The Grand Hangar

  The Celestial Spire’s hangar bay stretched farther than Usa-hime had ever imagined.

  Rows upon rows of sleek, battle-ready starships gleamed under the artificial lighting, their metal hulls humming with energy.

  Cadets from every squad gathered around, their voices filled with excitement, nervousness, and outright panic.

  At the front of the massive hangar, standing with his usual arms-crossed, I’m-not-impressed stance, was Instructor Callen.

  “Listen up, rookies!” he barked, his voice cutting through the chatter.

  “The Union doesn’t just need Hunters who can throw punches and fire blasters. Out there—” he gestured to the massive space beyond the hangar’s force field, “—none of that matters if you don’t know how to navigate.”

  A few cadets shifted uneasily.

  Others—like Zyra—looked outright thrilled.

  Callen’s visor flickered as he paced. “Every Hunter is expected to know the basics of piloting, charting courses, and not crashing into every asteroid that gets in your way.”

  The overhead lights dimmed, and a holographic projection of a starship flickered to life.

  A sleek, dagger-shaped cruiser, black with blue thrusters, hovered in the center.

  “This,” Callen continued, “is the Dagger-Class Cruiser. This will be your ship today.”

  Murmurs spread through the crowd.

  Usa-hime tilted her head. “Looks fast.”

  “Looks deadly,” Kuro added.

  Callen ignored them. “Each team gets their own ship. You will work together to complete today’s navigation trial. Your goal? Successfully pilot your cruiser through a simulated course and reach the rendezvous point.”

  Zyra smirked. “Sounds easy.”

  Callen’s visor gleamed. “Then you’ll love the second part.”

  Zyra’s smirk vanished.

  “You’ll then take that same ship and pilot it across real space—no Union guidance, no safety measures. You’ll need to rely on your own skills to get to the outpost where graduation will take place.”

  Silence.

  Then—Cipher groaned. “Great. I get motion sick.”

  Zyra slapped the back of their head. “You literally stare at screens all day.”

  “Yeah, but I don’t move.”

  Callen cleared his throat. “Get to your assigned ships. Try not to die.”

  Meet the Ship

  Usa-hime’s team walked up to their assigned cruiser.

  The ship was smaller than a warship but faster than a transport, made for precision and agility.

  A single name was painted on the side in bold silver letters.

  “STARDANCER.”

  Kuro ran a hand along the hull. “Not bad.”

  Zyra stretched her arms. “Alright, let’s go!”

  But the moment they reached the boarding ramp—

  The arguing started.

  “I’m piloting, obviously,” Zyra said, cracking her knuckles.

  “Uh, no,” Cipher scoffed. “You have no sense of precision. You’d fly us straight into a sun.”

  “Excuse me?!”

  “I’m just saying, if flying required shooting things, you’d be perfect.”

  Kuro sighed. “I vote not Cipher. They’ll be too busy gaming mid-flight.”

  Cipher gasped. “I am offended by how accurate that is.”

  Usa-hime sighed. “Okay, so who is flying?”

  The group went silent.

  Then—all eyes turned to her.

  Usa-hime froze. “Wait—why me?”

  Zyra smirked. “You have crazy instincts, and you learn fast. Plus, we all saw you dodge debris like a pro last mission.”

  Kuro nodded. “She’s got the reaction speed.”

  Cipher shrugged. “Fine. But if we crash, I get to say ‘I told you so.’”

  Raze, standing silently in the background, finally spoke.

  “…I’ll watch.”

  That was the closest thing to approval anyone would get.

  Usa-hime sighed. “Alright. I’ll do it.”

  She placed a hand on the hull of the Stardancer.

  “Let’s see what you’ve got.”

  Liftoff

  The cockpit hummed as it powered up.

  Usa-hime sat in the pilot’s seat, gripping the controls.

  Cipher was at navigation, fingers tapping on their holo-display.

  Zyra manned weapons and defense, hands hovering over the targeting system.

  Kuro adjusted communications, syncing with the Union’s tracking beacons.

  And Raze?

  Raze just stood behind them, arms crossed, watching everything.

  Usa-hime took a deep breath.

  “Okay. I can do this.”

  She pressed the ignition switch.

  Engines roared to life.

  The ship trembled beneath them.

  The hangar doors slid open, revealing the vast stretch of space.

  Usa-hime’s heart pounded.

  Then—

  “Stardancer, you are clear for launch.”

  She pushed the throttle forward.

  The ship lurched—then soared into the void.

  Into the Trial Run

  The moment they entered open space, a holographic course materialized.

  Brightly lit rings and markers spread across the sector—an obstacle course designed to test speed, agility, and coordination.

