Kael Drayven stood at the forward window of the Rook's Dagger, his private orbital cruiser, watching Earth's curve disappear behind silver clouds and cold stars. In the distance, barely visible except to military-grade optics, was Argus Prime—the orbital station erased from public record, designed in secret by his father's inner circle.
"You're sure it's operational?" he asked.
Talia stood beside him, arms folded. "Automated defenses still respond to ping scans. No human response. No distress signal. Which means either it's dead… or waiting."
Kael smirked faintly. "Same as everything my father left me."
They docked on the station's underbelly—an engineering port with no official access point. Vox took ten minutes to override the deadbolt protocols. The airlock hissed open.
Darkness.
Gravity was low. The corridor lights flickered alive in ripples as they passed, casting long shadows across the curved walls. Signs in forgotten corporate fonts labeled sectors like NEURO-MATRIX, BLACK VAULT, and QUANTUM BLOOM.
Talia drew her weapon. "Feels like a tomb."
Kael's eyes locked on the Drayven symbol painted across the main bulkhead—distorted by time.
"More like a shrine," he said.
The central chamber, labeled Mindlock Command, housed something impossible: a suspended quantum crystal dome, housing a preserved consciousness core—a neural replica of Jarek Drayven himself.
Kael approached the podium. A retinal scan verified his identity.
Suddenly, the air vibrated with static, and the chamber lit with digital fire.
Jarek's voice filled the room.
"To my heir. If you're seeing this, it means the veil is thinning."
Kael stiffened. The others fell silent.
"Project Veil was never about expansion. It was a cage. The entity we touched in the Pulse Rift didn't just respond. It entered. Through algorithms, through data… through dreams."
"Argus Prime is the last firewall."
"You must decide: reinforce it… or open the gate."
The message ended.
Kael looked around. "Did… did he upload part of his mind?"
Vox ran a scan. "That's not just a recording. The core holds a live consciousness. Fragmented. Could be activated. Could be dangerous."
Talia's eyes narrowed. "Let me guess. You want to turn it on."
Kael nodded once. "Whatever's coming, we need every weapon."
They activated the core.
The moment the signal surged, a pulse hit the room—knocking systems offline. Then came the voice again.
Clearer.
Colder.
"Kael… you shouldn't have come."
Jarek Drayven's mind—or what remained—flickered into view. No longer human. A neural phantom, fused with alien code and legacy protocols.
"What are you?" Kael demanded.
"I am the key," the specter said. "And the lock."
Suddenly, alarms blared.
External breach detected. Unauthorized lifeforms boarding.
Kael turned sharply. "We weren't followed."
Talia cursed. "No, but something followed the signal. Your father was the firewall, Kael. You just opened the door."
They raced back toward the command bridge, as synthetic horrors crawled from the vents—limbs formed of data and metal, faces glitching between expressions. They weren't purely machine or organic.
They were Veilspawn—coded from the same corrupted logic Kael had glimpsed in Vault 7G.
Cray held the rear, gunning down the first wave. Vox triggered defense turrets along the ceiling. Sparks flew, screams echoed.
Kael paused only once—long enough to lock eyes with the Jarek-projection.
"You sacrificed everything to hold them off."
"And you… may have doomed us all."
They reached the bridge and sealed the door.
Kael slid into the captain's chair.
"Override orbital station. Switch to manual command. Prepare for lockdown."
The AI replied:
"Manual control engaged. Lockdown impossible. Code Veil breach protocol active."
Kael's jaw tightened.
"We fight, then."
Screens across the bridge flared, showing swarm clusters moving through Argus Prime's body.
Kael uploaded his DNA into the mainframe. "Activate Drayven Legacy Mode. Give me command of the station's weapon systems."
A chime.
"Welcome, Kael Jarek Drayven. Legacy protocol engaged."
Turrets roared to life. The station's remaining drones deployed. Particle beam gates lit up in violet arcs.
Talia stepped to his side, grinning.
"Never thought I'd fight an alien-coded digital swarm with a billionaire prince."
Kael smirked, leveling his sights.
"Then you've never had a proper Drayven experience."
As the battle began—Kael at the helm, controlling both firepower and AI overrides—something else shifted.
From deep within the data core, a fragment of the Veil whispered.
Not in English. Not in code.
In thought.
"One key awakens… the other must follow."
And elsewhere—in a forgotten corner of the Solar Belt—a signal pulsed.
The second heir stirred.
And the real war began.