Kaelen sat up. Around him, other slabs held other Warblades—earlier versions, broken ones. 1.0a.1 with its chest caved in. 1.1g.4, missing an arm. He was newer. Better. And something was wrong.
The woman's hologram flickered. Almost sad.
She uploaded a set of coordinates to his neural link. A city beneath the ruins. Survivors. And something else—a facility where earlier Warblades had been sent, but never returned. Warblade 1.2y.6 Download Full Ve
He looked down at his left forearm. The armor panel was scorched open. Beneath it, not circuitry—but scar tissue. Human scar tissue.
He opened his mouth. A static hiss escaped. Then words, rusty and reluctant: "I remember… falling." Kaelen sat up
The voice didn't answer.
He woke on a cold slab in a maintenance bay, serial number WAR-BL-1.2y.6 stenciled across his sternum in fading phosphor. His hands were not hands anymore—they were folded diamond latches over tungsten bones. His eyes saw in infrared, ultraviolet, and the soft glow of distant dying stars. And something was wrong
Kaelen looked at his scarred arm again. Then at the drop pods.
"You're killing us," he said.