The "deep-space tactical exercise" was not held in a dome. For the first time since his awakening, Ryosuke left the gravity well of Terra Prime. The transport shuttle rattled and groaned as it punched through the upper atmosphere, the sky bleeding from blue to indigo to the perfect, silent black of the void, dusted with impossible stars.
He sat with the other selected cadets—Sera, Chen, Varg, and a few top performers—and a contingent of Star Fleet officers led by Kaelen. They wore standard-issue vacuum suits, their helmets cradled in their laps. The interior lights painted everyone in hard, metallic shades.
"Destination: FSS Vigilance, an Arquitens-class light cruiser serving as the mobile command post for the exercise," a Star Fleet lieutenant announced. "You will experience zero-G combat maneuvers, extra-vehicular threat response, and coordinated strikes between capital ship weaponry and Jaeger-scale assets. This is not a simulation. The vacuum is real. The cold is real. Your mistakes will be… educational."
Varg looked a little green. Chen vibrated with excitement. Sera stared out the viewport, her reflection a mask of quiet determination.
Kaelen, sitting across from Ryosuke, was a study in calm. "First time in the true deep?" he asked.
"First time in two hundred years," Ryosuke replied. The last time he'd seen stars, they'd been through the cracked canopy of a dying Jaeger, blurred by tears and blood. The memory was a cold stone in his gut.
"Your spatial technique," Kaelen said, his voice low. "In a vacuum, with no medium, how does it work?"
"The medium is space itself," Ryosuke said. "It works fine."
Kaelen's eyes narrowed thoughtfully but he said nothing more.
The Vigilance was a dagger of grey alloy, its smooth lines broken by turbo-laser batteries and sensor domes. It hung against the tapestry of the Orion Nebula, a cloud of luminescent gas and dust that served as the exercise's backdrop. Docked to its ventral side was the reason for their presence: a Mark-XIV "Void-Specter" Jaeger, a specialized model designed for zero-G and orbital combat. It was slender, almost insectoid, with massive vernier thrusters instead of legs and manipulator arms ending in grapple-hooks and retractable plasma blades.
"It's beautiful," Chen whispered.
"It's a death trap if you forget your momentum," the Star Fleet lieutenant said dryly.
They were ushered into the cruiser's briefing room, a circular chamber with a holotable displaying the nebula. Commander Rae stood at its head.
"Scenario: A Federation science outpost within the nebula has gone dark. Scout drones have detected unknown bio-signatures—possible Kaiju-spawn adapted to vacuum, or something worse. The nebula's radiation and dust clouds scramble long-range sensors and comms. Your team will take the Void-Specter in, investigate, and neutralize any threats. Star Fleet will provide overwatch and deal with any capital-scale complications. This is a live-fire exercise. The bio-signatures are simulated by drone swarms, but their weapons are very real. Do not get hit."
She assigned roles. Kaelen would pilot the Void-Specter, his Force-enhanced reflexes deemed ideal for the complex maneuvering. Ryosuke was assigned as the primary weapons officer and close-in defense. Sera was on energy weapon systems, Chen on sensors and electronic countermeasures, Varg on power management and structural integrity.
They suited up in the Jaeger's ready-room. The piloting harness for the Void-Specter was a full-body rig that left them suspended in gel-filled modules, their limbs inserted into servo-controlled sleeves. The neural interface was more aggressive, a spike of data that made Ryosuke's vision swim for a second.
[Neural interface established. Bandwidth: High. Mech: Mark-XIV "Void-Specter" (Specialized Void-Combat Frame).]
[Synchronization Initiated…]
The world dissolved into the humming, multi-layered consciousness of the Jaeger. He felt the thrum of its fusion core, the cold of space leaching through its hull, the sensitive ping of its LIDAR mapping the void. Kaelen's presence was a bright, guiding star at the center of the link, his will directing the thrusters and primary systems.
[Pilot Sync: 71%. Weapons/Defense Sync: 58% and rising…]
"All systems green," Kaelen's voice was calm in the neural comm. "Launching in three… two… one…"
Magnetic clamps released. With a silent jolt, the Void-Specter was pushed free of the Vigilance. The universe opened up around them.
It was nothing like the simulators. There was no up, no down. Only the infinite, star-dusted black, and the glowing maw of the nebula ahead. The Jaeger's thrusters fired, a gentle push that sent them gliding into the rainbow-hued gas clouds.
"Entering sensor-scrambling zone," Chen reported, his voice tight. "I'm getting ghost images. Lots of them."
"Stay sharp," Kaelen said. The Jaeger moved with a silent, balletic grace, Kaelen using micro-bursts of thrust to pivot and drift.
