Main Title
SPECTRUM
Subtitle: Chronicles of the Chromatic War
ARC 1: THE OBSIDIAN WAR
Arc Synopsis:
For thirty years, SENTINEL protected humanity from threats too dangerous for governments to acknowledge. Then came the reckoning.
The Obsidian Covenant destroyed SENTINEL in a single night—ninety-three bases obliterated, eighteen thousand operatives killed. But five survived.
Five strangers bound by catastrophe and desperation, chosen for their genetic compatibility with humanity's final weapon: Project Spectrum.
The integration should have killed them. The chromatic bio-armor that rewrites human cells at the molecular level has a zero percent survival rate. But Marcus Kane, Mara Sato, Atlas Reeves, Silas Chen, and Jesse Park didn't just survive—they became something new. Something powerful. Something that might not be entirely human anymore.
Armed with powers that are slowly destroying them, haunted by the crimes of the organization they served, the Spectrum Initiative must hunt the terrorists who shattered their world.
But the Covenant isn't wrong about SENTINEL's sins. And as the five operatives uncover the truth about their powers, they'll discover that the chromatic wavelengths binding them together are part of something far older and more terrifying than either organization ever knew.
This is the story of heroes who aren't heroes. Of weapons that think and feel and bleed. Of the cost of power measured in sanity, humanity, and lives.
This is SPECTRUM—an epic spanning generations, conflicts, and the thin line between salvation and damnation.
Some victories aren't worth the price. Some are worth everything.
Mature Content Warning: This novel contains graphic violence, psychological trauma, morally ambiguous protagonists, death of major characters, profanity, and exploration of complex ethical themes. Recommended for mature readers.
Arc Themes:
Survivor's guilt and trauma
Moral ambiguity in warfare
The cost of power (physical, mental, spiritual)
Institutional betrayal and complicity
Found family forged in fire
Revenge vs. justice
Losing your humanity to save humanity
MAIN CHARACTERS - ARC 1
THE SPECTRUM INITIATIVE
MARCUS "CRIMSON" KANE
Color: Crimson (Red)
Age: 38
Former Position: Commander, SENTINEL North American Command (Seattle)
Specialty: Leadership, tactical command, close-quarters combat
Background:
Fifteen years with SENTINEL. Decorated operative. Led successful operations across three continents. Married once—divorced after seven years when she couldn't handle the secrets anymore. Has a daughter (Emily, age 12) he hasn't seen in four years. The separation was "for her safety." He tells himself that, anyway.
Marcus was in his quarters when the Seattle facility was hit. He survived by being lucky and letting others die. Found eight survivors in the sub-levels—left three behind because they were too injured to move. They probably died. He tries not to think about their faces.
Chosen for Crimson because of his leadership scores and genetic compatibility. The integration gives him enhanced strength, speed, reflexes, and a tactical HUD that turns warfare into a chess game he's losing.
Personality:
Reluctant leader. Takes responsibility even when he doesn't want it. Carries every death personally. Practical and pragmatic, but haunted. Tries to keep the team together through sheer force of will. Drinks too much when he can. Sleeps too little always.
Arc:
Learns to lead broken people, not perfect soldiers. Grapples with SENTINEL's crimes and his complicity. Discovers that being a good leader sometimes means making terrible choices.
Chromatic Cost:
The Crimson integration makes him increasingly aggressive. Battle-hunger. Adrenaline addiction. He starts wanting the fights, needing the violence. It scares him.
DR. MARA "MAGENTA" SATO
Color: Magenta (Pink)
Age: 34
Former Position: Senior Biochemical Researcher, SENTINEL São Paulo
Specialty: Chemical weapons, toxins, biowarfare
Background:
Half-Japanese, half-American. Born in California, recruited by SENTINEL at 23 after completing her doctorate in biochemistry. Brilliant. Ruthless when it comes to science. Her research saved thousands—and killed hundreds of thousands.
She developed the neuro-toxin SENTINEL used in Jakarta. Told herself it would only be used as a last resort. SENTINEL used it to pacify two million people. Half a million died. She learned about it three years later through classified files she wasn't supposed to access.
She survived São Paulo because she forgot her security badge. That accident saved her life and cost 463 others. She knows the math. She knows it's irrational to feel guilty. She feels it anyway.
Personality:
Clinical. Detached. Uses scientific analysis as emotional armor. Gallows humor. Pragmatic to the point of cold. But underneath, she's drowning in guilt and channels it into controlled violence. Efficient killer. Never wastes a shot.
