The air was poison. Not literally—though Jace wouldn’t be surprised if it was—but in that way grief hangs in your lungs. Heavy. Dirty. Full of things you can't name but feel anyway. New Chicago used to have a skyline that could rival Marsport’s. Now it was just wreckage, bones of buildings jutting out like rib cages against the bleeding sky. Jace crouched behind a half-demolished pillar, broken concrete scraping his knees through the suit’s worn padding, and tasted ash in the back of his throat.Ten years of storms. Not the weather kind. These storms were smarter. Sharper. Born from the nanotech plague that bled into every crack of civilization and turned people into monsters. Turned Jace into a ghost of a man who once wore a white coat and believed in the future.His visor flickered. Another glitch. The HUD danced between static and signal, and he could barely make out the road ahead. Nothing moved—no survivors, no Shattered. Just wind weaving through rusted-out husks of cars and the

Jace’s heart pounded louder than the nanite storm raging above the subway station. Lena stood on the platform, her nanite blade glowing like a shard of the Signal Spire itself, her eyes cold as the ruins of New Chicago. “You shouldn’t have come, Jace,” she’d said, her voice cutting deeper than any Shattered claw. The Codex’s warning burned in his mind: Mission conflict: Only one Codex-bearer can claim the Ascension Key. Eliminate rival or be terminated. His sister—his sister—was the rival. And the timer ticked down: 23:40:17.The station erupted into chaos. Shattered screeched, their eyeless maws tearing into the Purifiers, Lena’s so-called allies, who fired pulse-rifles in frantic bursts. Elara yanked Jace behind a rusted train car, her plasma-cutter still humming from their last fight. Blood seeped from her torn shoulder, but her eyes were sharp, scanning the carnage. “Your sister’s got a death wish,” she hissed. “And she’s dragging us down with her.”Jace gripped his nanite-forg

The bunker corridor trembled as the Alpha Shattered’s claws tore through the blast door, its glowing maw a beacon of death in the flickering light. Jace’s blood-soaked scav-suit clung to his skin, pain searing his back where the creature had grazed him. Lena’s words—“You’re their prototype”—burned deeper, twisting with the Codex’s command: Claim the Ascension Key or perish. Her nanite blade pulsed, the Ascension Key fragment embedded in its core, and her eyes locked on his, torn between fear and defiance. Elara stood ready, plasma-cutter raised, but her bloodied shoulder shook. They were trapped, out of time, and the Codex’s hum was a scream in Jace’s skull.Host neural integrity: 69%. The timer ticked: 23:35:47. Mission: Survive the Alpha. Secondary objective: Secure Ascension Key fragment. Jace’s hand twitched, the Codex’s toxin blueprint—lethal to Codex-bearers—lingering like a temptation. Kill Lena, take the Key, end this. But she was his sister. Or was she? Not human, she’d sa

The bunker’s power core chamber shook, the alien portal’s green glow pulsing like a heartbeat, casting jagged shadows across the humming reactors. Jace’s chest burned, ribs cracked from the Alpha Shattered’s tendrils, his scav-suit in tatters. The new Alpha—its body a grotesque fusion of nanites and flesh, clutching two Ascension Key fragments—stared at him with glowing eyes, its human voice chilling: “You. The Spire’s heart.” Zara, the Hunter, stood frozen, her nanite blade flickering, caught between Jace and the Alpha. Elara gripped her flare gun, blood dripping from her shoulder, her comm crackling with Lena’s voice: “Jace, I’m alive. Get to the core!”The Codex’s command screamed in Jace’s mind: Activate or be erased. His head throbbed, blood streaming from his eyes—Host neural integrity: 50%—as the timer ticked: 23:33:01. Mission: Survive. Protect the Key. But he was the Key, the Codex had said, a prototype meant to die for the Spire’s final phase. Lena’s words—“You’re their

The bunker’s core chamber was a maelstrom of fire and nanite light, the alien portal roaring as it swallowed reactors and debris. Jace’s ribs screamed, his scav-suit shredded, blood pooling beneath him. The alien entity loomed, its shimmering form clutching three Ascension Key fragments, its void-like eyes fixed on him. “The harvest begins,” it had said, its voice a chorus of thousands. But the Shattered-Lena—wearing his sister’s scav-suit, its body pulsing with nanites, holding a fourth Key fragment—stood before him, its voice rasping, “Jace, I’m the kill switch.” The Codex’s command burned in his mind: Choose the sacrifice or become it. His head throbbed—Host neural integrity: 44%—as the timer ticked: 23:32:15. Mission: Stop the harvest.Zara, her nanite armor shattered, bled beside him, her whip-blade flickering but raised. Elara clung to the core’s control panel, sparks flying as she fought to shut the portal, her shoulder a mess of blood. The Shattered-Lena’s eyes glowed, not