The silence was suffocating.
Aldric Kael opened his eyes, only to find himself standing in a vast void. The academy's familiar simulation chamber was gone—no control panels, no holographic interfaces, no cadets or instructors. Just endless darkness, stretching beyond comprehension, like the hollow void between galaxies.
"…Where… am I?" His voice echoed strangely, as though it was swallowed by an unseen abyss.
A faint ripple disturbed the darkness. Tiny fragments of light drifted through the void, like shards of shattered glass suspended in space. Each shard reflected images—fleeting flashes of war, starships exploding, soldiers screaming, banners of empires torn apart.
Then, a voice.
Mechanical. Cold. Unfamiliar.
[Strategos System initializing…]
Aldric's heart lurched. His instincts told him this wasn't part of the official academy program. The simulation chambers were advanced, yes, but he had studied their mechanics—he knew every limitation, every feature. This… this was something else entirely.
[Analyzing host… Compatibility: 87%… Error detected… Manual override engaged.]
The shards of light whirled violently, merging together into a single massive screen of crackling holographic data. A tactical map unfolded before his eyes.
Red. Blue. Countless dots swarmed across the starlit battlefield. Red represented an overwhelming enemy fleet, a storm of warships numbering in the hundreds. Blue… only a handful. A small, battered armada of barely a dozen ships, standing on the brink of annihilation.
[Mission Directive: Command the fleet. Achieve victory.]
Aldric's throat went dry. "Victory…? With this?"
It was impossible. Any cadet would know. Against those odds, no textbook strategy would work. This was a death sentence.
And yet, something inside him stirred. The same restless ambition that had always pushed him forward, the same hunger that had whispered to him since childhood: Do not accept the ordinary. Defy the impossible.
Still, he hesitated. His fists clenched. "Is this… a test? Or some kind of trick?"
A sudden laugh cut through the void.
"Well, well, Kael. To think you'd end up here too."
A figure stepped from the darkness. Tall, broad-shouldered, with cold gray eyes that burned with arrogance. Cassian Vale—his rival.
Aldric's pupils narrowed. "Cassian? How—"
"Don't ask me," Cassian smirked. "Maybe the instructors wanted to compare us directly. Or maybe fate just enjoys mocking you." He gestured toward the map. "Command a dozen rust buckets against a fleet of titans? You might as well kneel now and admit defeat."
Aldric's jaw tightened. He knew Cassian too well—ever since their first clash in the academy's war games, Cassian had mocked him, ridiculed him, treated him like a stepping stone. And yet, Cassian's words always carried weight, because Cassian excelled. The instructors praised him. His lineage granted him resources Aldric could never dream of.
But this time, Aldric refused to bow.
The holographic crew materialized around him—phantoms of officers and soldiers, their eyes empty, waiting. They didn't move. They didn't breathe. They only stared, silently awaiting his command.
[Timer Initiated: 15 minutes.]
A countdown began to flash.
15:00… 14:59… 14:58…
The pressure bore down on Aldric like a collapsing star.
His thoughts raced. Think, Aldric. Not like them. Not by the book. The Strategos System… it wouldn't set this scenario unless there was a way.
For a moment, he closed his eyes. Memories flickered. Lessons from dusty textbooks, overheard stories of ancient wars, even fragments from the simulations he had run in secret. His mind spun like a storm.
And then… it clicked.
He snapped his eyes open. "I see… You don't win by fighting on their terms."
His hands moved across the tactical display, dragging and adjusting the fleet's tiny blue markers. Instead of forming a defensive line or preparing for retreat—as any sane commander would—he deliberately split his forces. He ordered three ships forward, straight into the enemy's teeth.
The phantom officers gasped in unison, their voices echoing like whispers in a cavern.
"This is suicide…"
"Sacrificing them already?"
"Commander, are you mad?"
Aldric's lips curled into a cold smile. "Sometimes, madness is the only path to victory."
The countdown ticked. 10:00… 09:59…
On the other side of the map, Cassian burst into laughter. "Brilliant! Truly brilliant, Kael. Throw your men into the fire so the rest can watch you burn. This is why you'll never surpass me."
But Aldric ignored him. He dragged the enemy markers into range, calculating gravitational shifts, warping lanes, and debris fields. The scattered blue ships maneuvered with precision, weaving bait lines, feints, and sudden retreats. The simulation began to twist into chaos.
The enemy advanced, arrogant in their overwhelming numbers. They surged forward, consuming the three decoy ships.
Aldric whispered under his breath, a mantra both for himself and for the phantom soldiers who had no will of their own.
"Every sacrifice has meaning. Every piece moves the whole."
He tapped the final command.
The three sacrificed ships detonated at the same moment, triggering a chain reaction in the debris field. Hidden graviton charges activated—an unconventional tactic, one Aldric had read about only in forbidden archives. The explosion collapsed the gravitational field into a singular pull.
The enemy fleet staggered. Hundreds of ships were dragged together, colliding, crushing into one another like tin cans under a cosmic fist.
The red dots blinked out one by one, swallowed by the trap.
Victory.
Silence filled the void once more.
Aldric stared at the map, his chest heaving. He hadn't just won. He had defied the impossible.
Cassian's mocking smile had vanished. His face twisted in disbelief, his eyes wide. "…You… How—"
But before he could finish, the system's voice returned, louder than ever.
[Simulation complete. Result: Victory.]
[Warning: Unauthorized synchronization detected.]
[Commencing real combat transfer.]
Aldric's blood ran cold. "…Real combat…?"
The void shattered. The ground beneath him cracked apart, light pouring through the fractures. His body was seized by invisible force, dragged downward—or upward, he couldn't tell. His vision spun as the darkness exploded into blinding white.
Then—
Alarms blared. Sirens screamed.
Aldric stumbled, crashing against a cold metal railing. His eyes adjusted. He was no longer in the void. No longer in a simulation. He was standing on the deck of an actual starship. The floor vibrated violently beneath his boots as distant impacts shook the hull. Red emergency lights bathed the corridor in a hellish glow.
"Cadets!" A voice thundered through the comm system. "This is not a drill! Enemy fleet detected at the edge of the Helios Belt! All personnel, prepare for deployment!"
Aldric froze. His heart pounded louder than the alarms.
This wasn't a dream. This wasn't a game.
He had been thrown into a real war.