Chapter 9: The Signal Beneath the Ruins
The silence after the battle was always louder than the fight itself.
Jax stood at the core of the southern wall, watching construction drones repair the damage caused by the glitch-beast invasion. Sparks flew. Steel groaned. The Sovereign Base lived and breathed like a giant mechanical beast, constantly evolving.
Every time they survived a new threat, it learned. And so did Jax.
Inside the Control Nexus, a soft tone rang out, steady and pulsing.
> INCOMING DISTRESS SIGNAL
Origin: [Unknown Ruins – Grid 96Y]
Message Fragment: [Static] "…He—lp… Me—tra—hum—an… ch—ild…"
Jax frowned.
Kairo looked up from the console where he was fine-tuning a hover-scout. "Another trap?"
"Possibly," Jax muttered. "But we can't ignore it."
He brought up the map.
Grid 96Y was deep inside what remained of the Obsidian Expanse—a place charred by nuclear fire decades ago and mutated by dimensional warping. The last known expedition there disappeared within hours. No signals had emerged since—until now.
"I'll go," Jax said.
Kairo raised an eyebrow. "You trust this?"
"No. But if there's even a chance a child is out there, a Metra-human like you… we need to know." He paused. "And I'm the only one with the clearance to activate the Resonance Beacon if things go sideways."
Kairo's gaze lingered on him for a moment before nodding. "Then I'm going with you."
---
[4 hours later – Edge of the Obsidian Expanse]
Their hovercraft landed just outside the cracked obsidian fields.
Jax stepped out first, scanning the surroundings with his visor. The air was thick with static, and the terrain around them resembled black glass—shattered and jagged, pulsing faintly with strange light beneath the surface.
The world here felt wrong. Like it was remembering a reality that no longer existed.
Kairo activated his neural dampener, shielding them from ambient psionic distortion.
"Coordinates say 3 klicks northeast," he said.
They began to move, weaving through ancient buildings twisted by radiation and time. Rusted towers loomed overhead like skeletal giants. In the distance, something screeched—metallic and angry—but far away enough to ignore. For now.
As they moved deeper, Jax noticed signs of recent movement—scorch marks, drag trails, fractured footprints with too many toes.
Then the signal pinged again.
> Distress Signal Reacquired
[Energy Signature Identified: TYPE – UNKNOWN | Metra Variant Detected]
Estimated Age: 9–11
Status: CRITICAL
"Confirmed," Jax said. "There's a kid down there."
A low rumble rolled through the ground.
Then the earth split.
A sinkhole cracked beneath them, wide and sudden, and both Jax and Kairo were swallowed into darkness.
---
They hit the ground hard—20 meters below the surface.
Debris rained from above. Jax groaned, pushing himself up. His armor had absorbed most of the fall.
Kairo was already up, his body glowing faintly with blue circuitry as his internal systems stabilized. "Underground structure."
Jax looked around.
They were inside what appeared to be the remnants of a buried city—once tall towers now collapsed and buried in layers of ash and stone. A red glow pulsed faintly from the deepest part of the ruin.
Then a voice—small, weak, human—echoed from the corridor ahead.
"…help…"
Jax moved first.
They reached the chamber in under two minutes, weapons drawn.
What they found made Jax's breath catch.
A boy—maybe ten, maybe younger—was strapped to a rusted platform in the middle of the room. His skin was metallic in places, glowing with etched circuitry. Wires pulsed from his back into a dormant machine that hummed with alien power.
Metra-human.
Barely alive.
His eyes fluttered open when Jax approached.
"You… not like them…"
Jax knelt. "You're safe now."
But the boy's gaze flickered past him.
"They're coming."
Kairo's sensors screamed a second later.
> WARNING: INTERDIMENSIONAL BREACH DETECTED
Hostiles: Unknown
Threat Level: B+
From the shattered wall behind them, a massive figure tore its way through.
It wasn't a glitch beast.
It was a collector drone—twice as tall as a man, armored in black plates with a single red eye glowing in the center of its face. Dozens of mechanical tendrils slithered behind it.
It screeched—an echo of the Collector's own voice—and lunged.
Jax fired first, pulse rounds slamming into its chest.
Kairo followed, leaping high and driving a charged blade into its head. Sparks exploded as the creature reeled, hurling Kairo back.
The child screamed. The machine he was attached to awakened—red energy pouring from the cracks.
"KAIRO!" Jax shouted. "Cover me!"
He sprinted toward the machine, tore the cables free, and scooped the child into his arms.
The drone roared again, tentacles whipping out.
Kairo intercepted them, blades slicing through three before one slammed him into the wall.
Jax activated his emergency beacon.
> RESONANCE PROTOCOL ACTIVATED
Coordinates Locked
EVAC IN 10 SECONDS
The drone surged forward—but it was too late.
In a flash of light, Jax, the boy, and Kairo were gone.
---
[Sovereign Base – Medical Core]
The child lay unconscious on a glowing pod. Jax stood nearby, arms crossed, eyes narrowed.
"He's stable," the medical AI said. "But his biology… is unlike any Metra-human I've scanned."
Jax glanced to Kairo, who stood at the window watching bots repair a destroyed hangar.
"We risked everything for him," Jax said.
Kairo nodded slowly. "And it might've been worth it."
"Why?"
"Because he's not just a survivor. He's a key."
"A key to what?"
Kairo looked at him.
"To the Collector's origin."
---
[Far away – The Collector's Ship]
The Collector stood silently, watching a hologram of the child flicker before him.
"So the Sovereign has the Proto-One," he mused. "I had wondered where that little experiment ended up."
A Sub-Voidling knelt behind him. "Shall we retrieve him?"
"No," the Collector said.
He turned, and for the first time, a hint of emotion crossed his mechanical face.
