The sound of humming power had become almost comforting.
For the first time since entering the Haven Biotech ruins, Zarc felt the weight of stillness replaced by something alive—electricity coursing through walls once dead, machines flickering with faint light as if remembering how to breathe.
He walked down the long corridor leading back to the central atrium of L-2, boots thudding softly against the metal grates. The Cube's glow painted the walls in soft blue pulses, mapping routes and diagnostics only he could see.
[Facility Status: Partial Power Restored — 41%][Main Systems Available: Security / Fabrication / Containment Access – Locked]
Zarc stopped in front of a cracked monitor. The Cube flickered, scanning it automatically.
"Security, huh?" he muttered. "That'd be nice to have."
The holographic projection formed a small rotating sphere—facility layout data visualized in pale blue lines. Each sector blinked faintly: Security, Engineering, Containment, and the collapsed L-4 – Unknown Origin. Only the upper levels glowed with partial activity.
"Let's see what you've got left in your bones," Zarc said, placing his hand on the Cube.The interface expanded, displaying new commands.
[Available Modules: Reconstruction / Conversion / Defense Setup][Submodule: Automated Defense Grid – Locked. Required Components Missing.]
"Components missing, huh? Figures."
He turned toward the nearest maintenance bay—once a repair workshop. Tables lay overturned, tool racks scattered, cabinets rusted half-open. He began feeding the Cube everything: broken pistols, drone shells, armor fragments, even snapped cables. Each piece dissolved into particles, absorbed and catalogued.
[Blueprint Added: Autoturret Chassis][Blueprint Added: Motion Sensor Array][Blueprint Added: Internal Defense Control Node]
The more he consumed, the more options appeared. Soon, the interface pulsed with a soft tone.
[Defense Grid Components Acquired – Minimum Threshold Met.][Would you like to initiate localized defense protocol?]
Zarc hesitated, flashlight sweeping over the dark hallways leading deeper into the complex. "Localized defense? Yeah… can't hurt."
He knelt beside the wall and extended his hand. The Cube responded—light spiraled outward, forming a small metallic structure that took shape before his eyes. It began as a skeletal frame, then solidified: a compact turret, low-profile, sleek, glowing faintly blue at its seams.
It rotated once, scanning. Then it beeped softly.
[Autoturret Online — Manual Override Registered: ZARC]
Zarc couldn't help but grin. "Now that's what I'm talking about."
He deployed two more—one near the armory entrance, another by the stairwell leading down to L-3. They hummed quietly, their targeting sensors sweeping the air in soft arcs.
The Cube emitted a faint chime:
[Defense Grid Active – Zone Coverage: 37%]
"Not perfect, but it's a start," he said.
Hours passed as he worked, scavenging through every room for anything useful. Each bolt, plate, or scrap of circuit board went into the Cube. The base map filled gradually with bright nodes marking fortified areas—Armory, Maintenance Bay, Atrium, Generator Room.
The Cube had become more responsive too, its interface occasionally showing flashes of information he didn't command—like it was learning from him as much as he was from it.
Once, it displayed text he didn't recognize:
[Adaptive Protocol – User Integration: 21%]
He frowned. "Integration? What the hell does that mean?"
No response. Just a faint pulse.
Later that night—if it could still be called night underground—Zarc sat near the armory's doorway, eating one of his ration packs. The Cube idled in low power, glowing faintly beside him. The air had grown warmer now that the ventilation worked again.
He stared at the map overlay hovering in the air before him. One sector still blinked faintly red—L-4 / Restricted Access.
Collapsed. Buried. Supposedly unreachable.
Yet every few minutes, the marker flickered—not from his doing, but as if something down there was responding to the facility's restored power.
Zarc squinted. "That's not normal."
He tapped the interface.
[Ping Source Detected – Sublevel 4: Residual System Signal.]
"System signal?" He leaned closer. "How? That section's gone."
The Cube projected faint data streams—broken, intermittent. Audio interference crackled through the speakers: static, faint metallic distortion… then something almost like a voice.
[—…Test Log 042—Subject synchronization at 0.3%—]
Zarc froze.The voice was faint, female, synthetic—but undeniably human in cadence.
He swallowed hard. "No way… Someone's still—"
The feed cut out abruptly. The Cube dimmed.
[Warning: Unknown Response Detected – Sublevel 4 Systems Reinitializing.]
Zarc stood up fast, his hand on his rifle. The hum of the facility deepened, low vibrations rolling through the floor. Somewhere far below, metal shifted—groaning like an old machine waking from a nightmare.
The Cube pulsed rapidly.
[Origin Core Activity Detected — Source: Sublevel 4]
He looked down the corridor toward the elevator shaft that led into the collapsed sector. The walls faintly vibrated, a fine dust raining from above.
"Shit," he muttered. "I knew turning this place on would wake something."
He switched his rifle's safety off and shouldered it. The Cube's interface flickered once more, displaying a final message before fading to standby:
[Recommendation: Prepare. Unknown Origin Core is not dormant.]
The lights above flickered. The hum grew louder, steadier—like a pulse syncing with his heartbeat.Zarc glanced once toward the sealed elevator, then at the Cube.
"Well," he whispered, tightening his grip on the rifle, "guess we're not alone after all."