Eclipsed Horizon — Chapter 8: "The Echo Mission"
The transport skimmer cut through the clouds like a silver blade.
Zephyr Base shrank to a glimmer behind them, the sky above painted by the faint scar — the same breach that had widened after Cael's re-merging. Below, continents stretched in hues of rust and ash, remnants of the old Resonance War.
Inside the skimmer, the hum of Aether engines filled the silence. Cael sat strapped in near the viewport, fingers brushing the pulseband on his wrist. The intertwined rings shimmered faintly, pulsing in rhythm with his heartbeat — and someone else's.
Lyra sat opposite him, her gaze lost in the endless horizon. The glass reflected her face, soft yet distant, as if she were looking into another lifetime.
Sena scrolled through mission feeds, cheerful as always, while Jax sharpened the edge of his mag-blade with a quiet, methodical scrape.
> "Mission parameters uploaded," Sena said. "We're to locate the source of the anomaly, extract data, and avoid engagement. Sounds simple, right?"
Jax snorted. "You say that every time."
Cael said nothing. His eyes stayed fixed on the shifting clouds ahead — they looked almost alive, pulsing with the same faint frequency he'd felt in the Breach.
---
[HQ — Command Level, Zephyr]
The chamber was circular, walls lined with flickering holo-panes that mapped resonance flows across the planet. Commander Arden Lyss stood at the center, his uniform immaculate, his expression unreadable. Opposite him, Seraphine Aurel — strategist, researcher, and the only one who dared question him directly — tapped through restricted files projected in violet light.
> "You authorized a field deployment within 48 hours of the breach," Seraphine said. "That's reckless, even for you."
Arden folded his arms. "Reckless is leaving the anomaly unchecked. You saw the readings — Halvion's core frequency matches the one from Cael's resonance signature."
Seraphine's fingers froze mid-air. "Then you're confirming it's connected?"
"Not confirming," he replied. "Suspecting. There's a difference."
But his tone betrayed a flicker of unease. The classified codename at the top of the file pulsed faintly:
ECLIPSE PROTOCOL – LOCKED ARCHIVE: LEVEL Ω.
---
[Field — Ruins of Halvion]
The skimmer descended through the dust storm, thrusters scattering the ash like ghosts. What remained of Halvion was a graveyard of metal and bone — towers folded into themselves, black glass streets cracked open to reveal Aether veins glowing beneath.
The Eclipsers stepped out in formation. Cael drew his Pulseblade, its cyan edge humming faintly as it synced with the ambient resonance. Lyra activated her sensor visor, overlaying the ruins with faint geometric grids.
> "Resonance levels are off the charts," Lyra said quietly. "It's… singing."
Jax frowned. "Singing?"
"Listen," she whispered.
The wind carried a low harmonic hum — not mechanical, not natural. It was a chorus of overlapping tones, faint and human.
Cael felt it resonate in his chest.
He recognized the pitch.
The same frequency from his dream — the one where the sky split, and Lyra reached for him through the light.
> "We move in pairs," Cael ordered. "Sena, Jax — perimeter sweep. Lyra with me."
They moved deeper into the ruins. The hum grew louder, almost rhythmic, as if responding to their steps.
---
[HQ — Archive Room B]
Seraphine's holographic search resolved into a web of encrypted nodes. Most were blank, others pulsed with data fragments labeled only by symbols: Ω-01, Ω-02… and one marked Ω-Cael.
> "There," she murmured. "The link between Cael Drayen and the original Resonance experiments."
Arden's gaze hardened. "That file's sealed under Founder access. Even I—"
"I bypassed the seal," she interrupted. "Briefly."
The hologram opened.
Lines of data unfurled, and at their center — an image.
A much younger Cael stood within a containment field, surrounded by resonance conduits. His pulseband then was not twin-ringed — it bore a single symbol, half-complete.
Seraphine exhaled. "He was part of it. The Eclipse Prototype."
Arden's voice dropped. "Then the anomaly in Halvion isn't new. It's… calling him back."
---
[Field — Halvion Core]
The pair reached a shattered plaza where a Resonance obelisk jutted from the ground, half-buried and still alive. It pulsed with blue-white energy, flickering between material and light.
Lyra approached, her hand trembling slightly. "It feels… familiar. Like déjà vu."
Cael stepped closer. "Stay behind me."
But the obelisk reacted to her — its hum shifting to her resonance frequency.
Symbols spiraled across its surface, and a pulse of light rippled through the plaza.
> "It's responding to you," Cael said. "Why—"
Before he could finish, the air fractured.
A ripple tore through space like glass under pressure, and ghostly silhouettes flickered — soldiers, ruins collapsing, a city consumed by light.
A vision — no, a memory — imprinted within the resonance field.
Lyra gasped, clutching her head.
For a heartbeat, she saw herself standing beside Cael in that past — before everything was erased.
> "We were here," she whispered. "Before the Fall."
Cael reached for her, but the resonance surge exploded outward, sending both tumbling across the ground.
---
[HQ — Command Chamber]
The entire command room shook as resonance readings spiked across every screen.
> "Anomaly spike from Halvion!" a technician shouted. "Energy signature identical to the Zephyr breach!"
Arden's eyes narrowed. "Patch visual feed."
Static cleared into the projection — showing Cael and Lyra amid the storm of light, their pulsebands glowing in synchronization. The intertwined rings expanded into a full circle — two halves finally aligned.
Seraphine whispered, almost reverently, "The Eclipse link…"
Arden turned sharply. "Shut the feed. Now."
> "But—"
"Do it." His tone cut like steel. "If the board sees this, they'll activate the Directive."
Seraphine hesitated. "You mean—"
"Yes," Arden said. "The Reclamation Protocol."
---
[Field — Aftermath]
The storm subsided, leaving silence. The obelisk dimmed, its hum fading to a whisper.
Lyra sat up slowly, eyes wide. The world around her felt different — sharper, more alive. Cael's hand reached out to steady her, and for a second, she felt their heartbeats align.
> "You saw it too," she said softly. "Didn't you?"
He nodded. "Fragments. But… not enough."
She smiled faintly. "Then we'll find the rest."
The skimmer's beacon blinked in the distance — Jax and Sena returning.
Above them, the sky scar rippled again — faint, but spreading.
And somewhere far below the ruins, buried in the old Aether network, a dormant console reactivated, whispering in digital static:
> ECLIPSE PROTOCOL — REBOOT SEQUENCE INITIATED.