The Arrowhead Spiritwind cut through space like a silver blade on fire, engines humming with the low, constant thunder of a rescue craft pushed far beyond its usual speed limits. Inside the transport, everything still vibrated—not from the ship, but from the collective adrenaline of the six cadets who had just escaped death by slime.
Danny leaned against the wall near the loading ramp, eyes closed, breathing slow and steady. The last time he'd used his creation energy that intensely, he had nearly passed out. Today, somehow, he had held a monster in place long enough to save lives.
His palms still hummed with residual gold.
Swift sat next to him, arms folded, face composed but pale. The silver dragon cadet had overloaded his own energy channels to support the stabilizer relay. Exhaustion hit him in a tight, controlled tremor in his left hand. Danny nudged him silently. Swift nodded, silently acknowledging.
Across the bay, Jade sprawled on the floor like he owned it. "That," he announced, "was the single worst day of my life. And I once had a flamethrower accident in a restaurant. So that's saying something."
Jake was curled into a ball, shivering. "We almost died. We almost died. That thing wanted to eat us. Why do things always want to eat us?"
Mira and Shadeclaw sat close together—not touching, but leaning at subtle mirrored angles. Mira still felt the vibrations in her bones, leftover instinct from the chase through the ducts. Shadeclaw's eyes were half-lidded, but alert. Always alert.
The Arrowhead slowed.
Artificial gravity shifted.
The deck lights brightened.
"G.A.M.B.I.T. docking sequence in progress," came the pilot's voice through the intercom. "All personnel prepare for hangar entry."
Jake gasped. "We made it."
Jade smirked. "Never doubted it."
Shadeclaw tilted his head with predator calm. "Yes, you did."
Jade raised a finger. "Okay, yes, but not OUT LOUD."
Mira laughed under her breath. The first sound of real ease since they left Rhombus.
The ship touched down.
The ramp hissed open.
Light flooded in—the clean, white-blue glow of the G.A.M.B.I.T.'s main hangar. Medics rushed forward immediately, swarming the survivors first. Command officers stormed toward the six cadets next, datapads ready, faces tight with anticipation.
But none commanded more presence than the towering figure standing in the hangar's center.
Staff Sergeant Veldrak Sorn.
Cybergorilla. Drill instructor. Demon of discipline.
Arms crossed.
Metal plating glinting.
Expression unreadable.
Jake squeaked, "Oh no."
Jade whispered, "Be cool. Don't let him smell fear."
Danny muttered, "He can definitely smell fear."
Swift murmured, "He also smells Jake."
Jake whimpered.
Sorn walked toward them, each footstep loud enough to echo.
The six cadets snapped to uncertain attention.
Sorn stared at them for a long, heavy moment.
Then spoke.
"You lived."
Danny swallowed. "Yes, Staff Sergeant."
Mira straightened. "We retrieved fifteen survivors."
Swift added, "We temporarily contained the hostile organism."
Jade grinned. "We didn't explode anything we weren't supposed to."
Shadeclaw nodded.
Jake fainted.
Sorn didn't blink.
He gave a single curt nod.
"Good."
Jade blinked. "Wait—was that praise? Did he just praise us?"
Jake regained consciousness. "I heard it from the floor! He praised us!"
Sorn grinned.
A terrible, sharp-toothed grin.
"Don't get used to it," he said. "Training resumes tomorrow at 0400."
Jake fainted again.
Sorn stepped over him without pause. "Debriefing in ten. Conference room Theta."
He turned and walked away.
Danny groaned.
Jade stretched like a cat waking up. "Both my legs are cramping, my arms are jelly, and I am absolutely starving."
Swift exhaled. "We should clean up before debrief."
Shadeclaw agreed. "We smell like fear and slime."
Mira brushed dust from her uniform. "And victory."
Danny gave her a tired smile. "Yeah. That too."
Conference Room Theta was cold and brightly lit, a design choice almost certainly meant to keep exhausted cadets from falling asleep during critical evaluations. The six sat on one side of the long table. On the other side sat:
Admiral Tarthos, massive reptilian humanoid with sharp armor-like scales
Dr. Hadrien Lokk, xenobiologist with frazzled hair and panicked eyes
Sorn, arms crossed, looming
The holo recorder blinked to life.
"Begin debrief," Admiral Tarthos rumbled.
Swift handled the technical explanation.
"Upon arrival we discovered Rhombus had suffered full power loss. No external damage. Internal environment stable but… empty."
Dr. Lokk interjected, "Yes, yes, and you encountered the specimen, yes? The regenerative slime?"
Danny met his eyes. "More than encountered. It killed nearly the entire outpost."
Shadeclaw added, "It hunted anything with heat. It moved through vents. It learned."
Mira nodded. "And it split. Continuously."
Dr. Lokk turned pale. "Split? Split?! That wasn't in the data logs!"
Jade scoffed. "Buddy, half those logs were on fire."
Jake raised a shaky hand. "We also saw it eat a guy and make two more of itself. Just… you know. In case you wanted nightmares tonight."
Dr. Lokk began scribbling furiously.
Admiral Tarthos leaned forward. "I am more interested in how you contained the organism long enough to escape."
This was Swift's moment.
He explained the stabilizer relay, the harmonic field, the vacuum cylinder, and how Danny's creation energy interfaced to produce a hard-light containment dome.
Danny clarified in simpler terms: "I made a magic jar. It held for a minute."
