LOCATION: High Orbit of Elytor-III.

  TIME: Immediately after the Fracture.

  "SSS?..." the voice on the encrypted channel hesitated, losing its metallic authority for a microsecond. "We are aware of the presence of a Hunter... but there is no intelligence indicating an SSS-rank threat on that planet."

  Fer looked out through the Blitz's viewport. Below them, the remnants of the East Zone burned like an artificial meteor shower, plummeting toward the clouds.

  "In the report I sent, I warned you that a Captain named Ripto is a traitor," Fer replied coldly, ignoring her superiors' doubts. "If a White Cradle captain sold us out from the inside, imagine what the local government has already done."

  There was silence on the other end of the line. Fer's logic was irrefutable: if intelligence had failed to flag Ripto, they could have failed with everything else.

  "The planet is a rat's nest. And the big rats hide well," Fer stated.

  "Copy that..." the voice finally conceded. "The planet will remain classified as an SS-hazard until there is tangible proof of a greater threat. One more thing, Agent... Priority has escalated. Capture ex-captain Ripto alive. We need to know what else they know."

  "Copy."

  Fer cut the comms. Pulling her fingers away from her earpiece, she moved with slow, deliberate precision to put on her Chnina helmet, sealing her face behind the opaque visor. She turned to Major Matsumoto, who was still staring at the status screens, his face deathly pale.

  "Major, initiate the landing sequence for the rest of the fleet. And relay the following to the drop pods," she ordered.

  Victor, without questioning the order or consulting his superior, nodded nervously and opened the general broadcast channel.

  "This is Blitz actual to all drop units..." his voice transmitted to hundreds of receivers currently falling at terminal velocity. "The planet is classified as an SS-class hazard and is mostly occupied by rebel forces. Do not expect a welcoming party. Attempt to regroup and make your way to the Modra district... Good luck."

  LOCATION: Mid-atmosphere of Elytor-III.

  STATUS: Critical descent.

  The escape pod vibrated with such violence it felt like the bolts would sheer off at any second. The roar of the air tearing against the exterior heat shield was deafening, turning the interior into a claustrophobic oven.

  Clifford clung to the central safety bar. His black armor reflected the spinning red emergency lights on the ceiling. Around him, strapped into the crash seats, Selene and Lyana remained unconscious, their heads slumped against their chests. Ripto, handcuffed and lying on the grated floor, slid across the deck with every violent jolt.

  "Agent E08252..." the voice from Oprichnina HQ piped directly into his earpiece, cutting through the ambient roar. "Emergency mission update: Target priority has shifted. You must capture and secure ex-captain Ripto alive. Absolute priority."

  "Copy," Clifford grunted.

  The turbulence eased slightly as the atmospheric parachutes deployed in the upper atmosphere, braking their descent.

  Clifford took advantage of the relative stability to pull off his damaged helmet. He needed real air, even if it was the stale, recycled air of the pod.

  His black hair clung to his sweat-drenched forehead; at the corner of his mouth, his dark mole looked like a deliberate mark. His pale, hard eyes didn't blink.

  He peered out through the small circular viewport.

  Below, the planet stretched out immense and beautiful, a blend of wild greens and gray oceans, completely oblivious to the war raining down upon it from the sky.

  Then, he looked down at his feet.

  Ripto shifted. The traitorous captain let out a groan of pain and blinked his eyes open. He found himself staring directly into Clifford’s cold glare.

  Instead of fear, a dry, sarcastic chuckle escaped Ripto's bloodstained lips. Clifford didn't even raise an eyebrow.

  "You think you're on the right side, kid?" Ripto asked, his voice raspy.

  Clifford stared at him with contempt but didn't answer. His silence was response enough for the captain.

  "Sometimes..." Ripto continued, coughing and shifting to lean his back against the pod's bulkhead, "what you think is right, is dead wrong. And in my case... believing the Empire fights to save everyone was my fucking mistake."

  Clifford felt a pang of disbelief, which briefly flashed across his face. He clenched his jaw.

  "What the hell are you talking about?" Clifford asked, dropping his voice to make the threat sharper.

  Ripto smiled, a blood-stained smirk that didn't reach his eyes.

  "Have you never wondered why people like you... can withstand the mutations? Why you survive the process when so many others die trying?"

  "Genetics," Clifford replied immediately, reciting the dogma drilled into him since his first day of training. "That's the answer. Biological compatibility."

  "In a way, yes..." Ripto conceded, tilting his head and studying him like a specimen under a microscope. "But looking at your face, I doubt you'll accept the whole truth."

  The captain let out a short, dry laugh.

  "But you'll know it someday, Clifford... When you finally stop looking only at what you want to see."

