A/N: Enjoy the chap
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[A few days later, Campus-9]
Lines upon lines of cables now stretched all across the lab. Trailing through one workbench to another. A second bench had been dragged into the main lab and bolted down to the floor. Empty mugs lined every flat surface. Tool kits were scattered around the floor.
Even the air felt different, not warmer, not colder, just… busier.
Work had a smell. Warm metal. Old dust shaken loose from new parts. Ozone from soldering arcs. The sort of scent that clung to your gloves and made you forget time.
Void stood over the central table while Obsidian projected the latest ring iteration. The schematic rotated steadily.
Pahanin was seated on one side, sleeves rolled, messy dark pewter hair. Marcus hovered on the other side, restless, pacing, snapping his fingers as if it made his thoughts go around faster. The Stoic sat across from them both, posture still, eyes tracking every change.
Taeko-3 and Alemyr occupied the next bench over, their work messier. More physical. Components laid out like bones. A Vex plate half-dismantled. Tools scattered. A chalked list on the wall, rewritten twice already.
Isidel, Gallida, and Uzoma weren't here.
The three had already formed a fireteam and left the lab. Aiming to locate and secure some odd materials required for the network nodes. The nodes they planned to design were niche. So niche that Venus itself had nothing for it.
The current workload was divided into two fronts.
Build the node.
Find what the node needed.
Simple on paper.
Messy in reality.
Pahanin, Marcus, and The Stoic were deep in the ugly part. The three had already gone through hundreds of iterations for a workable network configuration. Eventually, they'd decided to take a step back and work on something tried and tested.
Marcus had pulled up the City's old network layout.
Not the public version.
The real guts.
Routing logic. Failure states. Load balancing. Permission layers. All the ugly compromises were made under pressure back when the City was still bleeding and building at the same time.
As Marcus projected the designs, Pahanin began tracing his fingers through the logic networks.
"You're reading that like it's a menu," Marcus said, half-laughing, half-scared. "Do you get what's working here?"
Pahanin didn't even look up. "Uh. Slightly? It's just familiar."
The Stoic's head tilted slightly. A small movement. But it meant something.
Marcus leaned in closer, pointing at a section of the schematic. "This part. The redundancy loop. Do you get this? I've got no idea why this works."
Pahanin nodded. "It looks like a redundancy loop. But it's not. This is a relay loop. It'll simply bounce the signal repeatedly if the other gates are not functioning, sort of like latency trapping. If the receiver is too laggy, it just holds the info to prevent dumping. "
"How can you tell?" Marcus asked.
Pahanin finally looked up, eyes flat like the answer was obvious. It was naturally him who'd built this part. But neither Marcus nor The Stoic had any memory of him. "Uh. Just a thought. I mean, spatial networks span long distances. I'd think they'd put some latency traps."
Marcus blinked. "That's… actually fair."
The Stoic nodded again. Eyes shifting towards Pahanin with a renewed gaze. Finally, the three discussed more configurations and went back to work.
The goal wasn't to recreate the City's network.
The goal was to build a network that worked better than it did and spanned longer distances.
A subspace chain that could stretch beyond walls. Beyond towers. Beyond even planets.
A ring on your finger that reached into a system across the solar system.
But first, they needed a minimal node configuration.
They didn't have the resources to carpet the system in hardware.
Not yet.
So they were doing what engineers always did when they didn't have enough.
They were optimising.
Pahanin drew a grid of orbit paths and traffic arcs, then began placing nodes like chess pieces. Not randomly. Not evenly. With intent.
Marcus ran simulations beside him, throwing load cases at it.
"What happens if a node dies," Marcus asked, tapping the hologram hard enough to make it jitter. "And don't say 'it won't die'. Everything dies."
Pahanin flicked two nodes into a triangle configuration. "We build it so it can die. Add a backup configuration nearby."
Marcus nodded and edited his design.
The simulation ran.
A web formed.
Lines of subspace transfer lit up in clean threads, then dimmed, then adjusted as the system found the best routes.
Pahanin watched it like he was watching a living creature learn to breathe.
"Planet coverage," Marcus said, thinking out loud. "Easy enough. Layered nodes. Orbit plus surface. Bounce between them."
Pahanin nodded. "You cover cities, ports, major trade lanes."
The Stoic glanced over their design and approved.
Marcus snapped his fingers at that. "Also, we optimise by location. You concentrate the nodes with areas of high activity."
Void leaned against the table, listening, letting them talk it out.
Then Marcus's tone shifted.
"But deep space," he muttered. "That's the problem."
Pahanin's fingers paused on the hologram.
Deep space wasn't orbit. It wasn't stable lanes. It wasn't predictable.
