Akiko moved cautiously through the dimly lit corridor, fox-fire flickering faintly at her feet to keep her balanced in the microgravity. Every step pulsed with strain. The entity's mana still coursed through her, a volatile weight behind her ribs. Her breath was shallow. Controlled.

She entered the next room, and froze. Her senses sharpened.

The space was cluttered: strange equipment, scattered debris. Metallic tables bolted to the walls were piled with schematics, tools, and half-disassembled machinery. At first glance, it looked like chaos. But as her eyes adjusted, the shapes resolved into something more purposeful.

Her ears twitched. A shimmer passed across her magical face shield as it synced with the movement.

Still no immediate threat. But the purpose of the room eluded her.

Her AI flickered into her HUD, white-furred and perched with calm certainty.

"Research... lab," it said.

Akiko tilted her head, then nodded slowly. "Research lab?"

She scanned again.

Racks of sample containers. Diagnostic monitors. Testing equipment. It clicked into place. This had been a materials lab, used to analyze ore samples, maybe prototype new mining tools.

But then she saw the glow. Runic traces. Etched into the machines.

The entity's mark.

"Repurposed," her AI added, tail flicking. "Search... potential."

Akiko's expression tightened. Her gaze swept the room again, sharper this time. She needed more than fox-fire and willpower to face what was coming. That core hadn't just shaken her body, it had rattled the balance of power.

Her HUD pinged.

A faint reticule settled over a device mounted to the far wall.

MINING LASER

Curiosity flickered. She approached.

It wasn't like the crude drills or chisels used in her world. This was sleek. Streamlined. A long barrel tapered to a glowing focal point, still humming with residual energy.

She crouched beside it, studying the grip, if it could even be called that. What might've been a handle had been replaced by a socket. Clearly not meant for human hands.

"Modified... for drones," the AI confirmed, highlighting the socket in her HUD.

Akiko raised an eyebrow. "I'm not exactly a drone."

The AI's tail wagged once. Encouraging.

She sighed. "Fine. Let's see what this gets me."

She slid her hand into the socket.

At once, a subtle pull of mana drained from her fingers. And with it, pressure eased. The suffocating swell of the entity's residual power lightened, if only slightly.

Then the device stirred.

Metal shifted, testing her fit. The rig flexed and settled around her forearm. Her neck implant warmed. HUD overlays flickered.

"Integration... in progress," her AI said, voice low but steady.

Panels along the laser's barrel lit up, drawing a stable trickle from her mana reserves. The socket sealed into place like a gauntlet, locking with a soft click.

A new icon appeared in her HUD: a stylized mining laser overlaid with charging indicators.

Akiko flexed her arm, testing the mass of it. Heavier than she liked. It dragged at her frame in the zero gravity. But not unmanageable.

The soft hum of energy beneath her skin gave her something she hadn't felt since the core consumed her.

Control.

"Not exactly light," she muttered, adjusting her stance, "but I'll make it work."

She glanced at the AI's fox form, hovering in her vision.

"You sure this thing isn't going to explode on me?"

"Compatible," it replied. Its tail swayed. Confident.

The laser pulsed, panels fully charged now, glowing brighter.

She raised it. The targeting reticule in her HUD followed, aligning to her aim. The blue glow cast jagged patterns across the far wall.

The weapon felt heavy. Strange.

But it moved with her. Almost like it belonged.

She let out a breath.

"Alright," she said, rolling her shoulders.

Her grip tightened.

"Let's see if this thing can give us an edge."

Akiko moved deeper into the facility. Her steps slowed as the rumbling deepened, vibrating through the floor and into her bones.

This sound, this wasn't mechanical. It was alive.

She turned a corner, and froze.

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

The bay stretched before her, massive and alien. The walls were smooth and dark, pulsing with runic light in sync with the vibrations. This wasn't part of the station's original design, nothing in this station looked designed to handle something so massive, until now.

This was something the entity had made.

At the center, looming in the low light, was the frigate, but not the crude amalgam that she had encountered on the Sovereign's hull. This was rebuilt, repurposed in the short days since that encounter.

