Inelius’ jaw clenched as the silence in the cargo hold hung tense and heavy. The laughter from the ‘demon’ misunderstanding had died in an instant, replaced by thick, uncomfortable tension. All eyes were on Pulse, who stared at Tamiyo like he was a cornered animal.

  She firmly stood her ground, an expression like sad, quiet understanding painted on her face.

  "What's going on?" Aurania growled.

  Pulse’s body language eased a little, hands coming up, “Easy, I don’t intend to fight you, I’m clearly outnumbered. Your friend there,” he gestured to Tamiyo, “she just caught me off guard is all.”

  Aurania eyed him suspiciously, then glanced at Tamiyo. “What did you see?”

  “It’s not my place to say, Aura.” Tamiyo's eyes never left Pulse. “It would be disrespectful without permission.”

  All eyes went back to him. His shoulders were coiled tight, like he was having a silent, internal war. Finally, with a slow, weary exhale, his shoulders slumped.

  “Fine,” he muttered. “You win.”

  Inelius got the strange feeling that Pulse was not talking to any of them.

  “There is a CIPHER consciousness that lives in my mask,” Pulse said. “I’m not sure how you figured it out,” he cast a quick glance at Tamiyo, “but now that she’s not hidden, she would like to join the conversation.”

  A ripple of confusion went through the team. For a moment, nothing happened.

  Then a new voice filled the room, emanating from the mask—clear, warm, and bubbly. “Hello everyone! My name is Echo!”

  Everyone stared at Pulse, unsure if they should laugh or not.

  “Hi Echo! I’m Amalia!”

  The tension in the room eased a couple inches. Inelius even found himself grinning. “Tamiyo. Do you trust this Echo?”

  She glanced at him, then studied Pulse. After several long seconds, she nodded. “I do.”

  Aurania stared at the masked man, her expression a mix of confusion and suspicion. "Okay. Let's take this somewhere we can all sit down."

  They moved up to the operations center, Pulse settling in near the central holo-display. The map of the galaxy washed them all in neon light. The team arranged themselves in a loose semi-circle around him, a silent, intimidating jury of giants, d'moria, and a single, very curious CIPHER.

  Until metal footsteps rang out on the stairs and Raine bounced down. She strode past Pulse, eyeing him over carefully, and moved to sit next to Inelius. As she took her seat, she offered a small wave to their guest. “Hello, my name is Raine.”

  Pulse stared back at her, but before he could respond, the warm voice chirped from his mask again. "Hi! I'm Echo! It's so nice to meet you!"

  Pulse’s entire body went rigid. “Sorry. She doesn’t get to talk to many people besides me.”

  “Don’t apologize,” Echo told him with a hint of attitude.

  Raine laughed and nudged Inelius. “I like these two.”

  Aurania slowly paced, her arms crossed as she sized up their guest. "Alright, Pulse. Let's start with the basics. You're human, born in the Conservatory, I assume."

  "Correct," he replied.

  “Prior to meeting us, were you aware of species other than humans in the galaxy?”

  “I had suspicions,” he shrugged. “On account of our mutual demon acquaintance. But other than her, no. I’ve never met aliens before.”

  Several uncomfortable murmurs circulated through the room.

  “Careful,” Inelius said. “If anyone is an alien in this room, it’s you.”

  Pulse stared back at him, his expression impossible to read through the mask.

  “Forgive us,” Echo said. “Charisma has never been his strong suit.”

  Soren chuckled. “Did you seriously think Riza was a demon?”

  “Yes,” Pulse said immediately. “Tall, silent, heavy plated armor over curves, hooves, and ears like a fucking jackrabbit—hell yes I thought she was a demon. And that gun she carries around? She’s fuckin’ terrifying.”

  “Oh that gun is mine now,” Amalia said with a warm smile.

  Pulse only looked at her in response.

  “I wasn’t completely sure she was real after the one time I met her,” he continued. “But she's not the kind of entity I feel like rolling the dice with by ignoring her message to meet. So here I am.”

  “You seem to be handling it pretty well,” Inelius noted. He cast a jesting glance at Soren, exaggerated enough for the big man to notice. Soren just glared back in feigned offense.

  “We’ve seen our fair share of weird things,” Echo said.

  Aurania eyed them with suspicion. “Do you have any loyalty to the Conservatory?”

  “No,” Pulse said simply. "The Conservatory and I had a... difference in philosophy."

  "He's being modest," Echo chirped. "He found out his commanders were monsters, so he burned his life down and walked away."

  "Echo," Pulse sighed.

  Inelius was fascinated by the exchange. It was like watching a man argue with his own shadow.

  “Why did Emberfell send a ping out to you?” Veolo asked with a glare.

