UGT: 5th Ruan 280 a.G.A. / 04:11 a.m.

  Location: ASF Aurora's Stealthfighter, close to Tarnis-Vekk. Karesh-Ti’Varn system(yellow dwarf), Inner-Noran sector, Ruidan Raider Association, Milky Way

  The Stealthfighter tilted with barely noticeable inertial strain, orbiting a gravitational vortex with surgical precision. Tarnis-Vekk loomed ahead, an angular shadow suspended in cold starlight, its surface marbled with frost and radiation burns from past conflicts. Most systems in the galaxy had already seen battle at some point in their ancient history and in some cases, the marks were still obvious even nowadays. The planet rotated slowly, almost defiantly, and in the dark of its far side, Fen angled us into the shadow of one of its moons. The relay tower and its defenses hung just above.

  [ We’re in final approach range. I’m completely shifting power from drive modulation into hulldampeners now. Our emissions are practically nonexistent now. But I'd still recommend to be careful, there is no chance drastic movements remain undetected, and their drones could still find us by accident. ]

  The relay platform itself was a spire of reflective metal shielding, hanging in high orbit beneath an array of defense platforms and ship patrol lanes. It wasn’t meant to be taken by stealth. That much was obvious. And yet, here we were.

  Two Corvettes drifted around the station in a staggered pattern, too predictable, too reliant on passive sensors and orbital pings. Beneath them sat a Cruiser, a Destroyer, and a loose screen of Frigates. Behind them, the relay tower glinted in the filtered light of Karesh-Ti’Varn’s distant star. This tower didn’t just track all inbound hyperspace traffic. It also routed communication, organized systemwide fleet logistics, was responsible for general systemwide scans and synced fleet signatures across the Association’s battle network. Kill it, and the whole sector’s command coordination would degrade by roughly 20%, at least if Fen's calculations were on spot. The effect would obviously grow if the other two relay powers fell as well. “What do you make of the local drone traffic? How serious is the threat?” I asked.

  [ It's very clearly automated. Patterned. We’re lucky in that aspect, seeing how they’re using a closed-loop sweep pattern across the tower's mid-levels without many surprising factors. It's very easy to calculate overall. I can give us a twelve-second entry window for our mission, I believe. Maybe fourteen, but I would prefer to leave room for potential miscalculations on my part. ]

  “That should be enough time,” I said quietly, watching the planet swell in our view like a looming giant. The Stealthfighter curved with the orbital flow of Tarnis-Vekk, its hull gliding close enough to the atmosphere that thin eddies of plasma kissed the shielding. We dropped even lower until the curve of the relay tower’s sensor field brushed against our flight envelope like a sleeping leviathan’s breath. The airlock decompressed in total silence. The rear hatch unfolded like a mouth, a silent invitation to the abyss.

  [ Drop in three… two… one… Now! ]

  I stepped into the void. What I hadn’t mentioned to anyone, “anyone” in this case being no one, because no one else was suicidal enough to even be here, was that the relay tower couldn’t be destroyed from orbit. The damn thing was built like a spinal node inside Tarnis-Vekk’s upper atmosphere, wrapped in a dozen shield grids and a smart defense field. Anything big enough to destroy it would light us up like a distress beacon and the planetary atmosphere and gravitation made a quick retreat impossible. In space it would be a different situation but here we were. That unfortunately left only infiltration. Which, naturally, meant me.

  Freefall across a planetary atmosphere is not like jumping in vacuum. There's drag. Gravity. The tiniest deviation means you either burn up, miss your target, or smash into a mountain. The relay station’s artificial gravity field didn’t help either, blending with Tarnis-Vekk’s weak native pull to create a trajectory that felt like flying through molasses while being spun in a centrifuge. I kept my descent thrusters cold, seeing how anything active would definitely trigger their scanners and let inertia carry me instead. My arms stayed tucked in tight, the suit’s magnetic limbs locked to avoid any unintentional spin. One mistake and I’d spiral out into the nothing.

  Fen, of course, monitored every second. The Stealthfighter, running entirely on automated instructions, held orbit by the slimmest of margins. No corrections. No backup. We had a single insertion window and another one to leave again. If I missed it, that would be it. I tapped my suit’s orientation node. The angle shifted. Tarnis-Vekk tilted below me, shadowed by clouds and heat shimmer. And there it was, the planetary relay tower, emerging from the clouds like a monolith, covered in ridges of solar plating and defensive turrets. Its maintenance ring rotated lazily. Somewhere inside that ring, a single vulnerable point would briefly open during its rotation cycle. Twelve seconds long it would be, Fen had said. We luckily only needed nine.

  The intake slot for orbital satellite servicing spun into view, a narrow slit along the midsection of the tower, open for maybe three seconds. I timed it by instinct more than calculation and shot through it. The impact was jarring but expected. My suit absorbed the brunt of it. I slid across the maintenance corridor’s inner hull and sealed the hatch behind me with my Aetherian multi-function tool that I'd gained all the way back on Au'Shalis Prime. No alerts went off, at least none I knew off.

