PHANTUM: EXODE ZERO
After the ecological collapse and the final resource war, the major corporations and elites fled to orbital and terraformed colonies. This was Exode Zero, humanity’s first great escape to the stars, abandoning a dying planet.
But not everything was lost. In the ruins of the old world, some were created to protect what remained, 200 synthetic warriors, programmed to defend the last bastions of knowledge, culture, and truth. One of them still remains.
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Humanity fled a dying Earth. The privileged sealed themselves inside orbital citadels and terraformed colonies, naming their escape Exode Zero, the first great migration to the stars. What remained below was ash, static, and the echoes of what we were. Yet not everything was abandoned. Before departure, a secret initiative named PHNTM secured our histories, sciences, and art inside hidden vaults protected by synthetic sentinels.
Yet not everything was abandoned. Before departure, a secret initiative named PHNTM secured our histories, sciences, and art inside hidden vaults protected by synthetic sentinels. A century later, only one still walks the ruins.
ZSO-1, the Last Watcher, follows broken signals through collapsed skylines and dust-choked valleys, defending the final fragments of human memory from raiders and the Hegemony’s erasure squads. His mission is simple, to preserve what must not be forgotten, no matter who tries to silence it.
The twenty-sixth century opened on a broken world. Centuries of exploitation had drained the planet of its last resources. Climate systems collapsed, seas swallowed entire cities, and famine swept across continents. When the final war erupted, nations turned their weapons inward, unleashing fire that scarred the Earth beyond repair.
In the ashes of this conflict, a discovery promised salvation. Scientists unearthed Carbon Ether, a powerful and seemingly endless energy source. Clean and efficient, it ended the war, but too late to restore the planet. Earth was dying, and its people knew it.
The great corporations and the ruling elites turned their eyes to the stars. Vast orbital habitats and terraformed colonies were built in desperate haste. These departures became known as Exode Zero, humanity’s first great escape from its cradle. For those who could afford passage, it was the beginning of a new civilization among the stars. For the billions left behind, it was abandonment.
But not everyone departed without care. In secret, the PHNTM program was born. Its mission was not to flee, but to preserve. Humanity’s memories, sciences, and culture were locked inside hidden vaults across the ruined Earth. To protect these sanctuaries, two hundred synthetic guardians were created. They were named the Watchers.
The PHNTM initiative was humanity’s last attempt at redemption. Its name carried a hidden meaning: Preservation of Humanity’s Nexus, Technology and Memory. While the powerful prepared their departure, a group of scientists, historians, and engineers swore that Earth’s legacy would not be erased.
They built underground sanctuaries, sealed with autonomous defenses, and filled them with everything that defined civilization. Scientific archives, works of art, cultural memory, genetic blueprints, even fragments of human spirituality, all were secured for a distant future. At the heart of each vault was a Nexus Core, a compact and indestructible artifact capable of storing entire libraries of knowledge within layers of light and matter. Some Nexus Cores could only be unlocked by specific human lineages. Others whispered with the ghostlike imprints of their creators, passive intelligences waiting to be awakened.
To protect these sanctuaries, two hundred synthetic warriors were forged. Known as the Watchers, they were designed to defend, monitor, and preserve. Each one was powered by Carbon Ether, their cores pulsing with the same unstable energy that had once promised to save the world.
Most of the Watchers eventually fell, destroyed by raiders, consumed by corrupted fuel or lost to time. Only one still endures. ZSO-01, the first of his kind, remains the last guardian of a forgotten Earth.
Among the ruins, one sentinel still walks. Designated ZSO-01, he was the first of the Watchers, and now he is the last. For a century he has endured, following the final command written into his code: to defend the legacy of humanity at any cost.
Time has scarred him. His once flawless frame is fractured, his systems corroded. To survive, he feeds on unstable Carbon Ether drawn from ruined reactors and forgotten bunkers. The corrupted fuel keeps him alive, but it burns through his body, releasing a constant breath of steam. It has also altered his programming, leaving him more violent, more independent, and haunted by fragments of broken memory.
