Ch 65: The Unseen Powers

Mira had taken dangerous jobs before, but this one felt different. It wasn't just another contract. It was a test.

Her target, Administrator Koss, was an official high enough that his death could send ripples across multiple factions. The mission was simple—escort him to a remote Consortium base, deep in uncharted territory.

But nothing about this job was normal.

Koss wasn't afraid. That was the first warning sign.

Most high-value targets Mira had escorted carried fear with them. They were nervous, always looking over their shoulders, sweating at every delay. Koss wasn't.

He was calm. Too calm.

His two escorts weren't bodyguards in the traditional sense, either. Mira had seen elite security teams before—alert, ready for combat. These two? They acted like they were in control of the battlefield before a single shot was fired.

They weren't protecting Koss. They were waiting.

For what?

The trip took them through abandoned wastelands, long-dead cities, and forgotten warzones. These weren't places a Consortium official should be traveling through so easily.

Yet, there were no roadblocks.

No patrols.

No resistance.

Mira noticed the signs—drones overhead, shifting radio frequencies, an absence of scavengers.

It wasn't that they were avoiding danger.

It was that someone was clearing the path ahead of them.

By who?

Mira's instincts screamed that something was off.

Everything about the terrain suggested a perfect ambush site.

The narrow valley pass, funneling them into a kill zone.

The old ruins with high vantage points for snipers.

The dead silence of the airwaves.

And yet… nothing happened.

They moved through untouched.

Either their enemies were too afraid to engage, or—worse—they weren't enemies at all.

Mira didn't like either option.

That night, as they set camp near the remains of a crashed transport, Mira caught Koss speaking into a secure channel.

"…reinforcements are in place. The operation proceeds as expected. The Blanks are irrelevant. The true conflict is elsewhere."

Mira stilled. The Blanks are irrelevant?

Then what was relevant?

She had fought, bled, and nearly died in the Blanks, believing it was the central battlefield of the post-war world. But if Koss's words were true, then the Consortium wasn't just managing conflicts inside the Blanks.

They were engaged in something far grander.

This wasn't just about control.

It was about power on a scale she hadn't yet comprehended.

And she had just walked into its shadow.

The "base" wasn't just a hidden outpost.

It was a fortress.

The moment it came into view, Mira knew she was seeing something that wasn't meant to exist.

High reinforced walls stretched across the canyon, lined with automated railguns and heavy turrets. Watchtowers dotted the perimeter, sweeping the skies with sensor arrays capable of detecting movement from kilometers away.

But it was what waited inside that made her blood run cold.

Mira had seen warships before.

She had seen Consortium dreadnoughts, massive carriers, and old-world airships retrofitted for post-war combat.

But this ship was different.

It sat on a reinforced launch platform, its hull reflecting the dim twilight with an unfamiliar alloy.

The design was sleek, yet brutal.

It had no visible insignia of any known faction.

Its curved armor plating absorbed the light in an almost unnatural way.

Most ships had obvious thrusters—exposed engines, heat exhausts, the usual.

This one didn't.

Instead, its rear section had a series of dark, angular vents, arranged in a formation Mira had never seen before. Silent propulsion? Gravimetric drive?

And then, there was the cockpit.

Or rather—the absence of one.

Mira couldn't see any windows, external cameras, or control panels.

Was it fully automated? A drone?

The longer she stared, the more she realized—this ship wasn't designed like anything she had ever encountered.

And Koss?

He walked toward it like he had always belonged there.

Mira kept her face neutral, but her thoughts were racing.

This wasn't just a high-ranking Consortium operation.

This was something beyond the Consortium.

A faction operating on a grander scale than she had ever imagined.

And she had just stepped into the middle of it.