Re-Awakened :I Ascend as an SSS-Ranked Dragon Summoner - Chapter 462

Chapter 462: War heroes or victims

The Meridian’s Edge touched down on Vanguard Station’s main docking platform with a series of heavy thuds as the landing gear absorbed the vessel’s weight. The ship settled into its berth, and through the viewport Noah could see the familiar expanse of the station’s interior bay stretching out before them.

Home…Except it didn’t feel like home anymore.

The docking clamps locked into place with loud metallic clangs that echoed through the transport’s hull. Noah stood near the boarding ramp with the rest of his team, each of them lost in their own thoughts about what was waiting on the other side of that door.

Sophie stared at her hands like she’d never seen them before. Diana had positioned herself as far from Kelvin as the cabin would allow, her jaw set in a way that suggested she was still furious about their argument. Kelvin himself looked exhausted in a way that went beyond physical tiredness, the kind of worn down that came from carrying too much weight for too long.

Lucas’s absence sat among them like a physical presence, a reminder of how badly things had gone wrong.

Commander Brooks moved through the cabin, checking equipment and making final preparations. Her expression gave away nothing about what she thought of the situation or the people she’d been ordered to bring back.

“When we exit this ship, you maintain formation,” she said, her voice carrying the authority of someone who’d spent years teaching teenagers how to act like soldiers. “You answer questions with yes ma’am or no ma’am unless someone specifically asks for more. You don’t discuss where you’ve been or what you’ve done with anyone except designated command personnel during official debriefing. Clear?”

“Yes ma’am,” they replied together, the automatic response of military training reasserting itself despite everything.

The boarding ramp began to lower with a mechanical whine, revealing the docking bay beyond. What Noah saw through the widening gap made his stomach sink.

The bay was packed with people.

Recruits from other teams crowded the observation platforms above the landing pad, pressed against railings to get a better view. More gathered on the bay floor itself, kept back by security personnel but clearly eager to see what was happening. The noise level was incredible—dozens of conversations happening at once, speculation and excitement mixing into a din that filled the entire space.

“Is that them?”

“Finally! I thought Team 7 was never coming back!”

“What mission were they on?”

“Eclipse looks like hell. What happened to him?”

Noah recognized faces in the crowd. Jackson from Team 3, Sarah from Team 5, Marcus who’d been in their basic training cohort. People he’d eaten meals with, trained alongside, competed against in combat simulations. All of them staring with expressions that ranged from curiosity to concern to something that looked almost like envy.

Team 7 had left as the station’s golden squad, the group everyone else measured themselves against. Noah Eclipse, the SSS-ranked prodigy. Lucas Grey, S-ranked soldier and literal prince. Sophie Reign with her probability manipulation. Diana Frost and her momentum abilities. Kelvin Pithon, technical genius and son of a military industry titan.

They were returning under armed escort, looking like they’d been through a meat grinder.

“Where’s Lucas?” someone shouted from the crowd.

The question hung in the air, and Noah felt everyone on his team tense. Lucas’s absence was going to be impossible to explain, at least not here in front of hundreds of people who expected answers they couldn’t provide.

Brooks’ escort team—the six recruits from Team 2 who’d accompanied her to Raiju Prime—descended the ramp first, forming a protective corridor. Noah noticed how Rocky Miles positioned himself to block certain sight lines, how the others moved to create a buffer between Team 7 and the crowd.

Brooks had clearly given them orders about this. Don’t talk. Don’t explain. Don’t give the rumor mill any fuel beyond what it would create on its own.

“Make way,” Brooks ordered, her voice cutting through the noise. “Security clearance required for this area. Everyone not assigned to this detail needs to clear the bay immediately.”

Station security began herding the crowd back toward the exits, but the noise only increased as people shouted questions over each other.

“What happened to them?”

“Is Lucas okay?”

“Why do they look so beat up?”

“Were they on a classified mission?”

Sarah from Team 5 caught Noah’s eye as she was being moved back. Her expression was pure confusion, the look of someone trying to understand why her friends were being treated like criminals instead of heroes. Noah wanted to say something, to explain that this wasn’t what it looked like, but what could he say that wouldn’t make things worse?

They walked through the crowd in formation, Brooks leading while her team boxed them in on all sides. The other recruits pressed against the security cordon, trying to get closer, their voices blending into an incomprehensible roar of questions and speculation.

Then Noah saw her.

Lyra stood near one of the bay’s side exits, partially obscured by a support pillar but unmistakably present. She wore standard issue training gear, looking like any other recruit waiting for their team to return from deployment. But her eyes met Noah’s across the chaos, and in that brief moment of contact, Noah saw something he couldn’t quite identify. Relief? Warning? Guilt?