  Hearing his name, Clifford felt a chill that had nothing to do with the pod's temperature. He remembered the masked General, those mismatched eyes locked onto him through the airlock.

  "Did you give my last name to the guy in the mask?" Clifford demanded, stepping closer, his presence looming and menacing. "And how do you know me?"

  Ripto laughed again, closing his eyes.

  "He knows everything about you. About you, the Foxes, everyone. If you want to know more... you should look for him."

  Meanwhile, in one of the crash seats, Selene remained perfectly still, her eyes closed and her breathing rhythmic, pretending to still be out cold. But her mind was wide awake, sharp as a razor.

  Every word Ripto said burned itself into her memory. Mutations... the truth... Her instincts screamed that this conversation was more dangerous than the fall itself.

  Suddenly, the conversation died.

  GRRRAAAAAM!

  A deafening roar engulfed the pod. The turbulence escalated into pure violence as they hit the dense layers of the atmosphere. The G-force spiked brutally.

  Because Clifford was standing, lacking a proper seat, he lost his balance instantly.

  "Brace yourselves!" he shouted, though apparently, only one person could hear him.

  He staggered, fighting against the G-force, but it was useless. A violent lurch threw him sideways. His head slammed hard against the reinforced frame of the viewport, then bounced off the metallic edge of an empty seat.

  The world blurred. He felt the wet heat of blood trailing down his forehead, blinding his left eye and coating his cheek, but he forced himself to stay conscious, gripping a support strut as the floor seemed to vanish beneath his feet.

  LOCATION: Surface of Elytor-III.

  DISTRICT: Unknown.

  AREA: Rural.

  Along a seemingly peaceful dirt road, bathed in the light of an eternally cloudy afternoon, the air smelled of damp earth and foreign grass.

  "I told you not to run!" a young girl scolded, dusting off her skirt. "Daiki!"

  She glared at a little boy who shared her features. Daiki, a small boy with olive skin and short black hair, completely ignored her annoyance. He ran in circles around her, laughing out loud and brushing off her warnings.

  This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

  "You're too slow, Hana!" the boy teased, sticking his tongue out.

  "Hey...! It's going to get dark soon!" she scolded him again. "Stop playing around!"

  "We'll be late because of you," Daiki mocked. "You're the one who isn't running."

  Hana opened her mouth to yell at him again, but the sound never came out. It was drowned out by a high-pitched shriek that tore through the sky, as if someone had ripped the fabric of the world itself.

  They both looked up.

  A fireball streaked across the sky at terrifying speed, passing directly overhead with a sonic boom that shook the earth.

  The blast wave hit them like an invisible wall, throwing them both into the tall grass on the side of the road.

  Hana scrambled up quickly, spitting dirt, her eyes frantically searching for her brother. She found him a few meters away, sitting up and staring at the spot where the object had vanished behind the tree line.

  "Daiki!" Hana ran over and hugged him tightly.

  But Daiki wasn't scared. His eyes sparkled with a mix of awe and childlike curiosity. He immediately wiggled out of her embrace and pointed at the plume of smoke rising in the distance.

  "Sister! Sister!" he yelled excitedly. "Let's go see! A star fell!"

  "No!" Hana replied, panic evident in her voice as she grabbed his arm. "We have to go back to the village! Right now!"

  The boy, driven by invincible curiosity, yanked his arm free.

  "I'm going to see!" he yelled, bolting into the dense brush, laughing without a care in the world.

  "Daiki, no!" Hana screamed.

  Seeing that he wasn't listening, Hana cursed under her breath, gathered her courage, and pushed into the undergrowth after him, ignoring the branches scratching her arms.

  She ran, guided by her brother's laughter, screaming at him to come back, telling him it was dangerous. But the kid was fast.

  Suddenly, Daiki's laughter cut off. There was the sound of a stumble, followed by a dull, metallic thud.

  "Ouch!"

  Hana froze, her heart in her throat. She had just reached the edge of a clearing where the earth had been violently churned up, forming a smoking crater.

  "DAIKI!" she screamed, seeing her brother at the bottom of the pit.

  The boy was picking himself up, rubbing his head and wincing. He had tripped and tumbled down the slope of the crater, bumping into the hot metal of the escape pod currently embedded in the dirt.

  "I'm fine..." Daiki said, dusting off his knees. "I just bumped into that thing."

  Hana placed a hand over her chest, letting out a shaky sigh of relief.

  "Don't ever do that again, please!" she yelled, fighting back tears.

  "You're so boring," Daiki complained, looking up at her. "You used to be more fun."

  Hana gripped her blouse, feeling the injustice of his comment, but her fear was stronger.