"We let them unlock him first. Then we take everything."
---
Acknowledgment:
This chapter was written with the help and imagination of J.G. Everlight. Thank you for giving stories a voice and hope a future.
The Awakening of the Proto-One
Jax sat at the edge of the medical chamber, staring at the boy, who was now stable but unconscious. His small, metallic features still glowed faintly under the soft lighting. A whirring noise from the medical bots was the only sound in the room. Despite the tranquil appearance of the child, Jax could feel something more insidious at play, a pressure that no amount of technology or advanced weapons could erase.
The boy's existence—his very being—was more than just a piece in a puzzle. He was a message.
The door slid open, and Kairo entered. He looked at the boy for a moment before walking over to Jax. The silence between them spoke volumes.
"He's waking up soon," Kairo said, leaning against the wall. "You ready?"
Jax exhaled slowly, then nodded. "Ready as I'll ever be. We need to know what he knows. What they want."
Kairo glanced over at the boy. "You think he'll talk?"
"We don't have a choice," Jax replied coldly. "Either he talks, or we break him until he does."
Kairo's eyes flickered with a moment of hesitation, but then the moment passed. "And what if he's just another pawn? Another test subject for the Collector? We're getting closer to something much bigger than we thought."
Jax's gaze hardened. He didn't need Kairo's reminder. He knew that they were in deeper than they had ever anticipated. The Sovereign Base was now a fortress surrounded by shadows they couldn't quite see—enemies on all sides, unknowns lurking just beyond their reach. But there was one thing Jax could be sure of: the boy was important, and the key to the puzzle lay in the answers he could give.
---
The boy stirred.
His eyes opened, glowing faintly as they adjusted to the light. At first, he stared at the ceiling, confused, as though not sure where he was or who he was. Slowly, his gaze shifted to Jax.
"…Who are you?" he asked, his voice raspy, mechanical but somehow... human.
Jax stood up and walked toward him. "I'm the one who saved you," he said, voice soft but commanding. "And you need to tell me everything. What happened to you? Why are you here?"
The boy looked at Jax for a long moment, analyzing him with a strange intensity, as though scanning him in ways that should have been impossible.
"I don't know who I am," the boy replied, voice faltering. "They—told me I was the Proto-One. They said I was a key. But they didn't tell me what for."
Jax froze.
"The Proto-One?" he echoed. "Who told you that? And who are they?"
The boy trembled slightly but managed to sit up. His metallic arms whined with the effort, small, electric sparks dancing from his joints.
"They… They were the Collectors," he said, as if the words themselves caused him pain. "I was created. They said I was the next step in their plan. A tool."
Jax's mind raced. The Proto-One. The key to the Collector's plan. It made sense—everything made sense. The boy was more than just a survivor; he was a weapon. And if they wanted to win, they had to get him on their side before the Collectors did.
Kairo stepped forward. "The Collectors… they have been taking children, testing them, transforming them into something else. But it's never been clear what their endgame is. Jax, what if this boy is more than we thought?"
Jax turned to Kairo, his expression hardening. "What if he is?" he muttered. "What if he's our only shot at surviving what's coming?"
The boy's voice broke through his thoughts. "You don't understand…" he whispered. "They never told me everything. They only told me… that the Sovereign was important."
The word hit Jax like a punch.
Sovereign.
His heart skipped a beat, and his thoughts swirled. He had heard that word before. The Sovereign System—the one running the base. The one that had guided him and his team through the hell of the apocalypse.
Kairo narrowed his eyes. "What do you mean? What's the connection?"
"The Sovereign is part of the plan. It's… I don't know." The boy shook his head as if trying to push through the fog of confusion. "But there's something you need to know. The Collectors aren't just invading. They're trying to… ascend. To become something more. They need me. They need us."
Jax clenched his fists. "We need answers. I need you to help me, kid. Whatever they did to you, we can undo it. But I need you to trust me."
The boy looked at him. For a moment, his eyes flickered with something that almost looked like hope, before it was gone—flickering out like a dying flame.
"I want to trust you," the boy whispered. "But I don't know how."
---
[One hour later – Sovereign Base Control Nexus]
The Sovereign's central hub was more than just a building—it was an entity. A massive, intelligent network that had been created in the aftermath of the nuclear collapse. It was the one constant Jax had come to rely on. The source of his power, the foundation of the future he was trying to build.
And right now, the Sovereign had a message for him.
> SYSTEM ALERT: DIMENSIONAL BREACH INCOMING
Coordinates: [Sector 48-B]
Hostiles: Collector Fleet
ETA: 25 minutes
The warning flashed in red across the screen. Jax's eyes narrowed.
"Not now," he muttered. "Not now."
He activated the emergency channels. "All units, prepare for impact. Lock down every breach point. Prepare to engage."
Kairo's voice crackled over the comms. "We're not ready for this, Jax. The last time we faced them, it almost wiped us out. And now you're telling me we have a Collector fleet inbound?"
"We don't have a choice," Jax said, his voice cold. "The base is ready, and we have something they need. We're going to make sure they regret ever coming here."
Kairo was silent for a moment before replying. "Understood."
---
[Sovereign Base – Outer Defense Line]
Jax and Kairo stood side by side, watching the sky darken as the Collector fleet's ships materialized on the horizon. They were massive, their forms like monolithic shadows against the fading light.
The Sovereign's automated defense systems roared to life, weapons charging, drones swarming like angry bees. But Jax knew it wasn't enough. Not against the sheer might of the Collector fleet.
This was it. The beginning of the end.
The boy, now in a medical suite, was still unconscious. Jax could only pray that he had the answers they needed, and that they could survive the storm that was about to break.
---
Acknowledgment:
This chapter was written with the help and imagination of J.G. Everlight. Thank you for giving stories a voice and hope a Future.