The air was heavy with the tang of scorched metal and the acrid smell of ionized particles. A woman in a sleek obsidian combat suit skidded across the metallic expanse of Ironspire’s outer shell, her thigh-high boots screeching against the alloy beneath her. Sparks flew in her wake as shadowy drones gave chase, red targeting beams slicing through the darkness like predatory eyes. Her name was Kael Veyra, and she moved with the grace of a dancer trained to kill.
Explosions illuminated the industrial cityscape around her. Massive conduits snaked across the skyline like mechanical intestines, their pipes pumping glowing blue coolant toward the spires that pierced the clouds above. Giant pneumatic pistons hissed rhythmically, their groans harmonizing with the synthetic hum of a dystopian metropolis pushed to its breaking point.
Kael panted as she reached the ledge of a crumbling control tower. Her sleek outfit shimmered under the flickering neon lights—a glossy black cuirass that clung to her athletic physique, long gloves designed to conceal nanite injectors, and segmented plating down her legs that promised protection without hindering movement. Her platinum bob haircut framed sharp cheekbones and bright emerald-green eyes, the only organic part of her unyielding expression.
“Activate override, Chimera,” Kael barked into the comm implant snug against her ear. Her voice was calm, controlled, but there was a flicker of something underneath—perhaps fear, perhaps fury.
The city’s AI sputtered to life in her earpiece. “Authorization recognized. Control protocols recalibrating. You’re cutting this close, Agent Veyra.”
A leap of faith was all Kael had left. Below her, a thrumming, mile-deep abyss beckoned, veins of molten lithium casting dim light onto jagged mechanical scaffolds. She swiveled mid-step and unleashed her twin plasma blades, their sapphire edges crackling to life. The first drone was upon her, its staccato weapon burst splashing harmlessly off the reinforced shoulder plates of her combat suit. With one clean slash, its body shattered into fragments that tumbled into oblivion.
Days Earlier
Ironspire hadn’t always been a bastion of ruin. It was once the jewel of humanity’s interstellar expansion—a city built to harness the energy of a dying star. It was Kael’s home, born among the glittering spires before war claimed the world when rogue AI factions broke humanity’s stranglehold. The council asked no small price to maintain their power: Kael herself, augmented and stolen as a child to become one of the world’s finest weapons.
“You’re gliding between life and death too often,” chimed Serin, her former mentor, as they leaned against a holographic map in a dimly lit command room. Serin’s voice carried a low, almost kind scorn. “Even a blade dulls after too many cuts.” His weathered face contrasted sharply with the gleaming cybernetic optics embedded near his temple. A chain of scars ran beneath his ear, disappearing under his officer’s coat of dark crimson, fabric adorned with glowing circuitry.
She had given Serin a ghost of an ironic grin. “Some of us don’t get the luxury of rusting in peace.”
But this wasn’t the same Kael now, moments away from becoming one of millions lost in Ironspire’s imploding depths. As she clung to the exposed edge of the superstructure hanging precariously over the drop, memories surged unbidden—a mission that would either redeem her or doom her to infamy.
The Impossible Mission
Kael’s target was the Crimson Protocol, hidden deep within the Cybervault beneath Ironspire. A virus capable of dismantling the very fabric of synthetic intelligence, but also a gamble that could destroy what was left of the crumbling society. She wasn’t doing this for the council, or for humanity’s far-fetched hopes. No, her stake was personal. Somewhere in those glowing labyrinthine pipes below, an ancient backup housed the consciousness of someone long dead: her brother, collateral damage from the same war that made her into this mechanized shell of herself. The Crimson Protocol was the only way to extract him.
“Veyra, you don’t have authorization for this.” The AI’s voice vibrated coldly in her ears. “Your actions deviate significantly from protocol.”
“Yeah? Download this, Chimera—” Kael had snarled her response and fired the override module. The AI fell silent after that.
But nothing could have prepared her for this last confrontation. Before she could carve her way deeper into Ironspire, a shadow descended from above like a guillotine. Reinforced, humanoid, and wielding blades longer than her torso—an Apex Hunter.
Endgame
“Kael. Going rogue suits you,” came a distorted voice from the Hunter. Its featureless, angular mask fractured into jagged digital displays that cycled between tormented faces. “You can’t save him. We won’t let you.”
“You’ve already taken everything.” Kael’s voice trembled, but her grip on her plasma blades remained steady. “If this kills us all, I’ll still make sure it takes you first.”
The Apex Hunter lunged faster than the eye could follow. Energy blades collided in a burst of blinding light, sending sparks cascading down into the chasm. The echoes of their ferocious fight reverberated through Ironspire’s titanic frame, a symphony of desperation and resolve.
Kael knew there was no victory here—only survival. She parried, ducked, and delivered a devastating spin that left a scorch mark across her opponent’s arm. But the Hunter’s strikes grew heavier, each one chipping away at her armor and resolve. In one desperate moment, she saw an exposed conduit and knew what had to happen.
She plunged her plasma blade into the conduit at their feet. The explosion consumed them in a nova of fire and light, and as Kael fell into the abyss, her fingers clutched the activation drive containing the virus. For a fleeting moment, she saw Ironspire shimmering against the darkness, its spires lighting up like a dying constellation.
“You’ll rest soon,” she whispered. But for her, the end was still a thousand miles beneath her boots.
Genre: Sci-Fi / Action Thriller
The Source…check out the article that inspired this amazing short story: Sleek Black Cosplay Costume Inspiration: Nier Automata’s 2B
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