  "Get out of there, Daiki..." she pleaded. "We don't know what that thing is."

  Daiki was about to protest when a shadow fell over the clearing. The boy looked up, past his sister, toward the sky. His eyes went wide, his jaw dropping open.

  "Sis... sis... sister..." he stammered, raising a trembling finger. "Look..."

  Hana saw the sheer terror on her brother's face and turned around slowly.

  The previously cloudy sky was being ripped apart. Massive chunks of flaming metal were falling like an apocalyptic rain. What was left of the Blitz's East Zone was entering the atmosphere, disintegrating and turning the horizon into a blazing hellscape.

  Hana's face drained of color. The roar of the orbital bombardment began to reach them, a distant thunder rapidly closing in.

  She reacted purely on instinct. She didn't think; she just moved. Sliding down to the bottom of the crater, she reached Daiki and pulled him into her arms, shielding his head. She glanced up one last time, watching the artificial meteors grow larger.

  "Don't look..." she told Daiki, pressing him against her chest and burying his face in her shoulder so he wouldn't have to watch the end of the world. "Don't look!"

  Suddenly, the pod's locking mechanisms blew with a sharp hiss. A jet of pressurized gas shot out the sides, kicking up a cloud of hot, white dust.

  Hana let out a choked gasp, twisting around and stumbling backward, her heart hammering against her ribs like a trapped bird. Her legs trembled so violently they could barely support her.

  The hatch opened with a metallic screech.

  From amidst the steam and shadows of the interior, a figure emerged. Clifford stumbled out, his black armor dented, blood painting half his face. Seeing the terrified young girl in front of him, he stopped, surprised to find civilians so close to the drop zone.

  But the world didn't give them time for introductions.

  BOOOM!

  An explosion in the sky shook the ground beneath their feet. Clifford looked up, his eyes widening with urgency. The debris from the Blitz, which had been falling like a slow rain, began detonating in the lower atmosphere, turning into a lethal meteor shower heading straight for them.

  "Watch out!" Clifford roared.

  He lunged forward, not to attack, but to cover them. In two massive strides, he reached Daiki and Hana.

  The girl, seeing the metal giant charging at her, panicked and tried to scramble back, but she tripped over a root and fell hard onto her hands.

  Clifford planted himself over them like a tower. He raised his left forearm toward the sky and deployed his energy shield at maximum output.

  A translucent blue dome materialized over them just as hell made landfall.

  The impact was deafening. Fragments of incandescent metal rained down on the shield, erupting into sparks and flames that licked at the energy barrier.

  The ground around the crater shuddered violently, but inside Clifford's dome, the kids remained untouched.

  The bombardment lasted for what felt like an eternity before finally ceasing, leaving behind only the crackle of scorched earth and the hum of the shield deactivating.

  Dust choked the clearing like thick fog. Hana had her eyes squeezed shut, hugging Daiki so tightly her arms ached.

  "Are you alright?" a deep, yet surprisingly warm voice asked, breaking the silence.

  Hana slowly opened her eyes. The dust was settling, and through the haze, she saw the man who had protected them. Sunlight filtered through the smoke, illuminating his armor and his bloodied, yet serene face.

  To her, in that moment, he didn't look like a soldier.

  "What a beautiful angel..." Hana whispered breathlessly, speaking without thinking.

  Clifford blinked, entirely confused by the comment.

  "Huh?"

  Reality hit Hana like a ton of bricks. Realizing what she had just said out loud, her face flushed crimson. She looked down, completely mortified, unable to meet his eyes.

  A scraping sound ruined the magical moment.

  Captain Ripto, taking advantage of the confusion and Clifford having his back turned, had crawled out of the pod. Despite being handcuffed, he scrambled to his feet and bolted toward the thicket, making a desperate break for it.

  "He's getting away!" Daiki yelled, pointing at him.

  Clifford spun around, ready to give chase, but he didn't have to.

  From the pod's open hatch, a gloved, feminine hand shot out. Selene, still dizzy but with her aim perfectly intact, had grabbed a rock the size of a fist.

  With a fluid flick of her wrist, she hurled the projectile.

  "Where do you think you're going!"

  The rock flew with millimeter precision and struck the back of Ripto's head with a dull thwack. The traitorous captain face-planted into the dirt, knocked unconscious for the second time that day.

  Clifford, genuinely surprised, turned back toward the pod. Selene was leaning against the hatch frame, disheveled and bruised, but wearing a mischievous smirk. She stuck her tongue out at him, like a proud little kid showing off a prank.

  "Nice shot," Clifford admitted calmly.

  Daiki helped his sister up. They both looked at the man in black with a mixture of fear and profound gratitude.

  "Thank you... for saving us," Hana said, offering a clumsy little bow.

