The stolen smuggler’s skiff rattled like a broken shopping cart as it tore through the dark purple smog of the Juncture.

"This thing drives like absolute shit, Seattle," Sebastian grumbled.

He leaned against the rusted railing of the deck holding a lukewarm cup of terrible synthesized coffee he found in the ship’s meager pantry. 𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖

"Hey, you didn’t pay for the luxury package, Boss," Gwen shot back from the helm as her hands flew across the glowing control runes.

She wore her heavy trench coat pulled tight against the chill of the void.

"This boat was built out of scrap from a deleted farming simulator. You’re lucky the engine hasn’t turned into a giant digital pumpkin yet."

Down in the lower hull, Corbin was frantically running cables from the primary mana-engine to his freshly built Server Spoofing Drive.

The paranoid code-smith looked like he was on the verge of a massive heart attack.

"I still think this is suicide!" Corbin yelled up through the grate with his voice cracking.

"We are flying a highly illegal unregistered garbage scow straight toward the most heavily militarized server in the entire Ethereal Plane! They don’t give out parking tickets in Server 112! They just delete your IP!"

Sebastian took a sip of his awful coffee. He didn’t care.

His thirty-percent physical synchronization was holding steady but he still felt the effects of the Void Toxicity he had just purged.

He needed that Regional Core and he needed it before the Apostle’s friends figured out a way to break the golden dome back on Earth.

"Relax, stubby," Sebastian said smoothly.

"Just keep the drive from exploding. I’ll handle the local authorities."

"There it is," Gwen breathed and her voice dropped all its usual sarcastic bite.

She pulled back on the throttle.

The thick swirling purple nebulas of the Juncture parted to reveal their destination.

Sebastian stepped up to the front of the skiff and his silver-tinged eyes narrowed behind his cracked white half-mask.

Server 112 wasn’t a planet. It wasn’t a floating continent or a beautiful lush sphere of blue and green.

It was a staggering monument to corporate dystopia and brutalist engineering!

It was a Dyson sphere. A colossal perfectly spherical construct of pitch-black metal and glowing neon circuitry that was large enough to house a dozen Earths.

It blotted out the void making the smuggler’s skiff look like a speck of dust floating next to a skyscraper.

But what really caught the eye was the perimeter.

Wrapping around the entire mechanical world was a crackling violent web of deep red energy. It looked like a localized sun made entirely of angry error codes.

"The planetary firewall," Gwen whispered while her hands shook slightly on the controls.

"That is a billion lines of pure unadulterated anti-virus code. If anything without a registered Vanguard Syndicate ID touches that red light it gets instantly vaporized. No saving throws. No respawns. Just instant deletion."

"It’s beautiful," Sebastian muttered clinically. "And completely impassable for a flying trash can. Stop the ship."

Gwen hit the brakes. The skiff shuddered violently and its anti-gravity runes whined in protest before bringing them to a dead halt roughly five miles out from the red energy grid.

"Okay, Boss," Corbin called out as he climbed up the ladder and wiped a thick smear of black grease from his forehead.

He held the heavy jagged iron block of the Spoofing Drive. The six thick biometric needles at its base glinted in the dim light.

"The drive is ready. But you can’t just plug this in and walk through the wall. It needs a template. It needs a registered local ID to piggyback off of."

"I know," Sebastian said and tossed his empty coffee cup into the void.

He rolled his shoulders as his heavy black leather coat shifted around his steel-dense muscles. "That’s why we need a donor."

Sebastian looked at Gwen. "Drop the cloak."

Gwen stared at him like he had just asked her to shoot herself in the foot. "Are you out of your fucking mind?! We are parked in their front yard! If I drop the optical camouflage their orbital defense grids will paint us in three seconds!"

"I don’t want the big guns, Gwen. I want the border patrol," Sebastian explained in a cold tone that brooked no argument.

"The Vanguard Syndicate is a hyper militarized bureaucracy. Bureaucrats love

protocol. They won’t shoot a lone unidentified skiff with the orbital cannons. They’ll send a scout to investigate and secure the contraband. Drop. The. Cloak."

Gwen cursed loudly. "If we die I’m going to haunt your ass, Sebastian!"

She slammed her fist onto a large green rune on the console.

BZZZT!

The shimmering light-bending field that had been hiding their skiff from the server’s sensors instantly vanished.

They were suddenly sitting completely exposed in the dark purple void like a glaring target right in front of the ultimate fortress.

One second passed. Two seconds.

Then the firewall reacted.

A section of the massive red energy shield rippled like water. A piercing high-frequency alarm echoed across the vacuum of the Juncture and vibrated directly into their digital eardrums.

WHOOSH!

Shooting out from the red barrier was a sleek silver interceptor ship. It looked like a fighter jet crossed with a magical arrowhead.

Its dual plasma thrusters burned a brilliant angry blue as it accelerated toward them at breakneck speed.

"Scout ship inbound!" Corbin shrieked and dived behind a pile of metal crates. "It’s locking onto us!"

Sebastian didn’t flinch. He watched the silver ship close the distance. Through his true sight he could see the digital framework of the vessel and the single pilot inside.

[Entity Identified: Vanguard Border Scout] [Name: Trent]

[Level: 42 - Gunner Class]

"Level 42," Sebastian noted with a dark smirk pulling at his lips. "Perfect fit. Keep the engine running, Seattle. I’m going to go get our VIP pass."

"You can’t cast a flight spell!" Gwen yelled over the roaring hum of the approaching interceptor. "You don’t have the Earth server to process the mana!"

"I don’t need magic to fly," Sebastian stated calmly. "I just need math."

He stepped up to the railing. He didn’t pull out his heavy concrete-encrusted Earth Sword.