The Path of Ash
Eastern Border Wastes — Former Moldova Sector
The air burned like coal.
Ash from a hundred fallen cities choked the sky. Satellite signals couldn't reach this place. No HALIX. No GhostNet. Just silence and ruin.
Kael walked alone.
No team.
No AI.
No safety.
Just coordinates burned into his neural HUD—given by Alina before he left.
> "If this Uncoded is alive," she'd said, "he's the only one who ever shut down a sponsor grid… using nothing but a box of circuit shards and a stolen weather drone."
His name was Dakar Volen.
Codename: Blackglass.
---
Somewhere Below the Wastes
Dakar hadn't seen the sky in twelve years.
He lived in the ruins of a collapsed metro station, surrounded by old analog signal blockers, EMP netting, and one of the last functioning weather satellites—ripped from orbit and stripped into a mind-operated weapon.
He didn't trust anyone.
Especially not other Players.
---
Three Days into the Wastes
Kael's comms were dead.
His rations frozen.
The storm hadn't stopped.
But he kept walking.
Until, just past a shattered comms tower, his boot struck a hidden pressure sensor. Not a landmine. Something worse.
The world around him went black.
---
Dakar's Underground Bunker
Kael woke up tied to a chair made of steel conduit.
Still breathing—barely.
Across from him, a tall figure in scavenged cold-weather armor was pouring steaming fluid into a cracked mug. He had a jagged streak of gray across his face and a data spike embedded into his neck—not HALIX, but something far older. Handmade.
> "Name," the man barked.
Kael blinked. "Kael Vasil."
> "Liar."
The man raised a small EMP fork to Kael's head.
Kael grinned, despite the pain. "Uncoded don't need to scan me. They already know I don't lie."
The man froze.
Then chuckled.
> "I'll be damned."
He untied him.
> "Welcome to the dirt, Ghost."
---
Meanwhile — Citadel, Inner Circle
Alina stared at the data Kael sent before going dark.
It was minimal.
Just coordinates.
A timestamp.
But the signal behind it wasn't for her.
It was bait—for Cipher.
Rael leaned in. "You sure that's safe?"
Alina's eyes narrowed.
> "Nothing about Kael is safe."
> "That's what makes him lethal."
---
Cipher's Fortress — Surveillance Lab
Cipher stared at the dead zone Kael had entered.
No signal. No surveillance. Not even Jian's satellites could peer through the weather disruptions.
> "He's playing like one of us now," Cipher said, tone unreadable.
Jian didn't speak. Just turned away.
Cipher smiled faintly.
> "Good."
> "Then let's play for real."
---
Back in the Bunker
Kael sat by the fire, warming frostbitten fingers.
Dakar leaned forward.
> "Why are you here?"
Kael didn't blink.
> "Because Cipher's rewriting the world with a virus no firewall can block."
> "Because we can't win this war with machines."
> "And because you're the only one left who ever hacked the world with your bare hands."
Dakar sipped his drink.
Paused.
> "If I come back," he said, "I don't do it clean."
> "I burn systems. I crash skies."
> "I don't fight for accords. I fight to ruin the ones who thought they were gods."
Kael smiled.
> "That's exactly what I need."
---
End of Chapter Sixteen
Next: Chapter Seventeen — "The Crash Protocol"