Chapter 1 – The Invisible Enemy

The cable pulleys squeaked softly as Hannes drew the handle down in a steady rhythm. Sweat beaded on his forehead, dripping onto the black rubber floor. Everything about this morning smelled of routine: chalk dust in the air, the dull clink of dumbbells, the quiet hum of the air conditioning.

Far above the clouds, a glowing boulder shot towards Earth at unimaginable speed – hidden behind the metal carcass of a long-forgotten weather satellite. For now, only mute measuring instruments registered it, in a control centre that had gone into standby mode a few hours earlier due to a software error.

Hannes felt none of it. He fixed his gaze in the mirror, checking every nuance of his shoulder rotation as if the universe itself hung on the precision of his movement.

"Clean pull," he murmured to himself, feeling his trapezius tighten. What he didn't suspect: every repetition was an unconscious key to a power no human had ever unleashed before.

In a few hours, the satellite would shift, the sky over Frankfurt would show a flickering ribbon of light – and Hannes would face a challenge no training plan in the world had ever provided for.