CHAPTER EIGHT: EDGEPOINT ECHO
Day 10 – The First Strike
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The Rift was quiet. Too quiet.
Jex didn't trust quiet.
He moved through the fractured woodland at the edge of the crater like a shadow lit from within. His Boon pulsed faintly beneath his skin, kept in check by sheer force of will. Fire wanted out. Always. His boots crunched over brittle gravel, each step sending whispers through the ancient stillness that blanketed the land. He felt like he was trespassing in a graveyard.
"Fifteen minutes to Echo perimeter," Senya's voice crackled in his ear through the comm-link. "No patrols yet. Could be dead. Could be waiting."
"Either way," Jex muttered, "we're kicking the door."
They moved in a staggered formation—Senya and Silas at point, Torren covering the rear, Nira keeping low beside Jex. Her eyes swept constantly, fingertips brushing the interface strapped to her forearm like a nervous tic. The terrain had grown unstable since the Trial ended. Cracks veined the ground like dried blood. Rift anomalies blinked in and out, small but volatile.
Edgepoint Echo appeared over the rise.
Or what was left of it.
A skeletal structure stood twisted at the edge of the ridge, half-swallowed by stone and time. Metal struts jutted from the ground like broken ribs. Surveillance towers had collapsed inward like the place had been crushed in a great fist. The vault doors—the heart of the depot—remained intact but sealed shut.
And there were bodies.
Dozens. Long-dead. Tribunal agents by the look of it—armor scorched, Boon traces still humming faintly in the broken air. Whatever had torn through them hadn't been kind.
"Whatever happened here... it wasn't Echoes," Nira said, her voice brittle. "These were clean kills. Precise."
Silas crouched beside one of the corpses, brushing ash from its chestplate. He inhaled deeply, frowning. "Remnant signature?"
Senya flicked her visor overlay, scanning the scene. Data pulsed in her eyes. "Faint. Old. But wrong. This was a null breach."
Torren's voice rumbled behind them. "Contract cannibals?"
"No. Worse," she said. "These people weren't just killed. They were drained. Like something fed off their bonds. Their Contracts."
Jex's gaze found the vault. "We going in?"
Silas stood. "We have to. Whatever killed them is either gone or sleeping. And we need what's inside."
The Ashbinders moved.
Senya reached the door first. Her fingers danced across a half-broken panel like she was playing an instrument only she could hear. In under two minutes, the vault lock hissed, steam venting from its seams like a creature exhaling its final breath.
The door opened.
Inside was worse.
The depot's inner halls were slick with mold and Rift frost. Old machines blinked weakly in the dark. Several pods lined the walls—stasis chambers, cracked or shattered. One still glowed.
Nira moved forward as if pulled. Her breath caught as she reached the pod.
Inside was a girl.
No older than sixteen. Eyes open. Breathing. Unmoving. Her Remnant radiated something not even Rift anomalies could explain. It sang. Not with sound. With resonance. Like the air itself was vibrating in worship.
The others gathered around, silent.
"She's linked," Silas said, voice hushed. "But her Remnant's not dormant."
"She dangerous?" Torren's fists clenched.
"Everything in here's dangerous," Senya muttered. "But no. She's stable. Cryo-suspension with a Remnant flow this smooth... this was done on purpose. Someone meant to keep her alive."
"No Tribunal markings," Nira added. "She's unregistered. Off-grid."
As if on cue, the pod's seal flickered.
The girl's eyes turned. They met Nira's.
Then the stasis failed.
Alarms that hadn't worked in years screamed to life. Lights stuttered. The floor vibrated with a deep, metallic groan.
"She's waking up," Silas said. "And we need to move."
Jex ignited his Boon on reflex. Flame danced down his forearm.
Senya yanked the pod door open and caught the girl before she fell. Her body was light—too light—and cold. Her Remnant pulse was a heartbeat trying to become a storm.
From the corridor behind them, a scream.
High. Metallic. Wrong.
Echoes.
But not wild ones. These moved like they had purpose.
"They're bound," Nira whispered. "Held here. Now released."
Jex backed toward the exit. "Why the hell would the Tribunal lock up Echoes with a kid?"
"Because they weren't protecting her," Silas said. "They were imprisoning her."
Torren struck the first Echo, molten fists erupting as it lunged. His Boon tore through it with a sound like glass shattering underwater.
Senya opened fire.
Nira crouched beside the girl, fingers flitting across her interface. "She's a Singularity type. Draw-based resonance. Her Remnant attracts other Echoes. She's a core."
"She's bait," Silas said.
The girl opened her mouth.
And sang.
The note that came out wasn't beautiful. It was raw. Primal. It split the air like a rift, and the Echoes froze. For one breathless moment.
Then they burst.
Not exploded. Dissolved. Riftlight flared in their bones. They simply ceased.
Everyone stood frozen.
The girl collapsed.
The depot shook again, this time from its foundations.
"We're out of time," Senya said.
The Ashbinders didn't hesitate. They grabbed what they could—fragments, an intact Boon bank, a case labeled CLASSIFIED—and ran.
---
They didn't stop until Edgepoint Echo was a burning ruin on the horizon.
The girl lay unconscious, but stable, strapped to a portable bed. Her breathing matched the rhythm of her Remnant's pulse. Deep. Measured.
Silas stared at her. "She's not just a Contractor. She's a Catalyst."
Senya adjusted her rifle. "Velae knew this. That message wasn't a threat. It was an invitation."
Jex exhaled a shaky laugh. "Guess we just stole the Tribunal's secret weapon."
Torren cracked his knuckles. "And broke their vault doing it."
Nira looked up from her scan of the girl's vitals.
"She's not a weapon," she said. "She's a message."
Above them, miles away, in a Tribunal observation bunker… Judicator Velae watched through black-glass lenses.
She smiled.
"They took the bait."