The Aether-Cutter slid into the cold, silent zone of geosynchronous orbit, the Earth now a breathtaking, swirling sphere of indigo and white below. Luminar-1, their target, was a distant, unremarkable speck of metallic debris.
"Identify the threat, Black-I," Seraphina commanded, her voice steady within her helmet. She had already activated the Cutter's cloaking field—a simple light-refracting ability that wouldn't fool a proper sensor sweep, but bought them vital seconds.
Elias focused his Instant Comprehension outwards, analyzing the intercept signal.
"It's a repurposed 90 AC research vessel, designated Void-Scythe," Elias reported, the data painting a detailed image in his mind. "It's not designed for combat. It's equipped with a single, high-output Mana-pulse cannon, but its primary function is stealth and interception. The pilot is an A-Rank Kinetic specialist, identified as 'The Hammer.' His core is optimized for localized pressure generation."
"A Kinetic in orbit?" Seraphina scoffed. "Poor choice of terrain. I neutralize his Mana core with a static pulse. Prepare for impact."
"Inefficient," Elias countered, overriding her decision instantly. "A frontal assault will alert the ground team prematurely. And his A-Rank kinetic core will have a low-frequency psychic shield, specifically designed to counter your S-Rank specialty. You'll drain energy without disabling him. We must disable his ability to fire."
25 minutes until Zero-Zone transit.
"The Void-Scythe is running on a patched, antiquated flight computer," Elias continued, his mind already designing the attack. "I can't use kinetic force, but I can use information. The Scythe relies on precise positional data from Luminar-1 to maintain its intercept vector. I will inject a focused Black-I pulse into the Scythe's navigation system, corrupting its spatial map. It won't break his hardware, but it will make his flight computer believe he is 10,000 kilometers off course."
"A digital attack in space," Seraphina murmured, intrigued. "Do it. I'll cover the approach."
Elias reached out, connecting his mind to the Aether-Cutter's sensor array, effectively turning the ship itself into an extension of his Core. He focused the Black-I Mana—pure, crystallized truth—and sent a needle-thin, high-speed pulse across the void toward the Void-Scythe's main antenna.
Injection successful. Initiating Data Schism Protocol.
On the Void-Scythe, the A-Rank Kinetic, The Hammer, was preparing to decloak and fire. Suddenly, his entire cockpit erupted in a storm of warning lights. The positional display went haywire, showing his ship plummeting toward the South Pole at Mach 20.
«What in the Cascade?!» The Hammer roared over the comms, his voice laced with confusion. «My telemetry is corrupted! I'm falling!»
Panic set in. He activated his A-Rank Mana—a massive wave of kinetic force—to push his ship away from the false trajectory, sending the Void-Scythe spinning violently off its intercept course.
"We have five seconds of confusion," Elias stated, already preparing the next move. "Seraphina! Now! While he is stabilized by external kinetic force, his psychic shield will be momentarily dispersed."
Seraphina didn't need another word. She burst from her seat, pulling her helmet off and stepping into the ship's small airlock. She was a Psychic, and her true power worked best without physical constraint.
She opened the airlock shield, exposing her body to the vacuum. A brilliant, silent wave of S-Rank Psychic energy—white, pure, and overwhelming—left her body, spanning the distance between the two ships in a fraction of a second.
The energy wasn't a blast; it was an absolute, focused suggestion. It hit The Hammer's mind, forcing him to experience the full, horrifying reality of his ship plummeting to Earth.
The Hammer screamed, his forced terror paralyzing him. The kinetic force he was generating to stabilize his ship instantly collapsed, and the Void-Scythe, having lost its pilot and its navigational data, began to drift helplessly.
Seraphina resealed the airlock, slightly winded but victorious. "Target neutralized. Kinetic force is useless against focused mental despair."
Elias, however, wasn't celebrating. His Instant Comprehension was still linked to the Void-Scythe's systems, and he had just detected a final, insidious command being transmitted automatically from the paralyzed Kinetic's central computer.
"Director, he has a failsafe," Elias said urgently. "It's a compressed, coded signal being broadcast directly to the Zero-Zone. I can't stop the transmission, only read the data burst."
Elias comprehended the coded signal in a flash. His face paled, the fear finally piercing his analytic shell.
"The signal is a temporal adjustment. The ground team knows we disabled their agent, so they are moving up the firing window. Instead of waiting for Luminar-1 to transit the Zero-Zone, they are adjusting the Chrono-Lens Array to account for the angle and firing now."
1 minute, 43 seconds until the Zero-Zone fires.
Seraphina slammed her gloved hand onto the console. "Impossible! They need the optimal angle for the clean shot!"
"No, they just need a shot," Elias argued, his eyes fixed on the time remaining. "A suboptimal, high-power shot is better than no shot. They are firing in 100 seconds. We are still 40,000 kilometers from Luminar-1."
The two looked at each other—the exhausted S-Rank and the mentally draining Black-I.
"I need to interface with Luminar-1, now," Elias declared. "Seraphina, can you accelerate the Aether-Cutter further?"
"We're at 7.8 Gs, Elias! Any more and the frame will collapse, or you'll die!"
Elias pointed a trembling finger at the acceleration dial. "I comprehend the structural limitations. The frame can handle 9.1 Gs for 30 seconds. I'll reinforce the joints with my Mana, calculating the exact pressure offset needed to avoid catastrophic failure. We need to reach the satellite in under 90 seconds. Prepare for 9.1 Gs."
He didn't wait for her consent. He began calculating the complex structural reinforcement of the Aether-Cutter, preparing his body and the ship for a suicidal final push, trading the few fragments of personal memory he had left for precious seconds of flight time.