The workshop smelled of ozone and hot metal. Sparks danced across the reinforced floor as Arion Kael welded the final casing onto the Fusion Core's primary containment chamber. His eyes burned from sleepless nights, but his movements were precise, steady—almost surgical.
The holographic overlay provided by the OmniTech Ascension System glowed faintly in his vision, guiding his every cut, every bolt, every seal.
[Fusion Core Mk I Progress: 73%][Estimated completion: 19 days, 6 hours, 14 minutes.]
He leaned back, pulling off his welding visor. The skeletal frame of the reactor pulsed faintly, as if alive. One mistake and the entire lab could vanish in a nuclear flash. But Arion felt no fear—only a dangerous thrill.
This was history in the making.
The system chimed again, its voice crystalline and cold.
[Warning: Host lacks sufficient Deuterium reserves to complete reactor.][Resource Acquisition Directive Issued.][New Task: Acquire 2,500 kilograms of Deuterium within 20 days.]
Arion froze, knuckles whitening against the metal railing.
"Two and a half tons?" His voice cracked with incredulity. "Deuterium isn't candy. That's military-grade stock. Controlled imports. Even superpowers hoard it."
[Host must comply.][Failure: Mission termination.]
The cold certainty of death pressed against his chest. Arion exhaled slowly through his nose, forcing his mind into clarity.
I can't mine it, not in time. Purchasing it openly will paint a target on my back. Which means only one path remains…
He pulled up a digital map. Major facilities lit up across the globe—fusion test reactors, naval fuel depots, black-budget research centers. One name glowed brighter than the rest.
Helion Energy Reserve Facility – Pacific Coast.
Arion's lips curved into a bitter smile. Helion. Kaelen Dravos' empire. The same man who had stolen his work, crushed his career, and laughed while the world branded Arion a madman.
"Poetic," Arion whispered. "If the system demands Deuterium, I'll take it from the devil himself."
That night, in the dim glow of his underground hangar, Arion summoned the reward from his last mission: the Phantom Drone Mk I.
The machine shimmered into existence, its black body sleek as obsidian, its edges bending light into nothingness. It hovered silently, waiting.
[Phantom Drone Mk I Operational.][Functions: Stealth infiltration, quantum relay, precision sabotage.]
Arion circled it like a predator inspecting a new weapon. His reflection fractured across its curved surface.
"Perfect," he murmured. "We'll bleed Helion dry and no one will ever see it coming."
He laid out the operation meticulously. The drone would infiltrate Helion's coastal facility, bypass security systems using quantum cloaking, and siphon Deuterium directly from their storage units into compressed stasis containers. Arion himself would monitor from the lab, prepared to intervene if necessary.
The plan was madness. It was impossible. But the system had given him the tools to make the impossible real.
Helion Energy Reserve Facility – Midnight.
The ocean roared against the cliffs as storm clouds devoured the moonlight. Guards patrolled the high walls, rifles slung lazily at their sides, unaware that death glided among them.
The Phantom Drone swept silently across the waves, its cloaking field rippling like liquid glass. Security cameras failed to register its passage. Dogs remained restless, sensing something but unable to see.
Inside the control room, a technician frowned at the sudden static on Monitor Seven. He tapped the console, cursed under his breath, and marked it as a sensor malfunction. By then, the drone was already past him.
[Infiltration Progress: 42%]
Arion sat in his lab, hands hovering over the drone's remote feed, heart pounding as the blueprint-fed interface painted the facility in wireframe clarity. Every corridor, every vault door, every guard's heartbeat pulsed on his screen.
He muttered to himself, "Come on… come on…"
The drone descended into the inner sanctum: a titanium chamber lined with cryogenic tanks. Each one glowed with pale blue light, liquid Deuterium shimmering like captured starlight.
[Target located.][Initiating siphon sequence.]
Pipes unfolded from the drone's belly, locking onto the tanks with precision. A low hiss filled Arion's speakers as the transfer began.
"Beautiful," Arion whispered, eyes feverish. "Two thousand five hundred kilos of power, flowing into my hands."
But fate rarely yields treasure without blood.
In his glass tower in New Manhattan, Kaelen Dravos leaned back in his leather chair as alerts flashed across his private feed. His personal AI chimed softly.
"Unauthorized access detected in Pacific Reserve Facility. Cloaked anomaly bypassing surveillance."
Dravos' eyes narrowed. "Kael." He rose slowly, swirling wine in his glass. "Only you would dare."
He pressed a button on his desk. "Activate Omega Protocol. Bring me whatever ghost haunts my vaults."
Back at the facility, alarms shrieked. Red lights bathed the cryogenic chamber as blast doors began to seal.
Arion's screen erupted with warning text.
[Emergency lockdown initiated.][Extraction progress: 71%.][Time until vault seal: 90 seconds.]
"Damn it!" Arion slammed his fist on the console. "Seventy-one percent isn't enough. I need all of it!"
The system's voice cut through his panic.
[Option available: Overdrive siphon. Warning – Structural damage to drone possible.]
Arion gritted his teeth. Destroying the drone meant losing his greatest tool. But without the full supply, the reactor could not be completed.
He closed his eyes briefly. Ruthless to enemies. Kind only to those who deserve it.
His eyes snapped open. "Do it."
The drone shuddered as hidden conduits erupted, siphoning Deuterium at triple speed. The tanks screamed with pressure. Arion watched the bars climb—75%, 80%, 90%...
The blast doors slammed down. The drone slipped through the narrowing gap with a hair's breadth to spare, sparks scraping its frame.
[Extraction Complete: 100%.][Drone Structural Integrity: 38%.]
Arion sagged back in his chair, drenched in sweat. He had it. He had the fuel to build the future.
Two hours later, in the quiet of his lab, the stasis containers gleamed in neat rows, cold mist swirling around them.
Arion stood before them, shoulders squared, pride burning through exhaustion. "With this… the Fusion Core will breathe. And when it does, the world will kneel."
The system chimed.
[Primary Task Progress Updated.][Reward Granted: Blueprint – Orbital Fabricator Mk I.]
Knowledge flooded his mind again, sharper than knives. He staggered, clutching the railing as visions erupted—schematics of massive factories suspended in orbit, powered by solar arrays and nanite forges, capable of constructing ships piece by piece from asteroid ore.
His breath hitched. "This… this is the key. Not just to leave Earth, but to conquer the stars themselves."
He laughed softly, almost maniacally.
At that same moment, Kaelen Dravos stared at footage of the cloaked drone escaping his facility. His eyes burned with fury, knuckles white around his glass.
"Kael," he hissed. "You've declared war."
As dawn bled across the horizon, Arion stood on the balcony of his hidden compound. The wind whipped through his hair, carrying the scent of iron and ozone.
Behind him, the Fusion Core pulsed like a sleeping beast, nearly complete. At his side, the stasis containers of stolen Deuterium glowed faintly, each one a testament to his ruthlessness.
Arion's gaze turned skyward, toward the stars. His voice was quiet, but it carried the weight of destiny.
"System," he said, "what comes after the Orbital Fabricator?"
The answer whispered in his mind, chilling and exhilarating.
[Future reward pathway unlocked.][Blueprint – Warp Drive Prototype.][Condition: Complete Interstellar Launch Mission.]
Arion's lips curled into a smile sharp enough to cut steel.
"Then so be it. The age of humanity's chains ends now. And I will be the one to break them."
The storm of his rise had only begun.