> "One carcass. One report. One planet. That's all it took to shake the chain of command."
– Unofficial Comm Log, Sector 3-Delta
The lizard Kaiju carcass never reached the deep storage units. Within hours of its arrival, its composition reports were leaked—or rather, whispers of it were.
Whispers that spread like wildfire across every hangar, cafeteria, and combat sim room in the Helios Ark… and far beyond.
> "They hunted what? Without reinforcements?"
"They've got an upgraded Ravager and the Brawler unit—custom-built."
"One of them bled the Kaiju by himself. Did you see the cut across the chestplate?"
"He walks like he owns the ground. They call him the Black Flame now."
And just like that, Kael and Tyren were no longer ghosts of Unit 404. They were sparks in a dry forest.
By the third day, reports showed chatter from three other major battleships. Officers requested logs of the Kaiju engagement. Cadets began tweaking their sim builds to look like Ravager Mk III, trying to mimic Kael's unique movement style—raw, unfiltered, controlled rage.
It was no longer about just two men and a mech.
It was about the symbol they had become.
---
Kael didn't like it.
He stood by the observation window overlooking the mecha hangar, watching engineers polish Ravager's left arm with extreme caution.
Tyren approached with a drink can in hand. "You'd think they were cleaning a religious artifact."
Kael's voice was cold. "They're glorifying something they don't understand."
"That's how myths are born," Tyren replied, sipping. "You fight a radioactive lizard, and kids name themselves after your mech."
Kael shook his head. "We didn't do it for fame."
"I know. But now we're not bound to any command. We're… what do they call it—an autonomous response unit."
Kael looked over. "They gave us that much power?"
Tyren smirked. "Yup. We write our own missions. Only condition is, we report them before execution. No veto. Just accountability."
Kael raised an eyebrow. "Dangerous."
"Exactly. We are dangerous now. Finally, they fear us… or need us. Either works."
---
Elsewhere on the Helios Ark, in a private command room, Ryssa stood in front of a large display where a crowd of high-ranking officers and analysts were discussing the implications of Kael and Tyren's latest success.
The words "Independent Combat Assets" and "Unrestricted Tactical Clearance" were floating on screens.
"They've become a symbol," one senior officer said. "Particularly him—Kael. Even the cadets in the second deck are whispering about reviving Ravager-class mecha because of him."
A younger woman analyst leaned in. "Sir, with all due respect… symbols are volatile. If we don't control them—"
"We don't control him," another barked. "We've tried that already. The last time we did, he went silent for a year, and then took down three Kaiju with half a mech."
Ryssa folded her arms, calm but unreadable. "Let him breathe. Let him hunt. The more we push, the more we remind him why he hates this place."
---
And back in the quarters assigned to their new squad—no longer Unit 404, just 'Team Black Void' as the registry said—Kael finally sat down to type his next mission proposal.
He didn't bother with formality.
> MISSION REPORT PROPOSAL
Squad: Black Void (Kael Ravion & Tyren Ashar)
Operation: R22 Survey – Phase II
Objective: Retrieve and dissect remaining Kaiju carcasses discovered near uranium cavern.
Threat Level: High (Kaiju presence confirmed active in multiple strata)
Est. Risk: Acceptable
Command Structure: Autonomous
Authorization: Submit and proceed.
He sent it.
A soft chime confirmed: MISSION ACCEPTED.
Tyren leaned back in his seat, reading the same notice from his comm.
"So we're going back to that hellhole?"
Kael nodded.
"Why?" Tyren asked.
Kael paused for a moment before answering.
"Because it's not about revenge anymore."
"Then what?"
Kael's gaze turned sharp, but distant.
"It's about making them remember what they threw away."
---
Meanwhile, in a distant battleship—Seraph's Fangs—a young pilot named Nahlia was watching Ravager's leaked footage on loop in the simulator lounge. She'd been ranked top five for five months straight. But none of her moves matched what Kael had done in those final blows.
It wasn't clean.
It wasn't stylish.
It was… relentless.
Like a force of nature.
A whisper passed through the room: "That's Kael Ravion. The one who got discarded."
Nahlia whispered to herself: "Then I want to be like the ones they couldn't silence."
---
At the same time, Ryssa walked into the armory's engineering bay, overseeing the enhancements being installed in the hangar. One technician noticed her and gave a respectful nod.
"Commander Ryssa, Ravager is performing beyond expectations. Tyren's Brawler too. These two… they're rewriting our combat doctrines."
She didn't smile. But her voice had an edge of pride.
"They're not rewriting. They're reminding us what war really looks like."
As she turned to leave, her personal comm buzzed.
> [NEW MESSAGE: KAEL RAVION]
"Leaving i
n 30. R22 Phase II."
That was all it said.
She stared at the screen for a while.
Then whispered to herself, "Let the myths begin."