Vent's black fighter jet cut through the dense sea of clouds in the night sky, receding like a comet.
Following behind, Adrian's flagship Fenrir and dozens of Imperial ships chased him furiously, spewing red propulsion light.
They took the bait.
"Gotcha."
In the deep cave of the ancient floating island, Jayn murmured low in the bridge of the Lumina Lip, which was holding its breath in the darkness.
As the massive predators vacated the spot, the path opened to the megalithic structure revealing its grand majesty outside the cave, 'The Forgotten Archives'.
The massive facility, which looked as if an entire mountain range of the island had been carved out, stood silent under the pitch-black night sky.
"Now. Move in, Leon."
At Jayn's command, Leon, sitting in the engineer's seat, tightened his grip on the control stick.
"Hold on tight. The engines are a mess, so don't expect a smooth ride."
The Lumina Lip, not yet fully repaired, let out a rough mechanical sound as it slipped out of the cave that had been its hiding place.
Instead of soaring high, the ship slid secretly, hugging the ground as if swimming between the terrain of the floating island and the shadows of the ruined ancient buildings.
Their target was not the main gate of the Archives.
It was the 'Dead Zone' Leon had found in the ancient blueprints—a closed emergency docking deck at the bottom of the facility where even the Empire's surveillance network didn't reach.
Covered in hundreds of years of dust and moss, the place opened its mouth darkly like the maw of a monster.
"...It's strange."
Leon frowned as he checked the dashboard.
"Even if Vent drew their attention, the security system is too quiet. A perfectionist like Adrian wouldn't leave his base this unguarded. It feels like they left the door open and are waiting."
"Doesn't matter if it's a trap. There's no chance if not now."
Jayn answered firmly and packed her gear. The Sky Hammer on her back clanked heavily.
Finally, the Lumina Lip stopped on the old platform of the emergency deck at the bottom of the facility. However, the landing gear did not descend.
The engines were still gasping roughly, maintaining a hover in mid-air.
As Jayn and Leon stood up from their seats, Lilia at the helm looked at them with anxious eyes.
"If we turn off the engines, we might not be able to start them again. I'll hold the helm and wait here."
Lilia took over the control stick with trembling hands.
Jayn looked back once at Lilia's worried face and the anxiously vibrating ship, then nodded.
"Signal us immediately if anything happens. Let's go, Leon."
Jayn and Leon jumped from the swaying ship onto the platform.
The sound of military boots rang exceptionally loud on the empty metal floor.
Leaving the Lumina Lip floating in the darkness behind, the two moved toward the firmly closed emergency hatch of the Archives.
Too easily, the rusted hatch screamed open. Inside, only thick darkness with not a speck of light awaited them.
Like the belly of a beast welcoming prey walking in on its own feet.
*
"Jayn! A... Above...!"
At Lilia's scream coming through the communicator, Jayn and Leon looked up simultaneously.
The empty air just above the Lumina Lip, which had been empty just a moment ago, was rippling like water.
As if a transparent film was being peeled off, the air twisted grotesquely, and a massive steel shadow revealed its substance.
"No way... There was nothing on the radar! Not even a detection signal, how did it suddenly right in front of our eyes...!"
Before Lilia's astonished shout could end, it wasn't just one ship that tore through the air and appeared.
One, two, three... Ships crudely and hideously patched together with scrap metal revealed themselves one after another like ghosts.
Far from the sleek streamlined ships of the Empire, these ships, covered in rusted and rough armor plates, were the assault fleet of the hyenas of the sky, the Chrome Hounds.
"Those are Chrome Hounds! But how are those ignorant bastards using the Imperial Army's latest stealth technology?"
Leon shouted in disbelief.
His eyes were fixed on the smooth silver device unnaturally attached to the bottom of the raiders' ships.
It was a crystallization of alien high technology that didn't match the crude hulls at all.
"They didn't develop it. Someone put an 'Invisibility Cloak' on those mad dogs! There's a mastermind!"
As soon as Leon's analysis ended, an amplified voice mixed with mechanical sounds from the enemy flagship echoed through the entire cave.
It was an unforgettable, terrible metallic voice.
"The rats walked into the poison jar on their own feet."
Through the bridge window of the massive flagship, a hulking man with a glowing red artificial jaw was visible. 'Red Jaw' Caligo.
He roared, slamming his hydraulic axe onto the floor.
"Just as commissioned! Corner them! Doesn't matter if the ship is destroyed!"
Along with Caligo's command, indiscriminate bombardment poured down.
Ka-boom! Ka-bang!
With a roar, the Lumina Lip's shields fluctuated violently.
