Subject Maine Facial Markings

The warning became an attack as soon as the room recognized Maine.

One of the supposed Pringle guards looked at him too closely. Not at his posture, not at the group, not at the chaos around them. At his face. At the markings that made him part of a pattern larger than Point Pringle, larger than this room, larger than any one version of himself.

Subject Maine facial markings 87 match initiate.

Then the disguises fell apart.

Three of the guards became void-like changelings, false bodies peeling away from the idea of safety they had been wearing. The room that was supposed to be a friendly message point turned into a kill box inside Eveline's quarters. Psychic pulses tore through the party, blinding and wounding them while the attackers pressed the advantage of surprise.

Ren Yacour was real.

That made the scene worse in a different way. The infiltration was not only a false guard trick. It had been mixed with enough truth to get close, enough real authority to make hesitation reasonable. Ren fought alongside the party while the others revealed what they were.

Oskar's aura helped hold the line against the psychic pressure. Ash and Dhaz were repeatedly punished by the enemy pulses and blindings. Maine's body, his face, and his variant significance had become active targeting data.

Point Pringle's safe zone was not safe.

The enemy could wear its guards. It could invoke Storm Boulder. It could step into Eveline's room and know Maine by classification instead of name.

The succession crisis had become personal before the party even reached the hallway.