August 15th, 2025 – New Delhi
India's tricolour flapped proudly above Rajpath. Patriotic songs echoed through loudspeakers. The President's motorcade had passed just 30 minutes ago. The Prime Minister's voice still echoed in half the radios across the city.
And below all that — behind all the protocol, the pageantry, the slogans — stood Arjun Rathore, Sub-Inspector, stationed near Connaught Place HQ.
He had been watching the TV screen in the chowki cafeteria when the sky cracked open.
Not a storm. Not a plane.
The sky itself—split.
A deep purple rift, like a wound, opened above Lutyens' Delhi. And from it came no light, no fire, no thunder.
Just silence.
And then... the screams.
The national anthem was still playing when the first Ravager fell from the sky and tore open a CRPF barricade like paper.
Arjun ran to the compound wall.
He saw a Shatabdi Express parked mid-air — just hovering. People floating out of windows like dust from a shaking carpet. The India Gate, untouched, glowed faintly — while the buildings around it burned without fire.
And then—blackout.
A blast. Stone and concrete crashed down.
Darkness.
And then—System Interface Appeared.
Dharma-Kshaya Protocol Initializing…Access Granted: Arjun Rathore.Authority Level: EXCLUSIVE USER – 1/1Location: New Delhi HQ — Integrity: 22%
[Mission Generated]