---
The Spectre moved like a whisper through the abyss.
Unlike the older diesel-electric boats Reeve had deployed for scouting, this one—an advanced Vanguard-type nuclear sub—cut through the ocean's darkness with mechanical precision. Its hull was built for silence. The new sonar suite fed Reeve's command station a clean, layered image of the trench ahead.
The recovery operation for the USS Nereus was live.
Inside the sub's CIC, red lighting bathed the crew stations. Holographic projectors cast shimmering tactical overlays across the room. Keira sat beside him in the co-pilot seat, running threat overlays.
"Still no change in the Lurker signature," she said. "Stationary, minimal power readings. It's either asleep—or dead."
Reeve didn't like the ambiguity. "Or playing dead."
He watched the pulse from the bow sonar sweep forward. The trench was narrow—barely 60 meters wide—and jagged with rock ledges. One wrong maneuver and they'd either expose themselves or slam into the abyss.
"Range to Nereus?"
"Three hundred meters. Visual contact in sixty seconds."
Reeve keyed the intercom. "Drone bay, prepare extraction tethers. Keep the hull magnetics on standby. I want that core, not a tombstone."
"Roger, Admiral," came the reply.
---
As the Spectre eased into range, the wreck came into view.
The USS Nereus lay partially embedded in the rockface, her hull canted at an angle, most of her portside destroyed. But her starboard flank was intact, scorched but sealed. Gun mounts bristled with scorched auto-turrets. Her AI uplink node flickered in intervals—like a heartbeat fading in the dark.
Above her, a twisted mass of metal and organic tendrils drifted gently.
Keira cursed. "That's no part of the Nereus."
Reeve leaned forward. "Scan it."
"Already running thermal… It's a Blackcrown drone nest. Old—but partially active. Energy levels are rising. I think our presence just woke it."
"Deploy ECM drones," Reeve ordered. "We do this fast."
---
Two tether drones launched from the Spectre, trailing cables tipped with magnetic clamps. They maneuvered with slow grace, latching onto the Nereus' starboard access port.
> DATA ACCESS GRANTED: Uplink Node Recognized Accessing Core: Parsing Encrypted Archive...
Inside the CIC, data began flooding into the Spectre's local buffer.
"Partial download started," Keira confirmed. "But we've only got thirty percent so far. Estimated time to full pull: six minutes."
That was six minutes longer than Reeve wanted to stay.
"Contact!" the sonar officer barked. "Multiple signatures, fast and closing!"
"Identify!"
"Three—no, four. Blackcrown Lurker-class drones. Approaching from 090 and 270!"
The CIC snapped into full alert. Reeve's mind shifted into tactical mode.
"Load all tubes. Pattern intercept. Decoys wide. Hold VLS for post-extraction."
Keira's fingers danced across the interface. "Drone nest's active. I'm cutting its signal reach."
"Buy us six minutes," Reeve muttered.
---
Under the trench's crushing pressure, the battle began.
The first drone streaked into visual range—needle-shaped, clad in dark armor plating, its sensor arrays glowing. It loosed a short-burst torpedo—detected, tracked, and neutralized by the Spectre's countermeasure suite.
The second and third attacked in tandem, weaving erratically through the rocks. Reeve authorized tube fires—two torpedoes per target. One struck true, detonating the drone mid-turn. The other was intercepted.
The fourth drone closed in from below.
"Hard down!" Reeve shouted.
The Spectre angled steep, dipping beneath the trench line. Seismic alarms howled as rocks sheared off the dorsal fin.
"Incoming—torpedo!"
Keira jammed the detonation signal. The warhead fizzled just before impact, skimming across the hull.
"Core at 81%!" she barked.
---
Reeve made the call.
"Release tether. Bring us about. Fire all remaining tubes. Prep for VLS release."
The drones disengaged. The Spectre rotated with surgical precision, engines rumbling as it surged upward through the trench.
"Launch missile pods," Reeve said.
Two vertical tubes on the dorsal hull opened, releasing cruise torpedoes. They tracked the trench's upper path, homing on the Blackcrown nest's heat signature.
The detonation was surgical and thunderous.
A plume of silt and shattered metal surged upward.
Moments later, the Spectre surfaced from the trench like a breaching predator.
"Download complete," Keira said, breathless. "We got it."
---
Back at Fort Sentinel, engineers worked through the night extracting data from the recovered AI core.
> CORE ANALYSIS COMPLETE
Origin: Pre-Fall Recon Cruiser
AI Name: VANTA
Status: Dormant, Damaged but Recoverable
Capabilities: Adaptive Recon, Remote Drone Control, Sensor Warfare
Reeve stood before the flickering hologram of the recovered AI.
"Vanta," he said. "Can you hear me?"
Static. Then:
"...James Reeve… Admiral… Protocol override detected… Standing by."
He turned to Keira, a smile ghosting his lips.
"I think we just found our ghost in the steel."
---
[End of Chapter 27]