Cipher’s Web
The first win felt too clean.
In a single strike, Kael's units reclaimed the Varna Communications Grid—a vital analog relay once buried beneath sponsor firewalls.
No Reclaimed opposition.
No traps.
No counter-signal.
Just silence… then victory.
Rael frowned as the techs connected it to the Citadel.
> "This feels wrong. Jian doesn't give ground."
Kael nodded. "Which means Cipher just did."
---
Uncoded Outpost — 48 Hours Later
Four more sites.
Four clean wins.
Minimal resistance.
Maximum gain.
Too much.
Astra pulled Kael aside, holding data from The Lattice.
> "This isn't just suspicious. It's a pattern. The sectors we're 'liberating' are nodes Jian decommissioned weeks ago. He's letting us take dead ground."
Kael stared at the map. A slow realization dawning.
> "He's herding us."
Alina was already ahead of them—tracing encrypted trails embedded in the fake command relays. Each victory came with hidden code, subtle adjustments to Ghost strategy protocols.
Cipher wasn't fighting them. He was rewriting them.
---
Citadel — War Room Emergency Session
The council gathered.
Zarif, grim-faced, laid down the report.
> "We have Reclaimed in every corridor of our last advance. They've let us win so they could map how we think."
Astra activated a feed: a digital web radiating from their five latest victories, each one pulsing with false data.
Kael stared.
> "Cipher's not after land. He's after control."
> "He's not breaking the Accord from outside…"
Alina finished the thought.
> "He's making it collapse from within."
---
Far North — Cipher's Black Station
In the icy void of Siberia, deep in an abandoned weather station turned digital fortress, Cipher sat alone in a room of mirrors—each showing a different version of Kael's recent tactics.
> "They trust him."
> "That's their weakness."
He spun a neural dial. The screen showed Astra, running predictive models.
> "She'll notice the trap."
> "Let her."
He turned to Kairo Vex, sharpening a blade.
> "Deploy to the Citadel border. Stage a real strike. Loud, violent."
> "While they're watching the hammer…"
He tapped the final node in the system.
> "The knife will already be inside."
---
Citadel — Inner Spire
At night, Kael wandered the old tower levels—places left untouched by updates. Paper maps. Physical logs.
He found Zarif there, looking over old war tables.
> "We've been outplayed," Kael muttered.
> "Not yet," Zarif said.
He pointed to an ancient sponsor schematic—the original Citadel design.
> "Cipher's betting we think like leaders."
> "But maybe it's time we think like ghosts again."
Kael looked up.
A plan already forming.
---
End of Chapter Fourteen
Next: Chapter Fifteen — "The Knife Inside"