Chapter 61 | Infiltration

THUMP.

Leon felt the sudden kick of acceleration as the pod launched from the turret. A breath later, a sickening weightlessness twisted in his gut, the familiar sensation of slipping into the void.

He drew in mana, cycling it through his body. The nanites surged to assist, optimizing his absorption rate as he pulled more, and pushing excess into his armor's channels.

The red launch lights cut out. In their place, a steady pulse of blue lit the pod's interior—mana circuits glowed from the walls and in their suits, humming with power.

The Breacher Pod streaked silently across the void, locked on target.

For a moment, it was quiet.

Then the hum grew louder—rising, vibrating, until the pod itself began to tremble.

BOOM!

The impact came like a divine hammer. The pod screamed with metal-on-metal as it slammed into the asteroid, the walls and floor groaning, buckling from the force.

Even sealed in by the magnetic lock and reinforced harness, Leon felt the crushing pressure in his chest. The compartment's mana circuit flared, overloaded—siphoning the kinetic energy and driving it forward into the pod's reinforced nose, punching deeper through rock and metal, keeping the tip from collapsing.

And then—

Silence.

"Ughh."

Groans echoed through the compartment. Leon shook off the whiplash and sent a pulse of mana to release the magnetic lock and loosen the harness. Another pulse to his boots locked them magnetically to the floor.

"Everyone good?" he asked, grabbing his sword, then placing it on his hip and holding onto his spear.

His vora answered with short affirmatives. One by one, they disengaged and moved into the aisle, gathering for the signal to open the rear hatch.

The Breacher Pod's nose was buried too deep to use the front hatch.

Leon and Owen pushed toward the rear hatch. Behind them came Miles, Caleb, Matt, and Sage, the vora's shield bearers, shields at ready for the breach.

The section of the asteroid they'd landed in had no gravity system. As soon as they exited the pod, they'd have to reorient and figure out exactly where they were.

Leon switched to the comms channel for Group Two.

"Two and Four, status."

"Ready," Nyra responded.

"Ready," came Four's lead, a second after Nyra.

"Standby," Leon replied, switching over to the first group's channel.

"...ove forward!" Mason's voice barked through the comms. "Seven, watch that corner!"

Leon waited for a brief pause.

"Three, how's it looking?"

"We got lucky," Mason answered. "Slipped in before they finished closing the hangar doors. But we can't find the control room from our side."

"Copy. Send the data."

A file pinged Leon's HUD. He opened it, a partial layout of the Unbounded outpost unfolding across his vision.

It wasn't complete. Group One had just started downloading the data, but it was enough to navigate through the section.

The original plan was simple: Group One would drop in front of the hangar and find an access point. Group Two would land past the hangar into the structure to retrieve data and locate the hangar control room.

With limited intel, they calculated that three Breacher Pods was the maximum impact the outpost could take without risking a full collapse.

But luck was on their side. The terrorists had been caught unprepared, and Mason's team had made it inside. Standard procedure was to extract whatever data they could from any active terminals and hangars had plenty.

Leon switched back to Group Two's comms.

"On my signal."

He placed a hand on the rear hatch's ejection panel.

"Breach."

Mana surged into the mechanism. Small cores attached to the hatch's hinges overloaded and miniature detonations blasted the hatch outward.

They filed out quickly, reorienting themselves to stand on the rear of the pod. Shield bearers fanned out in a tight circle around the opening, weapons raised outward, guarding the rest of the Vora as they emerged.

Their pod had embedded itself perfectly vertical in relation to the outpost floor. Three gaping holes loomed above them where they'd torn straight through the structure. Red warning lights blinked across the chamber, casting the room in pulsing crimson shadows.

The impacts from the three Breacher Pods had annihilated the surrounding section, but Leon could tell they'd landed in a storage room. Crates lay shattered across the chamber, their contents drifting aimlessly in zero gravity.

He tapped Owen's shoulder and pointed to a door buried beneath a mound of debris. Owen nodded, and the two of them jumped down, landing softly. Their boots clicked as they magnetized to the floor.

Vora One followed, maneuvering toward the blocked doorway. No enemies yet.

"Owen, Miles, clear the debris," Leon ordered. "Tess, terminal."

They moved without a word. Tess followed behind and approached the terminal beside the door.

A notification pinged Leon's display, an updated file from Mason.

The map was more detailed now. Then his CRI had parsed through the map data and located the control room.

They were close.

Two and Four arrived seconds later, taking up positions around the entryway.

"Got the route," Leon said to Nyra and Vora Four lead, sending them the path he'd mapped.

"Um… should I try opening it, sir?" Tess asked, voice low, fingers dancing across the terminal. She was already pulling more data.