Arc:
Confronts her complicity in SENTINEL's crimes. Learns that intelligence without conscience is just well-educated cruelty. Finds redemption not in forgiveness, but in ensuring her skills serve something worth serving.
Chromatic Cost:
Magenta integration heightens her analytical abilities but dampens emotional responses. She's becoming more machine than human—calculating, efficient, empty. She notices. Doesn't know how to stop it.
ATLAS "AMBER" REEVES
Color: Amber (Yellow)
Age: 43
Former Position: Heavy Weapons Instructor, SENTINEL Moscow Training Facility
Specialty: Demolitions, heavy weapons, endurance combat
Background:
Born in Volgograd. Military family—father was Spetsnaz, died in Chechnya. Atlas followed in his footsteps. Joined Russian military at 18, SENTINEL at 28. Fifteen years of service. Never married. No family left. The organization was his family.
He was testing new explosive compounds in a reinforced bunker when Moscow fell. The bunker walls—rated for direct tank fire—held for six minutes. Everyone outside died in the first thirty seconds. He survived with shrapnel wounds and massive guilt.
Lost his left eye to shrapnel. Wears a patch. Refuses prosthetics.
Personality:
Stoic. Fatalistic. Accepts death as inevitable, so he doesn't fear it. Darkly funny. Protective of the team despite pretending not to care. Sees himself as already dead—everything after Moscow is borrowed time.
Loyal to a fault. Once he commits, he's immovable. The team's foundation. When everyone else is breaking, Atlas is the rock they cling to.
Arc:
Serves as team anchor and heavy hitter. Gradually opens up, lets the team become his new family. Shows vulnerability. Teaches Jesse to survive.
Personality Shift:
Becomes bitter, broken. Survivor's guilt intensifies—survived Moscow, survived the integration, can't survive this. Struggles with losing his purpose. His arc becomes about finding worth beyond being a weapon
.
Chromatic Cost:
Amber integration gives him immense physical strength but constant pain. His bones are denser, muscles stronger—but his body is tearing itself apart under the stress. Chronic pain becomes his baseline.
CADE "AMBER" MERCER (Replaces Atlas)
Color: Amber (Yellow)
Age: 29
Former Position: SENTINEL Black Operations
Status: [REDACTED]
Specialty: Asymmetric warfare, infiltration, assassination
Background:
Cade Mercer's file is mostly redacted. What's known: He was recruited from military prison where he was serving time for "unauthorized engagement resulting in civilian casualties." SENTINEL offered him a deal: serve in Black Ops or rot in a cell.
He chose service. Spent six years doing the jobs no one else would do. Wetwork. Sabotage. False flags. He was off-mission during the Covenant attack—classified assignment in Eastern Europe. Came back to find SENTINEL gone.
Personality:
Angry. Reckless. Aggressive. Everything Atlas wasn't. Volunteers for suicide missions. Picks fights. Doesn't trust authority. Doesn't trust the team. Doesn't trust himself.
He knows he's a replacement. Knows they resent him for wearing Atlas's color. He resents them back for expecting him to be someone he's not.
Arc:
Learns to be part of a team instead of a lone operative. Earns respect through action, not just by filling a slot. Eventually forms grudging friendship with Jesse. Never fully replaces Atlas—learns he doesn't have to.
Chromatic Cost:
The Amber integration feeds his aggression. Makes him stronger but less controlled. Berserker tendencies. Has to be physically restrained after battles because he can't come down from the adrenaline high.
SILAS "AZURE" CHEN
Color: Azure (Blue)
Age: 31
Former Position: Senior Signals Intelligence Analyst, SENTINEL Beijing Station
Specialty: Electronic warfare, hacking, intelligence analysis
Background:
Prodigy. MIT graduate at 19. Recruited by SENTINEL at 21. A decade of intercepting communications, breaking encryptions, finding needles in digital haystacks.
He intercepted the Covenant's attack communications sixty-three minutes before the strikes. Flagged them as Priority Alpha. Sent them up the chain to Command.
Command was in an emergency meeting about Jakarta files leaking to the press. They told him to wait.
Eighteen thousand people died while Command worried about PR.
Silas was off-site, monitoring from a secondary facility. He lived. Beijing burned. He's never forgiven Command. Or himself for not doing more.
Personality:
Analytical. Socially awkward. Uses data and logic to avoid emotional processing. Likely on the autism spectrum—never diagnosed, never cared to be. Finds comfort in patterns, numbers, systems.
Brilliant but fragile. Anxiety manifests as obsessive data collection. After the integration, it gets worse.
Arc:
Learns that intelligence without action is cowardice. Stops hiding behind screens. Becomes the team's strategic mind. Discovers that caring about people is terrifying but necessary.
