The structural deck plating beneath Marshal Valerius's heavy combat boots did not stay stable for long. The moment the twelve Imperial heavy troopers closed their three point offensive wedge around the cargo sled, the central power node of the Zerg vanguard flagship underwent a massive system override. It was not a failure of the vessel's organic internal systems, nor was it a natural decompression cycle caused by the boarding torpedo's entry breach. It was a synchronized and total electronic blackout triggered by a high tier command frequency that existed completely outside the Third Army's tactical records.
Flicker.
The pulsing blue lights along the vault ceiling suddenly went completely dark. In the exact same millisecond, the flashing red emergency warning lights short circuited with a loud electronic pop, plunging the entire three hundred meter holding bay into complete darkness. The tactical visors inside the Imperial troopers' helmets instantly went blank. Their computerized targeting reticles disappeared into fractured lines of white static, leaving the soldiers blind inside the gray smoke.
"Maintain the wedge!" Valerius's voice boomed through the darkness, the rough sound of his command carrying a sharp note of alarm. He did not lower his high frequency blade. The yellow glow of the weapon cut a thin circle through the smoke as he turned toward the open airlock. "Troopers! Switch to manual optical overrides! Secure the General's frame before the tracking field resets!"
But the tracking field was no longer operating under Imperial Council control.
Through the shattered and glowing remains of the auxiliary docking port, a heavy, non reflective black assault frigate moved through the low orbit dust storm. The vessel did not use a normal and controlled deceleration. Instead, it slammed into the flagship's loading platform with a violent crash that tore the iron guide rails from their concrete supports, sending a shower of white hot sparks across the rubberized floor. The automatic hydraulic boarding ramps slammed down across the deck with a heavy metallic thud that sent vibrations through Kaelen's paralyzed body.
A dozen high tier royalist guards, dressed in sleek, non reflective black armor that absorbed the red emergency lights, dropped from the frigate's deployment lines. They moved through the smoke with terrifying coordination, showing the skill of professional frontier soldiers. Their heavy kinetic lances were already charged and hummed with a low electrical current.
Standing at the center of the new formation was Prince Lysander.
His long dark cloak moved violently in the toxic wind coming through the orbital breach. His hood had been thrown back, revealing his sharp aristocratic features and the bright green eyes that carried the full authority of the royal bloodline. He carried neither a short blade nor a laser rifle. He simply walked down the ramp with his hands loosely tucked inside his sleeves, a long, loud laugh leaving his lips. It was the same smooth and arrogant laugh that had once echoed through the rusted isolation cells of Tartarus.
"The tactical situation in this orbit requires a royal realignment, General," Lysander said, his voice cold and formal as he stopped less than two meters from Valerius's blade. His personal guards immediately formed a solid wall of black armor between the Third Army troopers and Syphax's centurions. "The Imperial Council has just transferred the General's asset registry to my direct custody to ensure a clean public trial within the Forbidden City."
Valerius's jaw tightened. The yellow light of his high frequency blade reflected across the Prince's perfect uniform collar. His left hand tightened around his sidearm as his gray eyes narrowed with cold anger. The full scale of the deception was beginning to become clear to him. "Prince Lysander... this completely contradicts the deployment files signed by the High Command forty minutes ago. The Third Army was authorized by the Council to secure the General's frame and prevent a Zerg extraction. The First and Second Armies were ordered to lock their positions inside the inner orbital ring."
"The First and Second Armies are operating under my direct command, best friend," Lysander said softly, a small and sharp smile appearing on his lips as he stepped closer to the glowing blade. He did not look at the weapon. His green eyes remained fixed on Valerius's pale face with the calm control of someone who had just revealed the true length of the strings controlling the entire operation. "Their generals do not take orders from a frontier Marshal. They take them from the throne. Your Third Army has served its purpose beautifully by isolating the Zerg tracking wedge and clearing the outer fence towers. Now, clear the platform before I record your hesitation as open treason against the core."
The twelve Imperial heavy troopers remained motionless. Their visors switched back to manual battery feeds as they recognized the royal lineage signals appearing across their internal command systems. They could not fire on the Prince's personal guards without triggering an immediate planetary execution order against their entire family line across the Core Worlds. The administrative network had closed around them from within.
