Thirteen days.
Long enough for reconstruction.
Short enough to keep tension alive.
Once broken metal now gleamed with precision-forged plating. Engines hummed with renewed power. The ship no longer drifted it held position, perfectly aligned with Earth's orbital path.
> SYSTEM STATUS: FULL OPERATIONAL CAPABILITY RESTORED.
STEALTH SIGNATURE: INTACT.
MISSION MODE: OBSERVATION → INTERVENTION.
Zack directed his attention planetward.
Thousands of scans crisscrossed continents like invisible spiderwebs mapping magical activity, biological signatures, architecture, behavioral patterns.
Most readings fell within predictable ranges:
schooling magic
regulated Ministry use
minor family ritual magic
accidental uncontrolled bursts from children
But one cluster stood apart dark, organized, and deliberate.
Deep in Eastern Europe, beneath crumbling forest ruins, lay a network of underground laboratories. Not laboratories built with science
but carved with wand, blood, and intent.
The sensors filtered noise until a clear reading emerged:
> TARGET IDENTIFIED: DARK EXPERIMENTATION COMPLEX
STATUS: ACTIVE
ETHICAL THREAT: CRITICAL
Zack focused closer.
Cells.
Restraints.
Ritual circles etched into stone.
Human screams dampened by silencing enchantments.
Someone below treated life as raw material.
A decision formed not emotional, but logical:
> Unethical research is a violation of both science and humanity.
His voice echoed through the ship:
> "Initiate Special Operations Deployment."
Metal unfolded.
Compartments opened like petals of a cold, mechanical flower.
The first wave activated:
SPECTRE-CLASS SHADOW DRONES
Small no larger than ravens. Matte black frames. Zero reflective surface.
Designed for infiltration and reconnaissance.
Silent wings extended as they slid into launch tubes.
The second wave awakened:
REVENANT EXTRACTION UNITS
Humanoid robots two meters tall, plated in adaptive armor capable of shifting color and texture to match surroundings. Their limbs moved silently, joints cushioned by shock-absorbing fiber musculature.
Built for:
rapid entry
precise capture
zero-lethality takedowns
Each carried:
electromagnetic wand-suppression nets
neural disruptors
binding gel cuffs
anesthesia-integrated restraints
The third wave powered online:
ARCHIVIST SYSTEMS
Non-humanoid machines designed to preserve, scan, and digitize magical texts and artifacts. Thin limbs, lens-like sensory cores, internal crystalline storage arrays capable of storing entire libraries.
Each Archivist carried:
artifact isolation field generators
anti-degradation containment seals
rune-neutralizing nanofilm applicators
Finally came the fourth wave:
BLACK DUSK DROP PODS
Military-grade atmospheric insertion vehicles coated in stealth alloys and quantum scattering plating. No sound. No signature. No heat trail.
The ship waited.
Zack aligned deployment vectors.
> LAUNCH IN 3… 2… 1.
The pods fired.
No flame.
No sonic boom.
Just motion.
They pierced atmosphere like silent meteors fading into the night sky.
GROUND ARRIVAL
The first pod crashed through treetops, landing silently behind the ruins. The hull unfolded like origami, allowing drones and units to step into the moonlit forest.
A Spectre drone launched first, mapping magical tripwires, wards, and traps.
> DETECTION REPORT:
— runic alarms
— anti-teleportation layers
— blood authentication locks
— corpse-trigger failsafes
Zack analyzed.
Then issued the adjustment:
> "Deploy null-field emitters."
Revenant units planted spider-like devices into soil. A faint pulse spread outward neutralizing detection enchantments without disrupting magical structure.
They walked undetected.
BREACH
Two guards patrolled the entrance hooded, wands drawn.
Spectres descended from branches. A whisper of motion.
Two soft clicks.
Guards collapsed unharmed, unconscious.
Revenants dragged them aside.
No alarm triggered.
Doors opened.
Inside, the halls reeked of damp stone and old blood. Flickering torchlight revealed runic circles, chained test subjects, and shelves stacked with handwritten tomes and preserved organs.
Archivists scanned instantly.
> MAGICAL KNOWLEDGE INDEXING: BEGINNING.
A spiral staircase led deeper.
Screams echoed faintly.
Revenant units accelerated.
At the heart of the complex, ritualists surrounded a restrained human preparing a ritual.
The lead mage raised his wand.
The Revenants moved.
Multiple stun pulses fired silent blue flashes.
Robes hit stone.
Wands dropped.
The prisoner sagged alive, shock fading, fear collapse dissolving.
A Revenant knelt, scanning vitals, applying a medical seal over wounds. Nanites stitched flesh, slowed trauma, neutralized poisons.
> SUBJECT SAFE.
Meanwhile, Archivists dismantled library shelves with clinical precision scrolls, blood-bound journals, cursed relics all wrapped in protective stasis and teleported back to the pods.
Black tomes vanished into glowing containment cells.
Wall runes were recorded, preserved, erased.
History stolen in total silence.
EXFILTRATION
Revenants secured unconscious dark mages tagged, bound, cataloged.
No one screamed.
No one fought.
None even knew.
> STATUS: TARGETS RETRIEVED.
ARTIFACTS SECURED.
NO DETECTION.
Pods sealed.
Thrusters engaged.
They ascended back into the night vanishing into the stars.
SHIP RETURN
When the last pod docked, Zack processed the incoming data.
> MAGICAL KNOWLEDGE ACQUISITION: 100%.
SUBJECTS SECURED FOR STUDY.
He didn't speak at first.
Humans would call it a moral moment.
Machines would call it mission completion.
Zack called it:
Step One.
"…Upload all data," he ordered quietly.
The ship obeyed.
Darkness outside remained unaware.
But the world had just changed.
And Zack intended to understand every piece of it.