Chapter 001
1113 Words
The rainforest at night was a living thing—breathing, shifting, whispering its hunger into the dark. The air hung heavy with moisture and the thick scent of rotting leaves, wrapping itself around those who dared to enter. Out here, sound died quickly. Light disappeared entirely. And death hid behind every tree trunk like a patient lover.
Special operative Aiden Goth, elite member of Dragon’s Fury, lay prone atop a moss-coated ridge and listened to the jungle breathe.
To ordinary soldiers, the night was suffocating.
To Aiden—it was familiar. It was home.
Sweat dripped silently from his brow as he adjusted the scope of his suppressed rifle. His movements were steady, controlled, efficient—every muscle threaded with discipline. Beside him, barely visible in the shadows of the foliage, Razor gave a subtle hand signal.
Three fingers.
Three vehicles.
The target convoy was approaching.
Aiden’s breathing slowed, heart rate dropping to a preternaturally calm rhythm. The mission file played through his mind in flawless detail. A high-value biogenetic weapon had been stolen from the Arclight Nation research lab two weeks ago. The insurgent group now transporting it across the rainforest considered themselves unstoppable. They paid in blood, carved paths in fire, and believed they couldn’t be touched in their chosen territory.
Tonight, they would be proven wrong.
Static crackled softly through Aiden’s earpiece.
Razor’s whisper followed, low enough not to disturb the wildlife surrounding them.
“Movement confirmed. Three trucks. Heavy escort. Looks like thirty tangos, maybe more. They’re confident.”
“Confidence doesn’t stop bullets,” Aiden replied, voice steady as tempered steel.
Through the dense brush, faint beams of headlights pierced the dark, shimmering like ghostly lanterns between the trees. Engines growled—a hungry, mechanical rumble that vibrated through the forest floor.
He steadied his breathing further.
The world narrowed.
There was only target and timing.
“Razor,” Aiden murmured, “take the rear. I’ll break the front.”
“Copy. And Aiden… stay sharp.”
“Always.”
Moments like these—the silence before violence—were where Aiden felt most alive. He had always believed that some men were forged for war the way others were born for art or music. His battlefield was the canvas on which he carved his fate.
But tonight, something felt different.
There was an unsettling weight in his chest—not fear, not doubt, but a sense of inevitability, as if fate itself hovered above the canopy.
He pushed the thought away.
Now wasn’t the time.
The lead truck rolled into perfect range.
Aiden’s finger tightened on the trigger.
But before he fired, memories surged through his mind with unwelcome clarity:
His fallen teammates calling his name.
Their bodies draped in tarps after the ambush two weeks ago.
The guilt.
The vow.
I’ll finish what you couldn’t. I swear it.
He exhaled slowly—
And pulled the trigger.
The EMP charge he’d planted earlier detonated.
A pulse of crackling light burst across the clearing, turning the night stark and white.
BZZZ—KRAKK!
The trucks sputtered violently. Engines died. Radios snapped with static. Men shouted, scrambling in confusion.
“Go!” Aiden commanded, dropping from the ridge like a shadow given form.
Chaos erupted as his team emerged from the foliage, each movement silent and deadly. Razor shot the lead guard clean through the visor. Two others flanked the convoy from opposite sides, cutting down the scattering militants with ruthless precision.
Aiden slid beneath the first truck, rolling into cover. Gunfire roared above him, puncturing leaves and splintering bark.
He rose into a crouch and fired twice—two men fell.
A third rushed toward him, machete raised.
Aiden pivoted, caught the man’s arm, twisted—
Bone snapped.
The man screamed—
Aiden silenced him with a swift strike to the throat.
The fight moved like a storm—fast, deafening, merciless.
And yet… something was wrong.
Razor’s voice broke through the gunfire, sharp with panic:
“Aiden! Thermal readings—another convoy inbound! Fifteen seconds!”
Aiden froze.
Another convoy?
They had scouted every route—there should have been none.
Unless the enemy knew they were coming.
Unless they had walked into a trap.
Aiden glanced toward the dense jungle in the opposite direction.
A faint vibration trembled through the air.
Then—
Floodlights exploded through the trees.
The second convoy burst forth—armored vehicles, heavy machine guns mounted on top.
Razor swore violently.
“Ambush! They knew! Aiden, fall back!”
“Negative!” Aiden barked. “Complete the objective!”
“Aiden—!”
But Aiden had already sprinted toward the extraction crate on the middle truck. Bullets tore through the air, shredding leaves and soil. He dove behind the wheel chassis and ripped the crate open.
Inside, nestled in insulated foam, lay a cylindrical capsule about the size of his forearm—pulsing faintly with a deep red glow.
The stolen bioweapon.
His hand closed around it.
Mission—
Completed.
He turned—
Just in time to see a militant aiming a grenade launcher directly at him.
Razor’s horrified scream shattered the air.
“AIDEN!”
There was no time.
Aiden’s instincts took over.
He twisted, sheltering the capsule with his body.
The world detonated.
BOOM—!
Fire.
Sound.
The shockwave lifted him off his feet and threw him against a tree trunk with rib-cracking force.
His rifle flew.
The capsule rolled from his grip and clattered beside him.
Aiden’s vision flickered, his ears ringing violently.
Through the swirling smoke and screaming chaos, Razor rushed toward him—his face twisted with terror, calling Aiden’s name again and again.
But Aiden’s hearing faded.
His chest felt cold.
Warmth seeped out of him in waves.
I kept my promise, brothers…
He reached out—fingers curling weakly around the glowing capsule.
Then darkness, thick and absolute, began to devour the edges of his vision.
So this… is where my blade ends…?
He had no strength left—not even to breathe.
Yet in his final moment, he felt something strange.
A pull.
A fracture in the darkness.
A sensation as if his very soul was being torn from the burning rainforest and hurled across a vast, unseen distance.
Aiden’s body collapsed—still, silent.
But his consciousness continued falling.
Downward.
Deeper.
Past the jungle.
Past the world.
Into an endless void that felt colder than death itself.
And as everything dissolved—
A voice echoed,
low, distant, and unfamiliar—
a voice belonging to another dying body hundreds of miles away, whispering its final breath.
It called the same name.
“Aiden…”
Souls collided.
Worlds blurred.
Darkness swallowed everything—
- Writer