Valerius looked from Lysander's bright green eyes down to Kaelen's chained and bleeding shoulder. The full horror of the political betrayal struck him like a kinetic impact. He realized in a single second that every calculation he had made during the flight from Veridia had become useless. The High Command had never intended for the Third Army to return from this orbit with a living General. He had been sent here to act as a scapegoat, a convenient military officer who would carry the public blame for the hybrid laboratories while the Prince built his military power in secret.
Kaelen watched Valerius carefully from the cargo sled. Despite the neural blocker and the pain spreading through his body, his mind remained clear. He knew Valerius better than almost anyone. His best friend would never betray the Empire. Valerius had spent his entire life protecting the Imperial borders, and Kaelen knew that no amount of power or pressure would make him willingly turn against the Empire. If Valerius had been placed in this position, then someone else had arranged it.
He looked at Valerius, his old best friend, whose gray eyes were now fixed on Lysander. The memory of the Cygnus X 1 command tents, where they had sworn an honest oath to defend the Empire's borders from the corruption of the capital, returned sharply to Kaelen's mind. He had spent months knowing that Valerius was hunting him, but he had never believed his friend had truly turned against him or the Empire. Now he understood the real purpose of the deployment. Valerius had been placed inside the blind spot and used as a scapegoat.
"You... you pulled the strings from the very beginning," Valerius whispered, his voice tight with realization. "Moran... Lin Leng... they weren't running independent regional cells. They were your assets."
"The ledger must be balanced without any stains, Genersl" Lysander laughed, turning his back on his former officer as he sharply waved to his personal guards. "Move the cargo sled onto the frigate's transit bay. We clear the atmospheric fence before the seasonal shift locks the sector."
The royalist guards did not hesitate. They manually lifted Kaelen's paralyzed body and moved him onto the assault frigate's loading tracks.
Lord Syphax remained near the central monitor console, his long fingers resting along the edge of the durasteel frame. His emerald vertical pupils were wide with amusement as he watched the human factions tear apart their own command structure. "A flawless performance, Prince. You want the General's frame to protect your own reputation before the throne shifts. But do not assume your black armor can hide his pheromone signature from my deep space swarms for more than twelve cycles."
"The twelve cycles are more than enough to close the file, Commander," Lysander replied. His voice remained flat as the assault frigate's heavy doors slammed shut. The vessel released its docking clamps and turned sharply into the yellow dust storm surrounding the planet Aethelgard below, leaving Valerius's Third Army stranded inside the dark and burning hull of the Zerg ship.
The air pressure inside the flagship's damaged cargo bay continued to fall in rhythmic mechanical sighs, but the vacuum of space did not pass through the assault frigate's thermal entry shields. Inside the locked loading track, darkness settled into complete and clinical silence. Kaelen remained pinned to the heavy durasteel sled, the automated tracking systems flashing faint blue codes across the lower part of his vision as the ship's FTL stabilizers began their primary ignition sequence.
He could hear the distant and continuous roar of Valerius's battlecruisers attempting to recalibrate their scanning grids outside the viewports. Heavy vibrations traveled through the hull plates like a dying pulse, but the Third Army was completely out of position. The Prince had not simply broken the extraction corridor. He had rewritten the legal structure of the entire sector.
Lysander stepped down from the command bridge, his black cloak trailing behind his heavy boots as he moved toward the cargo sled. He did not check the titanium clamps. He simply looked down at Kaelen's exposed and scarred ribs, a slow and pleased purr vibrating deep within his chest as his fingers adjusted the silver transponder stud in his left ear.
"You look remarkably unpolished without your uniform, General," Lysander whispered, his green eyes shining with amusement under the dim cabin lights. "The Marshal truly believed his silver command knots could hold a line against my First and Second divisions. He spends his life analyzing the ground beneath his boots, yet he cannot even calculate who pays for his ammunition. Let him burn inside Syphax's engine vaults. The capital's ledger is officially clear of his name."
Kaelen did not lower his focus. His jaw remained locked against the cold static of the neural blocks as the ship cleared the stratosphere. His gray eyes stayed fixed on the Prince's aristocratic profile. He knew Valerius would never betray the Empire. He knew the man who had once stood beside him at Cygnus X 1, and that knowledge made the truth even clearer. Lysander had not only betrayed him. He had used Kaelen's capture and Valerius's loyalty to build the perfect trap.
The assault frigate accelerated, its non reflective hull plunging straight into the heavy gray clouds of the planet Aethelgard below, completely hiding the silver line of the Third Army behind its shadow. The vacuum carried away the remaining smoke, and the orbit fell silent.