Deep space was gaps. It was the distance that didn't care how clever you were. It was silence between worlds where your network couldn't just "hop" without infrastructure.
Pahanin slowly dragged a node out past a planet's reach.
The simulation stuttered.
Routes failed.
Lines snapped out.
Marcus grimaced. "Yeah. That."
The Stoic's eyes narrowed slightly. He stretched a hand towards the hologram and sketched a small anchor.
Pahanin nodded once. "Anchors are nice, but they need protection."
"Which means ships. Or stations. Or hidden points that didn't get raided, sabotaged, or simply erased," Marcus added.
Which meant politics.
Which meant war.
Marcus exhaled through his teeth. "Tougher than I thought," he said, like he couldn't decide if that thrilled him or terrified him.
Pahanin didn't correct him.
Across the room, Taeko-3 and Alemyr were having their own war.
Not with maps.
With materials.
Zeromorphic Filament.
Taeko-3 ran a finger over the material list, then looked at Void.
"This is the choke point," she said.
Alemyr hummed. "Everything else we can scavenge, steal, trade, fake."
"But this," Taeko-3 continued, tapping the filament requirement. "This is the kind of thing that makes projects die quietly."
Void didn't argue.
Pahanin had already said it.
If they tried to buy it, questions would start.
If they tried to get it from Spider, he might not notice at first, but someone else would. Someone always noticed patterns.
If they tried to ask the Awoken, they'd get a polite smile and a firm no.
So there was only one option left.
Phobos.
Void said it out loud, like a confession.
"We go to Phobos."
Alemyr didn't flinch.
Taeko-3 didn't either.
They both just… nodded, the way people nod when they've accepted a hard answer.
"But the Cabal," Void added. "Don't think they'd be too thrilled about us."
Taeko-3's voice went dry. "Phobos is Cabal turf, and they don't share."
Alemyr leaned back, eyes half-lidded, thinking. Then he spoke.
"There might be a way."
Void's gaze sharpened. "Go on."
Alemyr gestured toward a projected map of Mars and its relay network.
"The Cabal's sentry network is anchored on Mars," Alemyr said. "Phobos is protected by relays tied back to Mars. Their checkpoints aren't just physical. They're signal, identification, ship code recognition, route prediction."
Taeko-3 nodded. "We've been watching their skirmishes with the Vex. You learn things when you watch how they move."
Void watched the map, quiet.
Alemyr continued. "If someone hits a Cabal outpost on Mars hard enough, loud enough, their system diverts attention. Patrol patterns shift. Checkpoints tighten on one side and loosen on the other. They'll chase what they can see."
"And while they chase," Taeko-3 cut in, "we slip into Phobos."
Void's eyes narrowed. "Still leaves their relays."
Alemyr smiled faintly. Not happy. Just sharp.
"We rewire the relays. Not destroy. Not disabled. We make them think."
Taeko-3 leaned forward. "We plant a ship code. We register our jumpships as 'friendly'. Their system reads us as Cabal traffic. No alarms. No pursuit."
Void stared at them for a second, then asked the obvious.
"How do you even know this?"
Taeko-3 shrugged. "We study everything. The Vex. The Cabal. Patterns. Systems. The Cabal aren't subtle. They build like they expect the universe to obey."
Alemyr's voice lowered. "But this is still insane."
Void smiled slightly, like he'd been waiting to hear that.
"Yeah," he said. "It is."
Taeko-3 frowned. "And you're smiling because."
Void's eyes flickered with a hint of amusement an evil smile crept up his lips.
"Because I know just the people to hit a Cabal outpost on Mars."
Alemyr stared at him. "You're not serious."
Void looked at him like that was a silly thing to ask.
"I'm always serious," he said.
Taeko-3's voice turned cautious. "That kind of distraction needs to be big. Not a skirmish. Not a patrol ambush. It needs to be loud. No one's crazy enough for that."
Void nodded. "It will be. Trust me. Those bastards? They're crazy."
Alemyr exchanged a glance with Taeko-3. The kind of glance that didn't need words.
Then Void turned slightly, pretending to tap into his comms channel as he pulled up the system interface and navigated to the quests section.
Void quickly typed up a quest.
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{Legendary Guardian System}
Quest: The Bigger they are
Objective: Attack the Cabal outposts on Mars to lure the defensive systems away from Phobos.
Rewards: 1000x Faction points, Legendary Engram Rewards
[Issue Quest]
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His finger hovered over the button. Void looked back at them and pressed it.
"So," he said, casual, like he was asking about lunch. "You two ready for Phobos?"
Taeko-3's eyes widened. Alemyr actually blinked.
"Now?" Taeko-3 said.
Void raised his brows.
"When else?"