Darkness Beyond The Ice 2 (STORY)

— — Chapter 1<< >> Chapter 3

### **The Floating Chains**

Ethan and Jax trek across the iridescent plain, the serpentine mountain range growing larger with each step. The air vibrates with a low, mechanical hums — a sound that doesn’t belong to Terra Infinita. Above them, suspended by chains of crackling light, floats **Nammu**,

a city carved into a jagged asteroid. Its spires pulse with bioluminescence, and its streets echo with whispers in dead languages.

Jax squints at the chains. “They’re not holding it up. They’re tying it. Like it’s trying to escape.”

A bridge of solidified sound waves extends toward them. A voice booms from the city: *“Enter, Chainbreaker. Nammu remembers you.”*

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### **The Memory-Hoarders**

The **Nammu-ra** greet them with silent stares. Their skin is a living canvas — bioluminescent tattoos swirl with scenes of ancient battles, cryptic words, and dying stars. Their leader, **Historian Vela**, wears a crown of fractured Custodian drones. Her tattoos show the serpent-and-compass devouring a world.

“You’ve seen the symbol,” she says, noting Ethan’s gaze. “The Custodians branded it onto reality itself. But we… we *reject* their cycles.”

She leads them to the **Hall of Echoes**,

a vault where holograms of the dead replay endlessly. Here, Ethan learns:

- **First Earth** was in one of **Nine Cycles**, each reset when humanity neared enlightenment.

- The Nammu-ra’s ancestors fled during **Cycle 94**, using Anunnaki technology to anchor their city beyond the Ice.

- Their tattoos are not art — they’re **soul-debt**, forced on them by the Anunnaki to preserve memories the Custodians tried to erase.

“The Anunnaki are not saviors,” Vela warns. “They gave us immortality to weaponize our pain. They crave martyrs for their war.”

— -

### **The Memory Exchange**

Vela offers Ethan a “gift”: a neural link to the Hall of Echoes. *“See what the Custodians stole from you.”*

He witnesses:

**Cycle 1**: Humanity’s first golden age, shattered when Custodian ships descended like silver storms.

- **Cycle 217** (his Earth): The lifespan pact’s signing — world leaders trading human years for Martian “paradise.”

- **The Anunnaki Rebellion**: A war fought in the void between worlds, ending with the Anunnaki’s retreat to Terra Infinita.

But one memory burns brighter — a Custodian’s true form. Not a robed figure, but a **colony organism**, its body a hive of humanoid drones fused at the spine.

*“They are legion,”* Vela says. *“And they are afraid. You carry the Gigalmu’s shadow.”*

— -

### **The Custodian’s Revenge**

The attack comes at dusk.

Custodian drones phase through Nammu’s defenses, their faceless heads splitting into mandibles. The Nammu-ra fight with blades forged from asteroid ore, their tattoos flaring with golden light.

Ethan and Jax are cornered in the Hall of Echoes. A drone pins Jax, its voice glitching: *“Yuga Protocol… will recycle… all…”*

Vela sacrifices herself, detonating her crown of drone cores. The blast tears the hall apart, collapsing the chains and sending chunks of the city plummeting to Terra Infinita.

— -

### **The Price of Truth**

In the rubble, Jax finds a **memory crystal** clutched in Vela’s severed hand. It projects a final message:

>*“The Anunnaki stronghold lies beyond the serpent’s ribs.

They will offer you power — do not trust it. The Gigalmu is not a weapon. It is a *key*, and the door it opens cannot be closed.”*

Ethan stares at the serpentine mountain range. “We need the Anunnaki.”

Jax scowls. “Did you miss the part where she said *‘don’t trust them’*?”

“We don’t have to trust them,” Ethan says. “We just have to use them first.”

— -

### **Nammu's broken chains…**

As they descend Nammu’s broken chains, the city’s survivors sing a dirge. Their tattoos dim, memories fading to gray.

Behind them, a Custodian drone twitches to life, its hologram flickering: *“Cycle 217… terminated. Initiating Yuga Protocol.”*

The sky cracks.

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**Next Chapter Preview: Chapter 3: The Blood Plains**

Ethan and Jax cross a mercury-sea desert, where Custodian …

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* Next Chapter in Thursday 13/3 or here.

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