The mission briefing was short. Earth's tactical room pulsed with massive holographic maps showing high-speed paths in deep space and incoming energy signals. The main projection showed a shimmering, unusual object drifting rapidly toward the high-altitude defense layers.
Queen Emica stood beside the display, her face completely unreadable. "We found an unregistered energy probe moving fast enough to get past the Sector Five defenses. Its origin: Neptune. Class: high-grade stealth. Target: Terra Nexis mid-orbit array."
She looked at the four members of Squad 7 with sharp, cold focus. "Your team will intercept and shut it down before it enters the atmosphere. Rules of engagement: non-lethal unless absolutely necessary. Protocol Awakening survivors are highly recommended for this insertion due to the potential for psychic interference."
Itsuki Kido, chewing on his tech wire, whispered behind Hana Jin: "We're on point, huh? Great. I love being a target."
"Stop whining, Kido," Chinami Arai muttered, adjusting the angle of her violet drone on its charging pad. "You're a Caster. Use your damn shields."
Kotaro Sakata cut in, his voice low and firm. "Cut the briefing. Let's get our gear. Where's the drop point?"
Emica gave a sharp nod, approving of Kotaro's efficiency. "Transfer bay three. You have twenty minutes."
The four cadets moved into the armory to suit up. Their combat suits were sleek composites woven with sync channels and nanite plating, designed to interface directly with the Sovereign Protocol. Each had a small display flash as they connected to the command node.
Hana's wrist display read: SYNC 74% Class Void Sabress Lv. 32 Recent Evolution: Striker/Controller Hybrid.
Itsuki's bulky glove interface glowed a vibrant, chaotic blue. "Storm Hacker class, long-range defense and tactical alerts," he announced, adjusting his large goggles. "If you idiots get tagged, I'm the only one who can strip the malware. So try not to bleed on my interface."
Chinami's round, violet drone spun to life, hovering near her short, matching hair. "Gravity Witch, field control and crowd warp. I'll keep the area stable. Don't stand inside my suppression zone unless you want to feel like a pancake. I won't hesitate to flatten Kido."
Kotaro's twin Steel Katanas shimmered as they locked into his suit harness. "Blade Sentinel, frontline and dual-strike. I take point. Jin, you stay center with me. Your Blink-Step makes you too volatile for the flanks."
"Volatile means efficient," Hana replied, testing the weight of her twin Black-Light Blades. The blades were inert now, but the potential energy humming within them was a comfort.
Chinami, standing close enough to Hana that their shoulders almost brushed, gave her a slow look up and down. "You look good in the dark suit, Jin. All that black and violet just makes your eyes pop. It's almost a shame we have to cover it up with a helmet."
Hana stared straight ahead. "Focus on the mission, Arai. Flirting with an untested teammate is a liability."
"It is a liability," Chinami agreed, her lips twitching with the contained amusement. "But I'm a Controller. Controlling liabilities is my specialty."
They launched from a secret drop craft, a silent projectile entering the upper ionosphere with blinding speed. The strange probe was ahead of them, sleek, pure black, humming with highly specialized stealth technology and unsettling deep-space energy. Small, faint Neptune symbols glowed along its core, like ancient runes.
As they got closer, the squad formed a tight insertion shape: Itsuki in the rear, already tapping his interface to hack the probe's passive sensors; Kotaro shielding forward, his body rigid; Chinami scanning external fields for kinetic traps; Hana Jin silent in the center, her magenta eyes darting to every shimmer, every possible attack point.
The tension was suffocating.
"Kido, you got anything?" Kotaro demanded over the comms.
"It's dark, man, like, completely fucking black box," Itsuki replied, his voice strained. "The firewall is insane. It's not standard Neptune defense, this is something custom. I need to get closer to force a backdoor—"
Without warning, the probe activated its weapons. Two plasma arms whipped out of the hull and fired hyper-speed laser bursts at them. The drop craft moved violently, throwing Itsuki against a bulkhead.
Flare: Unregistered Combat Protocol Activated
SYNC Regulation: Engaging Defensive Override
Hana clenched her teeth, a phantom neural spike hitting her brain. Memories of her own Awakening flashed—the blinding light, the paralyzing pain, the total sensory numbness. Protocol Awakening nearly killed me once. The Protocol was adapting to their high SYNC signatures, treating them as a sudden, high-level threat.