The engines, not yet fully repaired, screamed from overload, and blue Aether sparks flew up like blood splatters from various parts of the hull.
"Kyaaa!"
As the bridge shook violently, Lilia screamed.
"Shield output at 30%... I can't hold it anymore! Jayn, come back quickly!"
Jayn bit her lip. She wanted to jump up and save Lilia right away.
But the enemy's fire was cutting exactly between the ship and the platform where Jayn and Leon stood.
Moving now meant becoming a honeycomb. Moreover, that overwhelming difference in firepower.
Fighting back was impossible with the current Lumina Lip.
At this rate, the ship, Lilia, and us. It's all over.
Jayn's eyes burned blue.
She made a decision.
"Lilia! Take off immediately!"
"What? But you two are...!"
"We're fine! If the ship blows up, we're done too! Just run away and hide! You can come pick us up later!"
"But...!"
"It's an order! Now!"
At Jayn's desperate shout, Lilia swallowed her tears and pulled the control stick.
"You must... You must stay alive!"
Vroooom—!
The Lumina Lip rapidly increased altitude, scattering unstable blue Aether particles.
Chrome Hound shells rained down, grazing the hull, but the ship desperately hid itself in the darkness of the asteroid belt.
"The rat is running away! 2nd Squadron, chase it! The rest of you, crush those bastards thoroughly!"
With Caligo's shout, the anger of the Chrome Hounds who missed their prey poured entirely onto the two people left on the ground.
Ka-boom!
A massive missile directly hit the connection part of the emergency docking deck where Jayn and Leon were standing.
With a terrible crunching sound, the steel supports bent like taffy, and the only entrance they had entered through collapsed with flames.
The retreat was completely cut off.
Now there was nowhere to return.
*
"Run, Leon! Don't look back!"
Jayn's shout was buried in the roar of the collapsing docking deck.
With their retreat cut off, the two had no choice.
Behind them, the mad roars of the Chrome Hounds and the sound of heavy weapons firing rushed in like a wave.
Like herding prey, they blew up both sides of the corridor, pushing the two deeper into the darker parts of the Archives.
"Server Room! We have to go there!"
Leon panted and took the lead.
Tracing the memory he saw in the ancient blueprints, he ran frantically toward the heart of the facility.
Passing through maze-like corridors and pushing through hundreds of years of dust, they arrived in front of a massive blast door.
"Damn it, it's locked!"
"Step back!"
Jayn wedged the hook of her Sky Hammer into the crack of the door and put her entire body weight on it.
Screeeech—
With a terrible metallic scream, the manual opening mechanism turned forcibly.
As soon as the heavy steel door created a gap for one person to pass, the two threw themselves inside.
Bang!
As soon as they entered, the blast door closed again, cutting off the outside noise.
"Haa, haa..."
Only rough breathing filled the silence. The server room unfolded before their eyes was overwhelming.
Thousands of black monolith-like data banks soared as if touching the ceiling, and faint Aether circuits flowed on the floor like blood vessels.
This place was the grave of a dead civilization, and a brain still living and breathing.
"If it's here... we can sweep them away."
Leon stumbled toward the central control console. His eyes began to shine sharply again.
"This facility has an automated defense system against intruders. Adrian, that bastard, probably locked this system to monopolize the records, but... it won't work on me."
Leon's fingers flew over the hologram keyboard as if dancing.
Imperial security codes floated in red on the screen. As expected.
Security algorithms typical of soldiers—sturdy but lacking creativity.
"See this? Defense turrets, blast walls, suppression gas... This facility itself is a massive weapon. If we reverse-engineer this, we can roast all those hyenas outside."
"Hurry up, Leon. They're breaking through the blast door."
From outside the door, the sound of thump, thump banging on the door could be heard.
While Jayn held the Sky Hammer and guarded the door, Leon unlocked the final security code.
"Good, got it! Now they're finished!"
Leon smiled with conversion and pressed the execute key.
'Enter'.
With that single touch, everything should have ended.
The defense system should have activated, and the scene of Chrome Hounds screaming and running away should have unfolded.
However.
Instead of a cheerful approval sound, ominous static rang through the server room.
"Uh...?"
Leon's eyes shook. The Imperial red interface floating on the monitor began to distort as if melting.
What filled the place where the red light vanished was a grotesque and toxic purple that made one nauseous just by looking at it.
The purple code filling the screen was filled with malice that Leon had never seen, no, never even imagined.
It wasn't a mechanical language. It was a terrifying shape, like a living snake coiling around and tightening the system.
"This is... impossible."
Leon stepped back.
"This isn't Adrian's code. That uptight soldier doesn't write such despicable code. This is... much more insidious and cunning."
