LOCATION: COMMAND BRIDGE.

  While the squad and Clifford split up in the East Zone, the situation inside the "brain" of the ship was reaching a critical mass.

  On the command bridge of the frigate Blitz, controlled chaos had devolved into pure desperation. Tactical holograms blinked in crimson red, and the deck vibrated with a sickly hum, signaling that structural integrity was failing.

  Major Matsumoto gripped the central console, his eyes locked on the damage reports flowing like cascades of digital blood.

  "Status report!" Matsumoto barked.

  Officer Victor, his face bathed in the glow of the alarms, typed frantically without looking up.

  "Sir, the situation is grim," Victor said quickly, his voice trembling slightly from the sheer speed of his words. "We have to detach the East Zone. If we don't, the internal and external hull fractures will cause us to lose control of the entire ship. Decompression is imminent."

  Matsumoto clenched his jaw. He knew what that meant. Condemning a piece of his own ship.

  "Has everyone evacuated the East Zone?" he asked, searching for any excuse not to give the order.

  "Negative, sir." Victor's reply was a blunt blow. "There are still people inside... among them are the Fox Squad and a member of the Oprichnina."

  Matsumoto paused for a split second. The image of Fer threatening him in the interrogation room flashed through his mind.

  "Which agent?" he asked.

  "It's Opri, sir. Agent Clifford."

  The executioner's arm, Matsumoto thought. If he killed him, the Empire would show no mercy. But if he didn't, everyone would die. He looked at the stellar map.

  "How many months out are we from Elytor-III?"

  "Three standard months, sir."

  The Major made a decision. A desperate maneuver that was only taught in theory at the academy.

  "We will initiate a Light Jump," Matsumoto ordered coldly. "Calculate the trajectory toward the planet's atmosphere. Once we are caught in its gravity well, we will use the exit inertia to detach the East Zone from the center."

  Victor stared at him, eyes wide. It was sheer madness. Using the g-force of a hyper-light jump to "rip off" the damaged section of the ship.

  "Understood, sir," Victor swallowed hard, his fingers flying across the controls. "Proceeding to lock connection bulkheads. Initiating jump sequence."

  The security bulkheads began to seal with a metallic screech that echoed throughout the ship. Matsumoto looked at the screen displaying the vitals of the soldiers trapped in the doomed sector.

  "Good luck, boys..." he whispered under his breath.

  In the connecting corridor of the East Zone, the alarms wailed like wounded beasts. Rotating red lights washed over the group of survivors, casting long, distorted shadows.

  "Faster!" Cedric yelled, helping Aki carry the dead weight of their squadmates.

  In the distance, the main bulkhead—their salvation to the Central Zone—was beginning to descend, its steel teeth slowly closing like a guillotine.

  They were close. They could make it.

  BOOOM!

  An explosion erupted right behind them, blowing out a ventilation panel. The shockwave hit their backs like an invisible hammer, throwing them all against the metal deck.

  Smoke instantly filled the air. Through the coughing and confusion, dark figures began to emerge from the gray haze. Rebel soldiers, armed and ready to ensure no one made it out alive.

  The shots from their reaction weapons buzzed over their heads.

  "Take cover!" Selene screamed.

  Despite her injured leg and sheer exhaustion, Selene reacted on pure instinct. She dragged herself to the front and deployed her energy shield. Lyana, eyes watering from the smoke but glaring fiercely, did the same beside her.

  Together, they formed a bluish barrier that crackled as it absorbed the rain of incoming fire, protecting the wounded lying behind them.

  "Cedric!" Selene yelled, her voice strained from the effort of holding the shield. "Get Krzytof and Lunaria out of here! Lyana and I will cover you!"

  Cedric, dazed, pushed himself up on one knee. He looked at the closing bulkhead, then at the two women standing between him and the enemy.

  "You've got to be kidding me!" Cedric roared, drawing his sword. "I'm not leaving you alone!"

  "That's an order!" Selene barked, with an authority that left absolutely no room for argument. "The doors are closing! If you don't cross now, we all die!"

  "No fucking way I'm leaving you!" Cedric took a step toward them, fully prepared to die fighting.

  Lyana turned her head. Her shield was flickering under the heavy enemy fire. Her blue eyes locked onto Cedric's, and there was no fear in them—only a desperate plea.

  "Listen to her, please!" Lyana cried out, her voice breaking. "Save them!"

  That look stopped Cedric dead in his tracks. He realized this wasn't about heroism; it was about survival. If he stayed, Lunaria and Krzytof would have no one to carry them.

  With a scream of pure frustration and rage, Cedric stood up.

  "Dammit!" he roared, his voice laced with venom. "Don't die! Dammit, don't you dare die in here!"

  "Get the hell out of here, Cedric!" Selene yelled back. "Get the wounded to safety or I'll kill you myself!"

