There are stars that shine.
There are stars that burn.
And then there are stars that wander—unbound by gravity, logic, or known galactic laws.
Kairos stared at the holographic starmap. A pulse blinked on the fringe of all known systems, then vanished. It reappeared two sectors away—moved again—then disappeared.
Vault VI was not on a planet.
It was the planet.
Or rather... it was the anomaly that planets ran from.
The Cartograph called it: Nomad-IX.
A living star. Half-organic, half-machine. The only Vault that traveled across space, consuming abandoned sectors and leaving silence in its wake.
And now, for the first time in centuries, it had slowed down—as if waiting.
For him.
Chasing the Fire Phantom
The crew of the Jade Vulture had learned to expect the impossible.
A psychic-bleeding prison, Sovereign traitors, sentient vaults buried under rusted planets—but a mobile star?
That was new.
