The bunker walls sweated with condensation, the air thick with oil and rust. Every sound carried too far, boots on metal, voices lowered to whispers that still seemed too loud.
The rebels avoided me now. They spoke in clusters, breaking off when I came near. Their eyes flicked to the red glow of my optics, then away again, as though staring too long might summon the Dominion itself.
Helen didn't bother with whispers. She walked past me, sharp-eyed, sharp-voiced. "He might be contaminated. Watch him, Until we know more."
Two rebels shifted uneasily, rifles in hand, though they didn't raise them.
"I'm not infected," I said quietly.
Helen didn't slow. "That's exactly what an infected man would say."
Her words cut sharper than her tone. I could hear the muttering ripple through the room after she left. They'll keep watching me. They'll never stop.
Lira stayed close, always close. She brushed my arm, her voice low enough for me alone. "Ignore them. They're afraid. Fear doesn't mean they're right."
But fear could still turn rifles against me. That truth clung to the stale air like smoke.
The probe's wreckage lay stripped across the table, its pieces wired into rebel terminals. Sparks hissed as tech crews dug deeper, looking for Dominion pathways, trackers, anything.
Their leader, a wiry man named Torven, cursed under his breath. "Encrypted. Recursive loops. This isn't simple signal coding—it's layered. Like it's meant to stall us."
Helen leaned over his shoulder. "Stall for what?"
Torven hesitated, fingers twitching across the screen. "For reinforcements."
A silence fell. The kind that pressed too heavy.
Lira's hand tightened on mine. "They're coming," she whispered.
And I felt it then. Not through sensors. Not through sight. Through the static in my mind. A shift, faint but deliberate, like gravity tugging in a single direction. A pulse of thought not mine.
They're close.
I closed my eyes, and the Dominion's whisper answered. We are already here.
I jerked upright, hand slamming against the metal table. The rebels flinched, rifles snapping toward me.
"I felt them," I rasped. "Hunters. Moving closer."
Torven frowned. "Hunters? We didn't detect—"
The console flickered. For a second, red code crawled across the screens like veins, then vanished.
Torven swore again, louder. "They're jamming us. Interference's spiking. Damn it, he's right."
The room shifted from suspicion to panic. Weapons were checked, orders barked. Helen stood still in the storm, then raised her voice above the chaos. "Silence."
Her command cut through the fear. Rebels froze.
She turned to me, eyes hard. "How far?"
I met her gaze. "Close enough that you won't get another warning."
Lira's breath hitched. Helen studied me for a long, cold moment, then nodded. "Positions. Defensive grid. No one sleeps tonight."
The rebels scattered like iron filings under a magnet.
I remained where I stood, the hum in my skull growing louder. The Hunters weren't just machines. They were predators. They could smell me in ways the others couldn't understand. I was the beacon drawing them in.
Lira stepped closer. "What do they want?"
"You know what they want." My voice grated, static bleeding at the edges. "Me."
She shook her head. "Then we fight. Together."
Her words steadied something inside me, but the Dominion stirred at the same time. She lies. When they come, they will turn their weapons on you first.
I shoved the thought away, but it lingered like poison smoke.
The night dragged like a blade. Barricades rose across tunnels and entrances. Mines were set, rifles mounted, sensors recalibrated again and again though everyone knew they were useless against the jamming. The only warning we'd get was when the Hunters wanted us to see them.
Helen paced the command floor, her coat brushing the steel. "Stay sharp. Stay alive. And if Vale twitches wrong—drop him."
The rifles turned toward me again, even as their owners nodded.
Lira moved in front of me, defiant. "You'll have to shoot me too."
Helen's gaze lingered, but she didn't argue. She only turned away.
Hours passed. The bunker hummed with restless breath, the scrape of tools, the faint click of charging weapons. I sat apart, hands pressed to my head, listening to the static roar.
Then I heard it.
Not in the comms. Not through walls. In my skull. A new sound.
Footsteps.
Heavy. Rhythmic.
Getting closer.
I stood, unsteady. "They're here."
Rebels froze. Fingers tightened on triggers.
Helen snapped, "Report."
"Here," I repeated, louder this time, my optics burning in the dark. "I can hear them."
And then the ground itself began to tremble.
Dust sifted from the ceiling. A low, mechanical growl echoed through the earth. Not engines. Not drills. Breathing.
The rebels bristled, rifles raised toward shadows. Somewhere down the tunnel, a faint glow flickered—red, deliberate, pulsing like a heartbeat.
Torven cursed. "Sensors blind. Nothing on thermal. They're just—there."
Helen didn't move. Her hand rested on her pistol, her face unreadable. "Hold your fire until they breach."
The glow spread. Two points. Four. Six. Moving with perfect rhythm, slow, unstoppable.
Hunters.
The room felt colder. Rebels shifted, but no one fired. The silence pressed down harder than the air.
I felt it in my head again. The Dominion's voice. Calm, inevitable. We told you, Subject-09. You are ours.
I staggered, gripping the table. Lira caught me. "Stay with me. Don't listen."
But their steps echoed inside me, closer with each beat. I could almost see them without seeing, their towering forms, claws dragging against steel, optics glowing crimson.
"Positions!" Helen barked. "Every barrel aimed at the entrance."
Rifles clattered into place. Mines armed. Breath held.
The tunnel lights flickered, then died. Darkness swallowed everything.
Only the red eyes remained.
Dozens now.
Marching forward.
And in my skull, the static surged into a storm.
Submit. Or they will all die for you.
I clenched my fists, servos whining, teeth grinding hard enough to crack metal. "Not yours," I hissed through the noise. "Not anymore."
The words felt thin, fragile. But they were mine.
Lira's grip tightened on my arm. Her whisper brushed against the storm. "Then prove it."
The Hunters stepped into view, their frames massive, their claws gleaming, their optics pulsing in unison.
And the siege began !