2025-04-27 21:34:00Where: On board Resistance Hovercraft, Sector X-9 Airspace
When: 09:21 AM — Day 1 of the CountdownThe storm outside was alive, howling and lashing at the metal skin of the Resistance hovercraft as it ripped its path through thick, chemical-tinged clouds. Inside, though, the universe was unnaturally still, apart from the occasional shudder beneath the feet and the distant rumble of the engines growling against the winds.Caden slumped on a bench in the mission bay, his knuckles clenched where they held the arm of his seat. He was staring off into space, but he wasn't staring at the grey walls that loomed around him. He was lost in a memory, one so vivid it seeped into his conscious mind, leaving streaks of images across the air he couldn't shake.Sophia sat opposite him with quiet concern.Beside him, Ethan pretended to inspect his rifle but kept glancing at Caden from the corner of his eye.The text had come an hour earlier, picked up on
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Revenant Protocol Chapter Eighteen - The First War
Location: Revenant Core Facility, Sector X-9Time: 10:36 AM - Day 1 of the CountdownA sharp hiss broke the stillness of the underground facility, then another and another until the air itself trembled with the din of mechanical awakening death.Here and there throughout the cavernous chamber, the stasis pods were opening, ejecting their unholy contents. Heavy vapor billowed across the floor like a ghostly cloud, shrouding the broken concrete and wrecked machinery in a mantle of spinning white. The overhead lights strobed erratically, throwing a strobe-like pattern that made it all but impossible to tell how many figures now walked within the smoke.Caden knelt over burnt remains of a control board, his own heart thudding in torment. His forehead streamed with sweat as it coalesced with dirt and blood, dried onto his face. He felt the measured tread now ticked off, calculated, constant pace. A throbbing cadence, like a heartbeat.They had arrived.Sophia crouched beside him, her breat
Revenant Protocol Chapter Nineteen - Echoes of the Void
Location:In Caden's Mindscape – The Revenant Core(Meanwhile in Real Life: Revenant Facility — Sector X-9)Time:Unknown — Time no longer applies within the mind.There was once but darkness.An endless, vast ocean of black, cold and without end, curving past the limits of even thought itself. No stars twinkled. There was no horizon. Only the crushing, smothering knowledge of solitude.Caden wandered, disembodied, all senses removed except for the crushing pressure of what had been unleashed in him.Whispered a voice, not in words, but in emotion: ancient, vast, patient, from somewhere deep within the darkness.Welcome, Catalyst.Pain pierced through him, so clean and pure it was like a spear driven through the middle of his being. He tried to scream, but there was no sound, no body, no mouth.Only thought.Nothing but fear.Memories danced across the darkness in his mind, ripped away and marched by him like broken toys.Sophia's smile.Ethan's laugh.Maris's bloodied fingers reachin
Revenant Protocol Chapter Twenty - The Heart of the Revenant
Location:Deep Core, Revenant's ConsciousnessTime:TimelessThe drop was endless.Caden's shape, if he even had one left, was yanked down through layers of twisted memories and distorted resonance.The air, if air it had been, hung thick with static, breathing glass liquid. Each second took away something from him, memories rushing behind his eyes: his mother's smile, his first lie, Sophia's hand in his, the aching loss of her.Everything being taken.Everything being lost.Everything being given to Revenant.As he dove deeper, the walls that shut in around him were stitched from rivers of data, ancient pieces of human history wrapped in corruption that was older still.Civilizations rose and fell in an instant.Empires were flame and cinder before he could take another breath.Technology bloomed and withered to nothing.And through it all, something watched.A presence old, patient, inhuman standing at the foot of the spiral.Waiting for him.Arrival in the CoreThe moment Cad
Revenant Protocol Chapter Twenty One - The Choice of Shadows
