Dawn broke over the ridge like a bruised eye cracking open. A muted amber glow poured across the broken basin, softening nothing.
Talon stood at the cave mouth, breath visible in the cold morning air. Behind him, Mira checked her gear in silence—makeshift armor reinforced with steel scraps, sharpened rebar blade across her back. She moved methodically, but her gaze kept drifting toward him.
He hadn't slept. Not even for a second.
Whatever lived in the mountain had whispered to him all night—not in words, but in memory. Impressions. Echoes of wings folded in darkness. A cockpit lit with violet symbols. Hands that were not his closing around unfamiliar controls.
It wasn't a dream. It was something else.
Now, standing on the edge of something ancient and buried, he felt no fear. Only inevitability.
Mira joined him. Her voice was hushed, unsure. "You still want to go in there?"
"I have to."
"You have to?" she repeated. "Why?"
Talon hesitated. "Because it knows me."
Mira didn't press. She simply nodded and followed him in.
The cave swallowed light.
They moved cautiously, Talon in front, Mira close behind. Their boots scraped across smooth, unnatural stone—too flat, too precise to be natural. The walls were thick with dust and veins of old metal, glowing faintly blue as if reacting to their presence.
The deeper they went, the more the air changed. It became warmer, denser—charged with an unseen current that prickled against their skin.
After twenty meters, the tunnel opened into a hollowed chamber. And there, buried in silence and shadow, they saw it.
A giant.
It sat like a god laid to rest. Humanoid in shape, but far too elegant for any old Earth military design. Its armor gleamed dimly in the light, layered like interlocked plates of obsidian and pearl. Its face was smooth, angular—almost serene. Folded wings wrapped around its back like a shroud.
The machine had not moved in what looked like centuries. And yet… Talon could feel it breathing.
Not literally. But he felt its presence the way one feels gravity—undeniable, impossible to ignore.
Mira exhaled sharply. "Is that… a Gundam?"
Talon didn't answer. His eyes locked on the symbol etched into the chest—two wings crossing over a rising star. It pulsed with faint light as he approached.
He took a step closer. Then another.
Mira grabbed his arm. "Talon, stop. What if it's—"
He touched the hull.
The effect was immediate.
A low hum rippled through the floor. Lights flickered to life along the chamber walls. Ancient mechanisms groaned. And the Gundam—still dormant—glowed brighter at the core.
Talon's mind shattered.
Flashes.
He was somewhere else. Standing in a cockpit filled with translucent screens. Stars spun beyond a glass canopy. His hands gripped controls that felt alive.
Then—light. Energy. He wasn't in control. He was the machine.
His eyes flew open. He was on the ground, gasping. Mira was crouched beside him, shaking his shoulders.
"Talon! Talon—are you with me?"
He blinked. "Yeah… I—yeah."
"What just happened? You collapsed."
"I saw it. Inside. I was there."
She helped him sit up, worry etched across her face. "You connected to it?"
"Not just connected." He looked back at the Gundam, its chest still pulsing. "It accepted me."
Mira stood. "Then this is what they were looking for. The scavengers. The corps. Maybe even those masked ones we saw."
Talon nodded. "But they didn't find it. I did."
Mira crossed her arms, looking up at the sleeping giant. "You think this thing can protect us?"
He looked at her, jaw set. "No. I think I have to protect it. And you."
She rolled her eyes. "Dramatic. But fine. So what now?"
Talon stood, strength returning to his limbs. "Now I figure out how to wake it up."
Over the next several hours, they explored the chamber.
It was more than a cave—it was a buried vault. Dozens of smaller alcoves branched off from the central hangar, filled with sealed doors, dead monitors, shattered drones. Talon searched methodically. Mira followed, marking their path in the dust.
Eventually, Talon found a narrow shaft leading upward—a corridor built into the rock, its walls marked with faded glyphs and repair sigils. At the end of the hall: a door.
He pressed his hand to the panel beside it.
Nothing.
Then, slowly, the door hissed open.
Inside: a small control room, still partially active.
Mira gasped. "This place has power?"
"Barely. But it's alive."
Talon approached the central console. Dust coated the screen, but underneath, it flickered faintly—awaiting input.
A faint outline appeared.
NEURAL LINK PROTOCOL — UNREGISTERED PILOT
SEARCHING…
MATCH FOUND: TALON CREED
SYNC POTENTIAL: 89.6%
Mira stared at the screen. "It knows you."
Talon swallowed hard. "No… it is me."
He placed his hand on the interface.
Pain lanced through his skull—sharp, electric. For a second, he saw code. Symbols he didn't recognize but somehow understood.
Then it was gone. The screen flickered, and a new message appeared:
PILOT ACCEPTED. STANDBY MODE DISENGAGED.
Behind them, the entire vault shook. The Gundam's eyes lit up with a cold blue glow.
Mira stepped back. "You woke it up."
Talon turned toward the hangar. His voice was quiet, full of awe. "No. It woke me up."
That night, they sat outside the vault, under the stars. The machine remained silent, its eyes dim once more—but now it watched. Talon could feel it.
Mira stared at the fire they had built. "Do you feel different?"
Talon didn't answer at first. He turned a small rock over in his hand. "I feel… like I was never just human."
"You always felt things before they happened. Heard things no one else did. You think this is why?"
Talon met her eyes. "Maybe I was made to find it. Or maybe it was made to find me."
Mira threw another stick into the fire. "What happens now?"
Talon looked back toward the vault. "Now we train. We prepare. And when they come looking for this—"
"We make sure they don't get it," Mira finished.
Talon smiled. "Exactly."
Far away, beyond the ridge line, a drone hovered in silence. Its lenses recorded every flicker of light, every spark of movement inside the basin.
Inside a command center hundreds of kilometers away, a woman in a pale uniform watched the footage stream in.
She tapped a finger against her datapad. "He's found it. Finally."
Behind her, a figure in a mask adjusted his gloves. "Do we engage?"
"Not yet," she said. "Let him wake it up. Let him bond with it. That's the only way we'll get what we need."
The masked figure bowed. "And after?"
She smiled coldly. "After? We take it from his corpse."