First Intergalactic Emperor: Starting With The Ancient Goddess-Chapter 475: Crew Hunter

Lyra wiped her hands on a cloth, leaned back slightly, and looked around the table like she’d just remembered something important.

"So," she said, tone casual but eyes sharp, "who is Kylus, and what does he have to do with Bull, or me."

The table stalled.

A few of the core crew exchanged looks. Someone stopped chewing. Jareth didn’t answer right away, his gaze holding on Lyra like he was deciding how much weight the truth could carry without cracking something open.

"You remember the slave camp?" Jareth said finally. "The one you were taken from?"

Lyra nodded once. "I just remember I was there. Nothing else."

"Kylus was there too," Jareth continued. "Same camp. Same chain. We pulled him out the same day we pulled you out. That was sixteen years ago."

Reva felt Viola tense beside her.

"We kept him with us for a few months," Jareth said. "Fed him. Gave him work. Let him breathe without someone standing over him. Bull thought that was enough. When it was time to move on, he dropped Kylus off at a settlement on Jupiter and told him to build a life."

Lyra frowned slightly. "And that’s why he’s doing all this?"

Jareth nodded. "That’s where it starts."

Viola leaned forward. "That doesn’t track. You don’t turn into this because someone helped you for a few months and then let you go."

Jareth’s eyes stayed on the table. "You do if the camp didn’t just break you. You do if being rescued didn’t feel like freedom, but theft."

Lyra’s fingers tightened around the cloth.

"Kylus didn’t see Bull as a savior," Jareth said. "He saw him as someone who decided when his suffering ended and when it didn’t matter anymore. Being rescued didn’t fix what the camp did to him. It just gave him something to blame when the damage didn’t disappear."

The table stayed quiet.

Jareth took a breath and continued. "There’s more. Years later, AIL hired Bull for a contract they didn’t want traced back to them. Dirty work, of course. Bull didn’t take those jobs alone."

Requiem’s head lifted slightly.

"His partner on that run was Piolet," Jareth said. "One of the few pilots who could stand in the same space as Bull without backing down. Piolet wasn’t just good. He was feared. Not because he was reckless, but because he survived things that killed better pilots."

Lyra listened without interrupting.

"Piolet was part of the Space Hounds," Jareth continued. "One of the largest and most violent space gangs in the galaxy at the time. It still is, but they are worse now."

Jareth let the silence hold long enough that no one tried to interrupt him.

"Long story short," he said, settling his forearms on the table, "Bull didn’t follow the contract. AIL wanted something done quietly and cleanly. Bull decided clean wasn’t good enough and quiet wasn’t happening."

He looked around once, then continued. "He turned on them mid-operation. Burned routes, exposed intermediaries, wrecked assets that were never meant to exist on record. AIL walked away fast, wiped their hands, and let the fallout land where it landed."

Lyra’s eyes stayed on him.

"Piolet took the worst of it," Jareth said. "He was Bull’s partner on that job, tied into it deeper than anyone else. When Bull flipped the table, Piolet lost ships, people, territory. Whole chunks of Space Hounds infrastructure went dark inside a single cycle."

Requiem leaned forward slightly.

"I don’t know the details," Jareth went on. "Bull never explained them, and Piolet never talked. What I do know is that after that job, they stopped being allies and started hunting each other. It was personal"

His gaze drifted somewhere past the table. "Bull destroyed several of Piolet’s bases on Jupiter. Supply depots. Safehouses. Listening posts. Every time he hit one, it pushed Piolet further into desperation."

Jareth’s jaw tightened. "During one of those hits, I was on the ground team. We thought we were clearing storage and command space. Instead, we found an underground bunker sealed off from the rest of the base."

"Kids were locked inside," Jareth said.

He paused, then glanced toward Lyra without softening his voice. "They were all dead when we opened it. Every single one."

The table stayed silent.

"Except one," Jareth continued. "You."

"Bull ordered the crew to bury them," Jareth said. "Properly. While we were doing that, one of the med techs noticed movement in one of the sealed pods we hadn’t cut open yet."

Jareth’s eyes hardened. "There was another kid inside. Barely alive. Broken, dehydrated, damaged enough that nobody expected him to last the night."

Viola’s fingers curled against the table.

"We treated him anyway," Jareth said. "Kept him breathing. Stabilized what we could. And he somehow survived."

He didn’t need to say the name.

"That kid was Kylus," Jareth added. "Bull left him behind a few months later."

Lyra’s hands were still.

"If Kylus wanted revenge," Jareth said, "he had plenty of places to aim it."

He reached into his coat and set a flat device on the table. With a tap, a holo unfolded above it, rows of names scrolling into place. Crew designations. Old call signs. Familiar faces frozen in archived images.

Some were marked inactive.

Some were marked dead.

"These," Jareth said, voice steady, "were Bull’s people. Scattered across systems after the mothership fell apart. Every one of the confirmed deaths on this list was traced back to Kylus."

Reva stared at the holo. 𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎

"He’s been methodical," Jareth continued. "He isn’t lashing out. He’s closing Chapters. One crew member at a time."

Lyra finally spoke. "So he’s not just hunting me."

Jareth met her gaze. "He’s hunting the past."

The holo kept scrolling, names passing by like a ledger that refused to end, and the weight of it settled over the table in a way none of them could pretend to ignore.

"Which is why we need to get to Helior Prime as soon as possible," Viola said. "It’s the safest place we can reach."

Jareth didn’t hesitate. He shook his head once, firm enough that the motion settled the table.

"I’m against it," he said. "AIL has an active bounty on Bull and everyone tied to his crew. That includes Lyra. The moment you pass a formal checkpoint or inspection layer, her name will surface. It won’t matter how careful you think you’re being."

"We’ll manage," Viola replied, not raising her voice.

"You might," Jareth said. "I won’t gamble my crew on that assumption. I don’t move a hundred people into a situation where one scan turns into a containment order."

The room stayed quiet while that landed.

Jareth continued without softening it. "If you want, I’ll take you as far as Ashfall Verge. It’s land, not a city. Industrial sprawl, transit yards, migrant zones, no centralized authority worth trusting. From there, you choose how you move and who you risk. It’s a half a day ride from there to Helior Prime."

Requiem nodded slowly. "That would help. We’d appreciate it."

Jareth inclined his head. "Then that’s where we’ll drop you."

No one argued after that.

They returned to their room and sealed the door behind them. Packs stayed where they were. Weapons were checked and set within reach. The ship’s steady motion continued around them, already angling toward a point that wasn’t Helior Prime and wasn’t safety either, but gave them room to choose what came next.

And most importantly, Xavier was there.