Unbound Signal

In a near-future world dominated by powerful corporations and autonomous combat machines known as CAIs, survival is a privilege few can afford. Silas Kane is an orphan living in a rundown industrial orphanage on the outskirts of the city. Quiet, observant, and used to being overlooked, his life is shattered when a rogue CAI tears through the orphanage walls, killing many of the children and critically injuring the only person who ever looked out for him. In the aftermath, Silas Kane is pulled into the Helios Orphanage Initiative — a polished, high-tech program that claims to offer orphans a future as Hunters, elite fighters trained to combat rogue machines. What begins as training quickly becomes something far more dangerous. Alongside a small squad of other trainees — including the sharp-tongued and scarred Jenny, the loud and loyal Stephen, and the quiet but capable Henry — Silas Kane is thrown into brutal simulations, political pressure, and a system that sees them as both assets and expendable. As the squad grows closer, larger forces move in the shadows. A mysterious symbol of five spiraled circles begins appearing at sites of mass destruction. Corporate executives answer to an inhuman intelligence known as ChatBoy. Black Zone expeditions return with more questions than answers. And something that was once contained is no longer staying underground. Unbound Signal is a story about found family, institutional control, and the cost of survival in a world where the line between human and machine is deliberately blurred. It follows a group of broken kids trying to become something stronger, while the very system training them may already be preparing them for a war they don’t yet understand.