Bringer of Chaos #1 – Origin of Pietas #SpaceOpera #MFRWhooks

In the Bringer of Chaos series, coming back from death changes people. Because survival isn't salvation. It binds you to the record.

Most stories treat survival as a victory. The danger passes. The hero lives. The future waits.

But survival leaves marks.

Every loss becomes part of the story. Every choice carries forward. Every second chance comes with consequences.

In the Bringer of Chaos universe, resurrection is not a reset button. It is a continuation. The dead do not return unchanged, and those who survive must live with what came before.

For Pietas, survival is not freedom.
It is memory.
It is accountability.

It is the realization that some debts do not disappear simply because you outlive them.

Read an excerpt from Origin of Pietas, where survival is only the beginning, and some resurrection changes everything.

Bringer of Chaos #1 – Origin of Pietas

The stasis pod Pietas hid behind rested on the floor and came up to mid-thigh. It hid him, but allowed no view of the door. A sudden change of light told him soldiers had entered. Grunts, they wore beams on their chests to light their way. The idiots had left them on, which let him calculate the level of brightness. At least six.

That was all he warranted? He hardly knew whether to be amused, or insulted.

He waited for a stirring of emotion, but felt none. Smart. They’d sent either androids or ghosts with those new anti-emo chips. The latter would be fun to fight. When he killed them, would they experience a human death, or did they have to be terminated like an Ultra? How well did the chips work?

He’d find out in a minute.

A tiny trickle of fear leaked. That meant three things.
One: ghosts.
Two: anti-emo chips? Worthless.
Three: even the dead feared him.

More fear leaked and then frustration. The ghosts were fighting the effect of the chip. They were afraid of being afraid. Typical. Humans underestimated the power of death. They thought dying and coming back to life meant you’d overcome the fear of dying. He had died multiple times, yet he still avoided it. Their anti-emo chips had given them no edge whatsoever.

Excellent. He could use that.

Another hint of fear surfaced. It zinged over Pietas’s skin like a cool breeze, good as a waft of air. How interesting! Emotion from the reanimated energized more than emotion from the living. He drew the aetheric fear into himself, gathering strength.

The silence meant no air had entered the room. He’d miss his favorite sound: bones breaking in his enemies.
Remaining still, Pietas let them get all the way inside the room.