  Callen’s voice crackled through the comms.

  “Your trial has begun. Make it through the course without crashing. If you fail, you get to repeat the exercise until I am no longer disgusted by your performance.”

  Cipher muttered, “This guy’s motivational skills are amazing.”

  Usa-hime exhaled.

  “Alright. Let’s do this.”

  The first checkpoint ring came up fast.

  She tilted the controls, guiding the ship through.

  Smooth.

  The next set of rings were closer together.

  She adjusted—too sharp.

  The ship tilted dangerously.

  “Whoa—watch it!” Zyra snapped.

  “I got it!”

  Usa-hime steadied the ship, her fingers gripping the controls tighter.

  The next challenge—a moving ring.

  Cipher sighed. “Because of course there’s moving parts.”

  “Can’t be too hard,” Usa-hime muttered.

  Then—Callen turned on the asteroid simulation.

  Massive chunks of space rock materialized, moving randomly.

  Zyra groaned. “You HAD to say something!”

  “Shut up, I’m focusing!”

  Usa-hime dove under a spinning asteroid, barely scraping the hull.

  A narrow tunnel formed ahead—a canyon of floating debris.

  “Thread the needle, Rabbit Princess,” Kuro murmured.

  Usa-hime gritted her teeth.

  She nosed the ship down, then sharply tilted through the narrowest gap.

  No contact.

  Cipher let out a low whistle. “Okay, that was kinda cool.”

  Zyra grinned. “Not bad, rookie.”

  But just as they neared the final checkpoint—

  Callen’s voice interrupted.

  “Trial complete. But now, the real test begins.”

  The holographic course faded.

  And suddenly—

  They were in deep space.

  No guides.

  No assistance.

  Just the vast unknown.

  “Find your own way to the outpost.”

  The comm cut off.

  Usa-hime’s hands tightened on the controls.

  “…Well,” she muttered.

  “Now what?”

  Lost in Space

  The moment Usa-hime spoke those words, the cockpit fell into silence.

  Outside the ship?

  Nothing but the endless abyss.

  No markers.

  No beacons.

  No Callen barking orders in their ears.

  Just raw, untamed space.

  Cipher let out a slow whistle. “Welp. We’re gonna die.”

  Zyra smacked the back of their head. “We are not gonna die!”

  This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

  “Are you sure?” Cipher countered, pulling up the ship’s holo-display. “Because according to this, we are now officially floating in the middle of nowhere.”

  Usa-hime gritted her teeth.

  This was still part of the test.

  They had to navigate on their own to reach the Union’s graduation outpost.

  The problem?

  No one had any clue where that was.

  She turned to Cipher. “You’re the navigator. Start navigating.”

  Cipher blinked. “Oh, you think it’s that easy? Just ‘navigate’ through literal infinity?”

  Zyra crossed her arms. “Yes.”

  “Wow, I love how you all think this is just—boop beep—‘plot a course and we’re done.’” Cipher mimicked pressing buttons dramatically. “Space doesn’t work like that! I need a point of reference, a star chart, something! We could be anywhere!”

  Kuro, arms crossed, smirked. “So… we’re lost?”

  Cipher sighed deeply. “Oh, we’ve never been more lost in our lives.”

  Horrible Ideas Begin

  “Alright,” Usa-hime said, taking a breath. “Let’s think. What do real pilots do when they don’t have a map?”

  Zyra tapped her chin. “Blindly go forward and hope for the best?”

  Cipher threw their hands up. “Exactly! Which is why so many pilots die.”

  Usa-hime pinched the bridge of her nose. “Okay, new plan. What if we—”

  Suddenly—a proximity alarm blared.

  Cipher looked at the screen and went pale. “Oh… oh no.”

  Usa-hime tensed. “What?”

  Cipher slowly turned to face them.

  “Okay, so, funny story—”

  “Spit it out!” Zyra snapped.

  “We… may be drifting into a nebula storm.”

  Dead silence.

  Kuro sighed. “Of course we are.”

  The Nebula of Terror

  A swirling, cosmic cloud loomed ahead, glowing with red and blue lightning.

  Static buzzed through their comms as the ship entered its outer edges.

  Zyra gripped her seat. “How bad is this?”

  Cipher gulped. “On a scale of ‘mild inconvenience’ to ‘cosmic nightmare’? Yes.”

  The ship shuddered violently.

  Lightning arced through the nebula, creating massive electromagnetic pulses.

  Suddenly—

  All screens flickered.

  Lights dimmed.

  Usa-hime’s stomach sank.

  “Cipher?” she said carefully.

