All Chapters of Shadows Of Innocence : Chapter 1
- Chapter 6
6 chapters
Chapter 1: The Canister
The spaceport on Elysara Prime smelled of ozone, fried street food, and the faint metallic tang of recycled air. Thousands of travelers streamed through the arrival gates families in bright vacation prints, off-duty miners with sun-bleached skin, corporate executives in tailored suits that cost more than most people earned in a year. I was just another face in the crowd, sunburned from three weeks on the resort beaches of the southern archipelago, dragging a single worn duffel and dreaming of nothing more complicated than a cold drink on the balcony of my usual cabana.Customs waved me through the first scanner without a second glance. I’d been coming here every year for the last five; the automated system recognized my biometrics, my travel pattern, my harmless profile. Tourist. Mid-thirties. No criminal flags. No contraband history. Just someone who liked quiet beaches and didn’t cause trouble.That should have been the end of it.Instead, a uniformed officer stepped into my path ju
Last Updated : 2026-01-10
Chapter 2: The Safehouse
The skimmer’s thrusters roared as we climbed above the treeline, leaving the glittering sprawl of Elysara Prime’s coastal city behind us. Night had fully fallen, and the twin moons hung low, casting silver light across the dense jungle canopy below. The air inside the cabin was thick with tension, the kind that made every breath feel deliberate.I glanced at the masked woman beside me. Her hands were steady on the controls, but there was a coiled energy in her posture, like a predator ready to strike. The backpack, that thing sat motionless on the rear seat, but I couldn’t shake the memory of its transformation. Metal limbs, precise and alien, folding and unfolding with mechanical grace.“Who are you really?” I asked again, my voice sharper this time. The adrenaline from the escape hadn’t worn off; it was burning through me, making my skin itch.She didn’t look at me. “You don’t need my name. Not yet.”“Then give me something. Because I just got dragged out of a customs holding cell b
Last Updated : 2026-01-10
Chapter 3: The Depths of Vantar Bay
The jungle gave way to jagged cliffs as the twin suns climbed higher, turning the humid air into a steaming haze. We’d been moving non-stop since dawn—six hours of forced march through vine-choked trails and across swollen streams. My legs burned, my lungs ached, and every muscle screamed for rest, but the woman beside me showed no sign of slowing.She’d told me her name at last, during a brief pause to refill canteens.“Rhea.”Just that. One word. No surname, no callsign, no explanation. I took it and didn’t push.Nix scouted ahead in drone form, a silent black speck against the sky, relaying terrain data directly to the small earpiece she’d given me. Its voice was genderless, clipped, efficient.“Coastal drop-off in four hundred meters. High probability of hostiles at Vantar Bay settlement.”Rhea nodded as if she’d expected it. “They’ll have the secondary cache there. Underwater.”“Underwater?” I panted. “You didn’t mention swimming.”“You can swim, can’t you?”“Yes, but not while b
Last Updated : 2026-01-10
Chapter 4: Black Sky Shuttleport
The jungle thinned into rolling grasslands as the twin suns dipped toward the horizon, painting the sky in streaks of violet and orange. We’d been moving for another full day evading patrol drones, skirting settlements, living off ration bars and filtered stream water. My body was a map of bruises, cuts, and exhaustion, but adrenaline and fear kept me going.Rhea led us unerringly north, following a route only she seemed to know. Nix flew intermittent reconnaissance, warning us of roadblocks and sweep teams. The organization whatever it was had thrown a net over the entire northern continent. My face, along with hers, was now on every bounty board from the resorts to the mining outposts.We crested a final ridge just after dusk and looked down on Black Sky Shuttleport.It wasn’t an official port. No gleaming terminals or customs halls here. Just a sprawling patchwork of landing pads carved into a high plateau, ringed by scrap-metal fences and watchtowers jury-rigged from old cargo hau
Last Updated : 2026-01-10
Chapter 5: Shadows of Thal Prime
Hyperspace felt endless this time.The blue tunnel outside the viewports stretched on, unbroken, as if the stars themselves were holding their breath. Eight hours to Thal Prime. Eight hours to the final convergence point. Eight hours to decide whether we lived or died.The Night Sparrow limped through the void, hull patches holding but creaking under strain. Jorr had pushed the engines hard after Kessel Verge, plotting a zigzag course through minor jump points to shake any pursuit. So far, sensors were clean. But we all knew that meant nothing. They were out there.watching, waiting.I couldn’t sleep.I sat in the passenger lounge, staring at the holodisplay Rhea had left running. The beacon from the destroyed ore hauler was gone incinerated in the blast but she’d sliced fragments of data before the end. Shipping manifests. Encrypted comms. A partial starchart converging on Thal Prime’s orbital station: Nexus Drift.A shadow fell across the table.Rhea.She moved silently even on a cre
Last Updated : 2026-01-11
Chapter 6: Echoes in the Void
The observation lounge aboard the Alliance battleship *Vigilant Resolve* was quiet, almost serene. Thal Prime’s violet storms churned thousands of kilometers below, lightning forking through clouds the size of continents. The glass was triple-reinforced, soundproof, and yet I could swear I heard thunder in my bones.Rhea sat across from me, arms folded, staring at the same view. Nix rested on the table between us, dormant for once, its amber eye dimmed to a soft pulse. We’d been here for three hours debriefed, medically cleared, fed, and then left alone with polite assurances that “someone will be with you shortly.”Shortly, in military terms, could mean days.I shifted in the chair. The bruises from the shuttle fight throbbed under synthskin patches. “How long before we know if this is freedom or a prettier cell?”Rhea’s eyes flicked to the door. “They’re verifying the data. Cross-checking my testimony against seized files from Varn’s cruiser. If it holds—and it will—we walk. If some
Last Updated : 2026-01-11