2 YEARS AND 7 MONTHS OF HIBERNATION...

  LOCATION: Wia Solar System.

  TIME TO ARRIVAL: 3 months, 2 days, 05:56 minutes and counting.

  "INTRUSION ALERT!" blared the alarms, a synthetic voice tearing at the eardrums. "LEVEL 3! EAST ZONE COMPROMISED!"

  Cedric's pod opened with an agonizing hiss of emergency decompression. Cryogenic gel spilled onto the floor drains, leaving him soaked, shivering, and covered in a viscous film. His mind still floated in black limbo, unable to connect with his limbs.

  "Hey...! Wake up!" shouted a distant voice, distorted by the ringing in his ears. "Wake up, please!"

  He felt himself being shaken.

  He opened his eyes to a mere slit. Everything was blurry and red. His head rested on something soft. Lyana's thighs. She looked down at him, her face pale and her hair plastered to her forehead by the gel.

  "Nothing yet?" asked Selene impatiently, adjusting her armor vambrace with a metallic clack.

  Lunaria, who was finishing adjusting her right gauntlet with fury, looked at the scene with annoyance.

  "Step aside," she growled.

  She walked over and, without warning, delivered a dry kick to his sternum.

  "Gah!"

  Cedric folded like a pocketknife. He spat out remnants of gel and sucked in air desperately, as if surfacing from drowning at the bottom of the sea. The sharp pain in his chest brought him back to reality in an instant.

  "Good!" Lunaria dusted off her hands. "Gear up and let's get out of here!"

  "You're an ogre, you know that?" said Krzytof, putting on his glasses with trembling fingers.

  Lunaria raised a fist without looking at him.

  "And that's why you think I'm incredible."

  Cedric staggered to his feet, leaning on the edge of the pod. The room was bathed in strobe red lights that induced nausea.

  "You were late," Lyana whispered beside him, wiping her watery eyes with the back of her hand.

  Cedric wanted to answer, but his throat was dry as sandpaper. He only nodded.

  "Let's move..." Selene ordered, verifying her seals were tight. "We're heading to the command deck."

  They stepped out into the hallway once everyone had their armor active.

  The change was atrocious. The immaculate and silent corridor from three years ago now looked like the throat of a wounded beast. Emergency lights dyed everything in blood. On the floor, there was a trail of dark, viscous stains. Oil... or something organic.

  "Major Matsumoto? Do you copy?" Selene called into the transmitter.

  There was only static and a sharp screech of interference.

  "Stay sharp. Silence," she ordered upon hearing a sound down the hall.

  They advanced in formation, sticking to the walls. As they walked, the stains on the floor increased, and laser burn marks on the walls told a story of recent violence.

  "Sabotage?" muttered Krzytof, looking at a destroyed panel.

  "Rebels," Selene sentenced.

  They reached the command deck zone. There, order was barely maintained, an island of control amidst the chaos.

  At the end of the path, they encountered a double armored door, guarded by two soldiers in full tactical gear with a white dragonfly patch on their shoulders. Upon seeing the Foxes, they lowered their weapons, and the door opened automatically.

  The deck was a hive of contained activity. Consoles blinking, holograms of structural damage spinning in the air, and personnel shouting coordinates.

  But what dominated the room was the large window.

  Outside, space wasn't empty. It was dirty.

  Floating debris, ship wreckage, and distant flashes of explosions filled the void. A scenario of total war.

  "Foxes..." said Major Matsumoto, who seemed to have noticed their entry without turning around, his back to them as he contemplated the disaster. He stood in the center of the storm, motionless. "I need your help."

  Selene brought her heels together and placed her arms in front in a position of attention. The others imitated her, hands behind their backs.

  "We are at your orders, sir," she said, lifting her chin.

  Matsumoto turned. He seemed to have aged ten years in those three years of sleep. He had deep dark circles under his eyes, and his uniform was wrinkled.

  "I don't have full jurisdiction over you. I know. But..." he swallowed hard, his voice wavering for an instant. "I need you to recover the East Zone of the Blitz."

  "Don't worry," Selene said quietly, with a cold smile that didn't reach her eyes. "We'll handle it."

  "Killing is our job, huh?" muttered Krzytof.

  Lunaria, standing next to him, gave him a short but potent elbow strike to the ribs. Krzytof swallowed the groan out of respect for the Major, but doubled over slightly.

  "Since our arsenal isn't that of a warship anymore," said Matsumoto, lightly clenching his right fist on the console, "Officer Victor will provide you with the little we have left."

  He gestured with his left hand.

  Victor entered the deck through a side door, followed by two soldiers carrying a black metallic case.

  "Sir," Victor nodded upon seeing his Major, then looked at the group. "Foxes."

  The squad returned the gesture.

  "Good," said Selene, approaching the case. "Grab a weapon. We'll split into three."

  Victor opened the box. Inside, resting on gray foam, lay five pistols of an unusual caliber. They were made of a matte gray-black material, no manufacturer marks, with ergonomic grips and barrels as thin as needles. Reaction pistols.

