Aftermath

The world changed in a single instant.

When the Exotic Energy Warhead detonated over Eastern Europe, it was meant to be the weapon that ended wars without bloodshed, a clean strike against infrastructure, leaving armies intact but powerless. Instead, it tore a hole in reality itself. The blast fused soil, concrete, steel, and even the air into unstable pockets of exotic matter. Scientists call them Cascade Elements. To those who risk their lives hunting them, they are simply “the prize.”

The Zone that formed in the aftermath sprawls across fifty square miles of twisted ruins and poisoned earth. Buildings stand half-melted, forests shimmer with unnatural hues, and the ground itself fractures into glassy shards. The closer you go to Ground Zero, the stranger and deadlier, the landscape becomes. No probe, drone, or satellite has ever returned reliable data from the epicenter. Something there rejects observation, swallows signals, and defies explanation.

Governments claim the area is sealed. Patrols from a multinational alliance ring the perimeter, forbidding all but the most controlled research efforts. But the truth is different. Where there is value, there is demand and Cascade Elements are worth more than gold. They can power machines without fuel, withstand temperatures that would melt steel, or twist electromagnetic fields in ways no laboratory can replicate. Nations, corporations, and cartels all want them, but none can officially send soldiers into the Zone.

And so, a shadow industry thrives.

They are called Extraction Teams, bands of contractors, mercenaries, scientists, and scavengers who slip past the cordon to hunt for Cascade Elements. Some are well-funded, equipped with cutting-edge gear and military training. Others are desperate survivors with little more than a rifle, a map, and a dream of one lucky haul. In the Zone, ambition and greed walk hand in hand with fear and death.