Leon shook his head. "No time. And they've probably locked the controls. We'll use this."

He pulled out two discs from a pouch on his belt.

"Whoa. You're seriously gonna use those?" Ruby appeared at his side, eyeing the discs. "Wouldn't the Order get mad?"

He shrugged. "We already used ten Breacher Pods. What's a few more discs? If they complain, I'll tell them to send the bill to Director Kaine."

A round of chuckles rolled through the group—except from Nyra.

She's still mad at me… I need to talk to her after.

"All clear," Owen called, shoving the last chunk of debris aside.

Leon approached the door and pressed one disc to the surface. He injected mana into it, then jogged back to join the others who had already stepped away. The shield bearers had formed a solid wall in front of the group.

Just in time. Leon turned back to watch.

The disc pulsed a soft blue, mana cycling through its tiny circuits. One of the embedded cores began glowing brighter, absorbing ambient mana, dangerous in any context.

If left unchecked, a core would continue absorbing mana until it exploded. Inside mana beasts, the body and brain acted as natural limiters. Processed cores, like those used in gear, were engineered to only accept and store a set amount of mana for limited time.

But sometimes, they were left raw for this exact reason.

As the first core approached its threshold, the disc diverted a portion of its energy to the second core, triggering it to begin its own absorption cycle.

Then came the nanites.

When the second core activated, microscopic machines flooded outward from the disc, bonding with the door. The nanites fused into the material, forming a mana circuit that saturated the structure with raw mana, weakening its integrity.

They also functioned as a synchronizer. If the first core neared detonation but the second lagged behind, the nanites would siphon extra mana from the first to maintain the delicate balance.

BOOM!

The disc exploded, sending a shockwave through the corridor. Shards of metal and debris slammed into the shield wall, hammering the front line. The group hunkered down behind the shields, braced against the impact.

A second later, the dust settled. Leon peeked over.

The door was gone. Just a few smoldering fragments left clinging to the frame.

The device could punch through armored vehicles. This door, though reinforced with MRM, was just guarding a storage room.

"I call dibs on the next one!" Ruby shouted gleefully.

Leon shook his head and tapped Owen's shoulder. The shield bearer nodded and moved forward. The vora filed through the breach, navigating the tight corridors.

A few minutes in, they reached a section where gravity had been restored.

They turned a corner at a four-way intersection—

BANG BANG BANG!

Gunfire erupted. "SHIT! That hurts!" Dove shouted from behind Leon.

Vora One's shield bearers surged forward, leaving their partners to form a solid wall.

Leon glanced back at Dove, clutching his shoulder.

Ruby was already beside him, checking the injury.

A couple of rounds had slipped between the shields during the turn, slamming into Dove's shoulder plate. Class II armor stopped the rounds, but it still hurt like hell.

"Don't be a baby." Ruby slapped him on the back.

"Why don't you try getting shot twice?" Dove growled.

"Ruby, up front. Don't go trigger-happy," Leon ordered.

She popped up next to him behind the wall of shields, rifle at the ready.

She aimed between two shields—

BANG!

One enemy dropped.

"Forward!" Leon barked.

The shield wall advanced, slow and steady. The rest of Vora One followed.

BANG!

Ruby fired again, another clean hit as they pushed forward.

Leon was glad she'd brought a rifle. She was thinning the enemy before they could close.

Vora Two moved up behind them; Four secured the rear.

The enemy began to retreat, still firing but falling back to maintain their distance and avoid melee.

It dragged on until only four enemies remained from what had been nearly twenty. Finally, those last four turned and ran, deciding it wasn't worth the fight.

Nyra approached, arms full of magazines from the enemy. "Here. I didn't grab all of them, but figured extras wouldn't hurt."

"Thanks! I was down to six shots." Ruby grabbed the mags and stuffed three into her pouch.

She checked her other pouches, already full of supplies. She looked at the shield wall… then walked straight up to Owen.

"What are you doing?" Owen asked, glancing down.

Ruby shoved a few mags into one of his pouches. "I don't have any more room."

Owen groaned and looked to Leon.

Leon just shook his head.

Thanks to Ruby, they didn't have to push hard at all.

He looked around and took in the bodies of the fallen enemies. The rest of the group moved through the area, inspecting the corpses.

His eyes settled on one of them. Through the helmet's visor, its lifeless gaze was still fixed forward. Something about it clawed at the edge of his mind, memories trying to force their way through again.

He shook his head, forcing the thoughts back.

Out of the corner of his eye, he caught Nyra staring at him. When he turned to look, she glanced away and walked back to her vora.

"Leon! Can you hear me?" Mason's voice cut through the comms, sharp with alarm and words spilling out in a frantic rush.