Damon's Ascension-Chapter 142: The Vanguard Team Awakens

A low hum filled the captain’s cabin of the Normandy-class vessel, steady and precise like the breath of something massive and mechanical. The lights were dim, casting long shadows against the obsidian-black surfaces and holographic interfaces that flickered quietly in standby.

And then, he stirred.

Damon’s eyes opened slowly.

He sat up in the captain’s chair, exhaling once as the neural sync faded and the transfer was complete.

His main consciousness had finally returned to the first avatar, the one everyone presumed to be the real Damon Arnan. Unlike the planetary avatar left behind on Earth, this one was not smiling nor bowing to media cameras as well as handshaking world leaders like a proper symbol.

No.

This one had much more important work to do.

He leaned back slightly, one arm draped over the chair’s side, the other tapping the edge of the command terminal, and the ship hummed in response.

"Back in this tin can again..." he murmured, voice low, calm, yet tinged with a familiar disdain.

"Thirty days of politics. Thirty days of pretending humanity had a choice, but now that the last applause has died down... we can return to the only thing that matters."

Survival.

He tapped once more and the ship’s logs rose before him in rows of blue light.

"From Kusibo Station, we took the main warp corridor to the Fringe Belt and things were smooth for the first few days... until the parasites came sniffing."

Space pirates and not the romantic kind who wanted to become king of pirates. These ones were the cruel and desperate kind, who would rob, rape and kill at their whim.

Many of them were mutated remnants of rogue species, half-alive due to hunger as well as poverty and crazy for Essence Coins. They attacked like dogs chewing on steel, and Damon had let the crew handle them, mostly for training.

"Two skirmishes and one corpse infiltrator. There was also one ship-class manta leech. Overall, a good warm-up for the vanguard team."

Then came the unexpected along their travels... a new, undiscovered species!

"We found them while drifting off-node. They were primitive, carbon-based bipedal creatures. They had no language uplink and no advanced neural net, and were still using sonar, but... they had belief."

Damon tilted his head slightly, remembering.

"Belief in stars and in watchers beyond the black, which was enough for the Universe Will to recognize. So we gave them what they needed."

Two different species inducted along the way, their names barely pronounceable while their gratitude was awkward and loud.

"We didn’t stop for thanks, just logged their initiation and forwarded the registry. Let the IUAS stamp the paperwork and someone else be overseer for them."

Now, the Normandy drifted through the vast outskirts of the Grand Relay, a sprawling and seemingly alive structure half-machine, half-celestial artifact. It was mechanically built by the IUAS and them celestially sanctified by the Universe Will.

The Grand Relay was a space station that housed a very important gateway.

A gateway not to another planet, but to the Chaos Realm.

Damon gazed out the viewing window, watching the relay grow larger in the distance, its silver rings orbiting a pulsing sphere of distorted light and raw grandeur.

"This is where all debts are paid and all lies end. The Chaos Realm doesn’t care for reputation or legacy, only for power and adaptability."

He stood.

"And my journey to the top has just begun."

The soft chime of the bridge systems signaled that the rest of the crew had detected his presence.

It was time to wake them.

Time to begin.

......

CRYOSECTOR A-1

A faint hiss echoed through the dim, sterile corridor as the first cryochamber unlocked.

Felicia Rothschild stirred, her eyelashes fluttering open as the icy vapor around her cleared.

She stretched once, elegantly like a cat awaking from slumber, causing Damon to smile with appreciation.

"Still intact... good. I’d hate to reintroduce myself to the laws of physics." She commented casually.

She stepped out with minimal fuss, skin already glowing faintly from her own skills and abilities, and made her way toward the bridge.

......

CRYOSECTOR A-2

A louder, more mechanical release followed.

Bane McGregor coughed once as his pod opened. He cracked his neck and flexed both arms.

"Finally. I was starting to think the chaos would age without me."

He pulled a band across his shoulder to secure his equipment and stomped off barefoot, leaving misted footprints in his wake.

.......

CRYOSECTOR B-3

A gentle ping and the lights danced.

Marshal emerged slowly, holding a book in hand that hadn’t existed before he went in.

"I feel terrible yet also pretty good. This is some crazy tech." He muttered, voice smooth and amused.

He glanced at the hull, touched it gently, then followed the others.

.......

VR POD C-7

A flickering distortion crackled in the air before Nicholas Spencley’s pod rebooted. His eyes snapped open with unnatural calm.

