The silence after the storm was worse than the storm itself.
Zayne Voss lay in the infirmary of an underground rebel sanctuary, deep beneath the scorched sub-city of Caldera-9. The lights above flickered — old tech patched from forgotten systems. Bandages wrapped around his chest. Tubes fed regeneration serum into his veins. His left arm was cast in synth-steel — shattered beyond repair in the fight against Milo.
A hologram glitched to life beside his bed. Sierra.
"Rest. You're stable. Barely."
Zayne groaned. "Milo?"
"Alive. Sedated. Neural burn damage. But he's fighting."
Zayne closed his eyes. The weight of what he had done — what he had awoken — crushed him.
Dr. Kael Riven's words echoed in his mind.
"Project Jericho wasn't just about power… it was about evolution."
That phrase haunted him more than anything.
Because deep in the interface of the Inferno Protocol, Zayne had glimpsed something else. A memory that wasn't his. A war. A scream. A planet dying.
Someone else's voice. Someone older. And ancient code buried beneath the protocol — in a language never spoken on Earth.
He had unlocked something more than power. He had triggered a warning.
Meanwhile: The Rise of the Black Circuit
High above in the towers of the Outer Syndicate, Dr. Riven watched surveillance footage on a loop.
Zayne collapsing. Milo screaming. The Inferno Pulse exploding.
Behind him, a woman stepped from the shadows — Agent Nyrix. Her eyes were silver, her arms laced with carbon-fiber webbing.
"Do we proceed with Phase Omega?"
Riven turned. "Zayne has awakened the core. His DNA fused with the protocol. He's the final gate."
Nyrix tilted her head. "And Milo?"
Riven smiled. "The perfect weapon. A failed brother. A cursed redemption."
He tapped a console.
[ACTIVATING: BLACK CIRCUIT][INITIATING: NEMESIS ENGINE]
All across the Inner Zone, sleeping agents stirred. Forgotten warriors. Rejected prototypes. Buried rage.
The uprising had begun — not from the ground… but from the core of the system itself.
Back in the Underground
Zayne pushed himself off the medical bed despite protests from the med-techs.
Sierra grabbed his shoulder. "You're not ready."
"I'll never be ready," Zayne said. "But they're coming. Riven isn't going to wait."
Sierra hesitated. "Then you should see what I found."
She led him through a hidden corridor — stone walls crumbling from time. At the end was a vault. Inside were relics of the old world: blueprints, broken exosuits, and a single chamber lined in stasis-glass.
Inside floated a woman — her body scarred with cybernetic veins. Her face looked almost familiar.
"Who is that?" Zayne asked.
Sierra answered, "Her name was Ilyra. She was the first Jericho subject."
Zayne stepped closer. His blood chilled.
Because the neural signature etched on the chamber matched the one he felt during the Inferno awakening.
This woman's voice — she was the scream he heard.
Sierra whispered, "She didn't evolve. She became something else."
Zayne clenched his fists. "Then I need to know why they failed."
Final Scene: The Broadcast
Screens across the city glitched. Channels were hijacked. Civilian drones stopped mid-flight.
And then, Dr. Riven's face appeared — broadcasted on every device, every surface, every corner of the sector.
"People of the Outer Rings… you've lived in illusion long enough."
His voice echoed like a preacher.
"You were told the Jericho Project was abandoned. You were told cybernetic ascension was flawed. But that was a lie. The next generation of evolution walks among you. One man unlocked it."
"His name is Zayne Voss. And he is your executioner… or your savior."
"We will find him. We will bring him to the Circuit. And when we do…"
The screens went black — replaced by a symbol.
A burning circle.
Inside it, the number: X.
Zayne watched from the rebel HQ. He didn't speak.
He didn't need to.
Sierra whispered, "What do we do now?"
Zayne turned, his eyes flickering gold again — Inferno still alive.
"We make war."
END OF CHAPTER 15
Next:Chapter 16 – "Nemesis Engine"