Night had swallowed the Red Desert a little over an hour ago.
The bitter cold was already beginning to drive away the day's suffocating heat, creeping silently down the ravine walls and gathering around the pools near the spring.
We kept our campfire deliberately small, surrounded by a high ring of stones to prevent even the faintest glow from giving away our position above the cliffs.
Sahger had managed to bring back a sizable piece of meat that afternoon.
I didn't ask what kind of desert creature it had been carved from. After days of surviving on that hostile planet, I'd learned that asking too many questions before eating was a stupid mistake.
Tsukumo tore a strip from the makeshift spit, blew on it patiently, and waited a few seconds before tasting it.
"You cook surprisingly well for someone your size," the golden-eyed man remarked in his usual clinical tone.
Sahger continued turning the meat slowly over the embers without taking his eyes off the fire.
"I don't usually cook just for myself."
A few meters away, Havelyn lay atop a pile of blankets near the water, resting carefully on her side to keep any pressure off her back.
She could walk reasonably well by now. I figured it wouldn't be long before she could use her wings again.
I took another piece of roasted meat and studied the dark fibers before biting into it.
"So what kind of creature was this, anyway?"
Sahger gestured toward the darkness beyond the ravine with a slight tilt of his chin.
"Sand bird."
"Something that big could fly?" I asked, impressed by the amount of muscle on the carcass.
Havelyn slowly opened her eyes and looked at me from the shadows of the blankets.
"Probably better than you."
I gave her a dry look.
"Someone's sharp tonight."
"Those birds don't support their weight through muscle strength alone."
"They read the atmosphere and ride the invisible thermal currents rising from the dunes throughout the day."
"They glide," I summarized.
"Most of the time, yes."
I spent a few seconds staring at the meat in my hand, digesting the information.
"So a monster that size stays in the sky simply because it knows how to read and use the wind."
Havelyn stared at me, her gaze cutting.
"You control the wind, Suki."
"I know."
"Then maybe you should've thought of that before asking stupid questions."
I decided to let that one go.
I lowered my eyes to the glow of the embers and felt the conversation fade away.
No matter how much we tried to distract ourselves with meaningless conversation, the name Gron-Tarh kept hammering inside my head.
Sahger's report. The demigod called Yashin. Candice. The stories about the resistance... and, above all else, the possibility of official records.
If Laura had truly set foot on that prison planet, then we would finally have a real trail.
I was reaching my limit after chasing shadows and ghosts across a dead galaxy.
Sahger reacted first.
The hand turning the spit stopped abruptly.
Tsukumo noticed the change in the hunter's posture a fraction of a second later.
"Did you feel that?"
I looked between them, my senses sharpening.
Sahger was already rising, spear in hand.
"Engine."
"Something just entered the atmosphere," I said as I stood.
The mood in camp changed instantly.
Havelyn immediately propped herself up on one elbow, ignoring the pain in her back.
The sound reached us moments later—a deep, submerged, continuous vibration, far too distant to be mistaken for any natural thunder in the desert.
I hurried toward the mouth of the ravine and stepped beyond the shelter of the rocks.
A pulsing beam of white light cut across the night sky.
It didn't move with the erratic trajectory of a comet or meteor. Its path was clean, calculated, and completely controlled.
The object broke through the lower layer of heavy clouds, slowed its secondary thrusters, and tilted its hull at a shallow angle.
My chest tightened as my pulse quickened.
Tsukumo appeared beside me on the sand, his sharp gaze fixed on the horizon.
We watched the luminous trail streak westward across the sky.
Toward the exact place where the monumental Tower had stood only a few days earlier.
Sahger approached behind us with heavy steps, locking his helmet into place with a metallic click.
"They got here sooner than expected."
I turned toward him.
"Gron-Tarh?"
"We're about to find out."
We didn't abandon the camp completely, but we moved quickly.
We smothered the fire with sand, hid the heavier supplies, and hurried through the ravine.
Havelyn flatly refused to stay behind. Sahger made it clear he hated the idea, and I shared his skepticism, but leaving her alone and defenseless in her condition would have been an even greater risk.
To make the journey easier, Tsukumo used his gravitational manipulation to reduce a considerable portion of Havelyn's body weight.
The change allowed her to cross the unstable desert terrain without placing destructive strain on her legs or pulling at her immobilized wings.
Surprisingly, she didn't utter a single wounded complaint about accepting the help. Maybe seeing that ship tear through the sky had awakened the same ghosts haunting the rest of us.
It took nearly an hour of tense marching to reach the crest of a rise that gave us an unobstructed view of the Tower's former perimeter.
The sight was desolate.
Where the imposing colossus of black stone had once stood, there was now only an enormous, misshapen crater surrounded by pits of vitrified sand, twisted stone, and a thick haze of dust that refused to settle.
And right in the center of that destruction rested the newly arrived ship.
The vessel had no elegant or aerodynamic lines. It looked like a flying fortress built purely for support and brutal containment.
It was long and broad, with an angular profile and layers of heavy dark armor plating, reinforced by massive structural braces around the turbines.
