The tactical ready-room aboard the heavy dreadnought Vanguard-Ironclad was quiet save for the rhythmic hum of sky breath flow blowers.
Arthur Vance stood before the full-length light-projected staging hololith, his fingers tracing the test profiles of his five friend beasts. Twenty-four hours had passed since Titus had broken the surface of the Pacific. The body recovery of the squad was total.
On the central screen, the tracking data curves glowed with brilliant golden life-force:
Titus was resting in the seawater dock flanking the dreadnought’s starboard hull. The ancient terrapin’s advancement into Diamond S-Rank Ocean-Pillar Xuanwu Sovereign (60.5% Lineage Purity) was fully consolidated. His shell, composed of recrystallized diamond-dark rock with an inertial mass of thirty-five metric tons, could absorb thirty-five thousand meters of deep water pressure or withstand direct tactical railgun impacts without a scratch.
Echo floated in the watching pool beneath the ready-room floor. His breakthrough into Diamond S-Rank Starry Tide-Serpent (62.0% Lineage Purity) had swelled his physical length to twenty-five meters of shimmering midnight sapphire and spun white-gold. His spatiotemporal lung allowed him to fold space with total mastery, unlocking Air Hydro-Kinesis. The ability to swim through clouds, rainstorms, and empty pocket with the exact same zero-drag speed he possessed in the ocean.
