Himalia Port, Europa, Nordic Commonwealth territory
The Nucleus Watch felt heavier than it should have as Ivar Lindqvist clasped it around Sigrun Fjeld's wrist. The fusion-powered timepiece was a sleek, silver-white metal with a crystalline blue display that caught the emergency lighting's red pulse. His fingers trembled. They both knew what was coming.
Through the aluminum windows, Europa's ice plains stretched under Jupiter's massive presence. The gas giant hung in the star-scattered void like a baleful eye, its Great Red Spot oriented toward them, like it was watching their world die. Black pillars of smoke rose from the residential sectors, bleeding through the snow like ink.
"Just give it a moment—there, it's activating." Ivar's voice carried a forced calm. His tousled blonde hair caught the emergency lights, those oceanic blue eyes she'd fallen for two years ago now shadowed with exhaustion. Even in crisis, he looked like something from a recruitment poster: strong jaw, athletic build, that natural charisma that had made him a leader in the Nordg?rds defending Europa.
The watch's display flickered to life, holographic text cascading above Sigrun's wrist:
→ CONNECTING TO THE EXTRANET.. → INITIALIZING USER PROFILE...
The device hummed against her skin, quantum sensors reading her DNA, cataloging her potential.
Name: Sigrun Fjeld
Age: 18
Race: Nordling
Occupation: N/A
PRIMAL Statistics:
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Power: 2 (Normal for biological females)
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Resilience: 3 (Healthy civilian)
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Intellect: 3 (Can plan and think normally)
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Magnetism: 6 (Socially adept, popular, well loved)
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Agility: 3 (Adequate reflexes)
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Libido: 5 (Teenage desire)
Psionic Attunement: Lunar (Untrained)
Status: Healthy, Nubile
Alert: Evacuation Recommended - Hostile Biosignatures Detected
"Nubile." Sigrun said with bitter humor, her breath forming crystals in the frigid air. Her blonde hair was pulled back in a messy bun, wisps escaping to frame her face. Her striking sapphire eyes marked her as her mother's daughter, though she'd die before acknowledging that connection. "That's what defines me, huh?"
Ivar's laugh was strained. "You're more than that, Sigrun. It's a gadget that'll help you survive. What you learned…" An explosion, closer this time. The floor shook beneath their feet. "…it matters. It'll keep you alive out there."
Through the window, movement caught her eye. At first, she thought it was debris from the explosions. Then the shapes resolved into something far worse.
"Ivar! It's them." she breathed.
He was already looking. Bone Fiends, a pack of them, loping across the ice on legs that felt too thin to support their grotesque bodies. Each was the size of a large wolf, but that's where similarity ended. Their flesh was pale and mottled, stretched tight over visible sinew and exposed bone. Spine-like protrusions jutted from their backs at irregular angles, and their skulls were elongated things of teeth and hollow, hungry eyes that glowed red.
Behind them, something far larger scuttled into view—a Skuggr. Sigrun's stomach turned. The creature looked like someone had stitched a giant roach with a sick hound, its chitinous brown carapace glistening with some viscous secretion. A canine head grew from what should have been the insect's thorax, dripping green saliva, hissing. Several feet of foul, acidic death on six segmented legs.
"Queen Maren's forces are moving through Sector 7," Ivar said, his jaw tight as he pulled up his own watch's display. "Not just killing, Sigrun. The extraction teams... they want women like you: under thirty with Nordic genetics."
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
"For the Vuhk-stir." The word tasted like ash in her mouth. The breeding machine. Her mother's grand vision to create a pure Radi-Mon army from Nordling ovum. "She's really doing it…using our own people as…"
"Broodmares. Yes." Ivar moved to his desk, fingers working at a recessed panel along its side. A biometric lock blinked red, then green. "Which is why we need to leave. My Psytum Sword will get us through."
The panel slid open to reveal a secured drawer. While Ivar reached inside, Sigrun's gaze drifted back to the window. An explosion shook the port hard enough to crack the glass, spider-webbing across the surface. Through the fractures, she could see the Bone Fiends had noticed them. The monsters' heads turned in unison, a pack behavior.
Ivar's Nucleus Watch chimed urgently: [Hostile Proximity Alert: 300 meters]
He shoved one cylindrical device into his pocket then pulled the other one free. The Psytum Sword sat dormant in his grip, a sleek silver cylinder no longer than his forearm with a subtle blue interface line running along its length, pulsing like a slow heartbeat.
"Baldr, VIRK-yah-duh! (Baldr, activate!)" His voice was that of someone who'd done this hundreds of times.
Quantum energy erupted from one end of the cylinder, coalescing into a blade of pure cerulean light that hummed with barely contained power. The sword's edge wasn't solid but rather a controlled quantum energy flux. The blue light it cast turned Ivar's features sharp and ethereal.
"Come on!" He moved toward the door. "The shuttle bay is just through the corridor. Maybe ten minutes if we're fast."
