Rain still echoed beyond the mouth of the cave, distant now — a muffled rhythm against jagged stone. Rael sat with his back to the wall, helmet resting beside him, body still encased in his powered combat armor. He exhaled slowly, steam rising from the vent ports near his collar.
His plasma rifle rested across his lap. Energy reserves steady. Shield system regenerating. Cloaking matrix at 47%. The last engagement had drained more power than expected.
"You're running hot," Nyra murmured through his internal comms. "Maybe next time don't leap into the mouth of a monster like a damn Spartan."
He cracked a dry smile. "It worked."
"Barely. You're lucky that serpent wasn't packing thermal vision."
Rael glanced down to his pack — the futuristic, carbon-black combat backpack secured to his side. It carried everything he'd managed to keep through the jump: extra ammo cells, protein bars, a water-purification flask, folded rations, and now... one unfamiliar item.
The crystal.
It pulsed with a faint internal glow — not radioactive, not thermally active, but definitely... alive. He pulled it from the pouch, rotating it in his gloved hand. The moment his fingertips brushed its edge, his HUD stuttered. A shimmer of data blinked across the visor.
[UNKNOWN ENERGY SIGNATURE DETECTED][SUIT INTERFACE RESPONSE – FORGE MODULE INITIALIZING][WARNING: PROTOTYPE SYSTEM – UNTESTED]
Nyra's tone changed instantly. "Wait—hold on. That wasn't me."
"I didn't touch anything," Rael muttered.
"No, not you. It's the crystal. It triggered something."
His HUD came alive — new icons, new menus, something deep in the system's firmware awakening. A latent program, long dormant, suddenly engaged.
[CRYSTAL ENERGY ACCEPTED: ONE UNIT][FABRICATION INTERFACE ONLINE – CRAFTING LIMITATIONS ACTIVE][SCAN INCOMPLETE – FURTHER ANALYSIS REQUIRED]
Nyra spoke again, slower now, almost reverent. "This isn't our tech. But your suit... it knows what to do with it. Or at least, it was designed to try."
A fabrication interface. Half-complete. Rudimentary, but real. Tied directly into the suit's processor core.
Rael frowned. "You're saying this world's crystals are compatible with our fabrication systems?"
"I'm saying either someone made that crystal to interface with the suit… or someone made the suit knowing about the crystal. Either way, it means we're not the first ones here."
He slotted the crystal into an open containment bracket in his backpack. The soft glow dimmed to a pulse, syncing with the armor's power grid.
"I'll keep working on decoding the interface," Nyra added. "There's more buried here… blueprints, maybe. Items, tools, even gear. Whatever this is — we've barely scratched the surface."
Rael looked out through the cave entrance. The sky beyond was still gray, both moons now visible through the thinning clouds.
He didn't know where they were. Or what was coming next. But now, for the first time since the jump, he had a tool. A system. A way to push forward.
He stood, armor hissing as it adjusted to his movement. The crimson glow of his visor pulsed once in the dark.
Whatever this world was — it had just given him the first piece of the puzzle.
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