Echo's choice of the Specialist track allowed him to blend classes—attacking Energy Manipulation with Mira and Combat Tactics with Leyla. It also gave him flexibility to pursue "independent study," which he used to train his anomaly abilities in secret simulation rooms.
A week in, they faced their first team mission.
Mission: Corrupted Infestation – Low Threat
Location: Derelict freighter in Neutral Space
Objective: Clear Corrupted drones, recover any intact data-cores.
Reward: 50 AP each.
They suited up in basic academy-issue combat gear—light armor, energy blades, and containment fields. A transport shuttle carried them from the Crossroads into the silent black of neutral space.
The freighter was a corpse of metal, its hull scarred by Corrupted corrosion. Inside, the air was stale and cold. Glowing violet pustules pulsed on the walls.
"Stay close," Echo said, his Error-Sight highlighting heat signatures ahead.
The drones came in swarms—scuttling, many-legged things that bled acid. Leyla tore through them. Mira used spatial nudges to collapse corridors on clusters. Echo focused on the data-core location—the ship's bridge.
There, they found not just drones, but a Corrupted Spawner—a fleshy, pulsating organ generating new drones every minute.
"Destroy it!" Mira yelled, deflecting acid with a hasty spatial shield.
Leyla lunged, but a drone tackled her, its claws scraping her armor. Echo moved on instinct. He didn't use anomaly power—he used the bond. He channeled Leyla's moon-energy through himself, amplifying it, and fired a concentrated beam of silver light from his palm.
It struck the Spawner. The organ shrieked and burst into ash.
The remaining drones fell inert.
Silence.
Leyla stared at him. "How did you…?"
"Our bond," he said simply. "I borrowed your power."
Mira was already at the console, extracting the data-core. "We need to go. More might come."
They escaped as the freighter's structural integrity failed. Back on the shuttle, their wrist-bands chimed.
Mission Complete. AP awarded.
Bonus: First successful use of Bond-Energy Resonance detected. Research opportunity unlocked: visit Scholar Varia.
Echo exhaled slowly. They had survived. But they'd also revealed a new facet of his power—one the Academy would want to study.