Systemfall: Flames of Rebellion

Ghost Protocol

The safehouse was buried beneath a cemetery.

A thousand tombstones above. A thousand secrets below.

Dustin had barely caught his breath when the reinforced door slammed shut behind them, drowning out the chaos of the city. The passage had been lined with old bones and modern sensors — a strange fusion of death and technology.

He followed the mysterious one-eyed man down a narrow corridor lit by blue fluorescents embedded into the stone walls. The air smelled like iron and ozone.

“What is this place?” Dustin asked, glancing behind them.

“The dead zone,” the man said. “Our systems don’t work here. Neither does the Syndicate’s surveillance. It’s one of the few ghost zones left after the Blackout Wars.”

“Blackout Wars?”

The man didn’t slow. “You don’t remember anything before the hospital, do you?”

Dustin frowned. “No. Just flashes. A woman. Fire. Blood.”

The man finally stopped at a sealed door marked with a glowing insignia: two interlocked serpents eating their own tails.

Ouroboros.

He placed his hand on the scanner. It hissed open.

“Then you better sit down. Because everything you think you know is a lie.”

********

The room was dim and circular, filled with data panels, rotating holograms, and schematics of weapons Dustin didn’t recognize. At the center was a table where an old woman sat, half her face replaced with chrome plating and optic wires. Her presence was cold, calculating.

“This him?” she asked without looking.

“Dustin Hamilton,” the man confirmed. “System host. Beta generation. Unstable, but promising.”

The woman turned to Dustin, and her artificial eye flickered.

“I’m Doctor Kael. You were supposed to be dead.”

Dustin sat slowly. “You’re going to have to be more specific.”

Doctor Kael tapped a device. A flickering 3D image appeared: Dustin strapped to a surgical bed, tubes running through his limbs, surrounded by shadows with Syndicate markings.

“You were part of Project Revenant. A resurrection experiment. Designed to merge human memory with ancient code.”

“Code?”

Kael nodded grimly. “The Omega Code. A fragment of pre-collapse AI from before the world burned. You weren’t born into this, Dustin. You were rebuilt. Engineered by the Syndicate to become their Ghost King.”

Ghost King…

Dustin’s stomach twisted.

“And the girl?” he asked. “Silver eyes. Red dress. Who is she?”

Kael studied him. “You saw her in a memory?”

“She said my name. Told me not to forget her.”

Kael turned to the one-eyed man. “Activate Echo Protocol.”

The man tapped his wristband.

[System Sync Request: ECHO PROTOCOL. Do you accept?]

Dustin hesitated. But every instinct screamed yes.

[ACCEPTED.]

Suddenly, his head throbbed. A blast of static filled his ears as images poured in: fire raining from the sky, the Syndicate storming a tower, a girl screaming his name from the top floor.

“Her name was Lira,” Kael said softly. “She was the first system-born. The key to the Omega Code.”

Dustin's breath hitched.

“Where is she now?”

Kael looked away. “The Syndicate took her. She was never meant to survive the fall.”

“But she did,” Dustin whispered. “She’s still alive.”

The one-eyed man interjected. “If she’s alive, they’re using her. Weaponizing her memory. Twisting her into something she’s not.”

Kael turned back, steely gaze unwavering. “If you’re going after her, you’ll need more than willpower.”

She tapped a final command.

[System Upgrade Unlocked: GHOST VEIL – Phase 1.

Ability: Temporarily become intangible for 4 seconds. Cooldown: 90 seconds.

Status: Experimental. Use at your own risk.]

Dustin blinked. “Intangible?”

Kael nodded. “You’ll be able to pass through matter — walls, bullets, even time echoes. But it’ll hurt like hell.”

Before he could test it, alarms blared overhead.

[WARNING: Hostile lifeforms approaching. Syndicate drones inbound.]

Dustin stood, adrenaline spiking.

“How did they find us?!”

The one-eyed man cursed. “Dammit. They must’ve tagged one of the downed agents in the alley.”

Kael slammed her fist on the console. “Seal the ghost core. We can’t let the data get out!”

“Dustin, with me!” the man shouted. “Let’s move!”

******

The underground sanctuary erupted into chaos.

As Dustin followed his mysterious ally—whom Kael had called Riven—the hallway lights flickered red. Auto-turrets descended from the ceiling, already firing at drones buzzing down from ventilation shafts.

A black orb slammed into the wall near them—EMP grenade.

[System Interference Detected. Shielding Initiated.]

The blast crackled. Sparks flew. Riven dived behind cover, returning fire with pinpoint accuracy. Dustin spotted a metal hatch overhead.

“There—crawlspace!”

Riven nodded. “You go! I’ll cover you!”

But Dustin didn’t move.

He felt it—the system humming. Like a living thing beneath his skin.

“I can get us through the wall,” he muttered.

“What?!”

Dustin stepped forward.

[Activate GHOST VEIL? Y/N]

Y—Yes. 

Time stopped.

A burning cold surged through him, like stepping into ice and fire at once. His arms blurred. His body began to shimmer.

He ran forward—through the concrete wall—and emerged on the other side, coughing up blood.

[Ghost Veil deactivation complete. Internal bleeding: minor. Cooldown initiated.]

Riven crashed through a second later, panting.

“Remind me to never let you lead again,” he growled.

But Dustin was already moving.

********

They reached the server room at the sanctuary’s core. The chamber pulsed with blue light, housing a massive neural engine—the Ghost Core.

Kael’s voice came through the intercom.

“They’re breaching the upper levels. You need to wipe the server and escape through the catacombs. We can’t let the Syndicate extract the code!”

Dustin looked to Riven. “What happens if they do?”

“They’ll rewrite the world,” he replied grimly. “And they’ll use your face to do it.”

Dustin ran to the console and initiated the purge sequence.

[Security Clearance: D.HAMILTON_OMEGA.

System Recognized. Proceed with Ghost Core Purge?]

He hesitated—then hit CONFIRM.

The machine screamed to life. Lights surged. Data began erasing, thousands of petabytes disappearing into white static.

Just then, the chamber doors blew open.

Syndicate enforcers stormed in—black armor, crimson visors, rifles raised.

But Dustin was ready.

He dodged the first shot, fired back with precision, and activated Ghost Veil once more—phasing through a blast and disarming the second soldier midair.

Riven covered him, taking down three more.

But more were coming.

Dozens.

The Ghost Core began to overload, lighting up like a collapsing star.

[WARNING: Critical Mass Approaching.]

Dustin turned to Riven. “We need to go. NOW.”

*****

They fled through the catacombs just as the server exploded behind them, a roaring shockwave of white heat chasing them through the tunnels. The blast tore through centuries-old stone, swallowing everything in fire.

As they surfaced into the graveyard, the sky was bleeding red.

And high above, a new symbol hovered in the air—projected from a Syndicate drone.

The Omega Code was live.

Dustin turned to Riven, bloodied but breathing.

“We just burned everything they wanted.”

Riven lit a cigarette with shaking hands.

“No,” he said. “We just gave them exactly what they needed.”

Dustin’s heart dropped.

“What do you mean?”

Riven pointed to the sky. The Omega symbol pulsed once… then vanished.

“They don’t need the code anymore. They just needed you to activate it.”