The stealth aircraft soared through the darkened sky, approaching the boundary where the Wall had once loomed—a barrier so vast and absolute that its destruction had reshaped history overnight. Below, the jungle stretched endlessly, a dark expanse flickering with the occasional ember of torchlight. To the untrained eye, the craft was nothing more than a ripple in the air, a ghost against the stars, its adaptive camouflage shifting seamlessly to match the night.

Inside the cockpit, the tension was suffocating.

"We've reached the boundary, sir," Saren announced, his voice cutting through the intercom. "There's a massive ravine where the Wall once stood—several kilometers wide. Craters, scorched earth... whatever caused the collapse, it wasn't natural."

The terrain was devastated. Giant scars marred the land, as if a war had erupted between forces beyond human comprehension. Trees had been ripped from their roots, entire sections of the ground torn apart, and deep fissures revealed unfamiliar minerals glistening in the moonlight.

Over the comms, a voice from Rose HQ responded, cold and precise. "Remember, we need information. You are there for recon, not engagement. The joint operation must not detect you. And on the slightest chance that there is life—especially human life—secure it. Am I understood?"

"Yes, Master Rose!" the unit shouted in unison.

Then, the interference began.

Their holographic displays flickered erratically. The once-stable audio feed dissolved into static.

VWOOOM. VWOOOM.

Warning alarms blared.

"Commander! Instruments are failing!"

"Our navigation system is glitching—no anomalies detected, but we're losing altitude!"

Saren's jaw clenched. "Engage emergency stabilization thrusters!"

The order was swift, but nothing happened.

"Thrusters are unresponsive!" an operative barked. "Sir, all signs indicate normal status, but—"

The ship lurched violently.

Their adaptive camouflage flickered, its seamless invisibility blinking in and out like a broken light. For the first time, their stealth craft was vulnerable.

"Artemis, status report!" Saren barked.

The ship's AI flickered onto the main screen—a humanoid figure composed of shifting light. "It appears that an unidentified force is interfering with the anamatic-infused systems onboard. The anomaly is environmental."

"Environmental?" Saren hissed. "That's impossible."

The ship jerked violently downward.

"We're losing altitude! Brace for impact!"

The craft broke through the thick jungle canopy, emergency thrusters sputtering to life at the last second—just enough to slow their descent. Still, the impact was rough. Metal groaned as the ship skidded across the earth, crushing trees and sending debris flying. Sparks danced across the control panels before the systems shut down entirely.

For a long moment, there was only silence.

Then, Saren exhaled sharply. "Damage report."

"Minor structural damage," Lang confirmed, tapping furiously at his wrist console. "Camouflage is... unreliable. Comms are unstable. We're blind beyond a certain range."

Saren narrowed his eyes. This was no ordinary interference. Something about this land rejected them.

Steeling himself, Saren activated the external sensors. The screen illuminated the dense jungle stretching before them. The night was alive with movement. Through the foliage, embers flickered in the distance—torches.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

They were not alone.

"Confirmed visuals on human inhabitants," Lang whispered through the comms, his voice tight. "I repeat, this is a human settlement."

Silence followed.

"Say again?" Saren's fingers clenched the console. "What do you mean, 'human'?"

Lang's breathing was audible. "They're... people. Living. Breathing. Just like us."

A weight settled in the cockpit. For centuries, the Tech Side had believed themselves to be alone on this world. That belief had shaped their civilizations, their wars, their very understanding of history. The Wall had been an absolute, a barrier separating them from the unknown—until now.

Saren pulled up the drone visuals. Figures moved through the village below, clad in earth-colored hides, wielding weapons of metal and stone. Fires crackled at the village center, illuminating faces with expressions of laughter, fatigue, and purpose.

"This is impossible," murmured another operative.

"They should not exist," Lang agreed.

"Fuck. We can't be seen here," Commander Saren stated.

"Estimated time until system reboot?" he asked.

"Remaining 1 minute and 32 seconds," the AI responded.

"Lang, run 200 meters west and shoot a flare. Then rendezvous with us near the village. We'll send an alert," Commander Saren ordered.