  The Foxes took one each. Lunaria weighed hers in her palm, pulling the slide to check the load.

  "The East Zone is big," she commented, holstering the pistol at her belt. "How do we split?"

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

  "You and Krzytof take Sector C," instructed Selene, adjusting her wrist interface. "Cedric and..."

  "I'll go to B," interrupted Cedric, loading his weapon with a dry movement.

  Selene stopped adjusting her gadgets. She stared at him. The silence stretched for a few seconds, tense.

  "Lyana and I will go to Sector A," she finally decided, breaking eye contact and looking at the Major. "What are the priorities?"

  "In Sector A, recover and secure the supply rooms and the neonatal ward," replied Matsumoto, looking Selene in the eyes. "In C, the research labs and the secondary armory."

  Matsumoto turned his head and looked at Cedric.

  "And in the sector of the 'prodigy'... it's the rescue of civilians and trapped personnel."

  The Major's words made Cedric look away, focusing on adjusting his own bracelets with too much attention.

  Idiot, he told himself.

  "Right... finish adjusting your bracelets," said Selene, ignoring Cedric's discomfort.

  The rest of the Foxes obeyed in silence.

  "Let's move," ordered Selene calmly.

  Cedric took a step and moved ahead of the group, anxious to get out of there.

  "Don't do anything stupid," Lyana whispered as she passed him.

  "I'll be there on time if you need me," he replied without looking at her.

  She lowered her gaze, and a faint red color rose to her cheeks amidst the chaos.

  Upon leaving the command deck, each took different paths.

  Cedric walked toward Sector B. The hallway was deserted, but the air smelled of stale panic and burnt plastic.

  He walked for a few minutes without incident. Only disorder: overturned cleaning carts, papers scattered on the floor, and flickering lights.

  How peaceful, he thought, before seeing the archway with the letter B painted on the bulkhead.

  He activated his transmitter.

  "Cedric here..." he touched the device with his right hand, while his left held his pistol. "Entering Sector B of the East Zone."

  "Copy... Lyana and I just entered A," reported Selene, her voice clear and professional.

  "Lunaria and the idiot Krzytof, too," came through Lunaria's channel, with a hiss of interference.

  "Huh?! Who are you calling an idiot?!" bellowed Krzytof in the background.

  Cedric smiled slightly hearing them fight. It was the only familiar sound in the middle of hell.

  He crossed the threshold.

  Inside Sector B, the silence was even denser. Each step of his boots sounded like a hammer blow against the void.

  The hallway was a metallic graveyard. Crew bodies on the floor, casings scattered like brass confetti, and walls splattered with abstract patterns of dried blood.

  Cedric advanced slowly, with the subtlety of a predator not wanting to wake a larger monster.

  As he passed an administrative room marked B73 without a door, a dry sound stopped him. Something had fallen to the floor.

  He turned in a fluid motion, aiming his pistol.

  "Come out," he ordered, firm but without shouting.

  Nothing answered at first. Only the buzz of a broken lamp.

  Then, a head emerged from under an overturned desk. A man with hands raised and a look full of pure terror.

  "Don't shoot!... I'm Imperial!"

  Cedric lowered the weapon just a few inches, keeping his eyes fixed on him. The man's white uniform was torn and blackened by soot; barely recognizable.

  "Name?" he asked.

  "Aki Licht... Elite Captain, of the Blitz guardian forces," he replied, breathless.

  "White?" asked Cedric, referring to his affiliation.

  Aki nodded frantically.

  Cedric observed him for a few seconds, narrowing his eyes.

  He had seen that face before. In the hibernation room, just before the gel covered him. He was the man with the strange smile, the one who seemed to be enjoying the moment. Now he wasn't smiling. He looked like a lost child in a haunted house.

  "You should be with the rest of your unit," said Cedric coldly.

  "Yes, sir." Aki swallowed, trembling. "But I'm looking for my fiancée. She was in this sector before communications collapsed."

  "Do you know where she is?"

  Aki nodded a second time.

  "With the rest of the hostages, sir," his eyes filled with tears. "They have them in the warehouse."

  Cedric remained silent. He evaluated the man: he was scared, yes, but he had a reason to fight.

  "Do you know how to use a weapon, 'Captain'?" asked Cedric.

  "Yes... yes, of course."

  He tossed him his reaction pistol.

  "Take it. Safety off. Don't shoot yourself in the foot."

  Aki caught the weapon in the air, clumsily, almost dropping it.

  "Do I go with you, sir?"

  "If you stay here, they kill you. If you come with me, maybe they kill you later. You choose." He sighed slightly.

  Aki swallowed hard.

  "I am under your orders, sir."

  "Another thing..." he paused, analyzing that last word which caused him distaste. "Don't call me 'sir'."

  "Then what do I call you?"

  "Cedric, that's enough."

  Cedric activated his bracelet. Nanotechnology hummed and the black sword materialized in his left hand.

  "If you want to find her, first you have to have something to defend yourself with."

