Citadel Broadcast Log — Uncoded Intercepted Transmission
Timestamp: [Redacted]
Sender: Kael Vasil
> "Begin the blackout."
---
Eastern Front — Belarusian Reclaimed Zone
One second: order.
The next: darkness.
Power grids failed.
Signal towers collapsed.
Entire Reclaimed networks went blind.
Sponsorship drones fell from the sky like metal hail.
Within minutes, Reclaimed soldiers were screaming over dead comms, trying to reboot neural links that had become nothing but static.
The Crash Protocol had activated.
---
Underground Control Point — Cipher's Surveillance Wing
Cipher stood frozen.
> "This isn't a virus. It's a reversal."
He pulled up the corrupted code.
It wasn't an attack—it was a null field. A signal built to erase signal.
> "Only one person ever wrote this."
He turned to Jian.
> "Dakar Volen is alive."
Jian frowned. "And Kael?"
Cipher's jaw clenched.
> "He found his black glass."
---
Meanwhile — On the Ground
In the chaos, Kael moved like a ghost, leading a strike team through a blacked-out Reclaimed outpost, guiding Uncoded squads to steal fuel, weapons, and rare analog comm kits.
The enemy was blind.
But Kael's squad had something more dangerous than signal.
Direction.
---
Uncoded Rally Point — 20 Miles Out
Dakar watched the smoke rise.
Astra, patched in through an analog relay, blinked in awe as the reports rolled in.
> "Ten Reclaimed strongholds gone dark in under an hour. Zero HALIX signals in the entire quadrant."
Dakar grunted.
> "That's just phase one."
Rael leaned in over the comms.
> "What's phase two?"
Dakar looked at Kael.
Kael answered.
> "We make Jian bleed for every byte."
---
Cipher's Fortress
Cipher moved fast.
If he didn't respond, the Uncoded would reclaim more than land—they'd reclaim unpredictability. Chaos.
> "Deploy Unit 9."
A technician flinched. "But sir—Unit 9 hasn't been—"
Cipher's tone dropped like a guillotine.
> "Deploy. It."
---
Northern Quadrant — Moments Later
The snow split open as a massive transport vessel burst from underground.
Out of it stepped Unit 9:
A human-Reclaimed hybrid built in Cipher's own image—faster, smarter, unrestrained by any known kill switch.
It wasn't a soldier.
It was a hunter.
And its first target was Kael.
---
Citadel — Command Core
Alina watched the map shift. Gains on one front. Losses predicted on another.
> "He's finally responding," she murmured.
Astra looked up.
> "To Dakar?"
Alina shook her head.
> "To Kael."
She touched a panel, uploading Kael's signal map into The Lattice.
> "Let's see who the ghost runs from."
---
End of Chapter Seventeen
Next: Chapter Eighteen — "Unit 9"