IRON WILL
The storm lashed against Bloodmoon Facility Gamma-7 with the fury of a dying god. Seun stood at the edge of the landing platform, the ocean's spray freezing against his armor as the stealth transport vanished into the tempest. His system—pure, uncorrupted—flared to life with crystalline clarity:
**[FACILITY SCAN COMPLETE]**
- Structural Integrity: 38%
- Energy Signatures: 14 human (irregular), 32 mechanical
- Threat Assessment: Commander-Class (B-Rank) Potential
No ghosts. No whispers. Just data.
Seun stepped through the shattered airlock, his shadow pooling obediently at his heels. The first corpse told the story—a Bloodmoon technician with a neural implant protruding from his temple like a grotesque crystal growth. His system dissected the scene with surgical precision:
**[CAUSE OF DEATH: NEURAL FEEDBACK LOOP]**
- Self-inflicted cranial trauma
- Fracture pattern suggests 318% overclocked synaptic response
- Conclusion: Experimental implant failure
The facility groaned around him as he moved deeper, his shadow extending in precise tendrils to scout ahead. No autonomy. No rebellion. Just an extension of his will.
---
### **THE CLEANSING**
The first live subject came at him from Maintenance Sector 4—a hulking form in shredded Bloodmoon armor, its neural implant pulsing crimson through the visor.
"P-please..." it gurgled, muscles spasming. "Kill... me..."
Seun's blade flashed. The head hit the ground before the body realized it was dead.
**[TARGET NEUTRALIZED]**
- Threat: Modified Human (Commander-Class)
- Energy Signature: 0% Monarch Residue
- Analysis: Crude psionic amplification
His boot crushed the implant as he passed.
The next five fell just as quickly—mutated researchers, enhanced security, all begging for death in voices that cracked with pain. His system catalogued each kill with detached efficiency, converting their miserable existences into cold, hard statistics:
**[COMBAT DATA UPDATED]**
- Reaction Time: 0.08s (Improvement: +2.3%)
- Strike Precision: 99.6%
- Shadow Control Efficiency: 100%
No integration. No corruption. Just progress.
---
### **THE CORE**
Central Control smelled of burnt circuitry and voided bowels. The last surviving researcher crouched behind a shattered console, her hands clutching a data drive to her chest.
"You're not one of them," she whispered. "Your eyes... they're clean."
Seun's shadow pinned her against the wall without command, his will manifest. "What happened here?"
"The implants... they were supposed to enhance combat reflexes." Her pupils dilated. "But something in the code... it *changed* them. Made them see things..."
His system analyzed the drive:
**[DATA DRIVE ANALYSIS]**
- Contents: Neural Implant v9.47 Source Code
- Anomaly: Psionic Trigger Sequences (Non-Monarch Class)
- Recommendation: Purge
Seun crushed the drive in his fist. "Who authorized this?"
"T-the board... they said we were... competing with Ascendant..."
The facility shook. Warning klaxons wailed as structural supports failed.
Seun turned toward the exit.
"W-wait!" The researcher grabbed his boot. "You have to—"
His shadow snapped her neck with a sound like cracking ice.
**[TARGET NEUTRALIZED]**
- Threat: Civilian (No Value)
- Mission Parameters: No Witnesses (Complete)
---
### **ASCENDANT'S TRUTH**
Kael Veynard watched the facility's destruction from the observation deck of his aerial command ship. The holographic feed showed Seun emerging from the collapsing structure exactly seventeen seconds before the demolition charges erased all evidence.
"Clean work," murmured his second-in-command.
Kael rotated the recovered implant fragment in the containment field. "Too clean. He left no samples."
The subordinate hesitated. "Do you think he knows?"
On screen, Seun's head tilted slightly—as if hearing the unspoken question across kilometers of storm-wracked ocean.
Kael smiled. "Oh, he knows."
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