At Central Command, the alarms had begun to scream before the first reports had even finished coming in. Long rows of tactical screens lit the command hall in shifting crimson and blue. Officers shouted coordinates and the sensor feeds flickered wildly, trying to keep up with the battle raging at the edge of Terria's orbit. The order was immediate and absolute. A battalion of thirty LEX units launched from the orbital defense carriers to intercept the rogue Hound and reinforce NOIR and the Phantom. The fifty Terrian warships already stationed around the orbit on patrol — heavy cruisers, escort frigates, carriers — all received the same command within seconds. Intercept the rogue unit. Destroy it at any cost.
Hangars burst open across the fleet. Launch rails ignited in blinding lines of fire as the LEX units shot out into the void one after another like spears flung into the dark. From those fifty ships alone nearly three hundred more deployed, their thrusters igniting in synchronized waves. In less than two minutes the interception force had grown to three hundred and fifty units — a storm of Terrian machines moving through the stars in tight formation.
But as they came close to the fighting, the formation began to falter, and the pilots stared in stunned silence. What they saw barely looked like a battle. It looked more as though the sky itself had come alive. Three Orbitons were tearing through the void at speeds most LEX targeting systems could barely register, one moment distant streaks of light and the next already kilometers further on, with plasma trails twisting behind them like burning ribbons — red, violet and blazing orange cutting violent arcs across the dark. To the young recruits watching from their cockpits, it looked less like combat than like a storm made entirely of light.
Then the storm turned toward them.
The Hound moved first. The monstrous Orbiton twisted its body in the void as the Trident ignited again, its three spearheads blazing, and the weapon screamed through space as Larsen swung it in a wide arc, its energy field swelling for a split second and carving clean through three Terrian cruisers before their crews could react. The ships came apart like paper. Explosions erupted across the battlefield, and the Hound surged forward through the fire with its horns blazing and its burning tail whipping behind it. The LEX units finally opened fire, hundreds of rifles at once, and a storm of blue bolts filled the void — but Larsen didn't slow down. The Hound burst straight through the barrage like a predator through rain. Its tail snapped out in a blinding arc and impaled a LEX through the chest, the plasma spike burning through its armor as though it were nothing. Larsen jerked it violently and flung the ruined machine into two others. Then the Trident came down again. One sweep, and five Orbitons vanished in a wave of plasma.
Inside NOIR, warning alarms were screaming around Youri as he watched the slaughter unfold. "Damn it—" He slammed the thrusters to maximum. NOIR erupted forward in a streak of red light and caught the Hound just as Larsen was winding up another sweep toward the fleet. The crimson blade collided with the burning Trident in a thunderous shockwave that rippled through space itself and sent both machines spinning apart. But Larsen only laughed. The Hound twisted in the middle of its spin and lunged again, its tail snapping forward like a spear aimed straight at NOIR's cockpit. Youri barely rolled aside in time as the burning spike grazed his shoulder and tore away a huge chunk of plating in a shower of molten fragments. Sparks exploded across his control panels. Left arm integrity dropping. Outer armor compromised. Stabilizers failing. He ignored all of it. The moment the Hound overextended, NOIR fired its boosters and slammed its blade into the side of the Trident's shaft and forced Larsen back, giving the ships around them enough room to retreat.
And then the battlefield changed again. A violet blur tore through the debris like lightning. Leonora had seen the damage — had seen NOIR's armor being ripped away — and something inside her snapped. The Phantom didn't slow down. Its thrusters detonated into violent purple flame as she pushed it far beyond its normal limits, until it vanished from most LEX sensors entirely and showed only as flashes of violet energy ripping across the battlefield. She slammed into the Hound like a comet, her twin blades striking the Trident in a furious cross that sent sparks exploding outward and drove the Hound backward for the first time since the battle had begun.
Larsen's grin widened. Finally.
The two of them launched at each other again. Their clash shook the battlefield apart — the Phantom's blades carving flashing arcs of violet through space while the Hound answered with devastating sweeps of the Trident and savage strikes of its tail, every collision throwing out shockwaves that sent nearby LEX units tumbling like leaves in a hurricane. Leonora attacked with relentless speed, and Larsen answered with brutal power. The Phantom darted in and sliced across the Hound's shoulder and left a deep glowing scar. Larsen spun instantly and smashed his tail into her side so hard that it hurled her machine across several kilometers of empty space before she could stabilize. She didn't stop. She came straight back.
Meanwhile, Youri forced the damaged NOIR back into the fight. In spite of the torn armor and failing systems, he put himself in the Hound's path every time Larsen tried to break away toward the fleet. Every block cost NOIR another piece of its shattered armor. The Trident smashed into its chest once, cracked the plating open and sent shockwaves through the cockpit. Youri coughed as the whole machine rattled. But he didn't retreat. Every time the Hound moved toward the Terrian ships, NOIR was there again, like a crimson wall that refused to fall.
And every time Leonora saw another blow land on NOIR, the Phantom grew more savage. She stopped fighting with controlled strikes. Now she hunted. Her Orbiton tore through the void like a beast unleashed, striking the Hound again and again with a fury that forced even Larsen onto the defensive. Their weapons met dozens of times in a handful of seconds in blinding flashes of plasma. The LEX pilots watching could barely breathe. To them, it looked like two cosmic monsters tearing reality apart.
At last Leonora broke through. The Phantom slipped past a swing of the Trident and drove one of its blades deep into the Hound's side. The plasma edge carved through the metal and sent molten fragments spinning away. For the first time the Hound staggered. Inside his cockpit, Larsen laughed again, a deep, excited growl that filled the comm channel. "Now that's a fight."
The Hound's plasma horns flared brighter. Its tail ignited with even more violent energy, and the monster lunged forward once more.