The wind screamed across the dead plains of Tharsis Ridge, dragging sand and ash over the battered remnants of old war machines and crumbled pylons. Julius stood at the edge of a broken overlook, his cloak rippling in the wind, scanning the horizon through augmented vision. The Monolith Wastes lay in the distance—dark, jagged, and crawling with movement.
Behind him, the team readied the dropship. Repairs were nearly complete, Seraphel's systems reintegrated, her armor reconstructed with hybrid tech scavenged from both the Pact and what remained of the old Echelon Initiative.
Ryka approached, voice low. "I've made contact with two cells. One's still active near the subterranean vaults below Kepler Station. The other… they call themselves the Hollow Kin. Survivors. Maybe more."
Julius nodded. "Then we go to them."
Brinley hesitated at the hatch. "And if they're compromised? If they've been… converted?"
"Then we'll know," Vara said coldly, her hand resting on her rifle.
They lifted off into the skies, the dropship's engines whining against the turbulent storm fronts. As they crossed into the unregulated zone, the sky shifted. Clouds pulsed with static energy. Lightning danced between spires of corrupted matter. The Hive had already begun its slow warping of the atmosphere.
"Picking up a beacon," Selene said, tapping a console. "Not ours. Old Echelon code."
Seraphel sat motionless, plugged into the ship's mainframe. "That's my signal. Or it was. Someone's replicating my broadcast."
Julius stood. "Set us down. We need to see who's waving the flag."
They landed in a scorched crater surrounded by wreckage. Smoke still rose from twisted alloy bones of fallen drones and vehicles. And in the center stood a lone figure in armor too clean, too perfect.
"Friend or foe?" Ryka whispered.
The figure turned. Its visor parted to reveal a face—pale, scarred, yet human.
"Name's Korran," the man said. "I was Echelon. Once. Until the war ended and we were forgotten."
Julius stepped forward. "We're bringing it back."
Korran smiled grimly. "Then let's remind them what they tried to bury."