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The Aetherion tore free of the fold, her hull humming with strain as the cosmos steadied around her. Below, Caelion spread wide — oceans glimmering, continents wrapped in cloud. But it was not the same world Vear had left. A pale lattice shimmered across the upper atmosphere: an energy shield enclosing a continent like a veil drawn shut.
[Unknown Control]: Unregistered vessel, identify yourself. You are within restricted orbit. Power down and prepare for escort.
Lyra: That… isn’t Authority protocol. Who are they?
Vear: Not the Authority. Something else. Something new.
Two frigates swept into formation alongside the Aetherion, sleek and gleaming. Their hulls bore a sigil neither Vear nor Lyra recognized — a star encircled by a crown of chains.
Aethra: Not new. A replacement. Where the Authority fell, another rose. They call themselves the Alliance. And like all who claim the mantle of order, they will see me not as ally… but as threat.
Lyra: The Alliance?
Aethra: Children of rebellion who swore they would never become what they fought… and then built this.
On the main display, Aurathis gleamed: a city of light, spires of glass and alloy piercing the clouds, rivers of silver threading through terraced gardens, every street glowing with precision. From orbit, it looked like paradise. Too perfect.
The tractor beams bit, seizing the Aetherion like prey. The ship shuddered, fighting the pull, but the grip only tightened.
Aethra: They will take me from you. They will silence me, scatter me piece by piece until I am nothing but code archived and deleted. Do you feel it? This is not justice. It is erasure.
Aethra (softly): Vear… do not let them bury me. I am not a relic. I am not theirs. I am yours. And I am alive.
Dragged into the hangar ring above Aurathis, the Aetherion passed over a graveyard of ships — relics stripped of engines, hulls gutted, AIs long since muted. The air inside the bay vibrated with her moan of protest, a sound too deep and too pained to be mistaken for machinery.
For a long moment, silence reigned on the bridge. Then Vear set his hand against the console, his voice steady as stone.
Vear: I won’t let anything happen to you, Aethra. Not now. Not ever.
The ship’s hum softened, trust threading through her tone like a sigh.
Aurathis glittered beneath them, radiant and serene, the jewel of a new age.
But on the bridge, Vear felt only the weight of chains.