LOCATION: ASTRALIS CORE

The hangar bay is a vast, pale white expanse, vibrating with the heavy hum of incoming and outgoing starships. In the center of the sector, a colossal asteroid-killer weapon spins lazily on its axis, its massive gears grinding as REIN officers shout coordinates in the background, signaling the fleet to clear the station's grid.

Standing on an elevated platform of grilled industrial metal, Fheshas grips the cold railing. His grey uniform sways softly with his movements, his face completely unbothered by the mechanical chaos echoing through the bay.

“Fheshas… why the hell is your hair like that?”

Echa stands right beside him, letting out a cheeky laugh.

“Like, those three specific strands right at the front.”

She giggles, throwing a playful punch directly into his upper arm.

Fheshas turns his head slightly, glaring down at Echa. His dark eyes fixate on her with a completely reactionless, stone-cold stare.

“Yeah.”

Echa lets out a dramatic sigh, rolling her eyes as she steps back from the railing.

“You are so impossibly pragmatic… come on, live a little!”

Fheshas turns his gaze back out toward the fleet, his expression hardening. When he speaks, his voice is stripped of its usual calmness, filled instead with a quiet, heavy uncertainty.

“I am still thinking about our deployment to ZALAPS. I don’t know how this mission is going to turn out.”

Water drips rhythmically from a rusted pipe, echoing softly inside the rectangular metal sink.

The overhead fluorescent light hums with a faint, buzzy vibration, casting a dim glow over a small tube of grey hair dye resting on the edge of the basin. Echa stands before the mirror, her dark blue hair swaying gently as she leans close to the glass. The locker room is entirely empty, silent save for the steady sound of her own breathing.

On her shoulder, the Orynite crystal pulses with a faint, iridescent light, casting sharp reflections across her face.

With careful, deliberate movements, her fingers softly work the thick grey paste through three specific strands of hair right at the front of her hairline. Looking up at her reflection, her lips curve into a wide, self-satisfied grin.

“Fheshas is absolutely going to love this,”

She whispers to herself, flashing a smug, triumphant face at the mirror before breaking into a quiet laugh.

Suddenly, a sharp, rhythmic knock rattles the bathroom door. The voice of a female REIN Operator cuts through the hum of the lights.

“Echa! You need to get down to your hangar bay right now. Your ship is clearing the launch grid, so hurry up and get out here!”

The operator's voice sounds thoroughly annoyed, yet there’s a trace of underlying concern in her tone. She pauses for a second outside the door, lets out a heavy, impatient sigh, and turns away.

The steady click of her military footsteps fades down the corridor. Echa stares one last time at her new reflection as the lights begin to flicker, and the screen fades entirely into pitch black.

LOCATION: PLANET ZALAPS

“GONE.”

The word echoes like a distant phantom. Black flags of smoke billow across the horizon, choking out the atmosphere. In the distance, the horrific shriek of wrenching, tearing metal vibrates through the ground. Echa forces her eyes open a fraction of an inch, her vision completely blurry and swimming with static.

She blinks once, twice, trying to clear the haze. The reconnaissance ship has completely crashed, its hull cracked open and burning on the edge of a jagged cliff side.

Breathing heavily, her chest heaving. she forces her trembling arms to lift. Dragging her bruised body through the debris, she tries to crawl toward the flaming wreckage of the ship.

“Fheshas…” her voice is a broken whisper.

Through the smoke, her green eyes widen, fixating on a scene of pure, unadulterated horror.

Beneath her body, a neon blue emergency light line pulses along the floor, casting long, fractured shadows across her terrified face. Tears well up and spill over, splashing directly onto the glowing blue light on the ground as she weakly strikes the cold metal floor in sheer, helpless despair.

“I am sorry… I’m so sorry…” Suddenly, the pulsing blue floor line shifts, flashing into a deep, menacing RED.

Echa snaps her head up just in time to see a massive, piece of heavy machinery breaks free from the ceiling, collapsing directly down toward her face.

The world instantly cuts to pitch black.