Two sets of auxiliary thrusters remained active at low output, keeping small whirlwinds of dust away from the hull.
Sahger dropped flat behind the crest of the dune, disappearing into the darkness.
We immediately followed his lead.
"Recognize the ship?" I murmured without taking my eyes off the hull.
The hunter spent several seconds studying its details through his visor.
"Not the exact model, but it's definitely from there."
I returned my attention to the vessel.
Sahger extended an arm and pointed toward a secondary marking stamped beside the main hatch: a crimson jaw crossed by two broken chains.
"Specialized unit," the hunter explained.
"Probably a Gron-Tarh Sweep squad."
The ship's side hatch descended with a heavy pneumatic hiss, transforming into a thick ramp that buried itself in the sand.
Eight figures disembarked in rigid formation.
None of them carried themselves like ordinary guards investigating an accident. They wore medium tactical armor designed to balance protection with mobility.
Two carried short-range containment rifles. A third had an array of metal rods and reflectors mounted across his back. The fourth wielded a heavy curved weapon resembling a combat scythe.
The team itself was mixed. There were humans, a dark elf with an arrogant bearing, and two broad, gray-skinned creatures I'd never seen before.
They all moved in perfect synchronization, without side conversations or hesitation.
The moment they stepped onto the vitrified ground, they split into pairs and began sweeping the perimeter.
One of the trackers pulled a rectangular device from a holster and drove it into the sand.
Another knelt to collect samples of melted stone.
Havelyn swallowed.
One of the trackers raised an armored hand, and several small spherical drones detached from his bracers, flying low over the crater while scanning it with infrared beams.
Another sealed a fragment of stone inside an airtight container.
"The sensors are going to detect energy residue," Sahger warned.
"Yours and Tsukumo's."
"And hers too," I added, glancing at Havelyn.
One member of the team approached the exact point where the Tower's main entrance had once stood.
He leaned down, shifted some debris with the tip of a probe, and picked something microscopic from between his armored fingers.
Even from that distance, I saw the faint gleam.
A feather.
Havelyn stiffened beside me, the air leaving her lungs.
The soldier inserted the feather into a portable scanner mounted on his wrist.
Seconds later, a red light flashed across his bracer with a sharp beep.
He raised his head and called the team leader.
"...confirmed."
"...signature of the winged asset."
"...still alive."
Havelyn squeezed her eyes shut.
"Now they're certain," Sahger said bluntly.
Adrenaline surged through my veins.
"Then we go down there and eliminate all of them before they can transmit the report back to base."
"No," Tsukumo cut in, cold and immediate.
I stared at him in disbelief.
"What do you mean, no?"
"If an elite recovery squad and an armored transport suddenly vanish without a trace, Gron-Tarh's command won't need a report to know there's a hostile threat operating in this region," Tsukumo explained.
"That would only bring an entire fleet down on this planet."
Sahger nodded.
"And if we simply let them collect their data and leave, the report gets through anyway."
A heavy silence settled over us.
Two terrible choices.
I stared back at the black ship sitting in the middle of the crater, taking in its enormous dimensions and the way the team remained completely focused on surveying the ground.
An idea began taking shape in my mind.
"We're getting inside the ship."
Havelyn snapped her head toward me.
Tsukumo kept his eyes on the vessel, processing the variables, while Sahger stared at me through his dark visor.
To my surprise, the hunter didn't mock the idea.
"Without taking control of it," I continued, explaining my reasoning.
"We infiltrate the lower compartments and let those guys finish their investigation exactly as planned."
Understanding flickered in Tsukumo's eyes.
"They'll take us directly back to the source without us having to navigate there ourselves."
"Exactly."
Sahger remained motionless for a moment.
Havelyn raised a trembling finger toward the lower rear section of the vessel.
"There's our way in."
Sahger followed the direction she indicated.
"Then we have an entry point," I said.
Waiting was the worst part.
We had to remain completely still in the freezing sand while the recovery team swept hundreds of meters of devastated ground.
The soldiers worked with surgical precision, photographing the terrain, running scans, and collecting samples from the destroyed structure.
One of them identified the exact point where Tsukumo's gravity had collapsed part of the ground. Another examined the fused glass left behind by the flames of my Transformation.
After roughly forty minutes, three trackers gathered at the edge of the crater.
"...two distinct signatures."
"...divine pattern."
"...a third incomplete biological signature."
"...clear evidence of direct confrontation. This was not a structural collapse."
Sahger gave a bitter half-smile in the darkness.
"I told you. They're very good at what they do."
"I noticed," I muttered.
Below us, the team leader made a hand signal, and his men began retrieving the sensors and recalling the drones.
The ground investigation was over.
"Now," Sahger whispered.
We descended the opposite side of the dune, keeping out of the ramp's direct line of sight.
We didn't sprint. Sahger guided us through a natural depression in the terrain that concealed our approach.
Tsukumo reduced our body weight to the bare minimum—not enough to make us float, but enough that our boots barely sank into the soft sand.
At the same time, I kept a tiny current of air flowing low behind us, erasing the few traces we left in our wake.