"Ivar, you really think we should do this? I—"
"Brought your 10mm?" he asked over his shoulder.
"Yeah." Sigrun's hand found the pistol at her hip: a colonial model, curvaceous white polymer frame with Nordic runic engravings along the barrel. Her father had given it to her for her sixteenth birthday, back when the world still made sense. She fumbled with the safety, her hands shaking slightly.
Her watch beeped: [New weapon equipped: 10mm Magnum, Colonial Nordling Variant]
The maintenance corridor was all flickering lights and temperature warnings. Ice had formed along the pipes overhead. They'd made it maybe fifty meters when the first Bone Fiend crashed through a ventilation grate ahead of them.
Up close, the thing was even more horrifying. Sigrun could see its muscles contracting, could smell the rot and stench of it. The Radi-Mon's head swiveled toward them, jaw hinging wide, showing rows of needle teeth.
"Sigrun, shoot!" Ivar shouted, already moving forth.
She raised the 10mm, her stance all wrong, arms too tense. The first shot went wide, punching through a steam pipe. The recoil shocked her, much stronger than she'd expected, and she nearly dropped the weapon.
Focus. Breathe. Ivar taught you this. She thought to herself, recalling all the nights where they would practice shooting and spellcasting…before getting showered, then hopping into bed to do the one thing Ivar loved and Sigrun never minded.
The second shot landed. The Bone Fiend's shoulder exploded in a spray of black blood, spinning it sideways. Her arms were already adjusting, remembering the weapon's weight and kick.
"Good! Keep firing!" Ivar moved agilely, Baldr cleaving trails of blue light as he cut the creature's head in one clean arc. The body collapsed, twitching.
But more were coming.
Three Bone Fiends bounded down the corridor and, behind them, the Skuggr's bulk came into the passage, acidic drool eating through the floor plating.
"Remember what I taught you?" Ivar called out, engaging two of the creatures at once. "The words—you know them!"
Sigrun's mind raced. Those late nights in his dorm, him guiding her through the pronunciation of J?turmál, their people's ancient tongue that could shape reality itself. She'd never managed more than sparks before, but now—
A Bone Fiend lunged at her from the side. She pivoted, firing twice—both missed.
It kept coming.
She raised her left hand, palm facing the Fiend. Her voice resonated as she spoke the words:
"Frost, bylgja!"
The air crystallized. A bolt of concentrated frost energy erupted from her outstretched palm, catching the Bone Fiend mid-leap. Ice spread across its body, and when it hit the ground, it shattered into frozen chunks.
"I did it! I——ah!"
The exhilaration lasted exactly two seconds before another creature's claws raked across her shoulder, tearing through her winter coat and drawing blood.
Pain flared white-hot. She stumbled, dropping to one knee. The Bone Fiend reared back for another strike—
"Sigrun!" Ivar shouted as he rushed to her side.
His blade intercepted, bisecting the creature vertically. "Use Medi-Vap! Now!"
With trembling fingers, Sigrun pulled a cylindrical device from her pocket—sleek metal over glass, turqoise liquid swirling inside. She pressed it to her lips and inhaled deeply. The vapor tasted like mint, and immediately she felt the wound beginning to close, skin knitting together with a tingling sensation.
The Skuggr was advancing now, its bulk forcing them back. Acid sprayed from its maw, and Ivar barely got them both behind a support beam before the corridor where they'd been standing began to dissolve.
"Need more firepower," Ivar said. "Remember the other spell?"
"Tungl, slá!" Sigrun shouted as she pointed her fingers at the creature, pouring will into the J?turmál words.
Silver lightning erupted from both her hands, arcing between the remaining Bone Fiends. They convulsed and collapsed, but the effort left her gasping.
"What—is this…" Her heart ached, a deep pain like someone was squeezing it from the inside. She leaned over, afraid.
"Here!" Ivar pressed a bottle of shimmering blue potion into her hands. Indra-Sprite, the label showing exotic fruits she couldn't read. "Drink, quickly!"
She brought the bottle to her lips. The liquid was sweet with a tingling aftertaste. As she drank, she was acutely aware this was his bottle, his lips had touched where hers now were. Heat that had nothing to do with combat flushed her cheeks.
"Better, yeah?" His hand briefly touched her ivory cheek, checking her heat, and even that simple contact sent excitement through her.
"Y-yeah." She handed the bottle back before they got moving.
Together, they fought like they'd been doing this for years. Ivar would engage directly, Baldr's blue energy carving through Radi-Mon flesh, while Sigrun provided covering fire and psionic support. When a Bone Fiend tried to flank him, her frost bolt was already in flight. When the Skuggr's acid had her pinned, his blade severed one of its legs, sending it crashing sideways.
We're going to make it, she thought, her heart soaring. We work perfectly together. We were made for each other—
The wall exploded.