Revelation. Malfunction Prequel Novellas, #1

With everyone he cares about either dead or long absent, Cowl Coven has lost interest in life.  Despite the endless distractions of a high-profile job as a programmer in the Hub and nightly runs into the chasm below for the black market, he still finds himself looking for a way out. When a hacked piece of data reveals what seems to be human life on the desolate, alien-infested surface of Earth he thinks he might have just found it.  What he finds instead is secret government project that has destroyed the lives of thousands.
Human beings are being mangled and equipped with mechanical devices that rob them of all self-agency.   Cowl is forced to decide if he will hold on to a safe life he doesn't really want or if he's going to accept the danger to save one of the victims