Three-year war

It had been over three years since the war against the Freiheit Insurgency began.

"Move! Move! Move! We need the weapons resupplied before the next wave hits!"

Since the attack on the palace-world, Vistella, not a single day had passed without bloodshed. Planets burned under the weight of the conflict. The soldiers of the Nymphas Empire bled themselves dry in vengeance, driven by the memory of what had been done to them. Over three billion lives lost—and that was just the official count. A billion a year, spent like coin in a war without pause.

"Sir! Movement on the horizon! Bots incoming!"

"Fire the artillery! We need time—get the knights armed! Reinforcements enroute?"

A rumour had begun to circulate. Something that dulled the edge of despair, if only slightly. They said every soldier dismantled a hundred insurgent droids a week. Thousands a month. Tens of thousands after half a year. The numbers were probably exaggerated—but strangely, it brought comfort. If the enemy was endless, then so was their resistance.

"Enemy knights leading the charge! Four omega-grades and one seraphim based on their power signals!"

"We've got three Valkyrie-grades... that's not enough! Where the hell are those reinforcements!?"

"They'll be here in... one minute! They're doing an orbital drop due to time constraints—transmitting coordinates now!"

Another rumour was even more popular than kill counts—the legends of the War Constellations.

They were Star Knights unlike any others, scattered across the Greyrot Quadrant. Each one had achieved the impossible again and again, their names whispered like prayers between trenches.

The Victorious Dragon—a knight who had never known defeat, dragging miracles from hopeless battlefields, victory after victory.

The Ghost Blade—the knight with the highest kill count of any active Constellation Knight, a silent death on the battlefield.

The River Maiden—who brought fresh food and clean water to every battlefield she visited, her arrival a brief glimpse of peace in hell.

But most beloved of all was the Eclipse Fairy. A meteor of fire and fury that ended every conflict she entered in a single, dazzling blaze—day turned to night, night turned to day. She didn't just win battles. She ended them.

And while her destructive power was unmatched, it wasn't just her ferocity that lifted the hearts of tired men. It was her grace. Her image. Her beauty.

They called her The Princess of War.

Then came the sound—the scream of the sky splitting open.

A single, blazing meteor pierced the clouds, roaring as it fell through the atmosphere. It shattered the sound barrier and accelerated still, heading straight for the insurgent ranks like a judgment from the stars.

"Commander..." A lieutenant stared at the readings, pale and shaking. "It's... it's a Constellation-grade knight. A Star Knight is coming to our aid!"

Using mirrors and periscopes, soldiers peeked from the trenches, eyes tracking the fiery streak as it descended—and then slammed into the battlefield.

The impact unleashed a shockwave of gale-force winds, flattening out the scorched no man's land. A heartbeat later, a wall of incandescent blue flames erupted outward, rolling across the terrain like a tsunami. Even from two kilometres away, the heat seared the air. Mud hissed. Trenches steamed. Eyes watered from the intensity.

Inside the inferno, Freiheit's machines began to melt. Droids liquefied. Tank treads curled and snapped, ammunition cooked off inside their iron husks. The blue fire showed no mercy.

Only three enemy knights endured, forcing their way toward the soldiers—but each time, something unseen dragged them back into the blaze.

Thirty seconds later, a final explosion cracked through the air—and the seraphim-grade knight was hurled out of the inferno, a gaping hole torn through its chest. Its pilot, obliterated.

As the blue flames faded, the battlefield seemed darker, as if the fire had stolen the very light from the sky.

What remained of the insurgents wasn't an army. It was wreckage. A full brigade—over three thousand Freiheit troopers, droids, tanks, artillery—annihilated by a single knight.

That knight now strode across the ashes.

With practiced precision, it reloaded the magnetic launcher on its forearm—a spear-like projectile locking into place with a hiss of steam.

In its other hand, it gripped a brutal black mace with emerald edges, sizzling as it hovered over muddy puddles, vaporizing them into mist. With a swift motion, it secured the weapon onto its back beside a railgun-like cannon.

Fires burst from the wing-like protrusions on its shoulders—then morphed into jets, propelling the knight forward in a sprint, deeper into enemy territory.

Alone.

For a moment, silence ruled the trenches.

Even the commander, watching from the forward base, stood slack-jawed in awe.

Then, at last, he found his voice. "All troops!" he barked. "Follow that knight! Blitz their frontlines! Let the stars lead us to victory!"

"Let the stars lead us to victory!" the soldiers echoed with thunderous fervour.

They stormed from their trenches—on foot, in gun-mounted buggies, even entrenched tanks burst forward, crushing ruins beneath them.

And from the rear, three towering war mechs stepped into the charge—each twenty-two feet tall, striding between squads of soldiers, their weapons humming to life as the Empire roared back into battle behind the brilliance of a single star.

***

"Allied forces are following behind you, Firefly." Nicole's voice crackled through the comms, casual as always, despite the crunching sound of her chewing on something mid-transmission. A side screen lit up inside the cockpit, streaming a feed from above. It showed a wave of Nymphas forces surging forward, hot on my trail through the scorched terrain.