  Knowing my time was limited, I moved fast. Down tight vertical shafts, past flickering status consoles and inert repair drones, through emergency crawlways and long-forgotten maintenance tunnels. Floor by floor I descended toward the station’s neural core without being detected by cameras or crew. I really was thankful for the intelligence the Federation had gathered, however outdated it had been. The standard layouts of their stations were one of the few things that didn't change.

  At last, I stopped at the heart of the relay tower, the processing chamber. The nexus spun above me like a gyroscope built from plasma and glass, humming with energy. Until now, everything had gone exactly as planned. “Fen,” I whispered, “do your thing.”

  [ ...Destruction of the relay tower is not viable. Not with our tools. The system is too redundant and our operation window is too narrow. ]

  “…Shit,” I muttered, clenching my fist hard enough to creak the suit’s knuckles. We’d known this might happen. The tower’s internal systems had backup redundancies laced into secondary layers. Destroying it outright was practically impossible, even for us. Or at least not doable in the small timeframe we had. I’d hoped the Association had overlooked something, seeing how it wouldn't be the first time, but unfortunately, they hadn't. “Is the alternative ready? Is it even viable?” I asked.

  [ Yes. I can upload the dissonance package into the tower’s firmware. Once it takes hold, it’ll begin injecting falsified telemetry to every connected fleet node. Association fleets will receive wrong intel for weeks, if they even realize it. But if someone in the station notices the anomaly before the data stabilizes they can shut it down manually. Which means we need to eliminate the command crew. ]

  “Then we eliminate the command crew,” I said, exhaling. “There’s no other way.” Fen didn’t reply, but the core chamber dimmed as if to acknowledge the decision. My HUD flickered. I slung the compact Disintegrator off my back, its sleek length humming softly in my grip. “Would it be a problem if I trash the core after you're done?”

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  [ No. It might even help sell the idea that this was just brute sabotage. If they think we just destroyed the hardware, they may not dig deep into the software backups. ]

  I nodded once and slipped out of the core chamber. No hesitation. The first guard barely had time to register movement. The Disintegrator pulsed once, and he crumpled silently. The second tried to raise an alarm. A flicker of red lit his palm, but still too slow. I dropped him with a second burst before the signal could transmit. By the time I reached the command dais, the final technician was typing something into her console. She never saw me. I disabled her with a pinpoint burst. Her body slumped over the panel like a forgotten doll.

  Instantly after, Fen slipped into the primary interface slot. The device vibrated once. Lights flickered. Then the whole room changed hue, soft blue, then crimson, then settling on a flickering white pulse like a failing heartbeat.

  [ We’re in. Corruption sequence initiated. I’ve masked it as a routine firmware update and they should have no way of even noticing it. ]

  I finally allowed myself to breathe. One node down. Two more to go.

  [ I’m done. The Stealthfighter will be in position shortly. Once you destroy the core, we’re free to leave. ]

  I turned back to the relay’s spinning nexus, raised the Disintegrator, and fired. The beam sliced through the machinery like a scalpel through flesh. Sparks exploded. The structure buckled inward, venting coolant and plasma. The damage would take at the very least a few days to repair, the damage to their software, if they even noticed, probably months. More than enough time for us. I left the same way I came, through a venting maintenance exhaust. The plasma shroud brushed against my suit as I propelled outward, using the tower’s own expulsion systems to slingshot myself back into orbit. Timing had to be perfect.

  The Stealthfighter swept beneath me, right on cue. Its belly opened, magnetic clamps catching me mid-fall. We didn’t speak as the hatch sealed shut behind me. Silence. Only when the ship began to reorient did Fen finally speak again.

  [ Any preferences on which of the remaining two relay towers to hit next? ]

  I took a deep breath, then shook my head. “Doesn’t matter. In a few minutes, they’ll know someone’s here. So, take the closest one. Let’s finish this before they even know what hit them.”

  [ Course set. Eight minutes. You’ll want to rest? ]

  “I never do,” I murmured. But even as I said it, my muscles felt the tug of the previous drop. Every nerve still hummed with tension, the adrenaline not yet burned off. I stayed upright, strapped in loosely, my eyes locked on the holographic system map that hovered in front of me. Dots blinked in precise formation resembling hostile fleet patterns, patrol arcs and communication drift zones. The first relay’s absence had yet to be noticed. But I knew the window was narrowing. Every second that passed without a reaction was both a blessing and a curse. Because once they did react, it would come fast.

  And still… eight minutes later, as we reached the second relay tower, silence. No fleets scrambled. No local garrison pinged us. No scan pulses brushed against our hull. The second relay tower floated alone, stabilized by its own micro-thrusters and shield bubble. Not integrated into any planetary structure, not protected by surface cannons or support satellites. It was just sitting there, inert and overconfident. A relic of arrogance.

