The sea roared around them as the stealth submersible dove into the black waters of the North Sea. Rin, Rae, and Ji Woo sat strapped into their seats, the vessel vibrating with pressure as it descended into the abyss.

The facility—codenamed Halcyon—was a relic of Cold War experiments, long believed decommissioned. According to Ji Woo’s intel, Reika had spent the past year outfitting it with neural amplification tech and server stacks designed for global signal broadcast.

“Approaching grid marker,” Ji Woo announced. “This is the last safe window before their detection array goes live.”

Rae loaded a compact disruptor pack onto her belt. “We breach. We shut her down. We don’t negotiate.”

Rin nodded. “One chance. No second wave.”

The sub latched onto the facility’s docking ring with a metallic hiss. Lights flickered on in the airlock. The trio moved swiftly, silenced weapons drawn, suits pressurized.

Inside, the corridors were eerily clean. Bright. Deceptively sterile.

They passed labs full of interface pods and cognitive helmets, each one labeled with codenames like "OBELISK" and "EMBER-REDUX."

“This is bigger than anything Blue Star attempted,” Ji Woo whispered. “She’s not just building a system—she’s building a successor species.”

Alarms blared. They’d been spotted.

Turrets dropped from the ceiling. Automated guards activated. The sisters split.

Rae moved like a thunderbolt, disabling the security lines with short-range pulses. Rin hacked a terminal mid-sprint, rerouting power to flood key labs.

“Diversion path open,” Ji Woo called. “Main broadcast chamber is two levels down.”

They regrouped at the core elevator. Just before the doors opened, Ji Woo froze. “Signal just spiked. She’s starting the warm-up.”

“We finish this now,” Rin said.

As the elevator descended, red lights flashed around them. The floor numbers ticked down like a countdown to fate.

When the doors opened, Reika stood at the far end of the broadcast chamber, flanked by two neural drones and a massive neural pulse generator.

She smiled, calm as ever. “You made it. Good. Let’s see if you’re strong enough to stop what you’ve become.”