The first attack came not from ahead, but from below relative to their orientation. A swarm of sleek, metallic drones shaped like manta rays detached from a dust cloud, their edges glowing with plasma.
"Contact! Multiple bogeys, vector three-one-zero!" Chen yelled.
"I see them," Kaelen said. The Jaeger spun, thrusters flaring. "Sera, light them up."
Sera, connected to the plasma cannons, fired. Lances of blue energy cut through the void. She hit two, but the drones were agile, scattering.
One streaked in, too fast for the turrets. It was on a collision course with their main thruster array.
Ryosuke didn't wait for a command. His consciousness, synced with the Jaeger's defensive matrix, reached out. He didn't have a barrier to project into vacuum. Instead, he used Blue.
He focused a point of intense spatial attraction just ahead of the drone's path.
The drone, caught in the sudden, localized gravitational eddy, veered wildly off course, tumbling past them to be vaporized by Sera's follow-up shot.
"Nice catch," Kaelen muttered. "But don't wait for my say-so. In the void, hesitation is a trajectory."
They pressed deeper. The nebula's dust grew thicker, reducing visibility to a few hundred meters. The drone attacks came in relentless, probing waves. Ryosuke and Sera fell into a rhythm—she would herd them with wide bursts, he would pluck individual threats out of formation with precise applications of Blue or deflect their fire with small, projected Infinity planes that appeared as brief, shimmering hexagons in the dust.
[Synchronization: 63%. Combat data integration optimal.]
[Limitless Adaptation: Vacuum environment presents negligible resistance. Efficiency increased by 12%.]
"Approaching the outpost," Chen announced. "I'm reading… structural damage. Hull breaches. And one massive, stationary bio-signature. It's dormant. No, it's—it's powering up!"
The outpost came into view—a cluster of modular habitats connected by tubes, one of which was torn open, its edges glittering with frozen atmosphere. And clamped to its central spine like a monstrous tick was the source of the signal.
It wasn't a drone. It was a Void-Leviathan—a training prop, but a terrifyingly realistic one. A bio-mechanical horror the size of a frigate, all armored plates, whip-like tentacles tipped with cutting beams, and a central maw that glowed with building energy.
"Target identified. Primary threat," Kaelen said, his voice all business. "It's between us and the outpost's core module. We need to draw it away. Sera, full barrage on my mark. Target its sensory clusters. We'll—"
Before he could finish, the Leviathan's maw flashed. Not a beam, but a pulse—a sphere of distorted purple energy that expanded silently at terrifying speed.
"Brace for impact!" Kaelen slammed the thrusters into reverse.
The pulse hit. It wasn't kinetic. It was an EMP/Psionic hybrid wave. The Void-Specter shuddered. Lights flickered. Alarms screamed in the neural link.
[Warning: Neural feedback surge!]
[Systems compromised: Thrusters at 40%. Weapons offline. Primary sensors dark.]
"Report!" Kaelen barked.
"Thrusters are fried! We're drifting!" Varg yelled, fighting his controls.
"Weapons are dead! I can't get a spark!" Sera said, panic edging her voice.
"I'm blind! Sensors are toast!" Chen added.
The Leviathan, seeing its prey disabled, began to pull itself toward them along the outpost's spine, its cutting beams powering up.
Kaelen was breathing hard, sweat beading on his forehead in the gel. "We need to reboot the core! It'll take ninety seconds! We don't have ninety seconds!"
Ryosuke watched the monster approach through the mech's one remaining external camera. His mind, insulated by the alien nature of his Cursed Energy, was untouched by the psionic backlash. He saw the problem with crystalline clarity. They were a floating target.
"Kaelen," he said, his voice utterly calm in the chaos. "Give me attitude control. Just the directional verniers."
"What? Why?"
"Just do it."
With a frustrated grunt, Kaelen routed the minimal, battery-powered vernier controls to Ryosuke's station.
Ryosuke's hands moved in his control sleeves. He didn't look at the controls. He looked at the Leviathan. He looked at the nebula gas around them. He looked at the distant, glinting hull of the Vigilance.
His Six Eyes calculated vectors, mass, resistance.
He fired the verniers. Not to flee. To spin.
The Void-Specter, crippled and dark, began to rotate slowly along its long axis.
"Have you lost your mind?" Varg shouted.
"Trust him," Kaelen said, his voice suddenly quiet. He was watching Ryosuke through the neural link, feeling the absolute, unshakable focus.
As the Jaeger spun, Ryosuke reached out with his power. Not to attack the Leviathan. To manipulate the medium.
The nebula around them was not empty. It was full of minute particles—ionized gas, dust, microscopic ice.
