Chapter 20 – Envoy Interrupted
Skyroutes – Western Expanse
The convoy glided like a spear across the horizon, eight vehicles riding invisible mag-rails. Their hulls were armored with layered graphene and etched with faintly glowing circuit-lines, each pulse synchronized with the grav-cores below. Above, drones traced sweeping circles, optics painting the landscape in red scans.
Inside the lead transport, Kaelen Veyth sat quietly. His coat shimmered with reactive threads, his expression calm, his gaze steady. The guards moved with measured readiness, running last checks on their rigs and weapons.
"Three hours until border crossing, Envoy," one said, glancing at the holo-screen in his gauntlet.
Kaelen's eyes stayed fixed on the pale ridges ahead. "Mm. Three hours is plenty of time for trouble. Keep your eyes open. Clear skies don't stay clear."
A ripple of agreement moved through the cabin, not with words but with small nods, tightened grips on rifles, subtle shifts of posture.
The trouble came minutes later.
The horizon bent. Heat shimmer warped into sharp distortion. Stabilizers whined as invisible pressure rippled through the convoy. The grav-cores stuttered, fighting to keep balance.
"On contact! Rift ahead!" a guard shouted, voice cutting through the comms.
At once the drones screamed warning tones. Beasts stirred in the ridges — wings tearing through the sky, tusked quadrupeds pounding out of the brush in erratic fury.
Another voice snapped back without hesitation: "They're affected by the Rift—prepare for battle!"
The convoy adjusted instantly. Barricade spikes ripped upward from the rails, weapons flared alive, and Hunters moved as one. No one asked why the monsters were riled. They all knew. A Rift within reach meant the land itself turned hostile.
The horizon bent. Heat shimmer warped into sharp distortion. Stabilizers whined as invisible pressure rippled through the convoy. The grav-cores stuttered, fighting to keep balance.
Blue lightning lanced from a Hunter who vaulted clear of the transports, arcs frying the first wave of flyers mid-dive. Their corpses slammed into the rails with bone-snapping cracks.
"All units, forward screen!" barked another. His gauntlets lit up as alloy spikes tore from the rail surface, barricading the road. Quadrupeds slammed against them, tusks throwing sparks.
Kaelen stood smoothly, coat whispering against the cabin wall. "Keep the formation tight. Push them to the barricades, not the convoy."
"On it," replied the Hunter with the glaive, driving his weapon through a tusk before twisting the beast aside. "
Escalation
The air quivered again, harder this time. The monsters grew wilder, diving and charging in coordinated bursts.
"Second wave!" called a guard, his visor flickering with target locks. "More flyers, left flank!"
"I see them." A rifle cracked, three bursts carving arcs through the air. Feathers and blood rained down.
Kaelen stepped out of the vehicle, raising one hand. Violet threads coiled outward like living chains, catching a charging beast mid-leap. Its limbs snapped inward under the pressure, bone splintering before it collapsed in a heap.
One guard flinched at the display. "Every time I see that…"
"Focus," Kaelen said without turning. "Chain your fire with my bindings. Cut them down when they're stalled."
"Copy that!" the glaive-bearer answered, charging in as Kaelen pinned another quadruped. Sparks exploded as glaive met restrained hide.
"Envoy," another called over comms, "what's procedure? Hold them here or push through?"
Kaelen's answer was calm. "We hold and secure. Rift protocol. Area must be locked down until Association units arrive."
"Got it. I'll signal the nearest hub." Fingers danced across a gauntlet, a pulse of coded light firing into the sky.
The Elite Beast
The ground shook.
From the hills rose something far larger: tusks like pillars, armored plates stacked thick across its shoulders. Six eyes glowed, focused, almost calculating. With a single bellow, it charged, shoving aside its own kin.
"Big one!" someone shouted. "That thing'll shred the line!"
"Channel it!" Kaelen ordered instantly. "Shift barricades—make it a funnel!"
The convoy adjusted, vehicles veering in formation, barricades shifting into a corridor. The beast crashed through, tusks grinding sparks.
"Rail shots, joint points!" one Hunter called, his rifle barrel unfolding into a long rail-cannon. He fired, a thunderous crack splitting the air. The shot smashed into the beast's leg, staggering it but not stopping it.
Kaelen's chains lashed across its limbs, glowing brighter under strain. His jaw tightened, his body taut as he forced the spectral bindings to redirect the monster's momentum into the corridor walls.
"Now! Bring it down!" he shouted.
Gravitic pulses slammed downward, crushing weight onto the beast's spine. Plasma glaives stabbed upward into softened joints. The convoy worked in sync, every strike linked to the next.
With a final combined push, they drove the monster into a bed of alloy spikes, its roar dying as its body shuddered to stillness.
Securing the Rift
Breathless silence followed. Plasma smoke hung in the air. Flyers wheeled back into the distance, breaking off now that the Bloom's frenzy had passed.
"Report!" Kaelen said, voice sharp.
"No convoy losses. Two drones down. One guard with fractures. Vehicles stable."
"Good." Kaelen lowered his hand, spectral threads fading. "Mark the zone. We follow procedure."
One guard was already dropping beacon stakes into the ground. Each pulsed with red-blue light, forming a perimeter grid.
"Beacon field active. Rift-Hunter Association will see it in three minutes."
"Signal the Dominion registry too," another added, tapping at his comms. "Protocol says Bloom areas in shared territory go to joint watch."
Kaelen nodded faintly. "Correct. We won't risk a jurisdiction dispute when the stakes are survival."
He walked slowly back toward the convoy, eyes lingering on the ridge where the beast had come from.
"Remember this," he said, his tone low, almost to himself but loud enough to carry. "Our cities may shine, our roads may hum with light, but Aurelia is never safe. Every stretch of ground must be claimed again and again."
A Hunter exhaled, cleaning blood from his glaive. "Feels less like travel… more like patrol duty."
Kaelen allowed a small smile. "That is the reality of our world. Every envoy's road is also a battlefield."
The convoy regrouped. Drones resumed formation. The mag-rails hummed again, carrying them onward toward the Human Dominion. Behind them, the secured Rift site glowed with perimeter beacons, waiting for the Association's arrival.
The horizon looked calm once more. But every man and woman in the convoy knew — it was only an illusion.