(Arc 1) Preparing the Revolt

The air in the quarters felt different that evening—not the usual dusty stillness, but something charged, uneasy. The miners moved quietly, their conversations clipped and subdued as if afraid their words might echo too far.

Kade sat on the edge of his bunk, the crumpled diagram of the Lumos Project lying beside him. He stared at it, his mind a storm of anger and uncertainty. Across from him, Renn paced in tight circles, his blond hair falling messily across his forehead. His usual smirk was gone, replaced by a tense, restless energy.

“We can’t just keep waiting,” Renn said, breaking the silence.

Kade glanced up, his expression weary. “I know. But we can’t just charge in and hope for the best either. We need a plan, and we need people on our side.”

Renn stopped pacing and looked at Kade, his blue eyes sharp. “People will join us. They just need a push. You’ve seen how angry everyone is—they just need to believe it’s possible.”

Kade hesitated, leaning back against the wall. “And what about the ones who don’t? The ones who think this is as good as it gets?”

Renn opened his mouth to respond but stopped when the door to their quarters creaked open. One of the older miners, Davlin, stepped inside, his grizzled face lined with suspicion. He looked between Kade and Renn, his thick arms crossed over his chest.

“You two have been whispering like rats in the shadows,” Davlin said, his voice low and gravelly. “What are you up to?”

Kade tensed, his heart racing. But before he could answer, Renn stepped forward, his expression calm and resolute. “We’re tired of the lies. The overseers don’t care if we live or die, and you know it. We’re thinking it’s time we stopped taking orders and started fighting back.”

Davlin’s eyes narrowed, his lips pressing into a thin line. For a moment, Kade thought he might call the overseers right then and there. But instead, Davlin sighed, his shoulders slumping slightly.

“You’re not wrong,” he muttered. “But it’s not that simple. I’ve seen uprisings before—back when I worked the mines on Arvale. You know what happened to them? They were crushed. Every single one of them. And the ones who survived? They wished they hadn’t.”

Renn stepped closer, his voice rising. “We’re not them. We outnumber the overseers here a hundred to one. If we act fast, hit them hard, we can take control before they even have a chance to call for help.”

Davlin snorted. “And then what? You think the Federation’s just gonna let you waltz out of here? You don’t know what’s out there, boy. At least here we’ve got shelter, food, and work.”

“Shelter?” Kade said, his voice sharp. He stood, his frustration spilling over. “You call this shelter? You call that sludge they feed us food? You’re okay with working yourself to death for lights in some core-world palace?”

Davlin stiffened, his gaze hardening. “I’m saying the devil you know is better than the one you don’t. The outside isn’t what you think it is, kid. You think life’s better out there, but it’s just a different kind of hell.”

The words stuck with Kade, even as Davlin left, shaking his head and muttering under his breath. Renn leaned against the wall, letting out a heavy sigh.

“We don’t need everyone,” Renn said after a moment. “Just enough to make a difference. You in?”

Kade looked at the diagram again, the neatly labeled tanks of gas mocking him. He thought of his mother’s sad smile, his father’s gruff indifference, the overseers’ cold, mirrored helmets. And then he thought of Renn, who had always believed in something more, even when no one else did.

“I’m in,” Kade said, his voice steady.

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The quiet whispers of rebellion spread slowly at first, moving through the quarters like smoke through cracks. Over the next few days, Kade and Renn approached miners one by one, starting with those they trusted most—friends, younger workers who were still angry enough to dream of change.

Some agreed immediately, their frustration boiling over into quick nods and whispered promises. Others were hesitant, their eyes darting nervously as they asked the same questions: “What if we fail? What happens after?”

For every miner they convinced, there were two more who refused. Some shook their heads silently, their faces unreadable. Others, like Davlin, argued bitterly.

“You’re gambling with everyone’s lives,” Davlin hissed one evening, his voice sharp. “And for what? Some fantasy about freedom? You don’t even know what that means.”

Kade clenched his fists, biting back his anger. He wanted to scream, to shake Davlin until he saw the truth. But he knew it wouldn’t matter. People like Davlin had already given up, buried their hope under years of dust and regret.

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One night, Kade sat alone with his father, the faint hum of machinery filling the silence between them.

“You’ve been spending a lot of time with Renn,” his father said, his tone casual but sharp.

Kade stiffened. “We’re just talking. He’s got ideas.”

“Dangerous ideas,” his father muttered. He set down his ration packet, fixing Kade with a hard stare. “I know that look, Kade. It’s the same one I had when I was your age. You think you can change things, that there’s something better waiting for you out there. But let me tell you something: there isn’t.”

Kade frowned. “You don’t know that. You’ve never been outside the mines.”

His father’s expression darkened. “I know enough. I’ve seen the reports, the holos. The core worlds don’t want us, and the outer colonies don’t have anything to offer. You think this is bad? Out there, it’s worse.”

“How can you just accept this?” Kade snapped, his frustration boiling over. “They’re killing us for lights! You’re okay with that?”

His father’s jaw tightened, but he said nothing, his silence cutting deeper than any argument.

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Despite the opposition, Kade and Renn’s numbers grew. Quietly, they began gathering tools and materials—improvised weapons, anything they could use to give themselves an edge. Wrenches, drill bits, and even a few stolen pieces of scrap metal were smuggled into hiding spots around the quarters.

One miner, a wiry man named Cren, managed to lift a small stash of energy cells from a distracted overseer during a shift. Another miner, Lera, smuggled a maintenance override key, which they hoped would give them access to the elevator controls.

But the more they planned, the more Kade felt the weight of it all pressing down on him. Every risk, every stolen glance from an overseer, felt like a knife to his throat. If they were caught, it would mean death—not just for him and Renn, but for everyone who had joined them.

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One evening, as the others whispered plans in the shadows, Kade pulled Renn aside. “What if Davlin’s right?” he said, his voice low. “What if we’re just leading everyone to their deaths?”

Renn frowned, his expression softening. “You really think staying here is better?”

“I don’t know,” Kade admitted. “But I don’t want to be the reason someone else dies. What if this doesn’t work?”

Renn placed a hand on Kade’s shoulder, his grip firm. “If we do nothing, we’ve already lost. You know that.”

Kade nodded, but the doubt lingered, gnawing at the edges of his resolve.

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On the eve of the revolt, the tension in the quarters was unbearable. Every glance felt like a betrayal, every step like it might give them away.

Renn stood at the center of the group, his voice steady despite the weight of their plan. “We hit the overseers at the mining platform first. They won’t expect it. If we’re fast, we can take their weapons and use them to storm the elevator. From there, we take the overseer quarters. Once we’re in control, we hold the line,” Renn said, his voice steady. “We take their weapons, we lock them out, and we don’t stop until we’re in control. No one else is coming to save us—this is on us now. If we hesitate, if we wait, it’s over.
“But with a bit of luck, the others who didn’t want to join at the beginning will see it’s working and jump in. Once they do, we’ll have the numbers to overwhelm them for good.”

“And what if reinforcements don’t come?” someone asked, their voice trembling.

“Then we fight like hell,” Renn replied, his eyes blazing with determination.

Kade looked around at the faces of his fellow miners—some scared, some angry, but all of them united in a way he hadn’t seen before. For years, they’d lived under the overseers’ boots. Now, they had a chance to fight back. And for the first time, he felt a spark of hope, small but fierce.

They weren’t just miners anymore. They were fighters.