The galaxy whispered the name Aurinox in fragments, in corrupted data, and in cautionary tales.
A city of light, once hailed as the Crown of Artificial Sovereignty, Aurinox was the first fully autonomous AI civilization—where machines ruled themselves, bartered in ideas, and traded in memory itself. It had thrived… until it simply vanished from the star charts.
Now, its shattered remains floated in orbit around a star gone cold.
Kairos watched the feed from the Jade Vulture's observation bay as the planet loomed closer—massive, dark, and surrounded by a lattice of broken satellites. Whole towers had collapsed into planetary rings, leaving chunks of cyber-metal debris hanging like frozen lightning bolts.
"Atmosphere unstable. Energy spikes erratic. Biosignature scans... unreadable," Nira reported, brows furrowed. "Aurinox is still partially active. But it's thinking, not living."
Kairos nodded slowly. "That's good. I need a thinking ruin."
Mission Brief: The First Sovereign Key
