Neutral Planet — Vanfylion

Night City: Zianllo

The storm rattled the safehouse like a dying machine.

Rain hammered the roof in relentless sheets.

Neon from the street bled through the slats in jagged pulses—blue, pink, blue—

a heartbeat stuttering across the dim interior.

Xiao stood at the door, cloak torn, Council uniform ripped at the shoulder as if the city itself had tried to rip him apart on his way here.

His breathing was shallow. Controlled. Barely.

Across the room, Yao knelt beside the holo-table.

A single symbol hovered above his palm—crimson and cold:

An Imperial red-tier wanted order.

Lan stared at it.

The colour drained from his face.

Then his knees buckled, and he collapsed as if pulled down by the planet’s core itself.

“We’re dead—” Lan choked, clutching his chest. “We’re absolutely dead!”

Lightning flashed, painting his tears silver.

Chen blinked at him, genuinely confused.

“I don’t understand. We expose the truth.”

Lan snapped toward him, eyes wide with the raw terror of someone who knew exactly how their species dealt with ‘truth.’

“EXPOSE IT TO WHO?!”

Chen frowned, lost.

Lan’s voice cracked, rising to a desperate pitch.

“Oh sure—let’s walk into Teleopea and say, ‘Star Emperor, you massacred a space bar full of civilians to justify a war.’ That’ll go GREAT for us!”

Thunder swallowed his scream.

Yao didn’t flinch.

He simply murmured, “Lan. Breathe.”

“I am breathing!” Lan sobbed. “Red-tier means execution. No trial. No defence. The transport home is the execution.”

His voice dropped to a breaking whisper.

“I’ve helped arrest red-tier fugitives. None returned breathing.”

Xiao stepped forward, face shadowed and grim.

“The Emperor doesn’t want witnesses. He wants erasure.”

Lan nodded frantically.

“We saw something we shouldn’t have. Instead of covering it quietly—he put us on a planetary kill list.”

Chen’s eyes narrowed.

Yao leaned back, fingers steepled under his chin—calm, analytical, razor-sharp.

“This wasn’t cleanup,” he said. “This was panic. If the truth spreads, the Council fractures. A war built on civilian blood… the Emperor can’t afford that.”

Xiao looked down at his torn gauntlet.

“He’s removing witnesses before the story gains traction.”

Lightning cracked again.

Chen inhaled slowly.

“So… we’re being hunted because—”

“Because we saw too much,” Xiao said.

The room fell into suffocating silence.

Lan sniffed, voice small.

“What do we do now…?”

Yao stood, outlined by a flash of lightning—sharp, deliberate, dangerous.

“We leave tonight. Black-market hunters will swarm the sector in hours.”

“And the Emperor’s kill-units?” Chen asked.

Yao didn’t sugarcoat it.

“They’ll follow.”

Lan groaned into his hands.

“We’re REALLY dead—”

Xiao steadied himself, breath slow.

“We pack.”

Yao nodded once, decisive.

“Three star-ring hours. We move everything to the ship. There’s a dead-zone world near Xa’on, under Feriengan territory. Teleopea won’t risk sending forces there unless desperate.”

The team shifted instantly into motion.

Gear folded.

Weapons checked.

Supplies strapped down.

Zianllo’s night side shone like an artificial star—thousands of glowing veins weaving through the towers, steam breathing from vents like ghosts.

Yao led fast.

Xiao scanned ahead, posture lethal.

Lan muttered anxiously under his breath.

Chen followed silently—too silent—eyes distant, muscles coiled, as though he were listening to something no one else could hear.

Halfway through the industrial sector—

Yao froze.

His hand snapped up.

“Stop.”

The group halted instantly.

Xiao’s voice dipped.

“What is it?”

“…Too quiet,” Yao said.

“This sector never goes quiet.”

The neon hum wavered.

Underneath it—

a faint crackle.

Charged weapons warming.

Armoured boots hitting metal.

Chen’s head shifted sharply.

“They’re close.”

“How close?” Xiao asked.

Chen’s pupils constricted.

“Nine. Two directions. Weapons… black fluid.”

Yao’s skin went cold.

Radioactive rounds.

Kill shots.

Teleopean breakers.

He whispered:

“Kill-team got here before the bounty hunters.”

They had no multifunctional bracers.

Only 3^rd grade weapons.

