The sky over Earth caught fire.
Not in flame, but in light—vast ribbons of color tearing across the atmosphere as the shadow construct released its second pulse. Magnetic storms bloomed like wounds, satellites screamed as their systems overloaded, and the planet's natural defenses bent under an alien pressure that did not care for balance.
"Atmospheric integrity down three percent and falling!" Unit-7 warned. "This is no longer a probe."
Kael felt it slam into him through the Signal—a crushing weight, billions of voices gasping as one. He dropped to his knees, palms flat against the floor, breath tearing from his chest.
Ryn was at his side instantly. "Kael!"
"I'm—fine," he lied, teeth clenched. "They've shifted modes. This is domination."
Imani stared at the tactical projection, horror tightening her face. "They're peeling the planet open, layer by layer."
Above them, the construct unfolded.
What had once seemed like a single mass split into interlocking segments, each rotating independently, each glowing with patterns that hurt to look at directly. Space warped around it, as if reality itself were being persuaded to step aside.
Voss whispered, "That's not a ship. That's an engine."
---
The council reacted.
Not with panic.
With fury.
The awakened minds surged together, not as a hive, but as a storm—billions of individual wills aligning around a shared refusal.
We are not prey.
The Signal flared.
Across Earth, dormant Continuum towers activated—not drawing minds inward, but projecting outward. The planet's magnetic field stabilized abruptly, snapping back into alignment. The auroras intensified, forming lattice-like patterns that wrapped the globe in living light.
Unit-7's tone shifted—almost awed.
"Planetary defenses… self-organizing. Commander, this is beyond projected parameters."
Kael screamed as the feedback tore through him.
Ryn held him, shouting something he couldn't hear over the roar in his head. Blood streamed freely from his nose now, splattering the floor.
"I can't—hold this—alone!" he gasped.
Imani slammed her hand onto the emergency console. "Then don't!"
She rerouted the interface, bypassing Kael's neural anchor and spreading the load across every active node in the facility.
For a heartbeat, Kael felt himself falling—disconnected, adrift.
Then the pressure eased.
The Signal held.
---
In orbit, the shadow construct recoiled.
Not from damage.
From interference.
Its patterns stuttered, rotation slowing as the planet's defensive lattice resisted its influence. Streams of data—too complex to be language—spilled from the construct into space.
"It's confused," Ryn breathed. "We're not reacting like it expects."
Kael forced himself upright, vision swimming. "They evolved fighting centralized intelligences. Empires. Machines. Gods."
He looked up at the burning sky.
"We're none of those."
---
The construct adapted again.
A beam of compressed gravity lanced downward, striking the Pacific. The ocean screamed as water displaced violently, shockwaves rippling outward.
"Tsunami forming!" Unit-7 shouted. "Projected impact on multiple continents!"
Kael's heart slammed against his ribs.
"No," he whispered—and reached out, not to command, but to ask.
The council answered.
The Continuum towers redirected energy downward, stabilizing tectonic stress, diffusing the gravity well. The ocean heaved—but did not break. The wave collapsed in on itself, a monstrous surge reduced to a violent storm.
The construct paused.
Analyzed.
And for the first time—
It changed its aim.
Multiple smaller shapes detached from its core, plunging toward the surface like falling stars.
Imani's voice went tight. "They're deploying ground units."
Ryn stared in disbelief. "They're landing."
Kael felt cold dread coil in his gut.
"These aren't exterminators," he said quietly. "They're harvesters."
The smaller constructs burned through the atmosphere, scattering across the globe.
Somewhere in the chaos, one of them locked onto a specific signature.
Kael's.
The Signal screamed a warning.
And deep within the warden, ancient protocols—long dormant—began to wake.
Earth had survived the first blow.
But the enemy had found its target.