Lex Cedes Lex Cedes is a soldier who survived long enough to become a legend in a world that no longer believes soldiers should exist. Born in the late 20th century and recruited into the military as a young man, Lex was courageous, disciplined, fiercely loyal, and fundamentally compassionate. He wasn't the strongest soldier because he enjoyed violence. He was strong because he believed in protecting people. That belief is what ultimately made him different from the weapon the military tried to create. The Man Before the Machine Lex entered the AEGIS program believing he was helping create a better soldier. Instead, he became its greatest experiment. His body was enhanced with experimental cybernetics: Artificial neural pathways woven into his nervous system Reinforced skeletal structures Synthetic muscle fibers Enhanced reflexes and perception Cybernetic eyes capable of tactical analysis Internal communications and targeting systems Integrated defensive and offensive systems A neural interface allowing him to control technology almost instinctively His body became extraordinarily powerful. But his mind remained human. That became both AEGIS's greatest success and its greatest failure. They could control his body. They couldn't completely control his conscience.

Aiko Tanaka Aiko is 22 years old, Japanese, intelligent, curious, adventurous, and a little rebellious. She grew up in the supposedly perfect society of 4045, but she has always been fascinated by the things her civilization considers irrelevant: forgotten history, abandoned technology, old stories, and the ruins beneath the modern city. That curiosity is what leads her to the forgotten AEGIS facility. And eventually, to Lex. Her connection to Lex At first, their relationship is purely accidental. Aiko finds him. She wakes him. And suddenly she's standing beside a man who was born more than two thousand years before she was. Lex doesn't understand her world. Aiko doesn't understand his. So they become teachers to one another. Aiko teaches Lex how to live in the future. She teaches him modern technology, transportation, culture, language, entertainment, and the strange rules of 4045. But Lex teaches Aiko how to understand the past. He tells her what war actually was. Not the sanitized version in history books, but the fear, sacrifice, guilt, loyalty, betrayal, and consequences that came with it. Their relationship slowly becomes something much deeper. Aiko becomes Lex's anchor to the present. Lex becomes Aiko's connection to the past

Adrian Voss was once a highly respected military commander during the early days of the AEGIS program. Intelligent, calm, disciplined, and fiercely capable, he was selected not only because of his combat abilities, but because he possessed an extraordinary strategic mind. Unlike Lex, who volunteered believing he was protecting people, Voss entered AEGIS believing that peace could only exist through strength and control. To Voss, war was not humanity's greatest failure. Chaos was. As the cybernetic experiments progressed, Voss embraced the changes. He saw enhancement not as the loss of humanity, but as evolution. If humanity could become stronger, faster, smarter, and impossible to defeat, then perhaps war itself could finally end. But this belief slowly transformed him. Where Lex held onto compassion, Voss held onto purpose. Where Lex questioned orders, Voss questioned weakness. Where Lex saw civilians, Voss saw variables. And yet, despite their differences, Voss never hated Lex. In many ways, he respected him. Perhaps even envied him. Because Lex remained something Voss could no longer be: A man first. A weapon second.