The trek toward the Southern Breach was silent, save for the ragged breathing of the seven scavengers. Kaelen led them with a steady pace, his eyes occasionally darting toward the obsidian peaks. He wasn't looking for monsters; he was timing the patrol cycles of the Aegis satellites orbiting the rift.
"How much further?" the leader, whose name Kaelen had learned was Boros, wheezed. His grip on his rusted pipe-wrench was white-knuckled.
"Just over the next ridge," Kaelen replied, his voice dripping with forced encouragement. "Once we cross the Dead Zone, the sensors will be blind. We'll be in the Human World before the sun rises."
In reality, there was no Dead Zone. Kaelen had personally sabotaged a local signal relay days ago, not to create a blind spot, but to create a 'noise' that would draw the Aegis Guard's technical team toward the South.
As they reached the crest of the hill, the scavengers gasped. Below them, a massive metallic wall stretched across the horizon, glowing with an ethereal blue light. It was the Aegis Perimeter—the barrier between the dying dark and the living light.
"Look!" the woman cried out, pointing toward a section of the wall where the blue light flickered. "The breach!"
"Go," Kaelen commanded, his tone urgent. "I will stay here to watch for any Shadow-beasts following our trail. If I see anything, I'll signal. Move now, or the window will close!"
Driven by a century of desperation, the seven souls sprinted down the slope. They didn't see the coldness return to Kaelen's eyes. They didn't see him pull a small, high-tech transmitter—looted from a dead scout weeks ago—and press a single button.
On the other side of the Wall – Aegis Command North Sector.
"Commander Anya, we have a Level 4 breach in the Southern Quadrant," a voice crackled through the comms.
Anya Petrova didn't look up from her tactical map. Her eyes were fixed on the energy readings of the Gateway. "A breach? Now? The Shadow-tide isn't due for another three days."
"It's not shadows, Ma'am. Thermal signatures suggest biologicals. Seven of them. They've bypassed the perimeter sensors."
Beside her, a massive man in heavy power-armor let out a booming laugh as he checked the fuel cell of his Hard-Light cannon. "Scavengers? They're getting gutsy, Anya. Or maybe they just heard about the premium coffee we get in the North."
"Shut it, Jax," Anya snapped, though her mind was racing. "Something is wrong. Why the South? It's the most heavily fortified zone."
"Maybe they're just stupid?" Jax shrugged, his helmet's visor snapping shut. "Anyway, orders? Should I go squash them?"
Anya hesitated. Her instinct told her this was a distraction. But a breach was a breach. "Take a small squad. Neutralize the threat. But Jax—don't use the heavy stuff unless you have to. If they're just hungry scavengers, we need to know how they found the gap."
Back at the Ridge.
Kaelen watched through a stolen pair of long-range binoculars as the blue light of the wall intensified. He saw the flash of Hard-Light cannons. He heard the distant, muffled screams that were quickly cut short by the hum of high-voltage turrets.
He didn't flinch.
One minute and forty seconds, Kaelen thought, checking his internal clock. The North Sector's response time has slowed by twelve percent because Anya sent Jax to the South.
He turned away from the massacre, heading in the opposite direction—toward the dark, silent North. The scavengers were dead, the Aegis Guard was distracted, and the path was finally clear.
"Thank you for the sacrifice," Kaelen murmured to the wind. "Your lives were the only currency I had."
As he walked into the deepening shadows of the Northern Sector, a strange ripple appeared in the air in front of him. The Gateway wasn't just a door; it was reacting to his presence.