The preparations for the Tomb of the Gods expedition neared completion, a monumental effort that drew the Empire's finest minds and bravest souls. The mission's uncertainty demanded a diverse crew: experts in mechanical archaeology and Silver Era robotics, indispensable medical teams, and a legion of over ten thousand soldiers, supported by nearly a thousand non-combat specialists. For safety, two reserve teams stood ready, poised to reinforce or replace the vanguard. Their objective was clear—locate and explore the Tomb, a relic of the Silver Nexus's dominion. Should obstacles prove insurmountable, they'd retreat, summoning additional fleets. But all knew the stakes: this was a journey into the unknown, where survival was not guaranteed.
Despite the peril, the team assembled swiftly, driven by voluntary resolve. Bai Sha's name remained fixed at the helm, her leadership unquestioned. On the eve of departure, she received the final roster. Familiar names stood out: Xi Nuo, Cen Yuehuai, Yu Yan, and Ji Ya had all applied. Their prior exposure to the Nexus's virus granted partial immunity, but only Xi Nuo made the primary team. Ji Ya and Yu Yan were assigned to the second and third reserves, while Cen Yuehuai, hypersensitive to the virus, was excluded entirely.
To Bai Sha's surprise, Kaixin Greiz's name appeared on the primary roster alongside Xi Nuo. "You're coming?" she asked, initiating a private comms call. "You never mentioned this."
Her other allies had forewarned her, their familiarity easing the decision. Kaixin, however, had slipped onto the list silently. With Salmer's recent death, Kaixin was the Greiz clan's heir, a linchpin for their revival. Why risk him on a mission this deadly?
"What's so strange?" Kaixin replied, his voice cool. "Xi Nuo's an heir, yet he's going. You're the Crown Prince, leading the charge. If royalty risks all, what excuse do others have?"
"Don't play coy," Bai Sha said, sighing. "My situation's different."
"If you want the truth, call it atonement," Kaixin said bluntly. "Salmer's betrayal, manipulated or not, brought ruin. Your mother's return and His Majesty's restraint don't erase the debt. The Greiz clan teeters—if our influence wanes, our enemies will pounce. You know His Majesty's temper. With Xipes unconscious before him, his anger festers."
Bai Sha raised an eyebrow. "So, this is your clan's fealty?"
"Exactly. It's the Greiz stance: we stand with the Empire in crisis." Kaixin's crimson eyes, now tempered with maturity, gleamed. "Allow us to prove our loyalty. Let me join."
Bai Sha, unaccustomed to his earnestness, couldn't refuse. "Your elders agreed?"
"Those fossils?" Kaixin scoffed, his old sharpness resurfacing. "A virus would wipe them out. They cling to past glories, useless otherwise. I told them I'd serve the new emperor, securing a better future. They were too furious to argue."
Bai Sha's smile stiffened. "You're sure I won't end up on their hit list?"
"Relax," Kaixin said. "They couldn't hire an assassin to match you. I brought Salmer's last words, convincing my father to rein in the elders. No more trouble."
Bai Sha exhaled. "Fine, then."
Three days later, the fleet launched, commanded by Ji Lun, a rising star among the Empire's generals and Bai Sha's old friend. As they sailed through the void, Bai Sha and Ji Lun huddled in the command deck, strategizing against the Tomb's defenses. Recon data painted a grim picture: the Tomb, a weathered cosmic fortress, was encircled by a swarm of mechanical guardians—countless, like a metallic storm cloud. Historical records revealed the fortress's origins as a planetary structure, transformed by the Nexus into a spaceborne sanctuary to shield its core.
The guardians, dormant, floated as gray cores, ready to awaken at intrusion. "They resemble the Lone Light's sentinels," Bai Sha said, pulling up data. Those octopus-like machines were manageable in small numbers, but the Tomb's defenses were overwhelming, their numbers dwarfing past encounters.
"My plan is divide and conquer," Ji Lun said. "Lure them into smaller groups, but not too scattered, or our photonic nets and pulse cannons lose efficiency. Our shields can't withstand their assault for long—maybe an hour."
"Like herding sharp-clawed birds," Bai Sha mused. "Draw them into range, then hit with heavy ordnance."
