The wind cut sharply through Milwaukee’s streets as night fell. The city felt nervous, like a living thing waiting for something terrible to break loose. Neon signs flickered. Sirens wailed in the distance. A low hum rolled across the rooftops, the sound of machines that did not belong to this place.Inside the warehouse, the Vanguard gathered near the open bay doors. Navarro adjusted his rifle straps and stared upward with a stiff jaw. “They are coming,” he muttered.Landon listened. He heard it too. The faint buzz of rotors. The soft whisper of engines that were too smooth, too clean, too controlled. Aether Dominion had sent their first wave.Claire stood beside him, arms folded, eyes narrowed as she watched the sky through the night-blue haze. “We knew they would move fast,” she said quietly. “But not this fast.”Jin rushed in from the back workbench, carrying two tablets and a roll of cables. His fingers shook slightly. “Dominion mercenaries just struck a Syndicate research branc

Rain slid down the tall steel windows of the Vanguard’s hideout. The whole team gathered in the dim room as Priya projected the stolen files across the wall. Lines of corporate mergers, coded agreements, payment trails, and secret communications lit the space with cold blue light.Claire stood with her arms tight across her chest. Her jaw was rigid. She looked as if she had not slept. None of them had.“Aether Dominion is making their move,” Priya said. Her voice was steady, but her eyes showed fear. “They want everything left behind by the Syndicate. Every lab. Every company. Every patent.”Jin tapped on his tablet. “They are also planning a closed-doors shareholder summit tonight. It is not public. It is not legal. It is happening on the top floor of the Aether executive penthouse.”Navarro leaned forward. “So we break in.”“No,” Claire said quickly. “We infiltrate. Quiet. Clean. We get the data. We get out.”Marcus smirked. “When do we ever get out clean?”Claire gave him a tired

The night sky hung low over the city like a dark iron lid. Heavy clouds pressed down on the skyline, and cold fog crawled across the empty streets. The old train depot stood in the center of the industrial district. Its huge steel doors were rusted and scarred, and broken windows covered the walls like hollow eyes.Landon, Claire, Priya, and Jin crouched in the shadows behind a line of abandoned rail cars. The metal around them groaned in the wind. The whole place felt like a trap waiting to spring.Priya adjusted her glasses and whispered, “The Syndicate auction is happening inside. Weapons. Artifacts. Data keys. Everything Wolfe’s people still use. It is all being sold off tonight.”“And Aether Dominion knows,” Jin added quietly. His hands hovered over his tablet like a pianist ready to play a dangerous song. “Their signals are moving into place.”Claire checked the ammo on her rifle. Her hands shook slightly, but her eyes stayed sharp. “Three sides in one place,” she said. “Wolfe’

Rain poured over the city like a cold curtain. Each drop hit the cracked pavement with a small sharp sound. Clouds pressed low over the rooftops, turning every corner into a gray blur. The city felt heavy and trapped, as if something terrible waited just beyond the fog.Landon stood at the edge of an abandoned loading yard. The metal containers around him were rusted and lined up like sleeping beasts. His breath fogged in the cold air. His Echo flickered faintly under his skin, like a spark too small to survive the wind.Claire walked beside him, tightening the strap on her shoulder rifle. Jin checked a cracked tablet, though its screen glitched from the destruction of the previous night’s networks. Priya scanned the shadows, her hand resting on the hilt of her shock baton.Navarro motioned for them to stay low. “We are close,” he whispered. “Wolfe moved his personal enforcers into this sector. The Serpent Triumvirate. If they are here, something important is happening.”Claire fro

The night sky above the financial district glowed with cold white lights. Tall glass towers rose like sharp teeth, and their reflections trembled on the rain-soaked streets. Landon Hale stared up at them from the roof of a parking garage. He felt the pressure in the air, a strange heaviness, as if something dangerous waited behind every building.Priya stood beside him, her tablet glowing in her hands. The screens flickered like nervous eyes. “The Syndicate is doing something reckless,” she said in a tense voice. “This is not a normal operation. They are trying to use an artifact as a weapon.”Landon tightened his gloves. “Why here?”Priya lifted her head. “Because the financial district controls the city’s heartbeat. If they make it fall, everything shifts.”Below, Claire watched the streets through binoculars. Her voice came through the comms in a quiet hiss. “Movement at the far end. Trucks. Syndicate markings. They look desperate.”Jin checked his gear one last time and muttered,