Issei Hyoudou in another world

Disclaimer:

Issei Hyoudou and all its characters belong to Ichiei Ishibumi.

I do not own anything other than the original characters I create.

Chapter 2: The Shadows Within Ferak

The air in Ferak was thick with the stench of hot metal and machine oil , a thick mixture that seeped into every corner of the underground base. The distant rumble of mecha undergoing maintenance was constant, a mechanical beat that marked the rhythm of day and night in this bastion of war . High above, security systems scanned the horizon for external threats, monitoring the skies and lands for any anomaly.

But what no one noticed… was what was lurking within .

In the darkest corridors, in the forgotten server rooms, in the maintenance tunnels where only low-ranking technicians and operators entered... Valhara was already inside .

The spies hadn't broken in with ships, they hadn't descended from the sky in infiltration pods or hacked into the systems with cyber viruses. They had arrived on foot. Some had been inside Ferak for months , hidden in plain sight, infiltrated into the monotonous routine of the base. They were technicians, engineers, common soldiers... people that no one looked twice at. Others had entered recently, taking advantage of the chaos caused by the arrival of Issei , the strange being fallen from the sky , whose presence had altered the military routine.

From the moment the unknown object impacted in the Veyra desert , the infiltrators activated their networks. Encrypted messages began to move through the most discreet channels: transmissions disguised as maintenance reports, inventory notes with hidden codes, radio signals barely perceptible amidst the communications traffic.

Reports reached Valhara .

—"The anomaly has been captured."

—"It is located in Ferak ."

—"Awaiting orders."

The information traveled quickly up the chain of command, reaching Valhara 's strategists , who were quick to understand its significance. Something had fallen from the sky , something powerful enough to survive a devastating impact. Something that had unleashed energy unregistered by any technology existing on Gairos .

It was not a simple accident.

It was a weapon , or at least, it could become one.

The decision to act was immediate .

The orders came down with the coldness of a sharp blade:

—"Infiltration in progress."

—"First phase: Sabotage." —"Second phase: Opening of defenses." —"Third phase: All-out attack." — "Code: Ashes of Dawn."

The clock had started ticking.

Deep within Ferak , the traitors hidden within its ranks began to move with near-perfect timing. They needed no words, no clandestine meetings. Each knew their role, each had waited for this moment for weeks, months .

The siege of Ferak would not come from outside… but from within its very foundations.

Phase 1: The Infiltration

Ferak 's secondary communications sector was cold, artificial, thick with the constant hum of servers and the flickering lights of control panels. Rho-9 , Valhara 's infiltrator , walked with his head down, wearing the standard uniform of a maintenance technician. Nothing conspicuous. Nothing suspicious. As he had done a hundred times, he stopped in front of an auxiliary console, one of the many forgotten stations that were rarely used.

He couldn't afford to use the main systems. That would be suicide.

He pulled a diagnostic tool from his belt and plugged it into the terminal, his pulse steady, his breathing controlled. From the security cameras, he looked like just a technician checking out a routine anomaly , another cog in Feron 's military machine . But what he was really doing was injecting a snippet of code into the internal network , a pulse of data disguised as a routine checkup.

The message had to be quick, clean, imperceptible.

Encrypted text:

- Destination: Valhara High Command

- Priority: Top Secret

- Message:

"Anomaly confirmed. Prisoner held. Base vulnerable in 72 hours. Confirm orders."

With a couple of keystrokes, the data pulse was sent.

Exactly 4.2 seconds later, the terminal rebooted. There were no traces left.

Rho-9 stood there for a few more seconds, as if he were actually checking for a system failure. He grabbed his diagnostic tool, calmly unplugged it, and walked away, leaving behind what seemed to be just another day of work.

In less than an hour, the response arrived.

But it wasn't a top-secret message or an intricate military code. Valhara knew how to operate in the dark. The order was camouflaged in a routine maintenance transmission , a simple status report that no one on Ferak would bother to check.

The message was hidden between lines of diagnostic data:

"Infiltration in progress. First phase: Sabotage. Second phase: Opening of defenses. Third phase: All-out attack.

Code: Ashes of Dawn."

The assault on Ferak was approved .

From that moment on, every infiltrator inside the base knew there was only one path to follow . There was no turning back. The clock had begun its countdown.

And Ferak had no idea what was about to happen.

--

Phase 2: Sabotage from Within

Ferak Base stood like an impenetrable fortress, its steel and concrete structure designed to withstand the most brutal sieges. But any wall, no matter how imposing, can crumble from within .

Valhara 's infiltrators needed no explosives or weapons to take down Ferak . The war was not won with fire alone, but with cunning.

The sabotage had to be silent, gradual… imperceptible.

The delay in the maintenance of the mechas

In the dark underground hangars, the war titans rested, lined up like sleeping sentinels. Each mecha required constant checks, performance tests, precision adjustments. A single failure could mean death in combat.