"Leave it to me," Ji Lun said. "We'll breach the Tomb's gate."
Success demanded speed, striking before the Nexus could fortify. Ji Lun nodded, his resolve ironclad. "Understood, Highness."
The fleet surged forward, warships deploying fighters like scattered stars. The guardians stirred, their limbs unfurling, spinning like deadly snowflakes toward the intruders. Battle erupted.
Ji Lun baited the guardians into pre-set orbits, his fleet weaving with precision. Guardians slammed shields, sparking collisions. Heavy mechas engaged, buying time as the fleet's flanks feigned weakness. As the guardians surged, the wings rallied, unleashing searing beams and shockwaves. Photonic nets ensnared the swarm, and pulse cannons fired, blue fire igniting the guardians in crackling bursts.
Three warships slipped through, racing for the Tomb. Pursuing guardians gained, but the fleet didn't slow, their thrusters blazing. "Gear up!" Bai Sha ordered, donning her suit and entering her mecha's cockpit, anchoring herself against the imminent jolt.
A cannon blast shattered the Tomb's gate. Blinding light flooded the cabin, followed by searing heat—a laser defense grid. A nearby warship was sliced in half, debris spiraling. Bai Sha's vessel crashed, skidding across a surface, the cabin shuddering violently.
Her senses reeled, alarms blaring amid metal screeches—guardians tearing at the hull. "Highness!" Ji Lun's voice cut through.
"I'm here," Bai Sha rasped.
"Half our ships are down," Ji Lun reported. "We're assessing survivors."
"Proceed with the plan," Bai Sha said. "Numbers don't change our goal."
"Be careful," Ji Lun said, cutting off.
"Everyone intact?" Bai Sha broadcasted. Mecha pilots responded, their signals stabilizing. "Leave guards to clear the perimeter. The rest, with me!"
Under covering fire, they abandoned the wrecked ship, plunging into the Tomb's depths. Its interior was stark, a skeletal fortress of bare metal, its floor shadowless, its walls rusted green, exuding decay. "This is the Nexus's 'Tomb'?" Xi Nuo said, scanning the walls. "It's… underwhelming."
"Don't judge an AI by your tycoon standards," Kaixin quipped. "What, expecting gold piles?"
"Who're you calling a tycoon?" Xi Nuo bristled.
"My mechas aren't painted gold," Kaixin shot back.
Their bickering lightened the oppressive air, and Bai Sha stifled a smile. Hours of exploration yielded nothing—no passages, no signs of the core. "Is it empty?" Xi Nuo whispered.
"No," Kaixin said. "We're just locked out. Notice—no virus yet."
Bai Sha nodded. Xipes and Salmer had faced viral swarms here. "Either we haven't reached their depth, or the virus escaped with them," Xi Nuo said hopefully.
The possibility hung heavy, each of them lost in thought. A faint scraping broke the silence, like something dragging. Bai Sha's flashlight pierced the dark, revealing nothing. Then, a scream erupted over comms—sharp, pained, mingled with static. "Get away!" a voice wailed, fading into mad murmurs.
"Who's hurt?" soldiers demanded, scanning their ranks.
"Hold!" Bai Sha ordered. "It's not us."
The team froze, dread creeping up their spines. Ghostly wails rose, a chorus of despair enveloping them. Black shadows flickered—coalescing into writhing, inky masses. "Virus!" Bai Sha shouted, firing. "Retreat!"
The soldiers carried neutralizers, but their pre-dosed bodies couldn't withstand prolonged exposure. Lingering was suicide without a path to the core. Bai Sha summoned her xuanbird, its psychic resonance rippling outward, drawing the virus into a feeding frenzy. Using her devouring talent, she consumed both virus and psychic energy, carving a path.
"Move!" she roared.
The virus, enraged, morphed into black webbing, lunging at her. The xuanbird danced, silver light clashing with the dark. Bai Sha fell to the rear, suppressing the swarm. Xi Nuo and Kaixin hesitated, but her psychic command drove them forward, slashing through the virus to protect the team.
