The huge double doors of the High Altar tore from their forged bronze hinges under a sudden, violent pulse of tightly packed crushing force.
Arthur Vance stepped through the dust and crushed stone into the inner sanctum of the Sunken Bio-Cathedral. The barrel of his ARC-7 Mag-Carbine was held steady at the hip, the weapon’s sight projecting a pale blue aiming cross across the gloom. At his right flank, Vesper padded forward with low, hungry intent, her silver-white coat bristling with static, her glowing amber eyes burning with ancient tiger wrath. Her razor-thin claws clicked against the polished black floor plates with the rhythmic care of a ticking clock.
Above them, hovering near a vaulted ceiling rib sixty feet overhead, Pip circled in tight, silent spirals. The young solar raptor’s plumage burned with a restrained, dark gold radiance, his talons bent and ready to unleash devastation the instant Arthur gave the word.
In the center of the sanctum, standing atop a circular dais carved from black glass, stood Apostle Jonathan Voss.
The chief chirurgeon and high commander of the Sovereign Chimera Order’s oceanic operations had long since abandoned his human heritage.
Voss was nearly seven feet tall, his physical form a nightmarish proof to voluntary bio-splicing. His left arm was fully wrapped within a huge, spiraling gauntlet of dark nautiloid shell plating, terminating in four massive, jointed high-pressure shears capable of cutting through the armor of a battle-mech. His skin was pale, waxy. Then he crusted with shimmering rows of…
