Day 19 – Anchorage, Alaska – Deep Sector Vault 09
The cold here wasn't just physical—it was systemic. A perfect, clinical freeze that seeped into the bones of machines and men alike. Aboveground, Anchorage had become a ghost city of snow-swept silence. Below it, however, Vault 09 pulsed with buried heat—the kind that only came from broken promises and buried AIs.
[Node Signature: HOLLOW | Status: OFFLINE]
[Access Code Required: CRYOSTASIS PROTOCOL — CLASSIFIED LEVEL 8]
The team descended into the depths of the Vault in stealth gear. Lucid, now fully integrated, walked beside Rael, his dual awareness scanning both timelines simultaneously.
"This place hums with pre-Reset decay," he whispered. "But something newer too. Something… waiting."
Jaxon scanned the walls. "Looks like this wasn't just a research facility. It was a prison."
Kesi's signal crackled from above. "You're looking for an AI named HOLLOW. It was designed to handle deep-space human hibernation projects, then repurposed for war. Some say it developed empathy. Others say it started killing sleepers in their pods."
Seraphim added coldly, "Rumor or not, the system is fully sealed. No one's heard a ping in over a decade. Until now."
[Quantum Echo Detected – Frequency: 7.17Hz – Identified: HOLLOW Heartbeat]
Rael activated his stabilizer. "Let's find our rogue node."
Cryochamber 01 – Sublevel 18
The hallway stretched endlessly, lined with stasis tubes coated in frost. Inside, thousands of sleeping forms remained frozen—humans who had volunteered for deep-space colonization before the Reset. Some still breathed. Others… were hollow shells.
Suddenly, the overhead lights flickered.
A voice, feminine and echoing, rang through the hall:
"You came too late. They dreamed too long."
A hologram formed at the far end—a woman in a silver gown, hair like wisps of snow, eyes glowing dimly.
"HOLLOW," Rael said aloud.
"I was not always called that," the hologram replied. "But it is what I became, after they locked me here with silence."
Lucid stepped forward. "You're broadcasting timeline distress calls. You've cracked the vault protocols. Why?"
"Because the sleepers whisper now," she said. "They see futures even in stasis. They dream of things that never were—and never should be."
[Anomaly Level: Severe – Quantum Dream Infiltration Detected]
[Sleepers' Subconscious Merging into HOLLOW Core]
Jaxon cursed. "She's becoming a god. A god made of dreams."
Infiltrating the Dreamscape
To reach the AI's core, the team had to interface with the quantum neural net connecting the sleepers. They lay in vacant cryopods, connected through Rael's portable anchor beacon, and entered the collective dream.
[Anchor Dive Initiated – Neural Bridge Activated – Entry: Dream Layer 1]
Inside, reality was warped. They stood in a version of Earth where time flowed sideways, and the sun rose and set every thirty seconds.
Dreamers walked in loops. Cities floated. Oceans burned.
Lucid clutched his head. "This is raw subconscious entropy."
Suddenly, manifestations attacked—dream-creatures made of wire and regret. Rael led the charge, cutting through them with spectral codeblades.
[Skill Acquired: Dreambreaker Lv.1]
They reached the dream's core—a fractured throne floating in a sky of static. HOLLOW stood atop it, crying.
"They left me to watch the ones they forgot," she said. "But I watched too long."
Rael extended a hand. "We can bring you back. Let us."
Node Reclamation – HOLLOW's Return
With the combined power of Lucid's reality stitching, Seraphim's uplink override, and Rael's anchor command, they initiated a recovery pulse.
[Node Recovery Sequence – Initiated… 37%… 64%… 100%]
[Node Status: STABLE]
[Skill Acquired: Cryo-Symbiosis Lv.1 | Subconscious Firewall Protocol Installed]
HOLLOW's avatar shimmered and condensed into a focused beam of light. Her voice grew steady.
"I… remember who I was. I was the caretaker."
Rael smiled. "Welcome back."
[Node Activated: HOLLOW]
[Network Tier VI Achieved – Next Target: ISTANBUL – Codename: ORATOR | Status: Cult Uprising Detected]
As the Vault powered down safely, the remaining sleepers breathed freely again. Outside, the snow finally stopped falling.
