The Iron Gorge was a place where the old world had been squeezed together by a giant hand. Two massive skyscrapers had fallen against each other, creating a narrow canyon of rusted steel and cracked glass. The yellow sulfur fog was thick here. It moved between the jagged walls like a slow, hungry river.Silas Kapito stood in the very center of the gorge. He was not hiding. He was not wearing his mud-covered cloak. He stood with his feet planted wide on the cracked asphalt. His marble-white skin glowed in the dim light. Underneath his skin, the charcoal-black bones of his tungsten-dense skeleton looked like dark branches. His eyes were solid, hollow black. He was the "sun." He was the only heat signature in the entire canyon."Overclocking... 95 percent," Silas whispered.His brain felt like it was sitting in a bowl of boiling water. The Neuro-Sync Alpha was pushing his thoughts so fast that he could hear the individual drops of Black-Rain hitting the metal beams a mile away. He could

The old theater was a place for stories. Once, people sat in the soft red chairs to watch actors pretend to be heroes. Now, the red chairs were ripped and covered in grey dust. The ceiling was gone, showing the yellow sulfur clouds of the Ash-Lands.Silas Kapito stood on the stage. The wooden floorboards groaned under his weight. He weighed five hundred pounds now, his bones as dense as tungsten. He was no longer just a boy. He was a statue of war.Around him, in the dark rows of the theater, the forty Iron-Grey Reapers waited. They were silent. The grey mud on their skin made them look like ghosts sitting in the audience. They didn't have popcorn or programs. They had sharpened rebar and captured railguns."Listen to me," Silas said. His voice was a low hum that made the dust on the stage dance. "The Gilded are hiding. They are waiting for their fathers and mothers to send ships to save them. They think they are the 'Hunters.' They think we are the 'Cattle.'"Ren stood in the front

The yellow sulfur-fog of the Ash-Lands was never empty. It was always full of the sounds of the wind, the bubbling of the black marshes, and the distant, heavy thud of falling buildings. But tonight, it was full of a new sound. It was the sound of voices. Small, tinny voices were coming out of a cracked Gilded radio sitting on a pile of rubble.Silas Kapito sat nearby. He looked like a statue made of dark charcoal. The grey clay on his skin had dried, making him look like he was part of the stone he sat on. His eyes were solid black, but deep inside them, there was a tiny silver spark that never stopped moving. He was listening to the Comms."Sector 9! We need backup!" a boy’s voice screamed over the static. He sounded like he was about to cry. "Something is out here! It’s not a Dreg! My thermal goggles just turned black! I can't see! My Aureus suit is... it’s heavy! I can't lift my arms!"Another voice, a girl named Maya, broke in. She was sobbing. "Julian is baseline! They pulled h

As soon as the green gas touched the metal, a terrible sound filled the air. Hiss. Pop. Sizzle. The beautiful "Aureus-Prime" armor began to melt. The shiny gold plates bubbled and turned black. The blue power-cells cracked open, leaking neon fluid into the dirt. The micro-servos inside the boots snapped and warped. Ren watched with wide eyes. Millions of credits were burning away. The greatest weapons in the world were turning into a wet, ugly pile of black slag. The smell of burning plastic and melted copper filled the Seep. The Dregs coughed and stepped back, but Silas stood perfectly still. He let the gas melt every single piece of tech until there was nothing left but a smoking, ruined heap. The mountain of weapons was gone. It was now just a graveyard of dead machines. "The tech is gone," Silas said. He wiped a drop of silver blood from his chin. The effort had cost him heavily. The purple veins on his face throbbed. "Now, they cannot track the weapons. Now, they cannot ha

Silas stopped right in front of the drone’s camera. He looked up. He stared directly into the lens. In the High-Command room, it felt like Silas was looking right into their souls. The room fell silent again. Silas slowly raised his right hand. In his palm, he held a glowing golden ball. It was the size of an apple. It pulsed with a bright, warm light. It was an "Aureus Core." It was the engine that powered the Gilded armor. It was made of hyper-dense star-metal. It was supposed to be impossible to break. It was stronger than a tank."He has the Core," Lord Vance whispered, his eyes wide. "He cannot hurt it. It takes a factory press to crack a Core."Silas stared at the camera. He felt the "Rot" burning inside his chest. He felt his mind slipping closer to the machine. But he needed to do this. He needed to show the Citadel that their money could not save them. Silas closed his fingers around the golden ball. He used his Tungsten-dense bones. He used the silver-lattice in his musc