The moment the ore processor melted through the outer casing, Carl knew the object wasn't ordinary.
The sample—extracted from a deep vault beneath the platform—glowed faintly, pulsing in slow, rhythmic waves. It didn't behave like plasma, xenocrystal, or anything Carl's instruments could classify.
"AI, conduct a spectrographic breakdown. Identify molecular structure."
"Processing… Unknown composition. Energy density exceeds that of enriched antimatter. Estimated half-life: Indefinite. No radiation detected."
"So… it's stable. And absurdly powerful."
Carl ran his fingers along the mineral's surface—metallic, but humming softly, like it was… aware.
He mounted it into a containment field and rerouted power into one of the old facility's auxiliary nodes.
Lights across the ancient command spire flickered—then surged. Whole wings of the Nexus reawakened. Consoles, robotic arms, defense shutters—dormant for untold centuries—whirred to life in a synchronized pulse, all connected by that single sliver of core energy.
"AI, log this. We'll call it Voidite. And we're going to need a lot more of it."
Day 17. The restored systems granted Carl access to something he hadn't expected: the Deep-Sector Scanner Array. A wide-angle network of orbital sensors, once used to track mining convoys across entire systems.
After two days of repairs, antenna calibration, and fusion relay tuning, the main display came online.
"Signal resolution: 89%. Scanning initiated."
It took less than three minutes.
A red dot.
Approaching from the outer edge of the system—slowly, but directly. The architecture wasn't alien… but it wasn't Terran either.
"AI, track and classify."
"No IFF beacon. No registry signature. Signal is intelligent, approaching on non-random trajectory. Intent unknown."
Carl leaned in, staring at the dot.
"Well. If it's coming here, we're not going to wait around defenseless."
The very next morning, the first generation of Forge Units activated—autonomous drones built to construct and expand the outpost using stored alloy and minerals.
Some shaped defensive towers from nanobonded stone.
Others laid orbital turret foundations atop the platform's spires.
Several began erecting a magneto-shield projector array capable of repelling small debris or low-grade energy pulses.
Carl oversaw all of it from a refurbished control deck. "If that signal brings trouble, we need teeth."
And teeth he would build.
Deep within the hangar's subdeck—now fully lit and humming with Voidite-fed power—Carl stood before the dormant skeleton of a Kethrix-class Warframe Hull.
A dreadnought.
Nearly a kilometer in length, mostly intact. No reactor, no AI, no command protocols.
"This thing wasn't just a warship," Carl murmured, tracing the outlines of its plated hull. "It was a fortress."
He uploaded schematics to the AI and instructed the Forge Units to begin replication of core components using mixed Terran and Kethrix fabrication templates.
The project would take time. Weeks. Maybe months.
But Carl had already begun laying the foundation of its command systems: a hybrid AI core tied directly to his own ship's neural interface. One that could operate autonomously in emergencies, but allow a crew to take control.
"Designation?" the AI asked.
"We'll call it Erebus. The first of its kind. Born in shadow, armed for war."
As the forges rumbled and welders sparked along the dreadnought's frame, Carl stood at the viewport of the command tower, watching the red dot inch closer on the scanner.
"Let's see who you are."