The black peeled back like a visor lifting.

  Pod walls resolved around Kaden: the same coffin-tight interior they’d strapped into, only a shade too clean. Status lights glowed a little too bright. The air tasted like filtered nothing.

  ENVIRONMENT LOAD: SIM POD – HIS VALIANT

  AURORA LINK: STABLE

  AP: 5/5

  Squad tags snapped into place at the top-right of his HUD.

  SSGT JAX – GREEN

  LCPL TANAKA – GREEN

  PFC NAVARRO – GREEN

  CPL VOS – GREEN

  PFC MERCER – GREEN

  “Comms check,” Jax said. “Tanaka.”

  “Up.”

  “Navarro.”

  “Up.”

  “Vos.”

  “Up.”

  “Mercer.”

  “Up,” Kaden said.

  “Good,” Jax said. “Enjoy the view.”

  The forward display flickered on.

  Space filled it.

  Valiant’s hull loomed to the right, all scarred armor and gun towers, blue-white fire licking from her main batteries as she traded blows with an Opp cruiser closing from the left. Aurora rendered the battlespace in harsh strokes—streaks of light, shield flares, arcs tracing kill zones.

  Pods peeled off Valiant’s underside in a ragged swarm, bright motes burning toward the Gamma-class hull.

  Their pod lurched.

  Kaden’s stomach tried to float as clamps fired. The harness dug into his shoulders.

  LAUNCH: THETA-3 POD – VECTOR FORWARD PORT

  ETA HULL CONTACT: 00:00:42

  “Welcome to the part the recruitment vids never get right,” Jax said. “Eyes forward. This is as close to real as you’re going to get without actual vacuum.”

  The Opp cruiser swelled on the display. Predatory, forward-heavy, prow built for ramming. Thrusters burned a harsh white-blue as it rolled under Valiant’s fire.

  Aurora traced labels over the hull.

  TARGET: GAMMA-CLASS CRUISER (SIM)

  KEY SECTIONS: FORWARD CONTROL / MIDSHIPS / DRIVE

  Valiant’s guns spoke again. Beams hammered the Gamma’s forward shields, ripples of distortion crawling across the enemy hull.

  “Big picture,” Jax said. She could’ve been explaining a gasket. “Theta-1 and -4 hit midships, make noise, build lodgments. Theta-2 and -5 go for drives and engineering. We”—her tag pulsed once—“Theta-3, are forward control. We take whatever passes for the local bridge guts so Gaunt can start turning pieces of this thing off.”

  “Scuttling?” Navarro asked.

  “Not our job,” Jax said. “If the admirals want it scrapped, fleet picket handles the carcass. We’re here to make sure it stops shooting and stops running. Do that clean, we pass. Don’t, and we get to watch a lot of red dots vanish up there.”

  Ahead, a pod winked out in a smear of white static. Aurora stamped a blunt marker over it.

  SIM POD LOSS

  Kaden swallowed.

  “Don’t fixate on those,” Jax said. “In real space, dead pods are just numbers. In here, they’re lines in Gaunt’s report. This one”—the timer in Kaden’s HUD ticked down—“is the only pod you can do anything about.”

  Thirty seconds. Twenty-five.

  The pod shuddered, simulated flak slapping at the hull in bright flashes and dull, gut-deep thumps. His body didn’t care that none of it was real.

  “Tanaka,” Jax said. “Stack?”

  “Shield, Mercer, Navarro,” Tanaka said. “You and Vos last.”

  “Good,” Jax said. “Nobody be clever at the door. You’ve all seen what happens when people get clever.”

  “Affirm,” Vos said.

  “Copy,” Navarro added.

  Kaden just grunted. His throat felt too dry.

  The Gamma’s hull filled the display. Plating seams, heat vents glowing dull orange, running lights strobing through the wash of weapons fire.

  Pods ahead vanished from the view as they hit, Aurora switching them off the external feed. The timer marched toward zero.

  HULL CONTACT – IMMINENT

  Jax’s tag brightened.

  SKILL – Shock Leader: Breach Burst (R1)

  AP: SSGT JAX 7/9

  The effect slid through Kaden like someone had dialed the static out of his nerves. His hands steadied. His awareness of the squad snapped into focus—Tanaka a solid mass in front of him, Navarro just off to his right, Vos behind, Jax at his back. The pod felt smaller and sharper all at once.

  “Last ten seconds are mine,” Jax said. “We punch through the hull, survive the first lane, and fight uphill to forward control. Theta-1 and -4 drag guns off us midships. Theta-2 and -5 break their engines. We make sure this cruiser stops being useful to its owner.”

  “Define ‘survive’?” Navarro asked.