  He was quiet for a moment. “She said there was some trouble that my skillset was needed for.”

  “And what skillset is that?” Veolo asked.

  Pulse stood up a little straighter. “I am an expert in infiltration. Stealth, hacking, slicing—I can get into places most people think are impregnable.”

  “Good skills to have,” Raine noted.

  “What’s this trouble you all find yourselves in?” Pulse asked.

  Aurania stopped pacing and turned to face him. “Our planet has less than a year left before its orbit degrades to the point where it can no longer sustain life. We are seeking schematics for a piece of ancient hyper-advanced technology. It's called a Graviton Anchor."

  The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

  Pulse didn’t flinch, but he took a long time processing the information. Finally, he repeated back, "An ancient yet hyper-advanced piece of technology. That sounds... contradictory."

  Soren pushed himself off the wall. "You’re currently standing in a ship that fits that description."

  Pulse slowly turned in place, looking all around the ops center. "Point taken."

  He turned back to them. "A Graviton Anchor... I've never heard of anything with that designation. But technology that can influence gravity on a planetary scale..." His voice trailed off in thought.

  "It's a long shot," Aurania admitted. "But we have serious reason to believe it exists. We just don't know where to find it.”

  "Sounds like you all are short on time,” Pulse said. “If the schematics exist anywhere, you’ll want to look in the place where you have the best chance of finding them. Solaceum.”

  A chill went through the room and Inelius felt his stomach tighten.

  Solaceum.

  The name alone was a threat.

  Soren's brow furrowed. "That name sounds familiar. What is that, Latin?" He glanced over his shoulder at the galaxy map.

  Tamiyo answered in a small voice. "It's the capital planet of the entire Sovereign Earth Conservatory."

  Soren looked disturbed. "I never even thought about it before, but... I guess it makes sense they'd have a new capital." He glanced at Aurania. "Seeing as Earth is uninhabitable."

  "It's a little over five light-years from Earth," Aurania confirmed. "As I understand it, the heads of government relocated there after the fall."

  "How long ago was that?" Soren asked.

  "Well over two thousand years," Aurania replied.

  Soren went silent, the weight of history pressing down on him.

  “I have a question,” Echo's bright voice cut through the tension. “Pulse is too polite to ask, but I'm curious."

  The sudden shift in tone was jarring. Amalia let out a small giggle. "What is it?"

  "What's the deal with him and Earth?"

  A ripple of unease went through the team.

  "It's a long story,” Aurania said, her voice low and protective. “And not one we're telling right now."

  Soren looked over the room, his gaze falling on Aurania last. “It’s alright. Riza seems to trust this guy.” He looked back to Pulse. “I was born on Earth. Before the fall."

  Pulse didn't move. For a long moment, the only sound was the faint hum of the ship's Aether Core. Then he just said, "Impossible."

  Soren just held his gaze, the weight of his presence filling the room with physical gravity.

  Pulse seemed to recalibrate, pushing the monumental revelation aside with professional force. "That is a conversation for another time. For now, we have something else we should discuss."

  “What would that be?” Inelius asked.

  "I don’t work for free.”

  A wave of uncomfortable feelings washed over the operations center. Inelius saw it in the way Aurania’s posture coiled, defensive and challenging. Amalia’s bubbly demeanor dimmed, and Veolo shifted her weight, her expression growing into a borderline snarl. It only made sense that he'd ask to be paid, but it still felt like a stranger leveraging their desperation.

  Inelius cut through the emotion before it could boil over. “What’s your price?”

  Pulse’s head tilted, weighing the question. "Well, instead of explicit payment, I’d like your help on a job. A bounty, to be specific. You all actually stand to make some money from it."

  “We have bigger priorities than making money right now,” Amalia shot back, her voice tight with a frustration she didn’t try to hide.

  “Hold on, hear me out,” Pulse raised a placating hand. He didn’t appear offended by her tone, he seemed to expect it.

  He slowly looked across the entire team. “This isn’t just some random job—it’s something I’ve had my eye on for a while, and… I get the vibe from you all that you’d take it on even if I wasn’t asking.”

  "And why is that?" Raine asked with her usual attitude.

  Something about the pink-eyed CIPHER made Pulse pause, his head turning to her. He had been addressing the towering, intimidating lacravida, but Raine’s question seemed to draw him in. The silence stretched on a moment too long.

  Echo chirped up, less cheerful than before. "Because the bounty is to take out a pirate base that operates as a black-market hub for sex slaves."

  A ripple of murmurs went through the team. Inelius’s jaw tightened, and across the room, he saw Tamiyo flinch. Her shoulders curled inward as a ghost of a memory brushed past her.

