Set the rule. Pay the price.
In a world where every action is bound by ruthless rules of engagement, one operative moves through the shadows of hospitals, streets, and surveillance corridors—where silence is currency and witnesses determine survival.
Every mission is a gamble with strict conditions: one shot each, no collateral, no escape. Break the rules and the system makes you pay. Bound by code, hunted by drones, and forced into uneasy truces, Armistice isn’t just about survival—it’s about rewriting the cost of war in the dead of night.
Set the rule. Pay the price.
In a world where every action is bound by ruthless rules of engagement, one operative moves through the shadows of hospitals, streets, and surveillance corridors—where silence is currency and witnesses determine survival.
Every mission is a gamble with strict conditions: one shot each, no collateral, no escape. Break the rules and the system makes you pay. Bound by code, hunted by drones, and forced into uneasy truces, Armistice isn’t just about survival—it’s about rewriting the cost of war in the dead of night.
ARMISTICE #1 — “Quiet Hours (3:33)”
Chapter Synopsis
At 3:31 A.M., our operative slips into St. Miriam Hospital under blackout drizzle and buzzing exit signs. The rules follow her like ghosts: 1 SHOT EACH. WITNESS REQUIRED. NO COLLATERAL.
She scouts the empty halls, syncing to heart-monitors and CCTV rhythms. A gurney rattles. The “cost clock” starts ticking toward a forced blackout. To keep the system from auto-muting the mission, she flags a janitor as her required witness and deploys two custodial drones—reprogrammed to pass as housekeeping. Chalk marks appear on the tiles: move on my word, not before.
ICU corridor. The target isn’t a person to kill—it’s a failing signal. One shot must land clean. She and a second operator split tasks: stabilize a patient’s line with a single precise med dose (one shot), then ghost the floor toward “Compiler”—the network core rumored to live in the sub-basement. Drones hum, doors whisper NETWORK AUTHORIZED ONLY, and red target halos keep finding her.
Down on B-Level the op wobbles. Cameras tag her: TARGET LOCKED. Another figure confronts her—accusing her of stealing “Caliban,” a tool or program the system won’t forgive. Deployment fails. Alarms evolve. Security units boot up with stun-red optics.
Cornered in the sub-basement at 3:40 A.M., she flips the last switch she’s not supposed to have: ARMISTICE PROTOCOL—ENGAGED. The issue closes on the trigger pull of a rule—because in this world you don’t break the rules, you weaponize them.
Tone & Themes: neon-noir pressure cooker; precision over brutality; accountability through witnesses; the cost of keeping bystanders safe when the system would rather you didn’t.