The patrol drone’s hum was a dull thrum against Baili Chen’s teeth, a continuous irritation. Beyond the canopy's armored viewport, the gas giant, Xylos, churned in an unending vortex of cerulean and crimson cloud bands. Baili's assigned sector sweep was routine, a monotonous transit through the exosphere in a standard-issue scout rig. He dismissed the machine as a glorified metal coffin, its intricate neural links a pathetic crutch for true combat. His own demonic Qi, sluggish but stirring within his stolen body, was his only reliable weapon.
“Commander Chenxing, maintain grid sector Gamma-7. Anomalous thermal signatures detected near the lower vapor bands,” Instructor Vance’s voice crackled through the comms. Vance, a portly man with eyes that always seemed to dart, had been unusually attentive to Baili since his arrival. Baili felt the faint prickle of suspicion, a familiar instinct from his past life, even as he feigned compliance, guiding the machine through the shimmering ion sheets of Xylos.
Then, a sudden drop, followed by a violent shudder. The hull groaned, its primary console flashing a rapid sequence of amber warnings. Baili's hand, resting on the primary steering column, met zero resistance. The rig's internal gyros spun wildly off-axis. This wasn’t a malfunction. This was deliberate.
[Unauthorized Protocol Override Detected. Manual Guidance Locked. Emergency Descent Initiated. Impact Imminent.]
Red text flared across his HUD, stark against the vortex below. The mecha screamed, a high-pitched whine of overstressed metal, as gravity clawed at it. Baili’s gaze sharpened. Vance. It had to be him. The man’s hidden malevolence had finally revealed itself. The scout unit, a monument to their fragile technology, was now a plummeting tomb. Dense barometric friction began to buffet the hull plates, threatening to tear them apart.
From a parallel patrol vector, Kira Feng watched on her radar grid as Gao Chenxing’s machine veered off course, then pitched downward into a steep dive. Even for Gao, the academy’s golden boy, such a catastrophic failure was unheard of. But the man she’d seen in the simulation, the one who had silenced a bio-mech with a glare, was no ordinary pilot. A ruthless competitor, yes, but also an anomaly who defied every military metric. She refused to let him burn up unexamined.
“Instructor Vance, Gao Chenxing’s mecha is in freefall! Requesting immediate intervention!” Kira’s voice cut through the comms, her voice clipped and flat. She already had her customized interceptor shifting course, auxiliary burns firing as she pursued Baili.
“Negative, Cadet Feng. Engaging a distress beacon. Stand by for extraction protocols,” Vance’s voice was smooth, too smooth. Kira cursed under her breath, ignoring the order. Extraction would be too late. The interceptor plunged through the rarefied gases, its rear nozzles burning a white-hot trail. The distance closed rapidly.
As Kira gained on the falling unit, a sudden flash erupted from the shadowed crags of a distant asteroid. A grid of luminous cerulean filaments materialized directly in her path, expanding across several kilometers. The mesh was too wide for evasive roll maneuvers. The supercharged lattice slammed over her armor plating, frying the drive coils and seizing the limb actuators. Her frame listed dead in the void, locked fast by the glowing mesh.
[Cadet Feng’s Mecha Disabled. Plasma Net Deployment Confirmed.]
The Omni-Core’s broadcast confirmed the ambush. Concealed fire from the asteroid belt had crippled her escort. They were hunting him, and now, her. Immobilized, she tracked the telemetry feed as Baili's rig continued its steep descent, engulfed by the outer chemical storms.
Inside the cabin, Baili braced against the rising heat and shuddering bulkheads. Warning klaxons screeched continuously. He sneered. This metal shell was a crude construct, a pathetic attempt to cage power. It was a death trap. He pulled air deep into his chest, demonic Qi circulating through his core like a coiled serpent. He directed the dark force through his meridian pathways directly into his right forearm. His knuckles tightened, bone and tendon rigid as forged iron.
With a furious roar, a sound lost to the external chaos, Baili Chen punched. Not at the console or manual lever, but straight into the reinforced viewport. The multi-layered quartz-alloy groaned under the impact. Fractures lit by sickly green luminescence spiderwebbed through the synthetic glass. With a final crack, the pane blew outward in a spray of razor fragments. Freezing winds tore into the cabin, stripping away loose cabling and unsealed panels.
Ignoring the vacuum bite and gale force, Baili dragged himself through the opening, planting his boots firmly onto the bucking metal spine of the falling rig. His standard jumpsuit snapped violently against his ribs. Below, the gas giant sprawled like an inescapable maw of methane fire. Above, the stars were pinpricks through the roiling clouds.
From another, more distant asteroid, a concealed ‘Vanguard’ sniper mech locked onto the exposed figure. Its optical sensors processed the target: a human, impossibly clinging to a falling war machine. The sniper pilot, an operative code-named ‘Stinger,’ frowned. “Target is outside the vehicle. Anomaly detected. Executing direct termination protocol.”
The Vanguard's heavy cannon turret traversed, magnetic coils charging with violent light. A crimson targeting beam settled squarely over Baili's chest. A fraction of a second later, the battery discharged. A blinding lance of ionized gas, broad as a tree trunk, scorched through the vacuum toward him. Rated to burn clean through starship bulkheads, the shot carried enough thermal payload to incinerate biological matter instantly.
Baili stood upright against the buffeting winds, watching the searing beam hurtle straight for his heart. He did not step back. A cold smile curled his mouth. Modern technology. How quaint. He raised his bare hands, palms open, fingers slightly splayed. Dark demonic Qi surged from his pores, forming a dense vortex around his bare forearms. He settled his weight into a fluid Tai Chi posture, rooted to the plummeting hull as the superheated beam reached him.