I flicked a switch with my left hand, dismissing the feed and replacing it with a tactical map of the surrounding area. The main display ahead still charted the course to my objective. "How long until they realise we're not the reinforcements they were expecting, Nicole?"

"I'll let them know. Otherwise, the real reinforcements are gonna be hella confused when they show up to an empty FOB in two minutes." She paused. "Also, doesn't this mission technically make us rogue?"

[Affirmative, Major Naben,] replied the AI, its tone cool and precise. [This is an unsanctioned military manoeuvre. Court martial proceedings are likely upon return to Rogue Raven Base. However, the recovery of stolen Star Knight technology may provide sufficient grounds for amnesty. Imperial asset retrieval is classified as critical priority.]

I winced at the reminder. "Is that why Jason is already drafting an appeal?"

"Probably," I muttered, guilt tugging at the back of my mind. I could picture him now—somewhere in orbit beside Nicole—furiously typing up a legal argument while she munched on chips.

"Well hey, if it really is Star Knight tech, they'll probably cut you some slack once you bring it back," Nicole offered with an optimistic shrug in her voice. "Aren't you the only Rover-Captain in the empire? Can't you like, assign yourself missions?"

"You're forgetting about Field Marshal Excav breathing down our necks," Jason's voice came in now, closer and clearer. "He tried transferring Firefly to be his squire as punishment after she dropped one of Freiheit's titan weapons into an ocean. If it weren't for Monica and Tony defending her, she'd be polishing his boots right now."

"Oh, yeah... why don't I remember that?"

[You were struck in the head by debris during an explosion last month, Major Naben,] Andromeda answered. [No lasting injuries were sustained, but short-term memory loss was documented.]

"Seriously, Nicole, you really need to get a full med-check after this," Jason added. "Between your junk food habits and the fact you practically live off rations, it's a miracle you're still stringing together sentences."

"Shut it, you. It'll all come back eventually," she huffed, definitely pouting somewhere in that cockpit.

"Anyway," she pivoted, "Firefly, you and Andromeda are getting close. The site should look like a tectonic observatory—down in a gorge."

I eased off the acceleration, letting Andromeda's blazing thrusters shift into a sprint, then a heavy-footed jog as the terrain steepened. Reaching the cliff's edge, he skidded to a halt, the rocky winds sweeping past his armoured form.

[We have arrived,] Andromeda confirmed.

"...And it's more than just abandoned," I muttered over comms. Zooming in, Andromeda enhanced the view—twisting strands of oily, pulsing biomass stretched over the ravine. Thick webs and mucous trails coated the observatory like veins grown from the planet itself. "It's a fresh Dream Swarm hive."

"What?" Nicole gasped, all casualness vanishing.

"That doesn't make sense," Jason said sharply. "This is the seventh sector of the Greyrot Quadrant. That's practically bordering the Obscure Quadrant. What the hell is a Dream Swarm hive doing this far out?"

[Confirmed: Hive is recent. Indicators suggest it only began terraforming. Activity is minimal. Likely due to Freiheit interference.] Andromeda relayed data up to their ship. [Probability: Broodmother was either killed or wounded—possibly by the stolen Star Knight tech. Full confirmation requires on-site investigation.]

"This is bad," Nicole said, voice low. "The Dream Swarm weren't supposed to be this far out. They've barely breached the eighth sector in Obscure, haven't they?"

"They might've brought the swarm here on purpose," Jason said, troubled. "Maybe the observatory has answers."

[What is our move, pilot?] Andromeda asked directly.

"We're going in," I decided without hesitation.

Andromeda moved. His thrusters ignited briefly as he dropped down onto the path into the ravine, then stabilized into a heavy, deliberate walk. Each step sent dust spiralling from the edge of the overgrown, hive-infested chasm.

"So long as we don't agitate what's left of the swarm, we should be able to recover the Star Knight tech and extract." I leaned into the controls, guiding the knight with steady precision. "Whatever they were trying to do with it, we can't risk leaving it behind."

[I concur with the pilot's judgment,] Andromeda said. [Freiheit retrieval probability remains high. Without identifying which Star Knight the stolen tech originated from, the risk only increases.]

"Andy's got a point," Nicole agreed, though her tone turned teasing. "Lucky me, I'm nice and cosy up here while you're the one getting your hands dirty. Good luck, Firefly."

"We'll cut the comms now," Jason said. "Too risky to leave a signal open if there are any swarm signal-pedes still active. Remember—your life comes before the mission."

"I know."

I cut the connection.

The cockpit fell into silence. I exhaled slowly, calming the rush in my chest. Outside, the wind howled across the ravine as Andromeda crept forward, his massive frame crouching to fit beneath the torn-open entryway of the observatory.

Oily webbing clung to the broken structure, smeared across the ground and walls like parasite blood. It hissed and quivered faintly as Andromeda passed through—uncaring, unflinching.

Inside, the dark loomed thick.

But I pressed forward.

Andromeda's sensors lit the way as we descended into the abyss of the observatory, in search of the stolen Star Knight technology.

And whatever secret brought the Dream Swarm here.