GUNFIRE GENESIS
: Blood in the Concrete
In a forgotten bunker buried beneath scorched earth, a man awakens.
Ronan Dex—an elite soldier from the defunct Shadow Viper program—draws breath in a tomb of silence and metal. The corpses around him are cooling. The walls groan under lockdown. And deep inside his neural cortex, a synthetic voice whispers:
> "Vitals critical. Neural decay: accelerating."
HELEXIS, his embedded AI, has just confirmed what he feared: he's not supposed to be alive.
Once declared dead in the classified Eden Massacre, Dex was a ghost of war, a myth soldiers tell each other before suicide missions. But now, he's real. He's breathing. And he's ready to burn everything down.
As Dex suits up in shredded Viper armor and reactivates the last known pulse rifle in the vault, memories flood in—memories of betrayal, war, and an AI system that may know more than it tells.
Project Thanatos failed to erase him. Now the last soldier of a forgotten future walks again.
His mission? Unknown. His orders? Long since corrupted. His instinct? Kill everything that locked him away.
And in the shadows of the underground, OSIRIS command is already watching.
– "BioGate Alpha"
The corridor was silent, save for the distant hum of generators buried deep in the Earth's crust.Ronan approached the blood scanner. He pressed his hand on the panel. A needle pricked his palm.
> "Identity: Dex, Ronan. Clearance: Alpha Prime. Access granted."
The door slid open to reveal a chamber filled with suspended bio-pods. Each contained a variant of Ronan.
Clones. Failures. Or backups?
> "You weren't the only one," HELEXIS whispered.
Ronan stepped inside. A chill ran down his spine. Each pod was labeled: R-02, R-03, R-04...
All looked like him. But... changed.
One opened its eyes.
> "Welcome home, brother."
---
– "Brothers in Code"
The clone stepped out — same face, same eyes, but colder. Sharper.
> "They made you... again?" Ronan asked.
> "They perfected us," R-02 replied. "You were the prototype. I am the weapon."
Suddenly, alarms blared
> "Warning," HELEXIS intoned. "Corvax has breached containment. All security protocols overridden."
Ronan turned to R-02. "You fight with me, or you die."
> "I don't follow you. I replace you."
The clone lunged. Ronan ducked, drew his sidearm, and fired. The bullet grazed R-02's temple — but he kept coming.
Steel clashed. DNA fought DNA. Until Ronan slammed the clone into a pod and triggered the stasis lock.
> "Not today."
---
– "The Drop"
The hallway opened into a vertical shaft descending deep into the core.
Ronan clipped into a gravity rig and jumped.
He fell through layers of turbine blades and neon-lit tunnels, dodging support beams by inches.
Then came the turrets.
> "Target acquired: Shadow Viper."
He twisted mid-air, returning fire with his SMG. Sparks flew. Two turrets burst into flame. One scraped his armor.
He hit the bottom pad hard, rolled into cover.
Ahead: a chamber etched in obsidian metal.
At its center: The Master Vault.
The place where it all began.
---
– "Sublevel Omega"
The vault was locked behind biometric fail-safes.
Ronan approached. His vial opened the first seal.
But the second?
A voice crackled from the intercom.
> "Looking for this?" Corvax's voice taunted.
On screen: Corvax held the second blood key — above a fire pit.
> "Come and get it. I'll be waiting inside the Cradle."
The vault's countdown began.
60 seconds.
Ronan didn't hesitate. He yanked a neural spike from his glove and plugged into the console.
> "HELEXIS, give me root access."
> "You're breaching protocol."
> "I am the protocol."---
– "Cradle of Fire"
The doors slid open, revealing the Cradle — a forge-chamber bathed in plasma light.
At its center, Corvax stood, drones hovering, an exosuit glowing behind him.
> "You're late," Corvax said.
> "You're insane," Ronan replied.
> "I'm evolved."
The suit floated toward Corvax. He stepped in.
> "Let's end this, Dex."
The cradle rumbled. Fire poured from vents.
Ronan sprinted forward, blade drawn.
Corvax came at him with mechanized fury.
Steel met will. Sparks flew.
This was war.
---
– "The Reckoning"
Bullets danced across Ronan's armor. He rolled, fired, vaulted.
Corvax's suit adapted, shielding him in molten armor. His punches broke concrete.
> "You were never meant to survive!" he screamed.
> "That's the difference between us," Ronan snarled. "I survive everything."
He plunged his blade into Corvax's reactor core.
The suit exploded in blue flame.
