The wind howls across the rusted metal plains of Sector 13.
Smoke still rises from its craters. Old machines twitch in the dust, their AI cores half-sane, whispering names of operators long dead.
And from this broken world, Su Chen is building a home.
Burnside Refuge – Two Weeks Later
The "War Orphanage" isn't a real orphanage.
It's a bastion.
A sanctuary built on the edge of the wild zones. Concrete walls. Sentry towers made from crashed drone parts. A command bunker buried beneath the earth like a beating heart.
Inside it: former Astra prototypes, failed cyber-soldiers, broken AI carriers—all of them once tools, now people, being offered something they never imagined.
Purpose.
"Room 5's bleeding again," Yun Xi mutters, handing Su Chen a damaged dataslate.
He scans it. "That's Astra-17. Retinal implant rejects his memory feed. Fix it."
"She tried to kill the medic."
Su Chen doesn't blink. "Did she succeed?"
"No."
"Then fix it."
Yun Xi sighs and walks away.
She's changed, but not softened. Her hair's shorter now. Her eyes colder. But every day she puts her blade down to bandage another misfit. That says more than words ever could.
Su Chen turns to the courtyard.
There's a group training with wooden weapons under Daku's watch.
Astra-08, the blind one with sonar nerves, slices through five targets with pinpoint accuracy.
Astra-14, the feral one, chews a data chip and spits out half of it like candy.
Astra-03 sits in the corner, talking to a spider she insists is her "sister's reincarnation."
This place shouldn't work.
And yet—it does.
But peace doesn't last long.
On the Outskirts – That Night
A scout crashes through the front gates. Half his armor melted. One eye gone.
"Raid—north line!" he gasps.
Su Chen grabs his coat and blade.
Yun Xi is already beside him.
[ALERT: Perimeter Breach Detected – ID Unmatched // Signature: UNKNOWN-LEVEL]
They sprint to the defense line.
Smoke. Flame. Screams.
But there are no soldiers.
Just shadows.
Walking like men.
Grinning like monsters.
And in the center of it all—
Seraph.
She doesn't speak. Just watches.
Then lifts a single child—Astra-12—by the throat.
Yun Xi raises her rifle.
"Put him down!"
Seraph tilts her head.
"No."
She shoves the child into Su Chen's arms with enough force to crack bone.
Then disappears into the shadows with a whisper:
"Tag. You're it."
Later That Night – Infirmary
The child survives.
Barely.
But the message is clear: Seraph isn't here to conquer. She's here to play.
"She's testing us," Yun Xi mutters. "Playing games."
Su Chen stares at the burned fields. "No. She's proving a point."
"What point?"
"That these kids aren't safe because they're here. They're only safe if they fight back."
Underground Strategy Room
The lights flicker. Rain hammers on the roof. Dust floats in the air.
Su Chen draws a red line across the map.
One name under it:
Seraph
Then five more names beside it.
Each one tied to ghost signals, missing files, terminated projects.
WRAITHNEUROGHOSTPARAGONSALEMTERRA-7
All of them survivors. Forgotten weapons.
All of them now moving.
Yun Xi crosses her arms.
"You really think we can stop them?"
He turns to her.
"No."
Then looks to the courtyard—where kids who were once killers now practice being people.
"But they might."
End of Chapter 70