The Dark Elf Captain staggered out of the flaming wreckage of his ruined flagship, smoke curling from torn plating and fractured armor. His breathing was ragged, fury radiating off him in waves.
The Night Raid—A-Class, pride of the border fleet—lay in twisted pieces behind him.
"Impossible..." he growled, crimson blood trickling down his jaw. "A single man… one S-Class vessel…"
Above, the Hyperion hung in the sky like a god's guillotine, its thrusters glowing dimly as it held position just beyond Vulcan's cloudline. The aftermath of the Yamato Cannon lingered like divine wrath—a scar gouged across the sky, fire still falling like rain.
His subordinate stumbled to his side, helmet cracked, voice panicked. "Sir… the fleet is gone. Our ships… they're all—"
"Silence," the Captain spat.
But the silence did not last.
Because from beyond the horizon, a new fleet appeared.
Not pirate. Not Vulcan.
Ascendancy-class warships.
Three high-mass Dreadnoughts flanked by destroyers emerged from foldspace, bristling with clean, surgical weaponry. Their hulls were marked with the insignia of the Solar Ascendancy's 2nd Strategic Response Command.
The wreckage of Dock 66 lay in full view.
The dead, the ruined ships, the cratered impact zone of the fallen Night Raid—all of it recorded and transmitted in real-time.
And standing at the head of this vanguard fleet was none other than Marshal Elias Draeven.
His voice thundered across wide-band transmission, amplified for all frequencies:
"This is Marshal Draeven of the Ascendancy. Dark Elf forces have violated the Vulcan Accord. You are now considered hostiles under Code Black."
The remaining Dark Elf troopers began to panic.
"But—but the relic—"
"Retreat is suicide—"
The Captain turned to his fractured forces. "If you want to survive," he snarled, "run. I'll buy you time."
And then he activated his final contingency.
A shimmer of violet light erupted from the ruins—his soulbrand glyph activating. Warp tendrils lashed out from his body, locking onto nearby fallen Dark Elves and draining their life essence.
He screamed.
Power surged.
His body twisted, expanded—armor cracking, bones reknitting. What rose was no longer a commander.
It was a beast.
A Dark Elf Ascendant—a corrupted psionic fusion born of agony and sacrificial rites.
Back near the concourse, Celeste Vale gripped the edge of a collapsed wall, her eyes wide. "What the hell is that?"
Silas Vire stood beside her, unmoving.
"That," he said calmly, "is desperation."
Then he tapped a command into his techband.
[Target Lock: Ascendant-Class Entity – Designate 'Aberrant']
[Authorization Level: Absolute]
[Fire Order: Hyperion – Precision Strike]
[Payload: Plasma Lance Mk IV]
Far above, the Hyperion responded.
One of its dorsal hatches peeled open. A pulse of cobalt light charged for a split second—and then unleashed.
The lance of condensed plasma tore through the clouds like the sword of a forgotten god.
The Ascendant barely had time to roar before it was speared through the chest—vaporized mid-scream.
The battlefield went still.
No sound. No defiance.
Just the slow wind brushing through the shattered bones of Dock 66.
Marshal Draeven's voice cut through the aftermath, calmer now.
"Hyperion. You are operating without a recognized Ascendancy charter. State your intent."
Silas activated the comms. "Intent? Simple. I clean up your failures."
A beat of silence.
Then a different voice came through—one colder. Female. Familiar.
"Silas Vire," said Lyra Caelis, her transmission routed through the Valkyrion's relay array. "You just made a dozen enemies today. Some of them might be your allies tomorrow."
Silas's lips curled.
"Then they'll learn to be useful… or be erased."
He cut the line.
And with that, the Hyperion rose again into orbit, the White Night trailing behind like a specter returned from ancient myth.
Behind them, the Vulcan docks began to recover.
But the message was clear across every relay in the system.
A new player had emerged.
Not an empire.
Not a pirate.
Not a lord.
A sovereign.
And the Void of Space had just gained its sharpest knife.
Let me know when you're ready to continue into Chapter 24.