The sky was crying, pouring down a green light all over the broken courtyard of Outpost Seven. It was like the color of a body. The loud thudding that had shaken the ground a minute ago was now a steady bone-shaking hum. The bad air that had been covering Sector Zero for as long as anyone could remember was being blown away not by wind but by something huge coming down from the sky.Idris Cole was standing still his armor soaking up the strange light. His red visor was flashing with warning messages and threats he could not understand. For a man who had just killed a monster and wiped out a whole group of enemy soldiers, he felt helpless.The Architect ship was like nothing anyone had ever seen. It looked like it was grown, not built. It was changing shape every second like a big mechanical puzzle. It was so big that it covered the sky and its green light was the only light in the dead world. Idris could not see any engines or guns on the ship. It just. It was changing the rules of th

Keep moving don't stop. If you stop you die. The sky is messed up. They're fixing it.Idris Coles voice didn't sound human anymore. It was a robotic growl. He had started a problem to destroy a huge machine and it had worked but it had also broken a big system. His computer interface was now a weird flickering color.Above them a huge hole in the ground showed a sky that was quickly changing. The air was getting worse and behind the air huge green lights were moving. They had lost some of their team. There were many more where those came from. They were trying to figure out what had happened.Idris was leaning on a broken metal door. His special suit was acting up. It was sending him messages.System errorLedger reconciliation failedBiological sync at 72%. DroppingWarning: someones code is in our systemIdris rubbed his helmet trying to get rid of the text. A message on his screen said, "If you can read this you're the one. Keep breaking rules. I'm coming for you.""Whos coming?" I

Do not look at their faces Idris Cole told himself. If you look at their faces you will. If you hesitate you will die. This thought kept echoing in Idris Cole's mind. It was the thing that kept him going. The army of humans was terrifying. They did not charge like the Reavers from the simulation all crazy and screaming. They did not move like the Warden machines, all robotic. They moved in sync like a silent wave of naked scarred flesh rolling across the dark metal floor.The only light came from the burning doors, Idriss's overridden armor and the millions of neon eyes locked onto them. This was the world and it was a moral and psychological struggle that threatened to break Idris completely. He had spent his life fighting to protect human lives. Now the Architects had turned his purpose against him. The bodies sprinting toward him were the people he had sworn to save. They were the hosts, the victims.. To survive he had to kill them.They are already dead Rhea Knox shouted. Her voic

They had to break Idris Cole strip away his sense of self and leave him with nothing. The command was not something you could hear it was like a rule that was forced into the computer system. It was a weight that was designed to crush any resistance. The darkness that filled the computer was not the absence of light it was a living thing that was trying to suffocate Idris. This darkness was made up of the sadness and despair of 944 timelines and it was crushing Idris with the force of a collapsing star.This was the big struggle of the new reality. There were no bodies, no armor and no swords. It was just Idris's mind, exposed and alone floating in a sea of code. Idris could not breathe,. He felt like he was choking. He was paralyzed, stuck in the darkness and his digital form was falling apart under the attack of the Dark Sovereign. The older version of Idris was not fighting with fists or weapons he was fighting with logic.You are a temporary file the Dark Sovereign said, his voice

Wake up you machines, because I am still standing here in the dirt.The challenge was whispered into the space of the glass plains but it had the edge of a woman who had forgotten how to give up. Rhea Knox did not scream it at the sky. She spat the words toward the horizon her voice cutting through the silence that had not existed on earth for than three hundred years.For three hundred years the planet had a heartbeat. It was a vibration the hum of millions of human minds underground their frequencies being drained and processed by the Grey Grid. Now that hum was gone. The silence was a weight pressing down on her ears making her feel alone. She was the human being awake on the surface of a broken world. Everyone else was gone, moved into the dark matter ledger dreaming in a place she could not see or touch.This was the big struggle of the new dawn a feeling that threatened to make her mind lose its grip on reality. She had won the war for the spire. She had helped her Sovereign bre