A summary of Roman Prokofiev’s "The Rebel" Automatic translate

Roman Prokofiev completed the novel in 2020. This book chronicles a civil war among Earth’s immortal defenders, in which the protagonist must confront his own legion to save the remnants of humanity. The writer shifts the focus from external survival to political intrigue, revealing the moral decay of the elites of the closed City.

Returning the Heritage

The events begin in an abandoned underground fortress of the A-Zone. The possessed Arachne and the former werewolf Alice are searching for a repairman capable of repairing the damaged Angel Wings armor. They encounter Incarnator Lefty. The former student of Prometheus has managed to subjugate the Azure essence and now controls an ancient underwater base within a gigantic Black Moon Fragment. Enormous marine biochimeras roam the area around the base. Lefty agrees to restore the equipment, concealing his own ulterior motives.

Meanwhile, Gray, realizing he is the reincarnation of the founder of Prometheus City, and the Incarnators of the "Sunrise" battle group defeat the mad Raven at the Polygon. Gray wields the Hand of Prometheus — a unique Blue Steel bracer that grants access to the Stellar System Core. Incarnators Corvin, Helios, and the Sentry swear an oath of allegiance to the hero. The group descends to the central terminal. There, they are stopped by the rulers of the City: Whisper, Fury, and the Shadowbinder Mora. The Archons refuse to recognize Gray’s authority. To avoid bloodshed, Gray cancels the Core’s activation.

The Council of Archons accuses him of aiding their enemies. The rulers demand he prove his identity with an impossible task — to single-handedly destroy all the Taken. At that moment, legionaries of the Fifth and Second Cohorts, led by Corvinus, Helios, and Rakshi, land on Esplanade Square. The troops encircle the Tower. Gray utilizes the unique abilities of the Hand of Prometheus. The Smart Matter bracer is imbued with extradimensional storage and a built-in analysis function. Gray disintegrates the translocator into atoms and forces the Archons to release him peacefully. The soldiers in the square publicly swear an ancient oath of allegiance to Prometheus.

Schism and First Blood

The rebels retreat to the First Gate base. The Council of Archons declares them outlaws, stripping them of their ranks and awards. A merchant from the secret Cat Guild warns Gray that Whisper has sent a punitive detachment to Timus, a mountain training camp for legionnaires. The Archon plans to take the clan’s youth hostage.

Gray and Helios immediately fly to the mountains. Soldiers of the Sixth Cohort, led by Legate Nagata and the Black Snake group, are already in charge. A fierce battle ensues. Nagata impales Gray with an azure spear, but Tribute Ivan saves the hero, killing the Legate with a Blue Steel bullet. The young men and women studying use hidden clan artifacts, unleashing azure creatures. The rebels are victorious, but the enemy manages to take some of the hostages away on a helicopter. Many students and mentors are killed. Gray addresses the survivors. Most of the tributes refuse to obey the City and retreat to their home settlements.

Whisper demonstrates its power. It detonates a thermonuclear charge in the atmosphere far beyond the Walls. A blinding flash and electromagnetic pulse serve as a harsh ultimatum. The Supreme Archon broadcasts a proclamation demanding unconditional surrender. The rebel legates of Raksha, Buran, and the Technion plan a coordinated night attack on the City’s Factories to cut off supply lines.

Secrets of the Technomancer

Gray proposes an information strike. A small squad infiltrates Archon Orpheus’s secret biolab in the Second Ring Road. Inside, the Incarnators discover a production line producing cyber-zombies from the bodies of slain soldiers, plantations of the drug "blue ice," and isolation wards containing the tortured victims of genetic experiments. A separate unit contains the frozen bodies of long-lost Legion heroes — Castor, Agni, and Merc — in cryocapsules. Raven finds a spare, pure clone of himself there and gains a new human body.

Orpheus appears as a remote projection. The Archon blocks the exits and unleashes hundreds of modified monsters, including a gigantic azure dragon, on the Incarnators. The battle results in severe injuries. Gray uses the mental gift "Lord of the Pack," greatly enhanced by an alien amplifier. He senses the energetic connection between the hologram and the original, remotely captures the minds of two of Orpheus’s handmaidens in the City, and forces them to push the Archon into the translocator.

