The sky over New Carthage was on fire.
Not metaphorically.
Actually burning.
Streaks of molten light tore across the atmosphere as orbital cannons rained destruction from above. Buildings collapsed like sandcastles, shockwaves ripping through the city in deafening waves of heat and pressure.
Commander Kael Draven watched it all from inside his mech cockpit, suspended in low orbit.
His hands didn't shake.
They never did anymore.
"Command to Vanguard Unit," the comm crackled. "Enemy dreadnought descending. All pilots engage immediately."
Kael's HUD flashed red as a massive shape emerged through the clouds below.
The Starfall Empire.
Their warships didn't look engineered.
They looked grown.
Black metallic surfaces curved like bone, glowing veins of violet energy pulsing across the hull. At the center, a massive core burned like a dying star.
Beside Kael, another mech boosted into formation.
Sleeker. Faster. Reckless.
"Finally," Aris Kade said over the comm. "Thought they'd wipe the city before we got to have any fun."
Kael didn't respond.
"Kael, you alive in there?"
"I'm calculating."
Aris laughed. "You always say that when you're worried."
Kael's targeting reticle locked onto the dreadnought.
"I'm never worried."
Command cut in again.
"Objective: destroy the core. Repeat — destroy the core at all costs."
At all costs.
Kael had heard that phrase before.
Usually right before people died.
"Vanguard Unit, engage."
Kael ignited his thrusters.
The mech — designation ARES-7 Requiem Frame — roared forward, plasma wings flaring as it pierced the atmosphere like a falling star.
Behind him, dozens of Coalition mechs followed.
Missiles launched.
Railguns fired.
The sky erupted into chaos.
Enemy drones poured out from the dreadnought like a swarm of metal insects. They moved unnaturally fast, twisting mid-air in ways human machines couldn't replicate.
"Contact! Contact!" a pilot screamed.
Explosions blossomed across the formation.
One mech was sliced clean in half by a beam of violet light.
Another spiraled downward in flames.
Aris whooped. "Now this is a fight!"
"Stay in formation," Kael ordered.
"Relax. I've got—"
A drone slammed into Aris's mech, detonating on impact. His unit spun violently before stabilizing.
"Okay," Aris said breathlessly. "That one got my attention."
Kael dove straight through the swarm.
He didn't dodge.
He calculated.
Micro-thruster bursts shifted his trajectory by centimeters, letting enemy fire pass within inches of his armor. His rail cannon charged with a rising hum.
Target: Dreadnought Core.
Distance: 3,200 meters.
Obstacles: Hundreds.
Probability of survival: 18%.
Acceptable.
He fired.
The rail shot punched through multiple drones, tearing a molten path toward the core — but a barrier flared to life at the last second, deflecting the round into the ocean far below.
"Shield confirmed," Kael muttered.
Then something changed.
The dreadnought… moved.
Not drifting.
Turning.
Toward him.
"Uh, Kael?" Aris said slowly. "Why is the entire ship aiming at you?"
Violet energy gathered at the ship's bow.
Kael's warning systems screamed.
He pushed the thrusters to maximum.
Too late.
A beam of pure annihilation erupted from the dreadnought, engulfing everything in its path.
Kael felt the heat even through multiple layers of shielding.
Three Coalition mechs vanished instantly.
Another melted mid-flight.
Aris shouted, "Break off! BREAK OFF!"
Kael didn't.
He accelerated straight at the beam.
Inside his cockpit, Lyra Voss's calm voice finally spoke.
"Commander Draven. I have detected a harmonic instability in the shield frequency."
Kael's eyes sharpened.
"Meaning?"
"There is a 0.7-second window where the barrier weakens during energy discharge."
"That's not enough time."
"It is for you."
Aris yelled, "Kael, don't you dare—"
Kael cut the comm.
Thrusters screamed.
Armor plating began to glow from atmospheric friction.
Distance: 900 meters.
The barrier flickered.
"Now," Lyra said.
Kael fired every weapon at once.
Rail cannon.
Missile pods.
Plasma blade launched forward like a spinning comet.
The barrier shattered.
For a single heartbeat, the dreadnought's core was exposed.
Kael drew the Requiem Frame's primary weapon.
A massive anti-ship lance.
"FOR CARTHAGE," he said quietly.
He drove the lance straight into the core.
Light swallowed everything.
The explosion tore the dreadnought apart from the inside, violet energy ripping through its structure as the colossal ship began to break apart.
Shockwaves hurled Kael's mech backward like a ragdoll.
Systems failing.
Hull integrity critical.
He was falling.
Through fire.
Through debris.
Through the burning sky.
Aris's voice broke through the static.
"Kael! KAEL! Pull up!"
Kael tried.
Nothing responded.
Altitude: 8,000 meters.
Impact imminent.
Lyra spoke softly.
"Commander… it has been an honor."
Kael closed his eyes.
So this is how it ends.
Then—
Something caught him.
A massive shadow passed overhead.
Not Coalition.
Not Starfall.
Something else.
A warship unlike anything he had ever seen descended through the smoke — sleek, silver, impossibly advanced.
Energy tendrils extended from its hull, stabilizing his falling mech.
Aris gasped over the comm.
"What… is that?"
Kael stared at the unknown vessel.
No markings.
No weapons visible.
Just a single glowing symbol along its side.
A crown made of fractured stars.
Lyra's voice trembled for the first time.
"Commander… I am unable to identify this faction."
A new voice filled the cockpit.
Not transmitted.
Injected directly into his neural link.
Deep. Ancient. Inhuman.
"Commander Kael Draven… you have been selected."
Kael's blood ran cold.
"Selected… for what?"
The voice answered.
"For the war that decides the fate of all worlds."
Below them, New Carthage continued to burn.
Above them, the unknown warship opened a hangar bay glowing with blinding light.
Kael had the sudden, overwhelming feeling…
That humanity's war had just been a prologue.
And the real conflict was about to begin.