Last chapter. The Heaven's Wing

Hank shows them the floorplan below. They will arrive at the gravtrain station (bottom left of the map)

Mercer looks over the map, "Both of those testing labs, the robotic one and the animal one, are concerning, co.sidering what has gone on so far in this place.
Do we have any hint where the parts we need were used or do we need to find records when we get there?"

"My guess for the power plant is the engineering area. There appears to be generators of some kind above the large fuel tanks, and more below them. That would seem to be a logical place to use it. Otherwise in the scanning area. The power plant is going to need fuel, so that would seem to be the best bet.

"The big question is the FTL system. That could be anywhere and my brain hurts trying to think of what they would even be using it for. OK, it doesn't hurt; I just don't like where those thoughts lead."

"Sounds like we'll just need to sweep the area looking for the ship's parts. The labs look like they have the most open space. I say we head straight across to the animal lab and then circle up and back. I don't know that I have a great desire to know what they were planning, but I'd like to find those parts and get the ship out of here."

"Sweep across and then up and loop back. Sounds like a plan."

"I'm good with that approach."

When the train arrives, Douklan disembarks and looks through the cargo area:
- anything openly hostile or dangerous?
- what does it look like here? Wrecked? Organized? Disorderly?
- how high are the stacks of containers in this area?
- anything that seems a likely candidate for a ship component, either from a label of the ship's name, an obvious engineering cargo container, or an actual ship part sitting in the loading area?

"Hey, guys, how big would you say these parts are? We might be able to eliminate looking through every box in every room if we know what they can't be inside."

The journey took a few minutes, the train gliding through the station’s infrastructure. Occasionally, they glimpsed ruined sections of the station through reinforced windows—hallways twisted by explosions, corridors coated in blackened residue, floating debris drifting in zero gravity. But as they neared their destination, the environment shifted.

When the train finally slowed to a halt, the doors parted, revealing the main lab station—and it was pristine.

Unlike the ruined sections they had passed through, the main lab was untouched. The walls gleamed under bright, sterile lights. Consoles and workstations lined the area, functional and intact, their displays still active. No signs of chaos. No bodies. No damage.

It was as if this part of the station had been completely untouched by the disaster.

Erin stepped out cautiously, weapon raised. "Alright… This is different."

Douklan stepped off the grav train first, rifle raised and eyes scanning the cargo bay area just off the platform. The space opened wide before him—a rectangular chamber filled with shipping containers and pallets arranged in semi-organized rows. Some crates were toppled, some left ajar, but there were no signs of combat or sabotage. No blood. No corpses. No claw marks.

And more importantly... No immediate threats.

"Nothing hostile," Douklan muttered into comms, moving forward cautiously, eyes sweeping across the cargo manifest labels etched or sprayed onto container sides. The stacks reached about eight to ten feet high, maybe more in spots where boxes had been lazily stacked without concern for future access.

He paused by one particularly large container that had "Hydraulic Components: Deck Transfer" marked on it in faded stenciling. Others bore similar industrial designations.

"Hey, guys," he said, keeping his voice level, "how big would you say the Heaven’s Wing parts are? Because we might be able to eliminate most of these boxes from suspicion just by knowing what won’t fit inside them."

Corbin joined him, scanning the area briefly.

"Hard to say exactly," he admitted. "But I can tell you right now—whatever those parts are, they’re not in here. Wrong type of shipping, no engineering seals, no registry codes. They wouldn’t toss precision FTL components in here with spare pistons and cooling jackets."

"Got it." Douklan nodded once, already moving ahead.

---

The group proceeded beyond the cargo area, passing through a short pressure-sealed corridor into what used to be Sensor Operations. The space was originally designed for stellar cartography, with a wide central platform for tactical holomaps and region-scale scans.

But that was no longer the case.

Now, the room had been completely repurposed—cables and heavy conduits snaked across the floor and ceiling, converging on a massive 10-foot-tall circular construct at the center of the chamber, where the holo pit used to be. A wormhole gate, crude but functional, pulsed with unnatural energy.

At its base were charred and modified FTL drive components, unmistakably scavenged from an advanced vessel. The Heaven’s Wing.

The gate was active. A swirling mass of light and distortion filled the ring, a visible rupture in space.


And then...

A shape emerged from the vortex.

Then another.

And another.

Four of them, in total.
All identical.

Ryan Carter. Each clad in the same melted, tattered uniform. Each with that slick, black-oil skin, luminous green eyes glowing like deep-sea predators. They stepped forward in perfect synchrony, gazes locked on the team.

Not going to let us get jumped.

Targeting the right most Ryan. Burst fire.

Hank lets off a burst fire shot, too.

Douklan shoots at the figure on the right. "Corbin, Hank - how do you figure we shut that thing down??"

"Enemies first, super science portal later.
But on that note, cut the power."

"Yes! Absolutely! But we need to drop these guys first!"

Corbin didn’t hesitate. The moment the Ryans emerged from the gate, his sights were already lining up on the rightmost creature.

"Targeting the right flank," he muttered, flipping his laser rifle to burst fire mode. The weapon hummed sharply as it unleashed a trio of coherent light blasts, the crimson streaks cutting through the space between them. Douklan followed up with mechanical precision, tracking the same quadrant in case Corbin’s attack didn’t finish the job.

Both shots landed. The creature unraveled into the same black mist, as if his body had been no more than a dream in the dark.

Erin steadied her breathing and raised her weapon. She fired a clean shot that hit the shoulder of a second Ryan as it stepped forward. It staggered, briefly flickering—before Mercer surged forward, vibroblade activated in a low hum of kinetic fury. With one swift motion, Mercer slashed upward, the blade tearing through the weakened figure. The impact resonated with a sound like glass fracturing underwater—and in a blink, that Ryan vanished, just like the others.Hank raised his pistol, drawing a bead on one of the remaining forms, but his shot went wide, pinging off a wall-mounted terminal. Maya dropped to a crouch behind a pillar of bundled cables, taking cover. "I’ll stay back and watch for a flank," she called out, scanning the edges of the room with her weapon ready but wisely avoiding open fire.

---

One of the two remaining Ryans raised its hand in a slow, deliberate gesture, fingers splaying unnaturally. The air rippled, as if reality itself warped around the creature's will.

Without warning, a crack of compressed force rang out—an invisible telekinetic bullet tearing through the space between them.

Erin barely had time to react. The impact struck her in the side, lifting her off her feet and slamming her against a nearby control console. Sparks erupted from the terminal as she collapsed to the floor, a pained gasp forced from her lungs.

Mercer will shift and attack the one that hit Erin from the side, leaving space for the others to attack it too. (And angling himself so his pavice will probably catch any glancing shots.)