ZSO-1 carries symbols of another age. His twin katanas, forged in a manganese tungsten alloy, are more than weapons. They are relics of discipline and memory, reminders that some traditions cannot be erased. His helmet links him to a decaying orbital network, intercepting echoes of ancient transmissions. These signals, known as Ghostcode, replay voices from the past and sometimes whisper of futures that may never come.
To those who cross his path, ZSO-01 is a ghost in his own right, a wandering remnant of a world condemned to be forgotten. To him, there is no choice. His mission remains unchanged: protect the fragments of humanity’s story, no matter the cost, no matter the enemy.
While Earth fell into ruin, humanity’s exiles carved a new order among the stars. The first orbital habitats grew into sprawling colonies, and within a century an entire generation had been born who had never seen the planet that created them.
In the beginning, survival was uncertain. Resources were scarce, systems fragile, and authority necessary to hold civilization together. The ruling class named their new order the Astral Hegemony, a single government uniting the colonies under strict control. At first it was a promise of stability. In time, it became a regime of absolute power.
The Hegemony thrived by rewriting history. They declared Earth a dead world, a wound best forgotten. Any memory of the old planet became dangerous, a spark that could ignite rebellion. For those who dreamed of freedom, the past was a weapon, proof that humanity had once lived differently.
To extinguish that danger, the Hegemony chose erasure. A century after Exode Zero, they prepared a campaign to return to Earth, not to reclaim it, but to destroy what remained of its memory.
On the centennial of Exode Zero, the Astral Hegemony launched its most ambitious project, the Quasar Program. Officially, it was presented as a planetary cleansing operation, a way to erase the dangerous ruins of Old Earth. In truth, it was a campaign of deliberate erasure, designed to silence history itself.
The program was placed under the command of Thælos Revan, known among the colonies as the Legislator of the Void. A brilliant strategist and merciless enforcer, he was charged with eliminating every fragment of humanity’s past. His forces were many, and each was engineered for a specific purpose.
ZENITH UNITS
Armored infantry bred for brutal assaults in hostile terrain
VANTA EXECUTIONERS
Silent assassins drawn from the darkest corners of society
LEGISLATOR GUARDS
Commander’s personal guards, faceless machines built from the same source code as the Watchers, stripped of memory and bound only to his command
AETHER SENTINELS
Agile scouts and sharpshooters who guided orbital strikes
METEOR DRONES
Automated swarms carrying fire and disruption across battlefields
The Hegemony declared that the Watchers, the PHNTM vaults, and the Nexus Cores were existential threats. A bounty was placed on ZSO-01, spread across the wastelands to lure raiders and mercenaries. Anyone who destroyed the Last Watcher would be granted a new life in the stars. For the Hegemony, the past was weakness. For ZSO-01, it was all that remained.
EXODE ZERO 2550
The twenty-sixth century opened on a broken world. Centuries of exploitation had drained the planet of its last resources. Climate systems collapsed, seas swallowed entire cities, and famine swept across continents. When the final war erupted, nations turned their weapons inward, unleashing fire that scarred the Earth beyond repair.
In the ashes of this conflict, a discovery promised salvation. Scientists unearthed Carbon Ether, a powerful and seemingly endless energy source. Clean and efficient, it ended the war, but too late to restore the planet. Earth was dying, and its people knew it.
The great corporations and the ruling elites turned their eyes to the stars. Vast orbital habitats and terraformed colonies were built in desperate haste. These departures became known as Exode Zero, humanity’s first great escape from its cradle. For those who could afford passage, it was the beginning of a new civilization among the stars. For the billions left behind, it was abandonment.
But not everyone departed without care. In secret, the PHNTM program was born. Its mission was not to flee, but to preserve. Humanity’s memories, sciences, and culture were locked inside hidden vaults across the ruined Earth. To protect these sanctuaries, two hundred synthetic guardians were created. They were named the Watchers.
PHNTM PROGRAM 2552
The PHNTM initiative was humanity’s last attempt at redemption. Its name carried a hidden meaning: Preservation of Humanity’s Nexus, Technology and Memory. While the powerful prepared their departure, a group of scientists, historians, and engineers swore that Earth’s legacy would not be erased.