  Cipher nervously poked at the control panel. “Sooo… small problem. Our systems just died.”

  “WHAT?!”

  The ship lurched, spinning slightly.

  “WE’RE FLYING BLIND?!” Zyra shouted.

  Cipher frantically smacked buttons. “I’M TRYING TO REBOOT—STOP YELLING AT ME!”

  “WE’RE IN A LIGHTNING STORM, AND YOU WANT ME TO BE CALM?!”

  Kuro clawed onto his seat. “Can we focus on not dying?!”

  Meanwhile, Raze?

  Raze just stood there.

  Completely unbothered.

  Improvising… Poorly

  Usa-hime gritted her teeth, gripping the controls.

  “Fine. If the systems are down, I’ll fly manually.”

  Cipher turned horrified. “Do you know how to do that?!”

  “…No.”

  “THEN WHY WOULD YOU SAY THAT?!”

  Another lightning arc blasted nearby, shaking the ship.

  “JUST DO IT!” Zyra screamed.

  “WHY AM I PILOTING UNDER PRESSURE AGAIN?!” Usa-hime yelled back.

  Kuro sighed. “This is going well.”

  A Near-Death Maneuver

  The nebula’s energy currents threatened to drag the ship off course.

  Their sensors were offline.

  Their autopilot was fried.

  They had seconds before they got caught in a gravitational vortex.

  Usa-hime grabbed the manual throttle.

  “If this works, I’m a genius!”

  Cipher panicked. “If it doesn’t, we’re SPACE DUST!”

  She yanked the controls hard.

  The ship barreled into a sharp spin, dodging a massive energy arc by inches.

  “AAAAHHHHH!”

  “OH GODS, WE’RE GONNA DIE!”

  “FASTER! LEFT! NO, RIGHT!—WAIT, NOT THAT WAY!”

  Zyra slammed her hand against the dashboard. “JUST PICK A DIRECTION!”

  “I’M TRYING!”

  Another lightning arc barely missed them.

  Then—silence.

  The ship cleared the nebula, shooting out the other side.

  The moment they entered calm space, the ship stabilized.

  They didn’t die.

  They didn’t crash.

  …They actually made it.

  Usa-hime slumped in her seat, breathing heavily.

  Zyra wiped sweat from her forehead. “Okay. Not doing that again.”

  Cipher looked like they had aged ten years. “I need therapy.”

  Kuro chuckled. “I mean… we lived.”

  Usa-hime groaned. “At what cost?”

  New Problem: Pirates

  Just as the team relaxed—

  A red warning alarm blared.

  Cipher paled. “Oh, come on!”

  Kuro checked the radar. “Incoming vessels. Fast.”

  Zyra squinted. “Union ships?”

  Cipher tapped their screen. “Nope. Worse.”

  The holo-screen flickered, showing three ships closing in.

  Jagged designs. Skulls painted on the hulls.

  The mark of scavengers.

  Space pirates.

  Zyra sighed dramatically. “I swear, space hates us.”

  Usa-hime sat up fast. “Can we outrun them?”

  Cipher checked. “Maybe. But—uh—”

  Kuro groaned. “Just say it.”

  Cipher winced. “They already locked onto us.”

  A distorted voice crackled through the comms.

  “Unregistered vessel, this is Captain Drek of the Skull Fang Raiders. Power down your ship and prepare for boarding.”

  Usa-hime’s stomach dropped.

  Cipher blinked. “Oooor… hear me out… we just keep flying?”

  Zyra cracked her knuckles. “Oh no. I say we fight.”

  Kuro sighed. “This escalated quickly.”

  Space Pirates. Because of Course.

  “Unregistered vessel, this is Captain Drek of the Skull Fang Raiders. Power down your ship and prepare for boarding.”

  The pirate’s gravelly voice came through the comms like a death sentence.

  Usa-hime’s grip on the controls tightened.

  Zyra cracked her knuckles. “Oh, hell no. We are not getting robbed today.”

  Cipher waved their hands. “Okay—hold up! We don’t even have anything worth stealing!”

  Kuro smirked. “We have a ship.”

  Cipher blinked. “…Oh. Right. Yeah, that’s bad.”

  Outside the cockpit window, the three pirate vessels closed in, sleek and jagged, their rusted hulls covered in graffiti.

  Bright red tractor beams locked onto their ship, trying to pull them in.

  Usa-hime’s heart pounded.

  They were cadets.

  This wasn’t some Union-controlled training exercise.

  This was real.

  And if they got captured?

  There’d be no Callen to save them.

  She exhaled sharply. “Options?”

  Cipher swiped through the controls. “I mean… surrendering is an option.”

