Adventure of Devin Halbolt 1

The hangar roars with decoy noise, tool carts, and thruster checks. Devin stands by the holo-table while Ilyana kills a sensor slice down the shuttle lane. The sealed drive case waits at the center like a loaded verdict.

Toma and Rina step in close, already in plain travel gear, eyes fixed on the docked transport shuttle beyond the maintenance rails. Harada keeps the bay bustle flowing, covering the movement with shouted checks and clipped signals.

Devin snaps the drive case shut and slides it into Ilyana's waiting hands. Harada rolls a service cart across the lane at exactly the right moment, screening the siblings as they cross toward the shuttle hatch.

The shuttle’s access light turns green. On the edge of the display, a custody ping flickers red, then blinks into the blind spot, one heartbeat behind them.

Harada plants one hand on the cart rail and jerks his chin toward the shuttle bay. Behind him, a deck crew panel flashes green over the open ramp, and a strapped pallet marked with Devin's suit ID sits locked in the transport frame.

Ilyana checks the display once more, then slides the final tally into the convoy record. The maintenance-gap branch still glows on the holo-table, but the blind spot timer keeps shrinking.

The shuttle hatch stands open ahead, floodlit and waiting, while the last red custody ping skims the edge of the sensor blind spot and slips behind them.

The blind spot timer keeps draining in the holo-table glow, but the shuttle bay feels still for one breath. Harada loosens one hand from the cart, Ilyana lets the tally panel dim, and the Sera siblings finally step fully onto the ramp instead of half in fear and half in motion.

Devin snaps the restraints into place and the shuttle hatch seals with a hard hiss. Toma and Rina are strapped into the rear seats, shoulders no longer brushing the threshold, while the GM III sits locked in the cradle behind them like a silent bulkhead.

Devin slides into the pilot station. The cockpit blooms awake, green status light washing over the instrument stack, the blind spot timer reflected in every visor edge.

He steadies his breathing, then thumbs the shuttle weapons online. The guns swing up toward the hangar mouth, tracing the door seams with a flat, measured glow.

A burst of fire tears through the hangar bay door. Metal blooms outward in a white flash, and the open hatch becomes a jagged exit cut through the ship's face.

The shuttle surges forward into the gap, leaving the blind spot timer behind as the first strip of open space appears beyond the shattered door.

Devin Halbolt leaves Black Sheep behind and arrives at Open water.

Salt spray slaps the canopy as Devin drops the shuttle to treetop height over black water. Behind him, the Black Sheep shrinks into a bruised silhouette, its gun line no longer able to track him cleanly.

The shuttle skims the surface, carving a silver wake through the swells. Water hammers the hull, but the low pass keeps the craft hidden under the carrier's sightline.

A faint sensor bloom flickers across Devin's display, then breaks apart in the sea glare. The shuttle's wake erases their path a little more with every second.

Far off, a speck of motion cuts across the horizon, then vanishes in the haze, leaving only open water and the shuttle's thinning wake ahead.

Devin cuts the shuttle into a wide arc, using Manhattan’s shattered bulk as a moving wall. The carrier drops out of direct line behind the island, and the wake bends with the turn instead of trailing straight back to the guns.

Rina checks the rear display, then relaxes a fraction as the Black Sheep slides behind the ruin line. The shuttle’s shadow skates across broken shoreline, and the carrier’s silhouette loses its clean shot.

The water flattens under the hull as the turn completes. Manhattan now sits between them and the carrier, swallowing the last straight view of the shuttle’s trail.

Ahead, open water waits beyond the island’s far edge, while the Black Sheep remains hidden behind concrete ruin and sea haze. No alarm follows, only the hiss of spray and the shuttle’s steady vibration.