Its dark hull gleamed. Its engines thrummed with latent energy. It hovered inches above the decking, a ramp extended to the floor. Drones swarmed in coordinated silence, their movements too fluid, too perfect.

They were loading it: metal, glowing tech, devices Akiko didn't recognize.

And at the ramp—

Her breath hitched.

Evelyn.

Unconscious. Strapped to a floating stretcher. Her face pale, chest rising in shallow breaths.

The drones were guiding her up the ramp.

"No," Akiko whispered. Her hands curled into fists.

"Evelyn..." Her voice cracked. Fear, fury, everything.

"We can't let them take her."

The instant the words left her lips, the bay stilled. Every drone turned. Perfect unison. Heads snapping toward her.

The spider drones flanking the ramp shifted, legs splaying, beam cannons glowing.

Akiko's fox-fire flared involuntarily at her feet.

Instinct screamed: Run.

Her AI's voice crackled through the chaos. "Detected… hostility. Prepare—"

"I noticed," she muttered.

Beams fired.

She launched sideways, twin blasts searing through where she'd stood.

Fox-fire exploded beneath her, bursts of motion carrying her through the air in erratic spirals. Beam trails carved glowing scars through the walls behind her.

Her mana pulsed, wild, hot, and dangerous, twinning with potency she had stolen from the entity.

Control. You can do this.

The mining laser on her arm pulled heavily as she glided. She steadied it with her free hand. Her AI highlighted targets, her HUD flaring with trajectory overlays.

Akiko locked onto the drones carrying Evelyn's stretcher.

Gotcha.

She fired. The beam seared the air, crackling and brilliant.

It struck the lead drone's shield. The field flared, resisted, then collapsed with a shattering crackle.

The drone melted.

The stretcher wobbled but held.

"Yes!" Akiko shouted, a grin splitting her face—

Instinct: move.

She twisted mid-air as another beam lanced past, fox-fire flaring to redirect her momentum. A second barrage followed, too close. Molten metal hissed behind her.

She flung herself into a tight spiral, evasive bursts slamming her through open air.

Target: second drone.

She steadied. Fired again. The beam sliced cleanly. The drone folded inward, collapsing into scrap. The stretcher slid down the ramp, bouncing back toward the floor.

The spider drones repositioned, legs skittering against the decking, seeking firing angles.

Akiko launched into a scatter-burst, her trajectory chaotic. Beam heat licked at her face shield, which flared, cracked, but held. The suit's thermal layer surged with warmth against her skin, warning lights blooming in her HUD.

Too many.

She dove behind cover, just for a heartbeat, her breath ragged, mana draining fast. Her HUD pulsed. The entity's mana, still in her system, flared back to life, barely reinforcing her reserves.

The recharge was fleeting. A flicker. A gasp of air in drowning lungs. But it was enough.

"Any bright ideas?" she muttered, bracing to move again.

Her AI yipped in her mind. Her HUD lit up: a highlighted path, a jagged route through the barrage.

Akiko smirked.

"Good fox."

She dove back in, fox-fire bursting behind her, leaving comet trails of light. The spider drones tried to track her, legs scraping the floor in a clatter of desperation.

She closed on the first. Claws ignited in her free hand. She slashed.

Fox-fire ripped through its cannon. Sparks erupted. The weapon collapsed. Dead weight.

Akiko was already gone, airborne again.

The second spider bot spun toward her. Faster. Its beam slashed across her arc. She twisted—

Too slow. It grazed her side.

Pain lanced through her ribs. Mana surged in reflex, her suit patching the breach, but her vision swam. Her chest heaved.

Too close.

She hissed through her teeth.

"Damn it..."

The energy kept her moving. Barely. And when the second bot turned to aim again, she was ready.

Her claws ignited.

"Let's see if you're faster than me."

She lunged—

Then the world roared. The bay trembled.

Thrusters from the frigate screamed, scattering debris, whipping Akiko sideways. She shielded her eyes.

