They both hit the ground seconds later—but their landings were far from alike.
Lyra smashed into the earth like a cannonball, a loud thud echoing through the valley. The soil cracked beneath her feet, and dust burst out in a ring. Her armor absorbed most of the force, but the impact still shook the earth.
Xavier?
He landed like a whisper.
Not a sound. Not a crack. No impact.
It was like the air itself had slowed him down, cushioned his fall with invisible hands. He touched the ground like a feather, standing upright as if gravity didn’t apply to him anymore.
Then, a voice crackled through the radio. Female. Calm, but laced with annoyance.
"Did you two seriously just jump out of the goddamn spaceship?"
Lyra clicked the comms. "He jumped first."
There was a pause.
"Xavier, you’re abusing the power again."
He rolled his shoulders. "It’s not abuse. It’s called utilizing."
"You’re not utilizing shit if there are alternatives available."
Xavier smirked. "You don’t complain when I use it during sex."
A sharp static silence. Then a flustered reply, "That’s a different topic!"
The transmission cut.
While they walked, Lyra pulled out a small orb. It lit up in her hand, projecting a clean blue holographic interface with scrolling data, maps, schematics, and blinking points of interest.
"Brief it," Xavier said.
Lyra nodded. "The underground base was originally a classified military vault. Built a thousand years ago. Buried under reinforced hyper-titanium layers. Exterior has an adaptive camouflage field that syncs with tectonic vibrations, making it invisible to drones and most scans. Auto-defense systems still online. Probably running on a dormant nuclear core."
"Why’d the military abandon it?" Xavier asked.
"Tech got outdated. And after the Arc-Genesis Protocol, everything critical got moved to Planet HZ-9. That base was left to rot." She shut the orb.
They approached the makeshift camp. Half-collapsed structures, mobile barricades, and plasma-shield tents surrounded by humming energy coils. Several crew members were regrouping, running checks on equipment.
Just like the girl on the ship, the crew members’ faces were also censored by doodles and scribbles and shapes.
One of them walked over with a data pad. "This planet’s radiation is borderline acceptable," she said flatly, showing him the environmental readouts. "Toxic levels rising. We can’t stay here longer than two hours without filters failing."
Xavier gave a half nod.
Another stepped forward, helmet tucked under her arm. Her face too was distorted—covered with doodles and warped shapes, like someone had redacted reality itself.
"Captain, we should just use the ship’s railgun and blow the damn mountain apart. It’ll crack the shell, maybe even wipe them out."
"We need the traitor alive," Xavier said. "He knows where the next fragment is. If the blast kills him, we lose the lead."
Another hand raised.
"What about the bots we stole from that raid on Crimson Haven?"
Xavier shook his head. "Trackers are still active. We activate those units, and the Empire’s warship will know our position in seconds. We’re not ready for that kind of heat."
"Should we send drones?" another asked, already prepping controls.
"We can," Xavier replied. "But that base is a damn ghost. Shielded on all sides, built to withstand orbital strikes, and there’s no signal output. It’s blacked out. The drones won’t get far."
Silence.
One of the officers looked up. "We’re out of options, Captain."
All eyes turned to him.
"You give the order."
Xavier sighed, long and loud, dragging his hand through his hair like a man burdened by the weight of the galaxy.
"In the end, I have to do everything myself," he muttered, with the dramatic flair of someone who secretly loved it.
Lyra crossed her arms and smirked. "Or maybe you should wake her up—the one you left knocked out in your bed. With her powers, she’d flatten this base like snapping a twig."
Xavier shook his head, serious this time. "Nah. I didn’t let her sleep a single damn second last night. If I wake her up now, I’ll be the one dying."
The girls snorted. One even muttered, "He’s not even denying it."
Then Xavier paused. A spark flickered in his eyes. A grin carved its way across his face.
The crew groaned instantly.
"Oh no," one crew member whispered.
Lyra narrowed her eyes. "Don’t."
"No," one said. "He’s going to say something insane again."
Xavier pointed toward the towering mountain that shielded the enemy’s underground base.
"That mountain is their only line of defense. So if there’s no mountain... that’s half the problem solved."
"But how do you plan to get rid of it without damaging the base underneath?" a crew member asked, already regretting it.
Xavier didn’t answer. He just walked past them and stood at the edge of the cliff, facing the giant mass of rock like it personally owed him money.
The crew followed him. They stayed behind, because they knew something was about to go down.
"So, girls," Xavier said without turning around, "I’m gonna be out of action for a bit after this. Try not to mess things up while I’m gone."
He turned to Lyra. "Remember. I want the traitor alive. He knows where the next fragment is."
Then he faced the others. "Also, whoever pulls the most weight in this op—gets the usual reward."
"What, your dick again?" one of the crew muttered.
"Yup." Xavier grinned. "Two hours. No limits. You do what you want. Bite it, ride it, choke on it—I’m your toy."
"That’s not enough time," another complained. "You always finish fast, anyway."
"I’ll think about extending it. And the fuck you mean by I finish fast? Where I come from, thirty minutes is more than average. Now shut up and watch."
He held up his right hand. Slowly peeled the glove off, finger by finger. Each movement calm, cocky—like he had all the time in the world. Like gods didn’t need to rush.
His hand—bare, glowing faintly gold—pointed at the mountain.
Then he clenched it.
The mountain twitched.
The ground vibrated. The air got heavier. A sound, deep and guttural, like the earth itself groaning, tore through the valley.
Cracks spiderwebbed across the surface of the mountain. Chunks began crumbling. Boulders fell. Dust shot upward.
And then—
With a slow, deliberate motion, Xavier raised his hand.
The entire mountain lifted off the ground. Not shattered. Not exploded. Lifted. Like it was a blanket being peeled off a bed.
The sky darkened from the dust cloud. The base underneath was exposed—metal, steel, ancient lights flickering from deep below.
Xavier looked at the base. Looked at the crew.
Then, with a wave of his hand, like swatting a fly—
He tossed the mountain.
The fucking thing flew through the sky, crashed into the far horizon with a sound like a dying god, and vanished in smoke.
Xavier cracked his neck.
"Now... go say hi to our little rat."