Tarthos studied them. "You acted beyond training level. Above expectations."
Sorn grunted. "Barely."
Dr. Lokk pushed his glasses up. "Did the organism survive your… jar?"
Danny nodded grimly. "Yes."
Mira's voice sharpened. "It's alive. Growing. Adapting. And angry."
Shadeclaw's claws lightly tapped the table. "We will face it again."
The admiral stared through them for several long seconds.
Then:
"You six cadets saved fifteen lives. And you prevented the organism from leaving the moon. That is commendable."
Jade beamed.
Jake sat straighter.
Swift nodded with modest pride.
Danny allowed himself a tiny smile.
Mira remained calm.
Shadeclaw remained composed.
Sorn ruined it.
"Commendable," he echoed. "But you were slow. You were sloppy. And tomorrow…" He let the threat hang. "…we fix that."
Dr. Lokk squeaked. "Tomorrow? But they—!"
Sorn's smile gleamed like polished steel. "They didn't die. Therefore, they can train."
Tarthos dismissed them.
"Debrief complete. Get rest. Tomorrow begins the next phase."
The six stood, saluted, and left.
Jake fainted again just outside the door.
In the wide corridor outside the debrief room, the six had barely gotten ten steps before cadets began gathering around them.
Whispers first.
Then open stares.
Then the stampede.
"Danny!! Is it true you held back a giant acid slime with one hand?!"
"Swift! Can you explain your harmonic calculations? Your diagram from the match overlay was incredible!"
"Jake! Are you the one who almost got eaten but still made the comm call!?"
"Jade! Sign my datapad!"
"Shadeclaw! Can I pet your tail?"
"Wow, Mira, you're gorgeous—"
Shadeclaw snarled softly.
The female cadet backed up instantly.
A gaggle of tech trainees surrounded Swift, bouncing excitedly.
"Sir! Swift! You're a genius!"
Swift froze.
Social encounters were his natural predator.
Danny was cornered by two tall women in elite combat armor.
"Hey, big guy," one said. "We heard you're a golden dragon. Maybe you could… show us some of your training routine?"
Danny turned the color of molten neon. "Uh—I—I'm—not—um—"
Swift watched from across the hall and whispered to himself, "He is doomed."
Jake was grabbed by medics again. One hugged him. Another patted his hair.
Jade basked in all of it.
Shadeclaw ignored the attention, but Mira stepped deliberately closer to him when a group of women started staring too long.
She didn't growl.
She didn't glare.
She simply… existed a little more sharply.
Shadeclaw noticed.
He did not object.
Later, when the hangar quieted and the crowd dispersed, Mira and Shadeclaw walked side by side down an auxiliary corridor.
For once, Mira broke the silence.
"You helped me track them faster."
Shadeclaw's head dipped in acknowledgment. "You sensed before I did."
She considered that. "But you trusted me to."
He glanced at her—really glanced, the way predators acknowledge equals.
"You are becoming strong," he said. "Shadow suits you."
Mira felt the compliment like a pulse across her nerves. "Does it?"
"Yes. You move like pack."
She stopped walking.
Shadeclaw stopped too.
She turned to face him fully.
"Thank you," she said. "For standing with me."
Shadeclaw's golden eyes held her steady. "Always."
Then they resumed walking, silent but no longer distant.
A new bond formed here—not romantic, not forced—something sharper.
Mutual respect.
Mutual instinct.
Two predators on the same path.
The mess hall that night was chaos.
The moment the six cadets walked inside, silence swept the room.
Then the applause hit—thunderous, overwhelming.
Danny nearly tripped.
Swift stiffened.
Jake beamed through tears.
Jade raised both arms like a champion.
Shadeclaw blinked, confused.
Mira accepted it with quiet dignity.
They sat together at a long table, food trays piled high. Hungry. Exhausted. Alive.
Female cadets kept trying to sit beside Danny, Swift, Jade, and Jake.
Danny panicked every time.
Swift politely redirected them.
Jake dissolved in flustered apologies.
Jade flirted back shamelessly.
Shadeclaw watched with amusement, tail flicking lazily.
Mira, chewing calmly, caught him staring.
"What?" she asked.
He shrugged. "Humans are strange."
Mira smirked. "Yes. But we're stuck with them."
Danny tried to hide behind his tray.
Swift hid behind a datapad.
Jake hid under the table.
Jade tried to steal extra dessert from someone else's tray.
Shadeclaw and Mira sat calmly through the entire thing.
Finally, after far too much attention and far too much chaos, the six retreated toward the barracks.
They didn't make it far.
Sorn was waiting.
Arms crossed.
Jaw set.
Expression terrifying.
"Cadets."
They froze.
"You survived your first real mission. You adapted. You succeeded."
He paused.
Then his grin grew wicked.
"Good. Because tomorrow, we begin the next phase of training."
Jake whimpered.
Swift sighed.
Danny groaned.
Jade saluted sarcastically.
Mira straightened.
Shadeclaw smirked.
Sorn cracked his metallic knuckles. The sound echoed like doom.
"Zero-gravity combat drills," he announced. "0400 hours. Don't be late."
He walked away.
Danny rubbed his face. "This is going to be rough."
Mira shook her head.
"No," she said. "This is going to make us unstoppable."
And in the quiet hallway, surrounded by ship steel and the humming pulse of the colossal G.A.M.B.I.T., the team believed her.
Because they were still alive.
Still together.
And still becoming the heroes they were meant to be.