Diana had spotted her too. Noah felt his teammate stiffen, her stride faltering for just a second before she forced herself to keep moving. The hatred in Diana’s expression was so intense it was almost physical, but she said nothing. Brooks’ orders about silence applied to everything, including confronting the person they all believed had betrayed them.

Kelvin’s hands clenched into fists when he noticed Lyra. Yes she’d helped them eventually but it didn’t change what they knew. She was an infinity soldier, an Endless like she mentioned. He straightened his head and kept walking. Sophie looked away entirely, as if acknowledging Lyra’s presence would somehow make the betrayal more real.

Lyra didn’t move from her position. She just watched them pass, her expression unreadable in a way that suggested she’d practiced hiding her emotions long before joining their team.

The crowd finally thinned as they moved deeper into the station’s interior corridors. The noise faded to background levels, replaced by the normal sounds of military life—boots on metal floors, distant announcements over intercom systems, the hum of air recycling equipment.

Brooks led them through a series of turns that took them away from the living quarters and training areas. They were heading toward the administrative section, where the commanders had their offices and where disciplinary proceedings took place. Noah had only been in this part of the station once before, during initial processing when they’d first arrived.

They stopped at a door marked “Briefing Room 12.” Brooks keyed in an access code, and the door slid open to reveal a sterile space dominated by a large conference table. Chairs lined both sides, and recording equipment had been set up in the corners.

“Inside,” Brooks ordered. “Sit.”

Team 7 filed into the room and took seats on one side of the table. The chairs were uncomfortable by design, the kind that made it impossible to relax or get too comfortable during long meetings. Noah sat with Sophie on his right and Kelvin on his left. Diana claimed a chair at the far end, maintaining her distance.

Lucas’s empty seat felt like an accusation.

Brooks remained standing, her arms crossed as she studied them with the expression of someone trying to solve a particularly frustrating puzzle. Her Team 2 escorts took positions by the door, their presence making it clear that this wasn’t a friendly chat between former teacher and students.

“I’m going to need you to start from the beginning,” Brooks said finally. “Everything that happened from the moment you left this station five weeks ago. Leave nothing out.”

Noah glanced at his teammates, seeing his own uncertainty reflected in their faces. Where did they even start? How did you explain five weeks of chasing ghosts and fighting battles that shouldn’t exist?

“Lucas received communication from his family,” Sophie began, her voice steady despite the exhaustion. “His father requested his immediate return to Raiju Prime. We decided to go with him.”

“Decided,” Brooks repeated. “Not requested permission. Not filed proper departure documentation. Decided.”

“Yes ma’am.”

Brooks gestured for her to continue.

Sophie took a breath and launched into the story. She explained their arrival on Raiju Prime and what they’d discovered there and the events after–that Lucas’s father, the king of the Grey family, had been taken. That this wasn’t an isolated incident but part of a pattern stretching back centuries.

“Every fifty years or so,” Kelvin added, his mind organizing the information into clear patterns, “one of the original family heads would disappear. The families would appoint a new leader and continue on like nothing happened. It’s been going on for longer than anyone alive can remember.”

Noah picked up the thread. “Lucas’s father told him about an eighth ancestor. Someone with a grievance against the seven original families, someone who’d been taking their leaders for reasons we didn’t understand at first.”

Brooks’ expression shifted subtly. “An eighth ancestor? The original families number seven. That’s established history.”

“That’s what everyone thought,” Diana said. “But apparently there was someone else. Someone who got pushed out or betrayed or whatever happened centuries ago, and they’ve been taking revenge ever since.”

Sophie continued the narrative, explaining the complicated political situation they’d discovered. “There was an agreement between all seven families to submit their heads to this eighth ancestor. Some kind of arrangement that had been in place for generations. But this time, some of the families decided they weren’t going to honor it anymore.”

“Which meant the Greys weren’t either,” Kelvin added. “Lucas’s father brought his son home because he knew things were about to get complicated.”

“How complicated?” Brooks asked.

“The palace was attacked,” Noah said flatly. “While we were there. Shadow soldiers, abilities that shouldn’t exist, an assault designed to take Lucas’s father by force.”

He told her about their investigation, about tracking leads across multiple worlds. About finding evidence on Lilivil, a planet inhabited by space elves where this eighth ancestor had been present over a hundred years ago.

“He bred with them,” Sophie explained, and Noah could hear the disgust in her voice. “We found beings that looked like elves but weren’t quite right. They could mimic abilities temporarily, copy powers they observed. We think he was experimenting, trying to create something.”

The story spilled out in pieces, each of them contributing details as they remembered them. Tracking the eighth to another world where he’d been setting up some kind of research operation. Forming an alliance with the Ares family and their king, Aurelius, who’d been enthusiastic about helping them hunt down this mysterious enemy.

