Then, the footsteps came again-closer. Echoing through the metallic halls.
And from the darkness ahead, a voice rasped.
"You should not have come here."
Kael froze, his breath catching in his throat.
The others instinctively raised their weapons, scanning the dimly lit corridor.
The pulsating glow of the symbols on the walls flickered erratically as if responding to the presence of something unseen.
Liyara's visor recalibrated, struggling to penetrate the veil of shadows ahead. "I can't get a reading. It's like something is distorting the sensors."
Garran took a cautious step forward, keeping his blaster steady. "Who's there?"
Silence. Then-a slow, deliberate scraping sound. Metal against metal. A shape emerged from the darkness, hunched, its form shifting unnaturally. Its eyes-if they could be called that-glowed with the same eerie luminescence as the symbols on the walls.
Kael felt his pulse hammering. "This isn't human..."
The creature tilted its head, its voice a low whisper that crawled into their minds.
"No. And neither are you... not anymore."
A sudden pulse of energy surged through the corridor, sending them all staggering back. The lights flickered, and the rhythmic heartbeat beneath the floor quickened.
Something was waking up.