Wasteland Outskirts - 14 Clicks Outside Eredan
Ash drifted through the dead air, settling over broken steel and crumbling concrete like gray snow. The sky above was a dark smear of orange and violet-eternal dusk under Eredan's pollution veil.
Kael crouched on the edge of a shattered overpass, eyes locked on the glowing convoy below. Three armored transport crawlers, their engines humming with Magistrate precision, rolled across the cracked roads in a tight V-formation.
Their escorts-two hoverdrones and six gunmen in matte-black armor-moved like clockwork. Efficient. Cold. Unquestioning.
Just like he used to be.
> "They still hunt me like I matter," Kael muttered under his breath.
He adjusted the visor overlay in his left eye-tactical vision flickering across targets, heat signatures, drone flight paths. Instincts honed by the High Guard still whispered orders in his mind.
But this time, he didn't follow them.
He watched. Waited.
---
Ten Minutes Later
A pulse charge detonated under the crawler's lead treads-quick, precise. Kael moved like a shadow between wreckage and smoke. Before the soldiers could recover, he was already inside.
No killing. Not yet.
He disabled the crawler's central drive, took one crate, and slipped back into the storm.
> "Let them wonder who did it," he thought. "Let them feel the doubt."
He left behind a mark scorched onto the metal hull-a broken circle with a single slash through it.
Not many would recognize it yet. But soon... they would.
---
Later That Night - Inside an Abandoned Data Spire
Kael dropped the crate with a grunt. Inside: medical supplies, neural inhibitors, and salvaged battery cores. Enough to help a village-or fuel a resistance cell. He wasn't sure which he'd find first.
As he stitched up a scrape on his side, static crackled through his comms. Surveillance chatter.
> "Subject Echo-last known location: Sector D-12. Orders: contain or eliminate. Authorization: Draco."
Kael's jaw tightened.
Draco.
The name scraped at old memories. The new commander of the elite task force. Loyal to the Magistrate. Unquestioning. Unbending.
And someone Kael once called comrade.
A voice echoed faintly in his memory-calm, conflicted, feminine.
> "If you disobey... they'll activate the chip."
> He remembered the hesitation in her tone. Not quite loyalty. Not quite rebellion. Something in between.
He touched the side of his neck where the chip used to burn.
They'd never understand how he broke free.
Or who helped him.
Not yet.
---
> "Hero. Villain. It depends on whose voice is loudest when the history is written," Kael whispered to the empty room.
"But I'm done being silent."
---
Character Background
KAEL VIREON
Occupation: Former High Guard, Rebel Operative
Age: 28
Sex: Male
Power: Enhanced soldier with advanced combat skills
Combat Style: Agile close-quarters combat, stealth specialist
Note: Some information may be classified or revealed later in the story.