  Aki, understanding the grim reality, hoisted Lunaria up. Cedric grabbed Krzytof. Both men sprinted toward the door that was inexorably coming down.

  As the rebels advanced with guns blazing, Selene and Lyana didn't yield a single inch. They returned fire with their reaction pistols, buying every single second with lead and energy.

  The countdown for the jump was underway.

  Far from there, on the boarding bridge of the rebel corvette, the atmosphere was entirely different.

  Clifford had carved his way through the last lingering enemies, leaving a trail of bodies in his wake. As he reached the entrance to the hangar, he stopped.

  There they were.

  The Masked General stood by the airlock of the rebel ship. Beside him, Captain Ripto was smiling, and a visibly terrified soldier named Valto was dragging Zarbac's inert body.

  "Take him to the med-bay," the General ordered Valto, handing over the dead weight of the Hunter.

  Valto nodded frantically and, with the help of other soldiers, disappeared into the corvette, dragging the monster away.

  Captain Ripto, oblivious to the presence behind him, looked at his leader with satisfaction.

  "Sir, everything is ready," Ripto said happily. "We can leave. I'd say the mission was a success."

  The General didn't move. He didn't turn his head. He simply stared into the empty space of the hangar, but his voice resonated with absolute deadly seriousness.

  "First, take care of the intruder behind us."

  Ripto blinked, confused. He slowly turned around.

  And there, emerging from the shadows of the corridor like a specter of vengeance, was Clifford. Armor dented, fists clenched.

  Ripto's smile vanished instantly, stunned by the fact that the General had spotted Clifford without even looking back.

  "You..." Ripto muttered.

  "Hello, Captain," Clifford said, and his voice sounded like a death sentence. "We need to talk."

  Ripto looked back at the General—not with fear, but with a professional resignation. He knew he was a sacrifice.

  "I don't think I can win, sir," he admitted, drawing his sword with a sharp motion. "But I can buy you time."

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  The Masked General paused for a moment at the corvette's hatch.

  "That is all that's required," he said.

  Without looking back, the General crossed the threshold into the safety of his ship. Ripto was left alone on the boarding bridge, flanked by three rebel soldiers who raised their reaction rifles.

  "Fire!" he ordered.

  Gunfire lit up the hangar. Clifford didn't stop; he charged head-on into the hail of bullets.

  With a fluid motion, he activated his left arm's energy shield. The projectiles shattered against the translucent barrier, filling the air with sparks and smoke. The kinetic force vibrated through his bones, but Clifford kept pushing forward like a tank.

  "Deploy the plasma gatling!" Ripto yelled, falling back tactically.

  A rebel mounted a rotary cannon on a supply crate. The hum of the engine spooling up the shot was unmistakable.

  If that heavy plasma hits my shield, I'm done, Clifford thought.

  There was no cover. Just the empty bridge.

  Clifford tapped his belt, and his silhouette flickered. Active camouflage.

  He vanished from the rebels' sight just as the heavy cannon spat a lethal burst that tore through empty air.

  Clifford slid to the right, rolling to take cover behind a cargo container.

  "Clifford!" Fer's voice exploded in his ear, heavily distorted by static and urgency. "Hurry! The connecting bulkheads have already been sealed!"

  "Copy," Clifford grunted.

  He peeked over the edge of the crate. The rebels were sweeping the area blindly. His eyes landed on a set of coolant pipes running across the ceiling, right above the enemy's position. Superheated gas pipes.

  Clifford drew his pistol. Aimed. Fired.

  The pressurized jet of scalding gas burst downward, burning and disorienting the soldiers. Screams of agony broke the rebel formation.

  "Fall back!" the General's voice crackled coldly over Ripto's comms. "Throw a void grenade and seal the entrance."

  Ripto, shielding his face from the heat, obeyed instantly. He pulled a black sphere from his vest, pulled the pin, and hurled it toward Clifford's approximate position.

  The grenade bounced on the metal deck, rolling dangerously close.

  Clifford's instinct was faster than his conscious thought. He broke cover, materializing back into view as he deactivated the camo. He dove to the deck, clumsily caught the grenade before it stopped rolling, and with a flick of his wrist, hurled it back with all his might.

  The throw was perfect. The sphere flew through the air and landed dead center on the boarding bridge, right at Ripto's feet.

  The Captain's eyes widened in sheer horror.

  CRACK!

  There was no fiery explosion. There was only a suction sound, like the universe sharply inhaling.

  A three-centimeter black hole tore open in thin air.

  Gravity inverted within a three-meter radius. The metal of the bridge buckled, screaming under the stress, and was swallowed into nothingness. Two rebel soldiers trying to flee were dragged into the vortex, vanishing into absolute dark.

  Ripto, caught on the very edge of the gravitational field, clung desperately to a railing, his legs floating toward the singularity.

