Eclipsed Horizon — Chapter 64: "Operation Lucent Vane"
(Third-person limited — Cael POV)
The morning sky over Zephyr was the color of glass before a storm.
Not blue. Not gray. Just suspended — like it couldn't decide what it wanted to become.
From the edge of the Eclipser hangar, Cael stood in silence, watching the Pulsewings charge on the runway. Their armor shimmered faintly under the Aether coils, each engine purring with a restrained hunger. It would be their first real deployment — no simulations, no safeties.
Behind him, the hum of the hangar never stopped. Technicians barked orders, resonance cables glowed, and every few seconds, the overhead display flickered with the mission's title:
> OPERATION LUCENT VANE
Objective: Contain the Outer Breach in Sector Twelve. Retrieve live data on anomaly signature.
He checked his Pulseband again.
Still faintly lit — twin rings pulsing in sync. Lyra's sync signature.
"Still staring at it?"
Lyra's voice cut through the noise like a familiar current.
He turned. She stood beside him in full Eclipser gear — sleek, silver-black with faint teal lines tracing her frame. Her hair was tied high, her visor clipped to her belt. The faint hum of her Aether pack harmonized perfectly with his own.
"Just making sure it's still responding," Cael said.
Lyra smirked. "You say that like you're not the one it's bound to."
He gave a dry chuckle. "If the city's heartbeat syncs to mine again, I'll start charging rent."
Her eyes softened — that same look she used to give him before the Breach. "You really think humor helps?"
"It's either that or panic."
Lyra stepped closer, her voice dropping. "When we go out there, you can't hesitate. The anomaly's not like the last one. The data shows it's intelligent. It moves toward resonance signatures."
"Toward us," Cael said quietly.
"Toward you," she corrected. "You're the strongest signal Zephyr's ever recorded."
A flicker of unease crossed his face, quickly hidden.
Before he could respond, the hangar lights shifted to crimson. A synthesized voice echoed across the deck:
> "Deployment units: Eclipser Wing C. Launch in T-minus 180 seconds."
Jax jogged up, fastening his visor. "You two done flirting or should I request an extension?"
Lyra shot him a glare. "Shut up and calibrate your shield output."
"Already did," Jax said with a grin. "Try to keep up this time, boss."
Sena followed behind, her tone more grounded. "Cut the chatter. Commander Aurel's watching. You know how she gets during first-field ops."
As if summoned by name, Seraphine Aurel's image flared to life on the hangar's holo-bridge. She looked like a figure carved from light and iron.
> "Eclipser Unit C — your objective is to secure and stabilize the Lucent Vane anomaly. Your Aether link will be monitored in real-time. If resonance interference exceeds 80%, you withdraw immediately."
Lyra frowned. "And if it doesn't?"
> "Then you adapt," Seraphine said coldly. "Zephyr's counting on you."
The holo faded.
Cael exhaled once, steady and deliberate. "Let's move."
---
[Deployment — Outer Sector 12]
The city fell away beneath them in streaks of white and teal.
The Pulsewings glided through fractured layers of light — each ripple a distortion in Zephyr's artificial atmosphere.
From above, Sector Twelve looked abandoned — a ring of suspended platforms drifting at the city's edge. Once part of the energy grid, now overrun by erratic resonance storms. The air shimmered with static arcs that formed and vanished like ghosts.
"Visual confirmation on anomaly," Sena reported. "Center of the sector. It's… moving."
Lyra narrowed her gaze. "That can't be right."
Cael focused his HUD. The anomaly wasn't a rift — not anymore. It had a shape. A humanoid silhouette flickering in and out of existence, surrounded by spiraling light.
And for a heartbeat, when it turned — it looked exactly like him.
> "Contact!"
The figure raised its hand.
The sky shattered into fractal waves of energy.
Cael felt his pulse spike. His Pulseband burned hot against his wrist.
"Lyra!" he shouted.
"I see it! Resonance field's collapsing—"
Jax's voice cut through: "We're losing the grid! Static interference's off the charts!"
The sky split open — a soundless implosion that sent Aether shards raining through the air.
Cael's vision blurred — and suddenly he wasn't in the cockpit anymore.
He was inside the resonance storm.
Floating. Weightless. Surrounded by reflections of himself — a hundred versions, all flickering, all whispering.
> "Cycle resets when the heart does."
"You were never meant to leave."
"Let go."
He clenched his fist. "No."
The shards around him froze — then shattered outward in a burst of white light.
In the real world, the explosion lit up the sector like dawn.
Lyra's voice broke through the comms, breathless:
"Cael—what did you just do?"
He looked at his Pulseband.
The rings had merged completely — one continuous circle, glowing gold.
"I think," Cael said, his voice steady despite the chaos,
"the city's heart just woke up again."