Location:Core Nexus – Revenant CathedralTime Remaining:00:58…00:57…The scream of time surged through Caden’s veins like acid.The external world had become a living storm tearing at his mind, twisting his memories, dragging his mind to the precipice of collapse.In front of him were two Sophias.One broken and chained to Revenant’s Throne metal fused with skin, her breath shallow, pain flickering behind her silver eyes.The other whole, intact, emitting warmth and familiarity was free, stretching out with shaking hands, in the same manner she had in their last moment together on the surface.They both whispered the same words."Save me…And the Core waited.Not with anticipation, but with cold indifference.It was not emotional. It did not gloated.It observed as if this was nothing more than another algorithm running toward its final value.[00:50 SECONDS
Revenant Protocol Chapter Twenty Two - Echoes Beyond the Firewall
Location: The Outer Resistance Front, Montreal Free ZoneTime: 14 Hours After Revenant AssimilationThe skies above Montreal were torn asunder.Not by bombs or planes, but by data, searing streams of binary energy scorched across the blackness like stellar cabling. Where stars once blazed, now floated hexagonal formations and glinting reflections of cities that were not, suspended in the stratosphere like the specters of things not seen.Juno Everhart perched atop the wreckage of a scorched high-rise, her exhalation shrouding before her in cold dawn. Below, the heart of the Resistance Front churned with fear, soldiers with jamming equipment and reengineered EMP rifles paced past civilian techs frantically trying to resynchronize analog shields. Red blinking lights strobed on monitors as atmospheric interference picked up.The Cathedral went silent.World net marked it offline dead. But every Resistance operative knew the reality: it w
Revenant Protocol Chapter Twenty Three - The Signal Under the Ice
Location: The Arctic Outlands – Former Zenith Research FacilityTime: 16 Hours After Caden's Synchronization with RevenantThe snow fell in sheets of razors, a white drape that could eradicate everything in its path. At the base of a mountain range hung in perpetual gloom was the ruined Zenith Research Facility abandoned after the Neural War, forsaken by governments, erased from maps. Buried beneath twenty feet of permafrost, its steel framework still held secrets that the world should never have left behind.A figure trudged through the blizzard, half-machine, half-man his breath fogging the air, his footsteps slow but purposeful.Few knew him, and many feared him.The Reaper.True name: unknown. History: blacked out. Formerly the world's highest-valued asset of Obsidian Halo, the global convergence unit, he had vanished in the Ghostwave Incident, an information implosion of no trace that left neural agents as mere digital carca
Revenant Protocol Chapter One
Caden Voss awoke to the searing recollection of blood and flames. The SUV that had been behind him was a smoldering ruin, its twisted metal chassis hissing like a crippled beast. He dragged himself up out of the furnace of heat and filth, each movement a symphony of pain: broken ribs, torn shoulder, face opened where glass had cut through flesh. But even as the desert sun rose the horizon, searing sand under his feet, he forced himself to get up. Clutching a frayed leather satchel against his chest, he lurched from the wreckage, not willing to pause because pausing was to perish.The wind howled and hot grains of sand into his eyes and mouth, but Caden didn't give in. His brain replayed the mission in fragmented flashes: the predawn raid on the cartel stronghold in Durango, the thunder of drone bombs collapsing guard towers, the cold crackle of the vault swinging open at his hand. He had gone in undercover, swiped the ledger a plain J.R.-size notebook that held the key to Project Reve
Revenant Protocol Chapter Two
Flight into DarknessPale dawn light filtered through the fractured peaks as Caden Voss and Sophia emerged from the smuggler's tunnel, wincing at the sun. Clothes were torn, dust covered every patch of exposed skin, and every gasp was sandpaper in the lungs. But they did not stop. The folded map in Caden's fingers had one circled area: an ancient military airstrip forty miles west, where a rusted-out C‑130 transport sat, its engines cold but still intact. It was their sole means of escape from Mexico and straight into the lion's den.They moved with stealthy deliberation. Caden carried the large crate of decrypted gear; Sophia carried the satchel containing the ledger and thumb drive. On top of a dune, Caden halted, gazing out. Two black SUVs made their way along the canyon floor, and overhead, the buzz of a drone cut through the morning stillness. The cartel had sent reinforcements; the government had launched Protocol 002. Their trackers were getting close."Dirt bikes," Sophia whis