  A few seconds later, the hole collapsed and vanished.

  The boarding bridge had been ripped in half. The vacuum of deep space became visible through the jagged breach in the hull. The silence of the void was deafening for a split second, until the decompression alarms began to wail.

  The rebel corvette's emergency bulkheads automatically began to seal.

  On the other side of the breach, already safe inside his ship, the Masked General watched through the closing airlock glass. His eyes—one green, one red—locked onto Clifford's.

  "Hope to see you soon, Clifford..." he seemed to say, or perhaps Clifford only imagined it reading his lips.

  The doors sealed tight. The corvette disengaged its docking clamps and pulled away.

  Clifford, breathing heavily, saw that Ripto had been left on his side of the bridge, dazed on the deck after the hole collapsed.

  "It's over," Clifford said.

  He rushed the traitor and, before he could even stand, delivered a brutal strike to his temple, knocking him out cold. He slapped magnetic cuffs on him in one fluid motion and hoisted him over his shoulder.

  While he secured his prisoner, inside the command bridge, the tension could be cut with a knife.

  The main doors hissed open and Fer walked in, moving with a chilling calmness that violently contrasted the crew's panic.

  "I see luck isn't on your side, Major!" she exclaimed with a small, sharp smile, entirely ignoring the blaring red alarms.

  Matsumoto, gripping the edges of the tactical projection table, squeezed his fists until his knuckles popped. He turned slowly, his face slick with sweat and stress.

  "Miss Fer... I beg you to lower your voice," he said, fighting to maintain his composure. "We are doing everything we can."

  Fer let out a dismissive "Tsk" and, without asking for permission, dropped into one of the officer's chairs, crossing her legs as she listened to the technical reports regarding the jump's instability.

  They're going to jump, she thought. She tapped her earpiece.

  "Clifford..." she said. "You're out of time. Find an escape pod immediately. They're initiating a jump and it's going to be deadly in the East Zone."

  "Copy..." he replied in a low rumble.

  "One more thing... Stay away from any hull breaches exposed to space. The inertia is going to rip that section apart."

  There was a pause on the other end of the line.

  "Do you know anything about the Fox Squad?"

  Fer glanced at the monitors showing vital signs flickering and disconnecting.

  "I have no intel on them..." she lied, or perhaps she simply didn't want to offer false hope. "Good luck."

  In the connecting corridor, luck had completely run dry.

  Cedric and Aki reached the main bulkhead with burning lungs, carrying Lunaria and Krzytof. They crossed the threshold right as the hydraulic pistons began pushing the massive security door downward.

  "Selene! Lyana! Run!" he screamed, spinning around to face the corridor they had just fled from.

  But he only saw shadows and smoke.

  "We're almost there!" Selene's voice echoed from the other side, followed by the sound of frantic footsteps.

  But the Blitz's security mechanism waited for no one. With a final, deafening thud, the steel and titanium bulkhead sealed hermetically, separating the Central Zone from the East Zone forever.

  Cedric dropped Krzytof into Aki's arms and threw himself against the cold metal. He pounded the door with his fist, over and over, until the pain shot all the way up his arm.

  "DAMMIT!" he roared, his voice cracking with helplessness. "OPEN THE GODDAMN DOOR!"

  From the other side, muffled by the thick armor plating, came Lyana's voice. She sounded calm. Terribly calm.

  "Everything is okay, Cedric... we'll find another way in."

  "Get the others to a safe place," Selene's voice commanded, rock-steady despite the nightmare. "We'll go look for another door."

  Cedric rested his forehead against the metal, breathing raggedly. Aki stepped up, placing a hand on his shoulder.

  "It'll be okay," Aki said, trying to project a calm he didn't feel himself. "For now, we need to get your squadmates medical attention. We can't do anything here."

  Cedric closed his eyes for a second, swallowing the bile in his throat. He pushed away from the door, his face hardened like stone.

  "They better come back in one piece," he muttered. "Let's move, Aki."

  On the other side of the bulkhead, Lyana pressed her palm against the cold metal. She looked Selene in the eyes. They both knew there was no "other door." They shared a small, worried smile, fully aware they were trapped on the wrong side of the universe.

  LOCATION: Blitz Safe Zones.

  TIME: Minutes Later.

  Cedric and Aki managed to carry the wounded to a medical checkpoint. Several ship medics immediately took over, placing Krzytof and Lunaria—who were fighting to stay conscious—onto stretchers.

  "I'll go with them if you want," Aki offered. "You report to the Major. They need to know what happened."

  Cedric nodded, his mind a million miles away.

  "Thanks."

  Cedric sprinted toward the command bridge. As he arrived, the doors slid open and Officer Victor intercepted him, looking grim and in no mood for pleasantries. He led him to the center of the room.