"Understood, Commander."

As ordered, Lang ran 200 meters west and shot out a blue flare. It was blindingly bright and resembled flames dancing in the night sky.

The villagers, drawn by the sudden light, abandoned their posts and rushed toward the flare, their shouts echoing through the jungle.

After the villagers were successfully lured away from the crash landing site, the system finished rebooting, and the Rose Operatives began activating the adaptive camouflage. Once on, they met with Lang and ascended to a level altitude to observe the area. Their stability was still inconsistent due to unknown forces, but they could not afford to be on land. They spent their time trying to fix more of the systems onboard the aircraft.

As they tinkered with the aircraft, the camouflage turned off.

A warrior in the village looked up. His eyes widened in raw terror as the stealth vehicle flickered—its camouflage failing for a split second.

"DEMON BEAST!" he screamed.

The village erupted into chaos.

The operatives barely had time to react before a column of fire spewed into the sky, aimed directly at their position.

"Hostile action detected!" Lang barked, diving for cover as the flames seared across the treetops.

"Engage with restraint!" Saren ordered. "We need data, not bodies!"

The operatives fanned out, moving like shadows, their cloaking devices flickering under the strange interference. Their weapons, sleek and silent, released pulses of energy that cut through the jungle, igniting leaves and scorching the earth.

But their enemy was not primitive.

A warrior moved faster than any human should, dodging an energy blast with inhuman precision before retaliating with a spear wreathed in flame. It struck an operative's chest plate, not piercing the armor but searing through the circuits inside. The man collapsed, his suit short-circuiting.

"Commander," a new voice gasped over the comms, "this isn't just fire—they're using something else. It's—"

A deafening explosion cut him off.

Saren turned just in time to see a barrier of shifting rock rise from the ground, cutting off one of their exfil routes. Another operative was lifted off his feet by an unseen force before being slammed into a tree with a sickening crack.

"What the hell is happening?" Saren hissed. The sensors couldn't make sense of the energy signatures—they weren't heat-based, nor electromagnetic. It was something entirely new.

"Extract samples and retreat! Now!"

With speed born of military precision, the operatives deployed auto-extractors, scanning for biological material. A wounded warrior's blood pooled in the dirt—a perfect sample. A device whirred as it pulled the DNA into storage.

But there was no time for captives.

Saren turned to Lang. "Are the bodies secure?"

Lang hesitated, glancing at the still figures retrieved from the battlefield. "...Yes, Commander. We've got them."

Saren exhaled. "Good. Burn the rest."

Aftermath: Zone's Revelation

Zone sat in his chamber, the holographic feed stuttering before his eyes. The data was corrupted. Entire sections of the mission log were missing, scrambled as if by an outside force.

He tapped the side of his chair impatiently. "And you're saying this happened only past a certain point in the mission?"

"Yes, sir," a data analyst confirmed. "Our instruments became unreliable the moment they got too deep. Drones lost signal. Bio-readings became inconsistent. Even the stealth systems... failed."

Zone's eyes narrowed. "Failed how?"

The analyst hesitated. "Like something knew they were there. Like the land itself rejected them."

The words sent a rare chill through Zone's normally detached mind. Technology was absolute. It operated within set parameters, obeyed logical principles. The only force that could disrupt it was another force of equal technological superiority.

But this?

This was something else entirely.

Zone leaned back, watching the fragmented footage of the black dragon sighting. He saw the moment their vehicle flickered into view—and the absolute horror in the eyes of the villagers. They had never seen a machine before. That much was clear. Just as the operatives had never expected to see other humans.

Zone folded his fingers together, his mind racing. This changed everything.

For centuries, the Tech Side had believed they were the only humans on the planet. That they had evolved alone, superior, unrivaled. But if that were false—if the Wall had been hiding an entire other world...

Then history itself had been a lie.

A rare flicker of emotion stirred in Zone's chest. Not fear. Not confusion.

Curiosity.

"I need more data," he murmured.

And this time, he would ensure nothing stood in his way.