  “In here? You walk back out under your own power,” Jax said. “Aim for that. Aurora will handle the scoring.”

  The pod slammed into the Gamma’s hull.

  The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  Kaden’s teeth clicked together. The harness yanked tight, then settled as mock clamps bit.

  HARD DOCK – LOCK CONFIRMED

  The forward display flipped from space to a stylized cutaway of hull at their contact point: concentric circles marking their pod and the chunk of Opp plating ahead.

  A bright ring traced the cut line and began to glow.

  BREACH CYCLE: PLASMA CUTTER ENGAGED

  The cutter screamed into life, a high, grinding whine that vibrated through Kaden’s bones. Heat seeped in, a faint but tangible wave against his shins.

  “Shield up as soon as that plate moves,” Jax said. “Tanaka, you take first step into whatever’s there. Mercer, Navarro, you know the drill. Vos, you’re a gun until we tell you otherwise.”

  “Copy,” came in overlapping replies.

  “Opp aren’t idiots,” Jax went on. “Aurora’s watched the same boarding feeds we have. It’s going to try and kill you at the door. Don’t let it.”

  The whine peaked and cut off. A status light flipped green.

  BREACH COMPLETE

  Clamps thudded. The circle of metal in front of Tanaka’s harness glowed, then dropped inward with a heavy thump.

  Cold, thin air rushed in. Red emergency light flickered beyond the opening.

  “Go,” Jax said. “Tanaka, out.”

  Tanaka punched his harness release, grabbed the Bulwark, and drove forward. The shield locked into the pod’s rail as he passed, then cleared.

  Kaden was right behind him, boots hitting Opp decking a heartbeat later. Gravity felt just wrong enough to make his stomach lurch. Aurora tagged the environment.

  LOCATION: FORWARD ACCESS CORRIDOR (SIM)

  GRAVITY: 0.96G (APPROX)

  ATMOS: THIN / BREATHABLE / COLD

  Then the corridor exploded into motion.

  The breach had put them into a broad access artery running across the ship’s width. Opp silhouettes were already dug in—two crouched behind low structural protrusions on either side, one further back at a T-junction, another on a catwalk above.

  “Contact front!” Navarro snapped. “Four plus! High catwalk!”

  Tanaka’s shield jerked as simulated rounds slammed into it, impact tracers flaring across its face. He planted his feet, weight behind the Bulwark.

  Kaden stepped up to the left of the shield, SMG already rising, instinct snapping him to the low shape on the left.

  Jax dropped in behind and to the side, rifle up.

  Her tag pulsed.

  SKILL – Overwatch (R1)

  AP: SSGT JAX 5/9

  The world tightened. Kaden’s sights steadied, the little tremor at the edge of his reticle smoothing out. Navarro’s fire synced almost unconsciously to his rhythm. Shots stopped being a messy roar and became a pattern.

  Nobody needed to be told to shoot now.

  Kaden took the left low. Short burst, center mass. The Opp there jerked and went still, HUD tag winking out.

  “Left low down!” he called.

  “High!” Navarro answered.

  Her rifle barked in controlled bursts. The catwalk silhouette tried to lean out and got cut down, its tag blinking away.

  Vos’ SMG was already chattering past them, rounds chewing at the opposite low cover.

  “Suppression right low, T-junction still hot!” he said.

  The Opp at the T slammed a full burst into the Bulwark. One round slipped the edge and chewed into the deck near Kaden’s boot, throwing fragments into his shins. An orange impact icon flickered in his HUD—minor, ignorable.

  His hands didn’t twitch. Trauma Response held the line.

  Tanaka adjusted his stance without being told, shifting the shield a hair to catch more of the T-junction angle.

  “I’ve got the junction,” Kaden said, already leaning, eyes tracking the muzzle flares.

  “Right low still sends rounds,” Navarro added. “I’ll keep him busy.”

  “Do it,” Jax said. “Keep it tight. Pod at our backs, not our grave.”

  Kaden set the reticle where the T shooter’s head should be. Two-round bursts. Pause. Two more. The Opp snapped in and out of cover with unnerving consistency, returning fire that walked clean lanes along the bulkhead.

  Someone on the other end of that rifle had training and augments of their own. He didn’t need Aurora to tell him that.

  Behind him, Jax’s rifle added a third rhythm to the pattern, her shots threading neatly between his and Navarro’s. She wasn’t telling them where to aim; she was simply there, slotting into gaps.

  “Right low’s breaking!” Vos called. “He’s trying to shift far side of that cover!”

  “I’ve got him,” Navarro said.

  Her fire dragged along the edge of the protrusion. The right-low tag blinked out.

  That left the T.

