"General Vex," the crackling hologram whispered, his eyes wild behind cracked goggles. "I’ve done it. The resonance cascade. I’ve built a Generator that doesn’t mine Crystals… it creates them. From vacuum energy. Unlimited. Untraceable. But I can’t hold the location. Everyone is coming."
The stalemate didn't break. It ascended .
Unlimited Crystals.
The war for the last remaining Crystal deposits on Mars had ground to a stalemate. For years, the two great corporations—Armada and Frontier—had bled their coffers dry, firing railguns and homing missiles that each cost a fortune in blue, pulsing Crystals. The once-mighty mines of the Olympus Mons region were now hollowed-out husks. A single Crystal was worth more than a platoon of Hornet tanks.
Kira didn't see peace. She saw the ultimate weapon. "General Vex," the crackling hologram whispered, his eyes
It was a lie, of course. Or so she thought.
Kira took a single tank: a stripped-down, silent Viking with no weapons, only a maxed-out overdrive. Speed was her only shield. I’ve built a Generator that doesn’t mine Crystals…
Then the distress signal came. Not from a soldier, but from a civilian—an old quantum physicist named Dr. Aris Thorne, who had been presumed dead for a decade.
Kira stood on the observation deck, watching the Generator in the distance. It was still humming. Still pouring out its endless blue bounty. But her tanks were rusting. Her soldiers had deserted to become miners and merchants. Frontier had disbanded entirely. Untraceable