Only days after the fall of Megacity 1’s underground Resistance hub, the silence of ruin had given way to slow breaths of recovery. Deep within the basement of a half collapsed building, Mikaela lay still, her wounds healing but her spirit fractured.
She was not born a soldier. She had joined the Resistance for the cause, for the hope of breaking free from the digital yoke of the Grids. But no training, no ideology had prepared her for the reality of obliteration. Not for the bodies buried in silence. Not for the voices that would never return.
Major Alexey Lobov stood beside her bed, arms crossed, his exosuit dimmed to standby. The mechanical frame amplified his strength, but it was his inner fortitude forged in the long wars before the Grids that kept him upright now. He had seen cities burn, comrades fall, and promises die. But this… this kind of loss was different. It wasn’t just another battle lost. It was a collapse of belief.
For hours each day, he spoke to Mikaela. Not with orders, not with strategy, but with memory. He told her of past battles, of men and women broken and rebuilt by fire and grief. He told her how he had once wanted to disappear into silence, just like her now. And how something a comrade’s words, a memory, a simple act of kindness had pulled him back.
“You’re not broken, Mikaela,” he said one night, his voice low, rough. “You’re shattered. But pieces can be reassembled. Differently, yes. But stronger.”
At first, she didn’t respond. But the tears stopped. Then she accepted a spoonful of food. Then she asked him:
“How did you stop seeing their faces?”
“I didn’t,” he answered. “I learned to walk with them.”
That night, she sat up for the first time. And the next morning, she stood. Weakly, trembling but she stood.
The Resistance hadn’t lost her.
Not yet.
And if Alexey’s will was made of steel, hers was beginning to resemble tempered glass fragile in appearance, but harder than ever before.
The war was far from over.
But so was she.
Innate Trigger : The courage to stand
Release date : 17 – 5 – 2025
Music by : Innate Trigger
