The imperial workshop, nestled within the labyrinthine grandeur of Youdu Star's palace, was a haven of controlled chaos. Holographic blueprints flickered across the walls, their azure glow mingling with the soft hum of fabrication units and the faint metallic tang of freshly printed alloys. Baisha's console, a sleek slab of obsidian embedded with touch-sensitive panels, stood as the heart of her domain, its surface cluttered with styluses and half-sketched designs. Beyond the viewport, the twin moons cast their ghostly light, bathing the palace gardens in a spectral sheen.
After days of relentless work, Baisha finalized the revised blueprint for Vermilion Grace and sent it to the buyer. No immediate reply came, but she wasn't surprised—the buyer had mentioned being tied up with the Four Schools Election, promising to respond once it concluded.
When would the election end? Baisha opened her light-brain, checking her friends' statuses. Cen Yuehuai, Xino, and Yu Yan remained offline, likely still embroiled in the competition.
A notification flashed on her screen: a summons from the emperor to his study.
Glancing at the time—9:30 a.m.—she frowned. Cecil was usually occupied with council meetings or administrative duties at this hour. Curiosity piqued, she left the workshop, boarding a sleek hovercar that autonomously navigated to the emperor's palace. As she disembarked, a familiar figure caught her eye. She waved. "Jilun, long time no see!"
The dark-skinned young man paused, turning to face her. His golden eyes, luminous as molten amber, reflected her image faintly.
Jilun was an old acquaintance, the one who'd extracted her from a Federation prison. Though they rarely met since her return to the empire, Baisha hadn't forgotten the unique texture of his mental entity—a sensation she couldn't quite shake. Ahem.
Her pampered palace cats, with their sweet or striking looks, were one thing. Jilun's black panther was another: a creature of raw elegance, its forelimbs crossed with regal poise when petted, golden eyes narrowing, its sleek fur cloaking taut muscle. It exuded wild strength yet moved with a tender grace—a tactile memory etched deep. This affection for his panther had, in part, transferred to Jilun himself.
As he turned, Baisha half-imagined him as that lithe, vigilant beast.
"Long time, Your Highness," Jilun said, offering a curt bow, his demeanor as steady as ever. "Are you also summoned to see His Majesty?"
"Also?" Baisha echoed. "Uncle asked me to meet him in the study, but he didn't say why."
"It may concern the recent incident on Luyin Star," Jilun replied, nodding. "A few days ago, His Majesty ordered a thorough audit of Luyin's defenses. Other planets used for academy drills were inspected too. No trace of starphage bugs was found."
Baisha nodded; she'd heard as much.
Jilun continued, "His Majesty felt the initial sweep was too overt, risking tipping off any culprits. So, he tasked me with an internal review of the military's starbug prevention protocols. I'm here to report my findings."
Stationed on Tianshu Star, Jilun served as deputy commander of the Tianxuan Fleet—nominally led by the emperor, as were all imperial fleets. The fleet patrolled Tianshu's vicinity, deploying to warzones when needed. Jilun doubled as a general and Tianshu's security overseer, a trusted confidant often dispatched on imperial errands.
"What's an internal review?" Baisha asked.
"Counter-infiltration audit," Jilun explained as they walked. "Starbugs remain the most exploitable tool to destabilize the empire. If our prevention systems falter or are compromised, the consequences could be catastrophic."
The fight against starbugs seemed distant, yet Baisha's encounters with mycelium creatures and starphage bugs underscored their alarming evolution. A breached prevention system, or one tampered with, spelled disaster.
"What did you find?" she asked.
Jilun hesitated, shaking his head. "Some reforms may be needed, but for now, everything checks out."
No foreign spies, then.
The exhaustive investigation stemmed from Cecil's conviction that Luyin Star's anomaly wasn't mere chance.
Their conversation carried them into the emperor's opulent palace, its halls aglow with gilded frescoes and crystal chandeliers. They entered the study, where Cecil sat behind a polished mahogany desk, Wei Li at his side.
"You're both here," Cecil said, wasting no words. He slid a holographic dossier across the desk. "Review this."
It was an investigative report on the Xizhou Military Academy students Baisha's team had rescued on Luyin Star, where starphage bugs first appeared.
Baisha raised an eyebrow. "They're awake?"
"They are," Wei Li said, his gold-rimmed glasses glinting as he glanced her way. "We've had psychologists conduct subtle interrogations. Xizhou's faculty guards them closely, so it's all been done in their hospital rooms."
Baisha's gaze shifted to the light-screen, which displayed pale, bewildered faces.
"With expert guidance, they retraced their journey to Luyin Star and inventoried their belongings," Wei Li continued, his voice measured. "One student, a mech designer, recalled buying a sealed can of repair coating from a secondhand starnet market for a bargain before the trip. She brought it to the competition and used it, but during the starbug attack, the can was lost."
"We traced the coating's source," Wei Li added. "The seller used a false identity. The cans appeared out of nowhere on the market, sold exclusively to academy students."
Jilun frowned. "The materials were tainted?"
Wei Li nodded. "We recovered a few cans. They contained dormant single-cell starphage bugs."
Single-cell starphage bugs were microscopic, only becoming noticeable after absorbing sufficient nutrients or biomass.
"The coatings targeted mostly Xizhou students, with a few from Nanmi Academy," Wei Li said.
"If they only sold to those two academies, it'd be too obvious," Baisha noted. "The only explanation is they manipulated the market's algorithm for precise targeting. Any signs of a breach?"
Wei Li shook his head slowly.
"That's what's unsettling," he said, sighing. "Every lead was uncovered through painstaking cross-referencing. Standard methods would've missed it. The perpetrators buried their tracks in a deluge of data, making it all seem coincidental."
A student bringing repair coating to Luyin Star was, technically, happenstance. Academies provided free materials, but this coating—favored by some mech designers—was a niche product from a small manufacturer, scarce in circulation. Students didn't use it constantly, saving it for critical moments. Bringing it to the Four Schools Election was unremarkable.
The mech designer recalled her team's first stop near the mangrove forest, where they fought starbugs. She applied the coating to her arrows there, and the can was lost in the chaos. She didn't fight again until using the repaired arrows to kill a mutated tree frog.
The footage showed her recounting: "The frog acted oddly after being hit but fled quickly. It was chaotic, and I didn't think much of it."
Tree frog?
Baisha recalled the fleshy tumor-tree they'd attacked, which spawned tree frogs to counter them. They'd assumed the tree absorbed the frogs—but what if the frogs were the source?
Vindictive little pests.
"Wait," Baisha said. "If there's more than one can, what if unrecovered ones with starphage bugs are brought to other drill sites?"
"We've considered that," Wei Li said, rubbing his nose bridge. "Fortunately, the relaunched Four Schools Election focuses on hunting mechanical constructs, not starbugs."
Though starbugs were the empire's bane, combat robots offered safer, more controllable training. Their high cost had ruled them out for such large-scale events, but Cecil, wary of further incidents, mandated their use. The decision now seemed prescient, averting potential disasters.
Recovering the remaining coatings would wait until the election's end, followed by a unified inspection.
"Why target mostly Xizhou students?" Baisha asked, glancing at Cecil. "Because they're rebellious? To sow discord?"
"Have the Grez family already come whining to you?" Cecil's expression darkened.
"Not quite—just some friendly chats," Baisha said, smiling. "Kaixin Grez still owes me a favor from last time. I haven't decided how to cash it in."
"Make him bark like a dog three times," Cecil said coldly. "The Grez family hates being called dogs."
Baisha: "Uncle, that's downright vicious."
Such a move would spark a feud to the death with the Grez family!