The real Orpheus is transported directly into the hands of enraged rebels. Raven brutally tortures the captive with silver claws. Orpheus breaks down and reveals the code system, passwords, and the storage location of the captured Inca souls. Gray activates "Disintegration," disintegrating the Technomancer’s physical host but preserving his anima in a special container for the coming trial. Helios revives Grand Strategist Castor. The renowned commander assumes command of the rebellion.

Assault on Titan

Technomancers project the incriminating evidence they’ve collected directly onto the clouds above the City. Hundreds of thousands of people witness the crimes of the Archontic Council. In response, troops loyal to the Whisper deploy the Titan — a colossal walking fortress from the Utopian era, equipped with heavy artillery. Commander Furius mercilessly burns the rebel positions on the Second Wall, using the full firepower of the steel giant.

Alice and the merchant Kot deliver the updated Prometheus Avatar Armor to Gray, glowing with the fire of Ra’s energy. Castor conducts complex negotiations with the Legate of the Eighth Air Cohort, Cassandra. They masterfully feign Gray’s capture to gain access to the armored hull of the mobile citadel. Gray breaks free above the landing deck. With a mighty cry of "Fiery Voice," he throws off the airlock guards. The pilots of the Eighth Cohort destroy the fortress’s external anti-aircraft guns.

The battle spills into the Titan’s interior corridors. Seeing his comrades perish, Gray soars high into the sky and crashes like a blazing meteorite onto the citadel’s armored roof. His "Prometheus’s Wrath" ability pierces through the multi-meter-thick ceiling. Gray finds himself in the command center, face to face with Fury. The Grand Strategist activates an L-field, nullifying all Azure abilities. A bloody hand-to-hand fight between the giants erupts. Fury kills Cassandra, who came to Gray’s aid, and almost completely destroys Gray’s silver armor. At the last moment, Castor leaps from the hole he tore in the ceiling. He defeats Fury and pins him to the steel bulkhead with his techno-swords. Gray disintegrates the executioner’s body. The officers of the Tenth Cohort lay down their arms.

The Fall of the Archon

Realizing the impending doom, Whisper resorts to extreme measures. He launches a massive Absolute-class warhead directly at the rebel headquarters in Elayna’s Gate. Gray sacrifices the last reserves of his Armor to intercept the missile. He disintegrates the missile mid-air, absorbing a colossal burst of A-energy and dying dozens of times in a row during the process of automatic incarnations. The accumulated energy allows Gray to undergo his first Spirit Evolution. The nuclear explosion is averted.

Whisper is cornered. He seals off the City with an impenetrable Dome and summons Gray to a rocky cliff for negotiations. The Archon blackmails the hero, threatening to launch new missiles at residential areas unless the rebels leave the mainland. Gray coolly stalls for time. At that moment, rebel sabotage teams disable the City’s force field.

Whisper realizes he’s completely lost. He calls down an orbital laser strike from the Star directly on the mountain plateau, intending to incinerate Gray and Mora along with himself. Suddenly, Cat appears on the cliff. The head of the spy guild offers Gray salvation through a shadow portal in exchange for access to the Cube — the prison of ancient Incarnators, the criminals. Gray refuses to release the villains. He attacks Cat with solar fire, incinerating the blackmailer’s physical shell. A second before the lethal orbital beam hits, Mora aligns herself with Gray. She opens her dimensional burrow and transports them to safety. Whisper perishes in the blinding flames of the orbital strike.

Stellar Core

Mora transports Gray to the central terminal. She acknowledges his authority and opens the way to the dungeons. Gray uses the Connector Key and descends into a protected extradimensional space. Inside, he finds the shattered remains of the ancient spaceship "Blue Bird" and a floating golden sphere emitting a blue glow.

Gray touches a quasi-sentient mechanism. The final neural seal is activated, and the hero gains access to Prometheus’s hidden memories. Visions reveal the history of the ancient alien civilization of Bina Shi, who created Stellar. At the height of their power, this race discovered the underbelly of space — the Edge. Their combat supercomputer, the Shard, went out of control, spawned the man-made Darkness virus, and completely destroyed its creators. Earth’s Stellar remained as a lifeline aboard the Bluebird, warning the universe of the impending threat. Gray learns the truth about the Black Moon and realizes the true purpose of the First Legion’s hopeless mission.