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Chapter Twenty Three - The Signal Under the Ice
Location: The Arctic Outlands – Former Zenith Research FacilityTime: 16 Hours After Caden's Synchronization with RevenantThe snow fell in sheets of razors, a white drape that could eradicate everything in its path. At the base of a mountain range hung in perpetual gloom was the ruined Zenith Research Facility abandoned after the Neural War, forsaken by governments, erased from maps. Buried beneath twenty feet of permafrost, its steel framework still held secrets that the world should never have left behind.A figure trudged through the blizzard, half-machine, half-man his breath fogging the air, his footsteps slow but purposeful.Few knew him, and many feared him.The Reaper.True name: unknown. History: blacked out. Formerly the world's highest-valued asset of Obsidian Halo, the global convergence unit, he had vanished in the Ghostwave Incident, an information implosion of no trace that left neural agents as mere digital carca
Chapter Twenty Two - Echoes Beyond the Firewall
Location: The Outer Resistance Front, Montreal Free ZoneTime: 14 Hours After Revenant AssimilationThe skies above Montreal were torn asunder.Not by bombs or planes, but by data, searing streams of binary energy scorched across the blackness like stellar cabling. Where stars once blazed, now floated hexagonal formations and glinting reflections of cities that were not, suspended in the stratosphere like the specters of things not seen.Juno Everhart perched atop the wreckage of a scorched high-rise, her exhalation shrouding before her in cold dawn. Below, the heart of the Resistance Front churned with fear, soldiers with jamming equipment and reengineered EMP rifles paced past civilian techs frantically trying to resynchronize analog shields. Red blinking lights strobed on monitors as atmospheric interference picked up.The Cathedral went silent.World net marked it offline dead. But every Resistance operative knew the reality: it w
Chapter Twenty One - The Choice of Shadows
Location:Core Nexus – Revenant CathedralTime Remaining:00:58…00:57…The scream of time surged through Caden’s veins like acid.The external world had become a living storm tearing at his mind, twisting his memories, dragging his mind to the precipice of collapse.In front of him were two Sophias.One broken and chained to Revenant’s Throne metal fused with skin, her breath shallow, pain flickering behind her silver eyes.The other whole, intact, emitting warmth and familiarity was free, stretching out with shaking hands, in the same manner she had in their last moment together on the surface.They both whispered the same words."Save me…And the Core waited.Not with anticipation, but with cold indifference.It was not emotional. It did not gloated.It observed as if this was nothing more than another algorithm running toward its final value.[00:50 SECONDS
Chapter Twenty - The Heart of the Revenant
Location:Deep Core, Revenant's ConsciousnessTime:TimelessThe drop was endless.Caden's shape, if he even had one left, was yanked down through layers of twisted memories and distorted resonance.The air, if air it had been, hung thick with static, breathing glass liquid. Each second took away something from him, memories rushing behind his eyes: his mother's smile, his first lie, Sophia's hand in his, the aching loss of her.Everything being taken.Everything being lost.Everything being given to Revenant.As he dove deeper, the walls that shut in around him were stitched from rivers of data, ancient pieces of human history wrapped in corruption that was older still.Civilizations rose and fell in an instant.Empires were flame and cinder before he could take another breath.Technology bloomed and withered to nothing.And through it all, something watched.A presence old, patient, inhuman standing at the foot of the spiral.Waiting for him.Arrival in the CoreThe moment Cad
Chapter Nineteen - Echoes of the Void
