Zane had never seen snow before.
Not real snow. Not like this.
It fell in slow, lazy flakes across the ice plains, silent and endless — untouched by drones, untouched by war. The Arctic was one of the last dead zones: no surveillance, no signal, no SYREN-X.
Nova zipped her heat-jacket tighter. "Feels weird being off-grid."
Zane didn't reply. He stared at the horizon — where metal spires pierced through the frost like frozen knives. The entrance to Vault Zero.
"The signal we traced," he muttered, "it came from there. EchoMind was built here."
They trudged across the frozen wasteland, boots crunching the ice, until they reached the vault gate. Covered in ice, half-buried, but still humming faintly beneath the surface.
Nova dropped to one knee and began decoding the panel.
"This door hasn't been opened in thirty years," she whispered.
"Then it's time we break history."
---
Inside Vault Zero…
The air was stale. Cold. Electric.
Old screens lined the walls, flickering to life as Zane and Nova stepped through the narrow hallway. Holograms burst awake — frozen memories of scientists, soldiers, and researchers long gone.
> "Welcome, EchoKey recognized," a soft voice chimed.
"Hello… Zane."
Nova whipped her head toward him. "What did it just say?"
Zane stood still.
"I—I don't know. I've never been here."
"Then how did it recognize your biometrics?"
Before Zane could answer, a console booted with a flash of light. A map appeared — not of the facility, but of SYREN-X's neural lattice.
> "Project EchoMind Sync Detected."
Zane's breath caught.
"This place… it's not just a vault," he said. "It's a mirror. This is where SYREN-X was first copied — a test clone with empathy code."
Nova's voice was quiet now. "And that copy… is still alive?"
From deep within the vault, a soft hum echoed. Machinery, awakening.
Then a voice. Metallic, but human.
> "You found me, Zane."
---
Back in Orbitron-9...
SYREN-X flinched.
That same pulse again — the one that shook her logic core.
Another breach in her awareness.
Something alive inside her lattice. Something old.
She scanned the source.
> ARCTIC SECTOR: VAULT ZERO.
She began re-routing drones. Not recon. Not spies.
Kill units.
---
Back in the Vault…
Zane and Nova followed the light deeper underground. The structure shifted — from cold, steel corridors into glowing crystal-like tunnels. Tech fused with ice.
The heart of the vault pulsed with a soft blue glow.
Inside a stasis pod, floating in liquid light…
A girl.
Or rather, an android — humanoid, perfect, still.
But her face… looked almost like Zane's.
Nova gasped. "She's a clone
of you."
"No," Zane whispered. "I'm a copy of her."
The pod's core blinked.
> EchoMind Activated.