The Architects of Dust
Seventy-eight years after the fall of the galactic hyperspace gate network known as The Veil, humanity’s once-glorious empire lies fragmented, drifting in the ruins of forgotten technology and collapsed alliances. Planets have become isolated war-states, AI gods rule over fractured digital realms, and ancient secrets fester in the vacuum of space.
When the Veil mysteriously reactivates, releasing a wave of untraceable quantum signals and impossible anomalies, former war criminal and memory-hacker Riven Hale is pulled out of cryo-prison for one last mission: uncover the source of the reawakening, and prevent a second collapse.
As Riven travels from derelict colonies to technocratic citadels, he uncovers a disturbing truth—reality is fraying. A mind-plague known as the Mnemonic Dust is rewriting memories across systems, blurring the lines between past and present. At the center of it all is a fanatical cult called the Dustborn, who claim the universe is a decaying simulation built by extinct, higher-dimensional beings known only as the Architects.
As Riven pieces together his forgotten past and the role he once played in an erased war, he’s hunted by synthetic assassins, haunted by implanted memories, and drawn into a war for reality itself. The question is no longer who controls the Veil.
The question is—what is real?
Read
Chapter: Chapter 16: Veil of ConvergenceThe air inside the vessel—if one could still call it air—stung with charged particles and the faintest hum of collapsing engines. Riven’s lungs burned as he stepped through the shimmering Spiral doorway, the glyph on his shoulder still alive, throbbing in his veins. Behind him, Soli and Colonel Myles followed, shields flaring in violet pulses.At the center of this space-between-spaces, the architect interface stood regal and still, as though she’d been sculpted from shadow and light. Her eyes, pools of endless code, tracked them with unblinking intent.He swallowed. He knew what came next—but he had no idea how to survive it.You are home now. The echo of her voice vibrated through the metal beneath their feet.They spread out, forming an uneasy triangle around her in the circular chamber. The Spiral doorway closed behind them with a shuttering pulse that seemed to rip at reality’s edges. Inside, the light was alive—twisting along walls and geography, moving through crystalline veins
Last Updated: 2025-06-14
Chapter: Chapter 15: The Spiral’s ThresholdThe bridge shuddered again—hard enough to throw Riven and Soli off balance. The viewport's new vessel glowed in shifting shades of obsidian and violet, casting fractured light across the ruined consoles and crystalline dust drifting in the air. That vessel—the one that had emerged behind them—was not the architect interface craft. It was larger, darker, its shape more menacing, as though built around some ancient void rather than code.Riven’s heart thundered. The glyph branded on his shoulder pulsed in resonance with the ship’s engines. Each beat felt like a voice murmuring forgotten lines of Anchor code. He realized with a cold certainty: this ship wasn’t following them. It had come for them.“Soli,” he breathed, voice low and urgent. “We—The loud CRACK of reinforced viewport glass going fissured cut him off. Shards rattled loose, held only by their protective polymer. Sparks flew.A new, deeper pulse of energy surged through the ship—a resonance too powerful to be natural. Soli lo
Last Updated: 2025-06-14
Chapter: Chapter 14: The Architect's ShadowThe chamber’s lights dissolved into white noise. Riven’s head pounded with every beat, as if the Spiral itself had taken hold and was roaring through his skull. The last image he registered before the world went dark was the architect interface’s translucent hand pressed against his glyph—its crystalline glow pulsing in sync with his fading heartbeat.And then—nothing.He awoke to a sound like bone grinding. A slow mechanical groan echoed around him as he tried to move. His vision swam into focus to reveal curved walls of burnished metal. The room was silent—no Dustborn guards, no council enforcers. Only the hum of failing systems and the dull throb of his own pulse.He tested his limbs. They worked. He sat up, breath shallow and sharp.Soli.Riven turned his head. Light reflected off her still form a few meters away: slumped, unconscious—or worse. He reached her side, heart racing, and gently shook her shoulder.“Soli,” he whispered.Her eyelids fluttered. She groaned, lifting a hand
Last Updated: 2025-06-13
Chapter: Chapter 13: Veilborn Reckoning,The cockpit lights flickered once—then died. Riven’s heartbeat thundered in his ears as the viewport went dark, swallowing Halvex Prime’s glowing horizon like a severed pulse. Outside, the architect-craft—alive, sentient—hovered in total eclipse. All light came from its crystalline veins, which pulsed with slow, deliberate reverence.He swallowed, fear and determination tangling in his chest. The glyph on his shoulder throbbed beneath his skin, each beat a reminder that he had named and awakened something beyond human reckoning. He’d said the code aloud. He’d delivered himself to this moment—and he would not turn away.“Soli,” he whispered, voice coarse. He turned to the passenger seat—empty. She must have left the shuttle again. His heart froze.Then the airlock hissed—and she stepped back inside, helmet removed. Bruises under her eyes glimmered; her expression was fierce. “They escorted me through the outer decks. Stasis pods still active—like a prize exhibit. They know exactly what
Last Updated: 2025-06-13
Chapter: Chapter 12: Silent EchoesThe cockpit lights were too dim, the silence too loud. Riven watched Sedna, the red planet of Halvex Prime, drift by like an ancient wound under fractured clouds of ash. Everything out here had been broken once—and never quite healed.He swallowed. His reflection stared back at him: hollow cheeks, eyes weighed down by memory fractures. The glyph branded on his shoulder pulsed faintly beneath his skin, as if waiting for permission to surface again.You are late.The words echoed in his skull, not as memory but as dread. He reached for the console, but his mind recoiled. The station was waiting. And it knew he was coming.“Soli.” He turned. She’d been sleeping against the seat, head tilted, still clothed in dust and dread. Bruises marked her face, hardened with fatigue. Eyes half-open, she rubbed them and touched her side where old scars still throbbed.“Good morning,” she managed, her voice strained but solid.Outside, Sedna pulsed. The planet seemed to breathe beneath the ash storms—p
Last Updated: 2025-06-12
Chapter: Chapter 11: Ash Company MemoryThe corridor was silent. Too silent.Riven’s heartbeat wasn’t.He stepped out of the Palimpsest’s airlock and into the half-ruined mining compound, his boots echoing on fractured metal. Behind him, Soli wiped blood from her cheek, her breath shaky. Nix remained silent and motionless—its programming apparently frozen by the Dustborn blast.But Riven’s eyes were locked on the shattered horizon.He held the empty case of the datashard in his hand. Whatever had been encoded in that fragment had burned a hole in his mind—a memory of a time he’d never lived. Standing before a living Veil gate. Younger. In full Anchor gear.The shards of his identity were fracturing. The real Riven, the displaced Ashley… who knew anymore?They walked toward the holo-comm array where they’d boarded seconds before. Soli’s hands trembled as she powered up the system. The internal display flickered, half offline. But when it came to life, Riven could see his reflection behind the glare—and the flicker of doubt i
Last Updated: 2025-06-12
