The drone hovered silently above Riven's desk, sensors blinking with perfect precision.
Riven leaned back, eyes locked on the screen. His AI assistant—"NOVA"—was running predictive algorithms, already optimizing the drone's pathfinding in real time.
He didn't smile.
He calculated.
"If I can automate the scavenging process… I could scale. Build more. Trade parts. Sell upgrades."
His fingers flew again, sketching blueprints directly into code.
But then—A ping.
Not from NOVA.
From outside.
[INCOMING TRACE SIGNAL]Origin: Unknown node // Encrypted // High-level scan detected
Riven froze.
"Someone's watching me?"
He dove into the system, traced the echo. But it was gone. Slick. Professional.
Whoever pinged him wasn't some low-level hacker.
And they'd seen something.
His eyes narrowed. He looked over at the drone—still hovering, still flawless.
"I shouldn't have gone online."
Magnus Corp was dead, but its ashes still burned. And some people paid very close attention to rogue tech activations.
Especially ones powered by something… not human.
Riven shut the system down.
Too late.
Meanwhile, deep inside a private server buried under corporate firewalls, a red file lit up.
[Subject 9 Detected]Status: ReactivatedProtocol: Observe and Report