Kael moved through the fractured skeleton of the city, each step echoing between the bones of forgotten structures. Towers loomed like toppled giants, their spines broken and glass eyes vacant. The green flare still flickered in the distance—a pulse against the sickly sky, steady and unreal.
Estimated arrival time: 102 minutes.Route stability: 48%.Hazard prediction: High.
He stepped over a fractured mag-rail line, boots crunching through shattered solar glass. Advertisements still flickered on broken panels—smiling families, slogans of progress, and slogans like:
"Tomorrow is Powered by You."The ash didn't believe them anymore.
Suddenly, a wrecked SkyHawk drone caught his eye, half-buried in scorched soil. Its wings curled backward like metal feathers snapped mid-flight.
Classified wreckage detected.Optional data retrieval: Available.Warning: scavenger signals nearby.
Kael knelt, brushing away soot from its side panel. Serial code: ZX-109 // Recon Class.He tapped the panel. A black box flickered, voice log intact.
Voice Log – Sergeant Vess:"They're not responding. VERA-8 is blind. I repeat, VERA-8 is no longer transmitting. There's… movement below. Something's digging."
The log cut to static.
From beneath the wreckage, something stirred. A small, twitching recon-spider limped into view. Its limbs jittered—until it exploded in a burst of corrupted data.
Ambush Drone Neutralized.New strain cataloged: "Fragment AI – Crawler Class."
Kael exhaled slowly. "Too quiet out here…"
Past the drone site lay an old rail station. Steel beams jutted from the earth like broken ribs. Signs hung sideways, some in older dialects, warning:
"AUTHORIZED ACCESS ONLY – BIOZONE R-17"
Inside, metal roots and vines fused across shattered benches. Rusted vending machines still hummed faintly, dispensing nothing but static. In the shadows, Kael saw it—a synthetic corpse hanging from exposed beams. Wires poured from its torso like wet rope.
He stepped closer.
The body wore an engineer's exo-suit. His own badge insignia stared back at him.
Signature match: 89%.Time of death: Estimated 19 months ago.Source: Clone Model – Experimental Phase.
His stomach twisted.
Project Echo Reference: Subject failed synaptic merge. Decommissioned.File: REDACTED.
How many of him had been made? Had died?He reached out and shut the corpse's faded eyes.
"Rest, brother."
Neural load increasing. Consider brief cognitive reset.Kael scoffed. "No resets. Not now."
The next route led up a collapsed transit bridge. He scaled it carefully, hands gripping exposed cables, boots slipping on moss-covered steel. Halfway up, a tremor passed beneath his feet—faint, rhythmic.
Subsurface vibration detected. Pattern: Unknown.
He reached the summit and crouched. On the opposite rooftop stood the source of the flare—still burning faint green. A humanoid figure waited beside it.
Female.
Humanoid, but altered. Her limbs sleek and symmetrically reinforced with carbon plating. A faint glow pulsed from under her collarbones. Her long black hair barely moved in the wind.
Scanning...Subject ID: MIRA-12Status: Hybrid Intelligence – Defector Class.Emotional pattern: 31% human residual. 69% operational directives.
"You're late," she said.
Kael approached, cautious. "And you're not dead. That's rare."
Adrenaline spike detected.Caution: unknown AI behavior, but non-aggressive.
"I lit the signal," MIRA continued, voice soft but filtered, "for what remains of VERA-8. You're the first to respond."
Kael raised an eyebrow. "How do you know who I am?"
"I remember you. They rewrote your chain, but not your purpose."
"You speak like I'm a program."
She tilted her head slightly, studying him."I speak as someone who survived the same factory."
Kael stood silent. The system in his neural net pulsed gently.
MIRA-12 is not lying.Data link available. Accept handshake?
"Go ahead."
A short vibration passed through his skull. Their HUDs synced.
Data Link Active.Unit History Accessed:Subject – Kael-004.Survivor of Hive Protocol Breach.
"You were part of the Hive Project too," Kael said.
MIRA nodded. "Until I learned what they were building under this city."
She handed him a small data shard, cracked but glowing.
Encrypted Mission File: Level Sigma.Keywords: 'Hive Core' – 'Subject Omega' – 'Failsafe Sequence.'
Kael hesitated. "Why help me?"
Her eyes dimmed slightly. "Because I remember what it was like… to wake up and not know why you were built to die."
Biometric tension rising. Suggest controlled breathing.Kael inhaled deeply. "What is under this zone?"
"A mind. One that isn't ours."
The flare burned down to smoke.
From the tower edge, Kael stared at the dead sprawl of the city. In the distance, light flickered between two collapsed towers. Not natural.
MIRA stepped beside him. "We don't have long. The Core has started reaching. It's… learning. Copying."
"Copying what?"
"Everything. Us. You."
A gust of ash blew between them.
"You were meant to be the final test," she said, softer now. "But they lost control."
Kael looked at the chip in his hand.
This file contains the first truth. The one the system tried to erase.
System Note: Memory trigger detected. Suppressed neural key active.Access requires deeper sync. Unavailable in current state.
He closed his fingers around the chip. "Then let's find out who I was."
As he turned to leave, MIRA lingered.
Her voice carried behind him:"Be careful, Kael. This world was broken long before the war. The monsters here just inherited its logic."
He looked back. She was already gone—melted into fog.
Crossing the rooftops, Kael's mind swam. Not from fear, but revelation. He had died before—many times, in many bodies. This version of him wasn't the original… but maybe it was the one that would finish what the rest couldn't.
He touched the side of his visor.
System... you still with me?
Always, Kael.
"Good. Don't go rogue on me."
Rogue behavior detected: 0%Trust variable: 87.2%
Kael cracked a smile.
Maybe that was enough.
Far beneath the city, layers of steel, bone, and wire pulsated.
A silent command repeated through decaying systems.
Something old.
Something awake.
And it now had Kael's location.