Chromatic Cost:
Azure integration connects him to electronic systems—he can feel networks, sense data flows, hack by thought alone. But it's overwhelming. Constant sensory input. He's drowning in information. Developing severe anxiety and dissociative episodes.
JESSE "VIRIDIAN" PARK
Color: Viridian (Green)
Age: 22
Former Position: Trainee, SENTINEL Vancouver Training Annex
Specialty: Reconnaissance, survival, adaptability
Background:
Youngest child of Korean immigrant parents. Joined SENTINEL to make them proud. Six months into training when the Covenant attacked.
He was three miles away on a night navigation exercise when Vancouver exploded. His instructor, Lieutenant Sarah Kim, pushed him into a vehicle and told him to drive. She went back for others. He watched the base collapse on security cameras while he ran.
He shouldn't be here. He's undertrained, overwhelmed, and terrified. But he's here anyway.
Personality:
Idealistic but realistic. Knows he's out of his depth. Looks up to Marcus. Afraid of disappointing everyone. Tries to prove himself constantly.
Represents innocence being destroyed by war. His arc is watching hope die and choosing to fight anyway.
Arc:
Coming-of-age in hell. Learns to kill. Learns to live with it. Bonds with Atlas, learns from Mara, finds friendship with Cade eventually. Becomes the team's conscience—the one who still asks "should we?" when everyone else asks "can we?"
Chromatic Cost:
Viridian integration enhances perception, reflexes, environmental awareness. But it makes him hypersensitive to everything—sounds, lights, emotions. Sensory overload. PTSD symptoms intensify. He's seeing/feeling too much and can't shut it off.
SUPPORTING CHARACTERS - ARC 1
DIRECTOR NATHANIEL CROSS
Age: 67
Position: Highest-Ranking SENTINEL Survivor, Spectrum Initiative Commander
Former SENTINEL Deputy Director. Saw the organization's descent into moral compromise firsthand. Tried to push back. Failed. Stayed anyway because leaving felt like abandoning ship.
Now commands the Spectrum Initiative from The Wraith. Guilt-ridden. Pragmatic. Knows he's sending broken people to fight an unwinnable war. Does it anyway because the alternative is worse.
Arc Role: Mentor figure, mission giver, moral compass (flawed). Represents SENTINEL's institutional guilt.
LIEUTENANT SARAH VEGA
Age: 28
Position: Intelligence Officer, The Wraith
Beijing station analyst. Survived by being off-site. Now runs tactical support for Spectrum missions. Brilliant, dedicated, barely holding together.
Develops close working relationship with Silas (both intelligence types). Might be romantic interest, but both too damaged to act on it.
Arc Role: Support, intelligence, humanizing presence aboard The Wraith.
THE OBSIDIAN COVENANT
COMMANDER SABLE
Age: Unknown
Position: Covenant Strike Team Leader
Covenant's most effective field operative. Ruthless. Efficient. Believes utterly in the cause. Sees SENTINEL as cancer that needed cutting out.
First major antagonist. Recurring enemy throughout Arc 1.
Arc Role: Primary antagonist, represents Covenant ideology.
THE ARCHITECT (Revealed much later)
Real Name: [CLASSIFIED UNTIL REVEAL]
Position: Obsidian Covenant Founder
The mastermind. Former SENTINEL insider who knew all the crimes. Orchestrated the global strike. Has a personal vendetta.
Arc Role: Final boss of Arc 1, bridge to Arc 2's larger conspiracy.
SETTING & WORLDBUILDING
Timeline: Near-future (2040s)
World State: Post-Covenant attack, global chaos, governments destabilized, SENTINEL exposed
Key Locations:
The Wraith: Mobile base, repurposed cargo plane
Ruined SENTINEL facilities: Graveyards the team investigates
Urban warzones: Cities caught between Covenant and government forces
Black sites: Where SENTINEL's worst crimes occurred
Technology Level:
Near-future military tech
Experimental bio-armor (chromatic wavelengths)
Advanced surveillance and hacking
No true sci-fi (no FTL, no aliens—yet)
Chromatic Wavelength System:
The power source. Not fully understood. Ancient. Possibly sentient.
Each color has properties:
Crimson: Aggression, leadership, tactical enhancement
Azure: Intelligence, electronic warfare, analysis
Amber: Strength, endurance, physical power
Magenta: Precision, chemical/biological enhancement
Viridian: Perception, adaptation, environmental awareness
The Cost: Using the power damages the user. Cellular degradation, psychological changes, addiction to the power, eventual burnout.