Seventeen.
The number pulsed at the bottom of Eloy's HUD like a frame-perfect input window closing. Thirty kilometers out. A perfect ring. All units moving inward at constant velocity. The formation geometry was the same as the Caldera constructs that had ringed them at two kilometers. Same logic, bigger scale.
[coldfront44]: ring formation confirmed. 30km. compression pattern.
[ghostrunner_x]: he just pinged the whole network didn't he
The reactivated relay lines in Epsilon-Nine's walls pulsed with residual static discharge, blue-white light flickering across the chamber in waves. Eloy's hand stayed on Caldera's Edge. The blade was still warm from the circuit reconnection.
"That ring closes in four hours at current velocity." Maya had repositioned near the node's entrance, the satchel of blue ledgers pressed tight against her ribs. Wind threads coiled around her off-hand fingers. "We can't be here when it does."
