Thump-thump-thump!The Vulture’s kinetic cannons roared, spitting heavy slugs into the vacuum. The lead drone didn’t just explode; it shattered into a cloud of jagged shrapnel that shredded the two units flanking it. But for every drone Zarek swatted from the sky, three more surged from the Iron Sovereign’s belly."General Krov, this is the God of War, Zarek Riggs!" Zarek flipped the comms to a wide-broadcast frequency, his voice slicing through the static of the electronic warfare suite. "You’re assisting in the illegal kidnapping and human experimentation of a citizen. The data drive in this ship contains proof of Veldra’s war crimes. Stand down, or you’re complicit in genocide!"There was a pregnant pause. Then, Krov’s voice returned, stripped of its previous military formality."You overstep your bounds, Riggs," Krov’s voice crackled, ice-cold and laced with venom. "The title God of War carries weight on a battlefield, but here? In high orbit? You’re just a man in a stolen tin

"The neural cascade has been halted, General," a medic whispered, approaching Zarek with a data tablet. "But the 'HOME' file... it’s doing something we’ve never seen. It isn't just a bypass. It’s a rewrite. It’s purging the Veldra hard-coding and replacing it with encrypted biometric data."Zarek didn't take his eyes off his brother. "It’s his soul, Doctor. Dad didn't just save a copy of Veldra's secrets. He saved a copy of who Tinny was before they took him."Leaving the med-bay, Zarek’s demeanor shifted. The exhaustion vanished, replaced by the sharp, terrifying precision that had earned him his moniker. He entered the bridge of the Nomad’s Wrath, where Hela and her lieutenants were huddled over a holographic projection of the Southern Defense Web."We have three light-freighters and a dozen converted mining skiffs," Hela said, her cybernetic eye whirring as she zoomed into the Spire’s coordinates. "If we approach, the automated turrets will vaporize us before we can even hail th

"The security grid pulses every four seconds. If we cross the junction now, the thermal sensors will mistake us for a heat spike from the engines."Zarek followed, his combat boots silent against the titanium grating. He kept his rifle leveled, but his focus remained anchored to his brother’s back. Tinny was shivering, the medical sheet clinging to his damp skin, yet his movements were fluid, more Riggs than Veldra."The drones are behind the bulkhead," Zarek noted, hearing the high-pitched whine of servomotors echoing from the corridor ahead."They won't see us," Tinny said. He reached out, his hand trembling as he touched a junction box. Instead of ripping it open, he simply pressed his palm against the metal.For a second, the amber in his eyes flared. The lights in the shaft flickered, and the sound of the approaching drones stopped abruptly. A series of metallic thuds followed, the sound of a dozen machines losing power and crashing to the floor."You shut them down?" Zarek

The Grand Hall, once a monument to Veldra’s absolute grip on the star system, had become a slaughterhouse of reputations. As Hela’s soldiers fanned out, their heavy mag-boots cracking the expensive marble, the Council members, the self-styled Architects of Order, began to scramble."Secure the perimeter!" Hela barked, her cybernetic eye pulsing a fierce, rhythmic red. "Anyone who reaches for a comm-link or an exit gets a thermal bolt to the chest. We aren't here for a debate."General Krov backed away from the vaporized podium, his boots slipping on the slick stasis gel Tinny had trailed across the stage. He looked through the reinforced glass at the sky, at the thousands of rusted, groaning ships of the Ghost Fleet, and realized his tidy battlefield had become a graveyard for the living."You can't do this, Riggs," Krov wheezed, his booming authority thinning into a desperate whine. "The automated defense grid... the orbital rings... they’re hard-locked to the Council’s life signs

"General," Hela’s voice came over the internal comm, softer than usual. "The High Council has been processed. The families of the Southern Rings... they didn't wait for a jury. They opened the airlocks to the mining colonies and let the people decide. Krov is... no longer our problem."Zarek didn't ask for details. He didn't need them. "And the fleet?""They’re dispersing," Hela replied. "Word got out. The HOME file is being broadcast on every civilian frequency from here to the Core. The Veldra myth is dead. People are walking out of the factories, Zarek. They're going home."Zarek looked at Tinny, who had fallen into a deep, natural sleep, the first in ten years that wasn't induced by a chemical cocktail or a stasis pod."Good," Zarek whispered. "Let them."*****Three days later.The neon hum of the city was a jarring contrast to the silence of the nebula. Deep in the heart of the capital, the Grand Aileron Hotel stood as a monolith of old-world luxury, its gilded halls now swar