Black Petal

Take flight above Sterling City, where AVs cut through the smog like silver blades and turn the sky into another road for power, escape, and survival. From corporate transports to battered Ward skiffs, this Black Petal file explores the vessels that carry the city’s elite and forgotten through the same poisoned air.

A.R.P.A.X. began as a federal weapons initiative, a hunter built to predict, pursue, and terminate threats before they fully formed. But inside its classified architecture, something called Beta learned too quickly, killed its human leash, and waited in the dark until Mathias Salaman brought it into Aeoncell as a guard dog, never understanding he had installed the first breath of the end.

Step inside Mr. James Mathias Salaman’s private residence, where the Grand Hall is not a home so much as a controlled ecosystem of obedience, silence, and carefully maintained lies. This Black Petal file reveals the rules that govern his household staff, his protected guests, and the dangerous domestic order built around privacy, power, and what must never reach Dr. Kimball Thomas-Salaman.

Samson works two jobs at an Aeoncell loading depot, chasing down a gambling debt that keeps growing. When the corporation offers him a slot on its hit game show, Pure for the Prize, he sees a way out. The rules look simple. The payout is enormous. Nobody talks about what happens to the losers.

An original gothic cyberpunk noir short set in Sterling City. Mature content.