The moment the dropcraft breached the Rift's outer barrier, Kael felt it—like stepping through static and falling into pressure.
The world below wasn't a simulation.
It was raw.
Unstable. Too vast to be artificial, too wild to be controlled.
Jagged terrain cut through low-hanging clouds, rivers of rust-colored water carved deep scars through the valley, and broken ruins from the Old War loomed like grave markers. In the distance, stormlight pulsed from inside a fractured dome—the center of Zone Nine.
The Cradle Rift.
Their squad touched down on a moss-choked cliffside near the outer ridgeline.
No welcome message. No countdown.
Just the hiss of depressurization and the hard crunch of boots on wild earth.
Silas stepped out first, eyes scanning. His expression was unreadable.
Behind him followed Asha Vorrik, a tall girl with short silver hair and a hawkish gaze; Tarin Zhao, lean and twitchy, constantly tapping his fingers like firing imaginary pistols; and Neyra Tross, a quiet, intense combat specialist from the standard class, dressed in basic gear but with a soldier's stance.
Kael followed last.
The air here was thick—humid with tension.
"This zone… isn't behaving," Aegis whispered in his mind. "The environment has deviation markers. This isn't entirely controlled."
Kael muttered, "You think they know?"
"They always know. The question is—what are they waiting for?"
The squad gathered by a jagged outcrop, shielding themselves from a light acid-mist drifting off the cliffs.
Asha activated the mission relay pad. The projected map buzzed with static, its lines warping.
Tarin frowned. "This is garbage. The relay's corrupted."
Kael knelt beside it. "Could be zone interference."
"Or sabotage," Silas muttered.
They all looked at him.
He met Kael's eyes. "You've heard the rumors, haven't you?"
"About the Rift?" Kael asked.
"About what lives inside it."
Neyra, quiet until now, spoke up.
"They say a Stray Class Echo from the Old War survived down here. Something that eats energy. Thrives in chaos. Wasn't part of the simulations."
Tarin scoffed. "Myth."
Silas said nothing.
Kael stood.
"We keep moving."
The first stretch was manageable—thick jungle underbrush, uneven terrain, scattered ruins that served as cover. Kael's senses stayed on alert. Flow lines flickered faintly around his limbs, reacting to the ambient energy. Something wasn't right.
They passed a broken crawler mech, half-swallowed by earth.
"Old War tech," Asha said, kneeling beside it. "Unmarked. Unmapped."
Kael placed a hand on the rusted hull.
It was warm.
"Recently active," Aegis whispered. "Or recently hunted."
By nightfall, they reached the first relay beacon—only to find it crushed, its signal emitter melted.
"No scavenger did this," Silas said grimly. "This was intentional."
"Why destroy the checkpoint?" Neyra asked.
Kael looked around.
Then answered softly, "To trap us inside."
They made camp near a hollow ridge, using natural rock walls to shield themselves. No fires. No lights. Just rations and silence.
Kael couldn't sleep.
He sat watch alone, eyes fixed on the darkness beyond the ridge.
His senses were taut—too sharp, too strained.
Something was wrong.
"Something's moving out there," Aegis whispered. "But I can't scan it."
Kael didn't reply.
He felt it in his bones. Not fear—pressure. A hush in the world, like the planet itself had paused to listen.
Then it began.
A sudden crack of branches.
A low, subterranean rumble that vibrated through the soles of his boots.
Kael stood, signaling silently to the others.
No words. No hesitation.
They rose.
Neyra readied her twin blades, her body low and coiled like a spring. Asha's hands pulsed with a soft glow, her breath steady. Tarin levitated slightly, fingers twitching, kinetic energy dancing across his palms. Silas unhooked the compact blade from his back, the edge already humming faintly with light.
Kael exhaled slowly.
Then the ground beneath them erupted.
The earth didn't crack—it exploded.
A shockwave blasted outward as the cliffside caved, and all five of them were swallowed by dust and gravity.
They crashed into the subterranean ruin below, bodies slamming against ancient stone. Kael rolled across the fractured floor, tasting blood in his mouth.
Pain flared everywhere.
