The command center erupted into chaos.
Instructors scrambled across the deck, pulling armor from lockers and checking weapon charges. Energy rifles hummed to life. Combat suits sealed with hydraulic hisses.
Vela stood at the center console, her yellow eyes fixed on the main display. Her scaled hands moved rapidly across holographic controls.
"All cadets are to proceed immediately to The Safe Zone," she announced through the comms. Her voice cut through the panic like a blade. "Coordinates uploading now. Non-negotiable. Move."
On Verdara's surface, wrist devices across the jungle lit up simultaneously with new waypoints.
Kade stared at his display, tail lashing. "Are you kidding me? We just beat a Boss Thornback!"
"The qualifiers can't just end like this!" another cadet shouted nearby.
"This is such garbage!" someone else yelled.
Complaints echoed through the jungle as teams began reluctantly moving toward the safe zone coordinates.
Kade turned to rant at Juli. "Can you believe this? We were about to..."
He stopped.
Juli stood completely still. His eyes tracked the sky where the intruder had descended. No complaints. No jokes. Just silence.
"Juli?" Kade's ears flattened.
Pam adjusted her glasses, studying him. "We need to move."
Juli didn't respond.
In the command center, an instructor pulled up security footage on the main screen. The video showed the intruder's descent in brutal detail. The way they cut through the atmosphere without hesitation. The calculated trajectory. The complete lack of fear.
Vela's eyes widened. Her hand went to her mouth.
"No," she whispered. "Not him."
Every head turned toward her.
"Instructor?" one of them asked.
Vela's hand slammed down on the console. "Request immediate backup from the nearest Squad Unit. Priority Alpha. We have a Code Red intruder."
"Code Red?" An instructor's face went pale. "But that means..."
"Just do it!"
The command center fell into tense silence, broken only by rapid typing and urgent comm chatter.
"Backup ETA twelve minutes," someone reported.
"Not fast enough," Vela muttered. She pulled up a file on her display. Her face hardened. "But we'll make it work."
Another instructor leaned over. "What do we know about him?"
"He's a Solo Raider," Vela said, voice tight. "No crew. No allegiances. Works alone."
Solo Raiders were a different breed. Most raiders operated in packs, safety in numbers and shared resources. But some went solo. Betrayal, choice, pride, it didn't matter. What mattered was that anyone who survived as a Solo Raider was dangerous beyond measure.
Vela's fingers moved across the console. A hologram flickered to life above the deck.
At the same moment, deep in Verdara's jungle, the figure reached up and released the seals on his helmet. It hissed and separated, revealing his face.
The hologram in the command center showed the same face in crystal clarity.
WANTED: "BLUE BUTCHER" RAGNAR
BOUNTY: 500,000,000 CREDITS
STATUS: EXTREMELY DANGEROUS
Ragnar looked like something out of a nightmare given flesh. His face resembled a beast, feral and sharp, with blue-gray fur covering his features. Animalistic golden eyes burned with predatory intelligence, identical in structure to Kade's but far more vicious. A deep scar ran from his right eye down to his jaw, the tissue puckered and white against his fur.
He was massive. Easily over seven feet tall with a build that suggested pure muscle and violence.
"Five hundred million?" an instructor stammered. "That's like a Squad vice-captain level bounty!"
"He's from the Claw Sector," Vela said quietly. "Same as Cadet Kade."
The implications hung heavy in the air.
Ragnar tilted his head back and breathed deep. His chest expanded, taking in Verdara's thick jungle air. A smile crossed his scarred face.
"Exquisite," he rumbled, voice deep as thunder. "The primordial essence of this world, untainted by civilization's suffocating embrace. Here, existence distills itself to its purest theorem: consume or be consumed, adapt or perish. One can taste the fundamental truth in every breath." He flexed his arms, and his sleeves exploded off his body like paper, revealing muscles that looked carved from stone. "Your philosophers debate the nature of reality in their pristine towers, yet this jungle has already provided the answer. Violence is the universe's native language, and survival its only meaningful syntax."
A holographic radar glowed on his wrist. Three distinct points pulsed in different locations across the jungle.
The artifacts.
Ragnar took a step forward.
Six figures materialized from the treeline, surrounding him in a perfect circle. All wore full combat gear, weapons trained on his position. Energy rifles hummed with lethal charge.
Instructor Vela stood at the head of the formation, her green aura flickering around her like living flame.