He used Blue again. But not a point. A field. A sweeping, gentle attractor that pulled the nebular matter toward the spinning Jaeger, gathering it like a snowball rolling down a hill.
To the outside observer, it looked like a miracle. A vortex of glowing nebula dust began to form around the spinning mech, thickening with each rotation, catching the faint light of distant stars.
He was creating a cloak. A shroud of reflective, refractive particles.
The Leviathan's cutting beams lanced out. They struck the swirling dust cloud. The energy scattered, diffused, rendered harmless.
The monster hesitated, its sensors confused by the suddenly brilliant, chaotic signature.
"Systems reboot at 50%," Chen reported, awe in his voice. "The spin is generating a minor charge through the hull… it's helping!"
"60 seconds," Kaelen said.
The Leviathan, enraged, fired its main weapon again—the purple pulse. It hit the dust cloud. The psionic energy frayed, disrupted by the chaotic matter. The EMP component grounded out across the charged particles.
The Void-Specter shuddered but held.
"Systems coming online!" Sera cried. "I have plasma cannons!"
"Thrusters at 70%!" Varg confirmed.
The dust cloud began to thin as Ryosuke ceased his manipulation, conserving energy. The Jaeger's lights flickered back on, painting the swirling particles from within.
The Leviathan loomed before them, tentacles raised for a final, physical strike.
"Kaelen," Ryosuke said. "Thrusters at maximum. Straight at it. On my mark."
"You want to ram it?"
"No. I want to deliver a package. Sera, fire everything you have the moment we clear its central mass."
Kaelen didn't hesitate. "All power to thrusters!"
The Void-Specter lurched forward, a phoenix emerging from its self-made nebula.
The Leviathan's tentacles swept down.
Ryosuke focused all his remaining Cursed Energy. He didn't create a barrier in front of them. He created a slope in front of the Jaeger's prow. A hyper-inclined plane of warped space.
The tentacles hit the slope and skidded off, their force redirected harmlessly into the void. The Jaeger shot through the monster's guard, straight toward its glowing, vulnerable maw.
"NOW!"
Sera fired. Not just the plasma cannons, but the secondary missile pods. A full alpha strike, point-blank, into the Leviathan's energy core.
The explosion was silent and brilliant. A flash of white light that vaporized the monster and sent the Void-Specter tumbling backward from the shockwave.
Kaelen fought the controls, stabilizing their spin. Alarms blared—hull breaches, minor systems damage—but they were intact.
In the sudden quiet, the only sound was the crew's ragged breathing.
"Threat… neutralized," Chen whispered.
On the bridge of the Vigilance, Commander Rae watched the sensor logs, her face unreadable. "He used the nebula itself as a weapon. As a shield. He turned a crippling disadvantage into a tactical asset."
Commandant Idris, watching via feed from Terra Prime, allowed himself a small, grim smile. "He doesn't just fight the enemy. He fights the battlefield. And he wins."
Back in the Jaeger's cockpit, the gel drained. They were hauled back into their modules, exhausted, exhilarated.
Kaelen pulled off his interface crown, his hair plastered to his forehead with sweat. He looked at Ryosuke, who was calmly disconnecting his own leads.
"For a void," Kaelen said, his voice hoarse, "you sure know how to make a lot of light."
Ryosuke met his gaze. "You provided the spark."
A real smile, tired but genuine, broke through Kaelen's aristocratic reserve. "We make a good team, Tanaka. A scary one, but a good one."
As they were helped out of the rig, Ryosuke's System updated.
[Exercise Completed: Rating: Exemplary.]
[Synchronization Peak Achieved: 77%. New personal best with non-legacy Mech.]
[Tactical Innovation Recognized: 'Nebula Cloak' maneuver logged for Federation doctrinal review.]
[Social Bond Strengthened: Lieutenant Kaelen Thorne - Rivalry evolving into trusted comrade.]
[Reputation Increased within Star Fleet Branch.]
He walked back to the shuttle on legs that felt like jelly, the adrenaline fading. Sera bumped his shoulder gently, a wordless thank you. Chen was chattering non-stop about the sensor data. Even Varg gave him a stiff, approving nod.
He looked out the viewport as the Vigilance receded, a sliver of metal against the magnificent, terrible beauty of the nebula. He had faced the void and bent it to his will. Not with brute force, but with comprehension.
The whispers of the black blade in its vault seemed louder now, a song that harmonized with the silent hum of the cosmos. He was ready for more. He was ready for the competition. He was ready to stop hiding in the light and step into the shadow he was meant to cast.
The ghost in the machine had become a legend in the void. And legends, he was beginning to understand, have a gravity all their own.