Chapter 7: Echoes of the Forgotten

Kade hit the ground hard, pain exploding through his ribs as he and Nova tumbled through the collapsing tunnel. His ears rang with the deafening roar of shattering stone and twisting steel, the world around them swallowed by dust and chaos.

Then—silence.

Kade groaned, blinking through the haze. His head throbbed, and the metallic taste of blood filled his mouth. Somewhere nearby, Nova coughed, her voice hoarse.

"Kade… tell me we're not dead."

He spat onto the ground, wincing as he pushed himself up. "If we are, the afterlife sucks."

A faint orange glow flickered through the wreckage above them—fires from the tunnel collapse casting jagged shadows against the walls. But something else caught his attention.

The space around them wasn't just rubble. Beneath the destruction, beneath the city itself… was something ancient.

Nova activated her cybernetic scanner, her eye flickering as it mapped their surroundings. She swore under her breath.

"Kade… we're in some kind of underground facility. Pre-war tech. And it's not abandoned."

Kade felt a chill crawl up his spine.

Before he could respond, the humming began.

It was soft at first—a distant, mechanical whirr, like a sleeping giant stirring after centuries of slumber. The air grew charged, the faint scent of ozone mixing with dust and fire.

Nova's breathing hitched. "Something's waking up."

Then the lights came on.

Rows of dim, blue-tinted bulbs flickered to life along the walls, revealing the true scale of where they had fallen.

The chamber was massive, its ceilings stretching high into darkness. The walls were lined with metallic pods, some shattered, others still intact—each one humming with energy.

Kade stepped closer, brushing debris from a nearby pod. The glass was cracked, fogged with age… but inside, a body was suspended in liquid.

His stomach twisted.

It wasn't human.

Long, sinewy limbs. Metallic plating fused to flesh. Eyes closed, but behind the lids, a faint glow pulsed—like something dreaming.

Nova touched another pod, her face pale. "Kade… I think we just found the Syndicate's graveyard."

He turned to her sharply. "Graveyard?"

She swallowed. "No one buries soldiers this deep underground. These aren't just failed experiments. They're unfinished ones."

The humming grew louder.

Kade's instincts screamed at him to move. But before he could, a sharp hiss filled the chamber as the locks on the pods began to release.

One by one, the lids slid open.

And the things inside started waking up.