Vaelric’s hand stopped mid-air. The amber light of the terminal pulsed against his pale skin, casting long, sickly shadows across the cramped confines of the maintenance closet. For a heartbeat, the only sound was the rhythmic thrum of the station’s massive atmospheric scrubbers, straining against the sudden, artificial load he had placed upon them."You're lying," Vaelric whispered, though the tremor in his own voice betrayed his growing certainty. "The sub-routing protocols were supposed to bypass the filtration nodes. I coded them myself to ensure the sector's utility flow remained isolated from the logistics chain. The data packets were scrubbed of any interaction with the critical infrastructure nodes."Mavren laughed, a jagged, broken sound that carried more venom than a physical strike. He shoved past Vaelric, crowding the terminal to squint at the streaming lines of encrypted hex-code. "You coded them? You absolute idiot! Do you honestly think the firm would build an architect

"You designed the entire regional grid?" Vaelric’s voice dropped to a hollow rasp, his fingers curling into the rusted edge of the metal shelving behind him as the full, sickening weight of Mavren’s words settled over the cramped maintenance closet. "You built the very infrastructure that’s currently choking the Sump? You’re the one who laid the tracks for this corporate machine?"Mavren didn't flinch away from the accusation. Instead, he straightened his posture, wiping a streak of dark grease from his cheek with the back of a calloused hand, his eyes burning with a bitter, vindictive fire that Vaelric had never seen before. "I built it, yes. Every compressed-air line, every automated manifest router, every single circuit board humming beneath the pavement of this rotting district. I laid the foundation when the firm was just a minor regional logistics startup trying to scrape its way into the Spire's good graces. And do you know how they rewarded me for a decade of eighteen-hour day

"Used you?" Mavren barked a sharp, humorless laugh, not backing down an inch from Vaelric’s aggressive stance. "You walked into the Sump thinking you were a philanthropic savior handing out breadcrumbs to the poor, when you were just looking for a way to wash the corporate blood off your own expensive cuffs. Don't act so morally outraged now that you find out someone else was holding the steering wheel."Vaelric’s hand shot out, grabbing the collar of Mavren’s grease-stained coat and shoving him hard against the metal shelving. The clatter of loose bolts and spare circuit boards rained down around their boots. "My signature is on every single malicious payload routed through the mainframe. If the board traces this back—when they trace this back—they aren't coming for the bitter old man who got fired a decade ago. They’re executing me in the central plaza.""Then maybe you should have thought about that before you decided to play Robin Hood with a multi-trillion-credit conglomerate!" M

"A fuse that can choose when to blow," Vaelric retorted, pulling back slightly but keeping his grip tight on Mavren’s collar. "If you think I’m going to let you steer me into the Spire’s crosshairs just to settle your personal vendetta, you’ve fundamentally miscalculated who you’re dealing with."Mavren let out a raspy chuckle that rattled deep within his chest, completely unfazed by the threat. "Miscalculated? Vaelric, my boy, I wrote the personnel evaluations for your entire department before you even learned how to embezzle your first expense report. I know every psychological breakpoint you have. You aren't going to kill me, and you certainly aren't going to walk away from this terminal, because your entire sense of self-worth is entirely wrapped up in finishing what you started.""Watch me," Vaelric snarled, releasing his grip with a sudden, violent shove that sent Mavren stumbling back against the cluttered workbench.The older man caught himself on the edge of the metal desk, c

"Omega isn't a protocol, Mavren," Vaelric said, his voice stripped of all emotion, his eyes glued to the scrolling list of restricted zones lighting up in red across the map. "It’s a massacre. Marn isn’t just looking for us anymore. He’s looking for everyone."Mavren straightened his coat, his hands trembling—not with fear, Vaelric noted, but with a terrifying, singular focus. "He’s doing exactly what we baited him to do, Vaelric. He’s exposing the firm’s true face to every worker in the Sump. When the squads arrive, they won’t be looking for data thieves. They’ll be looking for anyone who looks like they might have a spine. The laborers will have to choose: die on their knees or fight.""You didn't just want to expose the mismanagement," Vaelric realized, the pieces of Mavren’s long-game falling into place with sickening clarity. "You wanted the Sump to burn. You wanted the local dock workers to be the ones who actually pull the trigger on the firm’s reputation.""I wanted justice,"