"The Final Signal"


The Aurora Hawk was quiet. Too quiet.


Leonardo Duremdes stood in the cockpit, staring at a flashing red marker on the holo-map. It wasn’t just any signal—it was the same encrypted frequency Benjie had used when he last spoke his threat.


“Captain,” Mira’s calm voice broke the silence. “Signal triangulated. Source: abandoned relay station in the Keldra Expanse. High probability of trap.”


Kyle crossed his arms. “Of course it’s a trap. It’s Benjie. He probably carved ‘Welcome Courier’ into the walls.”


Sophia smirked, running diagnostics on her drone rig. “If it’s a trap, we spring it our way.”


Antonio, standing guard near the door, tightened his grip on his rifle. “Whatever this is, we finish it tonight.”


Leonardo didn’t answer at first. He looked at the viewport, watching the stars blur by. The Starborn children were asleep in the Hawk’s quarters, safe—for now. But safety wouldn’t last unless this ended.


“Plot a course,” Leonardo said. “If Benjie wants me, he’ll get me.”



---


The relay station hung in the void like a tomb, its outer lights dead, its hull pockmarked from years of neglect.


“This place is giving me bad vibes,” Hiede muttered from med-bay, monitoring vitals.


Cristina adjusted the ship’s scanners. “No active defenses, but I’m picking up faint power readings. Someone’s home.”


Leonardo turned to his crew. “We go in together. No splitting up. Benjie and Norbeto want a fight—fine. We’ll give them one.”



---


Inside, the station was a maze of dark corridors, lit only by the flicker of emergency lights. Silen took point with Antonio, their rifles sweeping each corner.


Then, a voice crackled over the loudspeakers:


“Well, Courier… you actually showed up. I’m touched.”


Benjie.


Kyle muttered, “I hate that guy’s voice.”


The loudspeaker continued. “You’ve been a thorn in my side. Saving people who should’ve been lost. But it ends tonight.”


A metallic crash echoed through the station. From the shadows, Norbeto emerged, his cybernetic arms glowing red-hot.


Sophia groaned. “Oh great. Robo-fists is back.”


Norbert bellowed and charged.



---


The station erupted in chaos.


Kyle fired stun blasts, forcing Norbeto back step by step. Sophia deployed drones that wrapped him in high-voltage nets, but he ripped through them with sheer strength.


Meanwhile, Benjie appeared at the far end of the hall, dual plasma blades crackling in his hands. “You should’ve stayed in your ship, Courier.”


Leonardo stepped forward, drawing his pulse saber. “And miss the chance to shut you down? Not a chance.”


Their blades clashed, sparks flying. Benjie was fast, vicious, and relentless, but Leonardo’s precision kept him one step ahead.


Behind them, Antonio and Silen protected the children, who Mira had guided remotely through the station’s emergency passages to an escape dock.


“Leo!” Cristina’s voice cut through the comms. “We’ve got incoming ships—Draven assault craft. They’re coming in hot!”


Sophia cursed. “We’re out of time!”



---


Norberto roared, tearing a bulkhead panel free and hurling it like a spear. Kyle shoved Sophia out of the way just in time, then fired a stun round directly into Norbeto’s chest. The giant stumbled, then collapsed, his cybernetic arms sparking violently.


“Stay down, metalhead,” Kyle muttered.


Meanwhile, Leonardo and Benjie locked blades, neither gaining ground. Then Leonardo saw it—the faint flicker in Benjie’s stance, the overconfidence in his swing.


He feinted left, pivoted right, and struck. His blade connected with Benjie’s gauntlet, severing the power feed to his weapon. Sparks flew, and Benjie staggered.


Leonardo leveled his saber at him. “It’s over, Benjie.”


Benjie grinned. “For now.” He tapped a device on his belt, and the floor beneath him glowed. A teleport shimmer.


“Leonardo!” Sophia shouted.


Too late. Benjie vanished in a flash of crimson light.



---


They didn’t waste another second. The crew and children sprinted back to the Hawk as Mira’s voice counted down:


“Draven assault ships inbound. Sixty seconds to contact.”


“Get us out of here, Mira,” Leonardo ordered.


The Aurora Hawk’s engines flared, breaking free from the relay station just as a fleet of Draven gunships dropped out of hyperspace. Plasma fire rained down, but Mira twisted the Hawk between the asteroids of the Keldra Expanse with surgical precision.


“Hold on!” Kyle yelled as the ship dove through a narrow crevice, enemy fire exploding behind them.


One final burst from the Hawk’s engines, and they jumped to hyperspace—leaving the Draven fleet roaring in frustration.



---


Back in safe space, the crew gathered in the cockpit. The children slept soundly in the quarters, unaware of how close they’d come to capture.


Antonio stood beside Leonardo. “You know he’ll come again.”


Leonardo nodded. “I’m counting on it. Next time, he won’t walk away.”


Silen exhaled, leaning against the wall. “So what now?”


Leonardo looked at each of them—Kyle, Sophia, Hiede, Cristina, Silen, Antonio—and smiled faintly.


“Now, we prepare. Benjie thinks he’s hunting us. But soon? We hunt him.”


Kyle smirked. “Good. I was getting tired of running.”


Sophia leaned back with a grin. “Guess we’ve got ourselves a Season Two.”



---


And as the Aurora Hawk sailed into the stars, Leonardo Duremdes felt the weight of the war to come… but he also felt something else.


Purpose.


The Starlight Courier wasn’t just saving lives anymore.


He was about to fight for the galaxy’s future.