Dust. Smoke. Silence.
That was all Kael could process as his neural interface flickered back to life.
System Booting...EndZone Exosuit: Model AEGIS-X // Status: CriticalVitals Stable. Consciousness Level: 42%Activating Emergency Directive...
His eyes snapped open behind a cracked visor, greeted by a skyline in ruins—twisted buildings half-swallowed by vines of carbonized steel, shattered neon billboards blinking endlessly into oblivion. The air smelled of ozone and scorched earth.
The upper shell of his exosuit hissed, releasing steam and hydraulic pressure.Burned-out circuits glowed faintly along his armor—like veins of dying stars.
He coughed, throat dry, lungs catching the taste of ash and machine oil.
Kael sat up slowly, metal groaning beneath him.
Debris surrounded him:Charred bone fragments.Rusted rebar.Shattered visors.He was lying atop a crater lined with blackened soil—like something had detonated beneath the city's skin.
Reactor readings: unstable.No external signal detected.Recommending relocation from Zone-79 within 6 hours.
A warning ping echoed through his helmet.
AI Companion "Iris" initializing...Hello, Kael. You're not supposed to be awake yet.
He blinked. "Iris? You're still functional?"
Barely. 17% processing capacity. Half my libraries are gone... including humor. So you're stuck with sarcasm.
Kael couldn't help but smirk.
Current location: [ZONE-79] — Codename: ENDZONE.Status: Red Tier Cataclysm Zone. Infrastructure collapsed. Biotech presence: confirmed.Nearest shelter: 14.2 kilometers southwest.Suit Integrity: 27% and dropping.
⚠️ WARNING: Hostile Entities Detected Nearby.
Far away, metal shrieked. A howling wind stirred dust into spirals that danced through the ruins like ghosts.
Broken drones littered the ground, their cores still faintly humming. One of them had a half-melted rifle embedded in its frame. The sky above was clouded—not with weather, but with static from orbital debris and darkened satellites.
Kael's gauntlet lit up, flashing a partial map riddled with red Xs.
Multiple failed ARK Relays detected.Core Network is nonresponsive.Last known command signal: OVERDRIVE_AZURE. Timestamp: [203-██-██]
That signal… it wasn't supposed to exist anymore. That was pre-fall command code—buried under classified systems even he wasn't authorized to touch back then.
"Iris, is there any record of what caused the collapse?"
Negative. No verified source of war ignition. Data corrupted.All we know is the world turned on itself in under 72 hours.
He clenched his jaw. Seventy-two hours. That's all it took.
Kael tried to stand.
Pain shot through his body as servos engaged with a delayed stutter. The armor fought him, resisting movement like an old beast waking from cryosleep.
Movement calibration: 49%... 58%... 72% — mobility restored.Weapon Link: Offline. Neural Sync: 61%.
From the edge of a crumbling skyscraper, something moved—slow, twitching. Biotech corruption, crawling on fused limbs.
Kael loaded a pulse cartridge into his weapon. The rifle clicked.
EndZone Protocol Z3: Initiated.Mission Parameters: Survive. Adapt. Reactivate the Core. Find the truth.
"I don't know who started this war," Kael muttered, raising his weapon toward the ruin."But I'll be the one to finish it."
✦✦✦
A low growl echoed from the dark.Red eyes blinked to life among the wreckage.
He took aim.
And the hunt began.