"My lady, all necessary precautions are in place. The Phantom is ready to deploy."
"Well done," Leonora Kaelthorn replied, and though her voice was calm, it carried the weight of the violence that was about to follow. "We're changing formation. Bring all groups in behind us. The Royal Knights will handle this from here."
"Yes, my lady."
"How far out is our flanking unit?"
"Still en route, my lady. ETA five minutes."
"Then we proceed as planned." She turned toward the hangar lift. "Bring the ships behind us. It's time to show them who they're facing. Royal Knight unit, ready to deploy." Her words fell like a ritual, and the whole ship seemed to tremble as the hangar doors began to open.
"Royal Knights, this is Leonora Kaelthorn." Her voice echoed across every comm line in the division, firm and resonant. "We are about to deploy directly in front of the enemy. I ask you to lend me your strength and show them what the true Knights of the Empire can do. For glory and honor — all units, deploy!"
The twelve Orbitons of the Royal Knight Division broke formation and streaked forward like silver comets, trails of pale light marking their paths as they descended through the haze of the nebula like elegant death falling from heaven.
"Comms check. Knights One through Ten, do you copy?"
Every Knight answered at once. "Copy."
"Enemy Orbitons approaching," the tactical officer reported. "Forty strong."
Inside her cockpit, Leonora allowed herself the faintest smile. "There's no need to worry. They may have the numbers, but our Orbitons carry the Emperor's technology — plasma cores built for one purpose." Her tone was detached, almost reverent. "All ships, stay back. The Knights will cleanse the field."
Her Orbiton, the Gray Phantom, surged forward in a flash of plasma. Its reactor core hummed louder and brighter until its light seemed to pierce the void itself. Its hull shimmered like liquid mercury as its blade extended, a beam of condensed light sharper than thought.
"The General has entered the fray," one Knight murmured to his wingman. "Is this your first time seeing her fight?"
"Yes, sir."
"Then remember this moment. They call her the Gray Phantom. You're about to understand why."
The rebel formation came at them like a swarm, Orbitons bristling with railguns and energy lances. When their cannons opened up, space lit with a storm of green plasma. Leonora moved. The Gray Phantom simply vanished, and in the time it took to blink, four enemy Orbitons split apart behind the place where it had been, each one cleaved cleanly in two before its targeting system had registered any movement at all.
"Target units destroyed!"
"What? She just—"
"That was the Phantom Slash," another Knight said, awe plain in his voice. "Her Orbiton's frame is half artifact and half machine. It channels energy through the blade faster than any sensor can follow. There's no tracking it. There's only the aftermath."
"I would never want to be her opponent," a third Knight murmured, his voice low with reverence and something close to fear.
Leonora's voice crackled through the comms, steady and commanding, with the chill of command and the quiet thrill of perfection underneath it. "Thirteen enemy units destroyed. All Knights, form up. Prepare plasma cannons and target the enemy front line."
Blue light gathered along the Orbitons' arms, twelve radiant spheres pulsing like newborn stars. "Fire." The void erupted as one synchronized volley tore through the rebel front, and dozens of ships were swallowed whole, their hulls collapsing inward under the force of the blast.
Aboard the rebel command ship among the Lasos rings, an officer spun from his console. "Sir, the Empire's Royal Knights have deployed! All available units, engage!"
"Sir, another Orbiton detected — a different signature."
"What? Give me a visual—" The commander's words faltered as the screen filled with a sleek silver figure cutting through the mist, a faint violet trail following its every movement. "That's the Gray Phantom. So she's here herself."
"Don't lose hope!" he shouted a moment later, though his voice was strained. "It's just a machine! We have the numbers!" Fifty Orbitons charged toward her on his order, and the hope he had given them dissolved as quickly as their ships did.
"She moved — where did she—"
"Four destroyed — no, seven—"
"Sir, we can't track her! She's—"
The channel filled with static, then with the sound of an explosion. The commander's voice was shaking when he spoke again. "Fall back! Retreat inside the rings! Call General Mortis — now!"
But it was already too late. From behind them, the Imperial flanking force emerged out of the haze on its silent floating motors, and its plasma fire turned the rings of Lasos into molten halos.
"Objects approaching from the rear—"
Another explosion swallowed the warning. "General Mortis is gone! Seventy percent of the fleet destroyed!"
"She's coming toward us — it's the Phantom—"
A single blinding slash filled the command ship's screen, and then there was only silence.
On the Imperial front line, the reports came in fast. "My lady, thirty-three enemy units destroyed and four ships damaged. The flank is within range."
"Good," Leonora said softly. "Tell them to fire on the enemy's rear. I'll handle the front."
"Bravo Unit, target locked. Fire." A line of plasma cut through the dark and set the remains of the rebel fleet alight.
"She's gone again!"
"She just reappeared in front of the enemy flagship—" Seven rebel ships came apart in the Phantom's wake, glowing as they drifted.
"Remind me never to get on her bad side," one Knight murmured.
"You can't. She's a God Unit pilot. She has never lost a duel."
"Except once," someone else said.
"Once? Who could ever beat her?"
"Her husband," came the quiet reply. "He died five years ago."
"I can't believe she was married."
"Maybe that's why she fights like this."
By the time the Gray Phantom returned to its bay, the battle was over. "My lady, the enemy forces have been annihilated."
Leonora's eyes softened, if only slightly. "Well done, everyone. Another victory for the Empire of Terria. May those we lost rest in peace."
"It was an honor, my lady," Tomas said, his voice thick with respect.
"Thank you, Tomas. And thank all of you. The Emperor will hear of your valor."
A message chimed on the console before the bridge had finished celebrating. "My lady, your brother's ship is on approach. He says it's urgent."
Leonora's voice dropped, and it was suddenly as sharp as the blade she had been wielding a few minutes earlier. "Dock his ship. And for his sake, I hope this interruption is worth my time." She said it calmly, but the battlefield behind her was still trembling with the echo of what she had just done.