Panzer Island: The Novel¶
Something went wrong on Panzer Island. The population was evacuated. The research facility went dark. The AI defense units stood down and did not start again.
Erika wakes on the island with no memory of any of it. Her credentials still work. Her body knows how to activate the units, run the panels, navigate the facility, before her conscious mind catches up. She does not know why.
She reactivates three AI units: Katyusha, who gives status reports on things she cannot account for; Nadeshiko, who reaches for memories and finds gaps; and Maria, who calls Erika "Doc" like she has said it many times before.
Someone is leaving messages in red paint across the island. The messages suggest that whatever happened was not an accident, and that the answers are at the center.
Erika designed the system at the heart of this. She does not remember what she did with it.
Panzer Island is a post-catastrophe mystery told in alternating chapters: Erika's present-day investigation and flashback chapters that reveal what the island looked like before. The truth builds one layer at a time, and each layer reframes the last.
New chapters are published Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
Also available on Royal Road.
Chapter illustrations are generated with Google Gemini.
Play Panzer Island now on Steam, Google Play, or in your browser on itch.io. You can also try the combat-focused Reddit game. Or read the webnovel.