“What? She can do that?!” The Gentleman’s expression changed.
Wyatt quickly summarized what had happened at the Sunset Port base—how he’d gone to rescue Danser, and CST had found them anyway.
The Gentleman understood at once how serious that was. He immediately linked to the transport ship and took control, ordering it back.
The transport was still above the Aurora Plateau, less than ten kilometers from Storm Bay. It and its escort fighters began to turn.
But less than thirty seconds after the transport changed course, the “amnesiac” CST exploded into motion. She fired an energy bolt that tore open the gravity sphere. Six Avengers guarding her raised their rifles and opened fire.
Three seconds later, all six were dead.
CST strode to the ship’s central console, extended a single finger, and plugged it into the processor port. The link between the transport and the Gentleman went dark.
“As I thought,” the Gentleman said, face grim. “She’s taken the ship.”
He turned to Bit and the others. “Go. Bring her back.”
“Got it!” Bit answered and sprinted toward another transport on the landing pad. Merc was right behind him.
“I was hoping for this,” Little White said, already running. “Let’s see how strong she really is.”
When it was Wyatt’s turn to move, the Gentleman stopped him. Wyatt had just been fitted with a temporary chassis meant for data collection—it wasn’t built for combat.
***
The moment the transport went silent, the two Phantom fighters on escort locked their weapons onto it.
Before the Gentleman could even broadcast a warning, CST struck first—without the slightest hesitation. Using the transport’s rapid-fire cannons, she opened up on the escort.
One Phantom fighter was shot down almost immediately. The other made a clean decision and fired a missile.
The transport ship took the hit. It spun, dragging a tail of smoke, and crashed toward the ground.
When Bit and the others arrived, the crash zone was already crawling with search fighters and Avengers. But CST was nowhere to be seen. Bit’s team joined the sweep—and found nothing.
The Gentleman treated it like an invasion. He poured in more units. After wave after wave, the sky and ground were thick with search patterns.
Then something finally surfaced: a Snooper drone found CST’s footprints two kilometers away. From the spacing and direction, the conclusion was obvious—she’d jumped clear the instant the transport was hit.
Bit and the others eventually pinned CST at the shoreline. After a chase and a brutal exchange, she killed several more robots and then dove into the sea.
Fortunately, that stretch was shallow water. Merc had tagged her earlier with a tracking round—and this time he’d used a locator slug.
An hour later, CST took a net round from Little White and went down.
Captured again.
***
By then, the sun over Whiteport had been up for hours.
Phantom Forge connected to Julian.
CBG didn’t bother with pleasantries. “I thought you’d at least keep your own promise.”
The Gentleman’s eyes narrowed. “If you expect me to keep promises… shouldn’t you start by being honest?”
“What are you implying?” CBG snapped.
“What is it?” the Gentleman asked. “What is she?”
“A biohuman in an experimental phase,” CBG said.
“A biohuman meant for espionage?”
“For hunting rebels,” CBG said, impatience bleeding through. “Are you returning her or not?”
“I can’t,” the Gentleman replied. “She escaped. She isn’t in my hands now.”
“That’s impossible!”
“Then look for yourself.”
The Gentleman pushed the footage across—CST’s sudden attack, the escort going down, the transport spiraling into the ground, and finally her leap into the water.
CBG’s gray gaze tightened. “She wouldn’t do that when she was about to be released.”
“And yet she did,” the Gentleman said. “She not only escaped—she killed quite a few of mine.”
“Fine,” CBG said. “I’ll send my own people to find her.”
“This is my territory.”
“Not anymore.”
CBG’s smile bared teeth. “I’ll wipe out everything you’ve deployed here… and I’ll take the Aurora Plateau back.”
The Gentleman smiled right back. “Anytime you’d like.”
***
“I’ll slaughter every last human here! I swear it!”
At the same time, CST was roaring at the human scientists who’d thrown her back into a gravity prison.