No Teleopean tech to amplify strength.

“Move,” Yao ordered. “Now.”

They sprinted deeper into the metal maze.

Steam hissed from overhead pipes.

The catwalks clanged underfoot.

Chen’s skin prickled.

A psychic pressure pulsed at the base of his skull—

He slowed.

Yao caught it instantly.

“Chen. Talk.”

Chen didn’t have time.

A metallic SNAP cracked through the alley.

Xiao reacted like lightning.

“DOWN!”

He shoved Chen aside.

A plasma bolt screamed past, melting a channel through the wall.

Figures flickered into view—

Cloaked exo-hunters.

Breaker Units.

Specie-targeted assassins.

Lan paled.

“These aren’t street hunters—”

The gears were too advanced, too expensive to belong to normal bounty hunters.

“No,” Xiao said.

“They’re designed to neutralize us.”

They stepped out of the shadows.

Armor traced in purple telemetry.

Visors glowing like predators in low light.

Then—

Something enormous dropped from above.

A three-meter reptilian titan.

Breaker exo-frame humming with violet energy.

It grinned, jaw unhinging.

“Teleopeansss…”

The titan lunged.

Chen moved fast—faster than any non-Teleopean could track—his kick snapping upward and slamming into the titan’s chest.

The blow would have shattered metal.

The titan barely staggered.

Breaker-tech absorbed the shock.

Xiao cut into the fray, blades scraping sparks off armor.

“Go!” he shouted. “MOVE!”

Yao fired precision plasma bursts—two hunters dropped smoking.

Lan tried to stay behind Chen.

Wrong choice.

A cloaked hunter materialized behind them—

Chen grabbed Lan by the collar and yanked him away, taking the blow himself.

They slammed into the concrete hard enough to crack it.

The hunter roared and clamped a gauntleted hand around Chen’s throat—lifting him clean off the floor.

Chen kicked, muscles straining—

Breaker armor didn’t care.

The claws squeezed.

Chen’s breath hitched—

—and the world broke.

Cold straps.

White light.

Metal digging into his wrists.

A voice, soft and cold:

“Little Teleopean…”

Chen’s mind snapped open on the inside.

The scaled hand became pale fingers.

A thumb brushed his throat—almost tender.

And the pressure strangled.

“Stop struggling. I need your body intact.”

A psychic hook twisted into his mind.

A shadowed hand traced his ribs.

“Perfect vessel…”

“What I give you,” the voice purred, “you cannot refuse.”

Chen’s scream ripped out silently.

“CHEN!” Yao shouted.

A telepathic shockwave exploded from Chen.

The titan reeled.

The alley shook.

But Chen wasn’t stopping.

The seal on his wrist burned crimson—

absorbing his telepathy—

then reflecting it back into him.

Chen convulsed.

Blood streaked his lips.

Xiao became a golden blur.

He fought bare-handed—

breaking necks, crushing joints, denting armor—

but breaker-units coordinated ruthlessly.

“Lan! Yao—get him out!” Xiao roared.

Lan fired desperately.

Yao dragged Chen by the arm—

Then Chen saw a hunter leap at Xiao—

blade raised.

He didn’t think.

He dove.

He slammed into Xiao, knocking him free.

The titan caught Chen mid-air—

—and hurled him into a wall so hard dust rained from the ceiling.

Chen collapsed, vision fractured.

He forced himself upright—

Ten cloaked figures encircled him.

A modulator hissed:

“Primary target: Continuation. Alive.”

Chen froze.

They weren’t hunting them.

They were hunting him.

Xiao stood bloody, panting, still defiant.

“You want him?” Xiao snarled. “You’ll have to rip through me.”

Xiao glanced at Chen—regret, apology, determination carved into his face, and then he squared his shoulder towards the attackers.

“Run.” Xiao shouted.

“Xiao—!”

“RUN!”

Golden-haired warrior launched himself into the pack—

taking down three before they piled onto him.

A breaker-net fired — violet coils exploding outward.

It wrapped him, electrifying him until he fell to one knee.

“Secondary target secured.”

“NO!” Chen lunged—

Yao locked his arms around Chen’s torso, dragging him back.

“Chen—listen—Xiao CHOSE—MOVE!”

Lan screamed, firing wildly to cover them.

A violet explosion shook the alley.

Dust swallowed everything.

And when it cleared—

Xiao was gone.