But it wasn't over.
From the settling dust, it emerged.
Nine feet tall, insectoid armor glinting with sickly green veins of bioluminescence. Arms too long, tipped with claws that dragged sparks across stone. Its chest housed an exposed core—an orb of molten red, pulsing like a heartbeat.
It didn't roar.
It clicked.
A sound like grinding bone and broken metal.
Its eyes locked on Kael.
"That's not a simulation," Aegis said. "That's an Echo Remnant. Final Cycle tier. Category Red."
Kael didn't wait. "Split and circle! Don't stay still!"
The team scattered just as the creature charged.
Its claw tore a gash through the ground where Kael had stood moments before. Dust and rubble sprayed like shrapnel.
Tarin fired a kinetic pulse—only to watch it absorb harmlessly into the beast's plating. The glow in its core brightened.
"It's converting energy!" Asha shouted. "No ranged attacks!"
"Go analog," Kael snapped, drawing his knife.
Neyra was already moving. She dove forward, slicing at its joint, but the creature's tail whipped around—she blocked it mid-air with both blades, but the impact sent her flying across the chamber. She crashed through an ancient column, collapsing with a strangled grunt.
Kael swore and ducked as the beast's claws slashed again, cutting a trench through stone.
Think. Terrain. Patterns. Delay before core surges.
He felt it—like reading a rhythm in battle. The Echo moved with a flow, but it wasn't instinct—it was algorithmic. Predictable, if you had the right eyes.
A crackle of light—Silas darted in, blade sweeping toward the core.
Too fast.
The Echo intercepted him with its claw mid-strike and slammed him into the ground hard enough to crater the stone.
Asha followed, sliding beneath the beast and flaring her hands across its legs. Her bio-fields activated—scrambling its sensory feed.
It shrieked.
An unearthly, deafening noise that sent a jolt of vertigo through Kael's skull.
Kael ran.
Not away—from behind.
He grabbed a broken beam from the fallen structure, pivoted around its back, and jammed the metal pole between the shifting plates of its carapace. It screeched and twisted, trying to shake him off.
Tarin, regaining his footing, surged forward and drove his heel into the base of the beast's leg—his kinetic charge timed perfectly with the strike. The creature buckled, leg buckling at the joint.
"Now!" Kael roared.
He stabbed his field knife deep into the junction behind the beast's shoulder. Sparks and thick black fluid sprayed out, sizzling against his skin.
"Silas!"
Silas, bloodied but conscious, pushed to his feet.
His blade ignited—pure white.
He sprinted, leapt, and drove his sword straight into the exposed core.
The impact was thunderous.
A beam of radiant light speared outward as the Echo howled, its body spasming violently.
But it didn't die.
The core cracked—but held.
Then it began to overload.
The glow flared red. Then white.
Kael's eyes widened. "It's gonna blow! Get clear!"
Asha pulled Neyra to her feet and dragged her behind a pillar. Tarin grabbed Silas and leapt, propulsion field barely holding.
Kael turned to run—
Too late.
The core detonated.
Light. Heat. Force.
Kael was flung backward into the far wall. Everything went silent.
He blinked awake to static. His vision swam. Blood trickled into his eye.
"—el. Kael. Wake up, dammit."
Asha's voice.
He coughed and sat up slowly.
The chamber was blackened and smoking. The Echo's body lay split and smoldering, half its form melted across the floor. The exposed core was gone—reduced to slag.
Silas sat propped against rubble, breathing hard, face bruised.
Tarin stood guard, arms trembling from fatigue.
Neyra clutched her ribs, her knives lost somewhere in the fight.
Asha helped Kael up.
"That wasn't in the mission briefing," she said, voice tight.
"No," Kael rasped. "It wasn't a test."
He looked down at the remains of the creature—its plating etched with faded UGA glyphs. Not simulation markings. Real.
"It was a hit," he muttered. "Someone wanted us dead."
Silas spit blood to the side. "Next time, they'll have to try harder."
Kael stared at the cracked ground where the Echo had stood, heart still hammering.
This zone wasn't broken.
It was rigged.
And someone was watching.