  Violet, however, was as still as a glacier, and when she spoke, her tone was just as cold.

  "Go on."

  It wasn’t a request.

  Pulse turned his attention fully to her, recognizing the shift in the room's gravity. "The organization calls themselves 'The Red Consortium.' They operate out of a hollowed-out asteroid in The Serpent's Coil Nebula—shielding, active patrols, impossible to approach with a conventional force. They've been plaguing the nearby systems for years, snatching refugees, colonists... anyone who wouldn't be missed."

  "A full-scale assault on a fortified pirate base," Inelius said, his tone analytical. "Doesn't sound like a job for an infiltration specialist."

  "You're right," Pulse admitted without hesitation. "I wouldn't be able to take it out alone. My expertise is getting through the locks, not kicking down the door and leaving a wake of bodies. With your help, however, I don't think we’ll have a problem."

  Tamiyo finally spoke, her voice quiet but sharp. "Who posted the bounty? An operation like that... it doesn't sound like something the Conservatory would have a problem with.”

  “Correct,” Echo chirped up. “The bounty was posted by a group of Lilithists.”

  "Oh shit," Aurania muttered, more to herself than anyone else. "That makes sense."

  Soren’s brow furrowed. “Who are the Lilithists?”

  “Uh,” Aurania took a moment to compose her thoughts. "They're not a government, they're a faith. A decentralized, sometimes fanatical movement that has been spreading through the fringe systems near the galactic core for centuries.”

  She began to pace, her tone shifting to that of a historian recalling a dark and bloody legend. “They worship a deity—there are different names and titles depending on what planet you’re on—but the one I’m familiar with refers to her as 'The Mother of Ashes.'”

  A tense silence settled over the room.

  From her seat in the back, Brana grunted, "That sounds fuckin’ ominous."

  “Regardless of the name,” Aurania continued, “there’s a core concept that everyone seems to believe in, no matter what sect of Lilithists you may be speaking to.”

  "And that is?" Soren asked.

  Aurania stopped and gave him a hard look. “That she is a divine liberator. A goddess of vengeance.”

  Violet’s posture straightened. “Doesn’t sound so bad to me.”

  Aurania’s fiery gaze flicked to her before she resumed her explanation. “She is believed to be a being of immense, destructive power. One who appears in places of extreme oppression, purges evil in a storm of fire, and then vanishes. Her followers are zealots—near-suicidal in their devotion. They believe that suffering brings them closer to their goddess, and that a violent death in her name is a form of transcendence."

  "So… it’s a death cult." Inelius said.

  "Sometimes," Aurania admitted. "But they also do this." She gestured to the implied mission briefing. "Their core belief is 'Justice for the Broken, Freedom for the Bound.' They use their resources to fund bounties against slavers, tyrants, and abusers. They are a force of chaotic, righteous vengeance."

  Violet let out a simple, quiet, “Hm.”

  Inelius caught the way Aurania’s eyes flicked to Violet at the sound.

  "And no one knows who this 'goddess' is?" Soren pressed.

  Aurania shook her head. "Just a myth. A story whispered in the dark by the people she has supposedly saved. A ghost who razes cities and frees the enslaved. To the Lilithists, she is a savior. To the Conservatory... she is a terrifying heresy.”

  The weight of her words settled over the ops center. Inelius just shook his head slowly. Whether this deity was real or not, this wasn't just a simple bounty—they could be inserting themselves into the middle of a holy war.

  "So they're fanatics," Violet stood up, staring at the galaxy map with her hand on the grip of Morgan's Mercy. "But they're fanatics who hunt slavers."

  She turned to look at them, and her eyes were ice over fire. "We can be at The Serpent’s Coil Nebula in a week,” she pointed at the map. “What are we waiting for?”

  "Yeah,” Amalia nodded in agreement. “I don't care who's paying. If they’re putting people in cages, let’s go kick their fuckin’ teeth in."

  There was no real debate—the decision was already made. Pulse was right—regardless of the credits, it was a mission that aligned with their own personal code.

  Aurania looked around at her team, weighing the fierce determination in their eyes. Finally, she looked at him. “Inelius? What do you think?”

  He let out a slow breath, looking from Violet’s cold fury to Tamiyo’s rigid posture, seeing the ghosts of their pasts converging. He looked at Pulse, weighing the potential benefits of trusting this new stranger.

  And when he looked down at Raine, his eyes got wider.

  Alongside her tablet, she was holding his little sister’s notebook—the one gifted to her by Inelius’ mother before they left Nox. Her vibrant pink eyes burned up at him with resolve. “Leave the galaxy a better place than we found it, right?”

  He turned back to Pulse.

  “We’re in.”