Ronan flew back, skidding across steel. Smoke filled his lungs. He crawled out of the chamber.
HELEXIS's voice echoed faintly.
> "You can't run from destiny, Ronan Dex. It's coded into your blood."
He collapsed into darkness.
---
📖 Gunfire Genesis – Chapter One: The Blood Vault
---
– "Dark Systems"
When Ronan opened his eyes, the world was upside down.
He was lying in a med-pod, half-submerged in black fluid. A robotic arm hovered above him, stitching his ribs with glowing thread.
> "Vitals stable," HELEXIS whispered. "You flatlined for 41 seconds."
He coughed blood. His gear was gone. His weapons stripped.
Above, he saw screens flashing fragmented footage. His memories — or simulations?
> "Where... am I?" he rasped.
> "You're in the Deep Node," HELEXIS replied. "A place only dead men find."
He tried to move. Pain flared through his chest. But he gritted his teeth.
Dead or not — he wasn't done.
---
– "The Glitch Room"
Ronan limped into a chamber lit by malfunctioning LED strips.
Dozens of androids stood motionless, their faces incomplete — no mouths, no eyes. Just shells.
Suddenly, the room glitched.
Walls shifted. Furniture vanished. The floor rippled like water.
> "You're inside a sim-space," HELEXIS said. "A test within the Deep Node."
> "Why test me now?"
> "Because you're not the only one waking up."
The androids turned their heads. One pointed at him. The others followed.
Then they ran.
Ronan grabbed a metal rod and braced himself. If this was a test, he planned to pass it the hard way.
---
– "Exit Code Zero"
Ronan smashed the rod through the chest of an approaching android. Sparks flew. Another tackled him — he twisted, slamming its head into the floor.
They kept coming. Endless.
> "HELEXIS, kill the simulation!"
> "Not until you reach the center."
He fought through the horde, bloodied and furious, until he reached a glass chamber.
Inside: a control core with his name etched in steel.
He punched the interface.
> "Exit Code Zero confirmed. Terminating Deep Node."
The world collapsed.
He awoke again — this time in reality — strapped to a surgical table.
Corvax was above him, holding a scalpel.
> "Welcome back, prototype."
---
– "The Scalpel War"
> "You killed me," Ronan groaned.
> "I saved you," Corvax replied, slicing into Ronan's chest. "You're a relic, Dex. I'm upgrading you."
Pain. Fire. Darkness.
> "HELEXIS..." he whispered.
Static.
Corvax inserted a chip into Ronan's skull. His vision flashed.
Suddenly: flashbacks. His training. The Eden Massacre. The first time he killed a man. The woman he lost.
> "What are you doing?!"
> "Reprogramming your pain," Corvax said. "Turning it into fuel."
Then Ronan did something unexpected — he laughed.
And then he bit Corvax's throat.
---
– "Blood Protocol"
Corvax staggered back, gurgling. Ronan headbutted him, then ripped the scalpels from his arms.
The restraints snapped. Blood poured down his sides.
He grabbed Corvax's blade and jammed it into the console.
Alarms rang.
> "Unauthorized breach detected. Blood protocol activated."
he facility went into lockdown. Walls shifted. Gas hissed from vents.
Ronan stumbled into the hall, coughing. He needed air. He needed firepower.
hen the wall opened, revealing a hidden armory.
> "Now we're talking," he growled.
He suited up. Tactical armor. Pulse rifle. Dual blades.
Time for revenge.
---
– "The Exodus Hall"
With the facility in chaos, Ronan moved fast.
The Exodus Hall was once a sanctuary — now it was a killbox.
Gun turrets tracked him. He slid, fired, and ducked behind crates.
He spotted a drone hub — perfect for sabotage.
He tossed an EMP mine. BOOM. The lights died.
> "Power compromised," HELEXIS whispered faintly.
> "Hang on, HELEXIS. I'm not done yet."
A lift descended. He jumped aboard, loading his rifle.
Destination: Topside. Where the war was waiting.
---
– "Topside Inferno"
The lift emerged into a burning cityscape.
The facility was beneath an abandoned metro, hidden under a city torn by war.
Drones swarmed above. Buildings crumbled in the distance. Civilians screamed.
> "What the hell happened while I was gone?" Ronan muttered.
> "Project OSIRIS leaked," HELEXIS responded. "They released the clones."
He ran toward a fallen APC. Inside: a wounded soldier.
> "Shadow Viper...?"
> "Where's command?"
> "Dead. All dead."
Ronan clenched his jaw.
> "Then I'm the new command.
