Terry held up his wrist device to his face, ready to answer the call as his smartwatch beeped.
"Who would be calling me this time?"
He sighed faintly, his brows pulling together, feeling reluctant to check who it was thinking it would be another irrelevant person or Kenneth, who was fond of doing this. Still, after a brief pause, he finally raised his hand to see the caller's name.
"Shit, Lady Ava."
His eyes widened and his mouth fell open. He had been dodging her calls for a while now, and he was already beginning to regret his actions.
There was no way to come up with an excuse, especially since the watch only received calls when worn.
He flipped open the discreet lid on the watch; a soft glow sprang out, followed by the glowing hologram of Lady Ava materializing above the watch, her figure imposing in a blue-colored light.
"I am so sorry, my lady. Forgive me for not confirming who was calling," Terry said, coming to a halt.
He bowed his head slightly, his position locked in respectful submission. He held his position, waiting for her to speak.
"You almost made me start considering changing my receiver. You wouldn't want that, I suppose."
"My apologies, my lady. It won't happen again."
"Very well. Have you arrived?"
"No, I am nearly there."
Terry increased his pace while walking through the long, sky-blue hallway. The place was lined evenly with spaced lights.
His footsteps echoed through the hallway. He approached the door to the Sector Unit, the place he managed as leader of the Sector Unit, where he handled daily routines.
Normally, he would only present them to the Council on set days, but recently Lady Ava wanted to be kept updated daily.
Terry stepped inside, and as usual, the Sector Unit was full of life. A long desk ran across the room with holographic computers glowing in the air.
Every chair was taken, the workers tapping on virtual panels or sliding their fingers across moving data. The light from the holograms cast faint colors on their faces while they worked.
"See? Nothing unusual. If there was, the Sector Unit would....."
A familiar beeping sound came from one of the hologram computers, sharp and repeating. Then, one after another, the rest joined in, all making the same urgent noise.
'Code Yellow' flashed on every screen. Terry, still on the call with Lady Ava, walked quickly to one of the computers.
He placed his hand on the orb-shaped mouse and pressed the control that shifted the Cosmic Trace Sentinel satellite a short distance away from Galaxia.
On the screen, the view zoomed in on the source of the cosmic energy surge. The image stopped at a remote spot in the snowy lands of Nepal.
"This doesn't make any sense," Terry muttered. He narrowed his eyes.
He stared at the screen like he was searching for something, even though the details were already clear.
"Terry, what is it?" Lady Ava's voice came through the call.
"It's a fading energy. From the readings here, it's scattered all over the area like there was a fight between two Izigans, maybe more. The Stellar Signature Scanner satellite is still under repair, so we can't tell exactly what kind of energy it is."
"Deploy ships now, and the SPU (Spectral Recon Unit) men." Lady Ava's tone shifted to a high pitch, her face tense and brows furrowed.
It was clear she knew something was wrong. Ships were normally deployed on a Code Yellow, but when Terry mentioned the fading energy, he had hesitated.
"Yes, my lady."
"Deborah will be coming along. I've sent her personal orders, her mission is hers alone."
Terry nodded softly, and the hologram call ended. Almost everyone in the room turned immediately to look at him. They were stunned, Lady Ava hadn't noticed that the fading energy reading was actually an error.
"After the ships are deployed, launch an investigation on the surveillance cameras," Terry ordered. "Someone shot down the Sector Unit's operating systems."
The system was designed to run without pause; even if the department shut down, it would still detect and report rare cosmic energy occurrences.
This was the first time it had ever shown a fading energy reading and if the systems had been online as they should, it would have triggered a Code Red instead.
Later on, black, spearhead-shaped ships built for the SPU men shot out of Galaxia and headed straight for Earth in a tight formation.
As they neared Earth, the pilots performed a quick phase dive, a sudden slip through the atmosphere that let them bypass the heavy force of Earth's atmosphere in order to reach the surface faster.
In the blink of an eye, they appeared beneath the skies and began speeding toward their destination.
The three ships soon crossed into the snowy lands of Nepal. The icy, blizzard winds slammed against their metal hulls as they descended. Landing struts dropped from beneath each ship, kicking up clouds of snow.
