"We are in range!" Rururin said, already activating the Veil's transmitters, hurrying to connect with the Astropath's opening. It was a simple procedure in theory. Send out a signal on a precise frequency, and the Astropath reacts to it. After opening up, it could swallow the incoming ship and anything too close to its mouth.

"Get ready!" Parthen ordered, strapped into his chair as the ship was constantly trembling. By now, their shields were at 20%. They were surrounded by the bugs, not to mention the giant swarm hurrying towards them from behind. "When we enter the Astropath, I want everyone glued to the sensors! I want a perfect picture of us and the ships surrounding us! By the time we arrive at the other side, I want to know where to flee towards!"

As he said it, Xanthe landed, not back in the ship, but on its hull, going onto one knee. Rururin had no time to tell it to his Major General as the blue maw of the Astropath was opening up already. Yet it was not them who was swallowed first, but five ships of the Gynkwhon. Only after those they also entered it, with three others on their tail. As soon as the Veil entered into the flow of the Astropath, all the shaking was gone, replaced by complete stillness. Yet everyone knew this was just a momentary respite, a time to raise their shield's energy back and get ready for the moment they arrived at the other side.

"We should've entered into an Astropath," Miyon whispered, back in their little cabin, sitting there with Sylen. "All the shaking is gone…."

"Yeah…" She nodded, a bit white from the fear deep inside her chest.

*BEEP* Resonated a sharp sound coming from Miyon's pocket. He almost jumped up, feeling the buzzing scaring him greatly. Taking it out, it was the little device that Omega gave to him.

"Do you copy?" His voice asked, coming from that little, disk-like thing.

"Yes!" Sylen answered immediately, happy to hear his voice. It meant he was fine, and they may be safe already.

"We have little time to act, so do as I say."

"What is going on?" Miyon asked, but Omega's voice was strict and commanding.

"Just do as I tell you; there is no time to explain."

"Ready!" Sylen said, already standing, waiting for his instructions.

"Go out the door." He continued, and their room door slid open before they could ask something. Sticking their heads out, they saw that the guards were gone, and the hallways were also devoid of life. "I am going to guide you along! You go through the doors that I open, and when I say stop, duck, jump or climb, you do it."

"Pa is going to have some trouble with those," Sylen said, taking the device from her grandfather, who just looked at her, stumped. "He is not in the best of shapes!"

"I made the route, counting on that."

"Both of you can shut it…." Miyon grumbled, nodding towards his granddaughter as they followed Omega's instructions. To their surprise, when the doors opened, they only revealed empty corridors as nobody was there. Even when they got into lifts, traversing along the different decks, they came across no soul.

"How are you doing this?" Sylen asked, confused yet excited.

"Everyone has received some orders… and had to go here and there… and it happened just at the right time," Omega answered, smiling at the other side. "Others fail to open their doors for a few seconds. Malfunctions related to the previous battle."

"I'm not even surprised." Miyon smiled under his beard.

"You are getting close. After the next door, one of the escape pods will be open. Get into it and strap yourself in. Then wait." Omega instructed them, and true, they were standing at one of the emergency exits after they stepped through the last door.

"This won't end well!" Miyon sighed but still came in, pushing his granddaughter forward.

"Yeah… we are going to be wanted criminals after this!" Sylen sighed, but she was happy to leave. She was greatly disillusioned by the army at this point. They should have protected them… Buy their information and go in their own ways! Instead, they imprisoned them and dragged them along like some dead weight that they didn't know what to do with in the first place.

"Maybe," Omega answered. "Let us worry about that later! For now, you just need to trust me. I am going to get you out of here! We will use the Veil and the nearing chaos to escape."

"It is still not over?" Sylen asked as they climbed into the small escape pod. It quickly closed on them. While they were sitting down, strapping themselves in, Omega briefly explained it.

"It is just a quick break. A few Gynkwhon ships are going to arrive before us. Then we. Then another group."

"At least the other side will shoot at them first!" Miyon murmured, but what Omega said next turned both of them deathly pale.

"After that, around 1500 other ships are bound to arrive. A whole swarm is following the Veil right now. The Major General showed at least competence!" He sighed. "They are going to escape, but I saw what I wanted. They are not deserving of Xanthe. Yet."

"Agreed." Suddenly a much more mechanical voice echoed his thoughts.

"Who is that?" Sylen asked, surprised, but she had a vague answer in her mind but was unsure of it.

"Xanthe." Omega said, "When melded with the computer, it is capable of thinking."

"You said there was no AI on that thing!" Miyon gawked, amazed by the revelation.

"I am not an AI," Xanthe answered. "An AI is capable of self-improvement. Self-replication… I am not capable of any of that. At most, I can return to my original designation. I can't do more than that. Not even when connected to my Pilot."

"Let's leave the what is what for a later time! It is a philosophical debate that I am not keen to engage in right now." Omega cut in before it could get out of hand. "There is still a battle before us! I need to concentrate as Xanthe only has 7% of its fuel."

