The sun was a ghost behind clouds of ash when they surfaced.
Kai squinted against the weak light, the air thick with dust and the distant smell of burning metal. The city around them was a skeletal graveyard shattered tower cracked roads, the remains of once great machines rusting in silence.
He followed Lune through the ruins, stepping care fully over broken cables and shattered glass. His muscles ached from the fight under ground, but he forced himself forward. Every step in this world felt like a test.
You said there were others kai said voice low.
There are Lune replied her tone sharp . not many . Some fight. Some hide . Some...."
she trailed off her jaw tightening.
Kai didn't ask. He could guess.
They moved toward the outskirts of the ruins
Where nature was trying to reclaim the dead metal vines wrapped around steel beams, stubborn green pushing through cracks in concrete. Amid the ruins an old building stood relatively intact a battered tower, it's window shattered but it's wall holding strong.
As they approached, kai felt it a pulse in the air faint but real .
His system reacted instantly.
( Warning: High energy source detected nearby.)
Kai glanced at lune .
She was already moving faster, weapon ready every step measured.
Inside the tower, the air grew colder .
They climbed shattered staircases and pass through empty hallls until they found it a room line with flickering screen dead terminals and at the centre... A strange pod .
The pod pulsed with faint blue light, cables sneaking from it like veins.
Inside a figure floated a young woman ,
Her body encased in a skin tight suit of synthetic fibre and silver armor plates.
Her eyes were closed, her chest rising and falling slowly.
Kai stepped closer, feeling the weight of the moment.
The system pinged again.
( Cryostasis detected.)
subject: Eira system Engineer. Status: critical. Recovery possible.
A survival? Kai breathed.
Lune face was unreadable.
Maybe or a weapon.
She circled the pod, scanning it with a small device pulled from her belt .
Kai stared at the girl.
Even though the glass, he could the faint glimmer of something attached to her temple a neural port like lune mechanical implants .
She... different he muttered.
She enhanced lune confirmed. More advanced than me. maybe even more than the mechas.
A tense silence stretched between them.
Finally lune looked at him.
You found her she said simply it's your call.
Kai swallowed hard.
Wake her... Or leave her ?
Risk everything for the change of an ally or protect themselves from a potential threat?
He pleced his hand against the pod .
It was cold.alive . waiting.
I say we wake her kai said voice firm.
Lune smiled faintly approval or maybe pity .
You're a fool she said softly. But maybe that what this world needs.
She tapped a sequence on her device.
The pod hissed open with a burst of cold vapor.
The girl eyes snapped open and they glowed.
Not red like the mechas.
But pure brilliant blue.
Kai took a step back as the girl rose from pod unsteady but strong her gaze locking onto him like a weapon.
(New entity registered: Eira affinity unknown.)
The future just became even more dangerous.
And maybe just maybe a little bit brighter.