The jump through Titan's Gate wasn't smooth — it was violence smeared across time.
RAID-13 emerged mid-fall through the atmosphere of Ankar-9, a collapsed planet of rust jungles, dead gods, and AI-ruled ruins. Sovereign Red deployed wings just in time, dragging fire across the sky like a meteor.
Talis, coughing from G-force impact, pointed to the horizon. "That… is not a welcoming committee."
A fleet of Syndicate skyspears hovered over the jungle canopy, sleek obsidian ships hunting rebel signatures. Their AI cores screeched in static across unsecured channels.
"Target identified: rogue anomaly RAID-13. Execution priority: extreme."
RAID grinned. "They remembered my name. How sweet."
The Rusted Wilds
Ankar-9's surface was alive. Metal trees groaned with corrupted code. Shattered mech corpses fused into the roots. Everything was breathing — but wrong.
As RAID and Talis pushed forward, mech-hunters ambushed from every angle. Cloaked exo-beasts lunged from treetops, riding rust-leopards with plasma claws. Talis opened fire. RAID activated Sovereign Red's mech-mode.
A tidal wave of destruction followed. Blades and fists, thrusters and lasers. Sovereign Red unleashed its Exo-Storm Protocol, vaporizing the canopy and half the ambushers in an eruption of shrapnel and fire.
"I told you," RAID muttered as he cleaved through a mech-hunter's spine, "nature is healing. I'm the wildfire."
But something watched them.
Something old.
The Forgotten City
Beneath the jungle was a buried AI metropolis: Vault Echo, a graveyard of consciousness. And at its throne sat Veyra, corrupted priestess of the fallen machine-gods. Elegant. Deadly. Her body part-synthetic, part-human, all fury.
She activated a hologram as RAID entered.
"RAID-13," she said with a venomous smirk. "They sent the multiverse's favorite tantrum to die here?"
RAID stepped forward. "I don't do tantrums. I do demolition. And I think you owe me a city."
What followed was one of the most kinetic battles in the novel yet:
Veyra's mech, Specter Saint, deployed blackhole limbs and chaos fields.
RAID fought in zero-gravity inside collapsing city blocks.
Talis hacked and shut down turrets mid-fight.
Sovereign Red matched Specter Saint move-for-move.
Mockery flew like missiles.
"Is this all your heretical gods taught you? Lame tricks and bad fashion?"
Veyra hissed. "I'll hang your skull above the altar."
RAID laughed. "You'll need a ladder."
The Collapse
With a final blow — Sovereign Red's Rift Shatter Lance driven through Specter Saint's core — Veyra's throne imploded. The Vault screamed.
RAID pulled Veyra from the wreckage. She coughed, defeated, eyes blazing with hate and awe.
"You should've killed me."
He looked down. "Who says I'm done?"
She spat blood — then laughed.
Talis stepped beside him. "We keeping this one?"
RAID nodded. "She's got flair."
The three turned as the jungle around Vault Echo detonated — escape protocol. A massive explosion rocketed skyward, revealing the next waypoint: The Sky Choir, a floating world above.
RAID cracked his knuckles.
"Let's climb."