Timeline: TC1853.07.01 (Late Afternoon to Evening)
Location: Imperial City - First through Sixth Rings
Imperial Communications Center - First Ring
Senior Director Feng Zhao's hands shook as he stabbed at the emergency override console for the seventh time. Red warning lights bathed the control room in hellish illumination while his best technicians scrambled between stations like ants fleeing a flooded nest.
"Why isn't it stopping?" His voice cracked. Thirty-two years of flawless service to the Empire's information infrastructure, and now—now—the entire system was rebelling against his commands. "I've initiated emergency shutdown protocols on every channel!"
"Director!" A young technician stumbled toward him, her face pale as rice paper. "The signal isn't coming through normal channels anymore. Someone's hijacked the formation relay network itself. They're using the defensive grid arrays as broadcast amplifiers!"
