory smells of gun oil, neoprene, and the sharp, metallic tang of fear.
I stand at the central workbench, my hands moving with mechanical precision as I load the heavy, customized magazines of my assault rifle. The weapon is a UN-issue tactical rifle, heavily modified by Morgan’s engineering team. It doesn't fire ley-line infused rounds anymore; the silence-tech used by the mercenaries would neutralize the magic before it left the barrel. Instead, it fires "shatter-rounds"—dense, depleted uranium slugs coated in a hyper-reactive chemical compound designed to disrupt the molecular bonds of programmable matter.
Across the room, Morgan is strapping Kade into a heavy, reinforced deep-sea pressure suit. The suit is a marvel of human engineering, a bulky, articulated exoskeleton of titan
