—
Location: Above-Ground Ruins, New Eden OutskirtsTime: 05:46 A.M.
The sun was just starting to bleed across the broken skyline, spilling muted light over what used to be the world's most advanced city — now just cracked glass and rusted ambition. Concrete giants loomed like forgotten gods, and the wind howled through them like it remembered a time when humanity thought it was in control.
They stood on the roof of a collapsed transport hub, overlooking the wreckage. Ethan, Lia, Kai, Maya… and Aly, unusually quiet.
"We neutralized the proxy," Ethan muttered, voice raw from sleeplessness and existential dread, "but it doesn't feel like a win."
"That's because it wasn't," Maya said, eyes on her scanner. "The proxy wasn't the origin. Just a relay. Something else is still watching us."
Lia sat on a chunk of rebar, brushing ash from her boot. "Okay, but define 'watching.' You mean like tapping our comms? Satellite surveillance? Creepy drone with a foot fetish?"