"Backup confirmed inbound," one instructor whispered through comms. "ETA eleven minutes."
"All cadets successfully escorted to The Safe Zone," another reported. "Three officers standing guard."
Vela's yellow eyes never left Ragnar. "Good."
Ragnar looked at each instructor in turn, utterly unconcerned by the weapons aimed at his head. His smile widened.
"How fortuitous," he said, voice dripping with aristocratic refinement. "An audience to witness this moment of intersection between predator and observer. Tell me, do you comprehend the profound irony of your position? You construct these artificial trials, these pale imitations of genuine struggle, believing you can teach strength through simulation."
He gestured grandly at the surrounding jungle.
"Yet this planet breathes with an authenticity your sanitized academies could never replicate. Every creature here understands what your cadets do not: that power is not bestowed through ceremony, but claimed through the crucible of existential necessity."
"State your business," Vela demanded, voice hard as steel.
"My business?" Ragnar chuckled, deep and genuine. "How refreshingly direct. The artifacts, naturally. Your examination has performed the delightful service of gathering them in one convenient location. I find myself philosophically opposed to wasted effort, you see. Efficiency is simply violence refined to its most elegant form."
He tilted his head, scar stretching with the movement. "I propose a covenant of mutual benefit. Do not interfere with my purpose, and I shall permit you to continue existing. Consider it an acknowledgment of the hierarchy of capability. The strong need not justify themselves to the weak, yet I extend this courtesy nonetheless."
Several instructors tensed. One's finger twitched toward their trigger.
Vela raised her hand slightly, holding them back. Her mind raced.
He just told us his objective. Why would he...
Unless he didn't think it mattered.
Unless he was that confident.
"You're not getting those artifacts," Vela said firmly.
Ragnar's smile never wavered. "A predictable response, though no less disappointing for its inevitability. You mistake stubbornness for courage, defiance for strength. A common philosophical error among those who have never truly confronted their own insignificance." His eyes gleamed. "But perhaps that is the most valuable lesson. Some wisdom can only be imparted through demonstration."
Vela's aura flared brighter. She shifted into a combat stance. "All units, engage on my mark. Objective is containment until backup arrives."
The instructors tightened their formation, weapons locked on target.
Ragnar cracked his neck slowly, clearly savoring the moment. "How theatrical. Very well. Let us explore the dialectic between your determination and my supremacy."
At The Safe Zone, cadets crowded into the reinforced structure. Medical equipment lined the walls. Eliminated teams sat on benches, getting wounds treated. The three guard officers stood at the entrance, alert and armed.
Tessa counted heads nervously. "Everyone from our team is here, right?"
"Yeah, we're all..." Kade stopped. His eyes narrowed. He walked over to where Juli stood against the far wall, arms crossed, completely silent.
Something felt off.
Kade reached out and his hand passed straight through Juli's shoulder.
"WHAT?" Kade jumped back.
The image of Juli flickered once, then stabilized. A hologram.
Pam's head snapped around. She marched over and waved her hand through the fake Juli. Her jaw tightened dangerously. "That IDIOT."
"Where is he?" Tessa's voice climbed higher, panic setting in. "Where did Juli go?"
Kade's ears flattened completely against his skull. His tail went rigid. A cold feeling spread through his chest, the kind that came before something terrible happened.
"No," he whispered. "Don't tell me he went toward..."
"He did," Pam said flatly. But her hands were shaking.
Tessa looked between them, breathing faster. "Went toward what? What's happening?"
Kade couldn't answer. The bad feeling had turned into full-blown dread.
On a hill overlooking the jungle, Juli stood alone. Wind whipped through his spiky blonde hair. His bright red eyes stared at the distant treeline where instructor auras flared in the gathering darkness.
He could feel it from here. The weight of the intruder's presence. The sheer difference in power.
It was like comparing a candle to a forest fire.
Juli should be terrified. Should run back to the Safe Zone. Should listen to reason for once in his life.
Instead, he grinned.
His hand went to his chest, touching the red flame emblem hidden beneath his uniform. The one his hero had given him all those years ago.
"This is what you'd do, right?" he whispered to the memory. "Run toward the danger. Protect people."
The grin widened, even as his heart pounded like a war drum.
"I'm gonna be the greatest hero no matter what."
Juli took a step forward.
Then another.
Then he was running toward the chaos.