The news that Kaelen Deyron and his team had survived their mission to northern Edena should have been cause for celebration. But in the presidential palace, it was met with grim faces and suffocating silence. For the true plan had always been to raise Kaelen's name, only to crush it, so the Deyron family would lose all credibility in the eyes of the people.
Deep within the underground command chamber, President Caius Dalthar stood before a large screen displaying the emergency signal Kaelen had managed to send to Aetheria's underground network. Behind him, his advisors exchanged uneasy glances.
"How is he still alive?" Caius murmured, his voice soft but sharp.
His strategic advisor, Jeren Solvak, swallowed hard before responding.
"We assumed the weather interference would be enough to disable the emergency beacon. But it seems Deyron... is more stubborn than we anticipated."
Caius stared at the screen for several seconds, then said coldly, "Then we make him believe he's a hero."
Hours later, a large drone was dispatched from the Ceralune air station toward Kaelen's last known coordinates. It carried a voice message from the President himself:
"Kaelen Deyron, the people of Edena will never forget your bravery. The expedition to the northern region is deemed a failure. No signal has been received from the previous team. We will dispatch a retrieval unit immediately. Hold on."
Kaelen, camped with the remnants of his unit behind a frozen ravine, listened to the message with an impassive face.
"So they've admitted the mission failed..." he murmured.
Sergeant Lienne answered softly, "And as if we weren't part of that failure."
Kaelen nodded. "But we don't yet know their true intentions."
They didn't have to wait long.
Shortly after the drone landed and delivered a logistics package, it emitted an invisible pulse, a high-frequency signal that agitated the biological systems of the northern beasts.
Soon, the ground trembled. Low growls echoed from the icy mist.
"Hold positions!" Kaelen shouted. "Take formation and ready the pulse launchers!"
The monsters charged, larger, more ferocious than ever, as if deliberately provoked.
The battle lasted three brutal hours. Kaelen and Lienne fought side by side until the extraction signal finally arrived.
But when the airship arrived, only one was left standing.
...
At the Edena military command center, Kaelen's return was met with cold indifference. No applause. No ceremony. Just a dim chamber where the High Military Evaluation Committee waited.
The official media broadcast:
"Commander Kaelen Deyron has returned from the failed expedition to northern Edena. Tragically, his entire team perished during the mission. The government expresses its deepest condolences and has scheduled a full military review."
Kaelen stood tall in the hearing chamber, facing five senior generals and two observers from the Ministry of Defense.
"Kaelen Deyron," General Thamos began, "your report fails to explain why you didn't abort the mission when there were no signs of the previous expedition. Why didn't you retreat?"
Kaelen replied firmly, "Because the order came directly from the President."
"And yet, there is no written evidence of such an order."
Kaelen exhaled slowly. "It was delivered via first-class encrypted channel. Impossible to forge."
Another general interjected, "Then why are you the only survivor? What were you doing when your men were attacked?"
"Fighting," Kaelen answered flatly.
Silence fell over the chamber.
------------------
Two days after the hearing, the verdict was announced:
"Commander Kaelen Deyron is hereby found guilty of negligence in the execution of a high-risk mission and officially stripped of his rank. He will be suspended from all active military duties and barred from operations for five cycles."
The media moved swiftly.
News broadcasts, opinion pieces, and short documentaries flooded the networks, all echoing a carefully crafted narrative:
"If Auren Deyron had become President, would he have sacrificed Edena the way his son sacrificed his squad?"
"President Caius's decision to place national values above familial loyalty deserves respect."
"Kaelen Deyron: the silent traitor."
In Valessia Park, Auren sat quietly beneath the night sky. Beside him, Kaelen, now without rank, wore only a plain black cloak.
"I never imagined," Kaelen muttered, "that an award could become a weapon."
Auren looked at his son with quiet warmth. "Power is like water, Kaelen. It can nourish... or drown."
"Should I fight back?"
"Not yet," Auren said softly. "Let them celebrate their victory. The higher they climb, the louder the truth will sound when they fall."
------------------
A year passed since the world witnessed Kaelen Deyron's fall. Since then, President Caius Dalthar had changed completely. The warm smile he once offered the people now appeared only on propaganda screens. Behind the veil, his rule became a merciless regime.
All resistance, whispers in community corners, open forums, was silenced. Vox Terra, once a beacon of idealistic defiance, had become a memory. Its members were arrested or vanished. Those who remained withdrew quietly after their families received threats too real to ignore.
"If you do not stop, your blood will not fall alone," read the anonymous messages sent to the personal devices of former activists.
Even Aetheria fell silent. The once-proud conservationists in the government now worked under shadows of fear. They still existed, but they no longer spoke.
And Kaelen Deyron? He was no longer a hero. Nor a villain. He was simply... silent. Living far from the spotlight. Forgotten by the world, and choosing to forget it in return.
It was in this silence that Edena began to signal.
The planet, once humanity's new home, now showed signs of fatigue. Electromagnetic storms became more frequent and unpredictable. Rivers mysteriously dried. Formerly docile wildlife turned aggressive, losing social instinct. Rare flora species died simultaneously across the southern region.
In Solera District's underground research lab, a conservationist scientist named Lyra Naevon stood before the scientific council with her latest findings.
"Edena's magnetic layer has thinned by 32% over the past decade. If this continues, we'll lose all protection from cosmic radiation in under two years. The planet will enter an age of darkness."
Some scientists looked alarmed. But their voices were drowned by a singular presence: Arlen Vorex, new leader of the expansionist project.
Arlen, dressed immaculately and radiating confidence, responded with dismissive ease.
"Your findings are indeed concerning, Dr. Lyra. But we must understand that every advancement comes at a cost. This is the price of transformation. We're not destroying Edena, we're rebuilding it."
"At the expense of its biological systems?" Lyra challenged. "We don't have a backup planet."
Arlen smiled. "With our current technology, we can replicate all of it. Genetics, atmosphere, even magnetic fields, everything can be engineered."
Lyra didn't yield. She visited conservationist communities, distributed data, held small seminars, sent reports to any government department still willing to listen.
But all were rejected. Even her colleagues began to distance themselves.
"Lyra," said Dres Maren at a quiet café, "you know I agree with you. But my family... they've been threatened. My child... is being watched. I can't."
"Then who can?" Lyra's voice broke.
Dres looked down. "Maybe... no one."
Months later, Arlen and his team announced their triumphs:
"Veinsteel mining has reached Edena's mineral core. The planet's energy will be converted into clean fuel for millennia."
"Project Atmos-Genesis begins today. Objective: align Edena's atmosphere with Earth's oxygen-carbon standard."
"The Bio-Surge Genetic Unit has successfully modified local flora and fauna DNA for increased productivity."
Cities glowed brighter. Energy was abundant. Machines replaced manual labor. And those who questioned it... vanished from public discourse.
...
Meanwhile, Kaelen sat on his veranda in Valessia, a report from the hidden network in hand, data detailing Edena's atmospheric collapse.
He read it slowly, then looked to the sky.
"It's time," he murmured.
From within the house, Auren emerged with a warm drink.
"Are you sure you want to step back in?" he asked.
Kaelen nodded. "If we don't speak... who will?"
Auren looked deeply into his son's eyes. "A wound that hasn't healed will bleed again if you force it to run."
Kaelen answered, "But if I sit still... I'll die slowly."
Across Edena, the expansionists celebrated. Machines dug deeper. The skies began to change color.