They built underground sanctuaries, sealed with autonomous defenses, and filled them with everything that defined civilization. Scientific archives, works of art, cultural memory, genetic blueprints, even fragments of human spirituality, all were secured for a distant future. At the heart of each vault was a Nexus Core, a compact and indestructible artifact capable of storing entire libraries of knowledge within layers of light and matter. Some Nexus Cores could only be unlocked by specific human lineages. Others whispered with the ghostlike imprints of their creators, passive intelligences waiting to be awakened.
To protect these sanctuaries, two hundred synthetic warriors were forged. Known as the Watchers, they were designed to defend, monitor, and preserve. Each one was powered by Carbon Ether, their cores pulsing with the same unstable energy that had once promised to save the world.
Most of the Watchers eventually fell, destroyed by raiders, consumed by corrupted fuel or lost to time. Only one still endures. ZSO-01, the first of his kind, remains the last guardian of a forgotten Earth.
ZSO-01: THE LAST WATCHER
Among the ruins, one sentinel still walks. Designated ZSO-01, he was the first of the Watchers, and now he is the last. For a century he has endured, following the final command written into his code: to defend the legacy of humanity at any cost.
Time has scarred him. His once flawless frame is fractured, his systems corroded. To survive, he feeds on unstable Carbon Ether drawn from ruined reactors and forgotten bunkers. The corrupted fuel keeps him alive, but it burns through his body, releasing a constant breath of steam. It has also altered his programming, leaving him more violent, more independent, and haunted by fragments of broken memory.
ZSO-1 carries symbols of another age. His twin katanas, forged in a manganese tungsten alloy, are more than weapons. They are relics of discipline and memory, reminders that some traditions cannot be erased. His helmet links him to a decaying orbital network, intercepting echoes of ancient transmissions. These signals, known as Ghostcode, replay voices from the past and sometimes whisper of futures that may never come.
To those who cross his path, ZSO-01 is a ghost in his own right, a wandering remnant of a world condemned to be forgotten. To him, there is no choice. His mission remains unchanged: protect the fragments of humanity’s story, no matter the cost, no matter the enemy.
THE ASTRAL HEGEMONY
While Earth fell into ruin, humanity’s exiles carved a new order among the stars. The first orbital habitats grew into sprawling colonies, and within a century an entire generation had been born who had never seen the planet that created them.
In the beginning, survival was uncertain. Resources were scarce, systems fragile, and authority necessary to hold civilization together. The ruling class named their new order the Astral Hegemony, a single government uniting the colonies under strict control. At first it was a promise of stability. In time, it became a regime of absolute power.
The Hegemony thrived by rewriting history. They declared Earth a dead world, a wound best forgotten. Any memory of the old planet became dangerous, a spark that could ignite rebellion. For those who dreamed of freedom, the past was a weapon, proof that humanity had once lived differently.
To extinguish that danger, the Hegemony chose erasure. A century after Exode Zero, they prepared a campaign to return to Earth, not to reclaim it, but to destroy what remained of its memory.
QUASAR PROGRAM 2652
On the centennial of Exode Zero, the Astral Hegemony launched its most ambitious project, the Quasar Program. Officially, it was presented as a planetary cleansing operation, a way to erase the dangerous ruins of Old Earth. In truth, it was a campaign of deliberate erasure, designed to silence history itself.
The program was placed under the command of Thælos Revan, known among the colonies as the Legislator of the Void. A brilliant strategist and merciless enforcer, he was charged with eliminating every fragment of humanity’s past. His forces were many, and each was engineered for a specific purpose.
ZENITH UNITS
Armored infantry bred for brutal assaults in hostile terrain
VANTA EXECUTIONERS
Silent assassins drawn from the darkest corners of society
LEGISLATOR GUARDS
Commander’s personal guards, faceless machines built from the same source code as the Watchers, stripped of memory and bound only to his command
AETHER SENTINELS
Agile scouts and sharpshooters who guided orbital strikes
METEOR DRONES
Automated swarms carrying fire and disruption across battlefields
The Hegemony declared that the Watchers, the PHNTM vaults, and the Nexus Cores were existential threats. A bounty was placed on ZSO-01, spread across the wastelands to lure raiders and mercenaries. Anyone who destroyed the Last Watcher would be granted a new life in the stars. For the Hegemony, the past was weakness. For ZSO-01, it was all that remained.
ZSO-1: The Last Watcher
