The Battleship Ganymede Aegis had shifted from skepticism to motion.
In the wake of Trask and Draan's debrief, a new urgency filled the war rooms. The unknown planet — now officially designated as R22 — was labeled high risk, high value. Recon intel hinted at adaptive Kaiju, energy anomalies, and survivors with battlefield capability beyond current expectations.
A team was to be formed. Not just any squad.
A Special Recovery and Intelligence Unit — handpicked, armed with bleeding-edge tech, and given only one order:
> "Retrieve the survivors, retrieve the data. No casualties allowed—unless provoked."
There were seven in the team. Six had field medals, classified dossiers, and near-perfect execution records.
And then there was the seventh.
A woman cloaked in her own past.
---
She stood before the briefing holoboard, long obsidian-black hair tied back in a regulation braid. Her uniform shimmered with fresh insignia, but her face carried a tired calm — the kind that only comes from guilt you learn to carry like armor.
Her name: Vireya Solas.
And as the Kaiju footage played before her — the mecha called Ravager, its wild charge, its brutal fists, its imperfect yet relentless fighting style — her eyes trembled.
Because she knew that style.
She knew him.
---
Her teammate, a silver-eyed sharpshooter named Kieran, leaned over her shoulder. "That mech got your attention, huh?"
Vireya didn't blink. "I know who pilots it."
Another girl in the squad, Harper, raised an eyebrow. "Seriously? You recognize the pilot through mecha movement?"
Vireya nodded.
"He doesn't dodge. He absorbs. He doesn't retreat — only recalculates his next punch. He overrides all safeties. Even the Ravager model isn't supposed to last that long."
Harper crossed her arms. "And who is he?"
Vireya took a breath.
"…Kael Riven."
---
Silence.
Kieran finally spoke. "Wasn't that guy... thrown out? Court-martialed or something?"
"No. He was betrayed," she said, her voice quieter.
They looked at her now. All of them.
She could feel the weight of the truth wanting to spill out. So she let it.
"I… was his second. On the field. In training. And… in life."
Harper's expression changed slightly. "Wait. You betrayed him?"
Vireya turned away.
"I did. I sided with someone else — someone powerful. I thought Kael would be fine, that someone like him couldn't be stopped by politics. I thought… if I had power, I could protect him from inside. But… I was wrong. They destroyed him. Not just his rank. His name. His record. Everything."
She looked at the holo again — Ravager Mk III erupting from smoke, fists drenched in blood, eyes blazing like fire.
"I still love him. Even now."
The squad was silent.
Then Kieran muttered, "So… we're dropping into a Kaiju world to retrieve a man you betrayed, who pilots a cursed mech, who might not want to be rescued, and might actually kill you on sight."
"Yes," Vireya said.
Harper blinked. "Hell of a mission."
Vireya nodded.
"But I have to try. He may hate me… he probably should. But I want to see him again — even if it's just to hear him say he'll never forgive me."
---
Meanwhile, Trask and Draan had shared all they could — the mecha blueprints, partial terrain mapping, harvest logistics, and the plasma-blood conversion design Oris had developed.
The engineers and analysts now had enough to build a targeted drop capsule, loaded with Kaiju-durable armor, thermal cloaks, biochemical sensors, and short-range recon drones.
They even provided Vireya's team with Kaiju-grade kinetic boots and spike-suit plating — a blend of Terran alloy and harvested organic material.
The launch timer now read:
> DROPSHIP – R22 DEPLOYMENT
T-minus 18 Hours
---
Back on Planet R22, Kael sat beneath a rusted skeleton of a Kaiju, sharpening a combat blade he rarely used.
Tyren walked up behind him, arms crossed.
"We've got enough fuel to maybe power the next frame. If Oris can rig the casing."
Kael didn't respond.
Tyren sat beside him.
"You okay?"
"…Just thinking."
"About what?"
Kael didn't look up.
"…What happens if they come back?"
Tyren didn't need to ask who he meant.
"Then we deal with it."
"Even if it's her?"
Tyren paused.
"Especially if it's her."
---