The three Orbitons hung in silence above Terria's upper atmosphere, the blue curve of the planet stretching beneath them like a mute witness, while far behind them the immense blade-shaped structure of Central Command drifted across its orbit and Terrian patrol ships scrambled into formation. Warning signals and tactical markers flooded the battlefield grid, but for the three pilots facing one another in the void, everything else had fallen away.
Inside NOIR's cockpit, Youri's display glowed with streams of combat data. The ACX-01 cortex pulsed steadily beneath the machine's core, sending controlled bursts of energy through every conduit in its frame, and the machine felt different now — lighter, faster, sharper — answering every thought the instant he had it.
Leonora's voice came across the comm channel, calm and focused. "Cortex stability?"
"Seventy-nine percent," Youri answered. "Climbing."
"Good," she said, and there was no more conversation.
Across from them, the Hound drifted in silence while its sensors swept the two Orbitons, calculating energy signatures, trajectories and weapon configurations. Inside its cockpit Larsen watched the readings without expression. The spike in power coming from NOIR didn't surprise him. It only confirmed what Serin Valis had predicted. The Empire had improved. Good. He closed the communication channel without a word.
The Hound moved first. Without warning it surged forward on bright orange fire, accelerating violently across the battlefield as its dorsal cannons rotated into position and unleashed a barrage of crimson energy bolts. The first volley tore through the space where the Phantom had been only a moment before. Leonora had already moved. The Phantom flashed sideways like a silver shadow, its maneuvering thrusters firing in rapid bursts as it slipped the incoming fire. It twisted through the void and drew its weapons in a single fluid motion — twin plasma blades igniting from its forearms and burning bright violet against the dark. Leonora boosted straight at the Hound.
Larsen didn't slow down. The Hound's cannons fired again in wide, cutting arcs. One bolt skimmed across the Phantom's shoulder armor and sent fragments of glowing plating spinning off into space. Leonora ignored it and closed the distance. In that same moment, Youri moved. NOIR launched up from below in a burst of dark blue light as the ACX-01 cortex surged and he pushed the machine harder than he ever had before, the energy readings climbing past eighty percent. The Hound saw it instantly. Larsen switched targets. The dorsal cannons pivoted downward and fired, and a storm of bolts screamed toward NOIR. Youri twisted the machine in midflight and slipped the first two blasts. Then he raised NOIR's arm. A plasma blade burst from the weapon mount along its forearm, its deep crimson edge slicing through the void and scattering an incoming bolt into fragments.
Then the battlefield exploded into motion — the Phantom from the right, NOIR from the left. Leonora struck first, her violet blades carving across the Hound's shoulder plating and leaving glowing scars across its armor. The machine recoiled as sparks burst outward. But Larsen had already anticipated it. The Hound's forearm cannons fired point-blank. Leonora boosted backward an instant before the blast tore through the space in front of her and lit the battlefield in a brief flash of white. From the other side NOIR came in, Youri swinging the crimson blade in a wide arc at the Hound's dorsal cannons, and Larsen jerked the machine upward just in time. The blade sliced through empty space, but it passed close enough to shear one of the cannons' outer armor plates away. The fragments drifted off into the dark.
Larsen answered at once. The Hound's thrusters ignited at full power and drove it backward to open the distance before it unleashed another barrage. Energy blasts rained down on both Orbitons and forced them apart in a chain of explosions. The Phantom rolled through the storm of fire with its thrusters blazing as Leonora weaved between the blasts, her sensors tracking the Hound's weapon cycle. "Youri," she said sharply.
"I see it."
The Hound's energy signature was climbing fast. Inside its cockpit Larsen brought the machine's next phase online, and the Valis particle fusion core flared as synchronization mode engaged. The Hound's output surged violently, waves of power flooding its conduits, its glow intensifying as its thrusters roared with renewed force. Then it attacked, accelerating like a missile while a torrent of fire poured from its dorsal weapons and filled the battlefield with streaks of burning energy. The blasts forced the Phantom and NOIR to scatter in opposite directions. Leonora wrenched the Phantom aside. One blast grazed its leg armor and left a molten trail across the plating. Before she could recover another volley came; she raised one plasma blade and deflected it, the energy spilling across the blade's field before bursting harmlessly behind her.
Across the battlefield Youri drove NOIR forward again as the ACX-01 cortex surged to eighty-five percent. The machine answered with terrifying speed, bursting through the storm of fire and weaving between the blasts. Its arm came up, the crimson blade blazed brighter, and Youri swung it down. The blade struck the Hound's left cannon assembly. Metal screamed as the weapon was sliced clean away and drifted off into the void, still glowing from the cut.
Inside his cockpit Larsen's expression didn't change. He simply adjusted. The remaining cannons shifted position. The Hound fired again, a single concentrated beam this time, ripping across the battlefield toward NOIR. Youri boosted sideways as the beam grazed his shoulder armor and burned a deep line across the plating. Warning lights flickered across his display. But the machine held.
Leonora came back into the fight from above, the Phantom diving at the Hound with its plasma blades blazing in a rapid series of strikes aimed at its thrusters. Larsen twisted the Hound sharply, avoiding the first strike and firing another burst that drove the Phantom away again. For several seconds the battlefield became a storm of weapons fire, plasma blades and maneuvering thrusters, the three Orbitons moving through the void like dueling stars, every attack answered by another.
And slowly, Youri noticed something. The Hound wasn't retreating. It was circling — drawing them steadily farther away from Central Command. His eyes narrowed. "This isn't random," he said quietly.
Leonora's sensors flickered as she analyzed the battlefield. "You're right."
Across the void the Hound suddenly stopped. Its energy output spiked again, the Valis particle core burning brighter than before, and Larsen raised every weapon the machine had left. The Hound fired everything at once. A massive storm of energy blasts tore across the battlefield and forced the Phantom and NOIR to scatter as the void filled with explosions. Through the chaos the Hound accelerated away from them. Not retreating. Leading.
Inside his cockpit, Youri stared at the sensor display. A new contact had appeared far beyond their position — something large, something that had been hiding behind the outer orbit. Leonora saw it too. "Youri…"
The battlefield fell quiet as the Hound slowed in the distance. And far beyond it, a massive shadow began to emerge from the darkness of space.