The void had a sound—AP Titan had learned that much during his years in the Drift. It wasn't the scream of engines or the crack of plasma fire. It was the silence after—after the battles, after the betrayals, after Earth had fallen.
The Outer Ring wasn't on any official star chart. It was a broken loop of debris, rogue satellites, and outlaw colonies orbiting what was once Neptune's last mining station—now just wreckage wrapped in magnetic storms.
AP Titan's ship, The Eidolon, coasted just beyond the fringe, cloaked in pulse silence. Titan watched the feed flicker. A signal had burst from a dead relay near the wrecked station—an impossible signal.
"Project Eos is active. Subject Zero has awakened."
His blood ran cold.
Subject Zero was supposed to be buried in the core of Mercury's blacksite—impossible to reach, impossible to revive. If Eos was online again, then the war they lost 20 years ago was never over. It was just waiting for its weapon to return.
AP Titan stood, sliding a magnetic blade onto his hip and strapping on the rebreather. His eyes, half cybernetic, flickered with warning icons—low fuel, critical comms, internal security breach.
He smiled anyway.
"Let them come," he muttered. "I've died once already."