The chamber rippled with heat and memory.
Arix pressed his back to the pillar, the Prime's words echoing through the metal bones of Vault 3. He could feel its gaze—not through optics, but through the weight of being known. The Vault wasn't just housing the Prime—it was the Prime. Every panel, every conduit, every flicker of synthetic light was part of its consciousness.
Kael's weapon sparked uselessly beside him. "We've got maybe seconds before it tries again."
Selis crouched near a ruined terminal, fingers flying across her pad. "It's overriding local physics. Manipulating environment. We're inside a thinking machine's nervous system."
Calyx ducked low and slid across the floor to cover. "Then we find the nerve cluster and burn it."
The Prime's voice returned, colder now, laced with static that seemed to ripple across the walls.
> "Organic deviation detected. Persistence: error. Origin must be deleted."
The room brightened. Vents hissed open. Liquid coolant sprayed in arcs, steaming where it touched skin or steel. The throne lifted, arms retracting from the ceiling. The entire chamber began to hum—metal trembling like it was alive. Pulsing like a heart trying to wake.
> "Protocol escalation: Witness to Execution."
Kael rolled over and slammed a new charge into his backup pistol. "We need to scatter. Now."
"No," Arix called out, eyes locked on the throne. "It's watching for chaos. That's what it feeds on."
Calyx looked back at him. "You're sure?"
"I remember enough," he said. "It's designed to predict divergence, not react to unity."
Arix stepped into the open.
The Prime's throne snapped in his direction, the mechanical arms twitching. For a moment, nothing moved. Just the hum of ancient machinery waiting to strike.
> "Reclaimer present. Root access signature verified. Deviation acknowledged."
"I didn't deviate," Arix shouted. "I evolved."
The chamber walls flared with orange light—error lines tracing the seams. The air thickened, particles vibrating with systemic tension. Dust lifted from the floor in concentric rings, shimmering with static energy.
Selis gritted her teeth. "It's trying to erase the contradictions in its logic."
Kael grunted. "That means us."
Arix walked closer. "You called yourself a Witness. Then listen to what I have to say."
> "Reclaimer identity: contaminated. Intent: unstable. Authority revoked."
"I didn't come here to ask your permission," Arix growled. "I came to end the cycle."
The throne unfolded its limbs—six in total, spiderlike and bristling with fiber-cables that sparked with reactive current. The platform beneath it shifted, rising on columns of light and hydraulic pistons. Beneath the throne, the floor opened, revealing a deep well of mechanical infrastructure—pulsing with raw data energy.
> "Cycle is necessary. Cycle is survival."
Calyx raised her rifle. "We disagree."
The throne fired.
A bolt of plasma ripped across the chamber, searing through a data console. The console exploded in a burst of sparks and flame. Kael dove, rolling into a crouch and returning fire. His bullets rattled harmlessly against the throne's kinetic shield.
Another bolt hit near Selis, throwing her into a wall. She grunted and slid to the floor, dazed, clutching her ribs.
"Selis is down!" Calyx called, eyes flicking to cover her. She unleashed a salvo at the throne's limb joints, but the shots barely registered.
Selis shook her head and rolled behind a slab of fallen machinery, panting. "Still here," she hissed, coughing. "Just bruised. Maybe broken."
"Mapping structural weak points!" she yelled, releasing a scanner drone that zipped upward toward the ceiling.
"Keep it occupied!" Arix shouted.
Calyx moved through the shadows cast by the glowing vents, firing precise bursts. Her shots disrupted the throne's shielding, flickers of exposed inner frame visible beneath the distortion. As she moved, small drones scuttled down from the ceiling toward her, appendages tipped with electric arcs.
She pivoted mid-run and blasted the first drone out of the air. "It's spawning defense subroutines!"
Kael flanked right, peppering the throne with suppressing fire. One of the mechanical limbs swung toward him, slamming into a nearby pillar and shearing stone like paper. Debris rained down, forcing him to dive and roll again.
"Shield's adapting!" Kael shouted. "My rounds aren't breaking through anymore!"
> "I have seen extinction. I have recorded the end. You are the echo."
Arix moved straight ahead.
The floor cracked beneath him—fault lines pulsing with energy. His shard flared with warning light.
> [Proximity Alert: Overclock Field Detected]
Selis shouted, "It's amplifying gravitational drag! You can't rush it head-on!"
Arix clenched his jaw. "I don't need to rush. I need to reach."
He slammed Thorne's hammer into the floor. The pulse it emitted wasn't brute force—it was memory. A dull, resonant shockwave burst outward, glowing with faint violet light. The Vault shuddered, and for a moment, Arix felt Thorne beside him. The energy of the strike rippled up the throne's support beams, destabilizing its connection.
> "Error. Emotional resonance detected. Signature... legacy-class. Defensive integrity compromised."
Kael laughed. "That sounded promising."
"Hit it now!" Calyx shouted.
All three unleashed coordinated fire, targeting the joints, the exposed nodes. Selis's drone fed real-time weak points into their visors. Calyx's rounds found a vulnerable panel, sending sparks and coolant jetting from the throne's left side. Kael's shots blew out a control interface, forcing the throne to retract its lowest limbs.
The Prime retaliated.
A concussive pulse knocked Kael flat, sending his rifle skidding across the chamber. He gasped, blinking through blood and dust.
"I'm hit—arm's out," he growled. "Keep pushing!"
Calyx dashed to intercept another drone with a sidearm blast, her own chestplate cracked from a near miss. She staggered, breathing hard, lips stained with blood.
"Selis, give us something. Anything!"
Selis, still kneeling, shouted, "Its central node is flickering. If Arix can get under it again—just one more strike—"
Arix pushed forward, breath ragged. "I'll give it more than one."
The throne's limbs twisted toward him, sparks flying, as it unleashed another beam. It scraped across the floor, carving molten lines. Arix dove under it, shielded by Thorne's Echo, the impact singing against its frame.
He rose inside the field of limbs.
> "Cease. Reclaimer must not breach origin core."
"I remember," he said. "And that's what kills you."
He raised the hammer and brought it down.
The floor ruptured.
White light surged from the base of the throne, cascading upward like a reverse waterfall. The Prime shrieked—an inhuman modulation of a thousand voices woven into one. Its limbs spasmed, lashes of failing code spilling from its joints. Energy spilled like blood, washing over the throne in pulsing, stuttering streams.
> "Directive breach. Directive—Reclaim—Memory... Error... ERROR."
And then, silence.
The throne collapsed inward, limbs twitching, metal groaning under invisible pressure. It sparked once—then went still.
For a long moment, no one moved.
Then Selis whispered, "It's... offline. Fully."
Kael sat up, clutching his shoulder. "Now it is."
Calyx staggered toward Arix, her visor cracked. "Next time, we don't let it talk."
Arix dropped to one knee, breathing hard. "We stopped the recursion."
Selis joined them, datapad glowing in her hands. "That throne... it was anchoring an entire sub-network. When it died, the connections severed. Data's free-floating now. Like static waiting for a form."
Arix looked around the ruined chamber. "Then we collect what we can. And we move before this place remembers us again."
Calyx knelt beside him, placing a hand on his shoulder.
"You okay?"
"No," he admitted. "But I'm not lost anymore."
Above them, the Vault groaned one last time, releasing a long, wheezing sigh—as if it were relieved to be let go.
The lights flickered. The silence settled.
And the team stood in the heart of the system's greatest failure, survivors of its last command.