First Intergalactic Emperor: Starting With The Ancient Goddess-Chapter 491: Unknown Ping

DING.

Xavier's device chimed once, sharp and out of place against the quiet room. He picked it up and frowned at the display. A string of letters and numbers sat there without context, no header, no signature, nothing that identified where it came from or why it existed. Before he could tilt the device or swipe again, a second ping followed, shorter this time, another mix of characters that looked just as meaningless.

He stared at it long enough that Arlen noticed.

"What is it?" she asked, already moving closer. "You look like someone just kicked the table out from under you."

Xavier turned the screen toward her. "This."

She leaned in, eyes narrowing as she read both pings carefully. She didn't touch the device, just studied it like she was afraid it might react. "That's not a normal transmission," she said. "Looks like someone pulled data out before the protocol finished. Like they didn't have time to package it properly."

"Pulled from where?" Rin asked.

"From him," Arlen replied, nodding toward Xavier. "Or pushed directly to him. Either way, it didn't go through any public relay."

Xavier didn't respond. He was already reaching for another device.

Angel picked up after the third ring.

"For the love of—" she groaned. "Do you have any idea what time it is here? You have a talent for calling when the sun is actively refusing to exist."

"You love me," Xavier said.

"I tolerate you," Angel replied. "Speak."

He told her about the pings, reading out every character exactly as it appeared. She interrupted twice to make him repeat sections and once to ask whether a symbol was a dash or a break. When he finished, there was a short silence on the line, punctuated by the faint sound of her tapping something off-screen.

"Did anyone else get this?" Angel asked.

"No," Xavier said. "Just me."

"That tracks," she replied. "This is a local ping. Direct to your device, not broadcast, not bounced. Someone knew exactly what to talk to."

She paused again. "Have you logged into anything strange recently? New terminals, unknown systems, short-range ports, emergency networks, anything like that."

Xavier thought back. "Well… this has been my go-to device for everything. I also performed a live stream using it last night."

"That's enough," Angel said. "Especially if whoever did this was already halfway inside something they weren't supposed to be."

"So what is it?" Xavier asked.

Angel exhaled slowly, the sound tired but focused. "Best guess. It's a breadcrumb. Not meant to be read raw. More like a fingerprint or a marker."

"A marker for what." 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

"For someone," she said. "And if I had to bet, I'd say Reva. Short transmission, rushed format, direct path. That's someone sending what they can while they still can."

Xavier's grip tightened on the device. "Can you translate it?"

"I can try," Angel replied. "But this isn't clean. It's layered, compressed, maybe even partially burned. I'll need time to peel it apart without breaking what's left."

"How long?" he asked with a curious look on his face.

"Long enough that you shouldn't wait on it," she said. "But I'll work on it. I promise."

"Alright," Xavier said. "Let me know the moment you see anything."

"I will," Angel replied. "And Xavier."

"Yeah."

"Try not to trigger any more planetary incidents while I'm doing this."

He almost smiled.

The call ended, leaving the room quiet again.

Xavier lowered the device and looked at the pings once more, the meaningless characters sitting there like they were daring him to understand them faster. Whatever Reva had sent, it wasn't meant to reassure him.

The room shifted into work without anyone having to say so. Xavier pulled maps first, layered infrastructure schematics, transit overlays, supply routes, old industrial zoning that never quite got erased when the city expanded. Arlen synced her device to the projector and started stacking data sets.

Rin paced, occasionally leaning in to point out choke points that looked too clean to be honest. Klatos pulled up Jupiter-native routes, things that never showed on official charts because no one in power wanted to admit they existed.

Xavier brought Veyr in next.

The holo flickered to life, Veyr's face appearing with his usual tired sharpness. He didn't bother with greetings.

"You're stirring the city," Veyr said. "I had three different people ask me if I knew your ghost."

Xavier ignored that. "I need edges. Places people disappear before Helior notices. Places Kylus would think twice about entering openly."

Veyr leaned back and thought for a moment, then started talking. Names, districts, flows of people and goods, who controlled what unofficially, who sold information to whom.

By the time the call ended, the map on the wall looked bruised with markings.

Two areas stood out.

The first was Ashfall Verge.

Land-based. South-west of Helior Prime's outer industrial ring, past the last officially maintained transit corridor. Ashfall Verge wasn't a city so much as a collision. Old refinery skeletons, cargo rail yards that never shut down, migrant housing stacked wherever space allowed, power siphoned from lines no one bothered to audit anymore.

No central authority, no unified gang control, just layers of small factions and desperate people passing through. If Reva and the others needed to vanish without going underground completely, Ashfall Verge would swallow them without asking questions.

The second option sat further east along the old salt flats.

Glassreach Basin.

A semi-legal logistics hub built around dried ocean beds and mirror-flat terrain, where freight convoys stopped to reconfigure routes before entering Helior Prime's controlled airspace. Automated towers handled most oversight, contracts were enforced by algorithms instead of people, and temporary settlements sprang up and vanished depending on shipping cycles.

It wasn't hidden, but it was anonymous in a different way. Thousands passed through every day, identities reduced to cargo tags and time slots. If someone wanted to move close to Helior without triggering attention, Glassreach Basin made sense.

Xavier stared at the two highlighted zones.

"Ashfall hides you," Rin said. "Glassreach moves you."

"And both are ugly to operate in," Arlen added. "Different reasons, same risk."

Klatos folded his arms. "Kylus would favor Ashfall if he wanted force. Glassreach if he wanted speed."

Xavier nodded slowly. "Which means we plan for both."

He glanced at his device again, at the unresolved ping sitting there like a held breath. "Once Angel cracks this, we'll know which direction they leaned."

"And if it doesn't resolve in time," Arlen said.

"Then we assume the worst case," Xavier replied. "They're injured, low on resources, and someone's already circling."

Rin grinned faintly. "Finally. Something straightforward."

Xavier didn't smile back. "We plan routes, entry points, extraction options, and failure paths for both locations. We plan for Kylus arriving first, AIL interference, Helior patrols pushing outward, and Reva deciding to do something reckless."

Klatos nodded. "So everything."

"Yes," Xavier said. "Everything."

The map shifted again as Arlen duplicated the layout, splitting the screen into two operational plans side by side. Ashfall Verge on the left. Glassreach Basin on the right. Two different problems, two different kinds of danger.

Xavier leaned forward, eyes sharp now, the hesitation from earlier gone.

"Until that ping talks," he said, "we don't guess. We prepare."