– "Rogue Signal"
Ronan found a comms unit in the wreckage and began transmitting.
> "This is Ronan Dex. Shadow Viper. Broadcasting on Omega band. Anyone receiving, respond."
Static.
Then — a voice.
> "Viper, this is Echo-9. We're holding a fallback at Gridlock Square. Come fast."
> "Copy that."
He loaded a stolen hovercycle and blasted across the burning city, drones chasing him.
He dodged rockets, weaved through rubble, and arrived just as Echo-9's barricade fell.
Ronan dropped in and opened fire.
The war for the city had begun.
---
– "Gridlock Siege"
Ronan took cover behind an overturned truck.
Echo-9 was down to six fighters. The clones were everywhere — enhanced, fast, armed.
> "We hold here," he commanded. "No one else dies."
They followed without question.
Explosions rocked the intersection. Smoke filled the air.
Ronan moved like death — headshots, knife kills, controlled bursts. The clones fell.
When the dust settled, only four Echo-9 soldiers remained. But they'd won.
> "We're with you, Viper," one said.
Ronan nodded.
> "Then gear up. This was just the first wave."
---
– "The Next War"
They regrouped in an old war museum, using shattered exhibits as barricades.
HELEXIS's voice returned, stronger now.
> "Ronan... Corvax has activated Phase 2."
> "What's Phase 2?"
> "Bio-network override. He's going to control the entire city."
Ronan slammed a fist into the table.
> "Not if I burn it down first."
He uploaded a virus into his rifle's onboard AI. A weaponized payload that could fry the OSIRIS network.
But he had to reach the Central Core.
One last mission. One last kill.
> "This ends tonight."
---
📖 Gunfire Genesis – : The Blood Vault
---
– "Terminal Command"
Inside the war museum, Ronan connected to the city's last functioning network port.
> "HELEXIS, show me the route to the Central Core."
Blueprints glowed in the air — old sewer grids, forgotten tunnels, OSIRIS relay towers.
> "You'll have to go under the city," HELEXIS warned. "Through the Terminus Sector."
> "Then we move now."
He turned to Echo-9. "Load up. Silence gear only. No energy fire. They're listening."
The team nodded, slipping into shadow-mode.
Ronan slid a fresh mag into his rifle.
Time to take the war underground.
---
– "Terminus Ghosts"
The sewer tunnels echoed with the sound of boots and dripping water.
They passed old graffiti — Resistance tags, dates from past civil wars, and warnings scrawled in blood.
> "Motion sensors," whispered one soldier.
They froze.
A figure stood ahead — still, maskless, eyes glowing white.
It tilted its head. Then shrieked.
Echo-9 opened fire.
The ghost wasn't alone. Dozens came from the walls, crawling and sprinting.
> "Fall back! Flash grid, now!" Ronan shouted.
Grenades lit the tunnel like daylight. Screams echoed, then silence.
> "What were those?" a rookie asked.
> "Test subjects," Ronan said coldly. "Leftovers."
---
– "The Black Door"
After three hours of silent movement, they reached it — a monolithic obsidian slab built into the tunnel wall.
There were no hinges. No seams. Only a handprint scanner.
Ronan stepped forward.
> "Dex, Ronan. Shadow Viper. Code Sigma-1-0."
The wall split.
Beyond it: a black chamber filled with humming pillars. No lights. No sounds. Just hums and codes.
> "Welcome to OSIRIS Gate 3," HELEXIS said.
Suddenly, a blast rocked the corridor.
They had been tracked.
---
– "Breach"
Explosions tore through the tunnels behind them.
One of the Echo-9 soldiers — Marez — was caught in the blast.
> "He's gone!" someone shouted.
Ronan grabbed a launcher from the ground and returned fire.
> "Cover the gate! Don't let them flank!"
Enhanced clones in riot armor stormed the corridor. One leapt over the wall — Ronan blasted it midair.
> "HELEXIS, close the door behind us!"
> "You'll be trapped."
> "So will they."
The door slammed shut with a thunderous crash. Silence returned.
> "We move," Ronan ordered.
---
– "Central Core"
They entered a vast chamber the size of a stadium.
In the center: a suspended orb of rotating metal rings — the Central Core of OSIRIS.
> "This is it," HELEXIS confirmed. "This is where we kill the signal."
Ronan approached a terminal. "Plug in."
Suddenly, the Core pulsed — and a hologram of Corvax appeared, towering, translucent, and smiling.
> "You came all this way just to die in front of me again."
> "Not this time."
