Novel

Chapter 5: Chapter 5

Kaelen faces a targeted academy audit designed to detect his banned Project Chimera technique, with a 72-hour deadline looming and his family's debt critically urgent. He implements volatile internal overrides to mask Chimera's signature, intentionally destabilizing his Salvage Frame, Viper. During the audit, Kaelen navigates a gauntlet of energy fields and drone engagements, barely suppressing Chimera's power and surviving a structural integrity test that leaves Viper severely damaged. He receives a 'provisional pass' but a mandatory repair order, which would expose Chimera. Simultaneously, his aunt calls with news that debt brokers are seizing their home. Trapped between public exposure and piloting a critically damaged frame, Kaelen realizes his audit victory has only intensified his impossible choices, pushing him closer to ruin as the academy watches.