Later that night, Kaizu stood alone in the dim glow of Hangar Bay Seven.
The cold air whispered through the steel ribs of the chamber, stirring the long shadows cast by his personal vessel The Nomad's Shadow. It was a small, rounded ship, no larger than a gunboat, its dark hull scuffed and scratched from years of unspoken missions. The kind of missions that never made it into official reports. Missions that changed things, quietly.
Its frame looked like it belonged to a relic, but Kaizu trusted it more than any man alive.
No fanfare, No formal send off, Just silence, except Skye.
She stood at the base of the ramp, arms folded across her chest, her stance sharp, her gaze sharper. The hum of the ship's engine systems warming up provided the only background noise, a steady thrum that matched the tension in the air.
"You're leaving the fleet behind again," she said, voice steady but tight. "But this time… you're making me temporary captain? What's different, Kaizu?"
He didn't meet her eyes. Just tugged on his flight gloves with slow precision, as if the leather seams mattered more than her.
"Might take longer to return," he said quietly.
That was all. But it was enough.
Skye tilted her head, searching his face for some hint. She saw the tension in his jaw, the way his fingers brushed the hilt of the blade at his side as though needing to be reminded it was still there. Still real. She saw the fear not of battle, but of what lay ahead.
She didn't push further. Just raised her fist to her chest in salute.
"Galactic Federation will stand till you're back, Cap."
Kaizu smirked, the old nickname softening his face for just a moment. "Since when do we salute, mate?"
Her grin flashed, white and cocky. "Since you decided to be all mysterious, Ha."
He didn't answer. The silence was his reply.
Then the hatch began to close. The ramp lifted with a hiss of hydraulics, sealing him away.
Kaizu walked up to the cockpit, steps slow, deliberate. As the ship detached and drifted from the hangar's magnetic clamps, he paused by the viewport.
Below him, the Federation's headquarters glowed like a fortress on the edge of the stars, its massive form built into the surface of a floating Rock veined with blue energy lines. Dozens of ships were docked in the distance, and thousands of workers moved along catwalks like busy ants. Among them, he spotted a single blue speck, a blur of motion, Skye. Already barking orders, already stepping into his place.
She didn't look back.
A tear slid down Kaizu's cheek. He didn't bother to wipe it away.
He sat in the pilot seat, set the ship on deep jump course toward the Eternity Federation's branch in the Void, and reached into the compartment beside him.
From it, he pulled a crumpled sheet, an old press bulletin, poorly printed, corners folded.
The headline was crude, sensationalized.
"Destroyer vs Mysterious Figure Jaya Temple Massacre"
Kaizu pinned the paper to the wall beside the cockpit. Right next to it, he opened Aruky's mail again.
He read it slowly, word by word.
No matter how many times he re-read it, the message felt unfinished. As if it was meant to be spoken, not sent.
The ship drifted through the endless dark, stars passing like silent witnesses.
Kaizu leaned back in his chair, eyes on the mail. On Aruky's final words.
He knew now that this wasn't just another mission.
It was a reckoning.
And whatever waited at the other end… had already begun..
Down below, far from Kaizu's solitary departure, the great Assembly Hall of the Galactic Federation thundered with the voices of soldiers, strategists, and engineers. Blue banners fluttered from the rafters, though the wind that once carried pride now felt colder, tighter, full of tension. All eyes were locked on the central podium, where Skye now stood tall, firm, in full uniform with her hair tied back, a single strand fallen across her cheek like a crack in armor. She didn't flinch. She didn't blink. She gripped the railing like it was the only thing holding her to the present.
"Listen up!" Her voice cut across the murmuring, sharp as a blade. "Kaizu's on a recon mission. I'm your acting captain till he returns. One week. Tops."
A ripple of doubt moved through the ranks whispers too soft for the microphone, but loud enough to disturb the air.
"She's got the chops... but she's not Kaizu."
"What if Borarah attacks again? Last time he slaughtered them all. Every commander but Kaizu."
"Relax," someone muttered from the shadows of the hall. "Even that monster needs time to regroup after losing the Power Source..."
Skye slammed her fist on the podium, a sharp crack echoing like a gunshot. Her eyes, ice-blue, swept the crowd.
"We held the line against Borarah's entire goddamn army. And we'll hold it again against anything."
This time, the cheer came like thunder, a collective roar that shook the walls of the floating fortress. Hope didn't need promises, it only needed certainty. And in that moment, Skye gave them just enough.
"Just one week," she added, softer now, almost to herself. "Kaizu will return."
But far from the Assembly Hall, somewhere deep within a forbidden stretch of space, another Federation vessel moved quiet, hidden, haunted.