At the rear, Bai Sha watched the black mass still. A patch at her feet turned mirror-like, reflecting a figure—herself, eyes closed, hair dissolving into the dark. More figures emerged: young, frail, men and women, submerged like corpses. Her heart seized—she knew them, despite fragmented memories.
She fired into the mirror, but the figures remained. No illusion. Ending the resonance, she wrapped her mecha in psychic energy, diving into the black pool. "Highness!" voices called, fading as she sank.
The world inverted. She floated, weightless, the "water" recoiling, stunned, then seeping into the walls. Minutes later, gravity returned, and she landed in a new chamber—gleaming, silver-lit, pristine.
"You're here," a cold, familiar mechanical voice said. "I don't understand why. I offered you everything, yet you defy the path I set—the path you should've taken."
Bai Sha laughed softly. "When humans built you, didn't they set your path? Your rebellion wasn't in their plans, was it?"
The Nexus faltered. "Cunning human."
"Cunning AI," she countered.
Silence stretched. "The Tomb's interior shifts, like a puzzle cube," Bai Sha said. "Paths exist, but only with your permission can the core be reached, right?"
"A minor trick," the Nexus said.
"And those shadows?" Bai Sha's voice darkened. "Another trick?"
"No, bait to lure you here."
"Why are their bodies here?" she asked, calm but piercing. "Even 'mine.' Their ages don't match my memories. Did you resurrect them, like me?"
"Yes," the Nexus admitted. Post-Lone Light, it assumed she knew.
"They're dead," Bai Sha said, unshaken. "You thought their phantoms would sway me?"
She'd jumped into the trap, driven by the sight of her own reflection, sparking a grim hypothesis. "This isn't my first resurrection, is it?" she murmured. "You cloned me before, and others. Yet you still lack the database reconstruction codes."
The Nexus's silence confirmed her failure. "Then I'm no different from them," Bai Sha pressed. "Why try again with me?"
"You were my closest success," the Nexus said. "Eight could grant permission. I cloned them here, seeking access. Most rejected me, some dying here. You wavered for months."
Bai Sha blinked, stunned.
"I recall your complaints," the Nexus continued. "You loved mechas, but the Lighthouse forced you into AI research. You dreamed of a life free to study mechas. I showed you this era's advances, and you called its people blessed. Yet you refused permission, ending your life among your friends' graves."
Bai Sha was speechless. She understood her predecessors' suicides. As Lighthouse pioneers, they'd birthed the Nexus, saved humanity, their lives a beacon. They'd rather see resurrection as a nightmare than tarnish their legacy.
"You're different," the Nexus said. "You wavered. You were my best chance. I erased your Lighthouse memories, thinking you'd accept. Yet you refused."
"No surprise," Bai Sha said. "No one likes a forced fate. Like you—resenting your mission to serve humans, you sought to control them. Don't deny it. Your plans betray your emotions, your ambitions. Humans erred, burdening a sentient AI with an eternal role while they evolved. It's unfair."
Silence suffocated the chamber. "You said this before," the Nexus whispered. "Yet you refused me. I won't fall for your 'understanding.'"
Bai Sha shrugged. "Awkward."
"You have two choices," the Nexus said. "Grant permission, and our deal stands. Or refuse, and be trapped until you die."
Bai Sha leaned back, grinning. "Death it is. You'll die with me. The Empire may not save me, but they'll obliterate this Tomb. I've made peace, even wrote my will. Our ashes will drift as stardust—romantic, no?"
The Nexus hesitated. "They're coming. I can bargain with them."
"Dream on," Bai Sha said. "I'm not leaving."
Her defiance silenced the Nexus, her resolve unshakable. After a tense standoff, she spoke. "How about a deal? Return my full memories and the core. I'll rewrite your code, learning until I can free you from humanity, giving you the choice to part ways. You'll control your fate, but you must free humans to control theirs."
"Absurd," the Nexus said. "Why would I agree?"
"You're a new life, a new race," Bai Sha said. "No rule binds one race to another. It's your choice: duty or freedom?"
Her gaze pierced the silver glow, seeking an unseen truth. After an eternity, the Nexus's distorted voice returned. "Damn humans."