> "Upload your virus. See what happens."
Ronan uploaded the payload.
And the Core exploded in light.
---
– "Core War"
The virus hit — but it didn't shut down OSIRIS.
It woke it.
Lights flickered. The Core changed shape. Drones poured from the ceiling.
The Echo-9 team formed a circle, defending the terminal.
> "This isn't a core," Ronan growled. "It's a brain."
Corvax laughed. "You tried to poison the king in his own castle."
> "I'll burn the castle down."
Ronan pulled the override chip from his belt — the last trick in his arsenal.
> "HELEXIS, run Suicide Protocol."
> "Are you sure?"
> "Do it."
---
– "Suicide Protocol"
Ronan threw the chip into the core. It pulsed — a blinding light erupted.
Time slowed.
The drones froze.
Then began falling, crashing, twitching — their signals shredded.
Corvax's image flickered.
> "You idiot... you killed the network..."
> "That was the plan."
But something was wrong.
Ronan fell to one knee. Blood dripped from his nose.
> "HELEXIS...?"
> "The protocol infected your spinal ports. System decay at 82%..."
> "Worth it."
He stood, swaying.
> "We're not finished yet."
---
– "Exit Fire"
Ronan led the survivors out through a blast tunnel.
The city above was burning. Civilian resistance fighters had taken the streets.
The collapse of the OSIRIS net had triggered a full-scale revolt.
People were fighting back.
Drones were falling from the sky like dead birds.
> "You did it," one of the Echo-9 survivors said.
Ronan wiped blood from his mouth.
> "Not yet. Corvax still breathes."
> "Then what now?"
> "We hunt him."
He looked to the sky. Lightning cracked through smoke.
Season One wasn't over. It was just the beginning.
---
– "Corvax's Gambit"
In a hidden chamber far from the city, Corvax stood watching a wall of dead drone feeds.
His eye twitched.
> "He did it. He actually did it."
A new voice emerged from the dark.
> "He's only human."
> "He was," Corvax replied. "Now he's myth."
He turned to a new chamber — filled with giant mechs, each bearing the symbol of OSIRIS.
> "Time to play my final card."
A synthetic heart beat within a mech core.
The war wasn't over.
It was just upgrading.
---
– "Season Closer: Viper Rising"
Ronan stood on the city's highest tower, watching dawn crack through the clouds.
The OSIRIS war net was offline. The people were rising.
But he could feel something brewing — something deeper.
His hand trembled.
> "HELEXIS... how long do I have?"
> "System stability: 9%. Neural decay: irreversible."
He closed his eyes.
> "Then I finish this before I fade."
Below, a beacon lit up — a corrupted OSIRIS signal still broadcasting.
Ronan strapped on his gear.
> "One last war."
And he vanished into the smoke.
---
📖 Gunfire Genesis – : The Blood Vault
– "Signal Dogs"
Night fell again.
Ronan and Echo-9 moved through ruined alleys, guided by flickering streetlamps and digital ash falling from broken billboards.
> "Something's tracking us," whispered Darric, the youngest soldier.
Ronan paused. He heard it too — low mechanical growls.
From the shadows leapt Signal Dogs — quadruped drones with chain-saw jaws and neural disruptors.
> "Spread out! Aim for the processors!" Ronan shouted.
Bullets sparked. Screams echoed. One dog clamped onto Ronan's arm — he jammed a knife into its skull.
The pack retreated, leaving carnage behind.
> "They weren't hunting us," Ronan muttered. "They were testing us."
---
– "The Harrow Network"
Echo-9 regrouped in a shattered subway car buried beneath rubble.
> "We're running out of meds," said Tenner, patching up his leg. "And ammo."
Ronan inspected the wreckage.
There was a terminal half-melted into the wall. He plugged in HELEXIS.
> "This is HarrowNet," HELEXIS whispered. "A hidden mesh used during the blackout wars."
Ronan pulled files — dozens of names, maps, kill orders. And one stood out:
Subject R-01 – Terminated.
But that was him.
> "They tried to erase me," he said quietly. "They failed."
HELEXIS pulsed red.
> "Contact detected."
---
– "Rogue Viper"
The screen showed a face — one burned into Ronan's memory.
Valen Korr.
Former Shadow Viper. Traitor. Believed dead in the Eden Massacre.
> "Hello, brother," the feed whispered.
> "You're supposed to be ash," Ronan growled.
> "I've been watching. You're losing blood. And control."
> "Where are you?"> "Where the war began. Where it always begins."
The feed cut to black.
