Keira Voss crouched low behind the rusted hull of a derelict cargo hauler, her breathing shallow as the sound of heavy booted feet echoed through the scrap-laden corridors of Sector Six. "I must be discreet" she thought you herself " if I get caught, what would my end be".
Her small fingers hovered over the makeshift control panel strapped to her wrist, her thumb ready to activate the EMP pulse that would short out the drones hunting her.
She ran through the muddy path struggling to keep on her feet as the wet ground tried to pull her down.
"Come on, Voss," she whispered to herself. "You've outrun worse than this."
The drone's metallic whirring grew louder, its searchlight slicing through the dark, claustrophobic alleyways of the Ark's underbelly. Sector Six was no place for the faint-hearted_its labyrinth of scavenged tech and forgotten machinery teemed with criminals, black-market traders, and the occasional scavengers like Keira, desperate enough to risk life and limb for a shot at freedom.
Freedom was a fantasy here. The Ark's upper levels, the ones where the air was clean and the light artificial but bright, were a world away from the dim, grimy depths of the lower sectors.
Up there, people lived in towering spires, their lives cushioned by wealth and the Echelon's iron grip on power. Down here, people like Keira clawed for scraps.
The drone's spotlight swept past her hiding spot, and she exhaled slowly. She tightened the strap on her scavenger's pack, feeling the reassuring weight of her prize: a black cube no larger than her palm, "what is this?" she said quietly.
its surface smooth except for faint etchings that glowed with an eerie, pulsating light.
" Sure can't wait to find out just how important you must be" .
She hadn't meant to find it. The wreckage she'd been salvaging was a decades-old transport ship, abandoned after the wars that had torn Earth apart. She was hoping for scrap metal or maybe a power cell still worth bartering. Instead, she'd uncovered this.
And now, someone wanted it back.
" Why did they want it back?"
The drone paused, its whirring subsiding into a low hum. Keira's heart raced.
"Ssshhhh"
"Breaath"
She'd disabled its proximity sensors two corridors back, but if it scanned her heat signature…She didn't wait around to find out.
Activating the EMP pulse, she sprinted down the corridor as the drone sparked and collapsed to the ground behind her. The pulse wouldn't hold them off for long; whoever had deployed the drones would know where she was soon enough.
Keira burst steadily into the safety of her workshop—a cramped, cluttered space tucked into the corner of an old and abandoned maintenance bay.
A tangle of wires hung from the ceiling, and the air smelled faintly of burnt circuitry. She locked the heavy metal door behind her and dropped the pack onto her workbench, her hands shaking as she retrieved the cube.
"What the hell are you?"
she murmured, turning it over in her hands.
"I must find out what this magnificence is made of "
The etchings on the cube pulsed faintly, as though alive. She connected it to her portable interface, a battered tablet that had seen better days, and ran a basic diagnostic. The screen lit up with streams of incomprehensible code, moving too fast for her to follow.
"What did I just stumble into?"
A loud bang echoed from the direction of the workshop door, and Keira's stomach sank. They'd found her.
Grabbing the cube, she stuffed it into her Inferior vintage leather jacket and reached for the shock baton she kept strapped to her belt. It wasn't much defense, but it might buy her time. The door shuddered again, and she heard voices on the other side.
"Open the door, Voss. You're out of options," a gruff masculine voice called.
She recognized the voice. It belonged to Tarek, a bounty hunter known for doing the Echelon's dirty work.
"Come out here before I get you myself, girl.He voiced out again.
If Tarek was after her, it wasn't just about the cube—it was about sending a strong message that no one stole from the Echelon.
Keira backed away as the door gave a final screech and collapsed inward. Tarek eagerly stepped inside, flanked by two other enforcers in armored exosuits. He was tall, with a scar running across his right cheek and an ugly cybernetic eye that glowed faintly in the dim green light.
"You've got something that doesn't belong to you," he said, his voice calm but laced with menace.
Keira tightened her grip on the baton. " Very funny, I didn't know scrap belonged to anyone."
Tarek chuckled, a low, humorless sound. "You very well know that's no ordinary scrap, Voss. Hand it over, and maybe I'll forget you just cost me a very expensive drone."
Keira's mind raced. She could try to fight, but she knew she'd never make it out alive. If she dared to make a run for it, they'd catch her before she got far. Her eyes darted to the cube in her jacket pocket.
And then it pulsed.
Not just the faint glow she'd seen before—this was a bright, blinding light that filled the room, accompanied by a low hum that vibrated through her bones. Tarek and his enforcers froze, their expressions shifting from smug confidence to shock.
"What the—" Tarek started, but before he could finish, the light expanded outward in an instant wave that faded within seconds.
After the shiny wave, Keira was alone in her workshop with the door intact, the workshop silent as though no one had ever entered.
"What just happened?" she whispered, pulling the cube out of her jacket. It was warm to the touch, its etchings now glowing steadily.
The diagnostic tablet on her workbench beeped, drawing her attention. The screen displayed a single line of text:
"Find the Nexus."
---
Keira didn't sleep that night. She spent hours combing through all the data from the cube, piecing together fragments of information. It wasn't easy; much of the code was corrupted, and what wasn't corrupted was encrypted way beyond her level to crack. But she learned enough to know one thing: the cube was connected to Eos, the ancient AI that controlled the Ark's life support systems.
Keira studied the cube closely,
"Why would the Echelon send bounty hunters after something tied to Eos?"
She wondered.
Her thoughts were interrupted by a sharp knock at the door. She froze, her hand instinctively reaching for the baton.
"Relax, kid. I'm not here to kill you."
The voice was unfamiliar, and when she opened the door cautiously, she found herself face-to-face with the towering figure of man who looked like he hadn't slept in days. His dark hair was disheveled, his clothes worn but functional, and his eyes—one blue, the other a cybernetic implant—studied her intently.
"Who are you?" she asked.
"You may call me Rian," he said, stepping inside uninvited. "And if you don't want to end up as a smear on the Ark's underbelly, you must listen to what I have to say."
Keira crossed her arms, unimpressed. "Why should I trust you?"
Rian smirked. "Because I know what that cube is. And I know who's coming for you next."