  “Vos,” Jax said. “Lighting at that junction. Dumb and fast.”

  “On it,” Vos said.

  His tag dipped.

  SKILL – Rapid Override (R1)

  AP: CPL VOS 7/8

  “Local node,” he said, fingers flicking over his forearm controls. “Overloading junction strips in three, two, one—now.”

  The red floor and ceiling strips at the T flared white for half a heartbeat. The Opp’s next burst sprayed high and wide.

  Kaden didn’t wait for a command. He leaned, reticle already where he wanted it, and fired three clean shots.

  The T-junction tag winked out.

  Silence hit in the sudden absence of gunfire. Kaden’s breathing sounded too loud in his own ears. The impact icon in his HUD dimmed, dropping into the log.

  BREACH ZONE SECURED

  AURORA METRIC: INITIAL CONTACT – ABOVE BASELINE

  For a moment, all he could feel was the hum of adrenaline and the eerie sense that his body had been nudged just right at every beat.

  “That’s… unreal,” Navarro said quietly. “Feels like cheating, having you in the stack like that, Sergeant.”

  “Good,” Jax said. “Remember it took me a decade and a dead squad to get this weird. You want what I’ve got, survive long enough to hate how you got there.”

  Nobody had much to say to that.

  “Don’t relax,” she added, the edge back in her voice. “This is just Aurora asking if we trip on the first step. We didn’t. Now it starts getting creative.”

  She moved up, sliding into position just off Tanaka’s shoulder, rifle still up.

  “Tanaka, two meters,” she said. “Slow. Keep the shield high. Everyone else, stay in the box. Talk if you see something worth shooting or touching.”

  They moved.

  Out from under the pod’s shadow, the corridor felt larger. Opp architecture was all hard angles and exposed piping, red emergency strips clawing at their vision. The air was thin and cold in Kaden’s lungs.

  “Local panel, left wall,” Vos said after a few steps. “Three meters. Doors, cams, vents. No turret signatures that I can see.”

  “Mark it,” Jax said. “Hands off for now.”

  The panel picked up a soft blue outline in Kaden’s HUD.

  Jax’s helmet tilted up, tracking the overhead rails and catwalks. Her posture tightened, then eased. The prickling at the back of Kaden’s neck—he hadn’t even realized it was there—faded a notch as she stayed steady. Combat Intuition buzzing in the background, Anchor keeping their collective nerves from climbing into panic.

  “I don’t like those rails,” she said. “Too many angles for gravity to get creative. Tanaka, plant here. Mercer, high left. Navarro, high right. Vos, you get fifteen seconds on that panel. Seal our backtrail and make us boring on cameras. Nothing ahead. Go.”

  “Copy,” Vos said.

  He moved up, tucking in close to the Bulwark, and popped the panel. Opp script and schematic blocks spilled across his HUD and mirrored in Kaden’s peripheral.

  “Local doors and cams,” Vos said. “Vent controls. I can lock the doors behind us and loop feeds in this block.”

  “Do it,” Jax said. “Leave anything in front of us alone. If someone’s watching, I want them guessing where we went, not where we are.”

  Vos’s tag dipped again.

  SKILL – Rapid Override (R1)

  AP: CPL VOS 6/8

  “Rear hatches sealed,” he said a few seconds later. “Local cameras are on a thirty-second loop. Anyone watching sees an empty corridor.”

  “Good,” Jax said. “Congratulations, we’re slightly more irritating.”

  Vos stepped back into the formation.

  Jax took in the corridor, the pod behind them, the dead Opp ahead, the glowing panel outline. For a heartbeat, Kaden could almost feel Aurora’s invisible attention on them, measuring.

  “This little bit of hallway sucks,” she said. “But it’s ours. Next step is making ‘ours’ bigger.”

  She nodded toward the stretch of corridor leading away from their breach.

  “Route to forward control is down this axis,” she said. “We stay on it until someone with more rank tells us different. Expect more resistance. Expect it to be smarter. Aurora saw we didn’t fall on our faces at the door. Now it’s going to see what we do with a whole ship.”

  Kaden flicked his gaze across his HUD—AP still full, minor impact logged and gone. His heart hammered, but his hands stayed steady. Anchor sat on them all like a quiet weight.

  “Sergeant,” he said. “Tanaka’s been catching the first volleys. You want me to check him before we move?”

  “I’m good,” Tanaka said immediately.

  “If he says he’s good and he’s upright, he’s good,” Jax said. “If he falls over, you’ll have all the time in the world to admire his injuries. Until then, we move.”

  She stepped up beside the Bulwark, just off to one side, rifle up.

  “Theta-3, advance,” she said. “Let’s go find out how interesting this ship wants to be.”