Above her, the entity. A shadow in the air. Its voice was cold. Mocking.

"Enough."

The word echoed through her.

"No matter what you've stolen, you are nothing. You cannot protect your precious pawns."

Akiko bared her teeth. But before she could reply, the remaining humanoid drones broke formation, sprinting toward the ramp. The remaining spider drone slumped to the ground, perhaps no longer necessary.

The frigate sealed behind them.

And Evelyn's stretcher tipped.

The drones had abandoned it. She fell, drifting to the deck with a dull, breathless thud.

"Damn it!"

Akiko surged forward, every muscle burning, toward Evelyn's crumpled form, even as the wind from the ship's ascent howled around her.

She wasn't done. Not until Evelyn was safe. Not until this nightmare ended.

Above her, the bay ceiling split open, jagged metal parting to reveal the void beyond. The stars looked cold. Indifferent.

The frigate rose slowly, casting its long, predatory shadow across the bay. Its fusion drive angled downward.

Akiko's HUD pulsed red. A targeting reticle blinked over the ship's exhaust cone.

And then, it clicked. The ship wasn't just leaving. It was preparing to burn the bay. To erase what was left.

The glow beneath the frigate intensified, casting searing white light across the walls. The air shimmered with mounting heat. The decks vibrated with gathering force.

Akiko's heart punched against her ribs.

She didn't know if Cassandra or Kara had escaped. Didn't have time to wonder.

Her eyes snapped to Evelyn, still unconscious on the deck. Unmoving. Unprotected.

The heat clawed at her suit. Her HUD flooded with proximity alerts.

Seconds. Maybe less.

"No time to think," Akiko muttered, forcing her body forward. Her legs screamed. Her lungs burned.

Foxfire sparked beneath her boots. Flickering, unstable, but enough.

She skidded to Evelyn's side, magboots engaging with a snap. Dropped to her knees. Grabbed Evelyn's shoulders.

"C'mon, Evelyn," she rasped. "Not the time to nap."

No response.

Akiko's HUD flared again: suit integrity fluctuating.

Her AI crackled in her mind, voice weak but clear.

"Evacuate. Now."

The fox avatar blinked in her vision, highlighting a path: upward. Through the bay doors. Into the stars.

Akiko's gaze followed it. Her breath caught.

That distance. So far. So exposed.

"You've got to be kidding me."

The frigate's burn was seconds away.

She crouched low. Coiled her legs. Pulled Evelyn close. Her fox-fire flared, sputtering blue heat.

"Alright," she whispered. "Here we go."

She launched. A blaze of light surged beneath her, propelling them skyward. The bay fell away. Heat closed in. The roar of igniting plasma drowned everything.

The fusion drive ignited.

Akiko screamed—silently.

She wove shield runes in a rush, inexpert and cracked. The pattern flared, foxfire rippling around her form. Her suit groaned, straining under the force. The outer plating frayed, warning sigils flaring red in her HUD.

But she didn't stop.

Evelyn was heavy in her arms. Dead weight. But not dead.

Not if she could help it.

The bay doors grew closer. Space yawned beyond.

Almost there.

With a final burst of fox-fire, everything she had left, she cleared the threshold.

The void swallowed her. Sudden silence. The roar became absence. The chaos became cold.

Akiko tumbled, Evelyn clutched tightly, the stars wheeling around them.

Below, the station detonated. The frigate's burn seared through the bay, incinerating it in a pillar of light.

Shockwaves rippled upward, catching her in their wake. She spun, momentarily weightless, powerless, a speck against a storm.

But she held on. Her arm shielded her eyes.

Evelyn stayed in her grasp.

The station vanished in a storm of fire and debris.

And then, beyond the storm... she saw it.

The Sovereign. Silhouetted in starlight. Steady. Waiting.

Her AI pinged her HUD. Trajectory lock, distance calculated.

Fox-fire flickered once more at her feet. Akiko steadied her breath. Gritted her teeth.

"Hang on, Evelyn."

She shifted her grip. Reignited her fire. And flew.

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