Chapter -62 : Navigating The Blind Spots

Outer Sector Outpost 7, Imperial Periphery

The days following the anomaly's violent rebuttal blurred into a tense routine of damage control, cautious investigation, and simmering uncertainty. For Valerius, each hour was a struggle against the profound limitations imposed by his crippled System. The nanite network, his invisible armor and analytical engine, was healing at a glacial pace, leaving him feeling exposed and reliant on his own unaugmented Wargod senses and intellect in a way he hadn't for a long, critical time.

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Thirty-six hours for even minimal diagnostics. It felt like an eternity. His Spatial Sense, though still superior to a normal human's, lacked the System-enhanced clarity and range he'd come to depend on. Analyzing complex data streams, predicting enemy movements, even perfectly masking his own energy signature – all were now laborious, conscious efforts prone to error.

He meticulously crafted his statement for Captain Rostova regarding subspace harmonics and unconventional energy signatures. Without the System to vet his language or cross-reference obscure theoretical physics, he kept his explanations grounded in established Imperial kinetic theory, highlighting the known limitations of outpost sensors during high-energy combat and the speculative nature of any phenomena beyond that. He attributed his own "unconventional" successes during the battle to exploiting specific, observable weaknesses under extreme duress, combined with a degree of battlefield intuition. It was a carefully constructed narrative of a competent, perhaps unusually perceptive, officer pushed to his limits – plausible, and hopefully, unremarkable enough to avoid deeper scrutiny.

He observed Lieutenant Kaelen with a new level of wary attention. Kaelen, emboldened by the anomaly's dramatic confirmation of something powerful and reactive beneath the outpost, was now a frequent consultant to Lieutenant Commander Jian and even, via comms, to Investigator Thorne on Moon 7C. Kaelen's datapad was filled with complex energy waveform comparisons, attempting to draw definitive lines between the Omega signal, the outpost anomaly's defensive pulse, and the 'sensor ghost' that had disabled Frigate Two.

"The resonance patterns, while not identical, share too many fundamental subspace frequencies to be coincidental, Lieutenant Commander," Valerius overheard Kaelen explaining to Jian in a corridor, his voice filled with the fervor of a scientist on the verge of a breakthrough. "If we can isolate the core harmonic of the Omega signal, we might be able to predict or even influence the behavior of the anomaly here. Or at least understand what kind of force we're truly dealing with."

Jian listened with thoughtful gravity. "Your analysis is valuable, Lieutenant Kaelen. Investigator Thorne is pursuing similar lines of inquiry with the data from Scanner Unit One on the moon. The nature of these interconnected phenomena is now the 7th Battle Group's highest intelligence priority in this sector."

Valerius knew Kaelen's rising influence was a double-edged sword. While it focused the Navy's attention on the anomalies themselves, Kaelen's obsession with the battle's 'sensor ghost' kept a spotlight uncomfortably close to Valerius's own actions. If Kaelen ever found a way to definitively prove that the 'ghost' was a deliberate, targeted energy manipulation far beyond a High-Level Warrior's capability, the questions would become far more pointed.

The investigation on Moon 7C, conducted with extreme caution by Scanner Unit One, yielded slow, incremental data. Thorne's team confirmed the Omega-734 signal was incredibly complex, almost like a living data stream, but its purpose remained elusive. They found further traces of Void Stone application within the destroyed Precursor facility, suggesting the Scorpions had been attempting to interface with or harness the Omega signal using this dangerous, unstable technology. 'Project Chimera' increasingly looked like an attempt to interact with, or perhaps control, whatever the Precursor vault contained.

With the local scanner destroyed, direct investigation of the outpost anomaly was stalled. Navy engineers were attempting to salvage what they could from Unit Two's memory core, but hopes were low. For now, the anomaly beneath Outpost 7 remained a dangerous, sleeping giant, its secrets intact.

Valerius focused on his assigned duties, providing meticulous, if now more slowly compiled, analyses of the Scorpion fleet in Grid 11. Their continued silence was a strategic puzzle. Were they truly waiting for the departed shuttle? Or was their inaction part of a larger, more patient game? Without the System's predictive modeling, Valerius could only offer conventional tactical assessments.

The unstable plasma core remained hidden, a source of immense frustration. He needed its power, especially now, but the risks of accessing it with his System down and Navy scrutiny at its peak were too high. His Wargod advancement was frozen, a dangerous state when surrounded by so many unknowns.

He felt like he was navigating a minefield in the dark, each step uncertain. The absence of the System had stripped away his layers of technological superiority, forcing him to rely on his core Wargod abilities, his intellect, and his nerve. The stakes were higher, the blind spots larger, and the game far more dangerous.