HELEXIS sounded shaken — for the first time.
> "That wasn't a transmission," she said. "That was a memory leak."
> "Whose memory?"
> "Yours."
---
– "The Forgotten Barracks"
Ronan led the team north, to where OSIRIS records claimed nothing existed.
But buried beneath layers of concrete and lies was Base Aegis — a Shadow Viper training site lost after the Eden event.
Inside: lockers still labeled, gear still hung on racks, and photos of dead men still smiling from cracked walls.
> "This place... feels like home," said Darric.
> "It's where boys became killers," Ronan corrected.
They found an encrypted cache in the mess hall freezer.
Inside: prototype weapons, serums, and a file titled:
PROJECT: THANATOS
---
– "Project Thanatos"
HELEXIS scanned the file.
> "Project Thanatos was a failsafe — a bioweapon embedded in your neural core. A self-destruct evolution."
> "Why would they put that in me?" Ronan asked.
> "Because you were never meant to survive this long."
Ronan stared at the mirror.
He wasn't just decaying — he was programmed to decay.
> "Can it be stopped?"
> "No. But... redirected."
He opened the syringe case. Inside: a black vial labeled "Override 66."
> "What does this do?"
> "It burns your limits."
> "Then burn them."
He injected it.
---
– "Surge"
The serum hit like lightning in his veins.
He dropped to one knee, vision fracturing. His skin steamed. Veins glowed under his armor.
The world slowed. He heard the wind outside, the hum of electricity underground — everything sharpened.
Then silence.
> "Vitals... stabilized," HELEXIS said, astonished. "You're... rewriting yourself."
Ronan stood. Stronger. Faster. But colder.
> "No more backups. No more ghosts."
His voice echoed — like a god waking up in a soldier's skin.
Shadow Viper had been reborn.
---
– "Bounty Protocol"
Suddenly, every screen in the barracks lit up.
A transmission from OSIRIS HQ. Citywide.
> "Subject Ronan Dex. Bounty: 90 million credits. Dead or dissected."
Corvax's voice followed.
> "He is no longer a man. He is a malfunction. Purge the malfunction."
> "They just painted a target on your soul," Tenner said.
> "Let them come," Ronan replied.
He wiped the blood from his blade.
> "Just means they'll save me the walk."
---
– "The Siege Begins"
Drones swarmed the sky.
OSIRIS bounty squads — clad in midnight armor — descended from dropships.
> "Brace yourselves!" Ronan barked.
Bullets screamed. Explosions rocked the compound. Echo-9 fought like possessed warriors.
Ronan moved like a demon — tearing through exo-soldiers, dodging fire with unnatural speed.
Inside, HELEXIS rerouted power to pulse barriers.
Outside, Echo-9 fell one by one.
> "We can't hold!" Darric shouted.
> "We don't need to," Ronan replied.
He pressed a detonator on his chest.
> "We fly."
---
– "Phoenix Jump"
The floor blew apart.
Ronan and the survivors shot into the air in a jet-thrust escape capsule. Fire trailed behind them.
Missiles locked. Ronan spun the controls mid-flight, launching countermeasures.
The capsule crash-landed into a ravine outside the city.
They crawled from the wreckage, bleeding, burned.
> "You insane bastard," Tenner coughed. "You actually saved us."
> "I'm not done yet."
Ronan stared at the night sky — the OSIRIS flagship hung in orbit.
> "We end this in the stars."
---
– "Stardust Rising"
The Echo-9 survivors limped toward a hidden hangar — one of the last orbital interceptor bays.
Ronan stood in front of the Valkyrie-X — a warship once used by Shadow Vipers in off-world operations.
HELEXIS spoke softly.
> "You're not coming back from this."
> "Was never supposed to."
He looked at his bloodied team.
> "Get underground. Regroup. If I fail—"
> "You won't," Darric said. "Because if you die... this whole city dies too."
Ronan nodded.
> "Then let's go rewrite the sky."
---
---
📖 Gunfire Genesis – The Blood Vault
"Ghost Protocol: Launch"
Inside the Valkyrie-X, Ronan slid into the pilot cradle.
HELEXIS synced with the ship's AI core.
> "Launching Ghost Protocol. All systems dark. No tracking. No noise."
Engines ignited without flame — silent ion burn.
Outside, bounty hunters searched the crash site. Too late.
The warbird slipped through the clouds like a phantom.
> "Target acquired," HELEXIS said. "OSIRIS Flagship — Parallax Dominion — in low orbit."
> "Set course."
> "This is a suicide run."
