For a moment, the world was silent—too silent.
No wind. No distant explosions. No static from the comms. Just a vacuum of sound so deep Atlas could hear his own pulse thundering in his ears. Then the Mars sky split apart.
A crimson scar cracked open above the Obelisk, spilling black ships across the atmosphere like blood in water.
One. Two. Dozens.
Each Vorr dreadship moved in perfect unison, angular hulls pulsing with eerie red veins, forming a circular formation above the ruined Martian city. They didn't emit engine hum or comm chatter. They simply were—silent, vast, watching.
And then it arrived.
The center of the void rippled like reality itself had been stabbed.
A massive shape emerged—gargantuan, cathedral-like, covered in layers of rotating rings and ancient sigils glowing dimly.
[Vorr Flagship: Divine Chain]
[Threat Level: ABSOLUTE]
Atlas didn't need Nyra's HUD to tell him what he was looking at.
This was a god's chariot.
His legs felt rooted to the Martian soil as the weight of presence from the Vorr ship pressed down like a tidal wave. And worse—it was aware of him.
Not scanning. Not searching.
Staring.
"Nyra," Atlas said, his voice steady despite the ice in his veins, "what's the Vorr flagship's combat capability?"
"...There's no simulation. No counter-strategy. That thing could glass a moon and not slow down."
"Then how many seconds until we're dead?"
"Unknown. They haven't fired. They're... waiting."
Atlas narrowed his eyes.
Waiting for what?
Behind him, the Obelisk hummed, red veins pulsing faster, in sync with the core in his gauntlet.
[Synchronization: 34%]
[Cognitive Bridge to Prime Consciousness—STABILIZING]
"You said they're here because of me," Atlas muttered. "Then it's not over."
From the far end of the ruins, Rellon—bloodied, half-limping—let out a hoarse laugh.
"It's only beginning."
He raised a shaking hand toward the Obelisk.
"You unlocked the key, Seed. Now the Warden will rewrite the code of everything. Even you."
"I didn't ask to be their messiah," Atlas growled, eyes burning.
"No one ever does."
A thunderous boom cracked across the ruins as a thin beam of black-red energy shot from the Divine Chain into the Obelisk. The entire city shook, ancient metal shrieking as dust and rock fell from long-dead towers.
Then the beam split.
One lanced down—toward Atlas.
[Warning: Containment Field Detected!]
[Temporal Lock Engaging!]
The ground beneath him fractured.
A glowing sigil spread out under his feet—Vorr tech, but older, darker, built not to kill but to preserve.
Nyra screamed in his neural feed.
"MOVE! IT'S A STASIS LOCK! They're trying to trap you for extraction!"
Atlas reacted instantly, slamming both fists into the ground, triggering an emergency shockwave. The pulse shattered the forming sigil just before it completed.
But the beam didn't stop.
It swerved mid-air, unnatural in its movement, tracking his body like a living thing.
He ran.
Bolts of plasma erupted from ruined towers as Vorr drones descended—thin, serpentine machines with wings of light and eyes that blinked with an artificial intelligence too alive to be simple AI.
Atlas sprinted through broken archways and collapsed bridges, weaving through wreckage as Nyra rerouted power to speed enhancement.
"Divert all systems to kinetic output!" he shouted.
"You'll burn out the stabilizers!"
"I don't care! Just keep me ahead of that damn beam!"
The drone swarm fell in pursuit, bladed tails slicing through stone, tearing apart the city's dead walls. Each step Atlas took left scorched footprints on the Martian rock as his armor vented superheated exhaust.
Then the ground gave way.
He dropped into an ancient underground hall, crashing through layers of forgotten technology. The Obelisk's roots ran deep—mechanical vines pulsing with alien code stretched through the chamber like arteries.
He groaned, forcing himself up.
The air was thick, magnetic. Something was down here.
A whisper echoed.
"Seed..."
"Nyra... tell me I didn't imagine that."
"No. It's interfacing. The Obelisk's consciousness is trying to merge again. We're in the Warden's core zone now."
Atlas scanned the chamber. The walls were covered in moving glyphs, shifting constantly as if alive. They responded to him—following his gaze, rearranging with every step he took.
At the center stood a pedestal. Floating above it—
His heart stopped.
A small black cube, humming with restrained power.
Nyra gasped.
"Oh no. That's—"
"The Prime Relay."
He recognized it. From the Vorr archive. A control node capable of rewriting not just code... but reality.
[Prime Relay Detected. Genetic Key Confirmed.]
[Upload Capability: UNIVERSAL.]
"I could destroy it," Atlas whispered.
"You could. But it's not a weapon. It's a throne."
"What?"
"That's a seat of command, Atlas. Whoever syncs with it doesn't just use the Vorr network. They become it."
"Like the Warden?"
"Exactly."
He took a step closer.
The drones above had stopped chasing. The beam from the sky had paused. Even the Divine Chain seemed to be waiting.
"This is a test," Atlas realized.
"Of what?"
"Whether I'll become like them."
Silence.
Nyra's voice was softer now.
"You wouldn't. You're not them."
"But I'm not fully human anymore either."
He reached out—fingers trembling slightly.
One touch and the cube flared with red-gold light.
[Link Request Sent...]
[Awaiting Response From... WARDEN PRIME.]
Then a new signal appeared.
[Signal Collision Detected.]
[Second Genetic Signature Detected: Designation — VANTIS 09]
Atlas froze.
"Who the hell is—"
Before he could finish, the cube shot a beam past his head, illuminating the other side of the chamber.
Another figure stepped into the light.
Clad in sleek armor marked with ancient symbols.
Eyes glowing with the same red pulse as the Obelisk.
His face—almost a mirror of Atlas's—but sharper. Older. Colder.
A voice cut through the chamber like a blade.
"You're the corrupted version."
Atlas aimed his rifle without hesitation. "And you're the cheap knockoff."
The man didn't flinch.
"I am VANTIS. Ninth Host of the Seed Protocol. The true heir."
"Bullshit. I'm the last human—"
"You're the last mistake."
He raised a hand, and Atlas's HUD went static.
[WARNING: SIGNAL OVERRIDE—]
A blast of unseen force sent Atlas flying into the wall.
He hit hard, armor cracking.
Nyra screamed in his head, "He's got full Relay access! His mind is partially merged with the Warden!"
Atlas coughed, forcing himself up. "What do I do?"
"Run."
"I'm tired of running."
He ignited his blade, the one made from the reactor core of Earth's last forge. Its light was silver-blue—pure, unlike the Vorr's sickly red.
"You want the Seed?" Atlas growled.
"Come rip it from my corpse."
Vantis tilted his head.
"As you wish."
Their blades clashed.
And the battle that would decide the fate of Mars began in fire.
Above them, inside the Divine Chain, the Warden's true body stirred for the first time in ten thousand years.
Its thoughts echoed through subspace:
"Two Seeds. One must become the Warlord."