In a universe scattered with floating cities and space stations, Earth was now nothing more than a barren wasteland. Once the birthplace of humanity, it had been abandoned centuries ago. Life flourished on colonized planets, where ancient machines still operated, though no one understood their origins.

Under the pitch-black skies of Earth, 17-year-old Kael Ariston stood atop a hill of discarded technology. Wearing a homemade night-vision headset, he scavenged through piles of debris for valuable scraps to sell. For Kael, life was a daily loop: searching, fixing, and scraping by.

"Kael, what are you doing here?" came the voice of Elira, his childhood friend. Elira was a skilled mechanic who often helped him restore the scraps he found.

Kael turned to her with a tense smile. "I picked up something… a strange signal. It showed up on my old receiver."

Elira frowned. "You're chasing signals again? The whole planet's just a graveyard of junk. Don't get your hopes up."

But Kael didn't answer. Instead, he pointed toward a deep pit in the ground, where a faint blue light pulsed in the darkness. "Look over there. I've never seen anything like it."

Elira hesitated. "Fine, but we should be careful. If this thing is active—"

"Relax, I'll go first," Kael replied, though a strange pull stirred inside him—as if the light itself was calling to him.

They climbed down into the pit, where the air grew colder and carried the metallic tang of rust. Before them stood a massive machine, half-buried beneath layers of dirt and debris. It wasn't like anything Kael had ever seen: a giant metallic sphere, etched with glowing blue lines that pulsed like veins.

Kael reached out and touched one of the glowing grooves. Immediately, the machine hummed, and the blue light spread across its surface. Elira stepped back, alarmed.

"Kael, stop! It could be a war machine left over from the old wars!"

Before Kael could react, a beam of light enveloped him. His mind flooded with images of distant planets, colossal machines, and strange symbols. A voice echoed, not in the air but deep inside his head:

"Identity confirmed. The Heir has arrived. Activating initialization protocol."

Kael staggered, the light holding him in place. Elira shouted, trying to pull him free, but she couldn't. "Kael! Say something!"

Suddenly, the light disappeared. Kael collapsed to the ground, gasping for air. "I… I don't know what just happened. But that machine—it spoke to me."

Elira helped him up, but before they could leave, a loud noise echoed above. Small spacecraft were descending nearby. Soldiers in black armor poured out, armed with plasma rifles.

"They've found us!" Elira shouted, pulling Kael to his feet.

Kael and Elira sprinted through narrow paths between piles of wreckage. The soldiers chased after them, but the maze of debris gave the pair a slim chance to escape. As they ran, Kael couldn't shake the visions from his mind.

The machine had shown him a map—not just of Earth but of the entire star system. On that map, a single bright point blinked on Earth's surface, accompanied by alien text Kael couldn't understand.

"Kael, focus!" Elira yelled, snapping him out of his thoughts. "If we don't get out of here, we're done for!"

They finally found an exit leading back to the surface. But as they emerged, a soldier blocked their path, plasma rifle raised.

Kael braced himself for the worst, but a sudden burst of light erupted from his pocket. The small crystal he had unknowingly taken from the machine glowed brightly. A protective energy field surrounded him and Elira, knocking the soldier to the ground.

"What the…?" Kael muttered, staring at the glowing crystal in his trembling hand.

Elira gawked at him. "Kael, what did you just do? That crystal—how is it—"

Before they could figure it out, more soldiers approached. Kael and Elira bolted, leaving behind a trail of questions with no answers.

End of Chapter 1

Kael and Elira managed to escape, but Kael knew his life had changed forever. The machine wasn't just a relic of the past—it was the key to something far bigger. And now, powerful forces were after him to claim its secrets.

"Kael," Elira said, her voice serious, "you need to tell me. What did that machine do to you?"

Kael gripped the crystal tightly, looking up at the star-filled sky. "I don't know. But I think… I've been chosen for something much bigger than anything we've ever known."

The crystal's blue light flickered softly, as if agreeing with him