That was exactly what Valhara wanted.

One of his agents, undercover as a maintenance technician, worked with meticulous patience. He did not disable a mecha completely; that would have been too obvious. Instead, he altered small details :

✅ A loose cable here, a miscalibrated microcircuit there. Nothing to set off the security alarms, but enough to make the machine slower and less precise at the critical moment.

✅ An altered diagnosis. The systems showed that the mechas were in perfect condition… when in reality they were not.

✅ Reduced fuel supply. A small miscalculation in energy allocation, enough to cause some mechs to they will turn off in the middle of the battle .

When the attack came, almost half of the units would be out of service or operating at 40% of their actual capacity .

No one would notice until it was too late.

Errors in security systems

Ferak 's security depended on a network of motion-detection sensors, long-range radars and thermal scanners . Nothing could get close without being detected…

…or so they thought.

In one of the control rooms, another Valharian agent , disguised as a systems technician, subtly altered the scanners .

✅ Modified the detection parameters so that certain heat and motion records were ignored , creating blind spots in the perimeter walls.

✅ It introduced false readings into the system, generating sporadic alarms in remote areas. This forced operators to constantly recalibrate the sensors , getting them used to ignoring small fluctuations…

✅ …Fluctuations that would be fatal when enemy mechas sneaked forward in the dark.

On the surveillance screens, everything looked normal .

But in reality, the Ferak base was now blind at key points.

Falsification of orders and changes in surveillance

Every soldier had an assigned shift, every patrol followed strict routes, every guard was timed down to the last second. It was a perfect system.

Until Valhara corrupted him.

An undercover soldier, with access to internal records, altered the guard schedules . He did it with the precision of a surgeon:

✅ He moved certain experienced officers away from critical sectors, replacing them with rookie recruits.

✅ Reduced the number of soldiers in certain key corridors, creating gaps in surveillance.

✅ He sent false reports about suspicious activities in areas far from the base , distracting rapid response units.

When the attack came, the most important areas of Ferak would be dangerously unprotected .

The domino effect

Nobody noticed these changes. They were too small, too subtle .

But when the first missile hit, when the alarms sounded too late, when the mechs failed to respond…

Ferak base would discover that it was already lost before the battle began.

And by then, Valhara would already be inside.

--

Phase 3: The Traitor in the Third Division

The silence was thick in the corridors of Feron 's Third Division . Soldiers marched with discipline, mechanics worked tirelessly in the hangars, and strategists constantly analyzed enemy movements on the screens of the command centers. From the outside, everything seemed in order .

But within that war machine, in the bowels of the elite division itself , someone had already sold their loyalty.

Captain Drelk , a veteran of over twelve years of Feron service , walked calmly through the corridors of the base. His posture was firm, his expression unwavering, his gaze impenetrable. No one looked at him twice, because Drelk was a trustworthy man, a leader who had fought on the front lines and who had survived battles where others dropped like flies.

But deep inside, her loyalty no longer belonged to Feron .

Months ago, Valhara had contacted him . It was a quiet night, on one of his missions on the border. An encrypted transmission came through his private communicator. It was an unfamiliar voice, cold and calculating.

— "We know who you are, Captain Drelk . We know what you want. We know that Feron is dying."

At first, Drelk ignored the transmission. He thought it was a trap, a test of loyalty. But the message came back . And came back.

— " Feron will fall, and when he does, you'll be on the wrong side… unless you choose well."

Slowly, the words began to sow doubt in his mind. He knew that Feron was losing the war. He had seen the cracks in the chain of command, had felt the weight of desperation in the orders of his superiors. He had seen men die without purpose.

Why continue fighting for an empire destined to collapse?

When Valhara He promised him power and riches , and he did not hesitate any longer.

The betrayal did not happen overnight.

It was built slowly, with surgical precision. First, he tested the waters. Small leaks of information, small changes in patrol routes, nothing to raise suspicions. Then, when he saw that no one noticed his movements, he went further.

His role in the fall of Ferak was crucial .

The Trap for Xara

Drelk knew that Xara was the biggest obstacle in Valhara 's plans . If she was at the base at the time of the attack, she could turn the situation around.

I couldn't allow it.

So he began manipulating strategic reports . He created false alerts of enemy activity in a remote area, far from the actual attack perimeter. He made it appear that Valhara was concentrating troops in the completely wrong location .

The message reached Commander Xara's table.

— "Commander, we have reports of enemy activity in the northwest sector. We believe Valhara is gathering an advance party there."

Xara frowned. She didn't like moving troops without confirmed information , but Drelk was one of her trusted officers . He had analyzed the data himself, reviewed the satellite images.

How could I doubt him?

With a quick order, she sent her best troops to inspect the area. She herself decided to accompany them to assess the situation personally.

