Three things happened in the week following the Stage 5 engagement that changed Ray understanding of his situation the first was the medical scan the Forge Division team DrYun leading with three colleagues whose clearance levels Ray was not told ran a full biological workup on him post engagement they were specifically examining the effect of Stage 5 proximity on his cellular structure In every documented case sustained proximity to a Stage 5 Apexs terror frequency caused measurable degradation in human neural tissue small amounts recoverable, but consistent and real.
Ray cellular scan showed no degradation It showed the opposite. His cellular energy output was measurably higher after the engagement than before.
The stage 5 terror frequency instead of damaging him had generated a response that the Forge techs described as amplification consistent with Void Resonance integration at an accelerated rate.
DrYun called it with visible excitement and visible alarm in equal parts the most significant individual biological anomaly since Event Zero Ray called it I feel fine and went back to training.
The second thing was the message.
It arrived through GDF intelligence channels verified authentic by three independent systems origin point confirmed as the Kyoto ridge where Vael had been stationary It was text only in nine languages simultaneously English,Japanese,Korean,Swahili,Portuguese,Arabic, Mandarin,Russian,and Hindi every surviving language groups primary tongue.
It said there is a boy at Vega Citadel His name is Ray Lexmix He carries something that was ours before it was his. We are coming for it You can not stop us from reaching him You can only decide whether he is alive when we arrive.
The GDF Supreme Council went to an emergency session that lasted fourteen hours Ray was told about the message six days later.
He was in the training bay with Kaspar when Kaspar told him. Kaspar don't sit down to deliver the news and Don't soften it. He read the message verbatim from his datapad, then put the datapad down, and looked at Ray.
Your reaction.
It said 'something that was ours Not someone.
Yes.
So they're not coming for me they're coming for what I carry the Void Resonance That's the Supreme Council's interpretation as well.
How long do we have?
Unknown The army we observed massing around Kyoto has dispersed We don't know where it went We don't know what coming means on a Stage 12 timeline.
Ray was quiet for a moment The suit was pulsing steadily Not alarm something else The low frequency of acknowledgment.
What is the Supreme Council doing?
Debating Some want to increase your security some want to use you as bait for a Strategic Engagement Some want to Some want to put you somewhere remote and use you as bait in a way that doesn't risk the Citadel.
Ray heard the pause before some want to and understood what it covered Some want to kill me.
There is a faction that argues eliminating the asset removes the target.
The word asset.
What do you think?
I think you survived three weeks in Harlan Gate with a knife and a modified flare gun and then walked into my processing plant and gave me a way out that I hadn't found in four days. I think you scared a Stage 5 Apex into retreat behavior that Stage 5 Apexes don't demonstrate. I think a combat suit that refused eleven months of candidates bonded to you in twelve minutes.
He paused.
I think we would be idiots to waste that.
Ray looked at him.
What are you going to do?
I'm going to go back to the Supreme Council and tell them that the appropriate response to a Stage 12 saying we are coming for your asset is to make that asset into the hardest thing on earth to take Silence.
How?
By training you Properly At the level your ability actually warrants instead of the Cadet program Ray thought about this Will they agree?
No. But they'll do it anyway because the option is waiting.
He picked up his datapad and walked toward the door.
Captain.
Kaspar stopped the message called it something that was ours before it was his the Void Resonance what does that mean?
Kaspar was quiet for a moment longer than his usual pauses.
It means the thing in you that makes you what you are it may not have originated with you And finding out where it came from may be the most important question this organization has ever tried to answer.
He left Ray stood alone in the training bay and put his hand over his sternum where the suit pulsed, and thought about origins.