"If you're hearing this… I'm alive. They didn't get all of us. We're still out here. They lied—"
The static choked the final word, distorting the message into a fractured hum. But the voice had already detonated inside Atlas's skull like a neutron bomb.
That voice.
That voice.
His heart, still adjusting to a world that should have killed it long ago, slammed against his ribs like it was trying to escape. His breath turned ragged. The air felt thinner—like it couldn't keep up with the roaring tide in his blood.
"…Atlas."
It wasn't just a name. It was recognition. And it meant one thing.
He wasn't the last.
Someone had survived.
And worse—someone had been watching.
"Play it again," he barked, turning to Nyra.
"Analyzing signal fragment. Origin source: Unknown Subspace Layer. Playback limited. Message integrity: 27%."
The same voice played again. Glitched. Broken. Haunting.
Nyra's holographic form flickered, expression unreadable for a moment.
"This was not in any database. No human-origin signal has been recorded in 10,413 years. If this is real…"
She trailed off.
Atlas clenched his fists.
"It's real," he said. "I know that voice."
He couldn't place the name yet, but something in his gut pulled—like a thread unraveling from the edge of memory. The way the speaker said 'they lied'... That wasn't a broadcast. That was a warning.
A living one.
And if they were out there—if anyone from humanity had survived outside the system—then the war wasn't over.
It had just started again.
System Notification
[Emergency Directive Triggered.][New Quest Unlocked:]▶ Locate Signal Source
Status: Hidden Reward: Unknown Risk Level: Red (Galactic Crossfire Likely)
[Sub-Objective Updated:]▶ Survive Until Reinforcements Arrive (Time Remaining: 35:12:00)
Atlas wiped a hand across his face, trying to shove down the storm brewing inside. He'd barely been awake for a day. His muscles were still regenerating. His thoughts were sluggish, stiff with the weight of ten thousand years of stasis.
And now?
He was a beacon to the galaxy.
A relic.
A target.
A symbol of a species the rest of the universe wanted to forget.
"Where did the signal come from?"
"Source unknown," Nyra said tightly. "It pierced through three levels of jamming and activated your system directly. That means—"
"It was meant for me."
Nyra nodded once.
"It may be someone connected to your past. Someone who wasn't erased like the others."
Atlas stepped away from the cliff and stared into the twisted horizon. The Earth looked less like a planet and more like the corpse of a god. Towering fungal-metallic growths reached toward the sky like claws. Alien structures had burrowed into what was once Europe, draining geothermal heat from the Earth's mantle like parasites.
"What do I need to do to trace the signal?"
Nyra turned, her voice clinical again.
"You'll need to access a subspace anchor. There's one within the ruins of the Geneva Vault—deep beneath what used to be the Swiss Alps. However…"
She hesitated.
"…you'll need to pass through Terraformer Zone 3."
Atlas raised an eyebrow. "And that means?"
"Hostile bio-mechs. Automated war drones. Radiation storms. Oh, and possibly a sleeping Class-V Devourer."
He cracked a small grin.
"So, basically, a nice walk in the park."
Five Hours Later — Terraformer Zone 3
The wind screamed.
It wasn't wind in the normal sense—more a cyclone of synthetic debris, magnetized particles, and micro-drones devouring anything not hardened with quantum shielding. The sky here was even redder. Lightning rippled horizontally across it, illuminating skyscrapers melted into hills of bone and rust.
Atlas moved swiftly through the wreckage, his exosuit cloaked in a field of adaptive camouflage—an upgrade Nyra installed straight into his spine.
He paused behind the corpse of an old orbital cannon. The barrel had been melted in half by something that left molten black marks trailing off into the distance.
The ground beneath his boots shivered.
"Lifeform detected."
His HUD lit up.
[Enemy Detected: Terraformer Beast – Class B][Distance: 300 meters][Recommendation: Avoid Direct Conflict]
The beast rose from a crater like a mountain unfolding. Its body was a mass of chitin, steel, and glowing green veins. Long tendrils uncoiled from its back like whips, scanning the area with sizzling sonar pulses.
Atlas crouched low.
"How do I kill it?" he whispered.
"You don't," Nyra snapped. "You run."
"Fair enough."
He activated his kinetic enhancers and launched himself across the battlefield—dodging between wrecks and broken terrain like a ghost. Behind him, the creature howled. The sound vibrated the metal in his suit. One of the tendrils slammed down where he'd been a moment before, cracking the stone.
Atlas didn't stop.
Every instinct in him screamed. Every nerve burned.
But he kept going.
He wasn't running just to survive anymore.
He was running toward something.
The Vault Beneath the Alps
After seven hours of nonstop movement, firestorms, and a near-death encounter with an automated drone swarm, Atlas reached the Vault.
The entrance was hidden behind what looked like a shattered glacier—but as he approached, Nyra activated a long-dormant access code.
The mountain shifted.
Gears older than most star systems groaned to life.
And a door opened.
Inside was a tunnel—lined with silver tiles, glowing faintly with quantum energy. The air was still. Clean. Cold.
Atlas stepped in, the weight of the mountain sealing behind him.
"This place was once humanity's last hope," Nyra said quietly. "They stored everything here—seeds, weapons, data, secrets."
He looked around. "Then what happened?"
"The Vorr found it. And the Purge began."
He exhaled, setting his jaw.
"I'll make sure they regret it."
At the heart of the vault, they found it.
A subspace anchor—still functional, still humming with invisible frequency. It looked like a throne carved from obsidian, but when Atlas touched it, it came to life.
His system pulsed violently.
[ACCESSING SUBSPACE NODE...][Signal Reconstruction in Progress...][Warning: Another Mind Is Connected to This Node][Establishing Link…]
Atlas's breath caught as the air thickened, the world shifting into a haze of light and shadow. The chamber vanished. In its place—
A woman stood.
Real. Breathing.
Her hair was short, silver-streaked, and she wore scavenged armor that looked like it had seen centuries of war.
Her eyes locked onto his.
"I knew you'd survive," she said. "I just didn't know if you'd still be human."
Atlas took a step forward.
"Who are you?"
She smiled—but it didn't reach her eyes.
"Your sister."