The decommissioned military communications tower stood on the Outer Sprawl like a skeletal monument to the Federation's past authority. Rust bled down the tower's colossal struts, and the silence of the abandoned zone was broken only by the thin, ceaseless wind. This remote outpost, once Rheon Vale's secure contingency drop point, was now the staging ground for his final, lethal confrontation.
Rheon had set the trap with meticulous, savage precision. He arrived alone in a common cargo skiff to emphasise his apparent desperation and lack of support. He ascended the service lift to the tower's transmission deck, which offered a panoramic, exposed view of the wasteland. He then positioned a small, encrypted data drive in the designated magnetic lockbox. The drive contained fabricated information designed to resemble a desperate soldier's final attempt to purchase safe passage off-world, thus luring The Revenant with a false sense of tactical superiority.
His personal armour was light, prioritising speed over sustained combat. His energy blade and suppression pistol were his only companions. The true weapon was intangible and miles away, monitoring his every breath: Lyra Kain.
Rheon walked to the edge of the transmission deck, fully exposed to the elements and the unforgiving eye of the hunter he knew was coming. He forced his mind to project controlled, subtle anxiety, the psychological signature of a disciplined man cracking under immense pressure. He needed The Revenant to believe he was an isolated, vulnerable asset ready for final elimination or extraction.
I am in a position, Lyra. The bait is set, Rheon transmitted mentally.
The response from the Queen was immediate, intense, and protective, echoing across the vast distance separating them. I have established the sensory connection, Ascendant. I am monitoring your vital signs and the atmospheric bleed. The moment the void registers, I will strike. Do not engage him physically. Hold the line for three seconds. That is all I require.
Lyra was stationed in a shielded bunker fifteen kilometres away, her consciousness fused with the seized Sanguis network. She was preparing to channel the cumulative power of the redirected generators and the Aether Fragment through the Bloodlink, directing a focused psychic surge designed to annihilate The Revenant's neural architecture. The risk to her was immense. A surge of that magnitude could physically destroy her own stabilised nanite structure if miscalculated.
Rheon stood on the precipice, his military discipline battling the profound, primal fear of facing the Federation's ultimate assassin alone. He was offering his life as the fuse for the Queen's final weapon.
The wait was an agonising exercise in controlled vulnerability. Rheon held his position for thirty minutes while the solar cycle slowly dipped toward twilight. He allowed his gaze to sweep the surroundings only once every ninety seconds, adhering to almost religious discipline.
He did not see The Revenant arrive. He never would.
He felt the shift: the pressure of the air subtly changing, the ambient noise of the wind seeming to swallow itself. The cold, empty signature of the assassin's presence registered first as a psychological vacuum.
He is here, Rheon transmitted to Lyra, his thought sharp and immediate.
The Revenant emerged from the shadow of the central transmission spire, already moving. He was silent, a black, synthetic blur against the rusted metal. He was wounded, his armour still bearing the scars of the Aether Scourge, but his speed and lethal focus were terrifyingly restored.
The assassin bypassed the dead drop immediately. He did not care about the files. He had confirmed the target's presence and apparent isolation. His objective was pure elimination.
"Ascendant-Alpha-1," The Revenant synthesised. His voice was flat and emotionless, echoing eerily in the confined space. "Your betrayal ends here. Elimination is mandated."
"Your mandate is flawed, Assassin," Rheon countered. He held his position near the deck's edge. He did not draw his pistol, deliberately emphasising his apparent surrender to the psychological reality of the confrontation. "Your masters are fighting a ghost, and your empire is collapsing."
The Revenant did not engage in rhetoric. He covered the distance between them with inhuman speed and produced a specialised kinetic grapple gun designed for incapacitation and retrieval.
The grapple wire shot out, aimed not at Rheon's torso but at his wrist, a crippling move designed to disable his weapon hand instantly.
Rheon reacted with the speed Lyra had engineered into him. He sidestepped the wire and drew his energy blade in a fluid, defensive movement. The blade screamed as it deflected the grapple wire, showering sparks across the deck.
The Revenant closed the gap, recognising the energy blade as the last vestige of physical defence. The assassin was ruthless, attacking with focused brutality that pressed Rheon against the tower's railing. The Revenant's hand went for Rheon's throat, intending to end the duel with brutal finality.
