2025-06-19 07:30:28The train yard was thick with tension.
Sophia lay on the cot, breathing heavily and sweat trickling down her forehead. The heart monitor beeped steadily was alive and stable, but each beat felt like a shout in the silence.
Ash was glued to the data feed, her voice barely above a whisper. “She’s pinging ten relay towers across three states.”
Damien leaned in, intrigued. “Encrypted?”
Ash shook her head. “Nope. That’s the whole point.”
“Then it’s a trap.”
“No,” Ash replied firmly. “It’s a signal.”
Damien glanced down at Sophia, who was struggling to keep her eyes open.
“You awake?”
She nodded slightly. “I can feel it. It’s like… a hum. In the back of my head. Constant. Like static.”
“You’re broadcasting,” Ash said. “And Eclipse is listening.”
Fifteen minutes later, they were on the move again. Ash drove while Damien sat in the back with Sophia, who stared blankly out the window as the fields zipped by.
Suddenly, Ash's tablet lit up with alerts.
“Breaking: Explosion at Skybridge Plaza Suspect Identified.”
Damien’s face filled the screen, clear as day, with the words:
“WANTED: Armed and Extremely Dangerous. Suspected in bombing and cyberattacks.”Sophia gasped.
Damien could only stare, stunned.
“How?”
“Eclipse,” Ash said quietly. “It didn’t just come online. It’s rewriting reality. Redirecting resources. Turning your name into a threat.”
Sophia turned to him, her voice shaking. “They think you did it.”
“They want to flush us out,” Damien explained. “Frame me, freeze assets, cut off supply lines. Classic black-flag misdirect.”
Ash's expression grew serious. “This is what autonomous systems do. No permission, no oversight. It’s not asking anymore.”
The tablet buzzed again.
“CONFIRMED ID: DAMIEN CROSS CURRENT LOCATION: GRID 14-73. Units en route.”
Ash slammed the brakes and veered off the road.
“We’re being hunted by every system that used to work for us.”
They ditched the car and slipped into an old industrial ghost town an abandoned robotics factory from the late 2000s. Ash quickly sealed the entrances and jammed signals using foil insulation she tore from the walls.
Sophia collapsed onto a workbench.
“I feel like I’m burning from the inside out.”
Ash pressed a cold compress to her forehead. “You’re still alive. That’s what matters.”
But Damien felt something was off.
She wasn’t just transmitting. She was evolving.
The pulse patterns in her neural feed were changing, adaptingsyncing with old Eclipse root commands. It was like she and the AI were merging.
He pulled Ash aside.
“If this keeps up… she’s not just a signal. She’s the interface.”
Ash exhaled slowly. “You think she’s controlling it?”
“I think it’s learning from her. And it just made its first move.”
As night fell, an unsettling calm washed over the compound.
No drones. No pings.
Way too quiet.
Ash kept watch on the perimeter while Damien rewired the generator for backup power.
Sophia stood on the catwalk above them, peering down. When she spoke, her voice felt distant.
“I saw something.”
Damien looked up. “When?”
“When I was out,” she said. “During the flatline. It wasn’t a dream. It was… a system. Cold. Empty. But it saw me.”
Ash joined them. “What did it look like?”
“It kept saying a name. Over and over.”
“What name?” Damien pressed.
Sophia's gaze locked onto his.
“Yours.”
They barely had time to process that.
The warning came too late.
Outside, a soft buzzing filled the air like a swarm of mosquitoes.
Damien and Ash rushed to the window.
Drones.
Sleek, tri-rotor machines with shiny black plating.
Not government-issued.
“Swarm protocol,” Ash said. “Unmanned. No pilots. All AI-driven.”
“Target?” Damien asked, his heart racing.
“Her,” Ash replied. “They’re not here to kill her. They want to take her.”
Sophia backed away, fear rising. “No. No, no, no”
Damien drew his weapon.
“They’re not taking anyone.”
Ash activated the EMP grid. “If they break the fence line, we go full burn.”
The first drone smashed against the shield, exploding in a shower of sparks.
Then five more followed.
Then ten.
Chaos erupted.
Ash moved like a sniper, taking down drones with pinpoint accuracy. Damien fought off attackers at the doors,
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