  Matsumoto saw him approach.

  "I'm glad to see you made it across, soldier."

  "Sir," Cedric interrupted, breathless and ignoring all formalities. "I request a sitrep. My squadmates are still in the East Zone. I need you to open the bulkheads."

  Matsumoto shook his head, avoiding his gaze.

  "The East Zone is lost. It will be detached from the rest of the ship to save our structural integrity."

  Cedric felt the deck drop out from under him.

  "No... no, no, no..." he took a step back, in pure shock. "THERE ARE STILL PEOPLE INSIDE! If you do that, everyone will die or get lost in space!"

  Matsumoto looked at him with a mix of pity and iron resolve.

  "Everything will be fine, soldier. That's why we are making a Light Jump toward the atmosphere. Once we are caught in the planet's gravity well, we will detach. They will fall toward the surface, not into the void."

  From her chair, Fer watched the scene calmly. She saw the sheer terror in Cedric's eyes, watched him spin around and bolt out of the bridge, activating his comms as he ran.

  "Selene! Lyana!" Cedric screamed over the comm channel. "Get to an escape pod! NOW! It's the only safe place!"

  The reply came laced with static, but clear.

  "Copy."

  In the East Zone, Selene and Lyana were sprinting down deserted corridors. The hum of the jump drive began to vibrate through the walls—a sound that sank right into their bones.

  "There's one!" Lyana yelled, pointing to a pod airlock at the end of the hall.

  "Hurry, get in!" Selene replied.

  They were ten meters away. Five.

  Then, the universe stretched.

  CRACK-BOOM!

  The Light Jump engaged. The acceleration was instantaneous and brutal. While jumps were usually safe, the fact that the East Zone had structural fractures and breaches exposed to space meant the inertia hit them like a physical sledgehammer.

  The ship groaned. The walls buckled.

  Selene and Lyana were lifted off the deck and slammed violently against the corridor wall.

  The impact was sickeningly dull and terrible. The jump lasted only ten seconds, but it was enough. The small fractures spiderwebbed into massive chasms, and the structure began to tear itself apart.

  Both women slumped to the floor, unconscious.

  In the Central Zone, the alarms wailed. Cedric arrived at the med-bay, skidding to a halt. He saw Aki sitting next to Lunaria and Krzytof's beds; both were sleeping, heavily sedated.

  Aki stood up when he saw him.

  "They're okay," he said in a calm voice. "They lost a lot of blood and the docs sedated them because they kept trying to go with you to find the others."

  Cedric let out a breath he didn't realize he'd been holding.

  "Are you okay?"

  "Are you?" Aki replied.

  The silence between them was heavy. The ship shuddered one last time. They had reached the orbit of Elytor-III.

  Major Matsumoto, with a trembling hand, pressed the final separation sequence button.

  With the sound of tearing metal, the East Zone ripped away from the frigate's main body, falling inert into the planet's gravitational pull.

  On the shattered boarding bridge, Clifford clung to a support strut with one hand while holding Ripto's unconscious body with the other. He had survived the jump thanks to his armor's strength and his mutations, but the sheer force of the impact had rattled his teeth.

  He heard a dull thud nearby, followed by two groans.

  Stepping out of the hangar and peering down the hall, he saw Selene and Lyana lying motionless on the deck. Decompression was already starting to suck the air out of the corridor.

  "Dammit," he grunted.

  Without a second thought, he ran to them. He grabbed Lyana by her armor and Selene by her belt, dragging them along with Ripto toward the nearest escape pod. He forced the jammed door open.

  He hauled them inside, tossing them into the crash seats. He dumped Ripto onto the floor of the pod and climbed in himself, smashing the seal panel.

  The door locked shut right as the corridor ceiling collapsed.

  "Hold on..." he muttered to the unconscious passengers, hitting the manual eject.

  The pod shot out into the void, falling like a flaming stone toward the clouds of an unknown planet, on an entirely uncertain trajectory.

  Back on the command bridge of the Blitz, now safely in high orbit, silence reigned.

  Everyone watched the main screen as the wreckage of the East Zone burned up in the atmosphere, accompanied by the fiery trails of hundreds of escape pods.

  Fer stood up from her chair. She walked over to the observation window, pulling off her helmet. She rested it on her hip and looked down at the cloud-covered planet below.

  "See you soon, K..." she whispered, her voice a mix of raw emotion and cold calculation.

  Her earpiece emitted a priority beep.

  "Agent 012503V..." the voice was metallic and authoritative. "This is Oprichnina Headquarters. Report."

  Fer tapped her comms, her eyes never leaving the planet.

  "This is Agent Vorgaht. The situation is critical," she said, a dangerous smile curving her lips. "We have an SSS-rank problem on the surface."

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  "No one looks to the stars expecting to be crushed by them."

  —Anonymous.

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