The ocean was silent now.
No crashing waves. No howling wind. Just the soft lapping of water around the edges of the shore where Ronin and his team stood, drenched and shivering beneath the fading moonlight.
Behind them, the Omega Core was gone—buried forever beneath layers of salt, rock, and memory.
But the silence wasn't peace.
It was pause—the brief stillness before something ancient wakes.
Ruby wrapped a blanket around Kai, who sat on the edge of the transport crawler, staring into the water.
Kael stood farther off, her hand pressed against a black stone jutting from the sand. It had strange alien markings on it—ones that hadn't been there before.
Ronin hadn't moved since they climbed ashore. He stared up at the sky, where a faint red shimmer now pulsed across the upper atmosphere—like a vein torn open in space itself.
Ruby finally broke the silence.
"What is that?"
Ronin's eyes narrowed. "A doorway."
Kael turned, frowning. "You mean like a portal?"
"No." Ronin's voice was low, distant. "It's them. The ones who started all this. The ones who created Project V-13. I saw them. Or… I felt them."
Kai looked up, his voice barely a whisper. "Aethernal."
Ruby blinked. "What is Aethernal? You heard that in the Core too."
Ronin stepped forward, wet sand crunching beneath his boots. "Aethernal isn't a being. It's a signal. A pattern. A code that lives across time, buried in the consciousness of galaxies."
Kael raised an eyebrow. "So... what, it's like a virus?"
Ronin shook his head. "Worse. It doesn't infect—it evolves. It attaches itself to intelligent species, rewrites their biology over generations. Until they're no longer their own."
Ruby stepped back. "You're saying we're… not human anymore because of it?"
Ronin looked at her—his eyes glowing faint blue for just a moment. "Not entirely."
A cold silence followed.
Kai finally said, "I think it's waking up. Now that the Omega Protocol is active… it knows we're alive."
Ronin nodded. "And it's watching us."
Meanwhile – In Orbit, Dark Zone Satellite
Inside the silent satellite that once carried alien-human embryos, lights blinked faster.
Dozens of containment tubes glowed.
An ancient core—AI no longer controlled by humans—began reciting a code sequence in low, rumbling tones.
"Alpha frame initialized." "Unsealing Subject: E-01." "Memory fragment: 'Ronin… must not ascend.'"
A chamber hissed open.
Inside was a figure—taller than Ronin, armored like an ancient warrior, but with veins of black light running down its skin.
Eyes opened.
They glowed crimson.
"Aethernal Command received." "Eradicate the Hybrid Trigger."
Back on Earth – Abandoned Observatory
Two hours after leaving the shore, the team reached a facility half-buried in jungle—an old research observatory linked to the original V-13 communications.
Inside, dust lay thick, and cobwebs hung like memories.
Kai wiped clean a cracked control panel. "I used to train here. Before they moved us underground."
Kael looked around. "We might be able to tap into the V-13 satellite net. Find out if other signals have awakened."
Ronin sat alone in a corner, staring at the floor.
Ruby joined him. "You okay?"
He didn't answer at first.
Then: "I remember my birth."
Ruby blinked. "What?"
"In the Core… when I touched the cube, I didn't just see the past. I lived it. I saw the chamber. I heard them talk. I saw the original design schematic for me."
Ruby touched his hand. "And?"
"I wasn't just a project. I was the final trigger."
She frowned. "Trigger for what?"
He looked at her, pain in his eyes. "For their return."
Suddenly, the terminal lit up.
Kael's voice echoed from across the room. "I've got something!"
Everyone rushed over.
On the screen was a map of Earth—but over it were red pulses, concentrated in the Arctic Circle, the Gobi Desert, and deep below the Amazon basin.
"Three active signal cores," Kael whispered. "Three Aethernal gates. One of them… already fully opened."
Ronin's heart dropped.
Kai whispered, "Then we're too late."
Flashback – The First Whisper
A barren world. Nothing but dust and ice.
A ship crashes—not human, not alien, but older than either.
Inside, something breathes.
Something sees Earth for the first time.
"Signal received. Begin seeding the genome."
A pod opens. Liquid tendrils snake outward.
The first seed of Aethernal begins.
Present – Observatory Main Deck
Kael loaded a deep-dive file into the terminal.
"These signal cores weren't supposed to activate without the master key—Ronin's code."
Ruby asked, "Then who triggered them?"
Kael looked grim. "Only someone who knows the original programming structure."
Kai's eyes widened. "Elira."
Ronin stood, fists clenched. "She's not just manipulating memory. She's guiding Aethernal from the inside."
Kael replied, "Then she's not one of us anymore."
A long silence followed.
Finally, Ronin said, "Then we end this."
Ruby asked quietly, "Where do we go next?"
Ronin looked at the map. "To the Arctic Gate. If it's the first one awakened, it'll be the source of the broadcast. We cut that… we stop the chain."
Kael loaded coordinates into the crawler's nav system.
Ronin turned to the others. "This time, we fight not for survival… but for control."
Kai whispered, "Let's take back what we are."
In Orbit – Awakening E-01
The crimson-eyed figure stepped out of the satellite bay.
Its armor hummed with antimatter.
On its chest was one nameplate:
"E-01 | RONIN'S TWIN"
"Primary directive: Eliminate subject R-01N1N." "Activate Aethernal Phase III."
The figure turned toward Earth.
And launched.
To Be Continued...
What will happen, what will Ronin do in the next episode, I have made some questions for this, please see them and tell me in the comments, what is lacking in this novel, what improvements should be made, or anything else in these questions please take a look as well
1.
What if the Arctic Gate isn't just a gateway—but a prison? What if Elira isn't guiding Aethernal… but protecting the world from something far worse? And if that's true, then are Ronin and his team walking straight into a trap set not by their enemy, but by their only hope?
2.
Why does the Aethernal signal seem to resonate stronger with Ronin than with anyone else? Is it because he's the final trigger… or because he was never truly human to begin with? And if he was built as a failsafe, then what exactly is he supposed to fail—Earth… or the aliens?
3.
When E-01—Ronin's twin—lands on Earth, will he be driven by pure programming or something more sinister? Could he hold memories that Ronin lost? And if so, will their battle be a war of strength—or of identity? What happens when a weapon faces its mirror?
4.
Kael's memories are returning rapidly—but why does she remember Elira whispering her name before she ever met her? Were they linked before Project V-13 even began? And if Elira was R-05… why was her existence deleted from the official records? What was the Omega Core hiding?
5.
The Arctic Gate pulses with Aethernal code. But who—or what—is trying to emerge from the other side? Is it an army? A god? Or something that exists only in thought and signal? And if they open the gate to destroy it… what if that's exactly what it wants?