The silence in the command center felt heavier than the endless data scrolling across the screens. Cynthia stood at the center, arms crossed, her mind replaying Dr. Adrian's last words before he vanished.
"There's someone worse than Vincent. Someone you haven't even begun to suspect."
It had been a whisper of warning, spoken like a confession. And then—he was gone.
Now, as Lena and Marcus worked furiously to track Adrian's last known location, Cynthia couldn't ignore the unease curling at the edges of her thoughts. They had spent so much time chasing Vincent Kane, but if Adrian was right, they had been focused on the wrong enemy.
A sharp beep from Marcus's terminal shattered the tension.
"I found something," he muttered, fingers moving rapidly over the keyboard. The screen flickered, revealing encrypted files buried deep within AeroGallacianSpace's secure archives—files Adrian had accessed just before he disappeared.
Cynthia leaned in. "What are we looking at?"
Marcus exhaled. "Blueprints, schematics… but not ours."
Lena's eyes widened. "Wait. These designs—this isn't just propulsion tech. This is—"
"Orbital weapons," Prometheus finished grimly, stepping forward.
The room went still.
Cynthia's pulse quickened. "You're saying someone inside AeroGallacianSpace was developing weaponized satellites? That wasn't in any of our research divisions."
Marcus shook his head. "Because it wasn't official. This project was hidden under layers of classified access, buried so deep even I wouldn't have found it without Adrian's digital breadcrumbs." He zoomed in on a specific file name. "Project Aether."
Lena swallowed hard. "And Adrian knew about this?"
"He must have," Marcus said. "And that's why he disappeared."
Cynthia straightened. "We need to find out who's behind this. If Adrian was right and Vincent wasn't the biggest threat, then maybe—"
Before she could finish, a second alert flashed across the screen. A security breach.
Someone was trying to wipe the files.
Marcus cursed. "They know we're looking."
Cynthia didn't hesitate. "Shut it down. Now."
Lena and Marcus worked furiously, but the data was vanishing before their eyes. Whoever was behind Project Aether wasn't just watching them—they were making their move.
And for the first time, Cynthia felt the weight of an enemy she couldn't see, an unseen force pulling the strings from the shadows.
They had just uncovered a secret they were never meant to find.
And now, the real game was beginning.