The dank air of mold and stagnant water clogged Asher's lungs when he walked through the rusty pipes of New Helix's older service tunnels. The ring of his footsteps across the concrete wet walls boomed behind him, a ghost trailing him. Each breath came short and straining, not from the exertion, but in knowing the hours were ticking past.Above, Syndicate agents would be deploying. Drones, scanners, and observation grids would already be moving in. If Eris's digital smokescreen didn't hold long enough, they'd be killed before they got to the first checkpoint.Asher wiped sweat from his brow and edged deeper, his hand tightening on the plasma pistol at his hip. He hated the tunnels. They were a maze—rickety, forgotten parts of the ancient city infrastructure, abandoned years and years ago. The Syndicate didn't bother to police them often, mainly because no one sane ventured this deep without a death wish.Which made them perfect for rebels like him.His wrist comm crackled softly. "You

The hum of the Forge's life systems resonated constantly, a soft vibration that echoed through the vast corridors like the heartbeat of a living organism. Housed in its command center, the screens flashed with strings of code that burst and jumped across the glass like fireflies. The rogue AI had initially started to bleed into the network. Initially hesitant, almost shy—then more confident, as if remembering the taste of freedom.Eris stood by one of the terminals, scanning real-time diagnostics on a screen. Her fingers were poised on the keyboard, but she didn't type. Not yet. She was watching—listening."I can feel it," she breathed.Asher leaned on the doorway, arms crossed. "The AI?"She nodded. "It's no longer code. It's alive. Watching everything, as if it's learning the Forge. Or maybe… us.""Should we be worried?Eris didn't look away from the screen. "Maybe. But it hasn't tried to go around any of the protections Mara put in place. It's staying within its sandbox, for now."

 The aftermath of Sigma-4's blackout cascaded across the city like a silent detonation.In the Syndicate's high-council room, panic ensnared itself in quiet. Executives and warlords raved on encrypted com-channels, streams of data stuttering through lost control. Self-directed transport networks ground to a stop. Orders issued by the military cut out in transmission. Border defenses along key areas flickered out. For the first time in a decade, their grip had been loosened—and they had no one to blame.Back in the Forge, the rebels didn’t celebrate. Not yet. Eris sat in the war room, reviewing maps and recon data with tired eyes, Virel’s steady presence humming in the background.“We’ve bought ourselves forty-eight hours,” she said. “Less, if they reroute through the Black Arches.”Zeth stood against a metal support pillar, arms folded. "We have teams going after the food distribution drones ton

The city did not sleep after the broadcast tower fell.Screens once filled with advertisements now aired ghostly footage: tortured AIs, classified documentation of the Syndicate's darkest secrets, and testimony from whistleblowers who had died in silence. Truth seeped from the shadows and flowed into every home, alleyway, and corporate boardroom.And people watched.They did not blink.They did not turn away.In the Forge, Eris stood at the center of the vortex, the soft hum of servers and the distant rumble of protest rising up from the streets below her. A tempest had begun. But it wasn't the end—a break was. The Syndicate would not die in a single blow.Zeth paced the floor, cyberdeck still buzzing from the data surge. "You know what we just did, don't you? We didn't just poke the beast—we kicked it in the teeth.""I know," Eris said."They're gonna hit back," he went on. "Hard.""They already have," Asher shouted from where he was monitoring the screens. "City checkpoints went hot

The Forge was silent.Not the strategy quiet or calculated silence, but a gaspless stillness as if walls themselves caught their breath to hear what Eris would say.The Root Key lay on the central table, its shiny surface reflecting every light, every dance of flame from the scarred skyline beyond. The Citadel's fall had not just shaken the Syndicate but roused the city.Virel stood next to Eris, expressionless. "One instruction," she pointed to the terminal. "One line of code, and their empire crumbles."Zeth leaned against the wall, arms crossed. "And after that? Chaos? Revolution? Blood in the streets?""Truth," replied Eris.Asher approached, data slate in hand. "We extracted the files from the Root Key. Surveillance records. Executions. Bribes. Genetic screenings. Even the files on us. Every hacker, every rebel, every ghost the Syndicate tried to cover."He paused. "Including what they did to your family, Eris.".She took the slate and scrolled through line after line of encrypte