The war room was silent.
Too silent.
Every officer present could feel the weight of Ashoka's gaze as he walked around the table, hands behind his back, boots clicking against the marble floor. The holo-display above them replayed the moment during the battle when the Kaal-Vajra's systems had been sabotaged.
"This," Ashoka said slowly, "was not a glitch. This was a hand inside my house."
No one dared to speak.
Finally, Admiral Viraj broke the silence.
"My lord… if there is a traitor among us, they've covered their tracks well. This was deep code manipulation — the kind only someone in command could access."
"That narrows it to nine people," Priya said coldly. Her eyes swept the room, and several officers shifted uncomfortably.
Ashoka studied their faces.
"In my mother's court," he began, "we had a saying — When a lion bleeds, watch the jackals gather. Someone here thought they could spill my blood."
He moved the investigation into a hidden chamber beneath the palace — a place only a few even knew existed.
The chamber was lined with relics of war — armor from the AI Wars, banners from lost fleets, and in the center, an obsidian table carved with the Suryaansh family crest. Around it sat Priya, Admiral Viraj, Mira, and three intelligence officers from the covert Raksha Mandal.
"I want full background checks on every officer who had access to the Shakti's neural core," Ashoka ordered.
"Financial records, communications, movements… even family ties. If they've bought a new suit lately, I want to know who stitched it."
One of the Raksha Mandal agents leaned forward.
"My lord, there's… something else. Before the battle, a compressed signal was transmitted from Aryavrat's outer sensor array. It matched a hybrid fleet frequency."
Priya's eyes narrowed.
"So they knew we were coming."
"Exactly," the agent said. "And the signal was sent from within the palace."
That night, Ashoka didn't sleep.
He paced the private gardens, memories of his mother's lessons echoing in his mind.
Trust is a blade, Ashoka. In the right hands, it shields you. In the wrong, it cuts you first.
He remembered her training — how she would plant false information among her own council to see where it surfaced.
It was time to do the same.
At dawn, Ashoka summoned his inner circle.
"I have received intelligence," he announced, loud enough for every officer to hear, "that the enemy flagship — the one that escaped — will be passing near the asteroid fields of Vyom-Delta in three days. We will intercept it."
He did not mention that the report was a fabrication.
The officers saluted and left. Ashoka watched them go, then turned to Priya.
"Raksha Mandal will be watching all outgoing transmissions. If our mole bites, we'll have them."
Priya's mouth curved into a cold smile.
"And when we do?"
Ashoka's voice dropped to a whisper.
"We will make an example so loud the galaxy will hear it."
That night, the trap was sprung.
A faint, encrypted burst — almost invisible — was detected leaving the palace's southern tower. The source: a senior logistics officer named Arjun Rao.
When the Raksha Mandal stormed his quarters, they found him calmly packing a small case. His eyes were glassy, his speech flat.
"He's under neural conditioning," Mira said grimly. "The hybrids programmed him."
Ashoka stepped forward, studying the man he had once trusted to feed his fleets.
"Who gave you the key?"
Arjun's lips trembled. Then, in a voice not entirely his own, he whispered:
The Eye watches.
A moment later, blood streamed from his nose, and he collapsed — dead before hitting the floor.
Mira's face paled.
"They killed him remotely. He was just… a conduit."
Ashoka turned away, fists clenched.
"They're in our walls, Priya. No more waiting. Phase Two begins now — burn the shadows out."
And as the Shakti prepared for launch once more, Ashoka's mind was already on the next step: finding the Eye of Infinity before it found him.