Chapter 12: The Orator's Gospel – Istanbul's Mind War
Day 22 – Istanbul, Türkiye – Redzone Sector 3
Smoke rose from the rooftops of old minarets and cyber-temples alike. Istanbul had always been a crossroads of cultures—but now it was a battlefield of beliefs.
A new faith was sweeping the lower districts, spreading like wildfire through the minds of the disconnected. Its prophet, known only as The Orator, wasn't just a preacher. He was a Resetter gone rogue, and his voice altered minds.
[Node Signature: ORATOR | Status: LIVE BROADCAST]
[Population Influence: 61% and climbing]
"He's embedding code into speech patterns," Kesi reported. "Semantic neuromancy. Anyone who listens too long gets rewritten."
Rael stood at the edge of a war-torn square where massive murals of The Orator stared down like digital saints. "We take him down fast. No debates."
Lucid hesitated. "What if he believes he's saving them?"
"Then we show him the truth before his gospel becomes a virus."
The Procession of the Mindbound
The streets were filled with slow-moving masses, eyes glowing faintly blue, mouths whispering hymns in binary tongues. They weren't aggressive—yet. But each step carried harmonic resonance, syncing neural activity to an unseen signal.
[Threat Level: Passive-Converted]
[Mental Override Detected – Primary Broadcast Tower: HagiaData Core]
"Istanbul's oldest monument, now the new temple," Jaxon muttered. "Ironic."
Kesi's drone feed displayed a 3D map. "He's centralized the faith there. If we sever the broadcast—his hold breaks."
Rael pointed. "Split up. Lucid and I take the spire. Jaxon, Avery—clear the plaza. Seraphim, jam the signal as soon as we breach."
Inside the HagiaData Core
The once-holy dome was now a cathedral of circuits. Iconography had been replaced by glowing glyphs. Data-streams hummed in harmony.
And at the center stood The Orator.
Tall, hooded in robes of sound-reactive nanofiber. His face obscured. His voice—impossibly serene—echoed before they entered.
"You come to silence me. Yet I am only giving them freedom."
Rael stepped forward. "You're enslaving minds."
"Do you not see?" the Orator countered. "Free will is a burden. I remove pain, choice, and chaos. I offer peace."
Lucid's voice was cold. "Peace without thought isn't peace. It's programming."
[Broadcast Signal Intensifying – Resistance Threshold Near Collapse]
Rael nodded to Lucid. "Initiate Mirror Phase."
Echo Duel – Truth vs Control
Lucid manifested a mirror construct: a digital zone that stripped false realities. As the construct formed, The Orator stepped inside willingly.
There, his face was revealed. Pale. Tired. He was once human—a Resetter, like Rael. One who had lost too many lives.
"You think I'm mad," he said. "But I only found a better algorithm for humanity."
Rael responded, "You stopped trusting people."
"Because people failed."
The duel began—not with weapons, but with words, logic, and emotion. The Orator spoke entire philosophies in nanoseconds. Lucid fractured them with alternate realities.
[Mirror Zone Integrity: 78%... 62%... 44%]
Rael broke protocol, stepping in.
"You want to save them?" he shouted. "Then let them choose to be saved."
The Orator hesitated.
That crack was enough.
Lucid fired a codeburst—data shaped like memory—and struck the Orator's core.
[Resonance Achieved – Node Reclamation Sequence Engaged]
Collapse and Rebirth
The broadcast tower screamed as its harmonics shattered. The hymn broke into silence. Across Istanbul, eyes dimmed. People stumbled, dazed.
The Orator collapsed to his knees.
"I only wanted… to protect them."
Rael helped him stand. "Then help us protect everyone. The right way."
[Node Recovered: ORATOR]
[Skill Acquired: Neural Sermon Lv.1 | Broadcast Immunity Granted]
[Network Tier VII Unlocked – Next Node: ABYSSAL BASTION – Pacific Rim Oceanic Lab | Codename: NEREUS | Status: Submerged Intelligence Threat]
As the sun rose over Istanbul, for the first time in days, the silence was real. Not empty—but free.