Location: Outer Rim Free Zone – Sargael Station, Ring-8
Sargael was the kind of place maps tried to forget.
Once a Federation mineral refinery, now it hung in deep-space limbo like a rusted crown, crawling with smugglers, fringe scientists, and old-world AIs gone off-script. It reeked of desperation, ion-burn, and opportunity.
Perfect for a first mission.
The Lucent Dawn cell had intercepted data that Valtherion was experimenting with soul-coded prototype units—spliced war-clones using stolen Omega-class genome. Aika's genome. The data core sat inside a derelict transport ship parked on Sargael's lowest ring.
Retrieval was priority one.
Veyla Marr.
She didn't enter the rendezvous room. She stormed it—jacket billowing, pulse-cutlass strapped low, a jagged scar across her collarbone like a trophy from a past lover.
"Miss me?" she grinned, teeth white against a smear of oil.
Rin leaned against the table, unimpressed. "We've never met."
"Details," Veyla said, snapping her fingers as the door sealed behind her. "You'll know me intimately before this war is over."
Selene didn't look up from her datapad. "She's here because she has connections and muscle. Nothing more."
Veyla turned to Aika.
"And you," she said softly. "You're the fire in the dark, aren't you?"
Aika met her eyes. Violet burned against gold.
"Let's see if you can keep up."
Target: Data Core Vault Zeta-9
Objective: Extract encrypted records of prototype Omega-class genome variants
Location: Derelict freighter Vornis Drift, docked at Ring-8
Complication: Inhabited by rogue neural defenses and AI-fracture entities
Plan: Infiltrate. Disable defenses. Extract data. Don't die.
Veyla, chewing a stimstrip, tapped the holo-map. "I've got a contact who can get us to the vault deck through the plasma vents. Tight fit, but less suicide."
"Who's the contact?" Rin asked.
Veyla winked. "A good kisser."
Selene groaned.
The Infiltration
They moved fast.
Rin piloted a stolen skimmer down the inner ring shaft. Aika and Selene rode tandem, Veyla standing on the rear rail like a goddess of bad decisions.
Inside the Vornis Drift, the air was stale and humming.
Security drones littered the walls—dead, twitching.
"Something's already been here," Aika whispered.
The ship groaned as they passed.
Then came the first shriek—high, static-laced, not human.
Out of the shadows lurched a humanoid creature of wire and muscle, an AI-infused reanimation of the freighter's former engineer. His eyes glowed with plasma. His voice was scrambled code.
"ERROR. UNIT 9-2. BREACH—BREACH—ERROR."
Aika stepped forward, spear ready.
Rin shouted, "Behind—!"
Too late.
Two more lunged from above.
Veyla moved like liquid fire. Her blades sang in twin arcs, severing heads in brutal elegance. Rin fired off stun-pulse bursts from her shoulder-mounted repeater. Selene hurled an electrosurge charge that pulsed through the AI-spliced horrors.
Aika's blood roared.
She stabbed low, flipped one of the husks into the air, and brought her spear down in a single, clean arc.
The ship fell silent again.
Bodies twitched. Nothing rose.
Not this time.
The Vault
The core room was sealed by a pulse-locked hex door.
Selene stepped up, neural thread trailing from her wrist. "Keep them off me. This is black-market soulweave code—it'll take a minute."
Aika turned toward the corridor.
She could feel something stirring. Not just nearby.
Inside her.
A pull.
A signal.
Something beneath this station was calling to her genome signature.
But that was for later.
For now—
The door hissed open.
Inside: the data core. Dozens of canisters, pulsing in red.
And one vial marked:
O-CLASS_002-F
STATUS: INACTIVE
DESIGNATION: MIRA
Aika's breath caught.
But before she could speak—
The alarms flared red.