Havelyn moved in the center of the group, completely focused.
Her wings remained tightly bound against her body.
There was no room for pride or recklessness. She knew that if even one deep wound reopened and spilled blood onto the sand, the recovery unit would detect our trail immediately.
Sahger suddenly stopped behind the ship's tail and raised two fingers.
One of the soldiers walked along the side of the hull less than thirty meters from our position, checking the locks around the secondary thrusters.
He continued his patrol without looking back.
Sahger lowered his hand and quickly moved into the shadow cast by the hull.
Up close, the ship was monumental.
Heat and exhaust from the turbines made the surrounding air shimmer, filling it with the harsh smell of burned fuel.
He shifted his grip and applied pressure to a specific point near an internal hinge.
A muffled metallic click sounded, and the armor plate gave way by roughly two centimeters.
Sahger slid the tip of his blade into the gap and pulled with controlled force.
The plate yielded, revealing a narrow, dark passage filled with exposed wiring, just large enough for an adult man to squeeze through.
Sahger slipped into the darkness first.
Havelyn followed, helped by Tsukumo, who entered right after her.
I went in last, holding the armor plate and carefully fitting it back into place.
The outside world and the desert vanished instantly.
The cavity smelled of industrial grease, overheated metal, and a harsh chemical effluent.
There was no illumination inside the compartment except for thin strips of red emergency lighting running along the grated floor.
We remained absolutely still in the darkness.
The sound of metallic footsteps and muffled voices echoed through the containment walls of the adjacent corridor.
Sahger touched the side of his helmet, activating thermal vision as he examined the layout of the modules around us.
Tsukumo tilted his head, studying the hydraulic pipes running overhead.
"Can you identify our current position on the vessel's layout?"
"We're in the rear technical sector," the hunter replied.
Sahger guided us into a cramped recess between two large maintenance compressors.
It was a horribly claustrophobic space for four people, but it offered complete cover from the main service corridor.
Tsukumo raised his right hand slightly.
An invisible sphere of gravitational pressure enveloped our position.
"I can't completely isolate the sound of our breathing without creating a pressure variation the ship's sensors could notice," he whispered.
"But I can dampen any mechanical noise we make."
"That's enough," Sahger murmured.
Minutes later, we heard the main hatch slam shut and felt the floor tremble as the trackers returned.
Heavy footsteps echoed through the service corridor on the other side of our wall.
A hydraulic door opened, and the team commander's voice rang through the internal communications system.
"Initiating preliminary report to Gron-Tarh command."
A second of static followed.
"Tower installation completely destroyed. No bodies or assets recovered on site. Presence of multiple hostile divine signatures confirmed."
My hand instinctively dropped to Kazekiba's hilt.
I felt the blade vibrate faintly in response to my tension.
"...high-value biological material identified within the perimeter," the voice continued.
"Compatible with the winged asset registered on the custody list."
Beside me, I saw Havelyn's fingers dig into the fabric of her pants.
Asset.
To that system, she had no name, no history, no humanity.
She was simply lost property waiting to be reclaimed.
Another soldier spoke over the transmission.
"Probability of survival?"
"Highly probable. Destination of the intruders unknown."
There was a brief pause in the audio, followed by the hum of a long-range transmitter.
"Order from Central Administration: immediate return to base. Director Yashin requires delivery of all collected data before the next orbital window opens."
I looked toward Sahger in the darkness.
A low-pitched alarm sounded through the ship's speakers. It wasn't an intrusion warning, but the departure protocol.
The deafening roar of the main turbines tore through the armor, making the entire compartment shudder.
Havelyn lost her balance for a second as the hull tilted.
I reacted quickly and caught her arm before she struck the iron piping.
"I'm fine," she whispered, her face pale.
I nodded silently and released her.
The pull of gravity shifted abruptly.
First came a crushing weight across my chest as the vertical thrusters forced tons of armored metal out of the atmosphere. Then came the unsettling lightness of gaining altitude.
The Red Desert and the ruins of the Tower were falling behind us, shrinking into nothing against the immensity of space.
Not one of us spoke inside our cramped hiding place.
The ship leveled out, and the sound of the engines settled into a deep, continuous hum.
Shortly afterward, a synthesized voice echoed through the vessel's internal speakers.
"Spatial fold initiated. Trajectory confirmed."
A cold sequence of astronomical coordinates followed, then the name of our final destination.
"Prison Planet Gron-Tarh."
I closed my eyes for a second and breathed in the grease-heavy air.
Laura.
Every impulsive decision, every scar, every drop of blood spilled along the way seemed to have pushed us inexorably toward this moment.
We were no longer chasing shadows.
We were traveling the same road paved by the monsters who had taken her from me.
I opened my eyes.
Sahger stood like an iron statue in the darkness.
Tsukumo watched the flow of energy through the electrical cables overhead with surgical focus.
And Havelyn stared at the grated floor, silently listening to the name of the place that, for months, had existed in her memory only as a faceless nightmare.
The ship accelerated, tearing through the void.
And we went with it, straight toward the heart of Gron-Tarh.