Terra Fragment – Unknown Date
The sky had never been natural.
It was metal.
Scarred.
Layered.
Broken.
For generations, the people of Haven had lived beneath a fractured dome of steel and shattered orbital debris.
Children grew up believing the "Sky-Wall" was simply how the world worked.
It glowed faintly at night.
Shifted sometimes.
Groaned during debris storms.
But it protected them.
Or so they believed.
Elder Mara stood at the central observation tower, staring upward.
Her hair had long since turned silver.
Her voice carried the weight of memory.
"It moved again."
Beside her stood Captain Reth Talon, commander of Haven's Watch.
He narrowed his eyes at the dim sky.
"Debris shift?"
Mara shook her head slowly.
"No."
"It was… deliberate."
Below them, Haven was alive in quiet resilience.
Population: roughly three thousand.
Farms stretched under artificial sunlamps.
Wind turbines spun slowly.
Old fusion cores hummed weakly.
Technology was limited.
Salvaged.
Repaired.
Repurposed.
They did not know the war that had destroyed Terra.
They only knew survival.
Then it happened again.
The sky flickered.
Not violently.
Not like a storm.
But in straight lines.
Perfect lines.
A faint shimmer moved across the metal ceiling far above the dome.
Captain Reth stiffened.
"That was not debris."
Mara whispered,
"No."
"It was light."
Across Haven, children stopped playing.
Farmers looked up.
The Watch activated signal horns.
Not alarm.
But caution.
Inside the underground archive chamber, Archivist Sol activated the ancient Sky-Scope — a primitive telescope pointed toward the upper debris layer.
The lens focused.
Metal fragments.
Dark void.
Then—
Structure.
Clean edges.
Geometry that did not belong to ruin.
Sol's breath caught.
"That… is new."
Above Haven, far beyond what their instruments could truly measure—
Stormhold's Defense Grid Phase I shimmered faintly as its energy lattice adjusted.
A routine calibration.
To Stormhold, it was insignificant.
To Haven—
It was a sign.
Captain Reth spoke quietly.
"We were told the sky was dead."
Mara's expression hardened slightly.
"Dead things do not organize themselves."
In the central hall of Haven, the council gathered.
Representatives from the farming sector.
The Watch.
The engineers.
The archivists.
Voices were controlled but tense.
"It could be leftover war tech."
"Or automated debris alignment."
"Or something worse."
A younger council member whispered:
"What if someone is up there?"
Silence.
No one had spoken that possibility in generations.
Mara finally said,
"If something lives above us…"
"…then we must assume we are seen."
Back at the observation tower, Reth stared upward again.
The sky shimmered once more.
Faint.
Structured.
Like a net tightening gently around the world.
He placed a hand over the railing.
"Whoever you are…"
"…we are not defenseless."
Below, Haven's small militia activated defensive turrets salvaged from old warships.
Primitive compared to Stormhold.
But to them—
They were everything.
Far above, in Stormhold's command chamber—
Snow registered a minor atmospheric fluctuation from Terra fragment.
"Surface activity slightly elevated."
Daniel stood quietly.
"Did they see something?"
"Probability: Moderate."
He watched the projection.
"Continue observation."
No contact.
No reveal.
Just two civilizations—
One rising from scrap.
One surviving beneath it.
Both now aware—
The sky was no longer dead.
End of Chapter 11.