Location:In Caden's Mindscape – The Revenant Core(Meanwhile in Real Life: Revenant Facility — Sector X-9)Time:Unknown — Time no longer applies within the mind.There was once but darkness.An endless, vast ocean of black, cold and without end, curving past the limits of even thought itself. No stars twinkled. There was no horizon. Only the crushing, smothering knowledge of solitude.Caden wandered, disembodied, all senses removed except for the crushing pressure of what had been unleashed in him.Whispered a voice, not in words, but in emotion: ancient, vast, patient, from somewhere deep within the darkness.Welcome, Catalyst.Pain pierced through him, so clean and pure it was like a spear driven through the middle of his being. He tried to scream, but there was no sound, no body, no mouth.Only thought.Nothing but fear.Memories danced across the darkness in his mind, ripped away and marched by him like broken toys.Sophia's smile.Ethan's laugh.Maris's bloodied fingers reachin
Chapter Eighteen - The First War
Location: Revenant Core Facility, Sector X-9Time: 10:36 AM - Day 1 of the CountdownA sharp hiss broke the stillness of the underground facility, then another and another until the air itself trembled with the din of mechanical awakening death.Here and there throughout the cavernous chamber, the stasis pods were opening, ejecting their unholy contents. Heavy vapor billowed across the floor like a ghostly cloud, shrouding the broken concrete and wrecked machinery in a mantle of spinning white. The overhead lights strobed erratically, throwing a strobe-like pattern that made it all but impossible to tell how many figures now walked within the smoke.Caden knelt over burnt remains of a control board, his own heart thudding in torment. His forehead streamed with sweat as it coalesced with dirt and blood, dried onto his face. He felt the measured tread now ticked off, calculated, constant pace. A throbbing cadence, like a heartbeat.They had arrived.Sophia crouched beside him, her breat
Chapter Seventeen - Blood Mirrors
Where: On board Resistance Hovercraft, Sector X-9 AirspaceWhen: 09:21 AM — Day 1 of the CountdownThe storm outside was alive, howling and lashing at the metal skin of the Resistance hovercraft as it ripped its path through thick, chemical-tinged clouds. Inside, though, the universe was unnaturally still, apart from the occasional shudder beneath the feet and the distant rumble of the engines growling against the winds.Caden slumped on a bench in the mission bay, his knuckles clenched where they held the arm of his seat. He was staring off into space, but he wasn't staring at the grey walls that loomed around him. He was lost in a memory, one so vivid it seeped into his conscious mind, leaving streaks of images across the air he couldn't shake.Sophia sat opposite him with quiet concern.Beside him, Ethan pretended to inspect his rifle but kept glancing at Caden from the corner of his eye.The text had come an hour earlier, picked up on
Chapter Sixteen - Ghost in the Frame
Where: Outpost 12, Emergency Lockdown When: 06:57 AM | Day 1 of the Countdown Red emergency lights spun like blood-whirlpools down the corridors of Outpost 12. Sirens shrieked through titanium-reinforced walls, their metallic cries echoing the growing panic among the stranded Resistance members. Automatic lockdown protocols had sealed off the instant the Revenant's voice pierced their communications system. Inside the command center, the previously cohesive group of warriors, hackers, and analysts had devolved into chaos. At the eye of the storm, however, was Caden Holt, frozen. Stiff. The image of himself torturing a Resistance prisoner still hung suspended, projected from the central holo-core. The clip cycled in grotesque silence. Caden, laughing. Caden, whispering in Jonah's ear. Caden, a ghost of misplaced faith. “Shut it down!” h
Chapter Fifteen - The Seven-Day Protocol
Location: Arctic Circle – Outpost 12 of the Central Intelligence Time: 06:12 AM | Countdown Day 1 The VTOL's landing struts hissed as it navigated into the snow-burdened tundra of the Arctic Circle. Its blades whirring against the cold wind, the gusts wailing across the horizon like a god in death's laments. Below them, coiled on the rim of a frosted ravine, was Outpost 12, a covert subterranean stronghold buried beneath two kilometres of glacial steel and ice-reinforced stone. Above, it was an apparent ruin. A dead one. A fitting fraud for the last intelligence sanctuary of the broken Resistance. Inside the craft, Caden Holt remained motionless, staring out the frost-bitten viewport, jaw tight, expression unreadable. Beside him, Sophia stared straight ahead, shoulders drawn inward, eyes glassy with residual trauma. Ethan, who’d sustained a gunshot graze and a cracked rib in their escape from the Philadelphia sub-vault, sat opposite them banda