> "The world ended with a whisper of ash… and the hum of a forgotten machine."
---
Scene One: Smoke, Silence, and Ashes
The sky is no longer blue.
It hasn't been in weeks.
Zayden stands alone on the skeletal rooftop of a shattered research complex once known as Auralis Scientific HQ — a place that promised breakthroughs in space, time, and peace. Now, it's just bones and fire. The world below him burns, broken into factions that speak with missiles and silence.
He's just 24.
A junior scientist.
But that title doesn't matter anymore.
All that's left are ghosts, echoes, and the hum of war machines dying one by one.
"Sector 17… gone," M.A.I.A. reports quietly through his neural implant.
Zayden doesn't flinch.
Behind him, a medium-sized, rusted chamber breathes with an eerie rhythm. The vacuum-door of a private time machine, glowing faintly — not with power, but with possibility. This one wasn't owned by the government. It wasn't made for soldiers.
It was his father's last invention.
Archived. Forgotten. Illegal.
But it's still here — because his father believed in a future that never came.
---
Scene Two: The Pocket Space
Zayden grips a sleek metallic band on his wrist. His Pocket Space Inventory flickers to life.
Stored inside:
Seeds of every modern crop.
Manuals, schematics, weapons, blueprints of tech lost in the flames.
Packs of food.
An old guitar.
A vial of medicine with his mother's name on it.
And most importantly:
The Code of MAIA – his AI companion, now bound to him through voice, thought, and soul.
> "MAIA," he says softly, "do you think we were ever meant to survive?"
> "No," she replies. "But you still can redefine what survival means."
He nods, eyes wet. Not from tears — from smoke. That's what he tells himself.
---
Scene Three: The Mission
All 13 time machines once existed in the world.
The governments had 7.
Corporations had 3.
And 3 were… personal.
Now, 12 are gone.
Destroyed. Seized. Vaporized in nuclear blasts or swallowed by rogue black holes during prototype testing.
Only this one remains.
And it will be enough.
Zayden stares into the shifting blue swirl of the machine. He's not sure when it will send him. Decades? Centuries? He only knows it will go back far enough.
His goal is simple.
Not vengeance. Not escape.
But prevention.
> "I'll build something new," he whispers.
"Not a kingdom. Not an empire. Something better. A free world with direction. With hope."
He imagines it:
A corporation that unites people, not controls them.
A single Enterprise that influences governments without being one — bringing tech, culture, peace.
Built slowly, subtly… over generations.
An empire that offers free will — and still wins.
> "We'll change everything, MAIA."
> "Even fate?"
> "…Especially fate."
---
Scene Four: Departure
As he steps toward the time machine, a gust of toxic wind sweeps the horizon. In the distance, a dying orbital missile breaks through the sky — but Zayden doesn't look back.
> "Initiate transfer," he says.
> "Destination: Unknown past. Safety margin: Zero. Faith level: Humanly irrational," MAIA answers.
> "Perfect," he smiles.
The door opens with a hiss.
He steps inside with nothing but a pocket of humanity's last treasures…
…an AI bound to his soul…
…and the will to fix what billions destroyed.
The machine closes.
The war outside consumes the last of the sky.
And Zayden Core disappears from the end of the world —
to become the man who will rewrite its beginning.
---
> "This is not an escape.
This is The Future Man's Enterprise."