  Aki looked at him for a few seconds, bewildered by the change of tone, but clung to the weapon as if it were a lifesaver.

  "So... am I going with you?"

  "Until further notice." Cedric advanced without waiting for him. "Don't get separated."

  They walked in silence for a few minutes. Aki tried to keep pace, breathing with difficulty.

  "How old are you?" asked Aki suddenly, more to fill the suffocating air than out of real curiosity.

  "Twenty."

  "You look older," he said, attempting a weak smile.

  "And you seem to talk too much."

  Aki let out a nervous laugh.

  "Then that makes two of us."

  Cedric didn't answer. His face reflected absolute seriousness, eyes fixed ahead.

  Does he have guts or is he a fool? Or both, he thought.

  Shsssh...

  Sharp interference in the transmitter bothered his ear.

  "Damn it," he murmured, touching the earpiece. "Cut off?"

  Aki didn't even notice, too busy watching the shadows.

  After another while of walking, they reached an intersection. Aki raised his hand abruptly, signaling silence.

  From one of the ends, distant steps and voices could be heard.

  Cedric peeked out discreetly.

  At the end of the hallway was a double cargo door: a warehouse. It was guarded by rebels carrying partial tactical gear, a mix of stolen and homemade.

  "Two at the main entrance, two at the secondary," whispered Cedric, analyzing the scene.

  "And in the middle... one inside with the civilians," added Aki, pale. "She's there. I know it."

  Cedric looked at him sideways.

  "Don't fire until my signal."

  "Understood."

  The hallway became a thread of held breaths. Cedric leaned his back on the wall, gripped the handle of his sword, and counted mentally.

  One...

  Two...

  Three.

  He shot out from cover.

  The guards saw him, but their reaction was human; Cedric's was not. By the time they raised their rifles, he was already on top of them.

  A horizontal slash.

  The black sword cut the chest of the first rebel with gruesome ease, slicing through light armor as if it were paper.

  The second guard tried to turn his weapon. Cedric didn't even stop; he sank the tip of the sword into his stomach and kept running, letting the body slide off the blade.

  The guard inside, alerted by the noise, turned his rifle toward the kneeling civilians.

  Cedric threw his combat knife with his right hand.

  The steel flew across the room and embedded itself in the rebel's neck with a wet thud. The man gurgled and fell, agonizing almost immediately.

  The rebels from the secondary entrance came running in, shouting.

  "Bastard!"

  BANG! BANG!

  Two shots rang out behind Cedric. Aki, hands shaking but aim steady, had fired. The reaction bullets impacted the chests of the rebels, fragmenting and destroying their internal organs.

  They vomited blood and fell.

  Cedric recovered his sword, cleaning the blood with a dry flick of his wrist.

  "I thought I would miss," murmured Aki, lowering the smoking weapon.

  "Everyone thinks that before trying," said Cedric.

  Aki ran into the room. He scanned desperately among the frightened faces. He stopped dead.

  His expression collapsed.

  She's not here, he thought, gripping the handle of his weapon until it hurt.

  Cedric turned to him upon not seeing him pass. Noticing his lost look, he said nothing. He simply walked toward the dead rebel to recover his knife and then began to untie the hostages.

  As he approached one of them, the man trembled with panic.

  "It's okay," said Cedric, putting the edge to the plastic cord.

  Just before breaking the binding, a tremor shook the ship.

  It was something slight, deep, as if the Blitz had taken a blow to the ribs. Cedric's hand jerked, grazing the hostage's palm with the blade, who let out a whimper.

  "Sorry," said Cedric, looking at the ceiling with a frown.

  What was that? he questioned himself.

  LOCATION: Sectors A and C.

  TIME: Simultaneous.

  In the other sectors, the "peace" Cedric was experiencing had ended.

  In Sector A, the situation had gone from controlled to catastrophic in a second. The wall next to the neonatal ward no longer existed. It had exploded outward.

  Selene and Lyana lay unconscious among twisted metal debris and dust.

  From within the dense smoke, a figure emerged. A man in an impeccable white coat and a black gas mask covering his entire face. He walked over the wreckage with elegance, stopping to observe the bodies of the two agents.

  "Hmm... interesting," said the masked man with a distorted voice, tilting his head.

  Meanwhile, in Sector C.

  Krzytof and Lunaria were starring in a grand show.

  Lunaria was sitting on the floor, back resting against the wall. She had one eye shut from purple swelling and was bleeding profusely from the nose. With the only eye she could open, she watched the "performance".

  In the middle of the room, Krzytof was curled into a ball on the floor. A huge man was hitting him over and over again.

  Thud. Thud. Thud.

  Each blow was accompanied by a maniacal laugh. The man laughed as if he were being told the best joke in the universe while breaking the Fox's ribs.

  "Hey, ugly..." said Lunaria on the verge of tears, spitting blood onto the floor. "What is a monster like you doing here?"

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  ???????

  "Peace is just a pause. The time we take to reload our weapons."

  — Proverb of the Unification Era.

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