Sentinel

The Helion vanished half a million years ago. Their artifacts didn't.

On a forgotten swamp world at the edge of explored space, a broken ex-soldier named Tavik Ward is guarding researchers who are digging into things they shouldn't. When a strike team comes for the alien energy source they've been hiding, the artifact detonates and Tav wakes up rebuilt, bonded to a dormant alien intelligence, and linked to a fifteen-foot drake through a bond forged in blood.

The Aegis Commission has controlled alien-derived power since the Restoration Accords. They don't tolerate untrained wielders. They don't explain themselves. And they don't let people like Tav walk away.

Given a choice between service and execution, Tav enters a world of faction politics, hidden classes, and a progression system tied to a legacy the Aegis doesn't fully understand. His mentor is a retired knight with secrets of his own. His bond with the drake is built on violence and teeth. And the intelligence in his head is still deciding how much it wants to help.

Rifts are opening between dimensions. Something ancient is coming through. And the institution that owns Tav may be more dangerous than whatever's on the other side.