Rheon knew this was the moment. He seized the assassin's wrist with both hands, allowing the lethal proximity and trapping the hunter in the confined space. The pain of the crushing pressure was immense, but Rheon endured. His mind focused solely on the single, final command.
NOW, LYRA!
Miles away in the shielded bunker, Lyra Kain's body arched in a silent scream. Her eyes glowed a blinding, chaotic violet. She had been monitoring the Bloodlink, feeling the raw fear, the crushing pressure, and the absolute focus of Rheon's mind. The agonising contact between her shield and the assassin was her trigger.
She released the surge.
The Aether Fragment, amplified by the vast, redirected power from the seized Federation generators, pulsed outward. It was not a localised explosion like the Scourge. It was a devastatingly focused psychic laser directed entirely through the neural conduit of the Bloodlink and straight into the mind of the target.
The energy transferred from Lyra's command console into Rheon's mind was immense and nearly unbearable. Rheon felt the psychic fire blast through his own cerebral cortex. He collapsed instantly. The pain was so profound that it momentarily erased all physical sensation.
The Revenant, pressed against the psychic conduit, was the true recipient. His advanced, highly sensitive neural network was hit with a frequency designed to dismantle consciousness. His restored sensory implants, his digital thought processors, and his core personality matrix were simultaneously overloaded and vaporised by the psychic surge.
The assassin froze instantly. His grip on Rheon's throat slackened. The cold, empty blue light of his optical sensors went dark, shattered by the internal explosion. The Revenant's body did not collapse. It convulsed violently as the internal systems short-circuited while the consciousness that drove them was utterly annihilated.
The surge lasted less than three seconds, but it was absolute.
Lyra immediately cut the connection and collapsed to the floor of her bunker. Her body was drenched in sweat and gasping for breath. The psychic backwash was devastating, leaving her weakened and disoriented, but alive.
On the tower deck, Rheon slowly dragged himself up. His mind reeled from the blast. The Revenant lay on the metal924 grating, utterly silent. His formidable body was now reduced to inert, useless machinery. The Federation's most perfect weapon had been destroyed by a single, focused act of raw psychic power.
Rheon knelt and checked the assassin's vitals. Nothing. The digital brain was gone. He stripped the specialised gear from the body, including the assassin's secured identity transponder, a final, strategic prize.
He looked down at the silent form of his tormentor, the man who had nearly destroyed him multiple times. There was no triumph, only cold, hard necessity.
Status report, Lyra, Rheon transmitted. His voice was weak but disciplined.
The target is neutralised. I am recovering, Ascendant. The cost was immense. Return to the Crypt. Now.
Rheon quickly cleared the scene and destroyed the remaining evidence of the psychic engagement. He left the inert shell of The Revenant on the tower deck as a chilling message for General Vance. He used the assassin's transponder to transmit a single, encrypted ping to Vance's known bunker location. The message was simple: ASSET: ELIMINATED.
The implication was clear. The Federation's ultimate defence was gone, and the Queen knew exactly where the General was hiding.
Rheon returned to the safety of the secondary safe house and found Lyra still pale but recovering. Her effort had been extreme. The lines of exhaustion around her eyes were deep, and the crimson of her eyes was subdued.
"The target is confirmed eliminated," Rheon reported. He placed the assassin's gear and transponder on the table. "Vance knows his ultimate shield is gone. He is exposed, Lyra. The only remaining physical threat has been neutralised."
Lyra reached out, not for the trophies, but for Rheon's hand. She squeezed it fiercely. Her gratitude and dependency were absolute.
"You risked everything, Ascendant," Lyra whispered. "You are more than a shield. You are the fuse that ignited our power."
Rheon accepted the burden and the compliment. "The true cost is the energy drain on you, Lyra. We cannot use the Aether Surge again without days of recovery. We must exploit this advantage immediately."
The final analysis was simple. They had no further physical obstacles. Vance, paranoid and wounded, was isolated in Sector Gamma, preoccupied with the digital war against Morn, and now acutely aware that his ultimate protector had failed. The path to the General was open.
"The timing is perfect," Lyra concluded. Her eyes slowly regained their brilliant crimson intensity. "Vance believes he is safe because he is fighting the digital ghost. We strike the physical body now, before he realizes the true depth of our power."
The duel was won, the threat neutralized, and the final strike was ready. The Queen and her Ascendant were prepared to leave the shadows and claim the Federation's physical throne. The Age of the Sanguis Empire had formally begun.