The rain in New Neo-York never stopped. It was a thick, oily drizzle that turned the neon lights into blurred smears of pink and blue. Detective Elias Thorne sat in his office, the smoke from his cigarette curling like a question mark in the dim light.

The city was in a frenzy. The "Maya Ark" had been announced—a massive colony ship that would carry the "Selected" to a new world before the Earth's core collapsed. The Selection process was a mystery, handled by a shadowy organization called The Aegis. If you got the Golden Ticket, you were saved. If you didn't, you waited for the end.

Thorne didn't have a ticket. He had a bottle of rye and a client who had paid him five thousand credits to find her missing son, a "Selected" who had vanished three days before departure.

"He was so happy," the mother had sobbed. "He thought he was going to paradise."

Thorne followed the trail through the undercity, through the gambling dens and the synthetic-skin clinics. He eventually found the "Embarkation Center," a monolithic tower of black steel. Using a forged pass and a lot of luck, he slipped into the loading bays.

He expected to see a spaceship. He expected to see thousands of people boarding a vessel for the stars.

Instead, he found a slaughterhouse.

The "Ark" was not a ship. It was a massive, industrial-scale processing plant. The "Selected" weren't being sent to another world; they were being harvested. Their organs, their genetic material, their very consciousness—everything was being extracted to sustain a small, hidden colony of the ultra-rich who had already left Earth years ago.

The Golden Ticket wasn't a pass to paradise; it was a dinner invitation.

Thorne stood in the shadows, watching as a young man—the client's son—was led into a chrome chamber. The boy was smiling, talking about the new world, about the fresh air and the green fields. He didn't see the surgical needles descending from the ceiling.

"Damn it," Thorne whispered, his hand tightening around his revolver.

He tried to trigger the alarm, to warn the thousands of people waiting in line outside. But as he reached for the console, a cold barrel pressed against the back of his neck.

"You're a curious man, Detective," a voice purred. It was the Director of The Aegis, a man with a smile as sharp as a razor. "But curiosity is a luxury for those who have a future. You, however, are just a remnant."

Thorne didn't fight. He just looked at the boy in the chamber, who was now screaming as the process began.

"Tell me one thing," Thorne asked, his voice cold. "Is there really another world?"

The Director laughed. "Of course there is. It's beautiful. But it's far too small for people like you."

The trigger clicked. Thorne fell into the oily rain, just another nameless body in a city that had already been sold.

*** [OTMES_V2_CODE: V-14-T5-09-R:0.0-I:1.0-M1:9.0-M3:8.0-theta:240]