Air burst from the rectangular thrusters at the base, melting the snow directly below. Long stairs extended from the sides, and the SPU men rushed out in formation.
They wore black, tight combat suits with gear strapped around their waists. Their thick helmets had dark visors that shielded their eyes from the harsh weather.
After they had left to investigate the area, Deborah stepped out. She climbed down the stairs with Terry following from behind.
She glanced at him again, but he quickly turned his face away, knowing he hadn't stopped smiling since she came on board.
She had short white hair, pale skin, and blue eyes. Her blue-and-black skin-tight uniform carried the crest of the Earth Clan on her chest.
"What are you doing?" Deborah asked, shaking her head slightly like she was trying to figure him out.
Terry ran his hand over his brown skin, pretending to think, before glancing at Deborah.
"My boys know what to do. They'll report in a matter of minutes, then we will....."
"Sir! Sergeant, sir, we got something!" a voice interrupted through his earpiece, and Deborah heard it too.
"Alright, so what did you find?"
"Well… about that, sir, you might want to see this for yourself."
The voice on the other end slowed and grew slightly incoherent, which told Terry it was either strange or unbelievable. Still, he wasn't prepared for what he was about to see.
Minutes later he arrived.
"What in the Medusa-ass fuck is this?" he muttered.
He stood there, stunned, his heartbeat rising with every second.
'Oh shit, what the hell?'
The sight before him wasn't what he had imagined. His hands shook on their own, not because of the cold but because of what stood before him.
The entrance of the half-blown cave was splattered with blood, now frozen solid. He looked in dismay, his eyes locked on the scene.
But there was a lot of it, too much. Scattered around were bodies he recognized, their stillness making the scene even heavier.
Deborah moved quietly among them, her eyes scanning every detail. She stopped when she noticed something in the snow, footprints.
Not from the bodies lying there… from someone, or something. First, the little footprints she noticed.
"The kids… they were here," Deborah said quietly.
"So where are they now? Dead too? Sir David is gone. This " Terry gestured at the scene, "is clearly not the Peacemakers."
"You might want to check the back," she replied. "That's where it gets interesting."
They walked toward the rear, where most of the unit's men were rushing about with scanning devices, searching for lingering traces of cosmic energy.
Huge shards of ice jutted from the ground, scattered like spears. The whole place screamed of a massive fight.
"It's the girl, isn't it? Sir David had a granddaughter, Belle, she could control frost like you."
"Let's not talk about her in the past tense," Deborah cut in. "We don't know if she's dead."
"How can you tell? Their parents died in battle, but… wait a minute."
Terry's eyes locked on the towering ice formations. They were enormous, too enormous.
Belle's cosmic energy was still immature; there was no way she could have done this alone. Yes, there were rare cases of children born with unusually heavy cosmic energy but Belle wasn't one of them. They knew that much.
"You figured it out," Deborah said, crouching down by a large crater where the snow was thin and the ground was cracked. "She entered rage mode here, fighting whatever came after them. And she wasn't alone."
Before Terry could answer, one of the soldiers rushed over, face pale.
"Sir, it's Code Red. The Void was here."
The words froze the air around them.
'Fuck, the void?,' Belle thought. Her chest grew tight while she turned looking back at the cave. 'The void is no joke now'
After months of silence, the unknown entity had finally emerged. It was sudden, the Void appeared, and now they had to face it.
They still didn't understand what it was but now, seeing the footprints and signs of struggle, they suspected the children had been taken.
Now that it had come out, Attacking Sir David and his family, it sparked even more curiosity as to what it was up to.
Lady Ava knew her brother was here. I see why she ordered the ships deployed, Terry thought grimly. But how will she take it when she hears he's dead?
"The Void took the kid," Deborah said, scanning the snow. "By now it's gone too far. I'll help track it. If the ships get close, they'll detect its presence." She pointed to faint footprints leading away from the carnage.
"Take this, you'll need it."
Terry handed her a small tracking device, designed to pick up faint cosmic energy trails.
"Report back to base," she ordered, already turning away. "I'm taking this mission, track my location."
Without another word, she dashed into the snow. Frost wrapped around her. She slid across the icy ground like she was surfing. Within minutes, she vanished into the horizon.
Terry looked with tension. The thought of her bumping into the void clouded is thought.
'be careful'