The Grand Cradle didn't retreat; it shattered. As the corrupted gold thorns Kane had planted on Earth reached the atmosphere, they pierced the "bird's nest" structure, causing it to leak liquid starlight that rained down over the Atlantic like a million falling diamonds.
Kane floated in the high ionosphere, his breathing heavy, his Void-Sovereign aura flickering between a deep, bruised violet and the neon-green of the plague. He looked at his hands—they were no longer entirely physical. They shimmered with a digital haze, the "Timeline-Echoes" of a thousand potential deaths vibrating through his marrow.
"Sully," Kane's voice was a low, resonant hum that bypassed the comms and spoke directly to the Revenant's core. "The Cradle was just a probe. The Hegemony now has our coordinates etched into their permanent record. Within a week, they won't send seeds. They'll send a System-Deleter."
"We can't fight a Deleter, Sarge," Sully's voice came back, sounding hollow. She was currently merged with the ship's Neural-Nexus, her mind stretched across the entire fleet. "That's Rank 11 territory. They'll just remove the 'Sol' variable from the universal equation. We'll blink, and the sun will be gone."
"Not if they can't find the sun," Kane replied. He looked at the Dyson-Ring—the massive gold halo they had stolen from the Consortium. "We're not using that ring for power anymore. We're going to use it as a Static-Generator."
[NEW OBJECTIVE: CONSTRUCT THE VOID-FENCE] [REQUIRED ENERGY: 400.00 YOTTAWATTS] [RISK: TOTAL SYSTEM COLLAPSE]
"Vance, Doc—get to the Ring," Kane commanded. "We're going to wrap the sun in a shroud of 'Nothing.' If the Hegemony wants to delete us, they're going to have to find us in the dark first."