  "Just doing my duty," Clifford replied modestly, downplaying the act as he wiped the blood from his brow. "I would have done the same no matter what."

  Selene, who was watching the scene while trying to catch her breath, felt a strange flutter in her chest. Seeing this man, who just minutes ago had been so serious and authoritative, acting with such humility around a couple of kids completely threw her off guard.

  He's cute, Selene thought, feeling a sudden warmth in her cheeks. Who would've guessed the guy under the helmet was actually cute.

  A groan of pain echoed from inside the ship. Lyana stumbled out, clutching her ribs.

  "Lyana!" Selene exclaimed, entirely forgetting her thoughts as she rushed over to hug her.

  Lyana sobbed, letting out all the pent-up tension.

  "I thought we were going to die..." she whimpered.

  Selene hugged her tighter. Lyana winced in pain, but didn't pull away. Instead, she returned the embrace, desperately needing the physical proof that her friend was alive.

  "I know this isn't a good time..." Clifford interrupted, scanning the sky with deep suspicion. "But we need to move. That explosion is going to draw attention."

  The two women nodded, separating and hastily wiping away their tears. Clifford turned back to the civilians.

  "Kaiden Clifford, that's my name," he said, introducing himself formally.

  "Selene," the captain added.

  "Lyana..." the sniper muttered.

  The young local girl took a deep breath, regaining her composure.

  "Hana... my name is Hana Xyrius."

  "And I'm Daiki!" the boy piped up, giving them a gap-toothed smile that wildly contrasted with the absolute disaster surrounding them.

  The forest seemed peaceful despite everything, but that peace was a lie. The low thrum of engines echoed in the distance, closing in fast. Several rebel combat gunships crested the treetops, sweeping the area.

  "Attention all citizens..." a mechanically amplified voice boomed from the sky. "Enemy drop pods detected. If you locate soldiers of the Empire, you are ordered to hand them over immediately, or you will be considered accomplices."

  Hana looked at the gray and black uniforms of her saviors. She knew exactly who they were. But then she looked at Kaiden, the "angel" who had shielded them with his own body, and made her choice.

  "Don't worry..." Hana said, looking them dead in the eye. "You can trust us. I know paths they can't see."

  Right then, Kaiden's comms unit emitted a screech of static.

  "Do... do you.... copy?...." Fer's voice fought to break through the heavy interference.

  "Those are rebels, we need to go," Lyana urged, eyeing the helicopters.

  With Selene's help, Kaiden hoisted Ripto's dead weight over his shoulder, momentarily ignoring the broken transmission. The group plunged into the dense vegetation, following Hana's lead.

  As they marched, Kaiden adjusted the frequency on his comms, hunting for a clean signal. Finally, as they put distance between themselves and the impact zone, the voice cleared up.

  "Do you copy?" Fer asked.

  "I hear you..." Kaiden replied.

  "Finally..." The relief in Fer's voice was palpable. "Listen to me... You are out of time. Get to the Modra district as fast as possible!"

  "What's going on...?" he asked, confused. "I figured you'd be sitting comfortably by now."

  "I would be, if traitors hadn't leaked the frigate's passenger manifest..."

  Kaiden stopped dead in his tracks, his blood running cold. The implication hit him instantly: Classified.

  "How did they get access to Oprichnina intel?"

  "No idea," Fer's reply came through with a crackle of static. "But this confirms we have high-level traitors."

  "The governor...?"

  "I wouldn't rule him out..." her response was drowning in static now. "There are a lot of people involved, so consider yourself warned."

  "Anyone specific in mind?"

  "Witho—" The static spiked violently, and the signal died for good.

  Kaiden tapped his earpiece hard, frustrated, but the message was crystal clear: they were sitting ducks. He turned back to face the group.

  "We have to get to Modra. It's our only way out."

  Lyana, who was visibly limping, stared out at the endless expanse of the forest.

  "How long will it take us to get there on foot?" she asked.

  Kaiden tried to project the holographic map from his wrist gauntlet, but it only yielded a blinking red light.

  "Connection error due to interference," his AI reported.

  "We're flying blind," he grunted.

  Hana, who had been listening to the exchange, looked toward the horizon, calculating the route through the mountains and the dense woods.

  "Two weeks..." the young girl said with absolute certainty. "About two weeks, if we don't stop."

  Selene's eyes widened in sheer disbelief.

  "Two weeks? I thought we were closer."

  Kaiden looked at his injured squadmates and the prisoner slung over his shoulder. Time was running out, the distance was massive, and the hunters were already in the sky.

  "Move out," Kaiden ordered. "We don't have a minute to lose."

  End of the chapter 13!