Terzus's apartment on Kaelos wasn't a home; it was a manifesto of static power. Columns of metal-veined marble braced ceilings so high they felt oppressive, while the air was thick with a purifying incense that stung the nostrils.Terzus sat behind an obsidian desk, the bluish glow of holographic terminals carving deep furrows into his face. He didn't look up when the door opened."You are three minutes te for our briefing, Caius," the General began. His voice was a continuous bass, devoid of emotion.Caius lingered in the doorway. He wore an ivory silk tunic, far too light for that climate, his hands tucked into its voluminous sleeves. "Time is a retive concept up here, Father. There is no setting sun in the Citadel."Terzus finally raised his eyes. They were cold, skilled at weighing a man's worth in an instant. With a slow gesture, he pointed to a small wooden chest on the edge of the desk."Come closer."Caius obeyed, maintaining an elegance that bordered on insolence. Inside the chest y a rare fruit from the Outer Worlds—an edible gss apple that glowed with its own light—and beside it, an alloy combat dagger, brutal and matte."The carrot and the stick," Caius whispered with a half-smile. "You've become predictable, Father.""I've become effective," Terzus shot back. "The fruit is to remind you that your lifestyle only exists as long as the Empire eats. The dagger is to remind you that if you don't learn how to grip it, you will be the one eaten. Secundus was humiliated today. The Emperor hungers for results, not poetry. I've secured the warrant for the hunt. This means our family is under the spotlight. Either you give me proof of dignity, or you will deliver this dagger to the Handmaidens yourself so they can do to you what they did to the General."He stood, towering over his son. For a moment, his severity cracked, revealing a strange, twisted form of protection. "I've had a post prepared for you on my staff. You will observe the hunt from the command bridge. You will learn how to crush an insurrection. This is your chance to stop being an ornament and become a Valerius.""A Valerius," Caius repeated, the name weighing like lead. "And what if I just wanted to be myself?"Terzus looked at him as one looks at a defective piece of artillery. "Then you would be a corpse. Now go. Prepare your spirit. Tomorrow morning the Vultus descends into the Mall, and you will be at my side."The General strode out of the room with the heavy tread of military boots, leaving his son alone with the dying light of the holograms.Caius stared at the dagger. Then, his gaze shifted to the biometric code that his father, in his authoritarian haste, had left active on the desk terminal to authorize the resupply of the Jade Bastion Mecha."I won't be at your side, Father," Caius whispered, and for the first time his usually nguid eyes burned with a feverish determination. "I'll be in your pce."He beckoned toward the shadow behind a column. The lizard-sve emerged, trembling."Ready my silks and the medical crates, sve. Tonight, we steal a God."The artificial light cycle of Kaelos had dropped to ten percent, tinting the corridors an electric, sterile cobalt blue. It was the hour of ghosts and bureaucrats, the moment when the vigince of veterans gave way to the boredom of recruits.Caius walked down the corridor leading to the private hangars, his heart beating so hard it echoed in his temples. He wore a heavy silk robe over light technical gear; on his feet, slippers that made no sound. Behind him, the lizard-sve crawled in the shadows, carrying two tactical bags filled with protein bars and regenerative serums stolen from the family infirmary."Who goes there?" The sentry's voice rang out metallic beneath the helm. A thermal pike barred the way.Caius didn't stop. He let out a sigh of pure annoyance, the tired, arrogant look he had perfected at the worst ga dinners. "Save the 'who goes there' for the rebels, soldier. I forgot my purified oxygen inhaler in the command module. My father will kill me if we're deyed tomorrow morning because his son is having an asthma attack during the descent."The guard hesitated, slowly lowering his weapon. He knew Caius: the General's weak son, the boy who couldn't tell a rifle from a letter opener. "Sir, the General gave strict orders...""My father is with the Admiralty discussing Imperial warrants," Caius interrupted, leaning into the soldier's face. "Do you really want to be the one to disturb him to ask if his son can take his medicine? Because if you call him, I guarantee you'll spend next week counting sve-hairs in the sulfur mines."Caius's cunning hit the mark: the fear of Terzus was a sharper weapon than any bde. The guard punched in the unlock code. "Five minutes, young master. Just five minutes."Caius entered. The hangar was a cathedral of cold metal. At its center, suspended from magnetic pylons, loomed the Jade Bastion. It was immense, a dark green monolith that seemed to swallow the meager ambient light."Quick, get in the rear compartment," Caius whispered to the sve. Terrified, the creature slipped into a niche among the leg servomotors.Caius climbed the emergency dder and dropped into the cockpit. It smelled of ozone and oil. The moment his gluteus touched the reinforced leather seat, the biometric systems hummed to life with an electronic whisper."DNA RECOGNIZED. VALERIUS LINEAGE CONFIRMED. WELCOME, GENERAL.""I'm not the General," Caius muttered, his fingers trembling as he fumbled for the quick-release command. Right then, luck kissed him: a few hangars away, a heavy frigate fired up its engines for a night patrol. The dull thrum of the takeoff shook the entire structure.Caius seized the moment. Under the cover of the external roar, he engaged the Bastion's gravity thrusters. The Mecha emitted a deep thrum—a vibration Caius felt right in his gut—but the sound was swallowed by the frigate's howl.With a clumsy motion, he shoved the magnet release lever. The Bastion detached from its cradles with a sharp thud.From the outside, the sentry watched the Empire's most massive Armor drift slowly out of the moorings, as if nudged by an invisible hand. No takeoff, no fmes. The Jade Bastion simply let itself fall into the abyss.Caius felt his stomach lurch into his throat as gravity cwed him downward, toward the smog below and the towering chains visible in the distance. He had just stolen a God, and he hadn't the slightest clue how to nd it, let alone pilot it. He had read everything there was to know about his father's Mecha, but he quickly realized there was a yawning chasm between theory and practice.The cockpit of the Jade Bastion wasn't a seat; it was a sarcophagus of iron and neural pulses. The moment the Mecha cleared the magnetic supports, Caius realized his fatal error: the Armor was calibrated for Terzus's monumental frame. The biometric shoulder joints were too wide; his arms floated uselessly in the gaps of the kinematic gloves.The Mecha wasn't responding. Or worse, it was responding poorly. As they plummeted through the void, the Bastion mimicked Caius's frantic, disjointed movements: an arm jerked wildly, a leg twitched, sending the jade mass into a crazed spiral."Warning! Critical altitude!" the AI's synthetic voice croaked. "Distance to ground: 800 meters... 700 meters...""No, no, no! Shit!" Caius screamed, spiraling into total panic. He began hacking frantically at the console, smming switches at random, while the lizard-sve in the rear compartment let out a hiss of pure terror. Red warning lights bathed the boy's face, which was slick with cold sweat.Then, a fsh of cunning amidst the chaos.Caius braced his feet against the hydraulic pedals and, with an effort that strained the tendons in his neck, hoisted himself out of the seat. In that awkward, precarious stance, he finally managed to wedge his shoulders into his father's neural sockets. He shoved his hands forward until his fingers found the housing of the oversized gauntlets.A metallic click resonated in his bones, not just his ears."NEURAL LINK ESTABLISHED. PILOT SYNCED."The reactor's hum shifted frequency, becoming a harmonious roar. Caius felt the Bastion's mass as if it were his own body. In a desperate reflex, he flung his arms wide and spyed his fingers inside the gloves.From the Bastion's massive back, the rectangur ptes hissed open with hydraulic thunder, deploying a titanic braking sail made of carbon fiber and magnetic fields. The whipsh was violent—Caius was smmed against the harnesses, the breath ripped from his lungs—but the mad plunge smoothed out into a controlled descent.