The success of the environmental sabotage settled over The Obsidian Throne, a quiet victory in the face of imminent catastrophe. Ronan confirmed the HVAC system in the Marlowe sub-vault had been shut down and restarted three times due to "critical thermal fluctuations." Zaire’s sensors detected the Black Sea facility receiving the corrupted backup data, leading to a cascade of error messages and a full stop on the acceleration protocol.
“They’re going to spend the next eight hours trying to reconcile the data,” Lyric reported, satisfaction evident in her voice. “We’ve bought ourselves at least forty-eight hours of chaos, maybe more. Compound Theta is contained.
Kaelen nodded, a single, sharp gesture of acknowledgement. He dismissed Lyric and Rona