“King Aurelius is gone now too,” Kelvin said quietly. “Taken during the assault on Earth, at one of the eighth’s strongholds.”

Brooks had remained standing throughout their entire explanation, but now she pulled out a chair and sat down heavily. “I need a drink,” she muttered, rubbing her temples.

The silence stretched while she processed what they’d told her. Noah watched his former instructor war with disbelief and the evidence sitting in front of her—five exhausted students who’d clearly been through something intense, whether or not their story was believable.

“You’re telling me,” Brooks said slowly, “that there’s an eighth original ancestor that nobody in recorded history has ever acknowledged. That this person has been kidnapping family heads for centuries. That they’ve been conducting biological experiments on alien species. And that you somehow tracked them down and fought them on Earth.”

“Yes ma’am,” Noah replied.

“That’s… a lot to believe.”

“We know how it sounds,” Sophie said.

Brooks shook her head. “The problem is verification. The attack on Earth left significant damage, yes, but EDF forces on the ground reported that the fortress belonged to a disbanded faction. Old infrastructure, abandoned for years, nothing that suggests the kind of threat you’re describing.”

Noah felt his blood run cold. “That’s impossible. We fought him there. We saw—”

“What you saw and what can be proven are two different things,” Brooks interrupted. “And right now, all we have is your word against physical evidence that doesn’t support your claims.”

“So you think we’re lying?” Diana’s voice carried an edge that suggested she was about two seconds from doing something they’d all regret.

“I think you believe what you’re saying. But I also think you’re asking me to accept the existence of a conspiracy that’s been hidden from humanity for centuries, orchestrated by someone with abilities that dwarf anything we’ve documented, based solely on testimony from five recruits who’ve been operating without oversight for over a month.”

Before anyone could respond, the door opened. Commanders Mei Lein, Cassandra Beaumont, and Viktor Volkov entered, their expressions grim. They looked like they’d aged years since Team 7 had last seen them, stress and exhaustion written in every line of their faces.

“It is hard to believe,” Mei said quietly, having clearly been listening through the room’s monitoring systems. “But we intend to get answers.”

Volkov’s expression was harder, colder. “The story about Lucas being trapped in some shadow dimension could just as easily be a fabricated excuse by the Grey family to keep their son from returning to active duty. They know that would trigger EDF response protocols, and maybe they’d rather handle their family politics without outside interference.”

Brooks looked up at the commanders. “How did the hearing go?”

Cassandra’s smile was tight and humorless. “As well as could be expected. We’re waiting for their decision.”

Volkov stepped forward, his anger barely contained beneath military discipline. “Here’s what’s going to happen. We’re separating all of you into individual interrogation rooms. Together, you can collaborate on your story, make sure the details line up. Separately, we’ll see how consistent your accounts actually are.”

He gestured to the door, where additional security personnel had appeared. “Escort each of them to separate rooms. Standard interrogation setup—table, two chairs, recording equipment.”

Noah started to protest, but Brooks held up a hand. “Don’t make this harder than it needs to be.”

They were each led by a different security officer through the corridors to small, identical rooms. Noah found himself in a space barely large enough for the furniture it contained—a metal table bolted to the floor, two chairs facing each other, and a microphone mounted on the wall that would record everything said.

He sat down and waited, listening to his own breathing and the distant sounds of the station going about its business. Somewhere in similar rooms, his teammates were sitting in similar isolation, probably wondering the same things he was. None of them knew what the others would say, what details might contradict, what inconsistencies would emerge under separate questioning.

That was the point.

—

In another room down the hall, Lyra sat in an identical setup. She’d been placed in interrogation before the others had even arrived, twenty four hours of isolation giving her plenty of time to prepare for this moment.

The door opened, and Commander Brooks entered, taking the seat across from her. The commanders—Mei, Cassandra, and Volkov—watched from an observation room, their faces displayed on monitors that Lyra couldn’t see.

Brooks studied Lyra for a long moment before speaking.

“Let’s start simple,” Brooks said, her voice cold and professional. “You weren’t on Raiju Prime with the rest of your team when we arrived. You left this station five weeks ago with the others, but you weren’t with them when we found them. According to our records, you turned yourself in to station security three 24 hours ago, requesting to be brought back into custody.”

She leaned forward slightly. “Why?”

Lyra was quiet for a long moment, her eyes meeting Brooks’ without flinching. Then she let out a long, slow breath that seemed to carry the weight of everything she’d been holding inside.

The commanders watched in silence from their separate observation post. In his isolated room, Noah had no idea this interrogation was even happening. Neither did Sophie, Diana, or Kelvin in their own separate cells.