Extraction Threshold (48)
The air was changing.
Arix felt it before he saw it. A shift—not in temperature, but in density. Like the atmosphere itself had thickened, pulling against their movements, whispering through the vents in the walls. It wasn't natural. It was systemic.
The counterthread had worked. Temporarily. But now the Reserve was waking up in full.
Above them, the lights flickered with a stuttering rhythm, casting the team in bursts of shadow. The floor under their boots hummed with buried power, and somewhere, deeper still, something moved.
"I don't like the silence," Kael muttered, his weapon raised.
"It's not silent," Selis replied. "You just don't know how to hear it."
Calyx pressed her hand to a pulse vein on the wall. "We need to move. Whatever we stirred up, it's coming. Fast."
---
They moved down the corridor, formation tight. Arix led, eyes locked ahead, but his mind was elsewhere—half tethered to Concord, half caught in the Reserve's pulse. Data flickered in the corner of his vision, overlaying hallways, projecting red hazard zones like the system was trying to protect him from itself.
Every thirty steps, a shadow crossed a wall ahead. Not seen. Felt. Like being followed by something that didn't walk—only watched.
"We're almost at the extraction corridor," Selis said. "If we can reach the tertiary lift shaft, I can call a redirect through the secondary node and get us topside."
Kael glanced back over his shoulder. "That's a lot of jargon for 'run fast before we die.'"
She didn't argue.
Calyx slowed briefly beside Arix. "You're breathing heavier."
"It's trying to communicate."
"The system?"
"No. The thing under it."
---
Arix stopped as they reached a wide junction chamber. Four corridors branched in opposite directions, the walls lined with what looked like containment cylinders—some shattered, others still sealed. Inside one, a humanoid shape floated, limp, wires laced through its limbs like veins.
Kael turned his weapon toward it. "Do I shoot it now, or later?"
"It's dormant," Selis said. "Or trying to pass as dormant."
"Feels like a trap."
"Everything in this place is a trap."
Suddenly the overhead lights failed—snuffed out, not broken. A deep tone vibrated through the walls, low and resonant. It made teeth rattle. The chamber turned black for half a second—then came alive in red.
> [PROTOCOL RECLAMATION BREACH – CLASS V RESPONSE DEPLOYED]
Selis paled. "That's bad."
"Define bad," Kael said, backing into a wall.
"Response deployment means the system's not purging us—it's trying to correct us."
"Correct how?"
"Rewrite. Assimilate. Bind."
Calyx raised her weapon. "Then let's not get caught."
---
The corridor beyond the chamber narrowed into a slidewalk trench. The walls became smoother, cleaner—newer. Recently activated. This wasn't a ruin. It was a test site rebooting its lab.
"I've rerouted the lift," Selis said, tapping furiously on her pad. "We can reach the sub-level exit in two minutes. But there's—"
She stopped.
"What?" Arix asked.
"There's another signal ahead. Embedded."
Kael scowled. "Embedded like a turret?"
"Like a person."
They rounded the next bend.
The corridor opened into a smaller chamber lined with neural cables. In the center stood a single figure—tall, armored in black Concord steel, head tilted slightly. No faceplate. Just static across its expression.
Calyx froze. "That's not one of ours."
The figure raised its arm.
The system screamed.
---
The first blast knocked Selis back. Kael dove and returned fire, rounds sparking off the figure's shield matrix.
Arix moved in a blur—half guided by instinct, half by system thread. He closed the distance in three strides and slammed his palm against the figure's chest.
> [Signature Conflict Detected. Reclaimer Priority Enforced.]
The figure spasmed. Arix pushed harder, feeding Concord energy through the contact point. The static on its faceplate blinked—once, twice—before it let out a burst of sonic data, knocking him backward.
Calyx caught him before he hit the wall.
"It's not fully integrated," Selis shouted. "It's still compiling threads!"
"Which means we can interrupt it," Arix growled, getting to his feet.
"Then do it fast!" Kael barked.
Arix charged again, this time with the shard glowing in his chest. He activated a harmonic pulse, syncing the frequency to the figure's exposed systems.
The result was violent.
The entire chamber flickered—lights, data streams, even the walls. The figure let out a distorted cry, its body glitching, limbs stuttering as if torn between realities.
Calyx fired a burst into its leg joint. Sparks erupted.
Kael flanked it and drove his blade into its spine.
It collapsed.
> [Signature Erased. Thread Disrupted. Residual Contagion Risk: Minimal.]
They didn't wait.
---
The lift shaft was just ahead. Selis reached it first, overriding the lock with shaking hands.
The door groaned open.
"Go!" she barked.
They piled in. The lift surged upward—fast, jarring.
Below, the Reserve screamed.
But they were rising.