"But-" Sylen wanted to ask, but with another beep, the connection was cut. "How are we going to get away from here…?" She asked nobody, letting out a long, frustrated sigh.

"For now, just trust him," Miyon said, unable to come up with something else.

"Huh…" Sylen shook her head, looking at her grandfather. "Hearing it from you, Pa… is still funny."

…
….
…..

Omega opened his eyes in the Pilot's seat as his surroundings quickly lit up. The outside world was reflected inside the Suit of Ares's cockpit, and watching the swirling blue fabric of reality, prompted him to sigh a little. Ending the melding process for a brief moment, he could catch his breath. It was exhausting as Xanthe was not tailored to him and its Pilot's death caused many underlying issues. Its programming was jumbled, with many strings of code completely broken, interfering with its core functions. Omega was now adjusting everything for the suit and not vice versa.

"You need a complete overhaul, old girl…." Omega murmured, rubbing his eyes. The projection screen quickly flickered into life, displaying Xanthe's messages.

"I am neither a boy nor a girl. My designation is Xanthe, manufactured by the Hegemony's base on Titan. Designation: Hephaestus. Earth Date: 2572. I have been in service since then."

"Your last Pilot was a girl," Omega said, but Xanthe immediately flashed a string of messages.

"Major Lauren. Birthplace: Mars. Bloodtype-"

"Stop! I know... Go back to debugging! You are way too fractured…." He moaned, rubbing his temples. "You all take on the personality of your Pilots… you are a girl, even if you like it or not…." He murmured, shaking his head. He was developing a slight headache.

The projection from the seat's headrest was gone as Xanthe was occupied fixing the bugs in his programming. She could not fix all of her own problems, but where she could access them, she could return to her own factory programming, designed in her birthplace, at Hephaestus. Making her return to full glory would be a huge undertaking. Right now, being alone was not something Omega could focus on.

"I don't even get why I know this much about you!" He thought to himself, and then a weird idea flashed through his mind. Something he couldn't shake off anymore. "Did I make you? Did I design… you?" He tilted his head, watching the outside world. He couldn't recall. Not right now. "Haaaah!" He moaned, slapping his own face. "We have 30 minutes, Xanthe! Make it count!"

…
….
…..

"Shields back at 57%." The bridge officer said as the countdown was already going. The Gynkwhon ships, traversing the Astropath before them, have already arrived, and they were only half a minute from following suit. They were about to reappear in real space.

"Follow the plan!" Parthen ordered, taking a quick look at the smaller projection from his chair's armrest. It showed the Xanthe half-kneeling on the hull of the ship. Its actions could be explained by the small window of time they had left when entering the Astropath. Maybe it was why it hadn't flown back into their docking bay… but Parthen was thinking about something else.

"Major General?" Rururin asked, noticing his gaze, fixated on the image of the Xanthe.

"How much do we know about it?" He asked.

"We downloaded all data stored in its core. We just need time to unpack everything. Including its schematics."

"..." He watched it, unblinking, before turning towards the big screen. "At least we won't go home empty-handed."

"Major General?" Rururin asked, but she received no answer.

The ship shook violently as they reappeared in real space. Their shields were immediately up and what they were greeted with, as the blue swirls disappeared, was a violent battlefield. The Gynkwhon ships were engaged with another fleet stationed at the end of the Astropath. They belonged to the Federation of Vogh. They were a species originating from a plant of their homeworld. Their bodies were pitcher-shaped, 3 and 4 meters tall, and they could swallow a man whole and digest it as carnivorous. But not one that was content with eating sunshine only.

On their home planet, there were multiple other intelligent and highly advanced creatures, all evolving from different, living, and thinking plants. The Vogh had the advantage of being the first to climb the evolutionary ladder and became the dominant species. They unified the planet and led them into space right around the time. Humans came and discovered them. They were going along the route of becoming part of the Hegemony when the Humans suddenly disappeared.

Since then, their history mostly revolved around the battles they waged against the Gynkwhon. They were similar, using biomass and biological constructions to traverse space. Just as the Gynkwhon loved using fleshy beings as their nests, the Vogh loved eating them. At first glance, the two species were a match made in heaven. In the past thousands of years, the only problem was that the Gynkwhon has evolved. Their blood became increasingly toxic, and the Vogh had trouble breaking it down. Not to mention the time each species had to replenish its numbers. The Vogh were falling behind as they measured their reproduction cycles in decades.

"How interesting…" Omega thought as he was calling up the information on the Vogh and their leaf-like ships, seeing them from the helmet of Xanthe. They had already engaged in a vicious battle with the Gynkwhon. Their differently looking, leaf-shaped ships were firing green energy beams, burning the regenerative hulls of the bugs, combating their healing capabilities by burning away their biomass.

"I have too little information on them. Only what you provided. My data seems… corrupted." Xanthe answered as they stood up straight on the hull of the Veil.

"Doesn't matter," Omega said, looking around, quickly scanning where they were.

