In the Federation officer-settlement planet kael was saying good bye to his parents about his departure it was time for him to leave for the service. Kael boarded with Elisa on his cruiser. He had spent his life surrounded by steel and silence. But now, as the stars widened before him, he stood at the threshold of something far greater.
The cruiser hummed quietly as it prepared to exit warp. Outside the viewport, nebulae smeared the darkness in streaks of violet and amber.
The destination was clear—Planet Zero-X-1, headquarters of the Federation's 20th Legion, nestled in Sector SLAlpha-002, part of the massive star domain that stretched across over 1000 large sectors, 1200 medium, and 1500 small ones, categorized meticulously: SL, SM, and SS—with alpha, beta, delta, gamma, and tango prefixes, like battle hymns written in code.
A storm of sectors.
And he was about to command fire through all of it.
Elisa adjusted course from the pilot chair. "Ten seconds to atmosphere breach. Zero-X-1 airspace is requesting full ID and command clearance."
Kael didn't answer. He simply slid on his officer badge.
Major Kael Renn.
Ghost Commander.
20th Legion, 4th Sub-Fleet.
As the ship descended, Zero-X-1 unfurled below them—a military ecumenopolis. Miles upon miles of defensive rings, orbital platforms, hangars, energy lattice fields, and shimmering domes. High command buildings like spearheads jutted from the crust, surrounded by spaceports crawling with movement. Automated drones zipped between towers. Cruisers rose and fell like breath. Everything ran with clinical, war-born efficiency.
But Kael's attention drifted upward.
Suspended just above the planet like a silent predator, her hull glinting in the sun—
The Seraphine.
The Federation's only active Leviathan-class mothership, known only to supreme admirals, stationed outside the Core Defense Ring. Six kilometers of classified engineering. Her hull shimmered darkly, angular and sleek like the edge of a scythe. A new class. Designed for him.
She wasn't just his command ship. She was his shadow.
And unlike the other sub-fleets of the Federation, Kael's was the only one granted such a ship.
Because he wasn't being sent to monitor borders.
He was being sent to make war.
The cruiser landed at the highest-tier military platform: Command Spire 09.
Kael and Elisa disembarked into a hangar buzzing with activity—pilots unloading supplies, engineers welding hulls, officers shouting coordinates. All of them paused for a beat when they recognized the insignia stitched into Kael's coat.
20th Legion Command Building
Zero-X-1, Interior Sector 7
The walls were lined with silver banners marked with the 20th Legion's sigil: a double-headed spear over a red star. Data terminals hissed and buzzed. Officers moved like clockwork.
Kael walked down the central aisle, flanked by silent guards. Elisa walked two steps behind—her eyes always scanning.
Waiting in the inner hall was the Legion Commander—a towering, war-scarred officer named Marshal Vehron Deyrus.
A man who'd fought more wars than some planets had days.
He didn't smile when he saw Kael.
"You're younger than I imagined," Vehron said, arms crossed. His voice had the texture of a war drum. "But I've seen what you did in Stellar Academy. The simulations. The instructors you broke. And that one time you ran a siege with three ships and still won."
Kael didn't blink. "Simulation isn't war."
"No," Vehron replied. "But war is where men like you become monsters—or martyrs."
He stepped forward, placing a hand on Kael's shoulder—not in greeting, but in measurement.
"You're being sent into something we haven't touched in centuries," Vehron said lowly. "We've held the outer sectors with duct tape and desperation. But those regions beyond SM Alpha-200 to SS Delta-300? They're wild. Dead zones. Pirate nests. Alien ruins. Unnamed threats."
"I'm ready."
"You say that now." Vehron leaned in. "But once you cross that border, even the stars will start lying to you."
Then he handed Kael a sealed data crystal.
"The Supreme Commander is waiting. Welcome to the deep end, Ghost Commander."
A few hours later…
Kael entered the towering Citadel of the Supreme Commander, at the planet's core—surrounded by elite guards, black-armored and faceless.
The inner sanctum was dark, lit only by the swirling holographic maps of the sector grid. Every light dot represented a sector. A hundred glowed red.
The Supreme Commander—Admiral Tarus Veylan—stood at the central platform, arms behind his back, back straight, his presence cutting through the air like gravity.
"Major Renn," Veylan said without turning. "We have little time. I'll be direct."
Kael nodded.
Veylan rotated the map. A corridor of forty sectors appeared—each blinking red or amber.
"This is the artery. A classified supply line disguised among dead sectors. It must remain secure for the next wave of operations. You will take Seraphine and your sub-fleet and push from SM Alpha-200 through SS Delta-300."
The artery stretched across systems with wildly different terrain. Some were asteroid belts full of gravity traps, others dense nebulae that disrupted communications. Abandoned starports drifted in space like haunted skeletons. The path twisted through derelict mining systems, defunct satellite colonies, and rogue moons.
Kael frowned. "Why is the area so dangerous?"
Veylan brought the map out further.
Behind the last small sector… was something else.
A scorched region of space.
Where even light bent wrong.
"The edge of a forgotten war," Veylan said. "Two civilizations—both Level 10—annihilated each other there ten thousand years ago. We are only Level 7. Their scraps can kill us even in ruin."
"And you want me to camp on their bones."
"I want you to survive long enough to secure this artery. Because if you don't—what happened to them might just happen to us."
Kael's gaze was cold and clear.
"Understood."
Kael left the Citadel and walked straight to the Seraphine.
Inside, his fleet was already being loaded. Supply mechs, repair bots, recon drones, war AI, and over twenty thousand mechas—ready to respond at a thought.
Elisa met him at the hangar.
"Deployment in twenty," she said, handing him a list of launch codes.
Kael glanced once at the star map displayed above the bridge.
Forty sectors. Three light-years.
A war waiting to happen.
"Elisa," he said.
"Yes?"
He turned, looking at Seraphine one last time.
"Let the Seraphine wake. Her partner has arrived."
Elisa smirked, teasingly. "A devil as partner to an angel. What an interesting combo."
And somewhere deep within the Seraphine, power surged.
The angel was ready to follow the Devil.