The Final Ascent

The Tier 5 access corridor groaned—a rhythmic, metallic shriek that vibrated through the Iron Lung’s cockpit. Kaelen Vane watched his integrity display flicker: 12%. Outside the viewport, the corridor walls were contracting, the Tower’s purge protocol physically crushing the ribbing of the floor to seal the transit path.

"Pressure is peaking, Kaelen," Elara’s voice crackled over the comms, jagged with static. She was still reeling from the interrogation chamber, but her fingers were flying across the remote interface she’d hijacked. "If you don't breach the primary pressure lock now, the tunnel will collapse. You’ll be flattened before you reach the elevator."

Kaelen gripped the control sticks, his knuckles white. The Iron Lung was a salvage job held together by hope and the prototype module he’d scavenged from the lower pits. He shifted his weight, feeling the frame shudder as a hydraulic line ruptured. He didn't have enough power for a standard bypass. He had a choice: abandon the frame and lose the proof of the Vane family’s innocence, or force an energy-shunt from the prototype module.

"Rerouting core logic to the chassis stabilizers," Kaelen growled.

"That’s suicide!" Elara countered, though she didn’t stop him. "The module isn't meant for structural reinforcement. It’s an encrypted archive of the Tower’s core logic."

"Then it’s the only thing that can bridge the gap." Kaelen slammed the override. The module shrieked, a high-frequency pulse that turned the Iron Lung’s HUD a blinding, electric violet. The frame locked into place, the chassis groaning as it absorbed the surge. The corridor stopped contracting. He was through.

He didn’t have a moment to breathe. "Reset in sixty seconds," the Tower’s synthesized voice boomed. Kaelen lunged, his boots skidding across the ferro-glass floor as a pulse-cannon blast vaporized the wall where his head ha

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