She blinked, forcing the Protocol readout to stabilize. [Mana Sync 74% VIT 89% AGI 92% INT 65% WIL 75%]
She didn't hesitate. She didn't wait for a command.
Chinami flared her gravity pulses, creating a powerful, localized field that slowed the incoming plasma bolts to a crawl. "Keep your heads down, you slow bastards! I can only hold this for five seconds!"
Itsuki, already recovering, deployed miniature hacking drones from his gauntlet. "Sensor suppression live in three, two—I'm doing a DDoS on their targeting system, but that probe's gonna be pissed!"
Kotaro Sakata leaped from the safety of the craft. His twin Steel Katanas sliced the plasma arms apart with powerful, clean cuts, sparks flying wildly in the vacuum. He deflected incoming metal shards with the flat of his blades, moving across the probe's surface with the calculated grace of a true Vanguard.
Hana slipped out of the craft, moving into position along the probe's spine, aiming for the main power line. Her internal display highlighted a glowing, high-energy circuit.
Skill: Void Carve — Available
Blink-Step — Cooldown 3s
She timed the step perfectly, waiting for Kotaro's distraction, then warping forward with zero energy waste. Her Black-Light Blades instantly shimmered to life, glowing with corrosive black energy as she struck. Two impossibly fast strikes. One severed the main power conduit. The second collapsed the coolant chamber beside it.
The probe shook violently, the sleek black hull overloaded with kinetic and energy shock. Its core screamed in the comms.
Warning: Core Breach Imminent. Drop probe immediately.
Kotaro grabbed Hana's arm just as the hull exploded, pulling her back toward the drop craft. Plasma fire streamed into space, followed by a silent, massive detonation. The probe shattered into a million fragments that echoed in the deafening silence of the vacuum.
Once clear and the probe was safely disassembled, the mission ended. The control node cheered, voices filled with static and relief, confirming the successful interception.
Back on Terra Nexis, they returned to the Elite Hall, exhausted but wired.
Kotaro removed his helmet quietly, his silver-blond hair damp. "That was clean. Fast. We hit the objective in less than two minutes."
Itsuki clapped a slightly charred Chinami on the shoulder. "Still got that bruise from the field control feedback? You almost crushed yourself, Arai."
Chinami glared at him, pushing his hand away. "Shut up, Kido. It's healing. And your plasma defense looked like a fucking sprinkler system. Next time aim for the core, not the sky."
Hana adjusted the collar of her suit, her expression unchanged, but she felt something shift in the air. Respect, gradual and unsaid.
Later, as they sat alone in the debriefing area, Itsuki murmured: "Protocol Awakening still scares the hell out of me. When that probe flared, I woke up inside my own head again. Totally quiet. I didn't feel like myself for hours. Just a piece of code."
Hana closed her magenta eyes. For the first time, she understood the shared trauma. She thought of her Awakening not just as survival, but as transformation. The Protocol didn't just give them power; it ripped a piece of their humanity out and replaced it with cold, hard code.
Chinami stayed nearby. Quiet. Thoughtful. She wasn't exchanging insults or flirting. She was watching Hana.
At sunset, Hana stood alone on the observation deck, watching the planet's horizon glow red and gold. She still felt no hunger, only the faint, satisfied hum of the Protocol in her spine. Her wrist display glitched with small sync pulses.
She felt... like she was being watched. Not by a satellite, but by someone close.
Chinami slipped beside her, her voice low, the usual sarcasm missing. "That was smooth out there, Jin. You move like water. I... owe you one. You saved Sakata's ass when you moved in behind him."
Hana turned, her magenta eyes dull in the sunset light.
"Keep your debt, Arai," she said. "I didn't do it to save him. I did it for the mission's efficiency."
Chinami didn't flinch. She simply shrugged, but the slight shaking of her lips suggested she was holding back a smile. "Efficiency. Right. Whatever gets you out of the gravity well, I guess."
Their eyes met. Chinami's violet gaze was sharp, lingering just a second too long, but she didn't move closer. The debt, and the interest, hung between them in the quiet air.