Page 98 of Star Claimed Omega
Gunfire lit the air behind her as she leapt into the fray with unholy precision, dragging a bladed chain behind her like a predator’s tail.
The recorded holo cut to another angle.
Her silhouette streaking past a fleeing cargo crew, and another, where she executed a rival capo with a flick of her wrist and a grin of savage delight.
‘Fokk, I know her,’ Santi muttered. ‘She led the munitions depot raid attempt a few months ago. I kicked her out with a spectral wave, too. Seems like I shoulda have apprehended her ass.’
Kaal rose the holo, and they both peered at the image.
‘She’s a lycan. A potent one too,’ he murmured. ‘Hell, she’s got a mask that emits a null field, so we’venadato go on when it comes to an ID.’
Her disguise was superior: a claret jumpsuit and cloak, molded with high-tech synth alloy over her face, concealing her identity.
Crimson hair streamed from the top of her head, but there were no other features to work with.
‘All I can tell you is that she’s savage, brilliant, and completely unknown,’ Kaal added. ‘We’ve pulled together a working dossier, Miral and I. There’s no official name. No confirmed history. Just rumors. The most credible theory holds that she’s a close blood relative of Varnok, the Mad Wolf King, a niece or even a direct scion. Some think she inherited his position after we put the bastard in a cage.’
‘What does that mean for us?’
‘We think that now she’s at the helm, she’s taken a more insidious, secretive strategy to get to us. For one, this footage is months old.’
Santi’s eyes stayed on the frozen holo image.The Red Queen, mid-lunge, face twisted in fury and power. ‘So why show it to me now?’
Kaal took a deep inhale. ‘That’s the kicker because,’ he grunted, ‘she’s vanished.’
Santi’s head jerked up. ‘Gone?’
‘In the last four months,’ Kaal continued, ‘there has not been a single sighting of her, not even a ping. It’s like she evaporated off the board. Like she never existed.’
A cold ripple ran down Santi’s spine. ‘Eliminated or a deliberate disappearance?’
‘We don’t know, brother.’ Kaal met his eyes. ‘And that is a majorfokkin’ problem.’
Santi stood and began pacing, his boots thudding against the metal floor. ‘So either she’s deceased and departed, which is unlikely -’
‘Or,’ Kaal cut in, ‘she’s tucked away somewhere we can’t see, planning and plotting.’
Santi stopped and stared out the porthole, space streaking past them in steady silence. His jaw flexed. ‘We need more intel.’
‘That’s all we have,’ Kaal grunted. ‘Miral conducted a deep dive through every security node, dock manifest, and black-market whisper across the flotilla. We’ve got three holo vids that are months old, two hearsay reports, and dead air.’
Santi exhaled, anger crackling under his skin. ‘Regardless, the mutterings in the prison and on DarkNet are that theRed Skullsare gearing up for a major op.’
Kaal nodded. ‘We don’t know when or where, but everything points to one thing: they’re preparing to break Varnok out.’
Santi turned. ‘You think theRed Queen’sbehind it?’
‘She might be gone. She might be orchestrating it. Either way, we can’t predict the play without understanding the player.’
‘So we talk to him.’ Santi’s voice was flat. ‘To Varnok.’
Kaal shot him a mirthless grin. ‘Exactly. He’s still locked up in our high-tech, zero-contact cryo-box. Floating detention rig. AI-run, no humans on that deck.’
The prison isolation unit, in the bowels ofThe Sombra, was a relic of war and paranoia.
The old Cold Sector facility hung suspended in a reinforced gravity pod over the massive platform floor, ringed by automated defense drones and rotating AI-coded lockouts.
Inside, Varnok Gage existed in nothing but time. No visitors. No conversation. Just select holo videos, synth food trays, and his thoughts.
