The black stealth ship flew silently through the cold, dark vacuum of space. Behind them, the Earth was a giant, beautiful blue and green ball. Ahead of them was the moon. Inside the ship, the lights were dim. Silas Kapito sat in a metal chair. His broken left arm was fully healed now, thanks to his own internal heat, but he was tired. General Krov stood at the front of the cabin. He tapped a button on the glowing blue console. "The Chrome Council is hiding in the Lunar Dome," Krov said. His rough voice echoed in the small ship. "But we are not going to attack the whole Council at once. You are my Surgical Strike, Silas. We will kill them one by one. And I have the perfect first target." A bright blue hologram popped up in the air. It showed a picture of a man. The man was incredibly handsome. His skin was perfectly smooth, without a single wrinkle or scar. His hair was long, shiny, and pure gold. He wore a suit made of bright white silk. "This is Councilor Valois," Krov explaine

The small black stealth ship hovered quietly in the dark sky, five thousand feet above the ruined earth. Silas Kapito stared at the glowing green vial in his hand. The synthetic DNA override serum bubbled slightly. It smelled like sour chemicals and fake sugar. "Drink it," General Krov urged, checking his wrist-computer. "The Luminescence Gala has already started. The Chrome Council is finalizing the launch of the Aeon-General AI tonight. If we don't stop them, the machines take over." Silas knew Krov was right. He popped the cork and drank the glowing green liquid in one fast gulp. It tasted like burning battery acid. Instantly, Silas’s heavy, tungsten-dense body reacted. His 30-beats-per-minute heart sped up, trying to fight the poison. The dark metal lattice under his skin flared with heat. “Warning! Foreign DNA detected!” his machine mind screamed. But Silas forced his body to calm down. He let the synthetic serum coat his cells. He felt a strange, disgusting shiver run thr

Before Silas Kapito stepped into the Luminescence Gala, he stood alone in a dark, quiet room on the stealth ship. He was preparing for the hardest mission of his life.The black stealth ship hovered silently outside the massive, glowing dome of the party. Inside the small metal room, Silas stared at himself in a mirror. He was wearing the tight, expensive black "Silk-Steel" tuxedo. The smart-fabric hid his true nature. The bright party lights would make his marble-white skin look normal. They would hide the dark, matte-black metal lattice underneath. He looked like Lord Cassian, a rich, spoiled prince of the Citadel. But Silas’s solid black eyes stared back at him from the mirror. They burned with faint silver sparks. He was not a prince. He was the Ash-King. He was the God of War, hidden beneath the soft, expensive clothing of his enemies. Silas raised his right hand. He looked at his heavy, iron-grey knuckles. This was his core struggle. He was built to crush. He was built to s

The robotic beast made of shifting black metal stared at Silas and the twelve recruits. Its glowing blue eyes hummed with terrible, cold logic. The machine was massive, the size of a dropship, built by the Aeon-General AI to guard the Dead Zone. "Get back," Silas commanded Marcus, Sera, and the others. "It is looking for heat." Silas engaged his "Absolute Zero" state. His heartbeat dropped. His marble-white skin turned incredibly cold. To the robot's thermal sensors, Silas disappeared completely. The machine looked around, confused by the sudden loss of its primary target. It spun its heavy metal head toward the catwalk where the twelve recruits hid. Silas did not wait. He used his 0.08-second reflexes. He blurred across the room, totally silent. He jumped high into the air and landed perfectly on the back of the giant black robot. He drove his good right fist directly into the machine's blue glowing spine. The strike shattered the primary power line. The robot shrieked mechanica

Before the ceiling exploded and the brainwashed children arrived, the twelve recruits had to learn what pain truly meant.The massive, dark maintenance hub inside the Dead Zone was quiet. The only sound was the deep, slow thrum of Silas Kapito’s heart. Silas stood in front of the row of six heavy, solid-iron industrial struts. He had just shown them how to heal. He had shown them that breaking a bone made it stronger. "Pain is the architect," Silas had told them. Now, it was their turn. Silas turned his solid black eyes to the twelve shivering recruits. They wore no shirts. They had no shiny gold armor. They were just soft, pale, baseline humans standing in the cold. "Step up to the iron," Silas commanded. His voice was cold, flat, and absolute. No one moved. Lyra looked at her bare, pale arm where her cybernetic machine used to be. She was terrified. Kaelen hugged himself, shivering. They had spent their entire lives running away from pain. They hid behind blue energy shields a