Drelk He achieved what he wanted : to get her out of Ferak at the right moment.

But his betrayal did not end there.

The Latest Move: Deadly Disinformation

He knew the base could still react quickly if the alarms went off at the right time. He couldn't allow that.

Before Xara left, Drelk introduced false data into the intelligence system .

✅ He edited radio transmissions , making reconnaissance reports show enemy movement where there was none .

✅ He diverted rapid response units to a sector where they would find nothing , taking them away from the real front.

✅ He leaked modified orders , ensuring that when the real attack began, Ferak would take longer to react .

Everything was ready.

Xara was out.

The troops were distracted.

The defenses were compromised.

Now, only the final blow was missing.

Drelk looked at the watch on his wrist. The hour was drawing near. Soon, Valhara would strike.

And Ferak would fall.

Phase 4: The Opening of Defenses

The air in Ferak was thick, heavy with the static of constantly operating systems. Monitors flickered with surveillance data, showing the base walls, the security perimeter, and the threat detection radar. Everything seemed in order.

But that was the illusion Valhara wanted to create.

The real enemy was already inside .

The Man in the Shadow

Feron 's uniform settled into his post. He was a familiar face, someone who had worked there for months , remaining unnoticed by the surveillance operators. No one suspected him, because there was no reason to.

But beneath his facade of obedient soldier, he was an infiltrator of Valhara .

Its code name was "Sigma-12" .

Their task was simple , but deadly: open the gates of Ferak without anyone noticing until it was too late.

From his console, he watched the security monitors. The perimeter was quiet. The night patrol marched along the walls, the defensive guns were armed, the radars continued to scan the horizon. The image of an impenetrable base.

But he knew that image was about to crumble.

He pulled a small device from his pocket, a remote access unit disguised as a diagnostic tool . He plugged it into his station's panel. No alarms went off.

No system blocked your access.

The spies had already seen to it that security was weakened , that detection protocols were compromised. Sigma-12 entered a test command: a simulation of a technical error in the long-range sensors. A standard warning message appeared on the screen.

"Scanning system failure. Recalibrating..."

Nothing unusual. It happened all the time.

The operators around him barely looked up from their terminals. To them, it was just another routine adjustment.

But what they didn't know was that while the system was "recalibrating," Ferak had just been blinded to any incoming signals.

The Code of Treason

Miles away, beyond the mountains surrounding Ferak , a colossal shadow loomed in the darkness. Hundreds of mecha , perfectly aligned in tight formation, moved like an avalanche of steel. Their silhouettes blended into the night , covered by stealth devices that blocked any thermal or electromagnetic signals.

Above them, in the night sky, Valhara 's stealth ships hovered like lurking predators. Silent. Invisible. Waiting.

And inside Ferak , Captain Drelk checked his communicator .

Confirmation had arrived. Everything was in place.

With chilling calm, Drelk adjusted his earpiece and whispered two words into the private communication channel:

"Ashes of Dawn."

Sigma-12 heard the signal from the control room. His fingers slid over the keyboard, entering the final order.

The Fall of the Defenses

For a moment, everything in Ferak seemed to remain the same.

The soldiers on the walls continued their patrols.

The engineers worked in the hangars, not noticing anything out of the ordinary. The radars continued their routine sweep, looking for non-existent threats.

And then, it happened.

✅ The base alarms failed.

✅ Scanners stopped detecting enemy signals.

✅ The automated defense turrets were left inactive.

The silence was absolute.

At the command center, a security officer frowned in confusion.

—"What the hell…?" —he whispered, seeing that the defense turrets were inoperative.

Tried to reactivate them. Nothing.

Panic spread when they realized something was wrong.

But it was already too late.

The Hour of Attack

Beyond the mountains, the shadows of Valhara were on the move.

The mechas They accelerated , their massive steel legs pounding the ground hard, kicking up clouds of dust as they went. In the sky, the stealth ships fired their engines , breaking the silence with a roar that tore through the night.

It was the sound of war .

And Ferak had no way to defend himself.

The soldier in the watchtower barely had time to blink before he saw a missile streak through the darkness , hitting the outer barrier directly.

The explosion lit up the base like a second dawn.

The steel walls cracked .

Shockwaves shook the ground.

The patrols on the walls were wiped out in an instant.

From inside Ferak , alarms finally went off… but it was too late.

The First Minutes of Hell

Inside the base, chaos broke out.

Soldiers ran to their posts. But the defense mechs wouldn't start.

Technicians tried to restore the systems. But the scanners were still blind.

Commanders called for reports. But communications were jammed with interference.

The attack on Ferak had begun.

Xara wasn't there to organize the defense. She was too far away, caught up in the false leads.

Issei He remained unconscious , unaware that the storm had arrived.

And in the distance, Captain Drelk watched the destruction with inhuman calm.

Ferak was falling.

And no one could stop him.