  [ Target acquired. Point-blank engagement profile confirmed. ]

  “Do it,” I ordered. The Stealthfighter's hull groaned softly as the forward gauss cannon loaded with antimatter weaponry slid into deployment. Smaller than the Aurora’s weapons but still far beyond anything the local fleets could dream of. It punched through the shield with ease before delivering its payload inside the relay tower. A massive explosion tore it apart. I watched as the second comms spike vanished from the system-wide display.

  And then the reactions came in. All across the system map, ships began to twitch. It started with small course corrections and tiny adjustments but within seconds, they escalated. The closest spaceships instantly altered their vectors to triangulate our position. Two of them launched recon drones. Long-range scanners swept across our general area. A dozen pings slammed into our hull. We were no longer ghosts. The antimatter residue on our stealth armor lit us up like a flare.

  [ They've noticed. Multiple ships are breaking formation. Nearest response units are just outside of their effective firing range, rapidly accelerating towards us. ]

  “Then we’re not finished yet,” I said, snapping the last magnetic clasp on my harness. “Third tower. Take us there fast!”

  [ Route locked. One minute thirty-four. Recommend bracing for high-acceleration burn. ]

  The Stealthfighter roared forward, silent from the outside, but I felt the vibration through every atom of my bones. The inertial dampeners strained to keep up, flooding my suit with counterforce. A burn like this wasn’t stealthy, but stealth didn’t matter anymore. We were playing catch-and-crash now. The third relay tower was a high-orbit model tethered to a decaying research ring. Half-defunct, probably manned by a skeleton crew. It hadn’t transmitted in a while, possibly assumed redundant due to the other two that were much more modern.

  Now, it became relevant. It could still do its job if we didn't take it out as well. We had to finish it. “Fen, how populated is the structure?”

  [ Scans show minimal life signs. Six lifeforms aboard. No powered weapons. Station integrity is weak. ]

  I nodded once. “Get me in close. We blow it and get out.”

  [ That’s a Cruiser, a Destroyer, two Frigates, and two Corvettes sitting on that tower with a same-sized group chasing us from the last one. Estimated intercept: two minutes.]

  “They want to box us in,” I muttered. “Then we don’t give them the chance.”

  [ You sure you don’t want to talk to them? Could be a lovely negotiation. ]

  I didn’t answer though I appreciated Fen’s willingness to crack a joke in this situation. The Stealthfighter dived through a pocket of debris and skimmed the underside of the comms array. The relay structure was massive. Bigger than the last two combined and anchored into the husk of a long-dead research station. Antennae jutted out in every direction. The whole thing was shielded by the local formation with weapons ready. But they had too few ships to block us from reaching the station and we had the bigger weapon range. “Arm the railgun again. Minimum timer on the antimatter load.”

  [ Copy. Blast yield set. ]

  The Stealthfighter rotated, thrusters tilting to give me a brief visual of the tower’s underside. I spotted the primary relay core: half-exposed, vulnerable. No armor. Probably never thought they'd need it. “Launch,” I ordered. A silent burst of pressure, and the gauss cannon fired from the undercarriage.

  [ Pulling us out. Strap in. ]

  We shot upward, threading the narrow gap between two rusted support struts just as the first ping from the trailing garrison hit us. At the same moment the antimatter load pierced the relay tower and the entire structure went up in another explosion.

  [ They’re blind. No signals coming out. Third tower’s dead. ]

  And with that, Fen had confirmed our success. Behind us, the second garrison pushed hard, probably hoping to flank and intercept. But they were seconds too late. We’d already angled away, diving back towards Tarnis-Vekk.

  [ Multiple hostile pings in pursuit. They’re scrambling. No cohesion. Two ships just collided mid-maneuver, trying to catch us but lacking their relay signals from the towers. They're clearly out of their depth with only having their ships scanners available. ]

  “Let them burn,” I said, voice low. “It’s done.”

  [ Confirmed. Three of three relays offline. Viral cascade running clean. Local command functions degrade by the second. The entire system is becoming more and more chaotic with seemingly no one in a position to reestablish command. ]

  I let my head fall back against the seat. The hum of the cockpit settled around me. The reactor pulsed beneath my feet like a heartbeat.

  “They’ll hopefully think it was a coordinated strike from multiple ships and sabotage teams,” I said, almost to myself. “There's no way they expect a single ship to have managed that. They’ll waste hours chasing ghosts.” I allowed the smallest smile.

  [ What now? The Association ships are still following us, we're not exactly hidden anymore. ]

  "Now, we'll get away from them with multiple emergency jumps. In the current chaos, they'll probably lose sight of us. Then, we go into hiding deep inside the atmosphere of Garnuk-Tel. And then, we'll wait until the fleet arrives. It should only take a few days. Then, the battle can truly start."