The black cloud on the horizon didn't just grow; it hummed. It was a low-frequency vibration that rattled my teeth and made the salt beneath our feet dance in geometric patterns. This was the Mainframe’s physical immune system—a swarm of "Scrub-Drones" designed to purge the surface of any "non-optimized" matter.
"They’re moving too fast!" Mara yelled, her voice nearly lost in the rising roar. "Leo, if we don't get these people underground, they’re going to be shredded before we reach the Cradle’s gates!"
I stayed at the base of the Sentinel turret, my hand still fused to the cold, pitted iron of the maintenance hatch. The violet resonance was a burning thread connecting my nervous system to the machine’s ancient processors. I could feel the turret’s hydraulic fluid pumping like my own bl