"...Status check seems complete. I assume no one died while I was gaming?"

He pushed his neural link aside, face calm as usual.

.......

CRYOSECTOR D-4

Levi Thane’s pod cracked open, fluid leaking out as he stepped into the light with damp sleeves and a raised eyebrow.

"We docked yet or is the universe still playing coy?"

He ran a hand through his soaked hair and whistled low.

........

CRYOSECTOR D-5

Kyle Greer came out laughing, no one knew why.

"Dreamt I was a planet-sized tuning fork. Waking up... now I’m kinda disappointed."

He spun his ringed fingers in the air and headed to the main lift.

.....

VR CHAMBER E-1

Xela Stone disconnected from the system, her pupils shimmering faintly with bioluminescent traces. She looked around once before whispering,

"...Still alive. Still worth it."

No one heard it but the room, and that was enough.

........

CRYOSECTOR E-2

Connor Baines emerged last, hood pulled up, shadows clinging to him like mist.

"No rest in the dark. Just silence... and the next hunt."

He faded into the shadows of the corridor, footsteps nearly soundless.

.......

VR CHAMBER E-3

Henry Jasek came to his senses in his pods, he is hands reaching out to grope something before him that was round ans soft.

Seeing that the virtual realm experience had been terminated, he wiped the drool from the side of his mouth and became serious.

"Tsk, by indulging in evil, I have cleansed myself of evil. Sigh, if I don’t enter hell, who would?"

He pushed himself out of the pod and adjusted himself properly before wobbling over to the bridge.

........

CRYOSECTOR E-4

"Hm, how weird." Protizen Echo noted as he came out of his pod, the cold ice melting off his armor.

Even though he had encased himself in self-insulating armor with its own internal temperature regulations, he had still succumbed to the mechanics of crysoleep!

This was something worth researching...

........

Within minutes, the bridge of the Normandy-class ship was active again, with each station lighting up one by one as the crew reconvened, freshly awakened and ready to face the threshold of the Chaos Realm.

Damon stood quietly at the front, watching their silhouettes gather behind him, saying nothing... but inwardly, already calculating the next move.

Felicia was the first to lean casually against a console near Damon, arms crossed and lips curled. "I meditated for exactly thirty minutes each day during cryosleep intervals and tried to commune with the will of the universe."

Kyle groaned. "She means she watched three seasons of that soul cultivation drama with the hot twins and the phoenix palace."

Felicia didn’t deny it. "Good art is a form of spiritual development."

Henry Jasek stepped in, stretching his shoulders and neck. "I spent my downtime trying to mimic everyone’s abilities in VR and got about seven down. Still can’t quite replicate Kyle’s vibration field without puking, though."

Kyle grinned. "Don’t worry, mate. That’s just the first step."

Levi Thane strolled in behind them, shirt half-buttoned as usual. "I taught the ship’s AI how to play poker. It cheats now."

"...That explains the smug tone when it beat me last week," Protizen Echo said as he marched in.

His armored chassis gleamed faintly under the lights, but his voice was dry as ever. "Also spent some cycles updating my combat protocols. They now have a 92% win rate against projections of you, Bane."

Bane McGregor didn’t blink. "Then they’re flawed. I don’t project well."

Nicholas Spencley was next to sit, his eyes lazily scanning the bridge. "I spent the whole trip running mental loops through every potential Chaos Realm configuration we might hit... and still only feel 12% prepared."

"Optimistic. I dreamed I was a word. Just one. It burned." Marshal muttered, his voice deep and slow.

The room paused.

"...And people say I’m weird," Connor Baines quipped from the corner.

He was already perched on one of the bridge railings, shadowy aura flickering faintly. "I just updated the Shadow World architecture, no big deal. Might’ve added some limbs."

Xela Stone walked with a faint smile. "I spent the trip listening to ancient Earth music."

Henry arched a brow. "And singing it at night. Loudly."

Felicia laughed. "So you’re the one who woke me up humming I Will Survive during hyperspace warp?"

Henry raised a hand with mock solemnity. "I regret nothing."

Damon finally turned from the captain’s console and faced the group. The slight smirk on his face betrayed approval.

"All of you, still weird and still sharp. Good." He gestured toward the main viewport as the glow of the Grand Relay began to take form in the distance.

"Because the Chaos Realm doesn’t care what you studied, simulated, or meditated on."

He looked at them all, one by one.

"It only cares who adapts first."

The bridge quieted again, not from tension, but readiness.