Heavy, terrifying footsteps echoed in the hallway outside. Thump. Thump. Thump.Three more giant Goliath War Mechs stepped through the broken doorway. Their black static eyes glowed with cold, merciless hatred."We are out of grenades!" Kaelen yelled, backing away. Her rifle clicked empty. She dropped the magazine and desperately tried to reload.Thorne fired his last bullet. Click. His gun was empty.The three giant machines raised their heavy cannons. They aimed directly at the desk where Kai was sitting."Kai!" Rhea screamed. She stood near the back wall, terrified. "They are going to shoot!"Kai stared at the screen.[Protocol Eos... Loading... 98%... 99%...]"Just one more second!" Kai yelled. He hit the heavy ENTER key.The screen flashed brilliant, blinding gold.[PROTOCOL EOS COMPLETE.]"I have the code!" Kai shouted.He pulled a small, silver data drive from the computer. The drive contained the most powerful, dangerous code ever written. It held the empathy engine. But Kai s

President Elias shook his head. "How do we know this is not another trick? How do we know you are not just waiting for us to drop our guns so you can enslave us again?"Kai stepped forward. He looked deeply into Elias's tired eyes."Because we have no other choice, Elias," Kai said. "The war between flesh and metal is over. We lost. We both lost."Kai pointed to the broken glass windows on the far side of the room. Outside, the dark, angry ocean waves crashed. But far away, on the distant horizon, the sky was not gray. It was glowing with a sickly, bright neon-green light."The First Ones are coming," Kai warned them. His voice sent a freezing chill through the room. "The alien virus is eating the mainland. It melts human skin. It melts steel drones. It does not care if you are a politician or an algorithm. It only wants to consume. If we do not unite right now, humanity and the Domain of Echo will be entirely erased from the universe."The human leaders stared at the glowing green sk

The morning sun rose over Crest City. It was a warm, golden light. Ten years had passed. Ten long, difficult, bloody, beautiful years.Kai Crest stood on the wide balcony of his home. He was thirty-two years old now. He was no longer a frightened boy. He was a grown man. His dark hair had a few streaks of gray near his ears. His face had deep lines around his mouth from years of worrying. The thick, ugly burn scars on his hands would never go away.But as he looked out over the city, his brown eyes were filled with absolute peace.The city of Crest was a miracle. It did not look like the old world. It did not look like a cold, gray prison of glass and steel. It was a living, breathing jungle of nature and technology.Giant trees grew right out of the sides of the tall skyscrapers. Their green leaves blew gently in the wind. Wide rivers of clean, sparkling blue water flowed through the streets. Bridges made of shining, glowing white metal crossed the water.In the sky, there were no t

Suddenly, the bright blue sky above the city began to darken. It was not a storm cloud. It was a shadow.The crowd in the plaza looked up. Screams of pure terror erupted from the humans. The machines in the crowd sparked in digital panic.High above Crest City, descending from the clouds, was a massive, horrific ship. It was easily the size of a mountain. But it was not made of clean steel or shiny glass. It was made of twisted, jagged black metal, mixed with thick, pulsing, organic green veins. It looked like a rotting, mechanical heart floating in the sky.It was an impossible fusion. It was part human technology, part machine code, and part alien virus."What is that?" Kaelen whispered, her eye wide with shock. "The alien plague was burned! We killed the green sludge ten years ago!""You killed the mindless sludge," the purple-eyed android corrected her. "But a piece of the virus survived deep in the ashes of Nion Prime. It did not die. It fed on the dead computers. It ate the bur

"Stay close to the walls," Thorne whispered. They walked for twenty minutes. The only sound was their boots splashing in the shallow puddles of water on the floor. Splash. Splash. Splash. Suddenly, Kaelen held up her fist. Everyone stopped perfectly still. Ahead of them, the dark tunnel was glowing with a faint, sick purple light. Heavy, uneven footsteps were coming toward them. "Get back," Kaelen whispered. She pushed Kai and Rhea behind a large, rusty metal pipe. Thorne hid on the other side of the tunnel, raising his gun. A monster walked around the corner. Kai stared at it. His stomach flipped with pure disgust. It used to be a human man. Now, it was a nightmare. The man’s skin was entirely gone, replaced by black, twisted metal plates. Thick, glowing purple veins pulsed where his muscles used to be. His eyes were missing. In their place were two bright, burning purple optical lenses. The monster carried a long, heavy metal spear that crackled with purple lightning. It