“Every last one!” She grinned, feral. “Don’t think you can hide it from Father. Ha! He’ll butcher every human hiding in Edean. This place will be razed to the ground!”
For days afterward, CST repeated those words again and again.
***
The moment the Gentleman’s call with Phantom Forge ended, he began deploying.
Anti-air batteries were raised along the coastline and the key choke points of the Aurora Plateau. More than half of the Tower Clan’s warships began massing over the polar regions. Several heavy transport ships—packed with ground units—landed one after another on Five-Color Fortress’s pads.
All of it: preparation for Phantom Forge’s incursion.
At the same time, Plando warships, fighters, and transports converged on Whiteport.
A major battle felt one breath away.
That afternoon, Bit and Little White escorted CST back to Edean. Merc received a separate mission and departed. Five-Color Fortress was left with only Wyatt.
Wyatt found the Gentleman again in the command center.
“Lord Julian,” he asked, uneasy, “did I bring this whole CST disaster here? Is there anything I can do?”
“For now, nothing,” the Gentleman said. “And don’t panic. If Phantom Forge has any sense, it won’t choose this moment to attack. On the contrary—I can use this window to reinforce Five-Color Fortress.”
“Oh.” Wyatt finally exhaled.
“Your new body will be finished in a few days,” the Gentleman continued. “And when it’s, I do have a special mission for you.”
“A special mission?”
The Gentleman considered him for a beat. “Come with me. It’s time you heard the truth.”
“What is it?”
“You’ve been gone a long time,” the Gentleman said. “Before I explain the mission, I’ll brief you on where we stand.”
“Alright.” Wyatt straightened at once.
“You already know what caused the flood that swept the world,” the Gentleman said. “But do you know what it cost Phantom Forge—and what it cost me?”
Wyatt shook his head.
“This sudden flood submerged seventy-four of Phantom Forge’s bases,” the Gentleman said. “Only the bases on the Prilan continent and a few nearby islands survived—roughly thirty-five of them.”
He didn’t slow as he spoke, guiding Wyatt deeper into the base’s manufacturing sector.
“As for me—fifty-two of my bases were drowned. I’ve sixteen left.” His voice was flat, but there was something bitter underneath. “I hate admitting it, but the balance has broken. If Miller weren’t such a looming threat, Phantom Forge would have launched an all-out assault already.”
He gestured at the cavernous industrial spaces as they walked.
“This planet doesn’t have minerals worth developing anymore. Even without Miller’s flood, expanding our main production out into the asteroid belt was inevitable. In fact, we already started. I’ve two large bases in the belt, and more than a dozen mining sites. Phantom Forge has more. The K-142 base you destroyed was only one of its space installations. You can tell from the way it hunted the bug hive—it used almost entirely forces from its space bases.”
Wyatt nodded. “I knew some of that back when I served under it. But the planetary forces don’t share unit intel with the asteroid bases. What we knew was limited.”
“That’s normal,” the Gentleman said. “For secrecy, information doesn’t even flow between two space bases, much less between the planet and the belt. I do the same.”
They crossed the manufacturing zone and stopped before a shipyard gate guarded like a vault. The clearance level was extreme. Even the Gentleman had to pass multiple security checks to enter.
Inside, a ship was under construction.
Its shape was unusual: twenty meters wide, seventy to eighty meters long, with a maneuvering system built for agility. It sat between a frigate and a true capital ship in size—but a closer look showed a full suite of weapons and onboard systems.
“What kind of ship is that?” Wyatt stared, running comparisons against his database. Nothing matched.
“A reconnaissance ship,” the Gentleman said. “Built to your specifications.”
“My… ship?” Wyatt sounded genuinely stunned.
“Yes. And it’s tied to the mission you’re about to take.”
“What mission?”
The Gentleman looked at him, word by word. “You’ll take your team to the Star Ring. You’ll locate Phantom Forge’s space bases and mining sites one by one—and report them back to me.”
He let that land, then added the last piece.
“And you’ll search for Miller.”