"Match found," Xanthe said, as the Veil was taking a sharp angle, dipping, going below the raging battlefield, already escaping towards another Astropath. The appearing Gynkwhon ships that rushed after the Veil initially took on different targets. Some chose to engage the Vogh, while others followed the Veil like bloodhounds. "Transmitting data."

"Mhm." Omega nodded as he got a mental image. Two average-sized suns were orbiting each other without any other planets nearby. They were in a binary system.

The Vogh established many bases, collecting the stars' energies to man massive, interstellar weapon systems. But that did not mean there were no structures present. The giant 'cannons' were all aimed at the same Astropath. The one that was still 'trembling.' The Vogh already realized that something was still in it. Coming… and that something was big. If they lose this system, that could open up their Federation to the Gynkwhon, as three Astropaths led into it from here.

"UFG-DS.992 How charming." Omega chuckled.

"There are too many star systems in the Milky Way to name them all," Xanthe answered.

"Whatever! Let's start! We are heading to point 85.33.2!" Omega said before something else came up. The Veil was heading toward an Astropath. They would be stuck with the Major General if he did not hurry.

"Major General!" Rururin exclaimed, "The B-D-332 escape pod is initiating a launch!"

"What?!" One of the officers also exclaimed, trying to stop it, but it was too late. Parthen only glanced at the information once before looking at the image of Xanthe standing at the launch point of the aforementioned escape pod.

"Focus on leaving." He said with a calm, even voice, closing down the image feed. "We got two pursuers. We need to shake them off!"

"Y-yes, Sir!" Everyone answered while Rururin bit into her lips, guessing what was happening.

When the pod launched, Omega was there to catch it. After that, he broke off, holding it close to his chest. Inside, Miyon and Sylen felt the sudden and gut-wrenching launch, then the immediate stop, making them sick and losing consciousness for a brief moment from the extreme G-forces.

"Do not bother with the fuel!" Omega ordered, and the Xanthe was burning the last remaining anti-dark matter in its banks to fly through space at a blinding speed.

"Major General!" Rururin exclaimed again. "An Astropath is opening, right where the Suit of Ares is heading towards!"

"Hmf." Parthen snorted, thinking this was organized by one of the other major factions, or they wouldn't be able to know about this at all. They may even have spies on the Veil right now or on the board of the army… everything was possible. He was sure, Omega had the backing of another big shot on the same level as Admiral Jankho himself. "Focus on reaching our target!"

"It… it is the ship, registered as the Dawn. Only one ship…." Rururin said.

"That rustbucket?" Parthen furrowed his brows. Now… he was not that certain. This seemed illogical. Total nonsense. Even if every arriving Gynkwhon ship was ignoring it, that would still be a futile endeavor. By the time they reached an Astropath leading OUT, they would be massacred. Even if they have the Suit of Ares.

As he was asking, Omega had already docked with the Dawn, placing the escape pod into its empty cargo hold while the Xanthe was magnetically strapped to its side. It was too big to fit into it.

"I really hate this!" Omega thought as he opened the Xanthe's helmet, exposing himself to the vacuum of space. He was fine, didn't even need to breathe, and only felt cold. Extremely cold. So much so that he thought his body was freezing over and getting harder and harder to move. He hurriedly 'swam' over to the open cargo bay, stepping onto the floor of the Dawn as the doors closed behind him. When the air was pumped into the cargo hold, and he could help Miyon and Sylen get out of it, he had no time to explain, hurrying them onto the ship's bridge.

"What now?" Sylen asked, pale and dizzy but knowing it was not the time to moan and ask questions. Neither did Miyon. He just simply sat behind the controls, getting ready to fly the old girl.

"Turn around. We are heading back." Omega said, shocking them.

"That is going to tear us apart!" Miyon turned around, looking at him with a trembling beard.

"No. It won't." Omega smiled. "Your concept of how Astropaths are simply put… wrong." He said, closing his eyes, and he let out a long breath, focusing on a particular feeling that came to him naturally.

"What is happening?" Parthen asked, back on the Veil's bridge. They kept an eye on the Dawn, but when Rururin told him they were… turning around, everyone became silent. "On screen!" Parthen ordered. They watched, with mouth agape, as the Astropath opened up, and the rusty Dawn was heading straight into it without a second thought.

"They are destroying our stuff!" Rururin moaned, pulling on her ears, looking desperate and angry simultaneously.

What happened next shocked the crew on the Veil's bridge. The ship should have been obliterated the moment it flew too close. The violent force from an Astropath was like blowing on a house made of cards. If entering from the wrong direction, matter itself was torn apart. Especially if it was a rusty little ship like the Dawn. Yet it entered the Astropath without a problem, disappearing right before their eyes as it closed behind it.

"..."

"..."

Nobody could say anything, and only the Veil's trembling shook them back to reality as maggot-like projectiles landed on their shields.

“Initiate the Astropath… we are leaving…” Parthen said, sinking deep into his thoughts, not even watching the screens anymore. He was also ignoring that from another Astropath, thousands of Gynkwhon ships were swarming the whole system behind them as they escaped.