Commander Aerin Voss stood at the edge of the city wall, her eyes fixed on the horizon where the last remnants of the Absolute Void's army had dissolved into nothing. The sun was rising, painting the sky in shades of gold and pink. It was beautiful. Peaceful.
But Aerin couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong.
Thirty months had passed since she had defeated the Absolute Void. Thirty months of peace. Thirty months of rebuilding. The city was thriving. The people were happy. The network was flourishing.
But Aerin's nanites were restless. They pulsed in her blood, whispering to her, warning her of something she couldn't see. The network was sending out waves of energy that she could feel in her bones, like a distant alarm that never stopped.
"Commander," her second-in-command,
