### **Arc 5: Echoes in the Ice**
#### **Chapter 21: The Siege of Echo-7**
The Director's smug face vanished from the screen, replaced by a tactical map showing red arrows swarming their position. The countdown had begun.
"Download in progress," Kuro's voice was a staccato burst of efficiency, cutting through the shock. "The data packet is massive. Quantum-encrypted. I need ten minutes to secure the full transfer to our servers. After that, this drive gets vaporized."
Ten minutes. In the middle of the Siberian tundra, surrounded by W.A.O. strike teams. It was an eternity.
Renji's mind was already in motion, the grief and shock from his mother's message being compressed into fuel for the coming storm. "This place is a tomb," he said, his voice a low growl as he surveyed the decaying lab. "We can make it theirs." He began to move, not as a son, but as Kyro-3755, the Shadow's Blade. His movements were precise, economical. He kicked over a heavy steel table, creating a choke point in the main corridor. He noted the structural weaknesses in the ceiling, the cryo-pipes slick with ice, the deep shadows where a man could disappear.
Hikari, meanwhile, had closed her eyes, focusing not on the tactical situation, but on the human one. She replayed The Director's message in her head, analyzing the vocal tones, the cadence, the micro-expressions. "She's not just confident," she said, her voice a soft counterpoint to the rising tension. "She's hungry. She wants us alive. She called us 'prototypes.' That's our only advantage. They'll use non-lethal force first."
"An advantage that will last until they deem us too difficult to capture," Kuro countered, his fingers a blur over a holographic keyboard. "The first team is at the perimeter. They're breaching the main entrance."
The distant sound of an explosive charge echoed through the concrete halls, followed by the crunch of boots on snow. The siege had begun.
"Hikari, monitor their comms. Find the commander. Tell me what he's feeling," Renji ordered, pulling his V-mask over his face. "Kuro, guide me. And keep that download running."
He melted into the shadows of the corridor, the sins of his parents weighing on him not as a burden, but as a weapon.