They landed like ghosts—wounds in motion.
The air above the shattered city still shimmered with radiation haze. Burned metal bones jutted from fallen spires. What little remained of the skyline was hollowed and cracked like a skull long since picked clean.
It was a "liberated" world. A planet supposedly saved.
And yet, the people still hid.
Zayen Cruz moved first, boots crunching gravel as his pulse gauntlet scanned for heat signatures. A flicker. Two more. Hiding. Not hostile. Not yet.
"Southern quadrant. Ruins of a temple base," he said. "Refugees."
Behind him, Ayla Wren moved like a ripple. Light bent awkwardly around her frame—her gift still responding to her nerves.
"They're afraid of us," she whispered. "Not hiding out of strategy—out of instinct."
Kairo Malin said nothing, his gravity field stretching across the courtyard in wide arcs, checking for weapon shifts or trap signatures. His presence grounded the squad like a silent anchor. Steady. Tired.
Then it happened.
A group of children darted from cover—emaciated, barefoot, running for salvage. One tripped.
And that child slammed face-first into the armored shin of Commander Halvek.
The boy gasped, eyes wide with horror.
Halvek sneered and kicked him across the cobblestone like a sack of meat.
"Degenerate," the commander spat, powering up his bracer cannon. "They learn better dead."
Before he could fire, Tamsin Rowe moved—fast enough to blur—intercepting with a shoulder slam that knocked Halvek back two paces. Her chronotech gauntlet whined as it de-synced from the time-loop she'd just reversed.
"Try that again," she growled.
Halvek's hand twitched toward his weapon. "Whose side are you on, girl? The rebels or the Liberation? You think you have to treat them like they're human?"
Zayen stepped forward, voice quiet, but taut with warning. "Commander, stand down."
"They harbored the corrupted," Halvek barked. "That's treason under Clause 9. Whole world's guilty. You know the law. You all know it."
Tamsin's voice dropped an octave. "They didn't know we existed until we came here. We dropped into their skies."
"They're traitors," Halvek shouted. "They chose to protect false gods and war criminals!"
Ayla's face twisted. "They're children. They're seven or eight—"
"Born of infected blood is still infected," Halvek snapped. "It's justice! It's liberation!"
He raised his fist in a practiced salute. "True heroism—The Way of the Liberation!"
Every soldier around him mirrored it in unison:
"We cleanse evil. We free the weak. We ascend through flame. We are peacekeepers of truth!"
⸻
✹ Zayen Cruz – Pulsewire
He felt his pulse rising. The gauntlet hummed with it.
Flash.
A training room. Sweat and shouting. A kinetic blast. A scream. A body that wouldn't stop twitching.
"Every shockwave carries memory."
Zayen lowered his arm but stepped between Halvek and the boy.
"Heroism isn't slaughter. Not anymore."
⸻
✹ Ayla Wren – Ghostvein
She knelt beside the boy, letting her form come fully into light.
Flash.
A battlefield. Her mother bleeding beside her. Soldiers checking corpses. "Don't see me," she had whispered. And the light obeyed.
"Light forgot me. I reminded it."
"I used to think hiding made me a coward," she said. "Now I know the cowards are the ones who kill what they don't understand."
⸻
✹ Kairo Malin – Gravemark
He walked forward, slow and steady.
Flash.
A collapsing city. A black hole breach. He held it back with both arms. The screams behind him weren't civilians—they were children.
"I carry the weight no system ever bore."
"You want to talk about justice?" Kairo asked Halvek. "Where was justice when the Liberation left us holding the guilt?"
He shifted gravity subtly—enough to pull every Liberation soldier's boots half an inch into the dust.
"We're done carrying this weight for you."
⸻
✹ Nox Rami – Shatterlace
Psionic glass curled around their fingers, slicing through the air.
Flash.
A room of screaming minds. A memory-wipe assignment. The laughter of children erased into silence. Every face still lived in their head.
"I shattered, but I still cut."
"You speak of righteousness," Nox said. "But you don't even remember who you were before they told you what to become."
They didn't raise their voice. They didn't need to. The psychic pressure was enough to make Halvek stagger.
⸻
✹ Veyr Kalos – Emberfall
She stepped out of the ruins, flames flickering behind her eyes.
Flash.
Chained to a pyre. Lit for testing. Screaming. Her skin blackened—until the fire bent around her.
"I rise every time they try to turn me to ash."
"You want fire?" she asked, voice a whisper. "Then burn. But don't pretend it's holy."
Ash lifted around her boots in spirals. Every step she took sizzled.
⸻
Halvek looked at them—these six ghosts of Liberation, these traitors of their own myth.
"You'll burn with them," he said. "Every last one of you."
"Then we burn together," said Zayen.
⸻
✹ Fallout
Later, on the ship, Zayen watched the children sleep in the medbay.
Kairo leaned against the frame. "He'll report us."
"I know."
Tamsin stood arms crossed, still seething. "He called them traitors. He didn't even flinch."
Ayla spoke quietly: "Because we did this. Before. Dozens of times. We called it peace."
Zayen said nothing.
Until the console blinked.
Incoming transmission. Encrypted. Source: Outer Ring
Clearance Level: FLAME-00
Subject: "One of yours is trying to come home."