The closeness radar at Navigator Kira’s station pinged with a high, clashing chime that cut straight through the low drone of the sky scrubbers. On the main tactical hololithic table, a dense cloud of crimson tracking data vectors bloomed across the sky-high transit lane between Venus and Liquid silver. Three hundred and forty-two discrete solid contacts, ranging from five meters to three hundred meters in width, were tumbling directly across the Aethelgard’s flight path at forty-eight miles per second.
“Debris field incoming!” Kira shouted, her hands flying across the navigation console as she engaged the forward crash-avoidance thrusters. “It’s an inner belt cluster, but their speed vector is fully uneven. They didn’t drift into this lane naturally—they’ve been slingshotted by an artificial gravity pulse originating from the solar limb! If we take a single direct moving impact from a forty-meter iron asteroid at this speed, the fire-powder hull plating will shatter like unannealed glass!”
Arthur Vance stepped onto the bridge, Grimm trailing silently at his heels. The hound’s black claws clicked rhythmically against the metal grating, his muscular shoulders rolling with loose, hungry power. Arthur stopped beside Kira’s console, his sight magnifying glass magnifying the sight feed of the leading asteroid cluster. The tamer’s eyes narrowed as the high-zoom sensor resolved the physical composition of the approaching rocks.
