Rebirth of the Forsaken Heir

Chapter Nine: The Road to Orion

The stolen hoverbike carved a path through Shanghai’s underbelly like a ghost on fire, dodging towers, neon signs, and surveillance drones. Ethan clung tightly behind Aria, his pulse still racing from the rooftop ambush. His thoughts spun, not just from the adrenaline, but from the hologram of his mother and the looming truth: the Omega Archive could destroy Helix from within.

If he could reach it.

And if it didn’t destroy him first.

"Are we clear?" Ethan called over the wind.

"More or less," Aria replied, eyes focused. "But Blackout units don’t stop. They’re programmed to chase until they lose their bodies."

Ethan looked back. No pursuers yet—but that meant little.

"Where the hell did you come from?" he asked.

Aria smirked. "Jayden sent me. Said you'd run headfirst into a death trap. He wasn’t wrong."

"I had help," Ethan said. "From someone who knew my mother. She gave me the coordinates to Orion."

Aria glanced sideways. "Orion’s not just coordinates. It’s a death sentence."

"Then we bring it back to life."

A Fractured Alliance

Back at their hideout—an old water purification plant beneath the Yangtze grid—Ethan met with Jayden, Zara, and Lira.

The team gathered around a dusty holomap. Jayden had aged five years in five days, exhaustion clinging to his shoulders.

"So this is it," he said, highlighting the Orion coordinates. "The original Project Rebirth site. Ground zero for everything."

"Your mother buried evidence here," Lira added. "Schematics, test data, AI logs, everything Helix used to rewrite human evolution."

"And now they’ve turned it into a fortress," Zara muttered. "A blacksite under sixty meters of steel and neural scramblers."

"Then we go in the way they won’t expect," Ethan said. "Through the old access tunnels. The ones Cassandra built for emergency evac."

Jayden raised an eyebrow. "You sure those aren’t collapsed?"

"Only one way to find out."

The Plan

They would infiltrate from the northern ridge of Sector 3—now a frozen wasteland patrolled by automated Helix sentries. Using Lira’s cloaking tech and Aria’s drone-jammer, they’d reach the underground maintenance hub that Cassandra coded as “Axis Echo.”

From there, the mission would be simple in theory:

Breach the vault beneath Axis Echo.

Extract the Omega Archive.

Transmit the contents to the Resistance across New Europa.

Escape before Helix unleashed their failsafes.

Simple.

If everything went right.

"Suit up," Ethan said. "We move at dawn."

A Whisper in the Dark

That night, Ethan couldn’t sleep. He stood outside the compound, watching the silent river flow past the city’s bones. Lira joined him, her coat drawn tight.

"You look like her when you’re angry," she said softly.

Ethan didn’t turn. "Was she scared?"

Lira hesitated. "Yes. But not for herself. For you."

"She thought I’d break."

"She thought they’d take away your choice."

Ethan looked down at his hands. "I’ve spent my whole life thinking my mother abandoned me. But she gave everything to protect me."

"Even her soul," Lira whispered.

The Journey Begins

The sun never truly rose in Sector 3. Just a cold gray haze above twisted metal and concrete scars.

The team moved fast—cloaked under adaptive suits, their biosignatures scrambled. The journey through the snow-choked ruins took hours, past skeletal buildings and derelict Atlas bunkers. No birds. No people. Just wind.

"Over there," Aria pointed. "Entrance to the tunnel. Half-buried."

They pried open a rusted hatch and descended into the dark.

The tunnel was tight and damp, reeking of decay and ozone. Pipes dripped. Cables sparked. The silence was suffocating.

"This place gives me bad dreams," Jayden muttered.

"You dreamed of Orion?" Zara asked.

"Yeah. Every time I do, I wake up screaming."

Axis Echo

After four hours crawling through darkness, they reached the chamber.

Axis Echo.

It was a spherical vault, lined with dormant servers and strange crystalline structures. A single console stood in the center, its screen still glowing.

Ethan stepped forward, the silver disc in his hand. He pressed it to the console.

A soft chime.

Welcome, Ethan Blake. Authentication complete. Cassandra Blake confirmed. Unlocking core vault.

A section of the wall hissed open, revealing a staircase carved from obsidian glass.

Ethan descended first.

And found the Omega Archive.

It was… alive.

A pulsing orb suspended in a magnetic field. Data flickered inside like stars collapsing. His mother’s voice echoed in the air—ghostly, fragmented.

“If you’re here… you’re ready. But beware—Helix isn’t afraid of death. They’re afraid of the truth.”

Helix Arrives

The moment Ethan touched the Archive, the alarms blared.

Sirens. Lights. Scramblers activating.

"They’re here!" Zara shouted. "Multiple Helix signatures inbound. Elite units. Holloway’s sending his best!"

Jayden raised his rifle. "We hold the line."

"No," Ethan said. "We finish this."

He activated the archive. Holograms exploded in the air—images of Helix war crimes, experiments, false elections, the rewriting of history. It was everything the world never knew.

"Start the upload," he ordered.

"Where?" Aria asked.

"Everywhere."

The First Wave

The first Helix team breached the tunnel—a dozen black-armored soldiers with neural-linked weapons. Aria tossed a thermal grenade and dropped three. Jayden laid suppressive fire while Zara hacked into the drone swarm above.

"Ethan! They’re swarming us!" Jayden yelled.

The archive’s upload rate climbed—56%, 57%...

Lira covered Ethan with a pulse rifle. "You get that file out, we’ll get you out."

But even she looked unsure.

Another explosion. More enemies. Blood.

Then—

An EMP blast tore through the chamber. Lights died. The archive flickered.

"No!" Ethan shouted. "We’re losing it—"

But the orb stabilized. And the upload resumed.

The Final Stand

Jayden took a hit. Fell. Aria dragged him behind cover, hands shaking as she applied nanogel.

Zara’s arm was burned from a plasma graze, but she kept firing.

And Ethan—he stood at the center of the storm, watching the upload reach 100%.

A final chime.

Upload complete. Broadcast initiated.

A beam of light shot from the vault into the sky, splitting the clouds.

Across New Europa, screens lit up.

Truth spilled into every system Helix had corrupted.

And the people—finally—saw.

Extraction

"We’ve got to go!" Lira screamed.

A fresh wave of Helix reinforcements swarmed the vault. Too many.

Ethan grabbed the Archive core, shoved it into a case, and ran.

They retreated through the tunnels, fighting for every meter.

One drone exploded too close. Jayden went down again. This time, for good.

Zara screamed. Aria dragged her away.

Ethan turned back only once—just long enough to see Jayden’s last smile.

Out of the Fire

The emergency evac line was buried beneath the ruins of a helipad. They burst through, gasping, bloodied, but alive.

Lira activated the signal.

A stolen Helix dropship decloaked above them and lowered its ramp.

"Move!" she yelled.

They boarded. The ship lifted into the sky—away from Orion. Away from the fire.

Aftermath

News reports flooded every network.

"Helix Conspiracy Uncovered."

"Atlas Project Exposed."

"Mass Arrests of Helix Officials."

"Cities Rising Against the Grid."

The world changed.

And in the shadows of that change, Ethan Blake watched from the cockpit of the ship, the Archive locked at his feet.

It was over.

Or at least—the first war was.