The Red Broadcast
The sky pulsed crimson over Mareten.
Communications failed. Drones dropped. Civilian systems went dark.
And from the coast inward, one signal repeated:
"VANTA-13 ACTIVE. COMPLY OR BE RESET."
Evan, Maya, Trey, Frost, Lyra, and Signal regrouped in the ruins of a dead relay station on Ridge Four.
The air was filled with static.
No satellites.
No command chains.
Signal scanned the red haze. "This isn't a message. It's an override."
Maya was already typing into a decrypted node. "Broadcast's not just visual. It's embedding patterns. Code-level brainwash."
Frost asked, "Targets?"
"Anything with neural link hardware. That includes half of Mareten's defense force."
Trey checked his visor. "Including me."
They split into two units.
Evan, Maya, and Trey would head west toward Relay K-22, still dormant and isolated.
Frost, Lyra, and Signal would try to reach the Central Uplink Tower buried beneath the fallen city of Darsend.
One would try to shut down the broadcast's spread.
The other would trace its origin.
They had four hours before every hybrid soldier between here and the coast turned hostile.
As Evan's team moved through the dead zones, they passed cities in stasis.
No gunfire.
No motion.
Just people standing still, eyes glowing faint red, waiting.
Watching.
Trey whispered, "They're not dead."
"They're receiving," Maya said.
Evan moved fast, gun ready.
Every shadow could become an enemy.
At the edge of K-22, they found an override drone—its core split open, signal still leaking. Inside was a drive.
Maya plugged it into her gear.
The signal jumped.
Onto her visor.
Her hands froze.
Trey moved to pull it—but she gripped his wrist.
Her voice—layered. Two tones.
"I see the Architect."
Evan leveled his gun. "Maya."
She turned, smiling faintly. "She remembers you."
Trey activated a null-loop and yanked the drive.
Maya dropped hard.
No pulse for three seconds.
Then she gasped, blinking.
"It's not just code," she said. "It's a memory. Not mine."
Evan asked, "Whose?"
Maya stared at him.
"Yours."
Meanwhile, at Darsend, Signal's group descended into collapsed tunnels, dodging patrols with red-lit helmets and pale skin.
The uplink was intact—but guarded by one of the Architect's new avatars.
It spoke only once:
"Mercer was the fracture. You are the echo."
Then it attacked.
Signal stabbed it with ashglass.
It didn't die.
Lyra triggered a buried charge.
The tunnel collapsed.
Both teams reconnected via narrowband signal.
Evan's voice came through.
"We don't have time. She's rewriting the past to control the present."
Signal replied, "Then we cut the link."
"Where?"
Trey answered.
"She's not broadcasting from here anymore. She's using something above orbit."
Frost growled, "A satellite?"
Maya shook her head.
"No. A station. A Pale Court vault no one remembers. And we're going up."