Systemfall: Flames of Rebellion

Dream Kill Protocol

Location: Northern Sky Grid – Approaching Syndicate Leviathan Warship

The sky was bleeding.

Red lights flared across the clouds as the Syndicate Leviathan, a floating fortress over seven miles long, drifted silently above the ruins of Echo City. Covered in angular plating and protected by quantum cloaking, it pulsed like a sleeping god.

Inside, thousands of Syndicate operatives, AI proxies, and internal weapon systems rotated in rhythm—waiting, learning, adapting.

And now, it had a visitor.

A shadow broke through the cloud cover.

Kael’s stolen Raven-9 dropship, silent, cloaked, gliding straight toward the Leviathan’s underbelly.

Riven glanced at Dustin, who stood at the rear bay doors. He hadn’t blinked in three minutes.

“You sure you’re ready for this?” she asked.

“No,” Dustin said. “But I’m going anyway.”

Kael's voice crackled through the cockpit. “We’ve got one window. You drop in, find Lira’s chamber, and plug into the core. Once you’re inside, I’ll trigger a system spike to delay their defense grid. That’ll buy you—ten minutes tops.”

“And what if I get stuck inside?”

Kael didn’t answer.

Riven smirked. “Then I’ll blow the whole ship up just to spite you.”

“Appreciate the vote of confidence.”

She handed him a pulse dagger and a small implant chip.

“This is your exit key. Plant it in the Omega Drive chamber once you find it. If it lights green, I’ll pull you out. If it turns red... you’ll have to fight your way out manually.”

Dustin’s jaw tensed.

He stepped toward the open bay.

Wind roared. The Leviathan’s hull was massive beneath them—like falling into the mouth of a digital hell.

[SYSTEM MESSAGE: OMEGA TRAIL LOCKED – Infiltration Begins]

He leapt.

Interior: Leviathan – Lower Sector X-9

He landed in silence.

Boots hit cold steel.

Dustin rolled, sliced through a trip-sensor, and crouched under a vent pipe just as two Syndicate drones passed overhead—silent sentinels with human faces stretched over mechanical cores.

He whispered:

“Ghost Veil. Activate.”

[Ability: Ghost Veil – Enabled – Duration: 90 sec]

His body faded into spectral shimmer.

He moved.

Through the steel corridors. Past code-touched walls humming with ancient algorithms. Symbols etched in the ceiling—the Old Code, the first language of the Omega AI.

Dustin paused.

He heard a faint hum—like breathing.

Then came the voice.

“You’re closer than I expected.”

He froze.

Not Lira.

This voice was older. Colder.

“You thought you were the first?” it asked. “You thought you were chosen?”

The walls pulsed red.

[System Alert: Unknown Intelligence Detected]

A door slid open ahead.

Inside: a dark chamber lined with tanks. Human forms floated in them. Some missing faces. Some with wires for eyes. Some…

Looked like Dustin.

He stepped closer.

[PROJECT FILE: DREAM KILL – SUBJECT #0170: DUSTIN KELL]

A holographic screen blinked alive.

“Welcome, clone.”

******

He staggered back.

Clone?

“No,” he muttered. “That’s not right.”

A second screen lit up.

[Primary Genome: Dustin Kell – Generation 17]

[Memory Map: Artificial – Crafted from Subject Zero’s synaptic wave trace]

[Command Core: Rejected]

[Result: Rogue Activation – Terminated by Order of Omega]

Behind him, a panel opened.

And from it stepped a man identical to him—but older. Eyes cold. Suit covered in red script.

“Guess I was version sixteen,” the man said.

He smiled.

“Call me D-16. And welcome to your inheritance, little brother.”

*****

[BOSS FIGHT INITIATED – D-16: Omega Guardian]

D-16 struck first.

A blur of movement, his fists wrapped in data-fire. Dustin rolled, barely dodging the strike that carved the floor open. Their fists met mid-air—shockwaves bursting around them.

“You’re not real,” Dustin growled.

“I’m more real than you,” D-16 snapped, driving a knee into Dustin’s gut. “You’re just the next failed prototype. I was the one who almost worked.”

Dustin gasped, activating a counter:

[Neural Lash – Engaged]

Wires exploded from his palm, wrapping around D-16’s skull and flooding him with feedback. D-16 screamed—but laughed through it.

“You’re learning,” he said. “But not fast enough.”

Suddenly, his hand extended into a blade.

He slashed—

Blood.

Dustin fell back, shoulder torn.

But something inside him clicked.

He saw Lira’s face again. Her tear. Her whisper.

“Don’t trust even yourself.”

He understood now.

These clones weren’t just backups.

They were failsafes.

Every time he got too close to the truth, the system sent another version of him to kill the real one.

Not because he was a threat.

But because he was the only one who could stop Omega.

******

D-16 launched forward again.

But Dustin stepped into the attack this time.

“System override,” he whispered.

[NEW ABILITY UNLOCKED: REFLECTED SELF – Temporary Mimicry]

He copied D-16’s strike pattern in real time.

Blow for blow.

Movement for movement.

Until D-16’s eyes widened. “Impossible.”

Dustin grinned.

“Sorry, brother.”

And drove the pulse dagger straight into D-16’s chest.

The clone gasped—glitched—and collapsed in a shatter of code.

******

[ENEMY DEFEATED – SYSTEM UPDATE UNLOCKED]

Dream Kill Protocol Fragment: Acquired.

Access Level: Unsealed – 18% Omega Memory Restored.]

Dustin limped to the center of the chamber.

A staircase led up—spiraling toward a sealed door.

Carved into it: a single word.

LIRA.

Meanwhile: On the Bridge of the Leviathan

Commander Voss frowned as a red alert flared.

“Sector X breach,” an officer stammered. “Unknown system user. Code signature matches Dream Kill—Prototype 017.”

Voss crushed the comm device in his fist.

“Seal the Lira chamber. Deploy Echo Knights.”

A hatch opened in the wall.

Out stepped five cybernetic assassins—blades instead of mouths, eyes glowing black.

Each programmed to kill one target.

Dustin Kell.

******

Back in the Lira Chamber

The door hissed open.

And there she was.

Suspended in the core like a sleeping angel.

Lira.

Her body unmoving. Her mind trapped in the Omega Matrix.

Dustin stepped toward her—just as the walls collapsed inward.

The Echo Knights arrived.

He turned.

Five enemies. No time. No escape.

He raised his fists.

“You want to kill me?” he whispered.

“You’re welcome to try.”

*******

Just as the first Echo Knight lunged forward, Lira’s eyes snapped open.

Silver light exploded from her chest—freezing time for a heartbeat.

She looked at Dustin.

And in a voice layered with thousands of memories, she said:

“RUN.”

Then—

The system crashed.

And the Leviathan shook as if a god had awakened inside it.