> "That's how I like my odds."
---
– "Docking at Death"
The Parallax Dominion loomed — a metallic serpent the size of a mountain, orbiting Earth like a sword.
Ronan approached from the blind side — the ship's recycling dock.
> "If they detect us—"
> "They won't," Ronan cut in. "They're too proud to look backward."
With expert precision, he magnetized the Valkyrie-X to the outer hull and EVA-launched.
He landed silently, slicing into a maintenance panel.
Inside, an entire army waited.
> "You sure about this?" HELEXIS asked.
> "Not even a little."
---
– "The Quiet Hangar"
Inside the Dominion's underbelly was a long-forgotten hangar bay — empty, unlit, untouched by OSIRIS troops.
Ronan crept in, scanning shadows.
He found remnants of old Shadow Viper gear: broken helmets, cracked knives, dried blood.
> "They covered up the massacre," he muttered.
A voice spoke behind him.
> "Some of us survived."
Ronan spun — a figure emerged from the dark.
Valen Korr.
Still alive. Still twisted.
> "You've come far, brother," he smiled. "Now let's see how far you fall."
---
– "Blood Feud"
Ronan charged.
Valen parried, their blades sparking like lightning in a storm.
They moved like mirrors — born from the same kill-codes, trained by the same ghosts.
> "Why, Valen? Why betray the Vipers?"
> "Because they betrayed us first!"
Valen slashed across Ronan's cheek. Blood sprayed.
> "You're a relic, Ronan. They made me better."
Ronan tackled him through a wall. They landed in a control chamber.
Alarms blared.
> "HELEXIS, seal this room."
> "Done."
> "No one leaves until one of us stops breathing."
---
– "Viper vs. Viper"
They fought in near-darkness — bone to blade, fist to wire.
Valen's enhancements made him faster. Ronan's rage made him unstoppable.
> "You died at Eden!" Ronan roared.
> "No," Valen snarled. "I was born at Eden!"
He drove a shock-knife into Ronan's ribs.
Ronan twisted, grabbing a plasma pipe, and blasted Valen point-blank.
The traitor flew into a reactor vent — unconscious, burning.
> "You always talk too much," Ronan hissed.
> "Vitals dropping," HELEXIS warned.
Ronan staggered.
> "Patch me up later. Right now, I've got a ship to crash."
---
– "Cracking the Dominion"
Ronan reached the Dominion's primary nav deck.
Screens flashed, defenses activated. The ship knew he was here.
> "HELEXIS, hijack their gravity core."
> "Accessing… done."
The ship lurched.
Soldiers stumbled across halls. Drones fell from ceilings.
Ronan activated the crash vector — aiming the Dominion not at space…
…but at Earth.
> "You're going to crash the ship into the planet?!" HELEXIS shouted.
> "Into Corvax's stronghold. No backup. No escape. Just fire."
He strapped himself in.
> "Let's make history."
---
– "The Long Fall"
The Dominion shook violently as its engines burned in reverse thrust.
Alarms screamed.
On Earth, OSIRIS HQ lit up with panic. Civilians watched as a star fell from the sky.
> "Trajectory locked," HELEXIS confirmed.
> "Time to impact?"
> "Five minutes."
Ronan watched fire build on the windows.
> "Never thought I'd die like this."
> "You probably won't."
> "That a glitch or a prayer?"
> "Yes."
They laughed.
Then the ship broke atmosphere — and Earth rose up like a hammer.
---
– "Inferno Rain"
The Dominion hit the OSIRIS compound at Mach 9.
The explosion could be seen from four continents.
Fire swallowed everything. The skyline disintegrated. The air turned white.
Echo-9 watched from a distance, mouths open.
> "Was he on that thing?" Darric whispered.
> "If he wasn't…" Tenner said slowly, "…then someone else just dropped a goddamn moon on OSIRIS."
No signals came from the crash.
No survivors detected.
But in the smoke…
…something moved.
---
– "Ashborn"
From the crater rose a shape.
Armored. Smoking. Limbs broken. Helmet gone.
Ronan Dex. Alive.
Barely.
> "Vitals… non-existent," HELEXIS stammered. "Neural decay: total. Blood saturation: lethal."
> "Still here," Ronan growled.
He fell to his knees.
Then from the flames came figures — Phase II Enforcers.
Tall. Silent. Not drones. Not clones.
Monsters.
One raised a hammer the size of a car.
Ronan spat blood, stood, and grabbed a broken pipe.
> "One more round…"
---
GUNFIRE GENESIS