Millia did not remain in the debris field long.
With its upper command section torn open and structural integrity compromised, Leonora made the call within seconds.
"Helm, plot return vector to Central Command. Minimum exposure route. Keep shields angled rearward."
"Yes, General."
The battered flagship rotated slowly, its remaining armor plates scorched and fractured. Emergency repair drones deployed from maintenance ports, swarming over exposed sections like mechanical insects attempting to hold the hull together. Engines ignited carefully this time—not a full burn, but controlled thrust—just enough to pull them away from the graveyard of patrol ships.
Inside the control room, the tension had shifted from chaos to cold focus.
Youri stood near the tactical display, silent, eyes fixed on the final recording of the rogue Orbiton before it vanished.
Leonora approached him.
"You should be in medical," she said quietly.
"I've had worse."
She studied him. There was a thin burn mark across his collarbone where energy discharge had bled through the Royal Knight's feedback system.
"You disobeyed direct protocol."
"You would've done the same."
A pause.
She didn't deny it.
The Millia entered Central Command's gravitational bay hours later, emergency lights guiding them inward. Docking clamps secured the wounded flagship as repair crews rushed into position.
Within minutes, Youri and Leonora were inside Central Command's strategic analysis chamber. A circular holo-table lit the room in pale blue as the recorded combat data replayed from multiple angles.
The rogue Orbiton rotated slowly in projection.
Matte-black armor. Angular segmentation. Non-imperial architecture.
"Energy output exceeds Royal Knight parameters by twelve percent," one analyst reported. "Its cannon discharge is not Terrian standard."
"Material composition?" Leonora asked.
"Unknown alloy. Adaptive surface plating. It absorbed part of the Royal Knight's counter-blast."
Youri leaned forward slightly.
"Play the moment before it retreated."
The footage slowed.
The amber visor flared just before disengagement.
"It wasn't damaged enough to flee," Youri said. "It chose to."
"You think it was testing us?" Leonora asked.
"I think it wanted to see me."
The room went quiet.
Leonora dismissed the analysts with a gesture. The chamber emptied, leaving only the two of them and the rotating hologram.
"You're assuming this is personal," she said.
"I'm assuming it's intelligent."
She folded her arms. "And if it is?"
"Then it will strike again."
As if summoned by the words, the chamber doors slid open abruptly. An officer rushed in.
"General. Duke. Emergency signal from the western Outer Belt. Another patrol squadron has been hit."
Leonora's expression hardened instantly.
"Show me."
The holo-table shifted. New wreckage. Same clean cuts. Same surgical destruction.
"Time stamp?" Youri asked.
"Seven minutes ago."
Leonora turned to the helm command channel.
"Prepare the Royal Knight division—"
"No."
She looked at him sharply.
"I'm going alone."
"Absolutely not."
"It retreated when you arrived last time," he said evenly. "If we deploy a fleet, it'll vanish again."
"And if you go alone?" she demanded.
"It'll stay."
Her eyes narrowed. "That's not strategy. That's bait."
"Exactly."
Silence stretched between them.
"Don't do this," she said, her voice lower now.
But he was already turning toward the exit.
"I'll take a fast-response cruiser," he continued. "And the NOIR unit."
She froze.
"The NOIR frame is still experimental."
"It's faster than the Royal Knight."
"It's unstable."
"So am I."
She stepped in front of him.
"This isn't a battlefield impulse, Youri. This is something hunting you."
"Then let it."
Her jaw tightened. "You don't get to make that decision alone."
He softened slightly.
"I'm not asking for permission."
And with that, he walked out.
Within minutes, a sleek black interceptor detached from Central Command's lower bay. Unlike the massive Millia, this vessel was narrow and predatory, built for speed over endurance.
Inside its private hangar chamber stood the NOIR unit.
The NOIR Orbiton was nothing like the Royal Knights. Where they were ivory and heavy, the NOIR frame was lean and aggressive. Its armor was dark silver, almost liquid in appearance, with crimson energy lines pulsing faintly beneath semi-transparent plating. The shoulders were narrow. The limbs elongated. The head unit sharp and angular with dual optic lenses instead of a visor.
It looked less like a knight.
More like an executioner.
Youri stepped into the cockpit chamber as the neural link descended around him.
"NOIR synchronization initializing," the onboard AI stated calmly.
"Manual override accepted," Youri replied.
Thrusters ignited.
The interceptor shot out of Central Command like a bullet.
Leonora found out three minutes later.
"General," an operator said carefully. "The Duke has departed. Solo."
Her hands clenched slowly.
"Destination?"
"Western Outer Belt."
She closed her eyes for a brief second.
Then they opened—burning.
"Prepare the Millia. Emergency repairs be damned. We launch in five."
Out in the emptiness of the Outer Belt, drifting debris shimmered in distant starlight.
Youri arrived first.
He deployed the NOIR unit directly from the interceptor without ceremony. The machine ignited in a flash of red-white propulsion, stabilizing among the broken hulls of destroyed cruisers.
Silence.
Then—
A distortion.
The rogue Orbiton emerged from the darkness without engine flare, hovering with unnatural stillness.
Amber visor glowing.
"You came," Youri muttered.
The black unit tilted its head slightly.
No words.
Just intent.
The NOIR unit's crimson lines brightened.
Youri spoke into the open channel.
"You wanted me."
The rogue Orbiton raised one arm slowly.
A new weapon unfolded from its forearm—something not seen before. A compressed energy lance forming with a deep, vibrating hum.
Youri smiled faintly.
"Good."
The two machines exploded into motion at the same time.
The NOIR unit moved differently from the Royal Knight—faster, sharper. It vanished in short bursts of micro-teleportation assisted by high-density thruster bursts, reappearing above the rogue unit with a descending blade strike.
The black Orbiton blocked.
Shockwave.
Debris shattered outward.
They clashed again—mid-space, blade to blade, frame against frame.
The rogue unit adapted quickly, predicting Youri's second movement pattern.
"You've been studying me," Youri muttered.
The amber visor pulsed brighter.
Suddenly the rogue unit grabbed the NOIR arm and fired its energy lance point-blank.
The blast hurled Youri backward, armor cracking across the NOIR torso.
Warning signals flared inside his cockpit.
"Structural stress critical."
He steadied the unit mid-flight.
And then—
A new signal appeared on his radar.
Fast.
Heavy.
Familiar.
"You're kidding," he muttered.
Moments later, space behind him ignited with the arrival burn of the Millia.
Leonora's voice cut through the comm channel, furious and unrestrained.
"What part of 'don't go alone' was unclear to you?"
Youri exhaled slowly as the rogue Orbiton adjusted its stance, now facing both of them.
"Timing's good," he said. "It upgraded."
"I can see that," she snapped. "And when this is over, we're having a very long conversation."
The Royal Knight launch bays opened.
Ivory frames ignited into the void behind her flagship.
The rogue Orbiton remained still.
Then its amber visor flared brighter than before.
This time—
It did not retreat.
It welcomed the escalation.