The rain hadn't stopped.
It fell like judgment, cold and heavy washing blood from Liam Blackwood's armor as he staggered through the endless forest. His boots crushed fallen branches. The world around him was silent except for the distant hum of pursuit drones.
The ghost was being hunted.
For the first time since his creation, Liam was no longer the weapon,he was the target.
At Project Kairon Command, hundreds of kilometers away, screens glowed with streams of live satellite feeds. A red signal pulsed across all screens: SUBJECT K-01 ACTIVE.
"He's still moving east," a technician reported. "Heart rate stable. Neural frequencies rising, i think he's resisting the inhibitors."
A tall man in a black combat uniform stepped forward, his silver eyes cold and calculating. Captain Varic Hale, commander of the Retrieval Division. A man born for one purpose, to hunt things that shouldn't exist.
"Blackwood's defiance system isn't human," Varic said quietly. "It's a malfunction. If he's beginning to feel, he's beginning to fail."
Behind him, Dr. Evelyn stood with her arms folded, her face pale under the fluorescent light. "He's not a malfunction," she muttered. "He's… waking up."
"He's a rogue weapon," Varic countered. "And rogue weapons get dismantled."
Evelyn didn't reply. Her heart was at war with itself. Liam wasn't just an experiment to her, he was the only success in a project built on corpses. Every other subject had screamed their way into madness. Only Liam had survived… and now he was paying for it.
She turned to her terminal and silently began altering a minor interference, just enough to blur his coordinates. A tiny rebellion, one that could cost her everything.
Liam reached a cliff overlooking the dark a valley. He could see faint orange lights in the distance a refinery compound, abandoned years ago. Now a Shelter he found. He pressed his hand against his bleeding side. The bullet from the earlier shots had grazed his ribs. His enhanced metabolism would keep him alive, but the pain grounded him in a way he wasn't used to.
So this is what weakness feels like.
For years, he had been invincible. Now, every heartbeat reminded him that he was mortal, that he was becoming human again.
He crouched by a fallen log and checked his weapon: M-90 pulse rifle, three mags left. His knife was still slick with blood from the soldiers he'd killed earlier.
He remembered their faces. For the first time, he didn't see targets, he saw men.
And he got sick after realising.
He turned his head sharply on hearing leaves rustle.
A faint metallic click echoed behind him.
Liam dove sideways just as a silenced round shattered the bark where his skull had been. He rolled, came up firing, three short bursts into the darkness. Sparks flared as bullets hit metal.
Then came the sound, the low mechanical sound of drones.
Raum-9 units.
Spider like drones with infrared optics and double railguns mounted on their sides. He'd used them once to slaughter insurgents. Now they hunted him.
The first drone lunged from the trees, firing. Liam ducked, fired two rounds but missed. The railgun ripped through a tree trunk near him.
He ripped a flash grenade from his belt, pulled the pin, and sent it into the dark.
Bang!
The forest exploded in white light. Liam moved fast, silent, calculating. He sprinted through the smoke, slipped onto the back of one drone, and jammed his knife through its core. Sparks burst out, melting the engines.
He used the falling body of the machine as a shield while another drone opened fire. Bullets tore through its metallic chest as Liam launched himself forward. He landed, ripped a railgun from it, and aimed it.
One pull. One shot.
The third drone exploded mid-air, raining fire.
For a brief moment, silence returned.
In the command center, the technicians watched as the drone feeds went black.
"Raum-9 units destroyed!" one shouted.
Varic's expression didn't change. "He's learning. Adapting to his hunters."
He turned away, eyes narrowing. "Deploy the human team."
Moments later, a strike squad of eight elite soldiers, Phantom Unit received the order. Men trained specifically to counter enhanced subjects.
Hours passed. Liam reached the refinery compound. Rusted towers over him like skeletons in the mist. He slipped inside through a shattered gate, moving quietly through the corridors of decay.
The walls were covered in words written by the forgotten. NO GODS, NO KINGS, ONLY LIES.
He found an old control room, opened a dusty med kit, and stitched the wound on his side. The sting of pain grounded him, kept him alert.
He didn't sleep not anymore.
He sat by the broken window, watching the rain.
His reflection stared back, pale skin, dark eyes, blood on his face. A killer, a weapon… and something else.
For the first time, he whispered to the empty room, "Who am I when the killing stops?"
There was no answer. Only thunder.
Dawn soon came.
He caught movement in the distance, views of armor, shadows shifting through the fog.
Phantom Unit.
They were smart, surrounding the compound, moving silently, waiting for him to reveal himself.
Liam smiled faintly. Finally.
He picked up his rifle and vanished into the maze of corridors.
The first soldier entered through the west gate. A muffled scream followed cut short by a blade across the throat.
The second barely had time to aim before a shadow dropped from above, snapping his neck cleanly.
Gunfire erupted. Grenades rolled through the halls, fire lighting the night.
Liam moved like a shadow of death. Every strike was precise, brutal, silent. He slammed one soldier against the wall, driving his knife under the helmet and twisting. Another lunged from behind; Liam countered, disarming him and firing his own weapon point blank into his visor.
Blood painted the rusted walls.
Then an explosion. The roof collapsed above him, throwing him into the open.
He groaned, rolling to his feet, gripping his bleeding arm. His HUD flickered in and out. One last soldier stood ahead, their leader.
Captain Varic Hale.
He stepped forward from the smoke, rifle lowered, expression unreadable.
"You've done enough damage, Blackwood."
Liam's eyes narrowed. "You'll have to kill me to stop me."
"That's the plan."
They charged.
Fists met steel. Liam struck first, driving his elbow into Varic's ribs. The man barely flinched, Varic countered with a sharp knee to Liam's gut, followed by a jab that sent him stumbling.
Liam caught his wrist, twisted, and slammed him into the wall. The metal groaned.
"You think you're free?" Varic hissed, shoving him back. "You're still theirs. You always will be."
"Not anymore."
Liam lunged again but Varic's gauntlet pulsed blue. Electric current surged, hitting Liam square in the chest. His muscles weakened. He crashed to the floor, smoke rising from his armor.
"You're fast," Varic said, wiping blood from his lip. "But I'm faster."
He raised his weapon.
Suddenly a voice echoed in both their comms.
Dr. Evelyn Cross: "Captain, stand down! He's not to be killed. Command wants him alive for reconditioning!"
Varic's jaw tightened. He hated orders. But he obeyed for now.
"Next time, Blackwood," Varic muttered, lowering his gun. "You won't get this lucky."
Before he could cuff him, an explosion tore through the upper decks. Liam had triggered a backup grenade. Fire and smoke filled the corridor.
When the debris cleared, Liam was gone. Only his blood remained on the metal floor.
Back at base, Evelyn exhaled shakily, relief flooding her face. Varic glared at her.
"You altered his coordinates," he accused.
"Prove it," she replied coldly.
He leaned in close. "If he escapes again, his blood's on you."
Evelyn met his gaze. "It already is."
Far from them, deep in the forest, Liam stumbled through the rain, bleeding and exhausted. He reached a river, collapsed beside it, and looked up at the sky.
The voice returned.
[SYSTEM INITIALIZING...]
Liam froze.
A faint holographic screen flickered above his wrist.
[User: Liam Blackwood — Status: Critical]
[Reconstruction Protocol Available — Begin?]
His vision blurred as the words pulsed before his eyes.
"System…?" he whispered, before everything went dark.