They came in the dead of night.
No satellites warned them. No scouts returned. No heat signatures triggered alarms.
They just… arrived.
And when they did, they didn't speak.
They didn't demand.
They didn't negotiate.
They erased.
---
Outskirts of Bucharest — Ghost Outpost Echo-7
Captain Arin Malek lit a cigarette with shaky fingers. She was Ghost Rebellion—one of Kael's forward commanders sent to establish supply chains between Europe and the Caucasus.
Three hours earlier, they'd lost contact with an ally caravan moving through the Carpathians.
Now, their own systems were blinking out one by one.
> "Ma'am," her tech officer whispered, "we're being jammed. Old-gen HALIX signals—encrypted, pre-Blackout architecture."
Arin narrowed her eyes. "That tech was buried years ago."
Then the power cut.
And all she heard was static.
---
Citadel — Central War Room
Kael stood over a map when the alert flashed red.
> "Echo-7's gone dark," Astra snapped. "We're intercepting scattered footage. You need to see this."
She pulled up a cracked surveillance loop—flickering, distorted.
But the faces were clear.
Kael's heart dropped.
> "No. That's not possible."
Rael appeared beside him. "Who are they?"
Kael's voice was hollow.
> "Players. From the old program. From year one. I saw them die."
One figure in particular—tall, silver-haired, eyes completely black—walked calmly through the burning remains of Echo-7. Kael knew that face.
Kairo Vex. Former Player of Germany. An absolute strategist. Executed live on stream by a sponsor tribunal after rebelling.
Now he was walking like nothing had happened.
Rael leaned in, stunned. "That's impossible."
Astra's face was pale.
> "Not if Jian's reclaimed them."
> "HALIX backups. Brain-mapped personalities. Sponsor biotech. Jian didn't just create drones—he built monsters wearing the faces of the past."
---
Meanwhile — Blacksite Omega, Jian's Vault
Inside his subterranean command sanctum, Jian watched Kael's reaction through drone feeds. Behind him stood the Reclaimed—seven of them, each a ghost resurrected and reprogrammed with one goal:
Wipe out Kael. Burn the Accord. Crush the Warborn.
> "They call themselves Warborn," Jian muttered. "But war is my domain."
He turned to Kairo Vex.
> "Your target is the Citadel. Leave nothing standing."
Kairo bowed once. "Understood."
And in his hands, he carried the original HALIX core, pulsing with a cold, artificial light.
---
Back at the Citadel
Zarif slammed his cane against the floor.
> "We can't win if Jian brings back legends we buried."
Kael shook his head.
> "We don't beat them by matching brute force."
> "We out-think them. These aren't people—they're simulations. Predictable, logical."
Astra looked at him. "You want to fight algorithms… with chaos?"
Kael turned, fire behind his eyes.
> "No. With unpredictable minds."
> "It's time we awaken the Players Jian couldn't model."
---
End of Chapter Eleven
Next: Chapter Twelve — "The Uncoded"