Beneath the endless expanse of stars, the floating city of Valtoria hung suspended in the sky like a jewel, its cold lights flickering against the dark horizon. From the ground, it seemed majestic, unreachable—an eternal symbol of power and control. But for Enno, it was a prison.
Standing alone on the crumbling edge of the cliff, Enno gazed up at the city with a mixture of bitterness and longing. His heart was heavy with memories of the past—of the life he had shared with Aelia, a life now lost in the shadows of Valtoria's oppressive rule. Her face, etched into his mind like a faded photograph, haunted him. He had once believed that their love would be enough to survive the crushing weight of the city's demands, but that belief had died with her.
Valtoria wasn't just a city; it was a machine. A vast, mechanical heart that fed on the resources of the earth and the toil of its people. Enno had once been a part of that machine, a cog in its complex workings. Now, he was an outsider—one of the many who lived on the ground below, forgotten and forsaken.
The city above was divided into layers, with the elite living in luxury at the top, while the lower levels housed the laborers, the forgotten, and those who kept the system running. Valtoria's rulers maintained a tight grip on the population, using advanced technology to monitor every movement, every conversation. It was said that no one could escape the city's watchful eye. But Enno had found a way out, though it had cost him everything.
"Are you just going to stand there, staring at it forever?" a voice broke through his thoughts.
Enno turned to see Senna, her figure barely visible in the dim light. She was a fighter, a survivor—someone who, like him, had been cast out of the city and now led a small resistance group. Her sharp eyes took in his posture, and she shook her head, the faintest hint of a smile on her lips.
"You're thinking about her again, aren't you?" she asked softly, stepping closer.
Enno didn't answer immediately. He didn't need to. Senna knew. Everyone in the resistance knew. Aelia's death had changed him, had driven him to the edge of reason, and Senna had been there to pull him back, though she never quite understood why he was so obsessed with the past.
"I'm thinking about what Valtoria took from me," Enno finally said, his voice low and hard.
Senna nodded, though her gaze remained steady. "We all lost something. But we're not going to get it back by standing here."
Enno knew she was right. The resistance was small, under-equipped, and constantly on the run from Valtoria's enforcers. But they had something that the city's rulers couldn't control—hope. And that hope was starting to spread among the people below, who were growing tired of being oppressed.
"We're moving out tonight," Senna said, her tone shifting back to the business at hand. "There's word that one of the lower-city energy stations is vulnerable. If we hit it, we might be able to disrupt the grid, even if just for a while."
Enno looked back at the city, the cold lights reflecting in his eyes. Valtoria had taken everything from him, but it had also given him something—a purpose. To fight. To tear down the system that had destroyed his life and the lives of countless others.
"I'll be ready," he said, turning away from the skyline and walking back toward the camp where the other resistance members were preparing for the raid.