  Zyra grabbed their collar. “Say that again and I’ll throw you into deep space.”

  Cipher gulped. “Noted.”

  Kuro pointed at the incoming ships. “They’re faster than us. Outrunning them isn’t an option unless we lose the tractor beams first.”

  Raze, standing in the background, finally spoke.

  “…Use the nebula.”

  Everyone turned.

  Zyra blinked. “The electromagnetic death cloud we barely survived?”

  Raze nodded.

  Cipher looked at them like they were insane. “You want us to go back into the lightning storm?”

  “Yes.”

  Usa-hime hesitated.

  It was insane.

  But it was also genius.

  The nebula’s electromagnetic interference had fried their systems earlier.

  If they could get the pirates to follow them in…

  It could disable their ships too.

  Usa-hime’s mind raced.

  It was risky.

  But so was doing nothing.

  She grinned. “Strap in. We’re going storm-chasing.”

  Cipher’s face went pale. “I hate this plan.”

  Usa-hime slammed the thrusters forward.

  The Stardancer roared to life—jerking sideways, breaking from the tractor beams, and rocketing back toward the storm.

  The pirates hesitated.

  Then—

  “They’re making a run for it! After them!”

  The pirate ships followed.

  Exactly as planned.

  Reckless Maneuvers 101

  The nebula loomed ahead, crackling with energy.

  Usa-hime gritted her teeth, weaving between floating debris, dodging asteroids like they were mere traffic cones.

  Cipher’s screen flickered wildly. “We’re losing power again!”

  “Just a little further!”

  The pirates weren’t slowing down.

  The lead ship—**a massive rust-covered cruiser—**opened fire.

  Plasma bolts zipped past them, shaking the ship.

  Zyra’s hands flew over the controls. “Returning fire!”

  The Stardancer’s turrets blazed, shooting precise, controlled bursts—but the pirates had shields.

  Usa-hime cursed. “We need them inside the nebula!”

  Kuro, focused on the scanners, suddenly tensed.

  “They’re launching boarding pods.”

  Usa-hime’s stomach dropped.

  On the radar, two fast-moving pods detached from the pirate ships—each one the size of a torpedo, designed to punch into a hull and deploy raiders.

  Cipher nearly fell out of their chair. “Oh, NOW they decide to be smart?! GREAT!”

  Zyra growled. “Not happening.”

  She locked onto the pods and fired.

  BOOM!

  One pod exploded mid-air.

  The other?

  It dodged.

  “That thing’s gonna hit us in ten seconds!” Kuro warned.

  Usa-hime scanned the controls.

  No weapons. No shields. No countermeasures.

  Nothing.

  Except—

  Her eyes flicked to the side.

  A nearby asteroid, the size of a small building, drifting into their path.

  A crazy idea hit her.

  “Zyra, be ready!”

  Zyra narrowed her eyes. “For what?”

  Usa-hime jerked the ship upward—tilting just enough to put the asteroid between them and the incoming boarding pod.

  The pod couldn’t adjust in time.

  BOOM!

  The impact sent a shockwave through space.

  The pirate’s pod shattered against the asteroid, torn apart by the force.

  The Stardancer shook violently from the explosion, but held together.

  Silence.

  Then—

  Cipher threw their hands up. “WHAT KIND OF INSANE STUNT WAS THAT?!”

  Zyra laughed. “That was genius!”

  Kuro smirked. “Not bad, Rabbit Princess.”

  Usa-hime exhaled. “We’re not done yet. Keep going!”

  Outplaying the Pirates

  The nebula’s energy fields took hold, swallowing the pirate ships in a storm of electromagnetic interference.

  Their weapons short-circuited.

  Their shields failed.

  One of the smaller ships spun wildly out of control, crashing into a chunk of floating debris.

  The lead cruiser tried to reverse course, but a massive arc of lightning struck its hull, sending it spiraling.

  Static crackled over the comms.

  “We’re losing control—Captain, we need to retreat!”

  Usa-hime grinned. “That’s our cue.”

  She jerked the controls, tilting the ship into a sharp dive—just skimming the nebula’s outer edge.

  For a moment, the Stardancer trembled, warning lights flashing.

  Then—

  They broke free.

  The moment they left the storm, the engines stabilized, the warning systems shut off, and the radar cleared.

  Behind them?

  The pirates were dead in the water.

  Cipher let out a deep, shaky sigh. “I hate everything about what just happened.”

  Zyra threw her hands up. “Admit it! That was AWESOME!”

  Cipher crossed their arms. “Fine. It was awesome. But it was also TERRIFYING, and I’m going to file a formal complaint to the universe.”

