For twenty years, the colony had existed without a name.
The people who lived there had stopped using the name given to them by the Sultan Empire long ago. Names belonged to governments, and governments were the reason they had been abandoned in the first place. They called their home simply The Wreckage.
It was a world of broken ships, stolen technology, abandoned military equipment, and people who had nowhere else to go.
Twenty years earlier, the Sultan Empire had created a special military division made up of soldiers who were considered too dangerous, too unstable, too violent, or simply too inconvenient to keep within the regular ranks. Some were convicted murderers. Some were thieves who had stolen military technology. Some were soldiers who had disobeyed orders. Others had been genetically altered through military experiments and were considered failures.
Rather than execute them, the Sultan government had chosen another solution.
They were sent away.
Thousands of soldiers were loaded onto transport ships and told they were being relocated to a remote military colony. They were promised food, shelter, and a chance to rebuild their lives.
It was a lie.
When the ships arrived, their crews were ordered to leave them behind.
Then the orbital gates closed.
The colony was abandoned.
For twenty years, the castaways survived.
They fought each other.
They stole from each other.
They killed for food, power, medicine, and technology.
Eventually, the strongest among them formed their own society.
There were no laws.
There was only survival.
The strongest ruled.
The smartest controlled the technology.
And everyone else learned to keep their weapons close.
Their leader was a man known only as Kane.
Kane had once been one of the Sultan Empire's most decorated soldiers.
He had also been one of its most feared.
His record contained thirty-seven confirmed kills, twelve classified missions, and one incident that had resulted in the deaths of an entire Sultan command unit.
The Empire had called him a monster.
Kane had never denied it.
But twenty years of abandonment had taught him something the Sultan commanders had forgotten.
Monsters remember who created them.
The first signal appeared at 03:17 colony time.
A communications technician named Ressa was monitoring the deep-space frequencies when she noticed a transmission buried beneath the static.
She almost ignored it.
Then she recognized the encryption.
Sultan military.
She immediately woke Kane.
"How long has it been transmitting?" he asked.
"Twenty-six minutes."
"Who are they?"
"Sultan flight command."
Kane stared at the screen.
For the first time in twenty years, something from the civilization that had abandoned them had reached across the darkness.
Then another signal appeared.
Different encryption.
Different frequency.
Different military signature.
Ressa looked at Kane.
"There are two."
Kane stepped toward the console.
"Who?"
"The Luveniles."
Silence filled the room.
The castaways had spent twenty years believing the rest of the galaxy had forgotten them.
Now they knew better.
The two largest military powers in their region were preparing for war.
And they had just broadcast their positions across space.
Kane smiled.
"Find out what they're fighting over."
Ressa hesitated.
"We don't know if we can penetrate their communications."
Kane looked at her.
"We stole a Sultan warship."
"Twenty years ago."
"And we kept the computer."
Ressa turned back to the console.
Hours passed.
Then she found it.
A planet.
The coordinates were buried inside thousands of military transmissions.
A planet both the Sultans and Luveniles were moving toward.
A planet neither side had publicly acknowledged.
Ressa began pulling information from the intercepted signals.
Her expression slowly changed.
"What is it?" Kane asked.
"I don't know."
"Then find out."
She continued digging.
The planet had been classified under multiple names depending on which military database she accessed.
The Sultans called it Project Eden.
The Luveniles called it The Origin World.
But the oldest records called it something else.
Veyra.
Ressa opened the planetary files.
Then she stopped breathing.
"Kane."
"What?"
"You need to see this."
Kane moved beside her.
The screen displayed a single line of classified information.
PLANETARY RESOURCE: UNKNOWN.
Below it were hundreds of redacted files.
Kane frowned.
"That's what they're fighting over?"
"No."
Ressa opened another file.
"The resource isn't the planet."
Kane stared at her.
"What is it?"
Ressa's fingers trembled over the keyboard.
"I'm not sure."
She opened the oldest surviving file.
For several seconds, nothing happened.
Then a recording appeared.
A scientist stood inside a laboratory.
The recording was more than eighty years old.
The scientist looked directly into the camera.
"If this message is being viewed, then the containment protocols have failed."
Kane leaned closer.
The scientist continued.
"Veyra was never intended to be colonized."
The recording flickered.
"It was never a colony world."
Ressa looked at Kane
The scientist continued.
"It was a laboratory."
The screen went black.
Kane said nothing.
Ressa searched deeper.
She found another file.
Then another.
Then hundreds.
Each one revealed fragments of the same story.
The Sultans had discovered Veyra decades earlier.
They had found something beneath its surface.
Something they didn't understand.
Something they couldn't destroy.
Something they believed could change the balance of power forever.
The Luveniles eventually discovered the existence of the planet.
For sixty years, the two civilizations had been preparing for the war that would determine who controlled it.
But neither side knew the complete truth.
Kane finally understood.
"They aren't fighting over a weapon."
Ressa shook her head.
"No."
"What are they fighting over?"
She looked at the final file.
Her face went pale.
"Life."
Kane stared at her.
Ressa continued.
"Not life as we understand it."
She opened the file.
A series of images appeared.
Human bodies.
Genetic structures.
Artificial embryos.
And something else.
Something that looked human but wasn't.
Kane's expression hardened.
"How old are these?"
"Some of them?"
She swallowed.
"Older than both colonies."
The room became silent.
Kane looked toward the stars.
For twenty years, he had dreamed of returning to the people who had abandoned him.
Now he finally had the opportunity.
But revenge suddenly seemed too small.
The Sultans had lost thirty percent of their pilots.
The Luveniles were preparing for total war.
Both believed they were fighting for control of a planet.
Neither knew the truth.
And now the castaways knew something neither army knew.
Kane turned toward his soldiers
"Prepare the fleet."
Ressa stared at him.
"Are we going after the Sultans?"
"No."
"The Luveniles?"
"No."
"Then where?"
Kane looked at the image of Veyra glowing on the screen.
"We're going to the planet."
Ressa hesitated.
"And what happens when we get there?"
Kane smiled.
"For twenty years, they left us with nothing."
He picked up his weapon.
"Now we're going to take everything."
But Kane didn't know one thing.
The moment the castaways intercepted the Sultan and Luvenile signals, something else detected them.
Something buried beneath the surface of Veyra.
Something that had been silent for decades.
Something that had been waiting.
And deep beneath the planet's surface, thousands of lights began turning on.
One by one.
Until an entire underground city awakened.
Then a voice echoed through an ancient command chamber.
"THREE COLONIES DETECTED."
A pause followed.
"BEGIN THE SELECTION."