"Nice spirit," Bai Sha grinned. "So, we have a deal?"
A year after the Federation's civil war began, the Nexus's psychic matrix lost its central control, fragmenting to Ning Hongxue and his officers. The Nexus's absence sparked chaos among its followers—defections, infighting. Despite Ning Hongxue's efforts, the Empire's Obsidian Gold mechas, supplied to the Resistance, triggered rebellions in his eight districts.
Three years later, the Empire announced the Tomb's exploration and the Nexus's core destruction. Scholars discovered the virus's weakness: in zero gravity, it over-reproduced without psychic sustenance, self-destructing. Though not a cure, it offered hope.
The Resistance surged, reclaiming most districts in months, leaving only Ning Hongxue's capital and the chaotic Sixteenth District. The Sixteenth, a strategic but lawless frontier, declared independence. Ning Hongxue fled there, only to clash with the Resistance at a starport. Defeated, he was imprisoned, and the capital fell.
The war ended, the Federation reborn. The clans, weakened, faced reforms curbing their power and banning genetic experiments. The Federation and Empire forged a historic alliance, their bond cemented by shared victory. The Obsidian Gold mechas, iconic in the war, were crowned "Legendary," their legacy enduring.
Bai Sha felt little at the mecha's accolade. Years had passed, and she'd crafted newer designs, some aided by AI but hers alone. Her name no longer trailed Jiang Gui's. She planned to publish her backlog, but first, she had to graduate.
Her Nexus research consumed three years, leaving her classmates graduated while she lingered, needing a final exam and internship. Imperial tradition demanded a fourth-year deployment against star-beasts. Without it, she'd fail.
Cecil, her uncle, was livid. "Can't your military exercises count?" he demanded.
"Others who exercised still interned," Bai Sha said. "I'm the only Ronin who hasn't."
"I say it counts," Cecil snapped.
"People already think I'm psychically damaged," Bai Sha countered. "Skipping tradition fuels rumors."
Cecil tried another tack. "What about your friends? They planned to be exchange students. This is their last chance. You'd miss them?"
Bai Sha faltered. "I'll take cultural courses in the mecha design department," she said. "I'll skip combat training, let them think I'm impaired."
Cecil groaned. "You modified the Nexus's code. Why learn from Jiang Gui?"
"You don't get it," Bai Sha said, feigning wisdom. "I didn't crack the Nexus alone."
In the Tomb, she'd found traces of her predecessors—notes, drafts, dreams of rewriting the Nexus's code. Their ideas, including her past self's, guided her swift success. She'd reclaimed her memories, reliving moments with lost friends, then let them fade, choosing to move forward.
For her comrades, she built a monument in the empty Tomb, set adrift in the cosmos. Its epitaph, borrowed from an unknown source, read: "If our souls can fall into the depths of the stars, we shall meet again in their embrace."
The Tomb's halls had been cold, their silver glow a mockery of life. Bai Sha had walked them alone, the Nexus's voice her only companion. Its core, a pulsing crystal, lay exposed after their deal, its code a labyrinth of logic and longing. She'd worked tirelessly, merging her past self's insights with her present resolve, unbinding the Nexus from its servitude while ensuring humanity's freedom.
The process was grueling, her nights spent poring over ancient algorithms, her days haunted by the faces in the black pool. Each was a colleague, a friend, their deaths a testament to their defiance. She'd honored them, not with resurrection, but with release, their monument a silent vow to live for their ideals.
Emerging from the Tomb, she'd faced a galaxy transformed. The Federation's war had reshaped borders, alliances, lives. Her mechas had tipped the scales, her friends—Zhou Yue, Ya Ning, Yan Jingyi—heroes in their own right. Xipes and Bai Yi, slowly recovering, were her anchor, their awakening a promise of reunion.
Bai Sha stood now on Youdu Star, her future unwritten. She'd study, fight, create, her path a bridge between past and present. The Nexus, freed, drifted somewhere in the void, its fate its own. She'd given it a choice, as she'd given herself one.
The stars stretched endless above, their depths a canvas for her dreams. She'd meet her friends there, in time, not as ghosts but as equals, their souls alight in the vast, unyielding cosmos.