The Threshold of Knowledge
The battlefield stood in unnatural stillness.
The Silent Watchers loomed over New Titan, their shifting, geometric forms pulsing with impossible light, their presence warping the very fabric of space.
On one side, UED forces, their once-mighty advance shattered by the inexplicable removal of their front-line soldiers.
On the other, the New Titan resistance and the Event Horizon crew, locked in stunned disbelief.
And above them all, the Event Horizon waited in orbit, unseen, unheard.
But something had changed.
The Silent Watchers were not leaving.
They were watching.
And judging.
---
The UED's Reckoning
Aboard the UED flagship Ascendant Valor, Admiral Dominic Kain stared at the tactical display, his hands gripping the edges of the command console.
> His fleet, the pride of Earth's military might, was paralyzed.
His enemies, a ragtag resistance, were still standing.
And the Silent Watchers—the unknown force he refused to acknowledge as a threat—were doing something to his ships.
"Sir, we're losing control of the Resolute and the Ardent Spear," one of his officers shouted. "Systems are shutting down! They're—"
The officer froze, his eyes wide with terror.
On the display, two UED capital ships were disassembling before their eyes.
Not exploding. Not breaking apart from weapons fire.
Unraveling.
Their structure shifted, rearranged, molecularly deconstructed, as if something far beyond human comprehension was studying them—examining, testing, and… deciding.
"Fire on the Silent Watchers!" Kain roared.
His officers hesitated.
"That's an order!"
But the moment the command left his lips—he vanished.
Gone.
As though he had never been there.
And on the bridge of the Ascendant Valor, no one dared to speak.
---
The Test Begins
Vance felt the world fracture around him.
The streets of New Titan, the sounds of war, the Silent Watchers—all of it collapsed into light, dissolving into something far greater.
For a moment, there was only silence.
Then, the Event Horizon's crew found themselves elsewhere.
Dr. Alexandra Pryce, Jonas Ibarra, Adrienne Cormac, and Sariah Delane stood beside Vance in a space that was not space, in a reality that was not real.
It was a plane of existence without boundaries, filled with immense structures—massive, shifting constructs of black stone and liquid light, stretching beyond sight in impossible formations.
And before them, something waited.
A vast monolith, its surface etched with constantly shifting symbols, pulsating as though alive.
The Silent Watchers had brought them here.
To decide.
---
The Trials of Understanding
A voice—not words, but knowledge itself—echoed through them.
> "You seek to change. You seek to endure."
"Yet you do not understand."
"You must learn."
The space around them twisted, and suddenly they were separated, each cast into their own test.
---
Vance – The Weight of Command
Vance stood alone, facing a mirror image of himself.
But this version wore UED admiral's insignia, his uniform pristine, his expression cold and merciless.
The other Vance spoke, his voice edged with steel.
> "The price of survival is obedience."
"The price of freedom is chaos."
"Which do you choose?"
Vance clenched his fists. "There's always another way."
His reflection shook its head. "There is not."
And the war around him played out—a future where the UED crushed the colonies, where New Titan burned, where the Event Horizon was torn apart.
Unless Vance chose differently.
Unless he took the power offered.
---
Pryce – The Boundaries of Knowledge
Dr. Alexandra Pryce stood before a vast, flowing archive, its endless corridors stretching into infinity.
Every answer—every truth she had ever sought—was here.
But as she reached for it, a barrier formed.
A voice, deep and infinite, spoke:
> "To know is to become."
"To become is to change."
"Do you accept what you may not comprehend?"
Her fingers hesitated inches away from the knowledge.
Could she bear what came next?
---
Ibarra – The Meaning of Sacrifice
Jonas Ibarra was no longer human.
He existed in infinite lives, seeing countless futures, where every choice led to death, survival, ruin, hope.
And in each vision, the Event Horizon changed.
> A warship, designed to conquer.
A beacon, meant to uplift.
A weapon, turned against its own.
And a question burned in his mind:
> "What are you willing to become?"
---
The Return
Suddenly—they were back.
The streets of New Titan returned in a rush of sensation, the cold air biting at their skin.
The Silent Watchers were gone.
But something had changed.
A deep, resonant pulse echoed from orbit.
Vance tapped his comm. "Patel, report."
Silence.
Then, Patel's voice, shaken but alive.
"Captain… you need to get back here. Now."
---
The Fate of Admiral Kain
Aboard the Ascendant Valor, the bridge crew remained frozen in fear.
Admiral Kain was gone.
Vanished, erased, or worse.
And then—he returned.
But he was not the same.
His once-proud uniform was torn, blackened, his skin etched with glowing veins of unknown energy, his eyes burning with something inhuman.
His voice, when he spoke, was not entirely his own.
> "We have misunderstood."
"We were not meant to take."
"But now, we will see."
And the bridge crew stared in horror.
Because Admiral Kain was no longer just a man.
He had been changed.
---