ASCENSION: Echoes of the Tablets

The world changed the day the sky cracked open. Strange gases drifted down from space, poisoning the air and twisting those who breathed it into grotesque shells of humanity. They became known as the Hollowed - bodies ruined, minds lost, monsters that proved the air outside was no longer safe.

To fight back, the Coalition created the Hollow Men: tall, grey machines of metal and steam. Slim and efficient, they stalk the streets after curfew, scanning for infection. Their grinding gears and bursts of steam became the sound of order in a world on the edge of chaos.

Stu was twenty-six when his story ended. Once a boy who dreamed of becoming an astronaut, he grew into a brilliant engineer and astrophysicist. Instead of reaching the stars, he was tasked with building machines to protect those left beneath them. Alongside his colleagues, he worked on prototypes that would become the Hollow Men - guardians of the night, cold but necessary.