  Kuro chuckled. “I’ll admit, Rabbit Princess… that was a hell of a move.”

  Usa-hime finally exhaled, her heartbeat still pounding.

  They did it.

  They outmaneuvered pirates.

  They survived the nebula.

  But—

  They still weren’t at the outpost yet.

  “Alright,” she muttered. “Where do we go next?”

  Cipher pulled up the navigation screen.

  Then paused.

  “Uh… so… good news and bad news.”

  Zyra groaned. “Why is there ALWAYS bad news?”

  Cipher shrugged. “Good news—we’re alive. Bad news? We are completely off-course.”

  Silence.

  Then—

  Usa-hime buried her face in her hands. “Of course we are.”

  Arrival at the Outpost

  Minutes later, the Stardancer finally broke through the last stretch of deep space.

  Ahead of them, the graduation outpost came into view.

  A massive orbital station, gleaming white and gold, surrounded by a fleet of Union ships.

  Unlike the Celestial Spire, which had the strict, towering design of a military base, this station looked more like a floating citadel.

  The grand docking rings extended outward like wings, glowing softly against the darkness of space.

  Cipher let out a low whistle. “Okay… that’s fancy.”

  Zyra smirked. “Yeah, yeah. Let’s just land before something else tries to kill us.”

  Kuro’s tail flicked. “Agreed.”

  The comms crackled.

  “Cadet team Stardancer, you are cleared for docking. Welcome to Outpost Helios.”

  Usa-hime took a deep breath, guiding the ship toward the designated platform.

  The landing was smoother than she expected—a far cry from the chaotic near-death experiences they had just survived.

  And the moment the ship powered down—

  Zyra stretched. “WE LIVED!”

  Cipher groaned. “I want to sleep for a month.”

  Kuro smirked. “No time for that. We have a graduation to get to.”

  Usa-hime exhaled, stepping off the ship and onto the platform.

  They had done it.

  But their journey was just beginning.

  Meeting Captain Beios

  The docking platform led into a massive hall, where hundreds of cadets had already gathered.

  The air buzzed with energy—excitement, relief, and the lingering tension of knowing this was the final step.

  Then—

  A new voice cut through the room.

  Deep. Commanding.

  “Attention, cadets.”

  The room fell silent.

  Stepping onto the raised platform at the front of the hall was a towering figure, draped in a high-ranking Union officer’s coat.

  Captain Beios.

  Unlike Callen, whose presence carried the weight of a battle-worn instructor, Beios radiated authority.

  His dark blue uniform was adorned with gold trim and battle medals. His scarred face spoke of countless battles, and his piercing gray eyes seemed to analyze everyone in the room at once.

  Even the rowdiest cadets straightened up.

  He wasn’t just a leader.

  He was a legend.

  Beios clasped his hands behind his back.

  “You have all survived your trials. You have fought, flown, and pushed yourselves to the limit.”

  His gaze swept over them.

  “And now, you stand here—on the edge of something greater.”

  The air grew heavy with anticipation.

  Beios continued, “Graduation is not just a ceremony. It is a choice. A commitment. The final moment before you decide whether to dedicate your lives to the Hunter’s path.”

  Usa-hime felt a shiver run down her spine.

  This was it.

  No more training wheels. No more simulations.

  After this, they were real Hunters.

  Beios let the weight of his words settle before speaking again.

  “Tomorrow, you will stand before the Union as full-fledged Hunters. And after that—”

  His voice lowered.

  “Your first mission awaits.”

  A wave of murmurs spread through the hall.

  Cipher leaned over to Usa-hime. “Okay, but like… can the mission wait until after we sleep?”

  Zyra elbowed them. “Shut up, this is the cool part!”

  Beios raised a hand, silencing the crowd.

  “I will not tell you what lies ahead,” he said. “You will learn that soon enough. But know this—your survival will depend on more than just strength.”

  His gray eyes darkened.

  “You will need wisdom. Cunning. And the will to push forward even when the galaxy itself stands against you.”

  He paused.

  “Tomorrow, you make your choice.”

  Then, he turned and walked off the platform.

  The room erupted into a storm of whispers.

  Zyra clenched her fists. “First mission. Finally.”

  Kuro smirked. “Hope you’re ready, Rabbit Princess.”

  Cipher stretched. “Yeah, yeah. But food first. Then existential dread.”

  Usa-hime barely heard them.

  Her mind was still on Beios’ words.

  A real mission.

  She had trained for this.

  Fought for this.

  But now—it was real.

  She looked up at the stars beyond the outpost’s glass ceiling.

  And for the first time, she felt it.

  Not fear.

  Not doubt.

  Purpose.