It wasn't the discipline of a soldier. It was the assassin's blade hiding in the shadows, aiming for the back.
The security system Adrian installed was just a shell.
Beneath it, someone with much higher authority had dug a 'Double Trap', waiting for Jayn's group to connect.
Hiss—!
The ceiling vents opened all at once, and odorless, colorless gas began to spew out.
At the same time, the sound of double and triple locks turning clank was heard from the closed blast door.
"Leon! The door won't open!"
Jayn shouted in panic.
"It's a trap...!"
Leon looked at Jayn with a terrified face.
"We didn't take control of the system. The system trapped us. Someone higher than Adrian... the Empire's shadow was waiting for us."
Under the server room lights dyed purple, the shadows of the two stretched long. It looked like a noose tightening around their necks.
*
As the purple static cleared and the hologram stabilized, Leon doubted his eyes.
What appeared there was not the arrogant face of Colonel Adrian Valentine.
A bizarre figure with his entire face covered by a white mask, wearing a dark gray robe.
The ghost of Imperial Intelligence, the 'Shadow Scribe'.
"A, Adrian is...?"
At Leon's trembling question, a voice like a snake crawling, modulated by mechanical sounds, flowed out from behind the mask.
"Colonel Adrian is too soft. Soldier's honor, fair fight... such romance cannot erase the persistent ghosts of Arkelos."
"Who are you! Where is Adrian?"
Jayn shouted, gripping her Sky Hammer.
Instead of answering, the Scribe let out a terrifying laugh from inside the mask.
"You don't set a trap when catching a rat. You block the hole entrance and burn the whole thing down. That is... the will of Grand Marshal Cassius Valerius."
Cassius Valerius.
The moment that name came out, Leon's face turned pale.
He wasn't just a military general.
A living legend of the Empire whom even the Emperor could not treat lightly, and the symbol of ruthless iron-fisted rule.
If Adrian is a hound, Cassius is the master of the hunting ground. This trap was on a different level from the start.
"Consider it an honor. Your deaths will become fertilizer for the Grand Marshal's new order."
Simultaneously with the Scribe's hologram turning off, the server room's lighting, even the red emergency lights, went out, plunging into complete darkness.
*
At the same time, airspace outside the Archives.
Vent Steel's eyes, circling after shaking off Adrian's fleet, shook roughly.
Something was wrong.
He was sure he had perfectly lured Adrian's main fleet with his black fighter.
But the movements of the other ships surrounding the Archives were strange.
"That... is not a regular army maneuver."
His instincts as an Imperial Special Forces ace rang a warning alarm.
Adrian's fleet presses with firepower.
But they... were waiting with bated breath.
The way they narrowed the siege was less like a military operation and more like herding livestock in a slaughterhouse.
Vent hurriedly increased the sensor magnification.
Enemy ship side armor reflecting faint starlight.
There, instead of the Empire's symbol 'Winged Sun', a bizarre emblem of a snake with closed eyes was engraved.
In an instant, a chill ran down Vent's spine.
"Intelligence Bureau... Shadow Ops?!"
It was the Empire's assassination unit whose existence itself was classified.
Those called 'Erasers', deployed only for political purges or covert operations, not battlefields.
Troops directly under the Grand Marshal that even Adrian could not move freely.
"Adrian didn't lure us... He was used too!"
This was not a battlefield. It was an execution ground.
Vent urgently opened the communication channel.
"Captain! Leon! It's a trap! You have to get out of there immediately!"
"Blow it up and get out! That place is not Adrian's jurisdiction! They didn't come to arrest you! They just came to kill you!"
*
Vent's scream cut off abruptly.
Inside the server room, in pitch-black darkness, Jayn and Leon stood back to back.
The door didn't budge, and toxic nerve gas began to spew from the ceiling vents with a hissing sound.
They tried to cover their noses with their sleeves, but the acrid smell pierced their lungs, blurring their consciousness.
But what made Jayn's nerves sharper was not the gas.
Darkness.
In this perfect artificial darkness, something was moving.
Shing.
A very faint sound of a blade brushing against a scabbard.
Jayn held her breath.
Behind the shadows of the massive black monolith servers, space rippled.
One, two, three...
Red dots floated in the darkness. They were not mechanical lights.
They were the murderous glints emitted by the assassins' thermal goggles.
"Damn it..."
Jayn bit her lip, re-gripping her Sky Hammer.
Shadows crawling on the floor soundlessly.
A murderous intent, faster, more secret, and more lethal than the Aegis Guardians of the regular Imperial Army, tightened around their throats.
Along with the emotionless mechanical sound, dozens of red eyes flashed simultaneously in the darkness. And death rushed toward them.