0740 Hours – Ops Hangar, Sanctum-X
"You ever fight a guy who thinks he's the sun?" Grimm asked, strapping into his drop harness.
"Just my dad," Kael muttered.
The team was suiting up in Hangar 2. Mission gear glinted in the pale hangar lights—new upgrades courtesy of the tech division. Kael's armor now had KOVAR plates, designed to absorb plasma and solar energy for short-term boosts. Stitch had added a solar disruptor lance to her drone arsenal. Nyx's rifle had a light-filtering scope tuned to heat signatures through sandstorms.
Their target?
Sol Drayke—former climatologist, now leader of a rogue eco-cult worshipping the sun as a divine algorithm. His followers weren't just fanatics. They were biomechs, fused with solar panels, metal bonework, and ancient human flesh. Worse—his "Hive" was building more.
"Drop in five," Isa's voice rang over the comms.
Kael tapped his blade hilts. "Let's melt some zealots."
Drop Point – Sahara Wastes, Exclusion Zone Echo-9
The sandstorm was biblical.
Visibility: 20 feet.Temperature: 47°C and climbing.Sky: Choked red.
They hit the ground hard, dust clouds whipping around them as heat distorted the air. The Hive compound rose like an alien skeleton—half buried in the dunes, its towers shaped like obsidian thorns.
"Eyes on solar conductors," Nyx reported. "Feeding directly into the main hive dome."
"Which means Drayke's in there," Kael said. "Let's knock."
Breach – Hive Dome Perimeter
The entrance was protected by biomech sentries—blind, hulking guardians with solar-reactive skin and molten cores in their chests. Kael's HUD blinked: HEAT SIGNATURE LOCKED – OVERLOAD RISK: HIGH.
"We hit them fast. Cool zones only. Aim for the spinal node," he said.
The squad ghosted through the sand like phantoms.
Grimm hit first—shoulder-charging a sentry into the dome wall, then detonating a cold-core grenade that flash-froze its solar heart.
Nyx dropped another from 100 meters out—shot clean through the node behind its neck.
Kael vaulted through a side vent and sliced two more open, the KOVAR plates glowing as they drank the heat and fed it back into his blades.
Inside, the Hive pulsed.
Solar veins ran through the walls. Followers chanted in languages long dead. Some were fused to the structure, eyes glowing amber, spitting prayers through mechanical lungs.
"This is a cult," Stitch whispered. "But it's also a machine."
Inner Sanctum – 0915 Hours
They reached the heart of the Hive: a massive circular chamber where Sol Drayke stood, arms outstretched, bathing in a beam of concentrated solar light filtered through the hive's lens.
He was shirtless. His chest a lattice of solar mesh and old human scars. His hair had burned off long ago. His eyes were pure amber—lit from within.
"You've come to silence the truth," he said calmly. "But the sun does not sleep."
Kael stepped forward. "Then I'll carve darkness into it."
Drayke smiled. "Let there be fire."
The chamber exploded in light.
Boss Fight – Sol Drayke, Sunborne Prophet
Kael activated full sync. The blast of solar energy would've vaporized a normal man—but Kael's armor absorbed it, and for a moment, he moved faster than sound.
Blades clashed with molten claws.
Drayke moved like fire incarnate—fast, erratic, burning everything he touched. His flesh melted and reformed as plasma danced around him.
"EMP won't work!" Stitch called. "His nervous system is light-based!"
"Then shut off the sun!" Kael barked.
Nyx targeted the lens above—one shot. Direct hit.
The light shattered.
Darkness slammed into the room like a hammer.
Drayke screamed—not in pain, but in anger.
Grimm charged and slammed him into the wall, pinning him with a graviton anchor.
Kael leapt—drove both blades into Drayke's chest.
The solar mesh failed.
Drayke coughed fire and went still.
0925 Hours – Post-Mission
The Hive collapsed. The solar lines went dark. The sky turned gray again.
Isa's voice came through: "Excellent work. Sol Drayke is terminated. But we've got a bigger problem."
"What now?" Kael asked, wiping soot off his visor.
"We traced the Hive's power signature. The design isn't unique. It matches schematics from a black project—Project Ascendant's early fusion test sites."
Kael's stomach dropped. "You're saying this wasn't built from scrap."
"No. It was built from a blueprint. The Architect's blueprint."
Kael looked at the burning Hive in the distance.
"They're not just waking up old threats," he whispered. "They're following instructions."
End of Chapter 4