The tunnels beneath Havenreach were older than the city itself—remnants of a subway project abandoned before the Fall. Now, they served as shelter for rats, scavengers... and one man with a system no one else had.
Jaden.
He moved like a shadow through the ruins, the glow of his Lock System faint in the dark, lighting his path with a cold, artificial pulse.
Lock Surge expired.System Stabilizing...Available Lock Points: 1
That one point—it mattered.
Lock Points were rare. Earned through critical kills, intense encounters, or by defeating entities the System labeled as evolutionary threats. Killing the engineered variant back in Sector Nine—something not fully undead, not entirely living—had pushed the system to grant him a point. It was the Lock System's way of saying: You're growing. Evolving.
Still, points alone weren't enough.
He needed purpose. People. Power.
And he'd find them—or make them.
Jaden reached a sealed metal door tucked behind a fallen train car. He placed a palm on the rusted access panel and whispered, "Phase Trigger."
Mist bled from his fingers. Circuits flickered. The old system shorted, and the heavy door groaned open.
Inside was the start of something new.
The hideout was crude—a converted maintenance station littered with salvaged tech, maps pinned across cracked concrete, and a low generator humming somewhere near the back. But it was his.
A base.
A beginning.
Jaden sat at a rusting metal table and summoned the Lock interface.
Lock #001: Adrenal Core — ActiveLock #007: Reflex Pulse — ActiveLock #012: Phase Trigger — ActiveAvailable Lock #013 — ??? (Requirements Unmet)Available Lock Points: 1
He eyed Lock #013. Still greyed out. Requirements unmet.
Locks didn't unlock with points alone. Each had criteria—some needed rare kills, others demanded physical feats or strategic impact. Lock Points simply enabled a Lock to be unlocked once those hidden requirements were met. Until then, they waited in silence.
I'm close, he thought. One more push.
As if summoned by purpose, static chirped through the comm unit Tess had handed him during their escape. The frequency was encrypted, riding waves on forgotten military satellites.
A voice came through. Distorted. Masked. Confident.
"Knightley. You're alive. Good. I've got someone who wants to meet you."
Jaden's eyes narrowed. "Tess?"
"No. Name's Ash. Tess told me you'd be looking for soldiers."
"And you're offering yourself?"
"No," Ash replied. "I'm offering a test."
Jaden waited.
"There's a prison rig outside Sector Four. Abandoned on paper. In reality, Eclipse is using it to hold unstable variants—and prisoners who've seen too much. Survivors. Rejects. People who might still fight."
"And you want me to raid it."
"I want to see if you're serious. You're not the only one they cast out. Some of us want in. But only if you prove this isn't just vengeance. It's war."
The transmission ended.
Jaden stared at the unit, jaw tight. Another test. Another trap?
Didn't matter.
He stood, eyes burning.
Two hours later.
The rig loomed in the distance—half-submerged in industrial runoff, its outer fences sagging under years of neglect. Turrets hummed quietly atop crumbling towers. Surveillance drones drifted lazily through the toxic air.
Through cracked binoculars, Jaden counted fifteen guards. A mix of Eclipse mercs and automated units. But it was the cages that caught his eye.
Prisoners. Some barely alive. Others... shaking, restrained, twitching like the variant he'd fought earlier.
Jaden moved like a ghost, mapping paths and timing his movements. He triggered Phase Trigger, blinked through rusting gates, and disabled guards with surgical silence.
One by one, the defenses fell.
Inside the central yard, he kicked open the first cell door. A ragged young man inside blinked in shock.
"You're… Resistance?" he croaked.
"No," Jaden said. "I'm something else."
He moved from cell to cell, freeing the strong and sparing the broken. Some wept. Others stared in numb silence. One offered a cracked smile.
Then he reached Cell 19.
A girl sat calmly in the shadows. Pale blue eyes. Silvered hair scorched at the edges. Metal restraints coiled around her forearms.
She looked up as the door opened.
"They said someone would come," she murmured. "Didn't think it'd be you."
"You know me?"
"I've heard whispers. They say you're building something new."
Jaden hesitated.
"I don't know what you are," she said, standing. "But I want in."
He tossed her the keycard.
"Then get moving. We've got a war to start."
Later that night.
Back at the hideout, the old walls were no longer silent.
People shuffled in—broken, tired, but alive. Names were added to a cracked wall. Inventories formed. Plans began. It wasn't much.
But it was his.
A faction.
Tess arrived at the edge of the tunnel, arms crossed, a tired grin on her face.
"You're faster than I expected."
Jaden didn't look at her. His eyes were on the wall of names.
"It's not speed I'm worried about. It's time."
She stepped beside him, watching the makeshift camp. Fires flickered. Scars glowed.
"You really think this ragtag mess can stand against Eclipse?"
"I don't need to stand against them," Jaden said. "I just need to pull the right wires—and everything comes crashing down."
His Lock System pulsed with sudden intensity.
New Lock Criteria Met.Unlocking: Lock #013 — Command ThreadAllows limited control of nearby allies' physical response times.Effect scales with loyalty.Remaining Lock Points: 0
Jaden stared at the new Lock glowing bright in the interface.
Command Thread.
He didn't need to fight alone anymore. Not completely.
They'd cast him out.
But they had made a mistake.
Because now?
Jaden Knightley had followers.
And more importantly—
he had purpose.